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diff --git a/35751-tei/35751-tei.tei b/35751-tei/35751-tei.tei new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91b564f --- /dev/null +++ b/35751-tei/35751-tei.tei @@ -0,0 +1,19769 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> +<!DOCTYPE TEI.2 SYSTEM "http://www.gutenberg.org/tei/marcello/0.4/dtd/pgtei.dtd"> +<TEI.2 lang="en"> + <teiHeader> + <fileDesc> + <titleStmt> + <title>History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Volume II</title> + <author><name reg="Dunlop, John">John Dunlop</name></author> + </titleStmt> + <publicationStmt> + <publisher>Project Gutenberg TEI edition</publisher> + <date value="2011-04-01">April 1, 2011</date> + <idno type='etext-no'>35751</idno> + <availability> + <p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere + at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. + You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under + the terms of the Project Gutenberg License online at + www.gutenberg.org/license</p> + </availability> + </publicationStmt> + <sourceDesc> + <bibl> + <author><name reg="Dunlop, John">John Dunlop</name></author> + <title>History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Age. Volume 2</title> + <imprint><pubPlace>Philadelphia</pubPlace> + <publisher>Littell</publisher> + <date>1827</date> + </imprint> + </bibl> + </sourceDesc> + </fileDesc> + <encodingDesc> + <editorialDecl><p>See transcriber’s note in the back.</p></editorialDecl> + </encodingDesc> + <profileDesc> + <langUsage> + <language id="el">Greek</language> + <language id="en">English</language> + </langUsage> + </profileDesc> + <revisionDesc> + <change> + <date value="2011-04-01">April 1, 2011</date> + <respStmt> + <resp> + Produced by <name>Ted Garvin</name>, <name>Stefan Cramme</name> and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + </resp> + </respStmt> + <item>Project Gutenberg TEI edition 1</item> + </change> + </revisionDesc> + </teiHeader> + + <pgExtensions> + <pgStyleSheet> + .italic { font-style: italic } + .smallcaps { font-variant: small-caps } + .bold { font-weight: bold } + lg { margin-left: 2 } + head { text-align: center } + list.nested { margin-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0 } + .Greek { font-family: Gentium, 'New Athena Unicode', 'DejaVu Serif', 'Lucida Grande', 'Arial Unicode MS', 'Palatino Linotype', serif} + </pgStyleSheet> + <!--<pgCharMap> + <char id="U0x2132"> + <charName>TURNED CAPITAL F</charName> + <mapping>[F upside down]</mapping> + </char> + </pgCharMap>--> + + <!-- uncomment this CharMap to directly generate ISO 8859-1; replace "(two dashes)" in the first char with the mentioned characters --> + <!--<pgCharMap formats="txt"> + <char id="U0x2014"> + <charName>mdash</charName> + <desc>EM DASH</desc> + <mapping>(two dashes)</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2009"> + <charName>thinsp</charName> + <desc>THIN SPACE</desc> + <mapping></mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x02d8"> + <charName>breve</charName> + <desc>BREVE</desc> + <mapping>[Symbol: breve]</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2003"> + <charName>emsp</charName> + <desc>EM SPACE</desc> + <mapping> </mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x2026"> + <charName>hellip</charName> + <desc>HORIZONTAL ELLIPSIS</desc> + <mapping>...</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x0101"> + <charName>a</charName> + <desc>LATIN SMALL LETTER A WITH MACRON</desc> + <mapping>a</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x0391"> + <charName>Alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA</desc> + <mapping>A</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x0392"> + <charName>Beta</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER BETA</desc> + <mapping>B</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x0393"> + <charName>Gamma</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER GAMMA</desc> + <mapping>G</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x0394"> + <charName>Delta</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER DELTA</desc> + <mapping>D</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x0395"> + <charName>Epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON</desc> + <mapping>E</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x0396"> + <charName>Zeta</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ZETA</desc> + <mapping>Z</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x0397"> + <charName>Eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA</desc> + <mapping>Ê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x0398"> + <charName>Theta</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER THETA</desc> + <mapping>Th</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x0399"> + <charName>Iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA</desc> + <mapping>I</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x039a"> + <charName>Kappa</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER KAPPA</desc> + <mapping>K</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x039b"> + <charName>Lambda</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMBDA</desc> + <mapping>L</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x039c"> + <charName>Mu</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER MU</desc> + <mapping>M</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x039d"> + <charName>Nu</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER NU</desc> + <mapping>N</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x039e"> + <charName>Xi</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER XI</desc> + <mapping>X</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x039f"> + <charName>Omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON</desc> + <mapping>O</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03a0"> + <charName>Pi</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PI</desc> + <mapping>P</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03a1"> + <charName>Rho</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER RHO</desc> + <mapping>R</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03a3"> + <charName>Sigma</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER SIGMA</desc> + <mapping>S</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03a4"> + <charName>Tau</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER TAU</desc> + <mapping>T</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03a5"> + <charName>Upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON</desc> + <mapping>Y</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03a6"> + <charName>Phi</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PHI</desc> + <mapping>Ph</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03a7"> + <charName>Chi</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER CHI</desc> + <mapping>CH</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03a8"> + <charName>Psi</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER PSI</desc> + <mapping>PS</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03a9"> + <charName>Omega</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA</desc> + <mapping>Ô</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03b1"> + <charName>alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA</desc> + <mapping>a</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03b2"> + <charName>beta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER BETA</desc> + <mapping>b</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03b3"> + <charName>gamma</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA</desc> + <mapping>g</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03b4"> + <charName>delta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER DELTA</desc> + <mapping>d</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03b5"> + <charName>epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON</desc> + <mapping>e</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03b6"> + <charName>zeta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ZETA</desc> + <mapping>z</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03b7"> + <charName>eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA</desc> + <mapping>ê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03b8"> + <charName>theta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA</desc> + <mapping>th</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03b9"> + <charName>iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA</desc> + <mapping>i</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03ba"> + <charName>kappa</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA</desc> + <mapping>k</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03bb"> + <charName>lambda</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER LAMBDA</desc> + <mapping>l</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03bc"> + <charName>mu</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER MU</desc> + <mapping>m</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03bd"> + <charName>nu</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER NU</desc> + <mapping>n</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03be"> + <charName>xi</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER XI</desc> + <mapping>x</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03bf"> + <charName>omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON</desc> + <mapping>o</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03c0"> + <charName>pi</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER PI</desc> + <mapping>p</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03c1"> + <charName>rho</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER RHO</desc> + <mapping>r</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03c2"> + <charName>sigmaf</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA</desc> + <mapping>s</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03c3"> + <charName>sigma</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA</desc> + <mapping>s</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03c4"> + <charName>tau</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU</desc> + <mapping>t</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03c5"> + <charName>upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON</desc> + <mapping>y</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03c6"> + <charName>phi</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER PHI</desc> + <mapping>ph</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03c7"> + <charName>chi</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER CHI</desc> + <mapping>ch</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03c8"> + <charName>psi</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER PSI</desc> + <mapping>ps</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03c9"> + <charName>omega</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA</desc> + <mapping>ô</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03cb"> + <charName>upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DIALYTIKA</desc> + <mapping>y</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03d7"> + <charName>Kappa</charName> + <desc>GREEK KAI SYMBOL</desc> + <mapping>kai</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03d9"> + <charName>Kappa</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ARCHAIC KOPPA</desc> + <mapping>k</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x03dd"> + <charName>gamma</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER DIGAMMA</desc> + <mapping>f</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f00"> + <charName>alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>a</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f01"> + <charName>alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>ha</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f02"> + <charName>alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI AND VARIA</desc> + <mapping>a</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f04"> + <charName>alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>a</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f05"> + <charName>alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>ha</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f06"> + <charName>alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI</desc> + <mapping>a</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f08"> + <charName>Alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>A</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f09"> + <charName>Alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>Ha</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f0c"> + <charName>Alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA WITH PSILI AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>A</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f0d"> + <charName>Alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA WITH DASIA AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>Ha</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f10"> + <charName>epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>e</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f11"> + <charName>epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>he</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f13"> + <charName>epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH DASIA AND VARIA</desc> + <mapping>he</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f14"> + <charName>epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>e</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f15"> + <charName>epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH DASIA AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>he</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f18"> + <charName>Epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>E</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f19"> + <charName>Epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>He</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f1b"> + <charName>Epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH DASIA AND VARIA</desc> + <mapping>He</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f1c"> + <charName>Epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER EPSILON WITH PSILI AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>E</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f20"> + <charName>eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>ê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f21"> + <charName>eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>hê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f22"> + <charName>eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH PSILI AND VARIA</desc> + <mapping>ê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f23"> + <charName>eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH DASIA AND VARIA</desc> + <mapping>hê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f24"> + <charName>eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH PSILI AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>ê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f25"> + <charName>eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH DASIA AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>hê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f26"> + <charName>eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI</desc> + <mapping>ê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f27"> + <charName>eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH DASIA AND PERISPOMENI</desc> + <mapping>hê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f28"> + <charName>Eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>Ê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f29"> + <charName>Eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>Hê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f2e"> + <charName>Eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ETA WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI</desc> + <mapping>Ê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f30"> + <charName>iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>i</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f31"> + <charName>iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>hi</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f33"> + <charName>iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH DASIA AND VARIA</desc> + <mapping>hi</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f34"> + <charName>iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>i</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f35"> + <charName>iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH DASIA AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>hi</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f36"> + <charName>iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI</desc> + <mapping>i</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f37"> + <charName>iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH DASIA AND PERISPOMENI</desc> + <mapping>hi</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f38"> + <charName>Iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>I</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f39"> + <charName>Iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>Hi</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f3d"> + <charName>Iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER IOTA WITH DASIA AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>Hi</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f40"> + <charName>omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>o</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f41"> + <charName>omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>ho</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f43"> + <charName>omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA AND VARIA</desc> + <mapping>ho</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f44"> + <charName>omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH PSILI AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>o</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f45"> + <charName>omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>ho</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f48"> + <charName>Omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>O</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f49"> + <charName>Omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>Ho</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f4c"> + <charName>Omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON WITH PSILI AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>O</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f4d"> + <charName>Omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMICRON WITH DASIA AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>Ho</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f50"> + <charName>upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>y</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f51"> + <charName>upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>hy</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f54"> + <charName>upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH PSILI AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>y</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f55"> + <charName>upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>hy</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f56"> + <charName>upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI</desc> + <mapping>y</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f57"> + <charName>upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA AND PERISPOMENI</desc> + <mapping>hy</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f59"> + <charName>upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>Hy</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f5d"> + <charName>Upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER UPSILON WITH DASIA AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>Hy</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f60"> + <charName>omega</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>ô</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f61"> + <charName>omega</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH DASIA</desc> + <mapping>hô</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f64"> + <charName>omega</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PSILI AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>ô</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f65"> + <charName>omega</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH DASIA AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>hô</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f66"> + <charName>omega</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH PSILI AND PERISPOMENI</desc> + <mapping>ô</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f67"> + <charName>omega</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMEGA WITH DASIA AND PERISPOMENI</desc> + <mapping>hô</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f68"> + <charName>Omega</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA WITH PSILI</desc> + <mapping>Ô</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f6c"> + <charName>Omega</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA WITH PSILI AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>Ô</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f6d"> + <charName>Omega</charName> + <desc>GREEK CAPITAL LETTER OMEGA WITH DASIA AND OXIA</desc> + <mapping>Hô</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f70"> + <charName>alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH VARIA</desc> + <mapping>a</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f71"> + <charName>alpha</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA</desc> + <mapping>a</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f72"> + <charName>epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH VARIA</desc> + <mapping>e</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f73"> + <charName>epsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON WITH OXIA</desc> + <mapping>e</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f74"> + <charName>eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH VARIA</desc> + <mapping>ê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f75"> + <charName>eta</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER ETA WITH OXIA</desc> + <mapping>ê</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f76"> + <charName>iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH VARIA</desc> + <mapping>i</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f77"> + <charName>iota</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH OXIA</desc> + <mapping>i</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f78"> + <charName>omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH VARIA</desc> + <mapping>o</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f79"> + <charName>omicron</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA</desc> + <mapping>o</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f7a"> + <charName>upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH VARIA</desc> + <mapping>y</mapping> + </char> + <char id="U0x1f7b"> + <charName>upsilon</charName> + <desc>GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON WITH OXIA</desc> + <mapping>y</mapping> + </char> + <char 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+<titlePart type='main'><hi rend="font-size: xx-large; font-weight: bold">HISTORY</hi><lb/><lb/> +OF<lb/><lb/> +<hi rend="font-size: xx-large; font-weight: bold">ROMAN LITERATURE,</hi></titlePart> + <lb/><lb/> +<titlePart type='sub'>FROM<lb/><lb/> +<hi rend="font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold">ITS EARLIEST PERIOD</hi><lb/> +TO<lb/><lb/> +<hi rend="font-size: large">THE AUGUSTAN AGE.</hi><lb/><lb/><lb/> +IN TWO VOLUMES.</titlePart> + +</docTitle> + <lb/><lb/> +<byline>BY<lb/> + <docAuthor><hi rend="font-size: large">JOHN DUNLOP</hi></docAuthor>,<lb/> + AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF FICTION.</byline> + <lb/> + <docEdition>FROM THE LAST LONDON EDITION.</docEdition> + <lb/><lb/> + <docTitle> + <titlePart> + <hi rend="font-size: large">VOL. II.</hi> + </titlePart> + </docTitle> + <lb/><lb/> + <docImprint>PUBLISHED BY<lb/> +E. LITTELL, CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA.<lb/> +G. & C. CARVILL, BROADWAY, NEW YORK.</docImprint> + <lb/> + <docDate><hi rend="font-size: large">1827</hi></docDate> + </titlePage> + <div type="ack" rend="page-break-before: always"> + <pb/><anchor id='Pg002'/> + <p rend="text-align: center"> +<hi rend='italic'>James Kay, Jun. Printer,<lb/>S. E. Corner of Race & Sixth Streets,<lb/>Philadelphia.</hi> + + </p> + </div> + <div type="contents" rend="page-break-before: right"> + <head>Contents.</head> + <divGen type="toc"/> + </div> +</front> + +<body rend="page-break-before: always"> +<pb/><anchor id='Pg003'/> + <head> +<hi rend='bold'>HISTORY</hi> +</head> + +<head> +OF +</head> + +<head> +<hi rend='bold'>ROMAN LITERATURE, &c.</hi> +</head> + +<pb/><anchor id='Pg004'/> +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> +<pb n="5" /><anchor id='Pg005'/> + <index index="toc" level1="[Agriculture]"/><index index="pdf" level1="[Agriculture]"/> +<head> +<hi rend='bold'>HISTORY</hi> +</head> + +<head> +OF +</head> + +<head> +<hi rend='bold'>ROMAN LITERATURE, &c.</hi> +</head> + +<p> +In almost all States, poetical composition has been employed +and considerably improved before prose. First, because +the imagination expands sooner than reason or judgment; +and, secondly, because the early language of nations is best +adapted to the purposes of poetry, and to the expression of +those feelings and sentiments with which it is conversant. +</p> + +<p> +Thus, in the first ages of Greece, verse was the ordinary +written language, and prose was subsequently introduced as an +art and invention. In like manner, at Rome, during the early +advances of poetry, the progress of which has been detailed in +the preceding volume, prose composition continued in a state +of neglect and barbarism. +</p> + +<p> +The most ancient prose writer, at least of those whose works +have descended to us, was a man of little feeling or imagination, +but of sound judgment and inflexible character, who +exercised his pen on the subject of <hi rend='italic'>Agriculture</hi>, which, of +all the peaceful arts, was most highly esteemed by his countrymen. +</p> + +<p> +The long winding coast of Greece, abounding in havens, +and the innumerable isles with which its seas were studded, +rendered the Greeks, from the earliest days, a trafficking, seafaring, +piratic people: And many of the productions of their +oldest poets, are, in a great measure, addressed to what may +be called the maritime taste or feeling which prevailed among +their countrymen. This sentiment continued to be cherished +as long as the chief literary state in Greece preserved +<pb n="6" /><anchor id='Pg006'/>the sovereignty of the seas—compelled its allies to furnish +vessels of war, and trusted to its naval armaments for the supremacy +it maintained during the brightest ages of Greece. In +none either of the Doric or Ionian states, was agriculture of +such importance as to exercise much influence on manners or +literature. Their territories were so limited, that the inhabitants +were never removed to such a distance from the capital +as to imbibe the ideas of husbandmen. In Thessaly and Lacedæmon, +agriculture was accounted degrading, and its cares +were committed to slaves. The vales of Bœotia were fruitful, +but were desolated by floods. Farms of any considerable extent +could scarcely be laid down on the limited, though lovely +isles of the Ægean and Ionian seas. The barren soil and +mountains of the centre of Peloponnesus confined the Arcadians +to pasturage—an employment bearing some analogy to +agriculture, but totally different in its mental effects, leading +to a life of indolence, contemplation, and wandering, instead +of the industrious, practical, and settled habits of husbandmen. +Though the Athenians breathed the purest air beneath the +clearest skies, and their long summer was gilded by the +brightest beams of Apollo, the soil of Attica was sterile and +metallic; while, from the excessive inequalities in its surface, +all the operations of agriculture were of the most difficult and +hazardous description. The streams were overflowing torrents, +which stripped the soil, leaving nothing but a light sand, on +which grain would scarcely grow. But it was with the commencement +of the Peloponnesian war that the exercise of agriculture +terminated in Attica. The country being left unprotected, +owing to the injudicious policy of Pericles, was +annually ravaged by the Spartans, and the husbandmen were +forced to seek refuge within the walls of Athens. In the +early part of the age of Pericles, the Athenians possessed +ornamented villas in the country; but they always returned to +the city in the evening<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis</hi>, T. II. c. 20.</note>. We do not hear that the great men +in the early periods of the republic, as Themistocles and Aristides, +were farmers; and the heroes of its latter ages, as Iphicrates +and Timotheus, chose their retreats in Thrace, the +islands of the Archipelago, or coast of Ionia. +</p> + +<p> +A picture, in every point of view the reverse of this, is presented +to us by the <hi rend='italic'>Agreste Latium</hi>. The ancient Italian +mode of life was almost entirely agricultural and rural; and +with exception, perhaps, of the Etruscans, none of the Italian +states were in any degree maritime or commercial. Italy +was well adapted for every species of agriculture, and was +<pb n="7" /><anchor id='Pg007'/>most justly termed by her greatest poet, <hi rend='italic'>magna parens frugum</hi>. +Dionysius of Halicarnassus<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Antiquitat. Rom.</hi> Lib. I.</note>, + Strabo<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Geograph.</hi> Lib. VI.</note>, + and Pliny<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XVIII. c. 11.; XXXVII. c. 12.</note>, talk with +enthusiasm of its fertile soil and benignant climate. Where +the ground was most depressed and marshy, the meadows were +stretched out for the pasturage of cattle. In the level country, +the rich arable lands, such as the Campanian and Capuan +plains, extended in vast tracts, and produced a profusion of +fruits of every species, while on the acclivities, where the skirts +of the mountains began to break into little hills and sloping +fields, the olive and vine basked on soils famed for Messapian +oil, and for wines of which the very names cheer and revive +us. The mountains themselves produced marble and timber, +and poured from their sides many a delightful stream, which +watered the fields, gladdened the pastures, and moistened the +meads to the very brink of the shore. Well then might Virgil +exclaim, in a burst of patriotism and poetry which has never +been surpassed,— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Sed neque Medorum sylvæ, ditissima terra,</q></l> +<l>Nec pulcher Ganges, atque auro turbidus Hermus,</l> +<l>Laudibus Italiæ certent; non Bactra, neque Indi,</l> +<l>Totaque thuriferis Panchaia pinguis arenis.</l> +<l>Hic ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus æstas;</l> +<l>Bis gravidæ pecudes, bis pomis utilis arbor.</l> + <l> * * * *</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Salve, magna parens frugum, Saturnia tellus<note place="foot">Virgil, <hi rend='italic'>Georg.</hi> Lib. II.</note>!</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +One would not suppose that agricultural care was very consistent, +at least in a small state, with frequent warfare. But +in no period of their republic did the Romans neglect the +advantages which the land they inhabited presented for husbandry. +Romulus, who had received a rustic education, and +had spent his youth in hunting, had no attachment to any +peaceful arts, except to rural labours; and this feeling pervaded +his legislation. His Sabine successor, Numa Pompilius, +who well understood and discharged the duties of sovereignty, +divided the whole territory of Rome into different cantons. +An exact account was rendered to him of the manner in which +these were cultivated; and he occasionally went in person to +survey them, in order to encourage those farmers whose lands +were well tilled, and to reproach others with their want of +industry<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>in Numa</hi>.</note>. By the institution, too, of various religious festivals, +connected with agriculture, it came to be regarded with +a sort of sacred reverence. Ancus Martius, who trod in the +<pb n="8" /><anchor id='Pg008'/>steps of Numa, recommended to his people the assiduous cultivation +of their lands. After the expulsion of the kings, an +Agrarian law, by which only seven acres were allotted to each +citizen, was promulgated, and for some time rigidly enforced. +Exactness and economy in the various occupations of agriculture +were the natural consequences of such regulations. Each +Roman having only a small portion of land assigned to him, +and the support of his family depending entirely on the produce +which it yielded, its culture necessarily engaged his +whole attention. +</p> + +<p> +In these early ages of the Roman commonwealth, when the +greatest men possessed but a few acres, the lands were laboured +by the proprietors themselves. The introduction of commerce, +and the consequent acquisition of wealth, had not yet +enabled individuals to purchase the estates of their fellow-citizens, +and to obtain a revenue from the rent of land rather than +from its cultivation. +</p> + +<p> +The patricians, who, in the city, were so distinct from the +plebeian orders, were thus confounded with them in the country, +in the common avocations of husbandry. After having +presided over the civil affairs of the republic, or commanded +its armies, the most distinguished citizens returned, without +repining, to till the lands of their forefathers. Cincinnatus, +who was found at labour in his fields by those who came to +announce his election to the dictatorship, was not a singular +example of the same hand which held the plough guiding +also the helm of the state, and erecting the standard of its +legions. So late as the time of the first Carthaginian war, +Regulus, in the midst of his victorious career in Africa, asked +leave from the senate to return to Italy, in order to cultivate his +farm of seven acres, which had been neglected during his absence<note place="foot">Livy, <hi rend='italic'>Epitome</hi>, + <anchor id="corr008"/><corr sic="Liv.">Lib.</corr> XVIII. Valer. Maxim. Lib. IV. c. 4. § 6.</note>. +Many illustrious names among the Romans originated +in agricultural employments, or some circumstances of rustic +skill and labour, by which the founders of families were distinguished. +The Fabii and Lentuli were supposed to have been +celebrated for the culture of pulses, and the Asinii and Vitellii +for the art of rearing animals. In the time of the elder Cato, +though the manual operations were performed for the most +part by servants, the great men resided chiefly on their farms<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De Senectute</hi>, c. 16.</note>; +and they continued to apply to the study and practice of agriculture +long after they had carried the victorious arms of their +country beyond the confines of Italy. They did not, indeed, +follow agriculture as their sole avocation; but they +prose<pb n="9" /><anchor id='Pg009'/>cuted it during the intervals of peace, and in the vacations of +the Forum. The art being thus exercised by men of high +capacity, received the benefit of all the discoveries, inventions, +or experiments suggested by talents and force of intellect. +The Roman warriors tilled their fields with the same intelligence +as they pitched their camps, and sowed corn with the +same care with which they drew up their armies for battle. +Hence, as a modern Latin poet observes, dilating on the expression +of Pliny, the earth yielded such an exuberant return, +that she seemed as it were to delight in being ploughed with +a share adorned with laurels, and by a ploughman who had +earned a triumph:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Hanc etiam, ut perhibent, sese formabat ad artem,</q></l> +<l>Cùm domito Fabius Dictator ab hoste redibat:</l> +<l>Non veritus, medio dederat qui jura Senatu,</l> +<l>Ferre idem arboribusque suis, terræque colendæ,</l> +<l>Victricesque manus ruri præstare serendo.</l> +<l>Ipsa triumphales tellus experta colonos,</l> +<l>Atque ducum manibus quondam versata suorum,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Majores fructus, majora arbusta ferebat<note place="foot">Rapin, <hi rend='italic'>Hortorum</hi>, Lib. IV.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Nor were the Romans contented with merely labouring the +ground: They also delivered precepts for its proper cultivation, +which, being committed to writing, formed, as it were, +a new science, and, being derived from actual experience, +had an air of originality rarely exhibited in their literary +productions. Such maxims were held by the Romans in high +respect, since they were considered as founded on the observation +of men who had displayed the most eminent capacity +and knowledge in governing the state, in framing its laws, and +leading its armies. +</p> + +<p> +These precepts which formed the works of the agricultural +writers—the <hi rend='italic'>Rusticæ rei scriptores</hi>—are extremely interesting +and comprehensive. The Romans had a much greater variety +than we, of grain, pulse, and roots; and, besides, had vines, +olives, and other plantations, which were regarded as profitable +crops. The situation, too, and construction of a villa, with +the necessary accommodation for slaves and workmen, the +wine and oil cellars, the granaries, the repositories for preserving +fruit, the poultry yard, and aviaries, form topics of +much attention and detail. These were the appertenancies +of the <hi rend='italic'>villa rustica</hi>, or complete farm-house, which was built +for the residence only of an industrious husbandman, and with +a view towards profit from the employments of agriculture. +As luxury, indeed, increased, the villa was adapted to the +<pb n='10'/><anchor id='Pg010'/>accommodation of an opulent Roman citizen, and the country +was resorted to rather for recreation than for the purpose of +lucrative toil. What would Cato the Censor, distinguished +for his industry and unceasing attention to the labours of the +field, have thought of the following lines of Horace? +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">O rus, quando ego te aspiciam? quandoque licebit</q></l> +<l>Nunc veterum libris, nunc somno et inertibus horis,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Ducere sollicitæ jucunda oblivia vitæ?</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +It was this more refined relish for the country, so keenly +enjoyed by the Romans in the luxurious ages of the state, that +furnished the subject for the finest passages and allusions in +the works of the Latin poets, who seem to vie with each other +in their praises of a country life, and the sweetness of the +numbers in which they celebrate its simple and tranquil +enjoyments. The Epode of Horace, commencing, +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q>Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis,</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +which paints the charms of rural existence, in the various +seasons of the year—the well-known passages in Virgil’s +<hi rend='italic'>Georgics</hi>, and those in the second book of Lucretius, are the +most exquisite and lovely productions of these triumvirs of +Roman poetry. But the ancient prose writers, with whom we +are now to be engaged, regarded agriculture rather as an art +than an amusement, and a country life as subservient to profitable +employment, and not to elegant recreation. In themselves, +however, these compositions are highly curious; they +are curious, too, as forming a commentary and illustration of +the subjects, +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q>Quas et facundi tractavit Musa Maronis.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +It is likewise interesting to compare them with the works of +the modern Italians on husbandry, as the <hi rend='italic'>Liber Ruralium +Commodorum</hi> of Crescenzio, written about the end of the +thirteenth century,—the <hi rend='italic'>Coltivazione Toscana</hi> of Davanzati,—Vittorio’s +treatise, <hi rend='italic'>Degli Ulivi</hi>,—and even Alamanni’s poem +<hi rend='italic'>Coltivazione</hi>, which closely follows, particularly as to the +situation and construction of a villa, the precepts of Cato, +Varro, and Columella. The plough used at this day by the +peasantry in the Campagna di Roma, is of the same form as +that of the ancient Latian husbandmen<note place="foot">Bonstetten, <hi rend='italic'>Voyage dans le Latium</hi>, p. 274.</note>; and many other +points of resemblance may be discovered, on a perusal of the +<pb n='11'/><anchor id='Pg011'/>most recent writers on the subject of Italian cultivation<note place="foot">J. C. L. Sismondi, <hi rend='italic'>Tableau de l’Agriculture Toscane</hi>, and Chasteauvieux, +<hi rend='italic'>Lettres Ecrites d’Italie</hi>. Paris, 1816. 2 Tom.</note>. +Dickson, too, who, in his <hi rend='italic'>Husbandry of the Ancients</hi>, gives +an account of Roman agriculture so far as connected with +the labours of the British farmer, has shown, that, in spite of +the great difference of soil and climate, many maxims of the +old Roman husbandmen, as delivered by Cato and Varro, +corresponded with the agricultural system followed in his day +in England. +</p> + +<p> +Of the distinguished Roman citizens who practised agriculture, +none were more eminent than Cato and Varro; and by +them the precepts of the art were also committed to writing. +Their works are original compositions, founded on experience, +and not on Grecian models, like so many other Latin productions. +Varro, indeed, enumerates about fifty Greek authors, +who, previous to his time, had written on the subject of agriculture; +and Mago, the Carthaginian, composed, in the Punic +language, a much-approved treatise on the same topic, in +thirty-two books, which was afterwards translated into Latin +by desire of the senate. But the early Greek works, with the +exception of Xenophon’s <hi rend='italic'>Œconomics</hi> and the poem of Hesiod +called <hi rend='italic'>Works and Days</hi>, have been entirely lost; the tracts +published in the collection entitled <hi rend='italic'>Geoponica</hi>, being subsequent +to the age of Varro. +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Marcus Porcius Cato"/><index index="pdf" level1="Marcus Porcius Cato"/> +<head>MARCUS PORCIUS CATO,</head> + +<p> +better known by the name of Cato the Censor, wrote the earliest +book on husbandry which we possess in the Latin language. +This distinguished citizen was born in the 519th +year of Rome. Like other Romans of his day, he was brought +up to the profession of arms. In the short intervals of peace +he resided, during his youth, at a small country-house in the +Sabine territory, which he had inherited from his father. Near +it there stood a cottage belonging to Manius Curius Dentatus, +who had repeatedly triumphed over the Sabines and Samnites, +and had at length driven Pyrrhus from Italy. Cato was accustomed +frequently to walk over to the humble abode of this +renowned commander, where he was struck with admiration +at the frugality of its owner, and the skilful management of the +farm which was attached to it. Hence it became his great +object to emulate his illustrious neighbour, and adopt him as +his model<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>in Cato.</hi></note>. Having made an estimate of his house, lands, slaves, +<pb n='12'/><anchor id='Pg012'/>and expenses, he applied himself to husbandry with new ardour, +and retrenched all superfluity. In the morning he went +to the small towns in the vicinity, to plead and defend the causes +of those who applied to him for assistance. Thence he returned +to his fields; where, with a plain cloak over his shoulders +in winter, and almost naked in summer, he laboured with +his servants till they had concluded their tasks, after which he +sat down along with them at table, eating the same bread, +and drinking the same wine<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>in Cato.</hi></note>. At a more advanced period of +life, the wars, in which he commanded, kept him frequently +at a distance from Italy, and his forensic avocations detained +him much in the city; but what time he could spare was still +spent at the Sabine farm, where he continued to employ himself +in the profitable cultivation of the land. He thus became +by the universal consent of his contemporaries, the best farmer +of his age, and was held unrivalled for the skill and success +of his agricultural operations<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XIV. c. 4; Lib. XVI. c. 39.</note>. Though everywhere a +rigid economist, he lived, it is said, more hospitably at his +farm than in the city. His entertainments at his villa were at +first but sparing, and seldom given; but as his wealth increased, +he became more nice and delicate. <q>At first,</q> says Plutarch, +<q>when he was but a poor soldier, he was not difficult in anything +which related to his diet; but afterwards, when he grew +richer, and made feasts for his friends, presently, when supper +was done, he seized a leathern thong, and scourged those +who had not given due attendance, or dressed anything carelessly<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>in Cato.</hi></note>.</q> +Towards the close of his life, he almost daily invited +some of his friends in the neighbourhood to sup with him; and +the conversation at these meals turned not chiefly, as might +have been expected, on rural affairs, but on the praises of +great and excellent men among the Romans<note place="foot">Ibid.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +It may be supposed, that in the evenings after the agricultural +labours of the morning, and after his friends had left him, +he noted down the precepts suggested by the observations and +experience of the day. That he wrote such maxims for his +own use, or the instruction of others, is unquestionable; but +the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Re Rustica</hi>, which now bears his name, appears +to have been much mutilated, since Pliny and other writers +allude to subjects as treated of by Cato, and to opinions as delivered +by him in this book, which are nowhere to be found in +any part of the work now extant. +</p> + +<p> +In its present state, it is merely the loose unconnected journal +of a plain farmer, expressed with rude, sometimes with +<pb n='13'/><anchor id='Pg013'/>almost oracular brevity; and it wants all those elegant topics +of embellishment and illustration which the subject might have +so naturally suggested. It solely consists of the dryest rules +of agriculture, and some receipts for making various kinds of +cakes and wines. Servius says, it is addressed to the author’s +son; but there is no such address now extant. It begins rather +abruptly, and in a manner extremely characteristic of the simple +manners of the author: <q>It would be advantageous to seek +profit from commerce, if that were not hazardous; or by usury, +if that were honest: but our ancestors ordained, that the thief +should forfeit double the sum he had stolen, and the usurer +quadruple what he had taken, whence it may be concluded, +that they thought the usurer the worst of the two. When +they wished highly to praise a good man, they called him a +good farmer. A merchant is zealous in pushing his fortune, +but his trade is perilous and liable to reverses. But farmers +make the bravest men, and the stoutest soldiers. Their gain +is the most honest, the most stable, and least exposed to envy. +Those who exercise the art of agriculture, are of all others +least addicted to evil thoughts.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Our author then proceeds to his rules, many of which are +sufficiently obvious. Thus, he advises, that when one is about +to purchase a farm, he should examine if the climate, soil, and +exposure be good: he should see that it can be easily supplied +with plenty of water,—that it lies in the neighbourhood of a +town,—and near a navigable river, or the sea. The directions +for ascertaining the quality of the land are not quite so clear +or self-evident. He recommends the choice of a farm where +there are few implements of labour, as this shews the soil to +be easily cultivated; and where there are, on the other hand, +a number of casks and vessels, which testify an abundant produce. +With regard to the best way of laying out a farm when +it is purchased, supposing it to be one of a hundred acres, the +most profitable thing is a vineyard; next, a garden, that can +be watered; then a willow grove; 4th, an olive plantation; 5th, +meadow-ground; 6th, corn fields; and, lastly, forest trees and +brushwood. Varro cites this passage, but he gives the preference +to meadows: These required little expense; and, by his +time, the culture of vines had so much increased in Italy, and +such a quantity of foreign wine was imported, that vineyards +had become less valuable than in the days of the Censor. +Columella, however, agrees with Cato: He successively compares +the profits accruing from meadows, pasture, trees, and +corn, with those of vineyards; and, on an estimate, prefers the +last. +</p> + +<p> +When a farm has been purchased, the new proprietor should +<pb n='14'/><anchor id='Pg014'/>perambulate the fields the day he arrives, or, if he cannot do +so, on the day after, for the purpose of seeing what has been +done, and what remains to be accomplished. Rules are given +for the most assiduous employment without doors, and the +most rigid economy within. When a servant is sick he will +require less food. All the old oxen and the cattle of delicate +frame, the old wagons, and old implements of husbandry, are +to be sold off. The sordid parsimony of the Censor leads +him to direct, that a provident <hi rend='italic'>paterfamilias</hi> should sell such +of his slaves as are aged and infirm; a recommendation which +has drawn down on him the well-merited indignation of +Plutarch<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>In Cato.</hi></note>. These are some of the duties of the master; and +there follows a curious detail of the qualifications and duties +of the <hi rend='italic'>villicus</hi>, or overseer, who, in particular, is prohibited +from the exercise of religious rites, and consultation of augurs. +</p> + +<p> +It is probable that, in the time of Cato, the Romans had +begun to extend their villas considerably, which makes him +warn proprietors of land not to be rash in building. When a +landlord is thirty-six years of age he may build, provided his +fields have been brought into a proper state of cultivation. +His direction with regard to the extent of the villa is concise, +but seems a very proper one;—he advises, to build in such a +manner that the villa may not need a farm, nor the farm a +villa. Lucullus and Scævola both violated this golden rule, +as we learn from Pliny; who adds, that it will be readily +conjectured, from their respective characters, that it was the +farm of Scævola which stood in need of the villa, and the +villa of Lucullus which required the farm. +</p> + +<p> +A vast variety of crops was cultivated by the Romans, and +the different kinds were adapted by them, with great care, to +the different soils. Cato is very particular in his injunctions +on this subject. A field that is of a rich and genial soil +should be sown with corn; but, if wet or moist, with turnips +and raddish. Figs are to be planted in chalky land; and +willows in watery situations, in order to serve as twigs for +tying the vines. This being the proper mode of laying out +a farm, our author gives a detail of the establishment necessary +to keep it up;—the number of workmen, the implements of +husbandry, and the farm-offices, with the materials necessary +for their construction. +</p> + +<p> +He next treats of the management of vineyards and olives; +the proper mode of planting, grafting, propping, and fencing: +And he is here naturally led to furnish directions for making +and preserving the different sorts of wine and oil; as also to +<pb n='15'/><anchor id='Pg015'/>specify how much of each is to be allowed to the servants of +the family. +</p> + +<p> +In discoursing of the cultivation of fields for corn, Cato +enjoins the farmer to collect all sorts of weeds for manure. +Pigeons’ dung he prefers to that of every animal. He gives +orders for burning lime, and for making charcoal and ashes +from the branches or twigs of trees. The Romans seem to +have been at great pains in draining their fields; and Cato +directs the formation both of open and covered drains. Oxen +being employed in ploughing the fields, instructions are added +for feeding and taking due care of them. The Roman plough +has been a subject of much discussion: Two sorts are mentioned +by Cato, which he calls <hi rend='italic'>Romanicum</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>Campanicum</hi>—the +first being proper for a stiff, and the other for a light +soil. Dickson conjectures, that the <hi rend='italic'>Romanicum</hi> had an iron +Share, and the <hi rend='italic'>Campanicum</hi> a piece of timber, like the +Scotch plough, and a sock driven upon it. The plough, with +other agricultural implements, as the <hi rend='italic'>crates</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>rastrum</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>ligo</hi>, +and <hi rend='italic'>sarculum</hi>, most of which are mentioned by Cato, form a +curious point of Roman antiquities. +</p> + +<p> +The preservation of corn, after it has been reaped, is a +subject of much importance, to which Cato has paid particular +attention. This was a matter of considerable difficulty in +Italy, in the time of the Romans; and all their agricultural +writers are extremely minute in their directions for preserving +it from rot, and from the depredations of insects, by which it +was frequently consumed. +</p> + +<p> +A great part of the work of Cato is more appropriate to the +housewife than the farmer. We have receipts for making all +sorts of cakes and puddings, fattening hens and geese, preserving +figs during winter; as also medical prescriptions for +the cure of various diseases, both of man and beast. <hi rend='italic'>Mala +punica</hi>, or pomegranates, are the chief ingredient, in his +remedies, for Diarrhœa, Dyspepsia, and Stranguary. Sometimes, +however, his cures for diseases are not medical recipes, +but sacrifices, atonements, or charms. The prime of all is +his remedy for a luxation or fracture.—<q>Take,</q> says he, <q>a +green reed, and slit it along the middle—throw the knife +upwards, and join the two parts of the reed again, and tie it +so to the place broken or disjointed, and say this charm—<q>Daries, +Dardaries, Astataries, Dissunapiter.</q> Or this—<q>Huat, +Hanat, Huat, Ista, Pista, Fista, Domiabo, Damnaustra.</q> This +will make the part sound again<note place="foot">C. 160.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The most remarkable feature in the work of Cato, is its +<pb n='16'/><anchor id='Pg016'/>total want of arrangement. It is divided, indeed, into chapters, +but the author, apparently, had never taken the trouble +of reducing his precepts to any sort of method, or of following +any general plan. The hundred and sixty-two chapters, +of which his work consists, seem so many rules committed to +writing, as the daily labours of the field suggested. He gives +directions about the vineyard, then goes to his corn-fields, +and returns again to the vineyard. His treatise was, therefore, +evidently not intended as a regular or well-composed book, +but merely as a journal of incidental observations. That this +was its utmost pretensions, is farther evinced by the brevity +of the precepts, and deficiency of all illustration or embellishment. +Of the style, he of course would be little careful, as +his <hi rend='italic'>Memoranda</hi> were intended for the use only of his family +and slaves. It is therefore always simple,—sometimes even +rude; but it is not ill adapted to the subject, and suits our +notion of the severe manners of its author, and character of +the ancient Romans. +</p> + +<p> +Besides this book on agriculture, Cato left behind him +various works, which have almost entirely perished. He left +a hundred and fifty orations<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 17.</note>, which were existing in the time +of Cicero, though almost entirely neglected, and a book on +military discipline<note place="foot">Vegetius, Lib. I. c. 8.</note>, both of which, if now extant, would be +highly interesting, as proceeding from one who was equally +distinguished in the camp and forum. A good many of his +orations were in dissuasion or favour of particular laws and +measures of state, as those entitled—<q>Ne quis iterum Consul +fiat—De bello Carthaginiensi,</q> of which war he was a vehement +promoter—<q>Suasio in Legem Voconiam,—Pro Lege +Oppia,</q> &c. Nearly a third part of these orations were pronounced +in his own defence. He had been about fifty times +accused<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>in Cato.</hi></note>, and as often acquitted. When charged with a +capital crime, in the 85th year of his age, he pleaded his own +cause, and betrayed no failure in memory, no decline of +vigour, and no faltering of voice<note place="foot">Valerius Maximus, Lib. VIII. c. 7. Valerius says, he was in his 86th year; +but Cato did not survive beyond his 85th. Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>in Bruto</hi>, c. 20. Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. +Nat.</hi> Lib. XIX. c. 1.</note>. By his readiness, and +pertinacity, and bitterness, he completely wore out his adversaries<note place="foot">Livy, Lib. XXXIX. c. 40.</note>, +and earned the reputation of being, if not the most +eloquent, at least the most stubborn speaker among the Romans. +</p> + +<p> +Cato’s oration in favour of the <anchor id="corr016"/><corr sic="Appian">Oppian</corr> law, which was a +sumptuary restriction on the expensive dresses of the Roman +<pb n='17'/><anchor id='Pg017'/>matrons, is given by Livy<note place="foot">Lib. XXXIV. c. 2.</note>. It was delivered in opposition to +the tribune Valerius, who proposed its abrogation, and affords +us some notion of his style and manner, since, if not copied +by the historian from his book of orations, it was doubtless +adapted by him to the character of Cato, and his mode of +speaking. Aulus Gellius cites, as equally distinguished for +its eloquence and energy, a passage in his speech on the +division of spoil among the soldiery, in which he complains +of their unpunished peculation and licentiousness. One of +his most celebrated harangues was that in favour of the Rhodians, +the ancient allies of the Roman people, who had fallen +under the suspicion of affording aid to Perseus, during the +second Macedonian war. The oration was delivered after the +overthrow of that monarch, when the Rhodian envoys were +introduced into the Senate, in order to explain the conduct of +their countrymen, and to deprecate the vengeance of the +Romans, by throwing the odium of their apparent hostility on +the turbulence of a few factious individuals. It was pronounced +in answer to those Senators, who, after hearing the supplications +of the Rhodians, were for declaring war against them; +and it turned chiefly on the ancient, long-tried fidelity of that +people,—taking particular advantage of the circumstance, +that the assistance rendered to Perseus had not been a national +act, proceeding from a public decree of the people. Tiro, +the freedman of Cicero, wrote a long and elaborate criticism +on this oration. To the numerous censures it contains, Aulus +Gellius has replied at considerable length, and has blamed +Tiro for singling out from a speech so rich, and so happily +connected, small and insulated portions, as objects of his +reprehensive satire. All the various topics, he adds, which +are enlarged on in this oration, if they could have been introduced +with more perspicuity, method, and harmony, could not +have been delivered with more energy and strength<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. VII. c. 3.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Both Cicero and Livy have expressed themselves very fully +on the subject of Cato’s orations. The former admits, that +his <q>language is antiquated, and some of his phrases harsh +and inelegant: but only change that,</q> he continues, <q>which +it was not in his power to change—add number and cadence—give +an easier turn to his sentences—and regulate the +structure and connection of his words, (an art which was as +little practised by the older Greeks as by him,) and you will +find no one who can claim the preference to Cato. The Greeks +themselves acknowledge, that the chief beauty of composition +results from the frequent use of those forms of expression, +<pb n='18'/><anchor id='Pg018'/>which they call tropes, and of those varieties of language +and sentiment, which they call figures; but it is almost incredible +with what copiousness, and with what variety, they are +all employed by Cato<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 17.</note>.</q> Livy principally speaks of the facility, +asperity, and freedom of his tongue<note place="foot">Lib. XXXIX. c. 40.</note>. Aulus Gellius has +instituted a comparison of Caius Gracchus, Cato, and Cicero, +in passages where these three orators declaimed against the +same species of atrocity—the illegal scourging of Roman +citizens; and Gellius, though he admits that Cato had not +reached the splendour, harmony, and pathos of Cicero, considers +him as far superior in force and copiousness to Gracchus<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. X. c. 3.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Of the book on Military Discipline, a good deal has been +incorporated into the work of Vegetius; and Cicero’s orations +may console us for the want of those of Cato. But the loss +of the seven books, <hi rend='italic'>De Originibus</hi>, which he commenced in +his vigorous old age, and finished just before his death, must +ever be deeply deplored by the historian and antiquary. Cato +is said to have begun to inquire into the history, antiquities, +and language of the Roman people, with a view to counteract +the influence of the Greek taste, introduced by the Scipios; +and in order to take from the Greeks the honour of having +colonized Italy, he attempted to discover on the Latin soil +the traces of ancient national manners, and an indigenous +civilization. The first book of the valuable work <hi rend='italic'>De Originibus</hi>, +as we are informed by Cornelius Nepos, in his short +life of Cato, contained the exploits of the kings of Rome. +Cato was the first author who attempted to fix the era of the +foundation of Rome, which he calculated in his <hi rend='italic'>Origines</hi>, +and determined it to have been in the first year of the 7th +Olympiad. In order to discover this epoch, he had recourse +to the memoirs of the Censors, in which it was noted, that the +taking of Rome by the Gauls, was 119 years after the expulsion +of the kings. By adding this period to the aggregate +duration of the reigns of the kings, he found that the amount +answered to the first of the 7th Olympiad. This is the computation +followed by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, in his great +work on Roman antiquities. It is probably as near the truth +as we can hope to arrive; but even in the time of Cato, the +calculated duration of the reigns of the kings was not founded +on any ancient monuments then extant, or on the testimony +of any credible historian. The second and third books treated +of the origin of the different states of Italy, whence the whole +work has received the name of <hi rend='italic'>Origines</hi>. The fourth and +<pb n='19'/><anchor id='Pg019'/>fifth books comprehended the history of the first and second +Punic wars; and in the two remaining books, the author discussed +the other campaigns of the Romans till the time of +Ser. Galba, who overthrew the Lusitanians. +</p> + +<p> +In his account of these later contests, Cato merely related +the facts, without mentioning the names of the generals or +leaders; but though he has omitted this, Pliny informs us that +he did not forget to take notice, that the elephant which fought +most stoutly in the Carthaginian army was called Surus, and +wanted one of his teeth<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. VIII. c. 5.</note>. In this same work he incidentally +treated of all the wonderful and admirable things which existed +in Spain and Italy. Some of his orations, too, as we learn +from Livy, were incorporated into it, as that for giving freedom +to the Lusitanian hostages; and Plutarch farther mentions, +that he omitted no opportunity of praising himself, and extolling +his services to the state. The work, however, exhibited +great industry and learning, and, had it descended to us, would +unquestionably have thrown much light on the early periods +of Roman history and the antiquities of the different states of +Italy. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, himself a sedulous inquirer +into antiquities, bears ample testimony to the research and accuracy +of that part which treats of the origin of the ancient +Italian cities. The author lived at a time which was favourable +to this investigation. Though the Samnites, Etruscans, +and Sabines, had been deprived of their independence, they +had not lost their monuments or records of their history, their +individuality and national manners. Cicero praises the simple +and concise style of the <hi rend='italic'>Origines</hi>, and laments that the +work was neglected in his day, in consequence of the inflated +manner of writing which had been recently adopted; in the +same manner as the tumid and ornamented periods of Theopompus +had lessened the esteem for the concise and unadorned +narrative of Thucydides, or as the lofty eloquence of Demosthenes +impaired the relish for the extreme attic simplicity of +Lysias<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 17.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +In the same part of the dialogue, entitled <hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, Cicero +asks what flower or light of eloquence is wanting to the <hi rend='italic'>Origines</hi>—<q>Quem +florem, aut quod lumen eloquentiæ non habent?</q> +But on Atticus considering the praise thus bestowed as excessive, +he limits it, by adding, that nothing was required to complete +the strokes of the author’s pencil but a certain lively +glow of colours, which had not been discovered in his age.—<q>Intelliges, +nihil illius lineamentis, nisi eorum pigmentorum, +quæ inventa nondum erant, florem et calorem defuisse<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 87.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<pb n='20'/><anchor id='Pg020'/> + +<p> +The pretended fragments of the <hi rend='italic'>Origines</hi>, published by the +Dominican, Nanni, better known by the name of Annius Viterbiensis, +and inserted in his <hi rend='italic'>Antiquitates Variæ</hi>, printed at +Rome in 1498, are spurious, and the imposition was detected +soon after their appearance. The few remains first collected +by Riccobonus, and published at the end of his Treatise on +History, (Basil, 1579,) are believed to be genuine. They have +been enlarged by Ausonius Popma, and added by him, with +notes, to the other writings of Cato, published at Leyden in +1590. +</p> + +<p> +Any rudeness of style and language which appears either in +the orations of Cato, or in his agricultural and historical works, +cannot be attributed to total carelessness or neglect of the +graces of composition, as he was the first person in Rome who +treated of oratory as an art<note place="foot">Quintil. <hi rend='italic'>Inst. Orat.</hi> Lib. III. c. 1.</note>, in a tract entitled <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore +ad Filium</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Cato was also the first of his countrymen who wrote on the +subject of medicine<note place="foot">Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXV. c. 2.</note>. Rome had existed for 500 years without +professional physicians<note place="foot">Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXV. c. 2.</note>. A people who as yet were +strangers to luxury, and consisted of farmers and soldiers, +(though surgical operations might be frequently necessary,) +would be exempt from the inroads of the <q>grisly troop,</q> so +much encouraged by indolence and debauchery. Like all +semi-barbarous people, they believed that maladies were to be +cured by the special interposition of superior beings, and that +religious ceremonies were more efficacious for the recovery +of health than remedies of medical skill. Deriving, as they +did, much of their worship from the Etruscans, they probably +derived from them also the practice of attempting to overcome +disease by magic and incantation. The Augurs and Aruspices +were thus the most ancient physicians of Rome. In epidemic +distempers the Sibylline books were consulted, and the cures +they prescribed were superstitious ceremonies. We have seen +that it was to free the city from an attack of this sort that +scenic representations were first introduced at Rome. During +the progress of another epidemic infliction a temple was built +to Apollo<note place="foot">Livy, Lib. IV. c. 25.</note>; and as each periodic pestilence naturally abated +in course of time, faith was confirmed in the efficacy of the +rites which were resorted to. Every one has heard of the +pomp wherewith Esculapius was transported under the form of +a serpent, from Epidaurus to an islet in the Tiber, which was +thereafter consecrated to that divine physician. The apprehension +of diseases raised temples to Febris and Tussis, and +<pb n='21'/><anchor id='Pg021'/>other imaginary beings belonging to the painful family of +death in order to avert the disorders which they were supposed +to inflict. It was perceived, however, that religious professions +and lustrations and <hi rend='italic'>lectisterniums</hi> were ineffectual for +the cure of those complaints, which, in the 6th century, luxury +began to exasperate and render more frequent at Rome. At +length, in 534, Archagatus, a free-born Greek, arrived in Italy, +where he practised medicine professionally as an art, and received +in return for his cures the endearing appellation of +<hi rend='italic'>Carnifex</hi><note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXIX. c. 1.</note>. But though Archagatus was the first who practised +medicine, Cato was the first who wrote of diseases and +their treatment as a science, in his work entitled <hi rend='italic'>Commentarius +quo Medetur Filio, Servis, Familiaribus</hi>. In this book +of domestic medicine—duck, pigeons, and hare, were the foods +he chiefly recommended to the sick<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>in Cato.</hi></note>. His remedies were principally +extracted from herbs; and colewort, or cabbage, was +his favourite cure<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XX. c. 9.</note>. The recipes, indeed, contained in his +work on agriculture, show that his medical knowledge did not +exceed that which usually exists among a semi-barbarous race, +and only extended to the most ordinary simples which nature +affords. Cato hated the compound drugs introduced by the +Greek physicians—considering these foreign professors of +medicine as the opponents of his own system. Such, indeed, +was his antipathy, that he believed, or pretended to believe, +that they had entered into a league to poison all the barbarians, +among whom they classed the Romans.—<q>Jurarunt +inter se,</q> says he, in a passage preserved by Pliny, <q>barbaros +necare omnes medicina: Et hoc ipsum mercede faciunt, ut +fides iis sit, et facile disperdant<note place="foot">Ibid. Lib. XXIX. c. 1.</note>.</q> Cato, finding that the patients +lived notwithstanding this detestable conspiracy, began +to regard the Greek practitioners as impious sorcerers, who +counteracted the course of nature, and restored dying men to +life, by means of unholy charms; and he therefore advised his +countrymen to remain stedfast, not only by their ancient Roman +principles and manners, but also by the venerable unguents +and salubrious balsams which had come down to them +from the wisdom of their grandmothers. Such as they were, +Cato’s old medical saws continued long in repute at Rome. +It is evident that they were still esteemed in the time of Pliny, +who expresses the same fears as the Censor, lest hot baths and +potions should render his countrymen effeminate, and corrupt +their manners<note place="foot">Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXIX. c. 1.</note>. +</p> + +<pb n='22'/><anchor id='Pg022'/> + +<p> +Every one knows what was the consequence of Cato’s dislike +to the Greek philosophers, who were expelled <anchor id="corr022"/><corr sic="(missing)">from</corr> the city by a decree +of the senate. But it does not seem certain what became +of Archagatus and his followers. The author of the +<hi rend='italic'>Diogene Moderne</hi>, as cited by Tiraboschi, says that Archagatus +was stoned to death<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Stor. del. Let. Ital.</hi> Part. III. Lib. III. c. 5. § 5.</note>, but the literary historian who +quotes him doubts of his having any sufficient authority for +the assertion. Whether the physicians were comprehended +in the general sentence of banishment pronounced on the +learned Greeks, or were excepted from it, has been the +subject of a great literary controversy in modern Italy and in +France<note place="foot">See Spon, <hi rend='italic'>Recherches Curieuses d’Antiquité</hi>. Diss. 27. Bayle, <hi rend='italic'>Dict. Hist.</hi> +art. Porcius, Rem. H. +<lb/><lb/> +In what degree of estimation medicine was held at Rome, and by what class of +people it was practised, were among the <hi rend='italic'><anchor id="corr022a"/><corr sic="questiones vexatæ">quæstiones vexatæ</corr></hi> of classical literature in +our own country in the beginning and middle of last century. Dr Mead, in his +<hi rend='italic'>Oratio Herveiana</hi>, and Spon, in his <hi rend='italic'>Recherches d’Antiquité</hi>, followed out an idea +first suggested by Casaubon, in his animadversions on Suetonius, that physicians in +Rome were held in high estimation, and were frequently free citizens; that it was +the surgeons who were the <hi rend='italic'>servile pecus</hi>; and that the erroneous idea of physicians +being slaves, arose from confounding the two orders. These authors chiefly rested +their argument on classical passages, from which it appears that physicians were +called the friends of Cicero, Cæsar, and Pompey. Middleton, in a well known Latin +dissertation, maintains that there was no distinction at Rome between the physician, +surgeon, and apothecary, and that, till the time of Julius Cæsar at least, the +art of medicine was exercised only by foreigners and slaves, or by freedmen, who, +having obtained liberty for their proficiency in its various branches, opened a shop +for its practice.—<hi rend='italic'>De Medicorum apud veteres Romanos degentium Conditione +Dissertatio</hi>. <hi rend='italic'>Miscellaneous Works</hi>, Vol. IV. See on this topic, <hi rend='italic'>Schlæger, Histor. +litis, De Medicorum apud veteres Romanos degentium Conditione. Helmst.</hi> +1740.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Aulus Gellius<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. VII. c. 10.</note> mentions Cato’s <hi rend='italic'>Libri quæstionum Epistolicarum</hi>, +and Cicero his <hi rend='italic'>Apophthegmata</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Officiis</hi>, Lib. I. c. 29. Multa sunt multorum facete dicta: ut ea, quæ a +sene Catone collecta sunt, quæ vocant apophthegmata.</note>, which was probably +the first example of that class of works which, under the +appellation of <hi rend='italic'>Ana</hi>, became so fashionable and prevalent in +France. +</p> + +<p> +The only other work of Cato which I shall mention, is the +<hi rend='italic'>Carmen de Moribus</hi>. This, however, was not written in verse, +as might be supposed from the title. Precepts, imprecations, +and prayers, or any set <hi rend='italic'>formulæ</hi> whatever, were called <hi rend='italic'>Carmina</hi>. +I do not know what maxims were inculcated in this +<hi rend='italic'>carmen</hi>, but they probably were not of very rigid morality, at +least if we may judge from the <q>Sententia Dia Catonis,</q> mentioned +by Horace: +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Quidam notus homo cùm exiret fornice, Macte</q></l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Virtute esto, inquit sententia dia Catonis<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Sat.</hi> Lib. I. 2.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='23'/><anchor id='Pg023'/> + +<p> +Misled by the title, some critics have erroneously assigned to +the Censor the <hi rend='italic'>Disticha de Moribus</hi>, now generally attributed +to Dionysius Cato, who lived, according to Scaliger in the age +of Commodus and Septimius Severus<note place="foot">For Cato’s family, see Aulus Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. XIII. c. 19.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The work of +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Marcus Terentius Varro"/><index index="pdf" level1="Marcus Terentius Varro"/> +<head>MARCUS TERENTIUS VARRO,</head> + +<p> +On agriculture, has descended to us more entire than that of +Cato on the same subject; yet it does not appear to be complete. +In the early times of the republic, the Romans, like +the ancient Greeks, being constantly menaced with the incursions +of enemies, indulged little in the luxury of expensive and +ornamental villas. Even that of Scipio Africanus, the rival +and contemporary of Cato the Censor, and who in many other +respects anticipated the refinements of a later age, was of the +simplest structure. It was situated at Liternum, (now Patria,) +a few miles north from <anchor id="corr023"/><corr sic="Cumae">Cumæ</corr>, and was standing in the time +of Seneca. This philosopher paid a visit to a friend who resided +in it during the age of Nero, and he afterwards described +it in one of his epistles with many expressions of wonder and +admiration at the frugality of the great Africanus<note place="foot">We have many minute descriptions of the villas of luxurious Romans, from the +time of Hortensius to Pliny, but there are so few accounts of those in the simpler age +of Scipio, that I have subjoined the description of Seneca, who saw this mansion +precisely in the same state it was when possessed and inhabited by the illustrious +conqueror of Hannibal. <q>Vidi villam structam lapide quadrato, murum circumdatum + <corr sic="sylvae">sylvæ</corr>, turres quoque in propugnaculum <corr sic="villae">villæ</corr> utrimque subrectas. +Cisternam ædificiis et viridibus subditam, quæ sufficere in usum exercitûs posset. +Balneolum angustum, tenebricosum ex consuetudine antiquâ. Magna ergo me +voluptas subit contemplantem mores Scipionis et nostros. In hoc angulo, ille Carthaginis +horror, cui Roma debet quod tantum semel capta est, abluebat corpus laboribus +rusticis fessum; exercebat enim operâ se, terramque, ut mos fuit priscis, ipse +subigebat. Sub hoc ille tecto tam sordido stetit—hoc illum pavimentum tam vile +sustinuit.</q> Senec. <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 86.</note>. When, +however, the scourge of war was removed from their immediate +vicinity, agriculture and gardening were no longer exercised +by the Romans as in the days of the Censor, when great +crops of grain were raised for profit, and fields of onions sown +for the subsistence of the labouring servants. The patricians +now became fond of ornamental gardens, fountains, terraces, +artificial wildernesses, and grottos, groves of laurel for shelter +in winter, and oriental planes for shade in summer. Matters, +in short, were fast approaching to the state described in one +of the odes of Horace— +</p> + +<pb n='24'/><anchor id='Pg024'/> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Jam pauca aratro jugera regiæ,</q></l> +<l>Moles relinquent: undique latius</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Extenta visentur Lucrino</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>Stagna lacu: platanusque cœlebs</l> +<l>Evincet ulmos: tum violaria, et</l> +<l>Myrtus, et omnis copia narium,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Spargent olivetis odorem</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'>Fertilibus domino priori.</l> +<l>Tum spissa ramis laurea fervidos</l> +<l>Excludet ictus. Non ita Romuli</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Præscriptum, et intonsi Catonis</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 4'><q rend="pre: none">Auspiciis, veterumque norma<note place="foot">Lib. II.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Agriculture, however, still continued to be so respectable an +employment, that its practice was not considered unworthy +the friend of Cicero and Pompey, nor its precepts undeserving +to be delivered by one who was indisputably the first scholar +of his age—who was renowned for his profound erudition and +thorough insight into the laws, the literature, and antiquities +of his country,—and who has been hailed by Petrarch as the +third great luminary of Rome, being only inferior in lustre to +Cicero and Virgil:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Qui’ vid’ io nostra gente aver per duce</q></l> +<l>Varrone, il terzo gran lume Romano,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Che quanto ’l miro più, tanto più luce<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Trionfo della Fama</hi>, c. 3.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Varro was born in the 637th year of Rome, and was descended +of an ancient senatorial family. It is probable that his youth, +and even the greater part of his manhood, were spent in literary +pursuits, and in the acquisition of that stupendous knowledge, +which has procured to him the appellation of the most +learned of the Romans, since his name does not appear in the +civil or military history of his country, till the year 680, when +he was Consul along with Cassius Varus. In 686, he served +under Pompey, in his war against the pirates, in which he +commanded the Greek ships<note place="foot">Varro, <hi rend='italic'>De Re Rusticâ</hi>, Lib. II. proœm.</note>. To the fortunes of that Chief +he continued firmly attached, and was appointed one of his +lieutenants in Spain, along with Afranius and Petreius, at the +commencement of the war with Cæsar. Hispania Ulterior +was specially confided to his protection, and two legions were +placed under his command. After the surrender of his colleagues +in Hither Spain, Cæsar proceeded in person against +him. Varro appears to have been little qualified to cope with +such an adversary. One of the legions deserted in his own +sight, and his retreat to Cadiz, where he had meant to retire, +<pb n='25'/><anchor id='Pg025'/>having been cut off, he surrendered at discretion, with the +other, in the vicinity of Cordova<note place="foot">Cæsar, <hi rend='italic'>Comment. de Bello Civili</hi>, Lib. II. c. 17, &c.</note>. From that period he despaired +of the salvation of the republic, or found, at least, that +he was not capable of saving it; for although, after receiving +his freedom from Cæsar, he proceeded to Dyracchium, to give +Pompey a detail of the disasters which had occurred, he left +it almost immediately for Rome. On his return to Italy he +withdrew from all political concerns, and indulged himself during +the remainder of his life in the enjoyment of literary leisure. +The only service he performed for Cæsar, was that of +arranging the books which the Dictator had himself procured, +or which had been acquired by those who preceded him in +the management of public affairs<note place="foot">Suetonius, <hi rend='italic'>in Jul. Cæs.</hi> c. 44.</note>. He lived during the reign +of Cæsar in habits of the closest intimacy with Cicero; and +his feelings, as well as conduct, at this period, resembled those +of his illustrious friend, who, in all his letters to Varro, bewails, +with great freedom, the utter ruin of the state, and proposes +that they should live together, engaged only in those studies +which were formerly their amusement, but were then their +chief support. <q>And, should none require our services for +repairing the ruins of the republic, let us employ our time and +thoughts on moral and political inquiries. If we cannot benefit +the commonwealth in the forum or the senate, let us endeavour, +at least, to do so by our studies and writings; and, +after the example of the most learned among the ancients, +contribute to the welfare of our country, by useful disquisitions +concerning laws and government.</q> Some farther notion +of the manner in which Varro spent his time during this period +may be derived from another letter of Cicero, written in June, +707. <q>Nothing,</q> says he, <q>raises your character higher in +my esteem, than that you have wisely retreated into harbour—that +you are enjoying the happy fruits of a learned leisure, +and employed in pursuits, which are attended with more public +advantage, as well as private satisfaction, than all the ambitious +exploits, or voluptuous indulgences, of these licentious +victors. The contemplative hours you spend at your Tusculan +villa, are, in my estimation, indeed, what alone deserves to be +called life<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Fam.</hi> Lib. IX. Ep. 6. Ed. Schütz.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Varro passed the greatest portion of his time in the various +villas which he possessed in Italy. One of these was at Tusculum, +and another in the neighbourhood of Cumæ. The +latter place had been among the earliest Greek establishments +in Italy, and was long regarded as pre-eminent in power and +<pb n='26'/><anchor id='Pg026'/>population. It spread prosperity over the adjacent coasts; +and its oracle, Sibyl, and temple, long attracted votaries and +visitants. As the Roman power increased, that of Cumæ +decayed; and its opulence had greatly declined before the +time of Varro. Its immediate vicinity was not even frequently +selected as a situation for villas. The Romans had a well-founded +partiality for the coasts of Puteoli, and Naples, so +superior in beauty and salubrity to the flat, marshy neighbourhood +of Cumæ. The situation of Varro’s other villa, at Tusculum, +must have been infinitely more agreeable, from its +pure air, and the commanding prospect it enjoyed. +</p> + +<p> +Besides immense flocks of sheep in Apulia, and many horses +in the Sabine district of Reate<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Re Rusticâ</hi>, Lib. II.</note>, Varro had considerable farms +both at his Cuman and Tusculan villas, the cultivation of +which, no doubt, formed an agreeable relaxation from his +severe and sedentary studies. He had also a farm at a third +villa, where he occasionally resided, near the town of Casinum, +in the territory of the ancient Volsci<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>Philip.</hi> II. c. 40.</note>, and situated on the +banks of the Cassinus, a tributary stream to the Liris. This +stream, which was fifty-seven feet broad, and both deep and +clear, with a pebbly channel, flowed through the middle of +his delightful domains. A bridge, which crossed the river +from the house, led directly to an island, which was a little +farther down, at the confluence of the Cassinus with a rivulet +called the Vinius<note place="foot">See Castell’s <hi rend='italic'>Villas of the Ancients</hi>.</note>. Along the banks of the larger water +there were spacious pleasure-walks which conducted to the +farm; and near the place where they joined the fields, there +was an extensive aviary<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Re Rusticâ</hi>, Lib. III. c. 5.</note>. The site of Varro’s villa was visited +by Sir R. C. Hoare, who says, that it stood close to Casinum, +now St Germano: Some trifling remains still indicate its site; +but its memory, he adds, will shortly survive only in the page +of the historian<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Classical Tour in Italy</hi>.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +After the assassination of Cæsar, this residence, along with +almost all the wealth of Varro, which was immense, was forcibly +seized by Marc Antony<note place="foot">Appian, <hi rend='italic'>De Bello Civili</hi>, Lib. IV. 47.</note>. Its lawless occupation by that +profligate and blood-thirsty triumvir, on his return from his +dissolute expedition to Capua, is introduced by Cicero into +one of his Philippics, and forms a topic of the most eloquent +and bitter invective. The contrast which the orator draws +between the character of Varro and that of Antony—between +the noble and peaceful studies prosecuted in that delightful +residence by the rightful proprietor, and the shameful +debau<pb n='27'/><anchor id='Pg027'/>cheries of the wretch by whom it had been usurped, forms a +picture, to which it would be difficult to find a parallel in +ancient or modern oratory.—<q>How many days did you shamefully +revel, Antony, in that villa? From the third hour, it +was one continued scene of drinking, gambling, and uproar. +The very roofs were to be pitied. O, what a change of +masters! But how can he be called its master? And, if +master—gods! how unlike to him he had dispossessed! Marcus +Varro made his house the abode of the muses, and a retreat +for study—not a haunt for midnight debauchery. Whilst he +was there, what were the subjects discussed—what the topics +debated in that delightful residence? I will answer the +question—The rights and liberties of the Roman people—the +memorials of our ancestors—the wisdom resulting from reason +combined with knowledge. But whilst you, Antony, was its +occupant, (for you cannot be called its master,) every room +rung with the cry of drunkenness—the pavements were +swimming with wine, and the walls wet with riot.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Antony was not a person to be satisfied with robbing Varro +of his property. At the formation of the memorable triumvirate, +the name of Varro appeared in the list of the proscribed, +among those other friends of Pompey whom the +clemency of Cæsar had spared. This illustrious and blameless +individual had now passed the age of seventy; and nothing +can afford a more frightful proof of the sanguinary spirit which +guided the councils of the triumvirs, than their devoting to +the dagger of the hired assassin a man equally venerable by +his years and character, and who ought to have been protected, +if not by his learned labours, at least by his retirement, from +such inhuman persecution. But, though doomed to death as +a friend of law and liberty, his friends contended with each +other for the dangerous honour of saving him. Calenus +having obtained the preference, carried him to his country-house, +where Antony frequently came, without suspecting +that it contained a proscribed inmate. Here Varro remained +concealed till a special edict was issued by the consul, M. +Plancus, under the triumviral seal, excepting him and Messala +Corvinus from the general slaughter<note place="foot">Berwick’s <hi rend='italic'>Lives of Asin. Pollio, M. Varro, &c.</hi></note>. +</p> + +<p> +But though Varro thus passed in security the hour of danger, +he was unable to save his library, which was placed in the +garden of one of his villas, and fell into the hands of an illiterate +soldiery. +</p> + +<p> +After the battle of Actium, Varro resided in tranquillity at +Rome till his decease, which happened in 727, when he was +<pb n='28'/><anchor id='Pg028'/>ninety years of age. The tragical deaths, however, of Pompey +and Cicero, with the loss of others of his friends,—the ruin of +his country,—the expulsion from his villas,—and the loss of +those literary treasures, which he had stored up as the solace +of his old age, and the want of which would be doubly felt +by one who wished to devote all his time to study,—must have +cast a deep shade over the concluding days of this illustrious +scholar. His wealth was restored by Augustus, but his books +could not be supplied. +</p> + +<p> +It is not improbable, that the dispersion of this library, +which impeded the prosecution of his studies, and prevented +the composition of such works as required reference and consultation, +may have induced Varro to employ the remaining +hours of his life in delivering those precepts of agriculture, +which had been the result of long experience, and which +needed only reminiscence to inculcate. It was some time +after the loss of his books, and when he had nearly reached +the age of eighty, that Varro composed the work on husbandry, +as he himself testifies in the introduction. <q>If I had +leisure, I might write these things more conveniently, which +I will now explain as well as I am able, thinking that I must +make haste; because, if a man be a bubble of air, much more +so is an old man, for now my eightieth year admonishes me to +get my baggage together before I leave the world. Wherefore, +as you have bought a farm, which you are desirous to +render profitable by tillage, and as you ask me to take this +task upon me, I will try to advise you what must be done, not +only during my stay here, but after my departure.</q> The +remainder of the introduction forms, in its ostentatious display +of erudition, a remarkable contrast to Cato’s simplicity. +Varro talks of the Syrens and Sibyls,—invokes all the Roman +deities, supposed to preside over rural affairs,—and enumerates +all the Greek authors who had written on the subject of +agriculture previous to his own time. +</p> + +<p> +The first of the three books which this agricultural treatise +comprehends, is addressed, by Varro, to Fundanius, who had +recently purchased a farm, in the management of which he +wished to be instructed. The information which Varro undertakes +to give, is communicated in the form of dialogue. He +feigns that, at the time appointed for rites to be performed in +the sowing season, (<hi rend='italic'>sementivis feriis</hi>,) he went, by invitation +of the priest, to the temple of Tellus. There he met his +father-in-law, C. Fundanius, the knight Agrius, and Agrasius, +a farmer of imposts, who were gazing on a map of Italy, +painted on the inner walls of the temple. The priest, whose +duty it was to officiate, having been summoned by the <anchor id="corr028"/><corr sic="edile">ædile</corr> +<pb n='29'/><anchor id='Pg029'/>to attend him on affairs of importance, they were awaiting +his return; and, in order to pass the time till his arrival, +Agrasius commences a conversation, (suggested by the map +of Italy,) by inquiring at the others present in the temple, +whether they, who had travelled so much, had ever visited +any country better cultivated than Italy. This introduces an +eulogy on the soil and climate of that favoured region, and +of its various abundant productions,—the Apulian wheat, the +Venafrian olive, and the Falernian grape. All this, again, +leads to the inquiry, by what arts of agricultural skill and +industry, aiding the luxuriant soil, it had reached such unexampled +fecundity. These questions are referred to Licinius +Stolo, and Tremellius Scrofa, who now joined the party, and +who were well qualified to throw light on the interesting discussion—the +first being of a family distinguished by the pains +it had taken with regard to the Agrarian laws, and the second +being well known for possessing one of the best cultivated +farms in Italy. Scrofa, too, had himself written on husbandry, +as we learn from Columella; who says, that he had first rendered +agriculture eloquent. This first book of Varro is +accordingly devoted to rules for the cultivation of land, whether +for the production of grain, pulse, olives, or vines, and +the establishment necessary for a well-managed and lucrative +farm; excluding from consideration what is strictly the business +of the grazier and shepherd, rather than of the farmer. +</p> + +<p> +After some general observations on the object and end of +agriculture, and the exposition of some general principles +with regard to soil and climate, Scrofa and Stolo, who are the +chief prolocutors, proceed to settle the size, as also the situation +of the villa. They recommend that it should be placed +at the foot of a well-wooded hill, and open to the most healthful +breeze. An eastern exposure seems to be preferred, as it +will thus have shade in summer, and sun in winter. They +farther advise, that it should not be placed in a hollow valley, +as being there subject to storms and inundations; nor in front +of a river, as that situation is cold in winter, and unwholesome +in summer; nor in the vicinity of a marsh, where it would +be liable to be infested with small insects, which, though +invisible, enter the body by the mouth or nostrils, and occasion +obstinate diseases. Fundanius asks, what one ought to +do who happens to inherit such a villa; and is answered, +that he should sell it for whatever sum it may bring; and if it +will bring nothing, he should abandon it. After this follow +the subjects of enclosure—the necessary implements of husbandry—the +number of servants and oxen required—and the +soil in which different crops should be sown. We have then +<pb n='30'/><anchor id='Pg030'/>a sort of calendar, directing what operations ought to be performed +in each season of the year. Thus, the author recommends +draining betwixt the winter solstice and approach of +the zephyrs, which was reckoned to be about the beginning +of February. The sowing of grain should not be commenced +before the autumnal equinox, nor delayed after the winter +solstice; because the seeds which are sown previous to the +equinox spring up too quickly, and those sown subsequent to +the solstice scarcely appear above ground in forty days. A +taste for flowers had begun to prevail at Rome in the time of +Varro; he accordingly recommends their cultivation, and +points out the seasons for planting the lily, violet and crocus. +</p> + +<p> +The remainder of the first book of Varro is well and naturally +arranged. He considers his subject from the choice of the +seed, till the grain has sprung up, ripened, been reaped, +secured, and brought to market. The same course is followed +in treating of the vine and the olive. While on the subject +of selling farm-produce to the best advantage, the conversation +is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of the priest’s +freedman, who came in haste to apologize to the guests for +having been so long detained, and to ask them to attend on +the following day at the obsequies of his master, who had +been just assassinated on the public street by an unknown +hand. The party in the temple immediately separate.—<q>De +casu humano magis querentes, quam admirantes id Romæ +factum.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The subject of agriculture, strictly so called, having been +discussed in the first book, Varro proceeds in the second, +addressed to Niger Turranus, to treat of the care of flocks +and cattle, (<hi rend='italic'>De Re Pecuaria</hi>). The knowledge which he here +communicates is the result of his own observations, blended +with the information he had received from the great pasturers +of Epirus, at the time when he commanded the Grecian ships +on its coast, in Pompey’s naval war with the pirates. As in +the former book, the instruction is delivered in the shape of +dialogue. Varro being at the house of a person called Cossinius, +his host refuses to let him depart till he explain to him +the origin, the dignity, and the art of pasturage. Our author +undertakes to satisfy him as to the first and second points, +but as to the third, he refers him to Scrofa, another of the +guests, who had the management of extensive sheep-walks in +the territory of the Brutii. Varro makes but a pedantic figure +in the part which he has modestly taken to himself. His +account of the origin of pasturage is nothing but some very +common-place observations on the early stages of society; +and its dignity is proved from several signs of the zodiac being +<pb n='31'/><anchor id='Pg031'/>called after animals, as also some of the most celebrated spots +on the globe,—Mount Taurus, the Bosphorus, the Ægean sea, +and Italy, which Varro derives from Vitulus. Scrofa, in commencing +his part of the dialogue, divides the animals concerning +which he is to treat into three classes: 1. the lesser; of +which there are three sorts—sheep, goats, and swine; 2. the +larger; of which there are also three—oxen, asses, and horses; +and, lastly, those which do not themselves bring profit, but are +essential to the care of the others—the dog, the mule, and +the shepherd. With regard to all animals, four things are to be +considered in purchasing or procuring them—their age, shape, +pedigree, and price. After they have been purchased, there +are other four things to be attended to—feeding, breeding, +rearing, and curing distempers. According to this methodical +division of the subject, Scrofa proceeds to give rules for +choosing the best of the different species of animals which he +has enumerated, as also directions for tending them after they +have been bought, and turning them to the best profit. It is +curious to hear what were considered the good points of a +goat, a hog, or a horse, in the days of Pompey and Cæsar; +in what regions they were produced in greatest size and perfection; +what was esteemed the most nutritive provender for +each; and what number constituted an ordinary flock or herd. +The qualities specified as best in an ox may perhaps astonish +a modern grazier; but it must be remembered, that they are +applicable to the capacity for labour, not of carrying beef. +Hogs were fed by the Romans on acorns, beans, and barley; +and, like our own, indulged freely in the luxury of mire, +which, Varro says, is as refreshing to them as the bath to +human creatures. The Romans, however, did not rear, as we +do, a solitary ill-looking pig in a sty, but possessed great +herds, sometimes amounting to the number of two or three +hundred. +</p> + +<p> +From what the author records while treating of the pasturage +of sheep, we learn that a similar practice prevailed in +Italy, with that which at this day exists in Spain, in the management +of the Merinos belonging to the Mêstà. Flocks of +sheep, which pastured during the winter in Apulia, were +driven to a great distance from that region, to pass the summer +in Samnium; and mules were led from the champaign grounds +of Rosea, at certain seasons, to the high Gurgurian mountains. +With much valuable and curious information on all these various +topics, there are interspersed a great many strange superstitions +and fables, or what may be called vulgar errors, as that +swine breathe by the ears instead of the mouth or nostrils—that +when a wolf gets hold of a sow, the first thing he does is to +<pb n='32'/><anchor id='Pg032'/>plunge it into cold water, as his teeth cannot otherwise bear +the heat of the flesh—that on the shore of Lusitania, mares +conceive from the winds, but their foals do not live above three +years—and what is more inexplicable, one of the speakers in +the dialogue asserts, that he himself had seen a sow in Arcadia +so fat, that a field-mouse had made a comfortable nest in +her flesh, and brought forth its young. +</p> + +<p> +This book concludes with what forms the most profitable +part of pasturage—the dairy and sheep-shearing. +</p> + +<p> +The third book, which is by far the most interesting and +best written in the work, treats <hi rend='italic'>de villicis pastionibus</hi>, which +means the provisions, or moderate luxuries, which a plain farmer +may procure, independent of tillage or pasturage,—as +the poultry of his barn-yard—the trouts in the stream, by +which his farm is bounded—and the game, which he may enclose +in parks, or chance to take on days of recreation. If +others of the agricultural writers have been more minute with +regard to the construction of the villa itself, it is to Varro we +are chiefly indebted for what lights we have received concerning +its appertenancies, as warrens, aviaries, and fish-ponds. +The dialogue on these subjects is introduced in the following +manner:—At the comitia, held for electing an <anchor id="corr032"/><corr sic="Edile">Ædile</corr>, Varro +and the Senator Axius, having given their votes for the candidate +whom they mutually favoured, and wishing to be at his +house to receive him on his return home, after all the suffrages +had been taken, resolved to wait the issue in the shade of a +<hi rend='italic'>villa publica</hi>. There they found Appius Claudius, the augur, +whom Axius began to rally on the magnificence of his villa, at +the extremity of the Campus Martius, which he contrasts with +the profitable plainness of his own farm in the Reatine district. +<q>Your sumptuous mansion,</q> says he, <q>is adorned with painting, +sculpture, and carving; but to make amends for the want +of these, I have all that is necessary to the cultivation of lands, +and the feeding of cattle. In your splendid abode, there is +no sign of the vicinity of arable lands, or vineyards. We find +there neither ox nor horse—there is neither vintage in the cellars, +nor corn in the granary. In what respect does this resemble +the villa of your ancestors? A house cannot be +called a farm or a villa, merely because it is built beyond the +precincts of the city.</q> This polite remonstrance gives rise to +a discussion with regard to the proper definition of a villa, +and whether that appellation can be applied to a residence, +where there is neither tillage nor pasturage. It seems to be +at length agreed, that a mansion which is without these, and +is merely ornamental, cannot be called a villa; but that it is +properly so termed, though there be neither tillage nor pastu<pb n='33'/><anchor id='Pg033'/>rage, + if fish-ponds, pigeon-houses, and bee-hives, be kept for +the sake of profit; and it is discussed whether such villas, or +agricultural farms, are most lucrative. +</p> + +<p> +Our author divides the <hi rend='italic'>Villaticæ pastiones</hi> into poultry, game, +and fish. Under the first class, he comprehends birds, such +as thrushes, which are kept in aviaries, to be eaten, but not +any birds of game. Rules and directions are given for their +management, of the same sort with those concerning the animals +mentioned in the preceding book. The aviaries in the +Roman villas were wonderfully productive and profitable. A +very particular account is given of the construction of an +aviary. Varro himself had one at his farm, near Casinum, but +it was intended more for pleasure and recreation than profit. +The description he gives of it is very minute, but not very +distinct. The pigeon-house is treated of separately from the +aviary. As to the game, the instructions do not relate to +field-sports, but to the mode of keeping wild animals in enclosures +or warrens. In the more simple and moderate ages of +the republic, these were merely hare or rabbit warrens of no +great extent; but as wealth and luxury increased, they were +enlarged to the size of 40 or 50 acres, and frequently contained +within their limits goats, wild boars, and deer. The author +even descends to instructions with regard to keeping and fattening +snails and dormice. On the subject of fish he is extremely +brief, because that was rather an article of expensive +luxury than homely fare; and the candidate, besides, was now +momentarily expected. Fish-ponds had increased in the same +proportion as warrens, and in the age of Varro were often +formed at vast expense. Instances are given of the great +depth and extent of ponds belonging to the principal citizens, +some of which had subterraneous communications with the +sea, and others were supplied by rivers, which had been turned +from their course. At this part of the dialogue, a shout and +unusual bustle announced the success of the candidate whom +Varro favoured: on hearing this tumult, the party gave up +their agricultural disquisitions, and accompanied him in triumph +to the Capitol. +</p> + +<p> +This work of Varro is totally different from that of Cato on +the same subject, formerly mentioned. It is not a journal, +but a book; and instead of the loose and unconnected manner +in which the brief precepts of the Censor are delivered, it is +composed on a plan not merely regular, but perhaps somewhat +too stiff and formal. Its exact and methodical arrangement +has particularly attracted the notice of Scaliger.—<q>Unicum +Varronem inter Latinos habemus, libris tribus de Re +Rustica, qui vere ac <foreign rend="Greek" lang="el">μεθοδικως</foreign><!--[Greek: methodikôs]--> philosophatus sit. Immo nullus +<pb n='34'/><anchor id='Pg034'/>est Græcorum qui tam bene, inter eos saltem qui ad nos pervenerunt<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Scaligerana prima</hi>, p. 144.</note>.</q> +Instead, too, of that directness and simplicity +which never deviate from the plainest precepts of agriculture, +the work of Varro is embellished and illustrated by much of +the erudition which might be expected from the learning of +its author, and of one acquainted with fifty Greek writers who +had treated of the subject before him. <q>Cato, the famous +Censor,</q> says Martyne, <q>writes like an ancient country gentleman +of much experience: He abounds in short pithy sentences, +intersperses his book with moral precepts, and was +esteemed a sort of oracle. Varro writes more like a scholar +than a man of much practice: He is fond of research into +antiquity, and inquires into the etymology of the names of +persons and things. Cato, too, speaks of a country life, and +of farming, merely as it may be conducive to gain. Varro +also speaks of it as of a wise and happy state, inclining to +justice, temperance, sincerity, and all the virtues, which shelters +from evil passions, by affording that constant employment, +which leaves little leisure for those vices which prevail in +cities, where the means and occasions for them are created +and supplied.</q> +</p> + +<p> +There were other Latin works on agriculture, besides those +of Cato and Varro, but they were subsequent to the time which +the present volumes are intended to embrace. Strictly speaking, +indeed, even the work of Varro was written after the battle +of Actium: the knowledge, however, on which its precepts +were founded, was acquired long before. The style, too, is +that of the Roman republic, not of the Augustan age. I have +therefore considered Varro as belonging to the period on +which we are at present engaged. +</p> + +<p> +Indeed, the history of his life and writings is almost identified +with the literary history of Rome, during the long period +through which his existence was protracted. But the treatise +on agriculture is the only one of his multifarious works which +has descended to us entire. The other writings of this celebrated +polygraph, as Cicero calls him<note place="foot"><foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Πολυγραφωτατος</foreign><!--[Greek: Polygraphôtatos]-->. <hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. III. Ep. 18.</note>, may be divided into +philological, critical, historical, mythological, philosophic, +and satiric; and, after all, it would probably be necessary, in +order to form a complete catalogue, to add the convenient +and comprehensive class of miscellaneous. +</p> + +<p> +The work <hi rend='italic'>De Lingua Latina</hi>, though it has descended to +us incomplete, is by much the most entire of Varro’s writings, +except the Treatise on Agriculture. It is on account of this +<pb n='35'/><anchor id='Pg035'/>philological production, that Aulus Gellius ranks him among +the grammarians, who form a numerous and important class in +the History of Latin Literature. They were called <hi rend='italic'>grammatici</hi> +by the Romans—a word which would be better rendered +philologers than grammarians. The grammatic science, +among the Romans, was not confined to the inflections of +words or rules of syntax. It formed one of the great divisions +of the art of criticism, and was understood to comprehend all +those different inquiries which philology includes—embracing +not only grammar, properly so called, but verbal and literal +criticism, etymology, the explication and just interpretation +of authors, and emendation of corrupted passages. Indeed +the name of grammarian (grammaticus) is frequently applied +by ancient authors<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De Divinat.</hi> Lib. I. c. 18. Seneca, <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 98.</note> to those whom we should now term critics +and commentators, rather than grammarians. +</p> + +<p> +It will be readily conceived that a people, who, like the +first Romans, were chiefly occupied with war, and whose +relaxation was agriculture, did not attach much importance +to a science, of which the professed object was, teaching how +to speak and write with propriety. Accordingly, almost six +hundred years elapsed before they formed any idea of such a +study<note place="foot">Suetonius, <hi rend='italic'>De Illust. Grammat.</hi> c. 1.</note>. Crates Mallotes, who was a contemporary of Aristarchus, +and was sent as ambassador to Rome, by Attalus, +King of Pergamus, towards the end of the sixth century<note place="foot">Suetonius (<hi rend='italic'>De Illust. Gram.</hi>) says, that he was sent by Attalus, at the moment +of the death of Ennius. Now, Ennius died in 585, at which time Eumenes reigned +at Pergamus, and was not succeeded by Attalus till the year 595; so that Suetonius +was mistaken, either as to the year in which Crates came to Rome, or the king by +whom he was sent—I rather think he was wrong in the latter point; for, if Crates +was the first Greek rhetorician who taught at Rome, which seems universally admitted, +he must have been there before 593, in which year the rhetoricians were expressly +banished from Rome, along with the philosophers.</note>, was +the first who excited a taste for grammatical inquiries. +Having accidentally broken his leg in the course of his +embassy, he employed the period of his convalescence in +receiving visitors, to whom he delivered lectures, containing +grammatic disquisitions: and he also read and commented on +poets hitherto unknown in Rome<note place="foot">Suetonius, c. 2.</note>. These discussions, however, +probably turned solely on Greek words, and the interpretation +of Greek authors. It is not likely that Crates had +such a knowledge of the Latin tongue, as to give lectures on +a subject which requires minute and extensive acquaintance +with the language. His instructions, however, had the effect +of fixing the attention of the Romans on their own language, +and on their infant literature. Men sprung up who commented +<pb n='36'/><anchor id='Pg036'/>on, and explained, the few Latin poems which at that time +existed. C. Octavius Lampadius illustrated the Punic War +of Nævius; and also divided that poem into seven books. +About the same time, Q. Vargunteius lectured on the Annals +of Ennius, on certain fixed days, to crowded audiences. +Q. Philocomus soon afterwards performed a similar service +for the Satires of his friend Lucilius. Among these early +grammarians, Suetonius particularly mentions Ælius Preconinus +and Servius Clodius. The former was the master of +Varro and Cicero; he was also a rhetorician of eminence, and +composed a number of orations for the Patricians, to whose +cause he was so ardently attached, that, when Metellus Numidicus +was banished in 654, he accompanied him into exile. +Serv. Clodius was the son-in-law of Lælius, and fraudulently +appropriated, it is said, a grammatical work, written by his +distinguished relative, which shows the honour and credit by +this time attached to such pursuits at Rome. Clodius was a +Roman knight; and, from his example, men of rank did not +disdain to write concerning grammar, and even to teach its +principles. Still, however, the greater number of grammarians, +at least of the verbal grammarians, were slaves. If well +versed in the science, they brought, as we learn from Suetonius, +exorbitant prices. Luctatius Daphnis was purchased by +Quintus Catulus for 200,000 pieces of money, and shortly +afterwards set at liberty. This was a strong encouragement +for masters to instruct their slaves in grammar, and for them +to acquire its rules. Sævius Nicanor, and Aurelius Opilius, +who wrote a commentary, in nine books, on different writers, +were freedmen, as was also Antonius Gnipho, a Gaul, who +had been taught Greek at Alexandria, whither he was carried +in his youth, and was subsequently instructed in Latin literature +at Rome. Though a man of great learning in the science +he professed, he left only two small volumes on the Latin +language—his time having been principally occupied in +teaching. He taught first in the house of the father of Julius +Cæsar, and afterwards lectured at home to those who chose +to attend him. The greatest men of Rome, when far advanced +in age and dignity, did not disdain to frequent his school. +Many of his precepts, indeed, extended to rhetoric and declamation, +the arts, of all others, in which the Romans were +most anxious to be initiated. These were now taught in the +schools of almost all grammarians, of whom there were, at +one time, upwards of twenty in Rome. For a long while, +only the Greek poets were publicly explained, but at length +the Latin poets were likewise commented on and illustrated. +About the same period, the etymology of Latin words began +<pb n='37'/><anchor id='Pg037'/>to be investigated: Ælius Gallus, a jurisconsult quoted by +Varro, wrote a work on the origin and proper signification +of terms of jurisprudence, which in most languages remain +unvaried, till they have become nearly unintelligible; and +Ælius Stilo attempted, though not with perfect success, to +explain the proper meaning of the words of the Salian verses, +by ascertaining their derivations<note place="foot">Court de Gebelin, <hi rend='italic'>Monde Primitif</hi>, T. VI. Disc. Prelim. p. 12.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The science of grammar and etymology was in this stage of +progress and in this degree of repute at the time when Varro +wrote his celebrated treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Lingua Latina</hi>. That work +originally consisted of twenty-four books—the first three being +dedicated to Publius Septimius, who had been his quæstor in +the war with the pirates, and the remainder to Cicero. This +last dedication, with that of Cicero’s <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi> to Varro, has +rendered their friendship immortal. The importance attached +to such dedications by the great men of Rome, and the value, +in particular, placed by Cicero on a compliment of this nature +from Varro, is established by a letter of the orator to Atticus—<q>You +know,</q> says he, <q>that, till lately, I composed nothing +but orations, or some such works, into which I could not +introduce Varro’s name with propriety. Afterwards, when I +engaged in a work of more general erudition, Varro informed +me, that his intention was, to address to me a work of considerable +extent and importance. Two years, however, have +passed away without his making any progress. Meanwhile, +I have been making preparations for returning him the compliment<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. XIII. Ep. 12.</note>.</q> +Again, <q>I am anxious to know how you came to +be informed that a man like Varro, who has written so much, +without addressing anything to me, should wish me to pay +him a compliment<note place="foot">Ibid. Lib. XIII. Ep. 18.</note>.</q> The <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi> were dedicated to +Varro before he fulfilled his promise of addressing a work to +Cicero; and it appears, from Cicero’s letter to Varro, sent +along with the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>, how impatiently he expected its +performance, and how much he importuned him for its execution.—<q>To +exact the fulfilment of a promise,</q> says he, <q>is a +sort of ill manners, of which the populace themselves are +seldom guilty. I cannot, however, forbear—I will not say, to +demand, but remind you, of a favour, which you long since +gave me reason to expect. To this end, I have sent you four +admonitors, (the four books of the Academica,) whom, +perhaps, you will not consider as extremely modest<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Famil.</hi> Lib. IX. Ep. 8.</note>.</q> It is +curious, that, when Varro did at length come forth with his +<pb n='38'/><anchor id='Pg038'/>dedication, although he had been highly extolled in the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>, +he introduced not a single word of compliment to +Cicero—whether it was that Varro dealt not in compliment, +that he was disgusted with his friend’s insatiable appetite for +praise, or that Cicero was considered as so exalted that he +could not be elevated higher by panegyric. +</p> + +<p> +We find in the work <hi rend='italic'>De Lingua Latina</hi>, which was written +during the winter preceding Cæsar’s death, the same methodical +arrangement that marks the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Re Rustica</hi>. The +twenty-four books of which it consisted, were divided into +three great parts. The first six books were devoted to etymological +researches, or, as Varro himself expresses it, <hi rend='italic'>quemadmodum +vocabula essent imposita rebus in lingua Latina</hi>. +In the first, second, and third books, of this division of his +work, all of which have perished, the author had brought forward +what an admirer of etymological science could advance +in its favour—what a depreciator might say against it; and what +might be pronounced concerning it without enthusiasm or prejudice.—<q>Quæ +contra eam dicentur, quæ pro ea, quæ de ea.</q> +The fragments remaining of this great work of Varro, commence +at the fourth book, which, with the two succeeding books, is occupied +with the origin of Latin terms and the poetical licenses that +have been taken in their use: He first considers the origin +of the names of places, and of those things which are in them. +His great division of places is, into heaven and earth—<hi rend='italic'>Cœlum</hi> +he derives from <hi rend='italic'>cavum</hi>, and that, from <hi rend='italic'>chaos</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>terra</hi> is so called +<hi rend='italic'>quia teritur</hi>. The derivation of the names of many terrestrial +regions is equally whimsical. The most rational are those +of the different spots in Rome, which are chiefly named after +individuals, as the Tarpeian rock, from Tarpeia, a vestal virgin +slain by the Sabines—the Cœlian Mount, from Cœlius, an +Etrurian chief, who assisted Romulus in one of his contests +with his neighbours. Following the same arrangement with +regard to those things which <hi rend='italic'>are in</hi> places, he first treats of the +immortals, or gods of heaven and earth. Descending to mortal +things, he treats of animals, whom he considers as in three +places—air, water, and earth. The creatures inhabiting earth +he divides into men, cattle, and wild beasts. Of the appellations +proper to mankind, he speaks first of public honours, as +the office of Prætor, who was so called, <q>quod præiret exercitui.</q> +We have then the derivations both of the generic and +special names of animals. Thus, <hi rend='italic'>Armenta</hi> (quasi <hi rend='italic'>aramenta</hi>) +is from <hi rend='italic'>aro</hi>, because oxen are used for ploughing; <hi rend='italic'>Lepus</hi> is +<hi rend='italic'>quasi Levipes</hi>. The remainder of the book is occupied with +those words which relate to food, clothing, and various sorts +<pb n='39'/><anchor id='Pg039'/>of utensils. Of these, the derivation is given, and it is generally +far-fetched. But of all his etymologies, the most whimsical +is that contained in his book of Divine Things, where he +deduces <hi rend='italic'>fur</hi> from <hi rend='italic'>furvus</hi>, (dusky,) because thieves usually steal +during the darkness of night<note place="foot">Aulus Gellius, Lib. I. c. 18</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The fifth book relates to words expressive of time and its divisions, +and to those things which are done in the course of time. +He begins with the months and days consecrated to the service +of the gods, or performance of accustomed rites. Things +which happen during the lapse of time, are divided into three +classes, according to the three great human functions of +thought, speech, and act. The third class, or actions, are performed +by means of the external senses; the mention of which +introduces the explication of those terms which express the +various operations of the senses; and the book terminates with +a list of vocables derived from the Greek. These two books +relate the common employment of words. In the sixth, the +author treats of poetic words, and the poetic or metaphoric use +of ordinary terms, of which he gives examples. Here he follows +the same arrangement already adopted—speaking first of +places, and then of time, and showing, as he proceeds, the manner +in which poets have changed or corrupted the original +signification of words. +</p> + +<p> +Such is the first division of the work of Varro, forming what +he himself calls the etymological part. He admits that it was +a subject of much difficulty and obscurity, since many original +words had become obsolete in course of time, and of those +which survived, the meaning had been changed or had never +been imposed with exactness. The second division, which +extended from the commencement of the seventh to the end of +the twelfth book, comprehended the accidents of words, and +the different changes which they undergo from declension, +conjugation, and comparison. The author admits but of two +kinds of words—nouns and verbs, to which he refers all the +other parts of speech. He distinguishes two sorts of declensions, +of which he calls one arbitrary, and the other natural or +necessary; and he is thenceforth alternately occupied with +analogy and anomaly. In the seventh book he discusses the +subject of analogy in general, and gives the arguments which +may be adduced against its existence in nouns proper: In the +eighth, he reasons like those who find analogies everywhere. +Book ninth treats of the analogy and anomaly of verbs, and +with it the fragment we possess of Varro’s treatise terminates. +The three other books, which completed the second part, were +<pb n='40'/><anchor id='Pg040'/>of course occupied with comparison and the various inflections +of words. +</p> + +<p> +The third part of the work, which contained twelve books, +treated of syntax, or the junction of words, so as to form a +phrase or sentence. It also contained a sort of glossary, which +explained the true meaning of Latin vocables. +</p> + +<p> +This, which may be considered as one of the chief works of +Varro, was certainly a laborious and ingenious production; but +the author is evidently too fond of deriving words from the ancient +dialects of Italy, instead of recurring to the Greek, which, +after the capture of Tarentum, became a great source of Latin +terms. In general, the Romans, like the Greeks before them, +have been very unfortunate in their etymologies, being but +indifferent critics, and inadequately informed of everything +that did not relate to their own country. Blackwell, in his +<hi rend='italic'>Court of Augustus</hi>, while he admits that the sagacity of Varro +is surprising in the use which he has made of the knowledge +he possessed of the Sabine and Tuscan dialects, remarks, that +his work, <hi rend='italic'>De Lingua Latina</hi>, is faulty in two particulars; the +first, arising from the author having recourse to far-fetched +allusions and metaphors in his own language, to illustrate his +etymology of words, instead of going at once to the Greek. +The second, proceeding from his ignorance of the eastern and +northern languages, particularly the Aramean and Celtic<note place="foot">See also as to the Celtic derivations, Court de Gebelin, <hi rend='italic'>Monde Primitif</hi>. Disc. +Prelim. T. VI. p. 23.</note>; +the former of which, in Blackwell’s opinion, had given names +to the greater number of the gods, and the latter, to matters +occurring in war and rustic life. +</p> + +<p> +It is not certain whether the <hi rend='italic'>Libri De Similitudine Verborum</hi>, +and those <hi rend='italic'>De Utilitate Sermonis</hi>, cited by Priscian and +Charisius as philological works of Varro, were parts of his +great production, <hi rend='italic'>De Lingua Latina</hi>, or separate compositions. +There was a distinct treatise, however, <hi rend='italic'>De Sermone Latino</hi>, +addressed to Marcellus, of which a very few fragments are +preserved by Aulus Gellius. +</p> + +<p> +The <hi rend='italic'>critical</hi> works of this universal scholar, were entitled, +<hi rend='italic'>De Proprietate Scriptorum</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Poetis</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Poematis</hi>—<hi rend='italic'><anchor id="corr040"/><corr sic="Theatreales">Theatrales</corr>, +sive de Actionibus Scenicis</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Scenicis Originibus</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De +Plautinis Comœdiis</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Plautinis Quæstionibus</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De +Compositione Satirarum</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Rhetoricorum Libri</hi>. These works +are praised or mentioned by Gellius, Nonius Marcellus, and +Diomedes; but almost nothing is known of their contents. +</p> + +<p> +Somewhat more may be gathered concerning Varro’s <hi rend='italic'>mythological</hi> +or <hi rend='italic'>theological</hi> works, as they were much studied, and +<pb n='41'/><anchor id='Pg041'/>very frequently cited by the early fathers, particularly St Augustine +and Lactantius. Of these the chief is the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De +Cultu Deorum</hi>, noticed by St Augustine in his seventh book, +<hi rend='italic'>De Civitate Dei</hi>, where he says that Varro considers God to +be not only the soul of the world, but the world itself. In this +work he also treated of the origin of hydromancy, and other +superstitious divinations. Sixteen books of the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De +Rerum Humanarum et Divinarum Antiquitatibus</hi>, addressed +to Julius Cæsar, as Pontifex Maximus, related to theological, +or at least what we might call ecclesiastical subjects. He +divides theology into three sorts—mythic, physical, and civil. +The first is chiefly employed by poets, who have feigned many +things contrary to the nature and dignity of the immortals, as +that they sprung from the head, or thigh, or from drops of +blood—that they committed thefts and impure actions, and +were the servants of men. The second species of theology is +that which we meet with in the books of philosophers, in which +it is discussed, whether the gods have been from all eternity, +and what is their essence, whether of fire, or numbers, or atoms. +Civil, or the third kind of theology, relates to the institutions +devised by men, for the worship of the Gods. The first sort +is most appropriate to the stage; the second to the world; the +third to the city. Varro was a zealous advocate for the physical +explication of the mythological fables, to which he always +had recourse, when pressed by the difficulties of their literal +meaning<note place="foot">Jupiter, Juno, Saturnus, Vulcanus, Vesta, et alii plurimi quos Varro conatur ad +mundi partes sive elementa transferre. (<hi rend='italic'>St August. Civit. Dei</hi>, Lib. VIII. c. 5.)</note>. He also seems to have been of opinion that the +images of the gods were originally intended to direct such +as were acquainted with the secret doctrines, to the contemplation +of the real gods, and of the immortal soul with its +constituent parts<note place="foot">Lactantius, <hi rend='italic'>Div. Inst.</hi> Lib. I. c. 6.</note>. The first book of this work, as we learn +from St Augustine, was introductory. The three following +treated of the ministers of religion, the Pontiffs, Augurs, and +Sibyls; in mentioning whom, he relates the well-known story +of her who offered her volumes for sale to Tarquinius Priscus. +In the next ternary of chapters, he discoursed concerning +places appointed for religious worship, and the celebration of +sacred rites. The third ternary related to holidays; the fourth +to consecrations, and to private as well as public sacrifices; and +the fifth contained an enumeration of all the deities who watch +over man, from the moment when Janus opens to him the gates +of life, till the dirges of Nænia conduct him to the tomb. The +whole universe, he says, in conclusion, is divided into heaven +<pb n='42'/><anchor id='Pg042'/>and earth; the heavens, again, into æther and air; earth, into +the ground and water. All these are full of souls, mortal in +earth and water, but immortal in air and æther. Between the +highest circle of heaven and the orbit of the moon, are the +ethereal souls of the stars and planets, which are understood, +and in fact seem, to be celestial deities; between the sphere +of the moon and the highest region of tempests, dwell those +aerial spirits, which are conceived by the mind though not +seen by the eye—departed heroes, Lares, and Genii. +</p> + +<p> +This work, which is said to have chiefly contributed to the +splendid reputation of Varro, was extant as late as the beginning +of the fourteenth century. Petrarch, to whom the +world has been under such infinite obligations for his ardent +zeal in discovering the learned works of the Romans, had seen +it in his youth. It continued ever after to be the object of his +diligent search, and his bad success was a source to him of +constant mortification. Of this we are informed in one of the +letters, which that enthusiastic admirer of the ancients addressed +to them as if they been alive, and his contemporaries. +<q>Nullæ tamen exstant,</q> says he to Varro, <q>vel admodum +laceræ, tuorum operum reliquiæ; licet divinarum et humanarum +rerum libros, ex quibus sonantius nomen habes, puerum +me vidisse meminerim, et recordatione torqueor, summis, ut +aiunt, labiis gustatæ dulcedinis. Hos alicubi forsitan latitare +suspicor, eaque, multos jam per annos, me fatigat cura, quoniam +longâ quidem ac sollicitâ spe nihil est laboriosius in <anchor id="corr042"/><corr sic="(quote missing)">vitâ.</corr></q> +</p> + +<p> +Plutarch, in his life of Romulus, speaks of Varro as a man +of all the Romans most versed in history. The <hi rend='italic'>historical</hi> and +political works are the <hi rend='italic'>Annales Libri</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Belli Punici Secundi +Liber</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Initiis Urbis Romanæ</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Gente Populi Romani</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Libri +de Familiis Trojanis</hi>, which last treated of the families +that followed Æneas into Italy. With this class we may rank +the <hi rend='italic'>Hebdomadum, sive de Imaginibus Libri</hi>, containing the +panegyrics of 700 illustrious men. There was a picture of +each, with a legend or verse under it, like those in the children’s +histories of the Kings of England. That annexed to +the portrait of Demetrius Phalereus, who had upwards of 300 +brazen statues erected to him by the Athenians, is still preserved:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Hic Demetrius æneis tot aptus est</q></l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Quot luces habet annus absolutus.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +There were seven pictures and panegyrics in each book, +whence the whole work has been called Hebdomades. Varro +had adopted the superstitious notions of the ancients concern<pb n='43'/><anchor id='Pg043'/>ing + particular numbers, and the number seven seems specially +to have commanded his veneration. There were in the world +seven wonders—there were seven wise men among the Greeks—there +were seven chariots in the Circensian games—and +seven chiefs were chosen to make war on Thebes: All which +he sums up with remarking, that he himself had then entered +his twelfth period of seven years, on which day he had written +seventy times seven books, many of which, in consequence of +his proscription, had been lost in the plunder of his library. It +appears from Ausonius, that the tenth book of this work was +occupied with pictures and panegyrics of distinguished architects, +since, in his Eidyllium, entitled <hi rend='italic'>Mosella</hi>, he observes, +that the buildings on the banks of that river would not have +been despised by the most celebrated architects; and that +those who planned them might well deserve a place in the +tenth book of the Hebdomas of Varro:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Forsan et insignes hominumque operumque labores</q></l> +<l>Hic habuit decimo celebrata volumine Marci</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Hebdomas.</q> ——</l> +</lg> + +<p> +It is evident, however, from one of the letters of Symmachus, +addressed to his father, that though this was a professed work +of panegyric, Varro was very sparing and niggardly of his +praise even to the greatest characters: <q>Ille Pythagoram qui +animas in æternitatem primus asseruit; ille Platonem qui deos +esse persuasit; ille Aristotelem qui naturam bene loquendi in +artem redegit; ille pauperem Curium sed divitibus imperantem; +ille severos Catones, gentem Fabiam, decora Scipionum, +totumque illum triumphalem Senatum parca laude perstrinxit.</q> +Varro also wrote an eulogy on Porcia, the wife of Brutus, +which is alluded to by Cicero in one of his letters to Atticus. +Among his notices of celebrated characters, it is much to be +regretted that the <hi rend='italic'>Liber de Vita Sua</hi>, cited by Charisius, has +shared the same fate as most of the other valuable works of +Varro. The treatise entitled, <hi rend='italic'>Sisenna, sive de Historia</hi>, was +a tract on the composition of history, inscribed to Sisenna, the +Roman historian, who wrote an account of the civil wars of +Marius and Sylla. It contained, it is said, many excellent precepts +with regard to the appropriate style of history, and the +accurate investigation of facts. But the greatest service rendered +by Varro to history was his attempt to fix the chronology +of the world. Censorinus informs us that he was the first who +regulated chronology by eclipses. That learned grammarian +has also mentioned the division of three great periods established +by Varro. He did not determine whether the earliest +<pb n='44'/><anchor id='Pg044'/>of them had any beginning, but he fixed the end of it at the +Ogygian deluge. To this period of absolute historical darkness, +he supposed that a kind of twilight succeeded, which +continued from that flood till the institution of the Olympic +games, and this he called the fabulous age. From that date +the Greeks pretend to digest their history with some degree of +order and clearness. Varro, therefore, looked on it as the +break of day, or commencement of the historical age. The +chronology, however, of those events which occurred at the beginning +of this second period, is as uncertain and confused as +of those which immediately preceded it. Thus, the historical +æra is evidently placed too high by Varro. The earliest writers +of history did not live till long after the Olympian epoch, +and they again long preceded the earliest chronologers. +Timæus, about the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, was the first +who digested the events recorded by these ancient historians, +according to a computation of the Olympiads<note place="foot">Bolingbroke, <hi rend='italic'>Use and Study of History</hi>, Lett. 3.</note>. Preceding +writers, indeed, mention these celebrated epochs, but the +mode of reckoning by them was not brought into established use +for many centuries after the Olympic æra. Arnobius farther +informs us, that Varro calculated that not quite 2000 years had +elapsed from the Ogygian flood to the consulship of Hirtius +and Pansa. The building of Rome he placed two years higher +than Cato had done in his <hi rend='italic'>Origines</hi>, founding his computation +on the eclipse which had a short while preceded the birth of +Romulus; but unfortunately this eclipse is not attested by contemporary +authors, nor by any historian who could vouch for +it with certainty. It was calculated a long time after the +phænomenon was supposed to have appeared, by Tarrutius +Firmanus, the judicial astrologer, who amused himself with +drawing horoscopes. Varro requested him to discover the +date of Romulus’s birth, by divining it from the known events +of his life, as geometrical problems are solved by analysis; for +Tarrutius considered it as belonging to the same art, (and +doubtless the conclusions are equally certain,) when a child’s +nativity is given to predict its future life, and when the incidents +of life are given to cast up the nativity. Tarrutius, accordingly, +having considered the actions of Romulus, and the +manner of his death, and having combined all the incidents, +pronounced that he was conceived in the first year of the +second Olympiad, on the 23d of the Egyptian month Choiok, +on which day there had been a total eclipse of the sun. +</p> + +<p> +Pompey, when about to enter for the first time on the office +of Consul, being ignorant of city manners and senatorial +<pb n='45'/><anchor id='Pg045'/>forms, requested Varro to frame for him a written commentary +or manual, from which he might learn the duties to be discharged +by him when he convened the Senate. This book, +which was entitled <hi rend='italic'>Isagogicum de Officio Senatus habendi</hi>, +Varro says, in the letters which he wrote to Oppianus, had +been lost. But in these letters he repeated many things on +the subject, as what he had written before had perished<note place="foot">Au. Gellius, Lib. XIV. c. 7.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The <hi rend='italic'>philosophical</hi> writings of Varro are not numerous; but +his chief work of that description, entitled <hi rend='italic'>De Philosophia +Liber</hi>, appears to have been very comprehensive. St Augustine +informs us that Varro examined in it all the various sects +of philosophers, of which he enumerated upwards of 280. +The sect of the old Academy was that which he himself +followed, and its tenets he maintained in opposition to all +others. He classed these numerous sects in the following +curious manner: All men chiefly desire, or place their happiness +in, four things—pleasure—rest—these two united, (which +Epicurus, however, termed pleasure,) or soundness of body +and mind. Now, philosophers have contended that virtue is +to be sought after for the sake of obtaining one or other of +these four; or, that some one of these four is to be sought +after for the sake of virtue; or, that they and virtue also are +to be sought after for their own sake, and from these different +opinions each of the four great objects of human desire being +sought after with three different views, there are formed +twelve sects of philosophers. These twelve sects are doubled, +in consequence of the different opinions created by the considerations +of social intercourse—some maintaining that the +four great desires should be gratified for our own sake, and +others, that they should be indulged only for the sake of our +neighbours. The above twenty-four sects become forty-eight, +from each system being defended as certain truth, or as +merely the nearest approximation to probability—twenty-four +sects maintaining each hypothesis as certain, and twenty-four +as only probable. These again were doubled, from the difference +of opinion with regard to the suitable garb and external +habit and demeanour of philosophers. +</p> + +<p> +We have now got ninety-six sects by a very strange sort of +computation, and all these are to be tripled, according to the +different opinions entertained concerning the best mode of +spending life—in literary leisure, in business, or in both<note place="foot">St Augustine, <hi rend='italic'>De Civitat. Dei</hi>, Lib. XIX. c. 1.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Varro having followed the sect of the old Academy, in +preference to all others, proceeded to refute the principles of +<pb n='46'/><anchor id='Pg046'/>the sects he had enumerated. He cleared the way, by dismissing, +as unworthy the name of philosophical, all those sects +whose differences did not turn on what is the supreme final +good; for there is no use in philosophizing, unless it be to +make us happy, and that which makes us happy is the final +good. But those who dispute, for example, whether a wise +man should follow virtue, tranquillity, &c. partly for the sake +of others, or solely for his own, do not dispute concerning +what is the final good, but whether that good should be +shared. In like manner, the Cynic does not dispute with +regard to the supreme good, but in what dress or habit he who +follows the supreme good should be clad. So also as to the +controversy concerning the uncertainty of knowledge. The +number of sects were thus reduced to the twelve with which +our author set out, and in which the whole question relates +to what is the final good. From these, however, he abstracted +the sects which place the final good in pleasure, rest, or the +union of both—not that he altogether disdained these, but he +thought they might be included in soundness of body and +mind, or what he called the <hi rend='italic'>prima Naturæ</hi>. There are thus +only three questions which merit full discussion. Whether +these <hi rend='italic'>prima Naturæ</hi> should be desired for the sake of virtue, +or virtue for their sake, or if they and virtue also should be +desired for their own sake. +</p> + +<p> +Now, since in philosophy we seek the supreme felicity of +man, we must inquire what man is. His nature is compounded +of soul and body. Hence the <hi rend='italic'>summum bonum</hi> necessarily +consists in the <hi rend='italic'>prima Naturæ</hi> or perfect soundness of mind +and body. These, therefore, must be sought on their own +account; and under them may be included virtue, which is +part of soundness of mind, being the great director and prime +former of the felicity of life. +</p> + +<p> +Such were the doctrines of the old Academy, which Varro +was also introduced as supporting in Cicero’s <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>.—<q>I +have comprehended,</q> says that illustrious orator and philosopher, +in a letter to Atticus, <q>the whole Academic system in +four books, instead of two, in the course of which Varro is +made to defend the doctrines of Antiochus<note place="foot">Antiochus of Ascalon, a teacher of the old Academy.</note>. I have put into +his mouth all the arguments which were so accurately collected +by Antiochus against the opinion of those who contend +that there is no certainty to be attained in human knowledge. +These I have answered myself. But the part assigned to +Varro in the debate is so good, that I do not think the cause +which I support appears the better.</q> +</p> + +<pb n='47'/><anchor id='Pg047'/> + +<p> +I am not certain under what class Varro’s <hi rend='italic'>Novem libri +Disciplinarum</hi> should be ranked, as it probably comprehended +instructive lessons in the whole range of arts and sciences. +One of the chapters, according to Vitruvius, was on the subject +of architecture. Varro was particularly full and judicious +in his remarks on the construction and situation of Roman +villas, and seems to have laid the foundation for what Palladius +and Columella subsequently compiled on that interesting topic. +Another chapter was on arithmetic; and Fabricius mentions, +that Vetranius Maurus has declared, in his <hi rend='italic'>Life of Varro</hi>, that +he saw this part of the work, <hi rend='italic'>De Disciplinis</hi>, at Rome, in the +library of the Cardinal Lorenzo Strozzi. +</p> + +<p> +Varro derived much notoriety from his <hi rend='italic'>satirical</hi> compositions. +His <hi rend='italic'>Tricarenus</hi>, or <hi rend='italic'>Tricipitina</hi>, was a satiric history +of the triumvirate of Cæsar, Pompey, and Crassus. Much +pleasantry and sarcasm were also interspersed in his books +entitled <hi rend='italic'>Logistorici</hi>; but his most celebrated production in +that line was the satire which he himself entitled <hi rend='italic'>Menippean</hi>. +It was so called from the cynic Menippus of Gadara, a city in +Syria, who, like his countryman Meleager, was in the habit +of expressing himself jocularly on the most grave and important +subjects. He was the author of a <hi rend='italic'>Symposium</hi>, in the +manner of Xenophon. His writings were interspersed with +verses, parodied from Homer and the tragic poets, or ludicrously +applied, for the purpose of burlesque. It is not known, +however, that he wrote any professed satire. The appellation, +then, of <hi rend='italic'>Menippean</hi>, was given to his satire by Varro, not from +any production of the same kind by Menippus, but because +he imitated his general style of humour. In its external form +it appears to have been a sort of literary anomaly. Greek +words and phrases were interspersed with Latin; prose was +mingled with verses of various measures; and pleasantry with +serious remark. As to its object and design, Cicero introduces +Varro himself explaining this in the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>. After +giving his reasons for not writing professedly on philosophical +subjects, he continues,—<q>In those ancient writings of ours, +we, imitating Menippus, without translating him, have infused +a degree of mirth and gaiety along with a portion of our most +secret philosophy and logic, so that even our unlearned readers +might more easily understand them, being, as it were, invited +to read them with some pleasure. Besides, in the discourses +we have composed in praise of the dead, and in the introductions +to our antiquities, it was our wish to write in a manner +worthy of philosophers, provided we have attained the desired +object.</q> From what Cicero afterwards says in this dialogue, +while addressing himself to Varro, it would appear, that he +<pb n='48'/><anchor id='Pg048'/>had indeed touched on philosophical subjects in his <hi rend='italic'>Menippean</hi> +satire, but that, learned as he was, his object was more to +amuse his readers than instruct them: <q>You have entered on +topics of philosophy in a manner sufficient to allure readers to +its study, but inadequate to convey full instruction, or to advance +its progress.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Many fragments of this <hi rend='italic'>Menippean</hi> satire still remain, but +they are much broken and corrupted. The heads of the different +subjects, or chapters, contained in it, amounting to near +one hundred and fifty, have been given by Fabricius in alphabetical +order. Some of them are in Latin, others in Greek. +A few chapters have double titles; and, though little remains +of them but the titles, these show what an infinite variety of +subjects was treated by the author. As a specimen, I subjoin +those ranged under the letter A. Aborigines,—<foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Περι Ανθρωπων φυσεως</foreign><!--[Greek: Peri Anthrôpôn +phuseôs]-->,—De Admirandis, vel Gallus Fundanius,—Agatho,—Age +modo,—<foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Αιει διβυη</foreign><!--[Greek: Aiei dibuê]-->, + vel <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">περι Αἱρεσεων</foreign><!--[Greek: peri Haireseôn]-->,—Ajax + Stramentitius,—<foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Αλλος ὁυτος Ἡρακλης</foreign><!--[Greek: Allos +houtos Hêraklês]-->,—Andabatæ,—Anthropopolis,—<foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">περι Αρχης</foreign><!--[Greek: peri Archês]-->, +seu Marcopolis,—<foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">περι Αρχαιρεσιων</foreign><!--[Greek: peri Archairesiôn]-->, + seu Serranus,—<foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">περι Αρετης κτησεως</foreign><!--[Greek: peri Aretês ktêseôs]-->,—<foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">περι Αφροδισιων</foreign><!--[Greek: peri +Aphrodisiôn]-->, seu vinalia,—Armorum judicium,—<foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">περι Αρρενοτητος</foreign><!--[Greek: peri +Arrenotêtos]-->, seu Triphallus,—Autumedus,—Mæonius,—Baiæ, +&c.<note place="foot">Fabricius, <hi rend='italic'>Biblioth. Latin.</hi> Lib. I. c. 7.</note> +</p> + +<p> +There is a chapter concerning the duty of a husband, (De +officio Mariti,) in which the author observes, that the errors of +a wife are either to be cured or endured: He who extirpates +them makes his wife better, but he who bears with them improves +himself. Another is inscribed, <q>You know not what a +late evening, or supper, may bring with it,</q> (Nescis quid vesper +serus vehat.) In this chapter he remarks, that the number +of guests should not be less than that of the Graces, or +more than that of the Muses. To render an entertainment +perfect, four things must concur—agreeable company, suitable +place, convenient time, and careful preparation. The +guests should not be loquacious or taciturn. Silence is for the +bed-chamber, and eloquence for the Forum, but neither for a +feast. The conversation ought not to turn on anxious or difficult +subjects, but should be cheerful and inviting, so that +utility may be combined with a certain degree of pleasure and +allurement. This will be best managed, by discoursing of +those things which relate to the ordinary occurrences or affairs +of life, concerning which one has not leisure to talk in the +Forum, or while transacting business. The master of the feast +should rather be neat and clean than splendidly attired; and +if he introduce reading into the entertainment, it should be so +<pb n='49'/><anchor id='Pg049'/>selected as to amuse, and to be neither troublesome nor tedious<note place="foot">Au. Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. XIII. c. 11.</note>. +A third chapter is entitled, <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">περι ἐδεσματων</foreign><!--[Greek: peri edesmatôn]-->; and treats +of the rarer delicacies of an entertainment, especially foreign +luxuries. Au. Gellius has given us the import of some verses, +in which Varro mentioned the different countries which supplied +the most exquisite articles of food. Peacocks came from +Samos; cranes from Melos; kids from Ambracia; and the best +oysters from Tarentum<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> Lib. VII. c. 16.</note>. Part of the chapter + <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">γνωθι σεαυτον</foreign><!--[Greek: gnôthi seauton]--> was +directed against the Latin tragic poets. +</p> + +<p> +What remains of the verses interspersed in the <hi rend='italic'>Menippean</hi> +satire, is too trifling to enable us to form any accurate judgment +of the poetical talents of Varro. +</p> + +<p> +The style of satire introduced by Varro was imitated by +Lucius Annæus Seneca, in his satire on the deification of +Claudius Cæsar, who was called on earth Divus Claudius. +The <hi rend='italic'>Satyricon</hi> of Petronius Arbiter, in which that writer +lashed the luxury, and avarice, and other vices of his age, is a +satire of the Varronian species, prose being mingled with verse, +and jest with serious remark. Such, too, are the Emperor +Julian’s <hi rend='italic'>Symposium of the Cæsars</hi>, in which he characterizes +his predecessors; and his <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Μισοπωγων</foreign><!--[Greek: Misopôgôn]-->, directed against the luxurious +manners of the citizens of Antioch. +</p> + +<p> +Besides the works of Varro above mentioned, there is a miscellaneous +collection of sentences or maxims which have been +attributed to him, though it is not known in what part of his +numerous writings they were originally introduced. Barthius +found seventeen of these sentences in a MS. of the middle +age, and printed them in his <hi rend='italic'>Adversaria</hi>. Schneider afterwards +discovered, in the <hi rend='italic'>Speculum Historiale</hi> of Vincent de +Beauvais, a monk of the thirteenth century, a much more ample +collection of them, which he has inserted in his edition of +the <hi rend='italic'>Scriptores rei Rusticæ</hi><note place="foot">Tom. I. p. 241.</note>. They consist of moral maxims, in +the style of those preserved from the Mimes of Publius Syrus, +and had doubtless been culled as flowers from the works of +Varro, at a time when the immense garden of taste and learning +which he planted, had not yet been laid waste by the +hand of time, or the spoiler<note place="foot">It was long believed, that Pope Gregory the First had destroyed the works of +Varro, in order to conceal the plagiarisms of St Augustine, who had borrowed largely +from the theological and philosophic writings of the Roman scholar. This, however, +is not likely. That illustrious Father of the Christian Church is constantly +referring to the learned heathen, without any apparent purpose of concealment; and +he extols him in terms calculated to attract notice to the subject of his eulogy. +Nor did St Augustine possess such meagre powers of genius, as to require him to +build up the city of the true God from the crumbling fragments of Pagan temples.</note>. +</p> + +<pb n='50'/><anchor id='Pg050'/> + +<p> +Though the above list of the works of Varro is far from +complete, a sufficient number has been mentioned to justify +the exclamation of Quintilian,—<q>Quam multa, immo pene +omnia tradidit Varro!</q> and the more full panegyric of Cicero,—<q>His +works brought us home, as it were, while we were +foreigners in our own city, and wandering like strangers, so that +we might know who and where we were; for in them are laid +open the chronology of his country,—a description of the seasons,—the +laws of religion,—the ordinances of the priests,—domestic +and military occurrences,—the situations of countries +and places,—the names of all things divine and human,—the +breed of animals,—moral duties,—and the origin of +things<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Academ. Poster.</hi> Lib. I. c. 3.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Nor did Varro merely delight and instruct his fellow-citizens +by his writings. By his careful attention, in procuring the +most valuable books, and establishing libraries, he provided, +perhaps, still more effectually than by his own learned compositions, +for the progressive improvement and civilization of +his countrymen. The formation of either private or public +libraries was late of taking place at Rome, for the Romans +were late in attending to literary studies. Tiraboschi quotes +a number of writers who have discovered a library in the public +records preserved at +Rome<note place="foot">Morhof, <hi rend='italic'>Polyhistor</hi>. Tom. I. Lib. I. Falsterus, + <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Rei Liter. ap. Roman.</hi></note>, and in the books of the + Sibyls<note place="foot">Middendorp, <hi rend='italic'>De Academ.</hi> Lib. III.</note>. +But these, he observes, may be classed with the +library which Madero found to have existed before the flood, +and that belonging to Adam, of which Hilscherus has made +out an exact catalogue<note place="foot">Tiraboschi, <hi rend='italic'>Stor. dell Lett. Ital.</hi> Part III. Lib. III. c. 8.</note>. From Syracuse and Corinth the +Romans brought away the statues and pictures, and other +monuments of the fine arts; but we do not learn that they carried +to the capital any works of literature or science. Some +agricultural books found their way to Rome from Africa, on +the destruction of Carthage; but the other treasures of its +libraries, though they fell under the power of a conqueror not +without pretensions to taste and erudition, were bestowed on +the African princes in alliance with the Romans<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XVIII. c. 3.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Paulus Emilius is said by Plutarch to have allowed his sons +to choose some volumes from the library of Perseus, King of +Macedon<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>in Paul. Æmil.</hi></note>, whom he led captive to Rome in 585. But the +honour of first possessing a library in Rome is justly due to +Sylla; who, on the occupation of Athens, in 667, acquired the +library of Apellicon, which he discovered in the temple of +<pb n='51'/><anchor id='Pg051'/>Apollo. This collection, which contained, among various +other books, the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, was +reserved to himself by Sylla from the plunder; and, having +been brought to Rome, was arranged by the grammarian Tyrannio, +who also supplied and corrected the mutilated text of +Aristotle<note place="foot">Id. <hi rend='italic'>in Sylla</hi>.</note>. Engaged, as he constantly was, in domestic strife +or foreign warfare, Sylla could have made little use of this +library, and he did not communicate the benefit of it to scholars, +by opening it to the public; but the example of the Dictator +prompted other commanders not to overlook the libraries, +in the plunder of captured cities, and books thus became a +fashionable acquisition. Sometimes, indeed, these collections +were rather proofs of the power and opulence of the Roman +generals, than of their literary taste or talents. A certain value +was now affixed to manuscripts; and these were, in consequence, +amassed by them, from a spirit of rapacity, and the +principle of leaving nothing behind which could be carried +off by force or stratagem. In one remarkable instance, however, +the learning of the proprietor fully corresponded to the +literary treasures which he had collected. Lucullus, a man +of severe study, and wonderfully skilled in all the fine arts, +after having employed many years in the cultivation of literature, +and the civil administration of the republic, was unexpectedly +called, in consequence of a political intrigue, to +lead on the Roman army in the perilous contest with Mithridates; +and, though previously unacquainted with military +affairs, he became the first captain of the age, with little +farther experience, than his study of the art of war, during +the voyage from Rome to Asia. His attempts to introduce a +reform in the corrupt administration of the Asiatic provinces, +procured him enemies, through whose means he was superseded +in the command of the army, by one who was not superior +to him in talents, and was far inferior in virtue. After his +recall from Pontus, and retreat to a private station, he offered +a new spectacle to his countrymen. He did not retire, like +Fabricius and Cincinnatus, to plough his farm, and eat turnips +in a cottage—he did not, like Africanus, quit his country in +disgust, because it had unworthily treated him; nor did he +spend his wealth and leisure, like Sylla, in midnight debauchery +with buffoons and parasites. He employed the +riches he had acquired during his campaigns in the construction +of delightful villas, situated on the shore of the sea, or +hanging on the declivities of hills. Gardens and spacious +porticos, which he adorned with all the elegance of painting +<pb n='52'/><anchor id='Pg052'/>and sculpture, made the Romans ashamed of their ancient +rustic simplicity. These would doubtless be the objects of +admiration to his contemporaries; but it was his library, in +which so many copies of valuable works were multiplied or +preserved, and his distinguished patronage of learning, that +claim the gratitude of posterity. <q>His library,</q> says Plutarch, +<q>had walks, galleries, and cabinets belonging to it, which +were open to all visitors; and the ingenious Greeks resorted +to this abode of the muses to hold literary converse, in which +Lucullus delighted to join them<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>in Lucullo</hi>.</note>.</q> Other Roman patricians +had patronized literature, by extending their protection to a +favoured few, as the elder Scipio Africanus to Ennius, and +the younger to Terence; but Lucullus was the first who encouraged +all the arts and sciences, and promoted learning +with princely munificence. +</p> + +<p> +But the slave Tyrannio vied with the most splendid of the +Romans in the literary treasures he had amassed. A native +of Pontus, he was taken prisoner by Lucullus, in the course +of the war with Mithridates; and, having been brought to +Rome, he was given to Muræna, from whom he received freedom<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi></note>. +He spent the remainder of his life in teaching rhetoric +and grammar. He also arranged the library of Cicero +at Antium<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. IV. Ep. 4 and 8.</note>, and taught his nephew, Quintus, in the house of +the orator<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Quint. Frat.</hi> Lib. II. Ep. 4. According to some writers, it was a +younger Tyrannio, the disciple of the elder, who arranged Cicero’s library, and +taught his nephew.—Mater, <hi rend='italic'>Ecole d’Alexandrie</hi>, Tom. I. p. 179.</note>. These various employments proved so profitable, +that they enabled him to acquire a library of 30,000 volumes<note place="foot">Suidas, <hi rend='italic'>Lexic.</hi></note>. +Libraries of considerable extent were also formed by Atticus +and Cicero; and <hi rend='italic'>Varro</hi> was not inferior to any of his learned +contemporaries, in the industry of collecting and transcribing +manuscripts, both in the Greek and Latin language. +</p> + +<p> +The library of Varro, however, and all the others which we +have mentioned, were private—open, indeed, to literary men, +from the general courtesy of the possessors, but the access to +them still dependent on their good will and indulgence. +Julius Cæsar was the first who formed the design of establishing +a great public library; and to Varro he assigned the task +of arranging the books which he had procured. This plan, +which was rendered abortive by the untimely fate of Cæsar, +was carried into effect by Asinius Pollio, who devoted part of +the wealth he had acquired from the spoils of war, to the +construction of a magnificent gallery, adjacent to the Temple +<pb n='53'/><anchor id='Pg053'/>of Liberty, which he filled with books, and the busts of the +learned. Varro was the only living author who, in this public +library, had the honour of an image<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. VII. c. 30.</note>, which was erected to +him as a testimony of respect for his universal erudition. He +also aided Augustus with his advice, in the formation of the +two libraries which that emperor established, and which was +part of his general system for the encouragement of science +and learning. When tyrants understand their trade, and when +their judgment is equal to their courage or craft, they become +the most zealous and liberal promoters of the interests of +learning; for they know that it is for their advantage to withdraw +the minds of their subjects from political discussion and +to give them, in exchange, the consoling pleasures of imagination, +and the inexhaustible occupations of scientific curiosity. +</p> + +<p> +Were I writing the history of Roman arts, it would be +necessary to mention that Varro excelled in his knowledge of +all those that are useful, and in his taste for all those that are +elegant. He was the contriver of what may be considered as +the first hour clock that was made in Rome, and which measured +time by a hand entirely moved by mechanism. That +he also possessed a Museum, adorned with exquisite works of +sculpture, we learn from Pliny, who mentions, that it contained +an admirable group, by the statuary Archelaus, formed out +of one block of marble, and representing a lioness, with Cupids +sporting around her—some giving her drink from a horn; +some in the attitude of putting socks on her paws, and others +in the act of binding her. The same writer acquaints us, that, +in the year 692, Varro, who was then Curule Ædile, caused a +piece of painting, in fresco, to be brought from Sparta to +Rome, in order to adorn the Comitium—the whole having +been cut out entire, and enclosed in cases of wood. The +painting was excellent, and much admired; but what chiefly +excited astonishment, was that it should have been taken from +the wall without injury, and transported safe to Italy<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXXV. c. 14.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +I fear I have too long detained the reader with this account +of the life and writings of Varro; yet it is not unpleasing to +dwell on such a character. He was the contemporary of +Marius and Sylla, of Cæsar and Pompey, of Antony and Octavius, +these men of contention and massacre; and amid the +convulsions into which they threw their country, it is not +ungrateful to trace the <hi rend='italic'>Secretum Iter</hi>, which he silently pursued +through a period unparalleled in anarchy and crimes. +Uninterrupted, save for a moment, by strife and ambition, he +<pb n='54'/><anchor id='Pg054'/>prosecuted his literary labours till the extreme term of his +prolonged existence. <q>In eodem enim lectulo,</q> says Valerius +Maximus, with a spirit and eloquence beyond his usual strain of +composition—<q>In eodem enim lectulo, et spiritus ejus, et +egregiorum operum cursus extinctus est.</q> +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Nigidius Figulus"/><index index="pdf" level1="Nigidius Figulus"/> +<head>NIGIDIUS FIGULUS</head> + +<p> +was a man much resembling Varro, and next to him was accounted +the most learned of the Romans<note place="foot">Au. Gellius, Lib. IV. c. 9.</note>. He was the contemporary +of Cicero, and one of his chief advisers and associates +in suppressing the conspiracy of Catiline<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>in Cicero.</hi></note>. Shortly +afterwards he arrived at the dignity of Prætor, but having +espoused the part of Pompey in the civil wars, he was driven +into banishment on the accession of Cæsar to the supreme +power, and died in 709, before Cicero could obtain his recall +from exile<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Chron. Euseb.</hi></note>. He was much addicted to judicial astrology; +and ancient writers relate a vast number of his predictions, +particularly that of the empire of the world to Augustus, which +he presaged immediately after the birth of that prince<note place="foot">Suetonius, <hi rend='italic'>in August.</hi> c. 94.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Nigidius vied with Varro in multifarious erudition, and the +number of his works—grammar, criticism, natural history, and +the origin of man, having successively employed his pen. His +writings are praised by Cicero, Pliny, Aulus Gellius, and Macrobius; +but they were rendered almost entirely unfit for popular +use by their subtlety, mysteriousness, and obscurity<note place="foot">Au. Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. XIX. c. 14.</note>—defects +to which his cultivation of judicial astrology, and +adoption of the Pythagorean philosophy, may have materially +contributed. Aulus Gellius gives many examples of the obscurity, +or rather unintelligibility, of his grammatical writings<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi></note>. +His chief work was his Grammatical Commentaries, in thirty +books, in which he attempted to show, that names and words +were fixed not by accidental application, but by a certain +power and order of nature. One of his examples, of terms +being rather natural than arbitrary, was taken from the word +<hi rend='italic'>Vos</hi>, in pronouncing which, he observed, that we use a certain +motion of the mouth, agreeing with what the word itself expresses: +We protrude, by degrees, the tips of our lips, and +thrust forward our breath and mind towards those with whom +we are engaged in conversation. On the other hand, when +we say <hi rend='italic'>nos</hi>, we do not pronounce it with a broad and expan<pb n='55'/><anchor id='Pg055'/>ded + blast of the voice, nor with projecting lips, but we restrain +our breath and lips, as it were, within ourselves. The like +natural signs accompany the utterance of the words <hi rend='italic'>tu</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>ego</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>tibi</hi> +and <hi rend='italic'>mihi</hi><note place="foot">Au. Gellius, Lib. X. c. 4.</note>. Nigidius also wrote works, entitled <hi rend='italic'>De +Animalibus</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>De Ventis</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>De Extis</hi>, and a great many treatises +on the nature of the gods. All these have long since perished, +except a very few fragments, which have been collected and +explained by Janus Rutgersius, in the third book of his <hi rend='italic'>Variæ +Lectiones</hi>, published at Leyden in 1618; 4to. In this collection +he has also inserted a Greek translation of another lost +work of Nigidius, on the presages to be drawn from thunder. +The original Latin is said to have been taken from books +which bore the name of the Etruscan Tages, the supposed +founder of the science of divination. The Greek version was +executed by Laurentius, a philosopher of the age of Justinian, +and his translation was discovered by Meursius, about the +beginning of the seventeenth century, in the Palatine library. +It is a sort of Almanack, containing presages of thunder for +each particular day of the year, and beginning with June. +If it thunder on the 13th of June, the life or fortunes of some +great person are menaced—if on the 19th of July, war is announced—if +on the 5th of August, it is indicated that those +women, with whom we have any concern, will become somewhat +more reasonable than they have hitherto proved<note place="foot">See farther, with regard to Nigidius Figulus, Bayle, <hi rend='italic'>Dict. Histor.</hi> Art. Nigidius, +and <hi rend='italic'>Mem. de l’Acad. des Inscriptions</hi>, Tom. XXIX. p. 190.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +With Varro and Nigidius Figulus, may be classed Tiro, the +celebrated freedman of Cicero, and constant assistant in all +his literary pursuits. He wrote many books on the use and +formation of the Latin language, and others on miscellaneous +subjects, which he denominated <hi rend='italic'>Pandectas</hi><note place="foot">Au. Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. XIII. c. 9.</note>, as comprehending +every sort of literary topic. +</p> + +<p> +Quintus Cornificius, the elder, was also a very general +scholar. He composed a curious treatise on the etymology +of the names of things in heaven and earth, in which he +discovered great knowledge, both of Roman antiquities, and +the most recondite Grecian literature. It was here he introduced +an explication of Homer’s dark fable, where Jupiter and +all the gods proceed to feast for twelve days in Ethiopia. +The work was written in 709, during the time of Cæsar’s last +expedition to Spain, and was probably intended as a supplement +to Varro’s treatise on a similar topic. +</p> +</div><div> +<pb n='56'/><anchor id='Pg056'/> +<index index="toc" level1="History"/><index index="pdf" level1="History"/> +<head>HISTORY.</head> + +<p> +From our supposing that those things which affected our +ancestors may affect us, and that those which affect us must +affect posterity, we become fond of collecting memorials of +prior events, and also of preserving the remembrance of incidents +which have occurred in our own age. The historic +passion, if it may be so termed, thus naturally divides itself +into two desires—that of indulging our own curiosity, and of +relating what has occurred to ourselves or our contemporaries. +</p> + +<p> +Monuments accordingly have been raised, and rude hymns +composed, for this purpose, by people who had scarcely acquired +the use of letters. Among civilized nations, the passion +grows in proportion to the means of gratifying it, and the +force of example comes to be so strongly felt, that its power +and influence are soon historically employed. +</p> + +<p> +The Romans were, in all ages, particularly fond of giving +instruction, by every sort of example. They placed the images +of their ancestors in the Forum and the vestibules of their +houses, so that these venerable forms everywhere met their +eyes; and by recalling the glorious actions of the dead, excited +the living to emulate their forefathers. The virtue of one +generation was thus transfused, by the magic of example, into +those by which it was succeeded, and the spirit of heroism +was maintained through many ages of the republic— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Has olim virtus crevit Romana per artes:</q></l> +<l>Namque foro in medio stabant spirantia signa</l> +<l>Magnanimûm heroum; hîc Decios, magnosque Camillos</l> +<l>Cernere erat: vivax heroum in imagine virtus,</l> +<l>Invidiamque ipsis factura nepotibus, acri</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Urgebat stimulo Romanum in prælia robur<note place="foot">Griffet, <hi rend='italic'>De Arte Regnandi</hi>.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +History, therefore, among the Romans, was not composed +merely to gratify curiosity, or satiate the historic passion, but +also to inflame, by the force of example, and urge on to emulation, +in warlike prowess. An insatiable thirst of military fame—an +unlimited ambition of extending their empire—an unbounded +confidence in their own force and courage—an impetuous +overbearing spirit, with which all their enterprises +were pursued, composed, in the early days of the Republic, +the characteristics of Romans. To foment, and give fresh +<pb n='57'/><anchor id='Pg057'/>vigour to these, was a chief object of history.—<q>I have recorded +these things,</q> says an old Latin annalist, after giving +an account of Regulus, <q>that they who read my commentaries +may be rendered, by his example, greater and better.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Accordingly, the Romans had journalists or annalists, from +the earliest periods of the state. The Annals of the Pontiffs +were of the same date, if we may believe Cicero, as the foundation +of the city<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. II. c. 13.</note>; but others have placed their commencement + in the reign of Numa<note place="foot">Vopiscus, <hi rend='italic'><anchor id="corr057"/><corr sic="Vit. Taciti. Imp.">Vit. Taciti Imp.</corr></hi></note>, and Niebuhr not till after the +battle of Regillus, which terminated the hopes of Tarquin<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Römische Geschichte</hi>, Tom. I. p. 367.</note>. +In order to preserve the memory of public transactions, the +Pontifex Maximus, who was the official historian of the Republic, +annually committed to writing, on wooden tablets, the +leading events of each year, and then set them up at his own +house for the instruction of the people<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. II. c. 13.</note>. These Annals were +continued down to the Pontificate of Mucius, in the year 629, +and were called <hi rend='italic'>Annales Maximi</hi>, as being periodically compiled +and kept by the Pontifex Maximus, or <hi rend='italic'>Publici</hi>, as +recording public transactions. Having been inscribed on +wooden tablets, they would necessarily be short, and destitute +of all circumstantial detail; and being annually formed by +successive Pontiffs, could have no appearance of a continued +history. They would contain, as Lord Bolingbroke remarks, +little more than short minutes or memoranda, hung up in the +Pontiff’s house, like the rules of the game in a billiard room: +their contents would resemble the epitome prefixed to the +books of Livy, or the Register of Remarkable Occurrences in +modern Almanacks. +</p> + +<p> +But though short, jejune, and unadorned, still, as records of +facts, these annals, if spared, would have formed an inestimable +treasure of early history. The Roman territory, in the first +ages of the state, was so confined, that every event may be +considered as having passed under the immediate observation +of the sacred annalist. Besides, the method which, as Cicero +informs us, was observed in preparing these Annals, and the +care that was taken to insert no fact, of which the truth had +not been attested by as many witnesses as there were citizens +at Rome, who were all entitled to judge and make their remarks +on what ought either to be added or retrenched, must +have formed the most authentic body of history that could be +desired. The memory of transactions which were yet recent, +and whose concomitant circumstances every one could remember, +was therein transmitted to posterity. By these means, +<pb n='58'/><anchor id='Pg058'/>the Annals were proof against falsification, and their veracity +was incontestibly fixed. +</p> + +<p> +These valuable records, however, were, for the most part, +consumed in the conflagration of the city, consequent on its +capture by the Gauls—an event which was to the early history +of Rome what the English invasion by Edward I. proved to the +history of Scotland. The practice of the Pontifex Maximus +preserving such records was discontinued after that eventful +period. A feeble attempt was made to revive it towards the +end of the second Punic war; and, from that time, the custom +was not entirely dropped till the Pontificate of Mucius, in the +year 629. It is to this second series of Annals, or to some +other late and ineffectual attempt to revive the ancient Roman +history, that Cicero must allude, when he talks of the Great +Annals, in his work <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi><note place="foot">Lib. I. c. 2.</note>, since it is undoubted that +the pontifical records of events previous to the capture of Rome +by the Gauls, almost entirely perished in the conflagration of +the city<note place="foot">Quæ in Commentariis Pontificum aliisque publicis privatisque erant monumentis, +incensâ urbe, pleræque interîere. Livy, Lib. VI. c. 1.</note>. Accordingly, Livy never cites these records, and +there is no appearance that he had any opportunity of consulting +them; nor are they mentioned by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, +in the long catalogue of records and memorials which he +had employed in the composition of his <hi rend='italic'>Historical Antiquities</hi>. +The <hi rend='italic'>books</hi> of the Pontiffs, some of which were recovered in +the search made to find what the flames had spared, are, indeed, +occasionally mentioned. But these were works explaining +the mysteries of religion, with instructions as to the ceremonies +to be observed in its practical exercise, and could have +been of no more service to Roman, than a collection of +breviaries or missals to modern history. +</p> + +<p> +Statues, inscriptions, and other public monuments, which +aid in perpetuating the memory of illustrious persons, and +transmitting to posterity the services they have rendered their +country, were accounted, among the Romans, as the most +honourable rewards that could be bestowed on great actions; +and virtue, in those ancient times, thought no recompense +more worthy of her than the immortality which such monuments +seemed to promise. Rome having produced so many +examples of a disinterested patriotism and valour must have +been filled with monuments of this description when taken by +the Gauls. But these honorary memorials were thrown down +along with the buildings, and buried in the ruins. If any +escaped, it was but a small number; and the greatest part of +<pb n='59'/><anchor id='Pg059'/>those that were to be seen at Rome in the eighth century of +the city, were founded on fabulous traditions which proved that +the loss of the true monuments had occasioned the substitution +of false ones. Had the genuine monuments been preserved at +Rome, even till the period when the first regular annals began +to be composed, though they would not have sufficed to restore +the history entirely, they would have served at least to +have perpetuated incontestably the memory of various important +facts, to have fixed their dates, and transmitted the glory +of great men to posterity. +</p> + +<p> +On what then, it will be asked, was the Roman history founded, +and what authentic records were preserved as materials +for its composition? There were first the <hi rend='italic'>Leges Regiæ</hi>. +These were diligently searched for, and were discovered +along with the Twelve Tables, after the sack of the city: And +all those royal laws which did not concern sacred matters, +were publicly exposed to be seen and identified by the people<note place="foot">Livy, Lib. VI. c. 1.</note>, +that no suspicion of forgery or falsification might descend +to posterity. These precautions leave us little room to +doubt that the <hi rend='italic'>Leges Regiæ</hi>, and Laws of the Tables, were +preserved, and that they remained as they had been originally +promulgated by the kings and decemvirs. Such laws, however, +would be of no greater service to Roman history, than +what the <hi rend='italic'>Regiam Majestatem</hi> has been to that of Scotland. +They might be useful in tracing the early constitution of the +state, the origin of several customs, ceremonies, public offices, +and other points of antiquarian research, but they could be of +little avail in fixing dates, ascertaining facts, and setting events +in their true light, which form the peculiar objects of civil +history. +</p> + +<p> +Treaties of peace, which were the pledges of the public +tranquillity from without, being next to the laws of the greatest +importance to the state, much care was bestowed, after +the expulsion of the Gauls, in recovering as many of them as +the flames had spared. Some of them were the more easily +restored, from having been kept in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, +which the fury of the enemy could not reach<note place="foot">Polybius, Lib. III. c. 22, 25, 26.</note>. +Those which had been saved, continued to be very carefully +preserved, and there is no reason to suspect them of having +been falsified. Among the treaties which were rescued from +destruction, Horace mentions those of the Kings, with the +Gabii and the Sabines (<hi rend='italic'>Fœdera Regum</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> Lib. II. Ep. 1.</note>.) The former was +that concluded by Tarquinius Superbus, and which, Dionysius +<pb n='60'/><anchor id='Pg060'/>of Halicarnassus informs us, was still preserved at Rome in his +time, in the temple of Jupiter Fidius, on a buckler made of +wood, and covered with an ox’s hide, on which the articles of +the treaty were written in ancient characters<note place="foot">Lib. IV. p. 257. ed. Sylburg, 1586.</note>. Dionysius +mentions two treaties with the Sabines—the first was between +Romulus and their king Tatius<note place="foot">Lib. II. p. 111.</note>; and the other, the terms of +which were inscribed on a column erected in a temple, was +concluded with them by Tullus Hostilius, at the close of a +Sabine war<note place="foot">Lib. III. p. 174.</note>. Livy likewise cites a treaty made with the Ardeates<note place="foot">Lib. IV. c. 7.</note>; +and Polybius has preserved entire another entered +into with the Carthaginians, in the year of the expulsion of the +kings<note place="foot">Lib. III. c. 22.</note>. Pliny has also alluded to one of the conditions of a +treaty which Porsenna, the ally of Tarquin, granted to the +Roman people<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXXIV. c. 14.</note>. Now these leagues with the Gabii, Sabines, +Ardeates, and one or two with the Latins, are almost the only +treaties we find anywhere referred to by the ancient Latin historians; +who thus seem to have employed but little diligence +in consulting those original documents, or drawing from them, +in compiling their histories, such assistance as they could have +afforded. The treaties quoted by Polybius and Pliny, completely +contradict the relations of the Latin annalists; those +cited by Polybius proving, in opposition to their assertions, +that the Carthaginians had been in possession of a great part +of Sicily about a century previous to the date which Livy has +fixed to their first expedition to that island; and those quoted +by Pliny, that Porsenna, instead of treating with the Romans +on equal terms, as represented by their historians, had actually +prohibited them from employing arms,—permitting them the +use of iron only in tilling the ground<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXXIV. c. 14.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The <hi rend='italic'>Libri Lintei</hi> (so called because written on linen) are +cited by Livy after the old annalist Licinius Macer, by whom +they appear to have been carefully studied. These books were +kept in the temple of Juno Moneta, but were probably of less +importance than the other public records, which were inscribed +on rolls of lead. They were obviously a work of no great +extent, since Livy, who appeals to them on four different +occasions in the space of ten years, just after the degradation +of the decemvirs, had not quoted them before, and never refers +to them again. There also appear to have been different +copies of them which did not exactly agree, and Livy seems +<pb n='61'/><anchor id='Pg061'/>far from considering their authority as decisive even on the +points on which reference is made to them<note place="foot">Livy, Lib. IV. c. 23.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The <hi rend='italic'>Memoirs of the Censors</hi> were journals preserved by +those persons who held the office of Censor. They were +transmitted by them to their descendants as so many sacred +pledges, and were preserved in the families which had been +rendered illustrious by that dignity. They formed a series of +eulogies on those who had thus exalted the glory of their +house, and contained a relation of the memorable actions performed +by them in discharge of the high censorial office with +which they had been invested<note place="foot">Dionys. Halic. Lib. I. p. 60.</note>. Hence they must be considered +as part of the <hi rend='italic'>Family Memoirs</hi>, which were unfortunately +the great and corrupt sources of early Roman history. +</p> + +<p> +It was the custom of the ancient families of Rome to preserve +with religious care everything that could contribute to +perpetuate the glory of their ancestry, and confer honour on +their lineage. Thus, besides the titles which were placed +under the smoky images of their forefathers, there were likewise +tables in their apartments on which lay books and memoirs +recording, in a style of general panegyric, the services they +had performed for the state during their exercise of the employments +with which they had been dignified<note place="foot">Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXXV. c. 2.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Had these Family Memoirs been faithfully composed, they +would have been of infinite service to history; and although all +other monuments had perished, they alone would have supplied +the defect. They were a record, by those who had the +best access to knowledge, of the high offices which their ancestors +had filled, and of whatever memorable was transacted +during the time they had held the exalted situations of Prætor +or Consul: Even the dates of events, as may be seen by a +fragment which Dionysius of Halicarnassus cites from them, +were recorded with all the appearance of accuracy. Each set +of family memoirs thus formed a series of biographies, which, +by preserving the memory of the great actions of individuals, +and omitting nothing that could tend to their illustration, +comprehended also the principal affairs of state, in which they +had borne a share. From the fragments of the genealogical +book of the Porcian family, quoted by Aulus Gellius, and the +abstract of the Memoirs of the Claudian and Livian families, +preserved by Suetonius, in the first chapters of his Life of +Tiberius, we may perceive how important such memoirs would +have been, and what light they would have thrown on history, +had they possessed the stamp of fidelity. But unfor<pb n='62'/><anchor id='Pg062'/>tunately, in their composition more regard was paid to family +reputation than to historical truth. Whatever tended to +exalt its name was embellished and exaggerated. Whatever +could dim its lustre was studiously withdrawn. Circumstances, +meanwhile, became peculiarly favourable for +these high family pretensions. The destruction of the public +monuments and annals of the Pontiffs, gave ample scope +for the vanity or fertile imagination of those who chose to +fabricate titles and invent claims to distinction, the falsity +of which could no longer be demonstrated. <q>All the monuments,</q> +says Plutarch, <q>being destroyed at the taking of Rome, +others were substituted, which were forged out of complaisance +to private persons, who pretended to be of illustrious +families, though in fact they had no relation to them<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>In Numa</hi>.</note>.</q> So +unmercifully had the great families availed themselves of this +favourable opportunity, that Livy complains that these private +memoirs were the chief cause of the uncertainty in which he +was forced to fluctuate during the early periods of his history. +<q>What has chiefly confounded the history,</q> says he, <q>is each +family ascribing to itself the glory of great actions and honourable +employments. Hence, doubtless, the exploits of +individuals and public monuments have been falsified; nor +have we so much as one writer of these times whose authority +can be depended on<note place="foot">Lib. VIII. c. 40.</note>.</q> Those funeral orations on the dead, +which it was the custom to deliver at Rome, and which were +preserved in families as carefully as the memoirs, also contributed +to augment this evil. Cicero declares, that history had +been completely falsified by these funeral panegyrics, many +things being inserted in them which never were performed, or +existed—False triumphs, supernumerary consulships, and forged +pedigrees<note place="foot">His laudationibus historia rerum nostrarum est facta mendosior. Multa enim +scripta sunt in iis, quæ facta non sunt—falsi triumphi, plures consulatus, genera +etiam falsa. <hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 16.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Connected with these prose legends, there were also the old +heroic ballads formerly mentioned, on which the annals of +Ennius were in a great measure built, and to which may be +traced some of those wonderful incidents of Roman history, +chiefly contrived for the purpose of exalting the military +achievements of the country. Many things which of right belong +to such ancient poems, still exist under the disguise of an +historical clothing in the narratives of the Roman annalists. +Niebuhr, the German historian of Rome, has recently analysed +these legends, and taken much from the Roman history, by +detecting what incidents rest on no other foundation than +their chimerical or embellished pictures, and by shewing how +<pb n='63'/><anchor id='Pg063'/>incidents, in themselves unconnected, have by their aid been +artificially combined. Such, according to him, were the stories +of the birth of Romulus, of the treason of Tatia, the death +of the Fabii, and the incidents of an almost complete Epopée, +from the succession of Tarquinius Priscus to the battle of Regillus. +These old ballads, being more attractive and of easier +access than authentic records and monuments, were preferred +to them as authorities; and even when converted into prose, +retained much of their original and poetic spirit. For example, +it was feigned in them that Tullus Hostilius was the son of +Hostus Hostilius, who perished in the war with the Sabines, +which, according to chronology, would make Tullus at least +eighty years old when he mounted the throne; but it was +thought a fine thing to represent him as the son of a genuine +Roman hero, who had fallen in the service of his country. +Niebuhr, probably, as I have already shown, has attributed +too much to these old heroic ballads, and has assigned to +them an extent and importance of which there are no adequate +proofs. But I strongly suspect that the heroic or historical +poems of Ennius had formed a principal document to the Roman +annalists for the transactions during the Monarchy and +earlier times of the Republic, and had been appealed to, like +Ferdousi’s Shad-Nameh, for occurrences which were probably +rather fictions of fancy than events of history. +</p> + +<p> +The Greek writers, from whom several fables and traditions +were derived concerning the infancy of Rome, lived not much +higher than the age of Fabius Pictor, and only mention its +affairs cursorily, while treating of Alexander or his successors. +Polybius, indeed, considers their narratives as mere vulgar +traditions<note place="foot">Lib. III. c. 20.</note>, and Dionysius says they have written some few +things concerning the Romans, which they have compiled from +common reports, without accuracy or diligence. To them +have been plausibly attributed those fables, concerning the +exploits of Romans, which bear so remarkable an analogy to +incidents in Grecian history<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>L’Evesque, Hist. Critique de la Republique Romaine</hi>, T. I.</note>. Like to these in all respects +are the histories which some Romans published in Greek concerning +the ancient transactions of their own nation. +</p> + +<p> +We thus see that the authentic materials for the early history +of Rome were meagre and imperfect—that the annals of +the Pontiffs and public monuments had perished—that the +<hi rend='italic'>Leges Regiæ</hi>, Twelve Tables, and remains of the religious or +ritual books of the Pontiffs, could throw no great light on history, +and that the want of better materials was supplied by false, +<pb n='64'/><anchor id='Pg064'/>and sometimes incredible relations, drawn from the family +traditions—<q><hi rend='italic'>ad ostentationem scenæ gaudentis miraculis aptiora +quàm ad fidem</hi><note place="foot">Livy, Lib. V. c. 21.</note>.</q> The mutilated inscriptions, too, the +scanty treaties, and the family memoirs, became, from the +variations in the language, in a great measure unintelligible to +the generation which succeeded that in which they were composed. +Polybius informs us, that the most learned Romans of +his day could not read a treaty with the Carthaginians, concluded +after the expulsion of the kings. Hence, the documents +for history, such as they were, became useless to the +historian, or, at least, were of such difficulty, that he would +sometimes mistake their import, and be, at others, deterred +from investigation. +</p> + +<p> +When all this is considered, and also that Rome, in its commencement, +was the dwelling of a rude and ignorant people, +subsisting by rapine—that the art of writing, the only sure +guardian of the remembrance of events, was little practised—that +critical examination was utterly unknown; and that the +writers of no other nation would think of accurately transmitting +to posterity events, which have only become interesting +from the subsequent conquests and extension of the Roman +empire, it must be evident, that the materials provided for the +work of the historian would necessarily be obscure and uncertain. +</p> + +<p> +The great general results recorded in Roman history, during +the first five centuries, cannot, indeed, be denied. It +cannot be doubted that Rome ultimately triumphed over the +neighbouring nations, and obtained possession of their territories; +for Rome would not have been what we know it was +in the sixth century, without these successes. But there exists, +in the particular events recorded in the Roman history, sufficient +internal evidence of its uncertainty, or rather falsehood; +and here I do not refer to the lying fables, and absurd prodigies, +which the annalists may have inserted in deference to the +prejudices of the people, nor to the almost incredible daring +and endurance of Scævola, Cocles, or Curtius, which may +be accounted for from the wild spirit of a half-civilized nation, +and are not unlike the acts we hear of among Indian +tribes; but I allude to the total improbability of the historic +details concerning transactions with surrounding tribes, and +the origin of domestic institutions. How, for example, after +so long a series of defeats, with few intervals of prosperity +interposed, could the Italian states have possessed resources +sufficient incessantly to renew hostilities, in which they were +<pb n='65'/><anchor id='Pg065'/>always the aggressors? And how, on the other hand, should +the Romans, with their constant preponderance of force and +fortune, (if the repetition and magnitude of their victories can +be depended on,) have been so long employed in completely +subjugating them? The numbers slain, according to Livy’s +account, are so prodigious, that it is difficult to conceive how +the population of such moderate territories, as belonged to the +independent Italian communities, could have supplied such +losses. We, therefore, cannot avoid concluding, that the frequency +and importance of these campaigns were magnified by +the consular families indulging in the vanity of exaggerating +the achievements of their ancestors<note place="foot">Bankes, <hi rend='italic'>Civil History of Rome</hi>, Vol. I.</note>. Sometimes these campaigns +are represented as carried on against the whole nation +of Volsci, Samnites, or Etruscans, when, in fact, only a part +was engaged; and, at other times, battles, which never were +fought, have been extracted from the family memoirs, where +they were drawn up to illustrate each consulate; for what would +a consul have been without a triumph or a victory? It would +exceed my limits were I to point out the various improbabilities +and evident inconsistencies of this sort recorded in the early +periods of Roman history. With regard, again, to the domestic +institutions of Rome, everything (doubtless for the sake +of effect and dignity) is represented as having at once originated +in the refined policy and foresight of the early kings. +The division of the people into tribes and curiæ—the relations +of patron and client—the election of senators—in short, the +whole fabric of the constitution, is exhibited as a preconcerted +plan of political wisdom, and not (as a constitution has been +in every other state, and must have been in Rome) the gradual +result of contingencies and progressive improvements, of assertions +of rights, and struggles for power. +</p> + +<p> +The opinion entertained by Polybius of the uncertainty of the +Roman history, is sufficiently manifest from a passage in the +fourth book of his admirable work, which is written with all +the philosophy and profound inquiry of Tacitus, without any +of his apparent affectation.—<q>The things which I have undertaken +to describe,</q> says he, <q>are those which I myself have +seen, or such as I have received from men who were eye-witnesses +of them. For, had I gone back to a more early period, +and borrowed my accounts from the report of persons who +themselves had only heard them before from others, as it +would scarcely have been possible that I should myself be able +to discern the true state of the matters that were then transacted, +so neither could I have written anything concerning +<pb n='66'/><anchor id='Pg066'/>them with confidence.</q> What, indeed, can we expect to +know with regard to the Kings of Rome, when we find so +much uncertainty with regard to the most memorable events +of the republic, as the period of the first creation of a dictator +and tribunes of the people? The same doubt exists in the +biography of illustrious characters. Cicero says, that Coriolanus, +having gone over to the Volsci, repressed the struggles +of his resentment by a voluntary death; <q>for, though you, +my Atticus,</q> he continues, <q>have represented his death in a +different manner, you must pardon me if I do not subscribe to +the justness of your representations<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 11.</note>.</q> Atticus, I presume, +gave the account as we now have it, that he was killed in a +tumult of the Volsci, and Fabius Pictor had written that he +lived till old age<note place="foot">Livy, Lib. II. c. 40.</note>. Of the reliance to be placed on the events +between the death of Coriolanus and the termination of the +second Punic war, we may judge from the uncertainty which +prevailed with regard to Scipio Africanus, a hero, of all others, +the most distinguished, and who flourished, comparatively, at +a recent period. Yet some of the most important events of +his life are involved in contradiction and almost hopeless obscurity.—<q>Cicero,</q> +says Berwick, in his Memoirs of Scipio, +<q>speaks with great confidence of the year in which he died, +yet Livy found so great a difference of opinion among historians +on the subject, that he declares himself unable to ascertain it. +From a fragment in Polybius, we learn, that, in his time, the +authors who had written of Scipio were ignorant of some circumstances +of his life, and mistaken in others; and, from +Livy, it appears, that the accounts respecting his life, trial, +death, funeral, and sepulchre, were so contradictory, that he +was not able to determine what tradition, or whose writings, +he ought to credit.</q> +</p> + +<p> +But, although the early events of Roman history were of +such a description, that Cicero and Atticus were not agreed +concerning them—that Polybius could write nothing about +them with confidence; and that Livy would neither undertake +to affirm nor refute them, every vestige of Roman antiquity +had not perished. Though the annals of the Pontiffs were +destroyed,—those who wrote, who kept, and had read them, +could not have lost all recollection of the facts they recorded. +Even from the family memoirs, full of falsehoods as they were, +much truth might have been extracted by a judicious and +acute historian. The journals of different rival families must +often have served as historical checks on each other, and +much real information might have been gathered, by compar<pb n='67'/><anchor id='Pg067'/>ing + and contrasting the vain-glorious lies of those + family-legends<note place="foot">The question concerning the authenticity or uncertainty of the Roman history, +was long, and still continues to be, a subject of much discussion in France.—<q>At +Paris,</q> said Lord Bolingbroke, <q>they have a set of stated paradoxical orations. +The business of one of these was to show that the history of Rome, for the four first +centuries was a mere fiction. The person engaged in it proved that point so strongly, +and so well, that several of the audience, as they were coming out, said, the person +who had set that question had played booty, and that it was so far from being a paradox, +that it was a plain and evident truth.</q>—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Spence’s</hi> <hi rend='italic'>Anecdotes</hi>, p. 197. It was +chiefly in the <hi rend='italic'>Memoires de l’Academie des Inscriptions</hi>, &c. that this literary controversy +was plied. M. de Pouilly, in the Memoirs for the year 1722, produced his +proofs and arguments against the authenticity. He was weakly opposed, in the +following year, by M. Sallier, and defended by M. Beaufort, in the Memoirs of the +Academy, and at greater length in his <hi rend='italic'>Dissert. sur l’Incertitude des cinq premiers +siècles de l’Hist. Romaine</hi>, (1738,) which contains a clear and conclusive exposition +of the state of the question. The dispute has been lately renewed in the +Memoirs of the Institute, in the proceedings of which, for 1815, there is a long paper, +by M. Levesque, maintaining the total uncertainty of the Roman history previous +to the invasion of the Gauls; while the opposite side of the question has been +strenuously espoused by M. Larcher. This controversy, though it commenced in +France, has not been confined to that country. Hooke and Gibbon have argued +for the certainty, (<hi rend='italic'>Miscell. Works</hi>, Vol. IV. p. 40,) and Cluverius for the uncertainty, +of the Roman history, (<hi rend='italic'>Ital. Antiq.</hi> Lib. III. c. 2.) Niebuhr, the late German +historian of Rome, considers all before Tullus Hostilius as utterly fabulous. +The time that elapsed from his accession to the war with Pyrrhus, he regards as a +period to be found in almost every history, between mere fable and authentic +record. Beck, in the introduction to his German translation of Ferguson’s Roman +Republic, <hi rend='italic'>Ueber die Quellen der altesten Römischen Geschichte und ihren Werth</hi>, +has attempted to vindicate the authenticity of the Roman history to a certain extent; +but his reasonings and citations go little farther than to prove, what never can be +disputed, that there is much truth in the general outline of events—that the kings +were expelled—that the Etruscans were finally subdued; and that consuls were created. +He admits, that much rested on tradition; but tradition, he maintains, is so +much interwoven with every history, that it cannot be safely thrown away. The +remainder of the treatise is occupied with a feeble attempt to show, that more monuments +existed at Rome after its capture by the Gauls, than is generally supposed, +and that Fabius Pictor made a good use of them.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Such was the state of the materials for Roman history, in +the middle of the sixth century, from the building of the city, +at which time regular annals first began to be composed; and +notwithstanding all unfavourable circumstances, much might +have been done, even at that period, towards fixing and ascertaining +the dates and circumstances of previous events, had the +earliest annalist of Rome been in any degree fitted for this +difficult and important task; but, unfortunately, +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Quintus Fabius Pictor"/><index index="pdf" level1="Quintus Fabius Pictor"/> +<head>QUINTUS FABIUS PICTOR,</head> + +<p> +who first undertook to relate the affairs of Rome from its foundation, +in a formal and regular order, and is thence called by +Livy <hi rend='italic'>Scriptorum antiquissimus</hi>, appears to have been +wretchedly qualified for the labour he had undertaken, either +<pb n='68'/><anchor id='Pg068'/>in point of fidelity or research: and to his carelessness and inaccuracy, +more even than to the loss of monuments, may be +attributed the painful uncertainty, which to this day hangs +over the early ages of Roman history. +</p> + +<p> +Fabius Pictor lived in the time of the second Punic war. +The family received its <hi rend='italic'>cognomen</hi> from Caius Fabius, who, +having resided in Etruria, and there acquired some knowledge +of the fine arts, painted with figures the temple of <hi rend='italic'>Salus</hi>, +in the year 450<note place="foot">Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXXV. c. 4.</note>. Pliny mentions having seen this piece of +workmanship, which remained entire till the building itself +was consumed, in the reign of the Emperor Claudius. The +son of the painter rose to the highest honours of the state, +having been Consul along with Ogulnius Gallus, in the year +485. From him sprung the historian, who was consequently +grandson of the first Fabius Pictor. He was a provincial +quæstor in early youth, and in 528 served under the Consul +Lucius Æmilius, when sent to repel a formidable incursion of +the Gauls, who, in that year, had passed the Alps in vast hordes. +He also served in the second Punic war, which commenced +in 534, and was present at the battle of Thrasymene. After +the defeat at Cannæ, he was despatched by the senate to inquire +from the oracle of Delphos, what would be the issue of +the war, and to learn by what supplications the wrath of the +gods might be appeased<note place="foot">Hankius, <hi rend='italic'>De Romanar. Rerum Scriptor.</hi> Pars I. c. 1.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The Annals of Fabius Pictor commenced with the foundation +of the city, and brought down the series of Roman affairs +to the author’s own time—that is, to the end of the second +Punic war. We are informed by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, +that for the great proportion of events which preceded his +own age, Fabius Pictor had no better authority than vulgar +tradition<note place="foot">Lib. VII.</note>. He probably found, that if he had confined himself +to what was certain in these early times, his history would +have been dry, insipid, and incomplete. This may have induced +him to adopt the fables, which the Greek historians had +<anchor id="corr068"/><corr sic="vented">invented</corr> concerning the origin of Rome, and to insert whatever +he found in the family traditions, however contradictory or +uncertain. Dionysius has also given us many examples of his +improbable narrations—his inconsistencies—his negligence in +investigating the truth of what he relates as facts—and his +inaccuracy in chronology. <q>I cannot refrain,</q> says he, when +speaking of the age of Tarquinius Priscus, <q>from blaming +Fabius Pictor for his little exactness in chronology<note place="foot">Lib. IV. p. 234.</note>;</q> and it +appears from various other passages, that all the ancient his<pb n='69'/><anchor id='Pg069'/>tory + of Fabius which was not founded on hearsay, was taken +from Greek authors, who had little opportunity of being informed +of Roman affairs, and had supplied their deficiency in +real knowledge, by the invention of <anchor id="corr068a"/><corr sic="fables,">fables.</corr> In particular, as +we are told by Plutarch<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>In Romulo</hi>.</note>, he followed an obscure Greek author, +Diocles the Peparethian, in his account of the foundation +of Rome, and from this tainted source have flowed all the +stories concerning Mars, the Vestal, the Wolf, Romulus, and +Remus. +</p> + +<p> +It is thus evident, that no great reliance can be placed on +the history given by Fabius Pictor, of the events which preceded +his own age, and which happened during a period of +500 years from the building of the city; but what must be +considered as more extraordinary and lamentable, is, that +although a senator, and of a distinguished family, he gave a +prejudiced and inaccurate account of affairs occurring during +the time he lived, and in the management of which he had +some concern. Polybius, who flourished shortly after that +time, and was at pains to inform himself accurately concerning +all the events of the second Punic war, apologizes for +quoting Fabius on one occasion as an authority. <q>It will +perhaps be asked,</q> says he, <q>how I came to make mention +of Fabius: It is not that I think his relation probable enough +to deserve credit: What he writes is so absurd, and has so +little appearance of truth, that the reader will easily remark, +without my taking notice of it, the little reliance that is to be +placed on that author, whose inconsistency is palpable of itself. +It is, therefore, only to warn such as shall read his history, not +to judge by the title of the book, but by the things it contains—for +there are many people, who, considering the author more +than what he writes, think themselves obliged to believe +everything he says, because a senator and contemporary<note place="foot">Lib. III. c. 9.</note>.</q> +Polybius also accuses him of gross partiality to his own nation, +in the account of the Punic war—allowing to the enemy +no praise, even where they deserved it, and uncandidly aggravating +their faults.<note place="foot">Lib. I.</note> In particular, he charges him with falsehood +in what he has delivered, with regard to the causes of +the second contest with the Carthaginians. Fabius had alleged, +that the covetousness of Hannibal, which he inherited from +Asdrubal, and his desire of ultimately ruling over his own +country, to which he conceived a Roman war to be a necessary +step, were the chief causes of renewing hostilities, to which +the Carthaginian government was totally averse. Now, +Po<pb n='70'/><anchor id='Pg070'/>lybius asks him, if this were true, why the Carthaginian Senate +did not deliver up their general, as was required, after the +capture of Saguntum; and why they supported him, during +fourteen years continuance in Italy, with frequent supplies of +money, and immense reinforcements<note place="foot">Lib. III. c. 8.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The sentiments expressed by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, +concerning Fabius Pictor’s relation of events, in the early +ages of Rome, and those of Polybius<note place="foot">Ernesti has attempted, but I think unsuccessfully, to support the authenticity of +the Annals of Fabius against the censures of Polybius, in his dissertation, entitled, +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Fabii Fide adversus Polybium</hi>, inserted in his <hi rend='italic'>Opuscula Philologica</hi>, Leipsic, +1746—Lugd. Bat. 1764. He attempts to show, from other passages, that Polybius +was a great detractor of preceding historians, and that he judged of events more +from what was probable and likely to have occurred, than from what actually happened, +and that no historian could have better information than Fabius. To the interrogatories +which Polybius puts to Fabius, with regard to the causes assigned by +him as the origin of the second Punic war, Ernesti replies for him, that the Senate +of Carthage could no more have taken the command from Hannibal in Spain, or delivered +him up, than the Roman Senate could have deprived Cæsar of his army, +when on the banks of the Rubicon; and as to the support which Hannibal received +while in Italy, it is answered, that it was quite consistent with political wisdom, and +the practice of other nations, for a government involuntarily forced into a struggle, +by the disobedience or evil counsels of its subjects, to use every exertion to obtain +ultimate success, or extricate itself with honour, from the difficulties in which it had +been reluctantly involved.</note>, on the occurrences of +which he was himself an eye-witness, enable us to form a +pretty accurate estimate of the credit due to his whole history. +Dionysius having himself written on the antiquities of Rome, +was competent to deliver an opinion as to the works of those +who had preceded him in the same undertaking; and it would +rather have been favourable to the general view which he has +adopted, to have established the credibility of Fabius. We +may also safely rely on the judgment which Polybius has passed, +concerning this old annalist’s relation of the events of the +age in which he lived, since Polybius had spared no pains to +be thoroughly informed of whatever could render his own account +of them complete and unexceptionable. +</p> + +<p> +The opinion which must now be naturally formed from the +sentiments entertained by these two eminent historians, is +rather confirmed by the few and unconnected fragments that +remain of the Annals of Fabius Pictor, as they exhibit a spirit +of trifling and credulity quite unworthy the historian of a great +republic. One passage is about a person who saw a magpie; +another about a man who had a message brought to him by a +swallow; and a third concerning a party of <hi rend='italic'>loup garous</hi>, who, +after being transformed into wolves, recovered their own +figures, and, what is more, got back their cast-off clothes, +provided they had abstained for nine years from preying on +human flesh! +</p> + +<pb n='71'/><anchor id='Pg071'/> + +<p> +Such were the merits of the earliest annalist of Rome, whom +all succeeding historians of the state copied as far as he had +proceeded, or at least implicitly followed as their authority +and guide in facts and chronology. Unfortunately, his character +as a senator, and an eye-witness of many of the events +he recorded, gave the stamp of authenticity to his work, which +it did not intrinsically deserve to have impressed on it. His +successors accordingly, instead of <anchor id="corr071"/><corr sic="givi g">giving</corr> themselves the pains +to clear up the difficulties with which the history of former +ages was embarrassed, and which would have led into long +and laborious discussions, preferred reposing on the authority +of Fabius. They copied him on the ancient times, without +even consulting the few monuments that remained, and then +contented themselves with adding the transactions subsequent +to the period which his history comprehends. Thus, Dionysius +of Halicarnassus<note place="foot">Lib. I. p. 64.</note> informs us that Cincius, Cato the +Censor, Calpurnius Piso, and most of the other historians who +succeeded him, implicitly adopted Fabius’ story of the birth +and education of Romulus; and he adds many glaring instances +of the little discernment they showed in following him on +points where, by a little investigation, they might have discovered +how egregiously he had erred. Even Livy himself +admits, that his own account of the second Punic war was +chiefly founded on the relations of Fabius Pictor<note place="foot">Fabium æqualem temporibus hujusce belli potissimum auctorem habui. Lib. XXII. c. 7.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +This ancient and dubious annalist was succeeded by Scribonius +Libo, and by Calpurnius Piso. Libo served under +Ser. Galba in Spain, and on his return to Rome impeached +his commander for some act of treachery towards the natives +of that province. Piso was Consul along with Mucius Scævola +in 620, the year in which Tib. Gracchus was slain. Like +Fabius, he wrote Annals of Rome, from the beginning of the +state, which Cicero pronounces to be <hi rend='italic'>exiliter scripti</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 27.</note>: But +although his style was jejune, he is called a profound writer, +<hi rend='italic'>gravis auctor</hi>, by Pliny<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XI. + <anchor id="corr071a"/><corr sic="53">c. 53</corr>.</note>; and Au. Gellius says, that there is +an agreeable simplicity in some parts of his work—the brevity +which displeased Cicero appearing to him <hi rend='italic'>simplicissima suavitas +et rei et orationis</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. XI. c. 14.</note>. He relates an anecdote of Romulus, +who, being abroad at supper, drank little wine, because he +was to be occupied with important affairs on the following +day. One of the other guests remarked, <q>that if all men did +as he, wine would be cheap.</q>—<q>No,</q> replied Romulus, <q>I +<pb n='72'/><anchor id='Pg072'/>have drunk as much as I liked, and wine would be dearer than +it is now if every one did the same.</q> This annalist first suggested +Varro’s famous derivation of the word Italy, which he +deduced from <hi rend='italic'>Vitulus</hi>. He is also frequently quoted by +Plutarch and Dionysius of Halicarnassus<note place="foot">He also probably suggested to Sallust a phrase which has given much scandal +in so grave a historian. Cicero says, in one of his letters, (<hi rend='italic'>Epist. Famil.</hi> Lib. IX. +Ep. 22,) <q>At vero Piso, in annalibus suis, queritur, adolescentes peni deditos esse.</q></note>. Niebuhr thinks, +that of all the Roman annalists he is chiefly responsible for +having introduced into history the fables of the ancient heroic +ballads<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Römische Geschichte</hi>, Tom. I. p. 245. +<lb/> +As his account of Roman affairs was written in Greek, I omit in the list of Latin +annalists Lucius Cincius Alimentus, who was contemporary with Fabius, having +been taken prisoner by Hannibal during the second Punic war. But though his +history was in Greek, he wrote in Latin a biographical sketch of the Sicilian Rhetorician +Gorgias Leontinus, and also a book, <hi rend='italic'>De Re Militari</hi>, which has been cited +by Au. Gellius, and acknowledged by Vegetius as the foundation of his more elaborate +Commentaries on the same subject.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +About the same time with Piso, lived two historians, who +were both called Caius Fannius, and were nearly related to +each other. One of them was son-in-law of Lælius, and +served under the younger Scipio at the final reduction of +Carthage. Of him Cicero speaks favourably, though his style +was somewhat harsh<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'> Brutus</hi>, c. 26.</note>; but his chief praise is, that Sallust, in +mentioning the Latin historians, while he gives to Cato the +palm for conciseness, awards it to Fannius for accuracy in +facts<note place="foot">The passage is a fragment from the first book of Sallust’s lost history. Mar. +Victorinus <hi rend='italic'>in prim. Ciceronis de Inventione</hi>.</note>. Heeren also mentions, that he was the authority +chiefly followed by Plutarch in his lives of the Gracchi<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Fontibus et Auctoritate Vitarum Parallel. Plutarchi</hi>, p. 134. Gotteng. 1820.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Cœlius Antipater was contemporary with the Gracchi, and +was the master of Lucius Crassus, the celebrated orator, and +other eminent men of the day. We learn from Valerius Maximus, +that he was the authority for the story of the shade of +Tiberius Gracchus having appeared to his brother Caius in a +dream, to warn him that he would suffer the same fate which +he had himself experienced<note place="foot">Lib. I. c. 7.</note>; and the historian testifies that +he had heard of this vision from many persons during the lifetime +of Caius Gracchus. The chief subject of Antipater’s +history, which was dedicated to Lælius, consisted in the events +that occurred during the second Punic war. Cicero says, +that he was for his age <hi rend='italic'>Scriptor luculentus</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 26.</note>; that he raised +himself considerably above his predecessors, and gave a more +lofty tone to history; but he seems to think that the utmost +<pb n='73'/><anchor id='Pg073'/>praise to which he was entitled, is, that he excelled those who +preceded him, for still he possessed but little eloquence or +learning, and his style was yet unpolished. Valerius Maximus, +however, calls him an authentic writer, (<hi rend='italic'>certus auctor</hi><note place="foot">Lib. I. c. 7.</note>;) and +the Emperor Hadrian thought him superior to Sallust, consistently +with that sort of black-letter taste which led him to +prefer Cato the Censor to Cicero, and Ennius to Virgil<note place="foot">Æl. Spartianus, <hi rend='italic'>in Hadriano</hi>.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Sempronius Asellio served as military tribune under the +younger Scipio Africanus, in the war of Numantia<note place="foot">Au. Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. II. c. 13.</note>, which +began in 614, and ended in 621, with the destruction of that +city. He wrote the history of the campaigns in which he +fought under Scipio, in Spain, in at least 40 books, since the +40th is cited by Charisius. His work, however, was not written +for a considerable time after the events he recorded had happened: +That he wrote subsequently to Antipater, we have the +authority of Cicero, who says <q>that Cœlius Antipater was +succeeded by Asellio, who did not imitate his improvements, +but relapsed into the dulness and unskilfulness of the earliest +historians<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>, Lib. I. c. 2.</note>.</q> This does not at all appear to have been Asellio’s +own opinion, as, from a passage extracted by Aulus Gellius +from the first book of his Annals, he seems to have considered +himself as the undisputed father of philosophic history<note place="foot">Lib. V. c. 18.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Quintus Lutatius Catulus, better known as an accomplished +orator than a 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<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 35.</note>, 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 <hi rend='italic'>De Nugis +Curialibus</hi>. Some passages, however, are still preserved, +<pb n='74'/><anchor id='Pg074'/>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. <q>Who +the enemy was,</q> says Au. Gellius, <q>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<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. IX. c. 13.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +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.—<q>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.</q>—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<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. XIII. c. 28.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +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, <q>Little faith can be given to this author, +as no one was ever more intemperate in such exaggerations;</q> +and Aulus Gellius mentions a circumstance which he had +affirmed, contrary to the records of the Tribunes, and the +<pb n='75'/><anchor id='Pg075'/>authors of the ancient Annals<note place="foot">Ibid. Lib. VII. c. 19.</note>. 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 <hi rend='italic'>Questions</hi> 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 <q><hi rend='italic'>in deliciis +amoribusque usurpata</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. VI. c. 8.</note>.</q> 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. +</p> + +<p> +Licinius Macer, father of Licin. Calvus, the distinguished +poet and orator formerly mentioned<note place="foot">See above, <!-- xref -->Vol. I. p. 322.</note>, was author of Annals, +entitled <hi rend='italic'>Libri Rerum Romanarum</hi>. In the course of these +he frequently quotes the <hi rend='italic'>Libri Lintei</hi>. 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. +</p> + +<p> +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<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 63.</note>. 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 +<pb n='76'/><anchor id='Pg076'/>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 <hi rend='italic'>Opus Belli Civilis Sullani</hi><note place="foot">Lib. II. c. 9.</note>. +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.—<q>L. Sisenna,</q> says he, <q>optume +et diligentissime omnium, qui eas res dixere persecutus, +parum mihi libero ore locutus videtur<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Jugurtha</hi>, c. 95.</note>.</q> Cicero, while he +admits his superiority over his predecessors, adds, that he was +far from perfection<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 63.</note>, and complains that there was something +puerile in his Annals, as if he had studied none of the Greek +historians but Clitarchus<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>, Lib. I. c. 2.</note>. 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. +</p> + +<p> +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 +<pb n='77'/><anchor id='Pg077'/>work all the portents observed from its foundation to the age +of Augustus. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 29. Some persons have supposed that Cicero did not here mean +Xenophon’s <hi rend='italic'>Cyropædia</hi>, but a life of Cyrus, written by Scaurus. This, indeed, +seems at first a more probable meaning than that he should have bestowed a compliment +apparently so extravagant on the Memoirs of Scaurus; but his words do not +admit of this interpretation.—<q>Præclaram illam quidem, sed neque tam rebus nostris +aptam, nec tamen Scauri laudibus anteponendam.</q></note>. +</p> + +<p> +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<note place="foot">Lib. VII.</note>, Plutarch<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>In Mario</hi>.</note>, Velleius +Paterculus<note place="foot">Lib. II. c. 13.</note>, and Valerius Maximus<note place="foot">Lib. II. c. 5. Lib. VI. c. 4.</note>. 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. +</p> + +<p> +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<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>in Lucullo</hi>.</note>. Sylla was employed on them the evening before +his death, and concluded them by relating, that on the +<pb n='78'/><anchor id='Pg078'/>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. <q>Thus,</q> +adds the author, who accounted nothing so certain as what +was signified to him in dreams, <q>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<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>In Sylla</hi>.—Appian.</note>.</q> +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<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>In Mario</hi>.</note>. 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. <q>In +the loss of his Memoirs,</q> says Blackwell, in his usual inflated +style, <q>the strongest draught of human passions, in the highest +wheels of fortune and sallies of power, is for ever vanished<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Memoirs of the Court of Augustus</hi>, Vol. I.</note>.</q> +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 +<pb n='79'/><anchor id='Pg079'/>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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</p> + +<p> +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 +<pb n='80'/><anchor id='Pg080'/>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, <hi rend='italic'>instrumentum imperii pulcherrimum +ac vetustissimum</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>In Vespasiano</hi>, c. 8.</note>. 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 +plan<pb n='81'/><anchor id='Pg081'/>ned 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<note place="foot">Malheureux sort de l’histoire! Les spectateurs sont trop peu instruits, et les acteurs +trop interessés pour que nous puissions compter sur les recits des uns ou des +autres.—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Gibbon’s</hi> <hi rend='italic'>Miscell. Works</hi>, Vol. IV.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +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 <hi rend='italic'>Nuntia Vetustatis</hi>, 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 <hi rend='italic'>magistra vitæ</hi>; and in this sense +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Sallust"/><index index="pdf" level1="Sallust"/> +<head>SALLUST</head> + +<p> +has been generally considered as the first among the Romans +who merited the title of historian. This celebrated writer was +born at Amiternum, in the territory of the Sabines, in the year +668. He received his education at Rome, and, in his early +youth, appears to have been desirous to devote himself to literary +pursuits. But it was not easy for one residing in the +capital to escape the contagious desire of military or political +distinction. At the age of twenty-seven, he obtained the +situation of Quæstor, which entitled him to a seat in the +Senate, and about six years afterwards he was elected Tribune +of the people. While in this office, he attached himself to the +fortunes of Cæsar, and along with one of his colleagues in the +tribunate, conducted the prosecution against Milo for the +murder of Clodius. In the year 704, he was excluded from +the Senate, on pretext of immoral conduct, but more probably +<pb n='82'/><anchor id='Pg082'/>from the violence of the patrician party, to which he was opposed. +Aulus Gellius, on the authority of Varro’s treatise, +<hi rend='italic'>Pius aut de Pace</hi>, informs us that he incurred this disgrace in +consequence of being surprised in an intrigue with Fausta, the +wife of Milo, by the husband, who made him be scourged +by his slaves<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Att.</hi> Lib. XVII. c. 18.</note>. It has been doubted, however, by modern +critics, whether it was the historian Sallust who was thus detected +and punished, or his nephew, Crispus Sallustius, to whom +Horace has addressed the second ode of the second book. It +seems, indeed, unlikely, that in such a corrupt age, an amour +with a woman of Fausta’s abandoned character, should have +been the real cause of his expulsion from the Senate. After +undergoing this ignominy, which, for the present, baffled all +his hopes of preferment, he quitted Rome, and joined his patron, +Cæsar, in Gaul. He continued to follow the fortunes of +that commander, and, in particular bore a share in the expedition +to Africa, where the scattered remains of Pompey’s +party had united. That region being finally subdued, Sallust +was left by Cæsar as Prætor of Numidia; and about the same +time he married Terentia, the divorced wife of Cicero. He +remained only a year in his government, but during that period +he enriched himself by despoiling the province. On his return +to Rome, he was accused by the Numidians, whom he +had plundered, but escaped with impunity, by means of the +protection of Cæsar, and was quietly permitted to betake himself +to a luxurious retirement with his ill-gotten wealth. He +chose for his favourite retreat a villa at Tibur, which had belonged +to Cæsar; and he also built a magnificent palace in +the suburbs of Rome, surrounded by delightful pleasure-grounds, +which were afterwards well known and celebrated +by the name of the Gardens of Sallust. One front of this +splendid mansion faced the street, where he constructed a +spacious market-place, in which every article of luxury was +sold in abundance. The other front looked to the gardens, +which were contiguous to those of Lucullus, and occupied the +valley between the extremities of the Quirinal and Pincian +Hills<note place="foot">Nardini, <hi rend='italic'>Roma Antica</hi>. Lib. IV. c. 7.</note>. They lay, in the time of Sallust, immediately beyond +the walls of Rome, but were included within the new wall of +Aurelian. In them every beauty of nature, and every embellishment +of art, that could delight or gratify the senses, seem +to have been assembled. Umbrageous walks, open parterres, +and cool porticos, displayed their various attractions. Amidst +shrubs and flowers of every hue and odour, interspersed with +statues of the most exquisite workmanship, pure streams of +<pb n='83'/><anchor id='Pg083'/>water preserved the verdure of the earth and the temperature +of the air; and while, on the one hand, the distant prospect +caught the eye, on the other, the close retreat invited to repose +or meditation<note place="foot">Steuart’s <hi rend='italic'>Sallust</hi>, Essay I.</note>. These gardens included within their precincts +the most magnificent baths, a temple to Venus, and a circus, +which Sallust repaired and ornamented. Possessed of such +attractions, the Sallustian palace and gardens became, after +the death of their original proprietor, the residence of successive +emperors. Augustus chose them as the scene of his most +sumptuous entertainments. The taste of Vespasian preferred +them to the palace of the Cæsars. Even the virtuous Nerva, +and stern Aurelian, were so attracted by their beauty, that, +while at Rome, they were their constant abode. <q>The palace,</q> +says Eustace, <q>was consumed by fire on the fatal night +when Alaric entered the city. The temple, of singular beauty, +sacred to Venus, was discovered about the middle of the sixteenth +century, in opening the grounds of a garden, and was +destroyed for the sale of the materials: Of the circus little +remains, but masses of walls that merely indicate its site; +while statues and marbles, found occasionally, continue to +furnish proofs of its former magnificence<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Classical Tour</hi>, Vol. II. c. 6.</note>.</q> Many statues of +exquisite workmanship have been found on the same spot; but +these may have been placed there by the magnificence of the +imperial occupiers, and not of the original proprietor. +</p> + +<p> +In his urban gardens, or villa at Tibur, Sallust passed the +close of his life, dividing his time between literary avocations +and the society of his friends—among whom he numbered +Lucullus, Messala, and Cornelius Nepos. +</p> + +<p> +Such having been his friends and studies, it seems highly +improbable that he indulged in that excessive libertinism +which has been attributed to him, on the erroneous supposition +that he was the Sallust mentioned by Horace, in the first +book of his Satires<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Sat.</hi> Lib. I. <anchor id="corr083"/><corr sic="(italics removed)">Sat.</corr> 2.</note>. The subject of Sallust’s character is +one which has excited some investigation and interest, and on +which very different opinions have been formed. That he +was a man of loose morals is evident; and it cannot be denied +that he rapaciously plundered his province, like other Roman +governors of the day. But it seems doubtful if he was that +monster of iniquity he has been sometimes represented. He +was extremely unfortunate in the first permanent notice taken +of his character by his contemporaries. The decided enemy +of Pompey and his faction, he had said of that celebrated chief, +in his general history, that he was a man <q>oris probi, animo +<pb n='84'/><anchor id='Pg084'/>inverecundo.</q> Lenæus, the freedman of Pompey, avenged +his master, by the most virulent abuse of his enemy<note place="foot">Suetonius, <hi rend='italic'>De Grammaticis</hi>.</note>, in a +work, which should rather be regarded as a frantic satire than +an historical document. Of the injustice which he had done +to the life of the historian we may, in some degree, judge, +from what he said of him as an author. He called him, as +we learn from Suetonius, <q>Nebulonem, vitâ scriptisque monstrosum: +præterea, priscorum Catonisque ineruditissimum furem.</q> +The life of Sallust, by Asconius Pedianus, which was +written in the age of Augustus, and might have acted, in the +present day, as a corrective, or palliative, of the unfavourable +impression produced by this injurious libel, has unfortunately +perished; and the next work on the subject now extant, is a +professed rhetorical declamation against the character of Sallust, +which was given to the world in the name of Cicero, but +was not written till long after the death of that orator, and is +now generally assigned by critics, to a rhetorician, in the reign +of Claudius, called Porcius Latro. The calumnies invented +or exaggerated by Lenæus, and propagated in the scholiastic +theme of Porcius Latro, have been adopted by Le Clerc, professor +of Hebrew at Amsterdam, and by Professor Meisner, of +Prague<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Leben des Sallust</hi>.</note>, in their respective accounts of the Life of Sallust. +His character has received more justice from the prefatory +Memoir and Notes of De Brosses, his French translator, and +from the researches of Wieland in Germany. +</p> + +<p> +From what has been above said of Fabius Pictor, and his +immediate successors, it must be apparent, that the art of historic +composition at Rome was in the lowest state, and that +Sallust had no model to imitate among the writers of his own +country. He therefore naturally recurred to the productions +of the Greek historians. The native exuberance, and loquacious +familiarity of Herodotus, were not adapted to his taste; +and simplicity, such as that of Xenophon, is, of all things, the +most difficult to attain: He therefore chiefly emulated Thucydides, +and attempted to transplant into his own language the +vigour and conciseness of the Greek historian; but the strict +imitation, with which he has followed him, has gone far to +lessen the effect of his own original genius. +</p> + +<p> +The first book of Sallust was the <hi rend='italic'>Conspiracy of Catiline</hi>. +There exists, however, some doubt as to the precise period of +its composition. The general opinion is, that it was written +immediately after the author went out of office as Tribune of +the People, that is, in the year 703: And the composition of +the <hi rend='italic'>Jugurthine War</hi>, as well as of his general history, are fixed +<pb n='85'/><anchor id='Pg085'/>by Le Clerc between that period and his appointment to the +Prætorship of Numidia. But others have supposed that they +were all written during the space which intervened between +his return from Numidia, in 708, and his death, which happened +in 718, four years previous to the battle of Actium. +It is maintained by the supporters of this last idea, that he was +too much engaged in political tumults previous to his administration +of Numidia, to have leisure for such important compositions—that, +in the introduction to Catiline’s Conspiracy, he +talks of himself as withdrawn from public affairs, and refutes +accusations of his voluptuous life, which were only applicable +to this period; and that, while instituting the comparison between +Cæsar and Cato, he speaks of the existence and competition +of these celebrated opponents as things that had +passed over—<q>Sed mea memoria, ingenti virtute, diversis moribus, +fuere viri duo, Marcus Cato et Caius Cæsar.</q> On this +passage, too, Gibbon in particular argues, that such a flatterer +and party tool as Sallust would not, during the life of Cæsar, +have put Cato so much on a level with him in the comparison +instituted between them. De Brosses agrees with Le Clerc in +thinking that the Conspiracy of Catiline at least must have +been written immediately after 703, as Sallust would not, subsequently +to his marriage with Terentia, have commemorated +the disgrace of her sister, for she, it seems, was the vestal virgin +whose intrigue with Catiline is recorded by our historian. +But whatever may be the fact as to Catiline’s Conspiracy, it +is quite clear that the Jugurthine War was written subsequent +to the author’s residence in Numidia, which evidently suggested +to him this theme, and afforded him the means of collecting +the information necessary for completing his work. +</p> + +<p> +The subjects chosen by Sallust form two of the most important +and prominent topics in the history of Rome. The +periods, indeed, which he describes, were painful, but they +were interesting. Full of conspiracies, usurpations, and civil +wars, they chiefly exhibit the mutual rage and iniquity of embittered +factions, furious struggles between the patricians and +plebeians, open corruption in the senate, venality in the courts +of justice, and rapine in the provinces. This state of things, +so forcibly painted by Sallust, produced the Conspiracy, and +even in some degree formed the character of Catiline: But it +was the oppressive debts of individuals, the temper of Sylla’s +soldiers, and the absence of Pompey with his army, which +gave a possibility, and even prospect of success to a plot +which affected the vital existence of the commonwealth, and +which, although arrested in its commencement, was one of +those violent shocks which hasten the fall of a state. The +<pb n='86'/><anchor id='Pg086'/>History of the Jugurthine War, if not so important or menacing +to the vital interests and immediate safety of Rome, exhibits +a more extensive field of action, and a greater theatre of +war. No prince, except Mithridates, gave so much employment +to the arms of the Romans. In the course of no war in +which they had ever been engaged, not even the second Carthaginian, +were the people more desponding, and in none were +they more elated with ultimate success. Nothing can be more +interesting than the account of the vicissitudes of this contest. +The endless resources, and hair-breadth escapes of Jugurtha—his +levity, his fickle faithless disposition, contrasted with the +perseverance and prudence of the Roman commander, Metellus, +are all described in a manner the most vivid and picturesque. +</p> + +<p> +Sallust had attained the age of twenty-two when the conspiracy +of Catiline broke out, and was an eyewitness of the +whole proceedings. He had therefore, sufficient opportunity +of recording with accuracy and truth the progress and termination +of the conspiracy. Sallust has certainly acquired the +praise of a veracious historian, and I do not know that he has +been detected in falsifying any fact within the sphere of his +knowledge. Indeed there are few historical compositions of +which the truth can be proved on such evidence as the Conspiracy +of Catiline. The facts detailed in the orations of Cicero, +though differing in some minute particulars, coincide in +everything of importance, and highly contribute to illustrate +and verify the work of the historian. But Sallust lived too +near the period of which he treated, and was too much engaged +in the political tumults of the day, to give a faithful account, +unvarnished by animosity or predilection; he could not have +raised himself above all hopes, fears, and prejudices, and +therefore could not in all their extent have fulfilled the duties +of an impartial writer. A contemporary historian of such turbulent +times would be apt to exaggerate through adulation, or +conceal through fear, to instil the precepts not of the philosopher +but partizan, and colour facts into harmony with his own +system of patriotism or friendship. An obsequious follower of +Cæsar, he has been accused of a want of candour in varnishing +over the views of his patron; yet I have never been able +to persuade myself that Cæsar was deeply engaged in the +conspiracy of Catiline, or that a person of his prudence should +have leagued with such rash associates, or followed so desperate +an adventurer. But the chief objection urged against Sallust’s +impartiality, is the feeble and apparently reluctant +commendation which he bestows on Cicero, who is now acknowledged +to have been the principal actor in detecting and +<pb n='87'/><anchor id='Pg087'/>frustrating the conspiracy. Though fond of displaying his +talent for drawing characters, he exercises none of it on Cicero, +whom he merely terms <q>homo egregius et optumus +Consul,</q> which was but cold applause for one who had saved +the commonwealth. It is true, that, in the early part of the +history, praise, though sparingly bestowed, is not absolutely +withheld. The election of Cicero to the Consulship is fairly +attributed to the high opinion entertained of his capacity, +which overcame the disadvantage of his obscure birth. The +mode adopted for gaining over one of Catiline’s accomplices, +and fixing his own wavering and disaffected colleague,—the +dexterity manifested in seizing the Allobrogian deputies with +the letters, and the irresistible effect produced, by confronting +them with the conspirators, are attributed exclusively to Cicero. +It is in the conclusion of these great transactions that +the historian withholds from him his due share of applause, +and contrives to eclipse him by always interposing the character +of Cato, though it could not be unknown to any witness +of the proceedings that Cato himself, and other senators, publicly +hailed the Consul as the Father of his country, and that +a public thanksgiving to the gods was decreed in his name, +for having preserved the city from conflagration, and the citizens +from massacre<note place="foot">Bankes, <hi rend='italic'>Civil Hist. of Rome</hi>, Vol. II.</note>. This omission, which may have originated +partly in enmity, and partly in disgust at the ill-disguised +vanity of the Consul, has in all times been regarded as the +chief defect, and even stain, in the history of the Catilinarian +conspiracy. +</p> + +<p> +Although not an eye-witness of the war with Jugurtha <anchor id="corr087"/><corr sic="Sullust’s">Sallust’s</corr> +situation as Prætor of Numidia, which suggested the +composition, was favourable to the authority of the work, by +affording opportunity of collecting materials and procuring +information. He examined into the different accounts, written +as well as traditionary, concerning the history of Africa<note place="foot">The + authors of the Universal History suppose that these books were Phœnician +and Punic volumes, carried off from Carthage by Scipio, after its destruction, and +presented by him to Micipsa; and they give a curious account of these books, of +which some memory still subsists, and which they conjecture to have formed part +of the royal collection of Numidia.</note>, +particularly the documents preserved in the archives of King +Hiempsal, which he caused to be translated for his own use, +and which proved peculiarly serviceable for his detailed description +of the continent and inhabitants of Africa. He has +been accused of showing, in this history, an undue partiality +towards the character of Marius, and giving, for the sake of +his favourite leader, an unfair account of the massacre at +<pb n='88'/><anchor id='Pg088'/>Vacca. But he appears to me to do even more than ample +justice to Metellus, as he represents the war as almost finished +by him previous to the arrival of Marius, though it was, in +fact, far from being concluded. +</p> + +<p> +Veracity and fidelity are the chief, and, indeed, the indispensable +duties of an historian. Of all the <hi rend='italic'>ornaments</hi> of historic +composition, it derives its chief embellishment from a graceful +and perspicuous style. That of the early annalists, as we +have already seen, was inelegant and jejune; but style came +to be considered, in the progress of history, as a matter of +primary importance. It is unfortunate, perhaps, that so +much value was at length attached to it, since the ancient +historians seldom gave their authorities, and considered the +excellence of history as consisting in fine writing, more than +in an accurate detail of facts. Sallust evidently regarded an +elegant style as one of the chief merits of an historical work. +His own style, on which he took so much pains, was carefully +formed on that of Thucydides, whose manner of writing was in +a great measure original, and, till the time of Sallust, peculiar +to himself. The Roman has wonderfully succeeded in imitating +the vigour and conciseness of the Greek historian, and +infusing into his composition something of that dignified austerity, +which distinguishes the works of his great model; but +when I say that Sallust has imitated the conciseness of Thucydides, +I mean the rapid and compressed manner in which +his narrative is conducted,—in short, brevity of idea, rather +than language. For Thucydides, although he brings forward +only the principal idea, and discards what is collateral, yet +frequently employs long and involved periods. Sallust, on +the other hand, is abrupt and sententious, and is generally +considered as having carried this sort of brevity to a vicious +excess. The use of copulatives, either for the purpose of +connecting his sentences with each other, or uniting the +clauses of the same sentence, is in a great measure rejected. +This omission produces a monotonous effect, and a total want +of that flow and that variety, which are the principal charms +of the historic period. Seneca accordingly talks of the +<q>Amputatæ sententiæ, et verba ante expectatum cadentia<note place="foot">Senec. <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 114.</note>,</q> +which the practice of Sallust had rendered fashionable. Lord +Monboddo calls his style incoherent, and declares that there +is not one of his short and uniform sentences which deserves +the name of a period; so that supposing each sentence were +in itself beautiful, there is not variety enough to constitute +fine writing. +</p> + +<pb n='89'/><anchor id='Pg089'/> + +<p> +It was, perhaps, partly in imitation of Thucydides, that +Sallust introduced into his history a number of words almost +considered as obsolete, and which were selected from the +works of the older authors of Rome, particularly Cato the +Censor. It is on this point he has been chiefly attacked by +Pollio, in his letters to Plancus. He has also been taxed with +the opposite vice, of coining new words, and introducing +Greek idioms; but the severity of judgment which led him to +imitate the ancient and austere dignity of style, made him reject +those sparkling ornaments of composition, which were +beginning to infect the Roman taste, in consequence of the +increasing popularity of the rhetoric schools of declamation, +and the more frequent intercourse with Asia. On the whole, +in the style of Sallust, there is too much appearance of study, +and a want of that graceful ease, which is generally the effect +of art, but in which art is nowhere discovered. The opinion +of Sir J. Checke, as reported by Ascham in his <hi rend='italic'>Schoolmaster</hi>, +contains a pretty accurate estimate of the merits of the style +of Sallust. <q>Sir J. Checke said, that he could not recommend +Sallust as a good pattern of style for young men, because in +his writings there was more art than nature, and more labour +than art; and in his labour, also, too much toil, as it were, +with an uncontented care to write better than he could—a fault +common to very many men. And, therefore, he doth not express +the matter lively and naturally with common speech, as +ye see Xenophon doth in Greek, but it is carried and driven +forth artificially, after too learned a sort, as Thucydides doth +in his orations. <q>And how cometh it to pass,</q> said I, <q>that +Cæsar’s and Cicero’s talk is so natural and plain, and Sallust’s +writing so artificial and dark, when all the three lived in one +time?</q>—<q>I will freely tell you my fancy herein,</q> said he; +<q>Cæsar and Cicero, beside a singular prerogative of natural eloquence +given unto them by God, were both, by use of life, +daily orators among the common people, and greatest councillors +in the Senate-house; and therefore gave themselves to +use such speech as the meanest should well understand, and +the wisest best allow, following carefully that good council of +Aristotle, <hi rend='italic'>Loquendum ut multi; sapiendum ut pauci</hi>. But +Sallust was no such man.</q></q> +</p> + +<p> +Of all departments of history, the delineation of character is +that which is most trying to the temper and impartiality of the +writer, more especially when he has been contemporary with +the individuals he portrays, and in some degree engaged in +the transactions he records. Five or six of the characters +drawn by Sallust have in all ages been regarded as masterpieces: +He has seized the delicate shades, as well as the +pro<pb n='90'/><anchor id='Pg090'/>minent features, and thrown over them the most lively and appropriate +colouring. Those of the two principal actors in his +tragic histories are forcibly given, and prepare us for the incidents +which follow. The portrait drawn of Catiline conveys +a vivid idea of his mind and person,—his profligate untameable +spirit, infinite resources, unwearied application, and prevailing +address. We behold, as it were, before us the deadly paleness +of his countenance, his ghastly eye, his unequal troubled +step, and the distraction of his whole appearance, strongly indicating +the restless horror of a guilty conscience. I think, +however, it might have been instructive and interesting had +we seen something more of the atrocities perpetrated in early +life by this chief conspirator. The historian might have shown +him commencing his career as the chosen favourite of Sylla, +and the instrument of his monstrous cruelties. The notice of +the other conspirators is too brief, and there is too little discrimination +of their characters. Perhaps the outline was the +same in all, but each might have been individuated by distinctive +features. The parallel drawn between Cato and Cæsar is +one of the most celebrated passages in the history of the +conspiracy. Of both these famed opponents we are presented +with favourable likenesses. Their defects are thrown into +shade; and the bright qualities of each different species which +distinguished them, are contrasted for the purpose of showing +the various merits by which men arrive at eminence. +</p> + +<p> +The introductory sketch of the genius and manners of Jugurtha +is no less able and spirited than the character of Catiline. +We behold him, while serving under Scipio, as brave, +accomplished, and enterprizing; but imbued with an ambition, +which, being under no control of principle, hurried him into +its worst excesses, and rendered him ultimately perfidious and +cruel. The most singular part of his character was the mixture +of boldness and irresolution which it combined; but the +lesson we receive from it, lies in the miseries of that suspicion +and that remorse which he had created in his own mind by his +atrocities, and which rendered him as wretched on the throne, +or at the head of his army, as in the dungeon where he terminated +his existence. The portraits of the other principal +characters, who figured in the Jugurthine War, are also well +brought out. That of Marius, in particular, is happily touched. +His insatiable ambition is artfully disguised under the mask of +patriotism,—his cupidity and avarice are concealed under that +of martial simplicity and hardihood; but, though we know from +his subsequent career the hypocrisy of his pretensions, the +character of Marius is presented to us in a more favourable +light than that in which it can be viewed on a survey of his +<pb n='91'/><anchor id='Pg091'/>whole life. We see the blunt and gallant soldier, and not that +savage whose innate cruelty of soul was just about to burst +forth for the destruction of his countrymen. In drawing the +portrait of Sylla, the memorable rival of Marius, the historian +represents him also such as he appeared at that period, not +such as he afterwards proved himself to be. We behold him +with pleasure as an accomplished and subtle commander, eloquent +in speech, and versatile in resources; but there is no +trace of the cold-blooded assassin, the tyrant, buffoon, and +usurper. +</p> + +<p> +In general, Sallust’s painting of character is so strong, that +we almost foresee how each individual will conduct himself in +the situation in which he is placed. Tacitus attributes all the +actions of men to policy,—to refined, and sometimes imaginary +views; but Sallust, more correctly, discovers their chief springs +in the passions and dispositions of individuals. <q>Salluste,</q> +says St Evremond, <q>donne autant au naturel, que Tacite <anchor id="corr091"/><corr sic="a">à</corr> la +politique. Le plus grand soin du premier est de bien connoitre +le génie des hommes; les affaires viennent après naturellement, +par des actions peu recherchées de ces mêmes personnes +qu’il a depeintes.</q> +</p> + +<p> +History, in its original state, was confined to narrative; the +reader being left to form his own reflections on the deeds or +events recorded. The historic art, however, conveys not complete +satisfaction, unless these actions be connected with their +causes,—the political springs, or private passions, in which +they originated. It is the business, therefore, of the historian, +to apply the conclusions of the politician in explaining the +causes and effects of the transactions he relates. These +transactions the author must receive from authentic monuments +or records, but the remarks deduced from them must be +the offspring of his own ingenuity. The reflections with which +Sallust introduces his narrative, and those he draws from it, +are so just and numerous that he has by some been considered +as the father of philosophic history. It must always, however, +be remembered, that the proper object of history is the detail +of national transactions,—that whatever forms not a part of +the narrative is episodical, and therefore improper, if it be too +long, and do not grow naturally out of the subject. Now, +some of the political and moral digressions of Sallust are neither +very immediately connected with his subject, nor very +obviously suggested by the narration. The discursive nature +and inordinate length of the introductions to his histories have +been strongly censured. The first four sections of Catiline’s +conspiracy have indeed little relation to that topic. They +might as well have been prefixed to any other history, and +<pb n='92'/><anchor id='Pg092'/>much better to a moral or philosophic treatise. In fact, a +considerable part of them, descanting on the fleeting nature +of wealth and beauty, and all such adventitious or transitory +possessions, is borrowed from the second oration of Isocrates. +Perhaps the eight following sections are also disproportioned +to the length of the whole work; but the preliminary essay +they contain, on the degradation of Roman manners and decline +of virtue, is not an unsuitable introduction to the conspiracy, +as it was this corruption of morals which gave birth +to it, and bestowed on it a chance of success. The preface +to the Jugurthine War has much less relation to the subject +which it is intended to introduce. The author discourses at +large on his favourite topics the superiority of mental endowments +over corporeal advantages, and the beauty of virtue +and genius. He contrasts a life of listless indolence with one +of honourable activity; and, finally, descants on the task of +the historian as a suitable exercise for the highest faculties of +the mind. +</p> + +<p> +Besides the conspiracy of Catiline and the Jugurthine War, +which have been preserved entire, and from which our estimate +of the merits of Sallust must be chiefly formed, he was +author of a civil and military history of the republic, in five +books, entitled, <hi rend='italic'>Historia rerum in Republica Romana Gestarum</hi>. +This work, inscribed to Lucullus, the son of the celebrated +commander of that name, was the mature fruit of the +genius of Sallust, having been the last history he composed. +It included, properly speaking, only a period of thirteen years,—extending +from the resignation of the dictatorship by Sylla, +till the promulgation of the Manilian law, by which Pompey +was invested with authority equal to that which Sylla had relinquished, +and obtained, with unlimited power in the east, +the command of the army destined to act against Mithridates. +This period, though short, comprehends some of the most interesting +and luminous points which appear in the Roman Annals. +During this interval, and almost at the same moment, the republic +was attacked in the east by the most powerful and +enterprizing of the monarchs with whom it had yet waged war; +in the west, by one of the most skilful of its own generals; +and in the bosom of Italy, by its gladiators and slaves. This +work also was introduced by two discourses—the one presenting +a picture of the government and manners of the Romans, +from the origin of their city to the commencement of the civil +wars, the other containing a general view of the dissensions +of Marius and Sylla; so that the whole book may be considered +as connecting the termination of the Jugurthine war, and +the breaking out of Catiline’s conspiracy. The loss of this +<pb n='93'/><anchor id='Pg093'/>valuable production is the more to be regretted, as all the accounts +of Roman history which have been written, are defective +during the interesting period it comprehended. Nearly +700 fragments belonging to it have been amassed, from scholiasts +and grammarians, by De Brosses, the French translator of +Sallust; but they are so short and unconnected, that they +merely serve as land-marks, from which we may conjecture +what subjects were treated of, and what events were recorded. +The only parts of the history which have been preserved in any +degree entire, are four orations and two letters. Pomponius +Lætus discovered the orations in a MS. of the Vatican, containing +a collection of speeches from Roman history. The +first is an oration pronounced against Sylla by the turbulent +Marcus Æmilius Lepidus; who, (as is well known,) being desirous, +at the expiration of his year, to be appointed a second +time Consul, excited, for that purpose, a civil war, and rendered +himself master of a great part of Italy. His speech which +was preparatory to these designs, was delivered after Sylla +had abdicated the dictatorship, but was still supposed to retain +great influence at Rome. He is accordingly treated as +being still the tyrant of the state; and the people are exhorted +to throw off the yoke completely, and to follow the speaker to +the bold assertion of their liberties. The second oration, +which is that of Lucius Philippus, is an invective against the +treasonable attempt of Lepidus, and was calculated to rouse +the people from the apathy with which they beheld proceedings +that were likely to terminate in the total subversion of +the government. The third harangue was delivered by the +Tribune Licinius: It was an effort of that demagogue to depress +the patrician, and raise the tribunitial power, for which +purpose he alternately flatters the people, and reviles the Senate. +The oration of Marcus Cotta is unquestionably a fine +one. He addressed it to the people, during the period of +his Consulship, in order to calm their minds, and allay their +resentment at the bad success of public affairs, which, without +any blame on his part, had lately, in many respects, been +conducted to an unprosperous issue. Of the two letters +which are extant, the one is from Pompey to the Senate, complaining, +in very strong terms, of the deficiency in the supplies +for the army which he commanded in Spain against Sertorius; +the other is feigned to be addressed from Mithridates +to Arsaces, King of Parthia, and to be written when the affairs +of the former monarch were proceeding <anchor id="corr093"/><corr sic="unsuccessfully">unsuccessfully.</corr> It +exhorts him, nevertheless, with great eloquence and power of +argument, to join him in an alliance against the Romans: for +this purpose, it places in a strong point of view their +unprin<pb n='94'/><anchor id='Pg094'/>cipled policy, and ambitious desire of universal empire—all +which could not, without this device of an imaginary letter by +a foe, have been so well urged by a national historian. It concludes +with showing the extreme danger which the Parthians +would incur from the hostility of the Romans, should they succeed +in finally subjugating Pontus and Armenia. The only +other fragment, of any length, is the description of a splendid +entertainment given to Metellus, on his return, after a year’s +absence, to his government of Farther Spain. It appears, +from several other fragments, that Sallust had introduced, on +occasion of the Mithridatic war, a geographical account of +the shores and countries bordering on the Euxine, in the same +manner as he enters into a topographical description of Africa, +in his history of the Jugurthine war. This part of his work +has been much applauded by ancient writers for exactness and +liveliness; and is frequently referred to, as the highest authority, +by Strabo, Pomponius Mela, and other geographers. +</p> + +<p> +Besides his historical works, there exist two political discourses, +concerning the administration of the government, in +the form of letters to Julius Cæsar, which have generally, +though not on sufficient grounds, been attributed to the pen +of Sallust<note place="foot">It is curious into what gross blunders the most learned and accurate writers occasionally +fall. Fabricius, speaking of these letters, says, <q>Duæ orationes (sive +epistolæ potius) de Rep. ordinandâ ad Cæsarem missæ, cum in Hispanias proficisceretur +contra Petreium et Afranium, <hi rend='italic'>victo Cn. Pompeio</hi>.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Bibliothec. Latin.</hi> Lib. +I. c. 9.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +As Sallust has obviously imitated, and, in fact, resembles +Thucydides, so has +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Julius Cæsar"/><index index="pdf" level1="Julius Caesar"/> +<head>JULIUS CÆSAR,</head> + +<p> +in his historical works, been compared to Xenophon, the first +memoir writer among the Greeks. Simplicity is the characteristic +of both, but Xenophon has more rhetorical flow and +sweetness of style, and he is sometimes, I think, a little +mawkish; while the simplicity of Cæsar, on the other hand, +borders, perhaps, on severity. Cæsar, too, though often circumstantial, +is never diffuse, while Xenophon is frequently +prolix, without being minute or accurate. <q>In the Latin +work,</q> says Young, in his <hi rend='italic'>History of Athens</hi>, <q>we have the +commentaries of a general vested with supreme command, and +who felt no anxiety about the conduct or obedience of his +army—in the Greek, we possess the journal of an officer in +subordinate rank, though of high estimation. Hence the +<pb n='95'/><anchor id='Pg095'/>speeches of the one are replete with imperatorial dignity, +those of the other are delivered with the conciliatory arts of +argument and condescension. Hence, too, the mind of Xenophon +was absorbed in the care and discipline of those under +his command; but thence we are better acquainted with the +Greek army than with that of Cæsar. Cæsar’s attention was +ever directed to those he was to attack, to counteract, or to oppose—Xenophon’s +to those he was to conduct. For the same +reason, Xenophon is superficial with respect to any peculiarities +of the nations he passed through; while in Cæsar we +have a curious, and well authenticated detail, relative to the +Gauls, the Britons, and every other enemy. The comparison, +however, holds in this, that Cæsar, like Xenophon, was properly +a writer of Memoirs. Like him, he aimed at nothing +farther than communicating facts in a plain familiar manner; +and the account of his campaign was only drawn up as materials +for future history, not having leisure to bestow that +ornament and dress which history requires.</q> In the opinion +of his contemporaries, however, and all subsequent critics, he +has rendered desperate any attempt to write the history of the +wars of which he treats. <q>Dum voluit,</q> says Cicero, <q>alios +habere parata, unde sumerent, qui vellent scribere historiam, +sanos quidem homines a scribendo deterruit.</q> A similar +opinion is given by his continuator Hirtius,—<q>Adeo probantur +omnium judicio ut prærepta, non præbita, facultas scriptoribus +videatur.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Cæsar’s Commentaries consist of seven books of the Gallic, +and three of the civil wars. Some critics, however, particularly +Floridus Sabinus<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Lectiones Subsecivæ</hi>, Lib. I. c. 3. Lib. II. c. 2.</note>, deny that he was the author of the books +on the latter war, while Carrio and Ludovicus Caduceus doubt +of his being the author even of the Gallic war,—the last of +these critics attributing the work to Suetonius. Hardouin, +who believed that most of the works now termed classical, +were forgeries of the monks in the thirteenth century, also +tried to persuade the world, that the whole account of the +Gallic campaigns was a fiction, and that Cæsar had never +drawn a sword in Gaul in his life. The testimony, however, +of Cicero and Hirtius, who were contemporary with Cæsar,—of +many authentic writers, who lived after him, as Suetonius, +Strabo, and Plutarch,—and of all the old grammarians, must +be considered as settling the question; for if such evidence is +not implicitly trusted, there seems to be an end of all reliance +on ancient authority. +</p> + +<p> +Though these Commentaries comprehend but a small extent +<pb n='96'/><anchor id='Pg096'/>of time, and are not the general history of a nation, they embrace +events of the highest importance, and they detail, perhaps, +the greatest military operations to be found in ancient +story. We see in them all that is great and consummate in +the art of war. The ablest commander of the most martial +people on the globe records the history of his own campaigns. +Placed at the head of the finest army ever formed in the world, +and one devoted to his fortunes, but opposed by military skill +and prowess only second to its own, he, and the soldiers he +commanded, may be almost extolled in the words in which +Nestor praised the heroes who had gone before him:— +</p> + +<lg> + <l><q rend="post: none"><foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Καρτισοι δη κεινοι ἐπιχθονιων τραφεν ανδρων,</foreign><!--[Greek: Kartisoi dê keinoi epichthoniôn traphen andrôn,--></q></l> +<l><q rend="pre: none"><foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Καρτισοι μεν ἐσαν και καρτισοις ἐμαχοντο</foreign><!--Kartisoi men esan kai kartisois emachonto]-->,</q> ——</l> +</lg> + +<p> +for the Gauls and Germans were among the bravest and most +warlike nations then on earth, and Pompey was accounted the +most consummate general of his age. No commander, it is +universally admitted, ever had such knowledge of the mechanical +part of war: He possessed the complete empire of the +sea, and was aided by all the influence derived from the constituted +authority of the state. +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole Commentaries, +is the account of the campaign in Spain against Afranius +and Petreius, in which Cæsar, being reduced to extremities +for want of provisions and forage, (in consequence of the +bridges over the rivers, between which he had encamped, being +broken down,) extricated himself from this situation, after +a variety of skilful manœuvres, and having pursued Pompey’s +generals into Celtiberia, and back again to Lerida, forced +their legions to surrender, by placing them in those very +difficulties from which he had so ably relieved his own army. +</p> + +<p> +It is obvious that the greater part of such Commentaries +must be necessarily occupied with the detail of warlike operations. +The military genius of Rome breathes through the +whole work, and it comprehends all the varieties which warfare +offers to our interest, and perhaps, undue admiration—pitched +battles, affairs of posts, encampments, retreats, marches +in face of the foe through woods and over plains or mountains, +passages of rivers, sieges, defence of forts, and those still more +interesting accounts of the spirit and discipline of the enemies’ +troops, and the talents of their generals. In his clear +and scientific details of military operations, Cæsar is reckoned +superior to every writer, except, perhaps, Polybius. Some +persons have thought he was too minute, and that, by describing +every evolution performed in a battle, he has rendered his +<pb n='97'/><anchor id='Pg097'/>relations somewhat crowded. But this was his principle, and +it served the design of the author. +</p> + +<p> +As he records almost nothing at which he was not personally +present, or heard of from those acting under his immediate +directions, he possessed the best information with regard to +everything of which he wrote<note place="foot">Asinius Pollio, however, as we learn from Suetonius, thought that the Commentaries +were drawn up with little care or accuracy, that the author was very credulous +as to the actions of others, and that he had very hastily written down what +regarded himself, with the intention, which he never accomplished, of afterwards +revising and correcting.—Sueton. <hi rend='italic'>in Cæsar.</hi> c. 56.</note>. In general, when he speaks +of himself, it is without affectation or arrogance. He talks of +Cæsar as of an indifferent person, and always maintains the +character which he has thus assumed; indeed, it can hardly +be conceived that he had so small a share in the great actions +he describes, as appears from his own representations. With +exception of the false colours with which he disguises his ambitious +projects against the liberties of his country, everything +seems to be told with fidelity and candour. Nor is there any +very unfair concealment of the losses he may have sustained: +he ingenuously acknowledges his own disaster in the affair at +Dyracchium; he admits the loss of 960 men, and the complete +frustration of his whole plan for the campaign. When he +relates his successes, on the other hand, it is with moderation. +There is the utmost caution, reserve, and modesty, in his account +of the battle of Pharsalia; and one would hardly conceive +that the historian had any share in the action or victory. +He in general acknowledges, that the events of war are beyond +human control, and ascribes the largest share of success +to the power of fortune. The rest he seems willing to attribute +to the valour of his soldiers, and the good conduct of his +military associates. Thus he gives the chief credit and glory +of the great victory over Ariovistus to the presence of mind +displayed by Crassus, who promptly made the signal to a body +of men to advance and support one of the wings which was +overpowered by the multitude of the enemy, and was beginning +to give way. He does not even omit to do justice to the +distinguished and generous valour of the two centurions, Pulfio +and Varenus, or of the centurion Sextius Baculus, during +the alarming attack by the Sicambri. On the other hand, +when he has occasion to mention the failure of his friends, as +in relating Curio’s defeat and death in Africa, he does it with +tenderness and indulgence. Of his enemies, he speaks without +insult or contempt; and even in giving his judgment upon +a great military question, though he disapproves Pompey’s +mode of waiting for the attack at Pharsalia, his own reasons +<pb n='98'/><anchor id='Pg098'/>for a contrary opinion are urged with deference and candour. +The confident hopes which were entertained in Pompey’s +camp—the pretensions and disputes of the leading senators, +about the division of patronage and officers, and the confiscations +which were supposed to be just falling within their +grasp, furnished him with some amusing anecdotes, which it +must have been difficult to resist inserting; nor can we wonder, +that while all the preparations for celebrating the anticipated +victory with luxury and festivity, were matters of ocular +observation, he should have devoted some few passages in his +Commentaries, to recording the vanity and presumption of +such fond expectations. Labienus, who had deserted him, +and Scipio, who gave him so much trouble, by rekindling the +war, are those of whom he speaks with the greatest rancour, +in relating the cruelty of the former, and the tyrannical ingenious +rapacity of the latter<note place="foot">Bankes, <hi rend='italic'>Civil Hist. of Rome</hi>, Vol. II.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Whatever concerns the events of the civil war could not +easily have been falsified or misrepresented. So many enemies, +who had been eye-witnesses of everything, survived that +period, that the author could scarcely have swerved from the +truth without detection. But in his contests with the Gauls, +and Germans, and Britons, there was no one to contradict him. +Those who accompanied him were devoted to his fame and +fortunes, and interested like himself in exalting the glory of +these foreign exploits. That he has varnished over the real +motives, and also the issue, of his expedition to Britain has been +frequently suspected. The reason he himself assigns for the undertaking +is, that he understood supplies had been thence furnished +to the enemy, in almost all the Gallic wars; but Suetonius +asserts, that the information he had received of the +quantity and size of the pearls on the British coast, was his +real inducement. Fourteen short chapters in the fourth book +of the Gallic war, relate his first visit, and his hasty return; +and sixteen in the fifth, detail his progress in the following +summer. These chapters have derived importance from containing +the earliest authentic memorials of the inhabitants and +state of this island; and there has, of course, been much discussion +on the genuine though imperfect notices they afford. +Various tracts, chiefly published in the <hi rend='italic'>Archæologia</hi>, have +topographically followed the various steps of Cæsar’s progress, +particularly his passage across the Thames, and have debated +the situation of the Portus Iccius, from which he embarked for +Britain. +</p> + +<p> +Cæsar’s occasional digressions concerning the manners of +<pb n='99'/><anchor id='Pg099'/>the Gauls and Germans, are also highly interesting and instructive, +and are the only accounts to be at all depended on with +regard to the institutions and customs of these two great nations, +at that remote period. In Gaul he had remained so +long, and had so thoroughly studied the habits and customs +of its people for his own political purposes, that whatever is +delivered concerning that country, may be confidently relied +on. His intercourse with the German tribes was occasional, +and chiefly of a military description. Some of his observations +on their manners—as their hospitality, the continence of their +youth, and the successive occupation of different lands by the +same families—are confirmed by Tacitus; but in other particulars, +especially in what relates to their religion, he is contradicted +by that great historian. Cæsar declares that they +have no sacrifices, and know no gods, but those, like the Sun +or Moon, which are visible, and whose benefits they enjoy<note place="foot">Neque Druides habent, qui rebus divinis præsint; neque sacrificiis student. +Deorum numero eos solos ducunt, quos cernunt, et quorum opibus aperte juvantur—Solem, +et Vulcanum, et Lunam: reliquos ne famâ quidem acceperunt. Lib. VI. +c. 21.</note>. +Tacitus informs us, that their chief god is Mercury, whom they +appease by human victims; that they also sacrifice animals to +Hercules and Mars; and adore that Secret Intelligence, which +is only seen in the eye of mental veneration<note place="foot">Deorum maximè Mercurium colunt, cui, certis diebus, humanis quoque hostiis, +litare fas habent. Herculem ac Martem concessis animalibus placant ... Lucos ac +nemora consecrant, deorumque nominibus appellant Secretum illud, quod solâ reverentia +vident. <hi rend='italic'>De Mor. Germ.</hi> c. 9.</note>. The researches +of modern writers have also thrown some doubts on the accuracy +of Cæsar’s German topography; and Cluverius, in particular, +has attempted to show, that he has committed many errors +in speaking both of the Germans and Batavians<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Germ. Antiqua</hi>, Lib. I. c. 3.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +As the Commentaries of Cæsar do not pretend to the elaborate +dignity of history, the author can scarcely be blamed if +he has detailed his facts without mingling many reflections or +observations. He seldom inserts a political or characteristic +remark, though he had frequent opportunities for both, in describing +such singular people as the Gauls, Germans, and +Britons. But his object was not, like Sallust or Tacitus, to +deduce practical reflections for the benefit of his reader, or to +explain the political springs of the transactions he relates. +His simple narrative was merely intended for the gratification +of those Roman citizens, whom he had already persuaded to +favour his ambitious projects; yet even they, I think, might +have wished to have heard something more of what may be +called the military motives of his actions. He tells us of his +<pb n='100'/><anchor id='Pg100'/>marches, retreats, and encampments, but seldom sufficiently +explains the grounds on which these warlike measures were +undertaken—how they advanced his own plans, or frustrated +the designs of the enemy. More insight into the military views +by which he was prompted, would have given additional interest +and animation to his narrative, and afforded ampler lessons +of instruction. +</p> + +<p> +No person, I presume, wishes to be told, for the twentieth +time, that the style of Cæsar is remarkable for clearness and +ease, and a simplicity more truly noble than the pomp of +words. Perhaps the most distinguishing characteristic of his +style, is its perfect equality of expression. There was, in the +mind of Cæsar, a serene and even dignity. In temper, nothing +appeared to agitate or move him—in conduct, nothing diverted +him from the attainment of his end. In like manner, in his +style, there is nothing swelling or depressed, and not one word +occurs which is chosen for the mere purpose of embellishment. +The opinion of Cicero, who compared the style of Cæsar to +the unadorned simplicity of an ancient Greek statue, may be +considered as the highest praise, since he certainly entertained +no favourable feelings towards the author; and the style was +very different from that which he himself employed in his harangues, +or philosophical works, or even in his correspondence. +<q>Nudi sunt,</q> says he, <q>recti, et venusti, omni ornatu orationis +tanquam veste detracto.</q> This exquisite purity was +not insensibly obtained, as the Lælian and Mucian Families +are said to have acquired it, by domestic habit and familiar +conversation, but by assiduous study and thorough knowledge +of the Latin language<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 72.</note>, and the practice of literary composition, +to which Cæsar had been accustomed from his earliest youth<note place="foot">See Plutarch <hi rend='italic'>In Cæsare</hi>, where it is related that Cæsar wrote verses and +speeches, and read them to the pirates by whom he was taken prisoner, on his +return to Rome from Bithynia, where he had sought refuge from the power of Sylla.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +But, however admirable for its purity and elegance, the +style of Cæsar seems to be somewhat deficient, both in vivacity +and vigour. Walchius, too, has pointed out a few words, +which he considers not of pure Latinity, as <hi rend='italic'>ambactus</hi>, a term +employed by the Gauls and Germans to signify a servant—also +<hi rend='italic'>Ancorarii</hi> funes, a word nowhere else used as an adjective—<hi rend='italic'>Antemittere</hi> +for <hi rend='italic'>premittere</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>summo magistratu præiverat</hi> +for <hi rend='italic'>magistratui</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Hist. Critic. Ling. Lat.</hi> p. 537.</note>. The use of such words as <hi rend='italic'>collabefieret</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>contabulatio</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>detrimentosum</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>explicitius</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>materiari</hi>, would +lead us to suspect that Cæsar had not <hi rend='italic'>always</hi> attended to the +rule which he so strongly laid down in his book, <hi rend='italic'>De Analogia</hi>, +<pb n='101'/><anchor id='Pg101'/>to avoid, as a rock, every unusual word or expression. Bergerus, +in an immense quarto, entitled <hi rend='italic'>De Naturali pulchritudine +Orationis</hi> has at great length attempted to show that Cæsar +had anticipated all the precepts subsequently delivered by +Longinus, for reaching the utmost excellence and dignity of +composition. He points out his conformity to these rules, in +what he conceives to be the abridgments, amplifications, +transitions, gradations,—in short, all the various figures and +ornaments of speech, which could be employed by the most +pedantic rhetorician; and he also critically examines those few +words and phrases of questionable purity, which are so thinly +scattered through the Commentaries. +</p> + +<p> +Mankind usually judge of a literary composition by its intrinsic +merit, without taking into consideration the age of the +author, the celerity with which it was composed, or the various +circumstances under which it was written; and in this, perhaps, +they act not unjustly, since their business is with the +work, and not with the qualities of the author. But were such +things to be taken into view, it should be remembered, that +these Memoirs were hastily drawn up during the tumult and +anxiety of campaigns, and were jotted down from day to day, +without care or premeditation. <q>Ceteri,</q> says Hirtius, the +companion of Cæsar’s expeditions, and the continuator of his +Commentaries,—<q>Ceteri quam bene atque emendate; nos +etiam quam facile atque celeriter eos perscripserit scimus.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The Commentaries, <hi rend='italic'>De Bello Gallico</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>De Bello Civili</hi>, +are the only productions of Cæsar which remain to us. Several +ancient writers speak of his <hi rend='italic'>Ephemeris</hi>, or Diary; but it +has been doubted whether the work, so termed by Plutarch, +Servius, Symmachus, and several others, be the same book as +the Commentaries, or a totally different production. The +former opinion is adopted by Fabricius, who thinks that <hi rend='italic'>Ephemeris</hi>, +or <hi rend='italic'>Ephemerides</hi>, is only another name for the Commentaries, +which in fact may be considered as having been written +in the manner and form of a diary. He acknowledges, that +several passages, cited by Servius, as taken from these <hi rend='italic'>Ephemerides</hi>, +are not now to be found in the Commentaries; but +then he maintains that there are evidently defects (<hi rend='italic'>lacunæ</hi>) +in the latter work; and he conjectures that the words quoted +by Servius are part of the lost passages of the Commentaries. +This opinion is followed by Vossius, who cites a sort of Colophon +at the end of one of the oldest MSS. of the Commentaries +which he thinks decisive of the question, as it shows +that the term <hi rend='italic'>Ephemeris</hi> was currently applied to them.—<q>C. +J. Cæsaris, P. M. Ephemeris rerum Gestarum Belli Gallici, Lib. +VIII. explicit feliciter.</q> +</p> + +<pb n='102'/><anchor id='Pg102'/> + +<p> +Bayle, in his Dictionary, has supported the opposite theory. +He believes the <hi rend='italic'>Ephemeris</hi> to have been a journal of the author’s +life. He admits, that a passage which Plutarch quotes +as from the <hi rend='italic'>Ephemeris</hi>, occurs also in the fourth book of the +Commentaries; but then he maintains, that it was impossible +for Cæsar not to have frequently mentioned the same thing in +his Commentaries and Journal, and he thinks, that had Plutarch +meant to allude to the former, he would have called +them, not <hi rend='italic'>Ephemeris</hi>, but <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">ὑπομνηματα</foreign><!--[Greek: hypomnêmata]--> as Strabo has termed +them. Besides, Polyænus mentions divers warlike stratagems, +as recorded by Cæsar, which are not contained in the Commentaries, +and which, therefore, could have been explained +only in the separate work <hi rend='italic'>Ephemeris</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +There are still some fragments remaining of the letters +which Cæsar addressed to the Senate and his friends, and also +of his orations, which were considered as inferior only to those +of Cicero. Of his rhetorical talents, something may be hereafter +said. It appears that his qualities as an orator and +historian, were very different, since vehemence and the power +of exciting emotion, (concitatio,) are mentioned as the characteristics +of his harangues. Some of them were delivered +in behalf of clients, and on real business, in the Forum; but +the two orations entitled <hi rend='italic'>Anticatones</hi> were merely written in +the form and manner of accusations before a judicial tribunal. +These rhetorical declamations, which were composed about +the time of the battle of Munda, were intended as an answer +to the laudatory work of Cicero, called <hi rend='italic'>Laus Catonis</hi>. The +author particularly considered in them the last act of Cato at +Utica, and has raked up all the vices and defects of his character, +whether real or imputed, public or private,—his ambition, +affectation of singularity, churlishness, and avarice; but +as the <hi rend='italic'>Anticatones</hi> were seasoned with lavish commendations +of Cicero, whose panegyric on Cato they were intended to +confute, the orator felt much flattered with the dictatorial incense, +and greatly admired the performances in which it was +offered,—<q>Collegit vitia Catonis, sed cum maximis laudibus +meis<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. XII. ep. 40.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +These two rival works were much celebrated at Rome; and +both of them had their several admirers, as different parties +and interests disposed men to favour the subject, or the author +of each. It seems also certain, that they were the principal +cause of establishing and promoting that veneration which +posterity has since paid to the memory of Cato; for his name +being thrown into controversy in that critical period of the +<pb n='103'/><anchor id='Pg103'/>fate of Rome, by the patron of liberty on one side, and its oppressor +on the other, it became a kind of political test to all +succeeding ages, and a perpetual argument of dispute between +the friends of freedom, and the flatterers of power<note place="foot">Middleton’s <hi rend='italic'>Life of Cicero</hi>, Vol. II, p. 347, 2d ed.</note>. The +controversy was taken up by Brutus, the nephew, and Fabius +Gallus, an admirer of Cato: it was renewed by Augustus, who +naturally espoused the royal side of the question, and by +Thraseas Pætus, who ventured on this dangerous topic during +the darkest days of imperial despotism. +</p> + +<p> +Cæsar’s situation as Pontifex Maximus probably led him to +write the <hi rend='italic'>Auguralia</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>Libri Auspiciorum</hi>, which, as their +names import, were books explaining the different auguries and +presages derived from the flight of birds. To the same circumstance +we may attribute his work on the motions of the stars, <hi rend='italic'>De +Motu Siderum</hi>, which explains what he had learned in Egypt +on that subject from Sosigenes, a peripatetic philosopher of +Alexandria, and in which, if we may credit the elder Pliny, +he prognosticated his own death on the ides of March<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XVIII. c. 26.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The composition of the works hitherto mentioned naturally +enough suggested itself to a high-priest, warrior, and politician, +who was also fond of literature, and had the same command +of his pen as of his sword. But it appears singular, that +one so much occupied with war, and with political schemes +for the ruin of his country, should have seriously employed +himself in writing formal and elaborate treatises on grammar. +There is no doubt, however, that he composed a work, in two +books, on the analogies of the Latin tongue, which was addressed +to Cicero, and was entitled, like the preceding work +of Varro on the same subject, <hi rend='italic'>De Analogia</hi>. It was written, +as we are informed by Suetonius, while crossing the Alps, on +his return to the army from Hither Gaul, where he had gone +to attend the assemblies of that province<note place="foot">Sueton. <hi rend='italic'>In Cæsar.</hi> c. 56.</note>. In this book, the +great principle established by him was, that the proper choice +of words formed the foundation of eloquence<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi> c. 72.</note>; and he cautioned +authors and public speakers to avoid as a rock every +unusual word or unwonted expression<note place="foot">Au. Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. I. c. 10.</note>. His declensions, however, +of some nouns, appear, at least to us, not a little strange—as +<hi rend='italic'>turbo</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>turbonis</hi>, instead of <hi rend='italic'>turbinis</hi><note place="foot">Charisius, Lib. I.</note>; and likewise his +inflections of verbs,—as, <hi rend='italic'>mordeo</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>memordi</hi>; <hi rend='italic'>pungo,</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>pepugi</hi>; +<hi rend='italic'>spondeo</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>spepondi</hi><note place="foot">Au. Gellius, Lib VII, c. 9.</note>. He also treated of derivatives; as we are +informed, that he derived ens from the verb <hi rend='italic'>sum</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>es</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>est</hi>; and +of rules of grammar,—as that the dative and ablative singular +<pb n='104'/><anchor id='Pg104'/>of neuters in <hi rend='italic'>e</hi> are the same, as also of neuters in <hi rend='italic'>ar</hi>, except +<hi rend='italic'>far</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>jubar</hi>. It appears that he even descended to the most +minute consideration of orthography and the formation of letters; +Thus, he was of opinion, that the letter V should be +formed like an inverted F,—thus Ⅎ,—because it has the force +of the Æolic digamma. Cassiodorus farther mentions, that, in +the question with regard to the use of the <hi rend='italic'>u</hi> or <hi rend='italic'>i</hi> in such words +as <hi rend='italic'>maxumus</hi> or <hi rend='italic'>maximus</hi>, Cæsar gave the preference to <hi rend='italic'>i</hi>; and, +from such high authority, this spelling was adopted in general +practice. +</p> + +<p> +It has been said, that Cæsar also made a collection of +apophthegms and anecdotes, in the style of our modern <hi rend='italic'>Ana</hi>; +but Augustus prevented these from being made public. That +emperor likewise, in a letter to Pompeius Macrus, to whom he +had given the charge of arranging his library, prohibited the +publication of several poetical effusions of Cæsar’s youth. +These are said to have consisted of a tragedy on the subject +of Œdipus, and a poem in praise of Hercules<note place="foot">Sueton. <hi rend='italic'>In Cæsar.</hi> c. 56.</note>. Another +poem, entitled <hi rend='italic'>Iter</hi> was written by him in maturer age. It is +said, by Suetonius, to have been composed when he reached +Farther Spain, on the twenty-fourth day after his departure +from Rome<note place="foot">Ibid.</note>; and it may therefore be conjectured to have +been a poetical relation of the incidents which occurred during +that journey, embellished, perhaps, with descriptions of +the most striking scenery through which he passed. Two +epigrams, which are still extant, have also been frequently attributed +to him; one on the dramatic character of Terence, +already quoted<note place="foot">See above, <!-- xref -->Vol. I. p. 204.</note>, and another on a Thracian boy, who, while +playing on the ice, fell into the river Hebrus,— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q>Thrax puer, astricto glacie dum luderet Hebro,</q> &c.</l> +</lg> + +<p> +But this last is, with more probability, supposed by many to +have been the production of Cæsar Germanicus. +</p> + +<p> +There were also several useful and important works accomplished +under the eye and direction of Cæsar, such as the graphic +survey of the whole Roman empire. Extensive as their +conquests had been, the Romans hitherto had done almost +nothing for geography, considered as a science. Their knowledge +was confined to the countries they had subdued, and +them they regarded only with a view to the levies they could +furnish, and the taxations they could endure. Cæsar was the +first who formed more exalted plans. Æthicus, a writer of the +fourth century, informs us, in the preface to his <hi rend='italic'>Cosmographia</hi>, +<pb n='105'/><anchor id='Pg105'/>that this great man obtained a <hi rend='italic'>senatusconsultum</hi>, by which a +geometrical survey and measurement of the whole Roman empire +was enjoined to three geometers. Xenodoxus was charged +with the eastern, Polycletus with the southern, and Theodotus +with the northern provinces. Their scientific labour was immediately +commenced, but was not completed till more than +thirty years after the death of him with whom the undertaking +had originated. The information which Cæsar had received +from the astronomer Sosigenes in Egypt, enabled him to alter +and amend the Roman calendar. It would be foreign from +my purpose to enter into an examination of this system of the +Julian year, but the computation he adopted has been explained, +as is well known, by Scaliger and Gassendi<note place="foot">See also Blondellus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. du Calendrier Romain</hi>. Paris, 1682, 4to; Bianchinus, +<hi rend='italic'>Dissert. de Calendario et Cyclo Cæsaris</hi>, Rom. 1703, folio; and Court de +Gebelin, <hi rend='italic'>Monde Primit.</hi> T. IV.</note>; and it +has been since maintained, with little farther alteration than +that introduced by Pope Gregory XIII. When we consider +the imperfection of all mathematical instruments in the time of +Cæsar, and the total want of telescopes, we cannot but view +with admiration, not unmixed with astonishment, that comprehensive +genius, which, in the infancy of science, could surmount +such difficulties, and compute a system, that experienced +but a trifling derangement in the course of sixteen +centuries. +</p> + +<p> +Although Cæsar wrote with his own hand only seven books +of the Gallic campaigns, and the history of the civil wars till +the death of his great rival, it seems highly probable, that he +revised the last or eighth book of the Gallic war, and communicated +information for the history of the Alexandrian and +African expeditions, which are now usually published along +with his own Commentaries, and may be considered as their +supplement, or continuation. The author of these works, +which nearly complete the interesting story of the campaigns +of Cæsar, was Aulus Hirtius, one of his most zealous followers, +and most confidential friends. He had been nominated Consul +for the year following the death of his master; and, after +that event, having espoused the cause of freedom, he was slain +in the attack made by the forces of the republic on Antony’s +camp, near Modena. +</p> + +<p> +The eighth book of the Gallic war contains the account of +the renewal of the contest by the states of Gaul, after the surrender +of Alesia, and of the different battles which ensued, at +most of which Hirtius was personally present, till the final +pacification, when Cæsar, learning the designs which were +forming against him at Rome, set out for Italy. +</p> + +<pb n='106'/><anchor id='Pg106'/> + +<p> +Cæsar, in the conclusion of the third book of the Civil War, +mentions the commencement of the Alexandrian war. Hirtius +was not personally present at the succeeding events of +this Egyptian contest, in which Cæsar was involved with the +generals of Ptolemy, nor during his rapid campaigns in Pontus +against Pharnaces, and against the remains of the Pompeian +party in Africa, where they had assembled under Scipio, and +being supported by Juba, still presented a formidable appearance. +He collected, however, the leading events from the +conversation of Cæsar<note place="foot">Mihi non illud quidem accidit, ut Alexandrino atque Africano bello interessem; +quæ bella tamen ex parte nobis Cæsaris sermone sunt nota. <hi rend='italic'>De Bell. Gall.</hi> Lib. +VIII.</note>, and the officers who were engaged in +these campaigns. He has obviously imitated the style of his +master; and the resemblance which he has happily attained, +has given an appearance of unity and consistence to the whole +series of these well-written and authentic memoirs. It appears +that Hirtius carried down the history even to the death of +Cæsar, for in his preface addressed to Balbus, he says, that he +had brought down what was left imperfect from the transactions +at Alexandria, to the end, not of the civil dissensions, to +a termination of which there was no prospect, but of the life +of Cæsar<note place="foot">Imperfecta ab rebus gestis Alexandriæ confeci, usque ad exitum, non quidem +civilis dissensionis, cujus finem nullum videmus, sed vitæ Cæsaris. <hi rend='italic'>De Bell. Gall.</hi></note>. +</p> + +<p> +This latter part, however, of the Commentaries of Hirtius, +has been lost, as it seems now to be generally acknowledged +that he was not the author of the book <hi rend='italic'>De Bello Hispanico</hi>, +which relates Cæsar’s second campaign in Spain, undertaken +against young Cneius Pompey, who, having assembled, in the +ulterior province of that country, those of his father’s party +who had survived the disasters in Thessaly and Africa, and +being joined by some of the native states, presented a formidable +resistance to the power of Cæsar, till his hopes were +terminated by the decisive battle of Munda. Dodwell, indeed, +in a Dissertation on this subject, maintains, that it was originally +written by Hirtius, but was interpolated by Julius Celsus, +a Constantinopolitan writer of the 6th or 7th century. Vossius, +however, whose opinion is that more commonly received, +attributes it to Caius Oppius<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Hist. Lat.</hi> Lib. I. c. 13.</note>, who wrote the Lives of Illustrious +Captains, and also a book to prove that the Ægyptian +Cæsario was not the son of Cæsar. Oppius was Cæsar’s confidential +friend, and companion in many of his enterprizes; and +it was to him, as we are informed by Suetonius, that Cæsar +gave up the only apartment at an inn, while they were +travel<pb n='107'/><anchor id='Pg107'/>ling in Gaul, and lay himself on the ground, and in the open +air<note place="foot">Sueton. <hi rend='italic'>In Cæsar.</hi> c. 72.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +A fragment has been added at the end of this book, on the +Spanish war, by Jungerman, from a MS. of Petavius. Vossius +thinks that this fragment was taken from the Commentaries, +called those of Julius Celsus, on the Life of Cæsar, published +in 1473. These Commentaries, however, were the work of a +Christian writer; but Julius Celsus, a Constantinopolitan of the +6th century, already mentioned, having revised the Commentaries +of Cæsar, the work on his life came, (from the confusion +of names, or perhaps from a fiction devised, to give the stamp +of authority,) to be attributed to Julius Celsus, who was contemporary +with Cæsar, and was reported to have written a history +of his campaigns; just in the same way as a fabulous life +of Alexander, produced in the middle ages, passes to this day +under the name of Callisthenes, the historiographer of the +Macedonian monarch. +</p> + +<p> +There is no other historian of the period on which we are now +engaged, of whose works even any fragments have descended +to us. Atticus, however, wrote Memoirs of Rome from the earliest +periods, and also memoirs of its principal families, as the +Junian, Cornelian, and Fabian,—tracing their origin, enumerating +their honours, and recording their exploits. At the same +time Lucceius composed Histories of the Social War, and of +the Civil Wars of Sylla, which were so highly esteemed by +Cicero, that he urges him in one of his letters to undertake a +history of his consulship, in which he discovered and suppressed +the conspiracy of Catiline<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Famil.</hi> Lib. V. Ep. 12.</note>. From a subsequent letter to +Atticus we learn that Lucceius had promised to accomplish +the task suggested to him<note place="foot">Lib. IV. Ep. 6.</note>. It is probable, however, that it +never was completed,—his labour having been interrupted by +the civil wars, in which he followed the fortunes of Pompey, +and was indeed one of his chief advisers in adopting the fatal +resolution of quitting Italy. +</p> + +<p> +The Annals of Procilius, which appeared at this period, may +be conjectured to have comprehended the whole series of Roman +history, from the building of the city to his own time; +since Varro quotes him for the account of Curtius throwing +himself into the gulf<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Ling. Lat.</hi> Lib. IV.</note> and Pliny refers to him for some remarks +with regard to the elephants which appeared at Pompey’s +African triumph<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. VIII. c. 2.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Brutus is also said to have written epitomes of the meagre +and barren histories of Fannius and Antipater. That he should +<pb n='108'/><anchor id='Pg108'/>have thought of abridging narratives so proverbially dry and +jejune, seems altogether inexplicable. +</p> + +<p> +The works of an historian called Cæcina have also perished, +and if we may trust to his own account of them, their loss is +not greatly to be deplored. In one of his letters to Cicero he +says, <q>From much have I been compelled to refrain, many +things I have been forced to pass over lightly, many to curtail, +and very many absolutely to omit. Thus circumscribed, restricted, +and broken as it is, what pleasure or what useful information +can be expected from the recital<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Famil.</hi> Lib. VI. Ep. 7.</note>?</q> +</p> + +<p> +We have thus traced the progress of historical composition +among the Romans, from its commencement to the time of +Augustus. There is no history so distinguished and adorned +as the Roman, by illustrious characters; and the circumstances +which it records produced the greatest as well as most permanent +empire that ever existed on earth. The interest of the +early events, and the value of the conclusions to be drawn +from them, are much diminished by their uncertainty. Subsequently, +however, to the second Punic war, the Roman historians +were, for the most part, themselves engaged in the +affairs of which they treat, and had therefore, at least, the +most perfect <hi rend='italic'>means</hi> of communicating accurate information. +But this advantage, which, in one point of view, is so prodigious, +was attended with concomitant evils. Lucian, in his +treatise, How History ought to be Written, says, that the author +of this species of composition should be abstracted from +all connection with the persons and things which are its subjects; +that he should be of no country and no party; that he +should be free from all passion, and unconcerned who is pleased +or offended with what he writes. Now, the Roman historians +of the era on which we are engaged were the slaves of +party or the heads of factions; and even when superior to all +petty interests or prejudices, they still show plainly that they +are Romans. None of them stood impartially aloof from their +subject, or supplied the want of historians of Carthage and of +Gaul, by whom their narratives might be corrected, and their +colouring softened. +</p> + +<milestone unit="tb"/> + +<p> +Of all the arts next to war, Eloquence was of most importance +in Rome; since, if the former led to the conquest of foreign +states, the latter opened to each individual a path to +empire and dominion over the minds of his fellow citizens<note place="foot"><q>Duæ sunt artes,</q> says Cicero, <q>quæ possunt locare homines in amplissimo +gradu dignitatis: una imperatoris, altera oratoris boni: Ab hoc enim pacis ornamenta +retinentur; ab illo belli pericula repelluntur.</q> <hi rend='italic'>Orat. pro Muræna</hi>, c. 14.</note>. +<pb n='109'/><anchor id='Pg109'/>Without this art, wisdom itself, in the estimation of Cicero, +could be of little avail for the advantage or glory of the commonwealth<note place="foot">Ratio ipsa in hanc sententiam ducit, ut existimem sapientiam sine eloquentia +parum prodesse civitatibus. <hi rend='italic'>Rhetoricorum</hi>, Lib. I. c. 1.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +During the existence of the monarchy, and in the early age +of the republic, law proceedings were not numerous. Many +civil suits were prevented by the absolute dominion which a +Roman father exercised over his family; and the rigour of the +decemviral laws, in which all the proceedings were extreme, +frequently concussed parties into an accommodation; while, at +the same time, the purity of ancient manners had not yet given +rise to those criminal questions of bribery and peculation at +home, or of oppression and extortion in the provinces, which +disgraced the closing periods of the commonwealth, and furnished +themes for the glowing invective of Cicero and Hortensius. +Hence there was little room for the exercise of legal +oratory; and whatever eloquence may have shone forth in the +early ages of Rome, was probably of a political description, +and exerted on affairs of state. +</p> + +<p> +From the earliest times of the republic, history records the +wonderful effects which Junius Brutus, Publicola, and Appius +Claudius, produced by their harangues, in allaying seditions, +and thwarting pernicious counsels. Dionysius of Halicarnassus +gives us a formal speech, which Romulus, by direction of +his grandfather, made to the people after the building of the +city, on the subject of the government to be established<note place="foot">Lib. II.</note>. +There are also long orations of Servius Tullius; and great part +of the Antiquities of Dionysius is occupied with senatorial +debates during the early ages of the republic. But though +the orations of these fathers of Roman eloquence were doubtless +delivered with order, gravity, and judgment, and may have +possessed a masculine vigour, well calculated to animate the +courage of the soldier, and protect the interests of the state, +we must not form our opinion of them from the long speeches +in Dionysius and Livy, or suppose that they were adorned +with any of that rhetoric art with which they have been +invested by these historians. A nation of outlaws, destined +from their cradle to the profession of arms,—taught only to +hurl the spear or javelin, and inure their bodies to other martial +exercises,—with souls breathing only conquest,—and regarded +as the enemies of every state till they had become its +masters, could have possessed but few topics of illustration or +embellishment, and were not likely to cultivate any species of +rhetorical refinement. To convince by solid arguments when +<pb n='110'/><anchor id='Pg110'/>their cause was good, and to fill their fellow-citizens with +passions corresponding to those with which they were themselves +animated, would be the great objects of an eloquence +supplied by nature and unimproved by study. Quintilian accordingly +informs us, that though there appeared in the ancient +orations some traces of original genius, and much force of argument, +they bore, in their rugged and unpolished periods, the +signs of the times in which they were delivered. +</p> + +<p> +With exception of the speech of Appius Claudius to oppose +a peace with Pyrrhus, there are no harangues mentioned by +the Latin critics or historians as possessing any charms of +oratory, previously to the time of Cornelius Cethegus, who +flourished during the second Punic war, and was Consul about +the year 550. Cethegus was particularly distinguished for +his admirable sweetness of elocution and powers of persuasion, +whence he is thus characterized by Ennius, a contemporary +poet, in the 9th book of his <hi rend='italic'>Annals</hi>: +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Additur orator Cornelius suaviloquenti</q></l> +<l>Ore Cethegus Marcus, Tuditano collega;</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Flos delibatus populi, suadæque medulla.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +The orations of Cato the Censor have been already mentioned +as remarkable for their rude but masculine eloquence. +When Cato was in the decline of life, a more rich and copious +mode of speaking at length began to prevail. Ser. Galba, by +the warmth and animation of his delivery, eclipsed Cato and +all his contemporaries. He was the first among the Romans +who displayed the distinguishing talents of an orator, by embellishing +his subject,—by digressing, amplifying, entreating, +and employing what are called topics, or common-places of +discourse. On one occasion, while defending himself against +a grave accusation, he melted his judges to compassion, by +producing an orphan relative, whose father had been a favourite +of the people. When his orations, however, were afterwards +reduced to writing, their fire appeared extinguished, and they +preserved none of that lustre with which his discourses are +said to have shone when given forth by the living orator. +Cicero accounts for this from his want of sufficient study and +art in composition. While his mind was occupied and warmed +by the subject, his language was bold and rapid; but when he +took up the pen, his emotion ceased, and the periods fell languid +from its point; <q>which,</q> continues he, <q>never happened +to those who, having cultivated a more studied and polished +style of oratory, wrote as they spoke. Hence the mind of Lælius +yet breathes in his writings, though the force of Galba has +failed.</q> It appears, however, from an anecdote recorded by +<pb n='111'/><anchor id='Pg111'/>Cicero, that Galba was esteemed the first orator of his age by +the judges, the people, and Lælius himself.—Lælius, being +intrusted with the defence of certain persons suspected of +having committed a murder in the Silian forest, spoke for two +days, correctly, elegantly, and with the approbation of all, +after which the Consuls deferred judgment. He then recommended +the accused to carry their cause to Galba, as it would +be defended by him with more heat and vehemence. Galba, +in consequence, delivered a most forcible and pathetic harangue, +and after it was finished, his clients were absolved as if +by acclamation<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 22.</note>. Hence Cicero surmises, that though Lælius +might be the more learned and acute disputant, Galba possessed +more power over the passions; he also conjectures, that +the former had more elegance, but the latter more force; and +he concludes, that the orator who can move or agitate his +judges, farther advances his cause than he who can instruct +them. +</p> + +<p> +Lælius is also compared by Cicero with his friend, the +younger Scipio Africanus, in whose presence, this question +concerning the Silian murder was debated. They were almost +equally distinguished for their eloquence; and they resembled +each other in this respect, that they both invariably +delivered themselves in a smooth manner, and never, like +Galba, exerted themselves with loudness of speech or violence +of gesture<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Orat.</hi> Lib. I. c. 60.</note>; but their style of oratory was different,—Lælius +affecting a much more ancient phraseology than that adopted +by his friend. Cicero himself seems inclined most to admire +the rhetoric of Scipio; but he says, that, being so renowned +a captain, and mankind being unwilling to allow supremacy +to one individual, in what are considered as the two greatest +of arts, his contemporaries for the most part awarded to Lælius +the palm of eloquence. +</p> + +<p> +The intercourse which was by this time opening up with +Greece, and the encouragement now afforded to Greek teachers, +who always possessed the undisputed privilege of dictating +the precepts of the arts, produced the same improvement +m oratory that it had effected in every branch of literature. +Marcus Emilius Lepidus was a little younger than Galba or +Scipio, and was Consul in 617. From his orations, which +were extant in the time of Cicero, it appeared that he was the +first who, in imitation of the Greeks, gave harmony and sweetness +to his periods, or the graces of a style regularly polished +and improved by art. +</p> + +<p> +Cicero mentions a number of other orators of the same age +<pb n='112'/><anchor id='Pg112'/>with Lepidus, and minutely paints their peculiar styles of +rhetoric. We find among them the names of almost all the +eminent men of the period, as Emilius Paulus, Scipio Nasica, +and Mucius Scævola. The importance of eloquence for the +purposes of political aggrandizement, is sufficiently evinced, +from this work of Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De Claris Oratoribus</hi>, since there +is scarcely an orator mentioned, even of inferior note, who +did not at this time rise to the highest offices in the state. +</p> + +<p> +The political situation of Rome, and the internal inquietude +which now succeeded its foreign wars, were the great promoters +of eloquence. We hear of no orators in Sparta or Crete, +where the severest discipline was exercised, and where the +people were governed by the strictest laws. But Rhodes and +Athens, places of popular rule, where all things were open +to all men, swarmed with orators. In like manner, Rome, +when most torn with civil dissensions, produced the brightest +examples of eloquence. Cicero declares, that wisdom +without eloquence was of little service to the state<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Rhetoric. seu De Inventione</hi>, Lib. I. c. 1.</note>; and from +the political circumstances of the times, that sort of oratory was +most esteemed which had most sway over a restless and ungovernable +multitude. The situation of public affairs occasioned +those continual debates concerning the Agrarian Laws, +and the consequent popularity acquired by the most factious +demagogues. Hence, too, those frequent impeachments of +the great—those ambitious designs of the patricians—those +hereditary enmities in particular families—in fine, those incessant +struggles between the Senate and plebeians, which, +though all prejudicial to the commonwealth, contributed to +swell and ramify that rich vein of eloquence, which now flowed +so profusely through the agitated frame of the state. During +the whole period previous to the actual breaking out of the +civil wars, when the Romans turned the sword against each +other, and the mastery of the world depended on its edge, oratory +continued to open the most direct path to dignities. +The farther a Roman citizen advanced in this career, so much +nearer was he to preferment, so much the greater his reputation +with the people; and when elevated to the dignified +offices of the state, so much the higher his ascendancy over +his colleagues. +</p> + +<p> +The Gracchi were the genuine offspring, and their eloquence +the natural fruits of these turbulent times. Till their +age, oratory had been a sort of <hi rend='italic'>Arcanum imperii</hi>,—an instrument +of government in the power of the Senate, who used +every precaution to retain its exclusive exercise. It was the +<pb n='113'/><anchor id='Pg113'/>great bulwark that withstood the tide of popular passion, and +weakened it so as not to beat too high or strongly on their +own order and authority. The Gracchi not only broke down +the embankment, but turned the flood against the walls of the +Senate itself. The interests of the people had never yet been +espoused by men endued with eloquence equal to theirs. Cicero, +while blaming their political conduct, admits that both +were consummate orators; and this he testifies from the recollection +of persons still surviving in his day, and who remembered +their mode of speaking. Indeed, the wonderful power +which both brothers exercised over the people is a sufficient +proof of their eloquence. Tiberius Gracchus was the first +who made rhetoric a serious study and art. In his boyhood, +he was carefully instructed in elocution by his mother Cornelia: +he also constantly attended the ablest and most eloquent +masters from Greece, and, as he grew up, he bestowed much +time on the exercise of private declamation. It is not likely, +that, gifted as he was by nature, and thus instructed, the +powers of eloquence should long have remained dormant in his +bosom. At the time when he first appeared on the turbulent +stage of Roman life, the accumulation of landed property +among a few individuals, and the consequent abuse of exorbitant +wealth, had filled Italy with slaves instead of citizens—had +destroyed the habits of rural industry among the people at +large, and leaving only rich masters at the head of numerous +and profligate servants, gradually rooted out those middle +classes of society which constitute the strength, the worth, and +the best hopes of every well-regulated commonwealth. It is +said, that while passing through Etruria on his way to Numantia, +Tiberius Gracchus found the country almost depopulated +of freemen, and thence first formed the project of his Agrarian +law, which was originally intended to correct the evils arising +from the immense landed possessions of the rich, by limiting +them to the number of acres specified in the ancient enactments<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>In Tiber. Graccho</hi>.</note>, +and dividing the conquered territories among the +poorer citizens. Preparatory to its promulgation, he was +wont to assemble the people round the rostrum, where he +pleaded for the poor, in language of which we have a specimen +in Plutarch: <q>The wild beasts of Italy have their dens to +retire to—their places of refuge and repose; while the brave +men who shed their blood in the cause of their country, have +nothing left but fresh air and sunshine. Without houses, +without settled habitations, they wander from place to place +with their wives and children; and their commanders do but +<pb n='114'/><anchor id='Pg114'/>mock them, when, at the head of their armies, they exhort +their soldiers to fight for their sepulchres and altars. For, +among such numbers, there is not one Roman who has an +altar which belonged to his ancestors, or a tomb in which their +ashes repose. The private soldiers fight and die to increase +the wealth and luxury of the great; and they are styled sovereigns +of the world, while they have not a foot of ground they +can call their own<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>In Tiber. Graccho</hi>.</note>.</q> By such speeches as these, the people +were exasperated to fury, and the Senate was obliged to have +recourse to Octavius, who, as one of the tribunes, was the colleague +of Gracchus, to counteract the effects of his animated +eloquence. Irritated by this opposition, Gracchus abandoned +the first plan of his law, which was to give indemnification +from the public treasury to those who should be deprived of +their estates, and proposed a new bill, by which they were enjoined +forthwith to quit those lands which they held contrary +to previous enactments. On this subject there were daily +disputes between him and Octavius on the rostrum. Finding +that his plans could not otherwise be accomplished he resolved +on the expedient of deposing his colleague; and thenceforth, +to the period of his death, his speeches (one of which is preserved +by Plutarch) were chiefly delivered in persuasion or +justification of that violent measure. +</p> + +<p> +Caius Gracchus was endued with higher talents than Tiberius, +but the resentment he felt on account of his brother’s +death, and eager desire for vengeance, led him into measures +which have darkened his character with the shades of the +demagogue. At the time of his brother’s death he had only +reached the age of twenty. In early youth, he distinguished +himself by the defence of one of his friends named Vettius, and +charmed the people by the eloquence which he exerted. He +appears soon afterwards to have been impelled, as it were, by +a sort of destiny, to the same political course which had proved +fatal to his brother, and which terminated in his own destruction. +His speeches were all addressed to the people, and +were delivered in proposing laws, calculated to increase their +authority, and lessen that of the Senate,—as those for colonizing +the public lands, and dividing them among the poor; for +regulating the markets, so as to diminish the price of bread, +and for vesting the judicial power in the knights. A fragment +of his speech, <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus Promulgatis</hi>, is said to have been +recently discovered, with other classical remains, in the Ambrosian +Library. Aulus Gellius also quotes from this harangue, +a passage, in which the orator complained that some +respect<pb n='115'/><anchor id='Pg115'/>able citizens of a municipal town in Italy had been scourged +with rods by a Roman magistrate. Gellius praises the conciseness, +neatness, and graceful ease of the narrative, resembling +dramatic dialogue, in which this incident was related. +Similar, but only similar qualities, appear in his accusation of +the Roman legate, who, while travelling to Asia in a litter, +caused a peasant to be scourged to death, for having asked +his slaves if it was a corpse they were carrying. <q>The relation +of these events,</q> says Gellius, <q>does not rise above the +level of ordinary conversation. It is not a person complaining +or imploring, but merely relating what had occurred;</q> +and he contrasts this tameness with the energy and ardour +with which Cicero has painted the commission of a like enormity +by Verres<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. X. c. 3.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Though similar in many points of character and also in their +political conduct, there was a marked difference in the style of +eloquence, and forensic demeanour, of the two brothers. Tiberius, +in his looks and gestures, was mild and composed—Caius, +earnest and vehement; so that when they spoke in public, +Tiberius had the utmost moderation in his action, and +moved not from his place: whereas Caius was the first of the +Romans, who, in addressing the people, walked to and fro in +the rostrum, threw his gown off his shoulder, smote his thigh, +and exposed his arm bare<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>In Tib. Graccho</hi>.</note>. The language of Tiberius was +laboured and accurate, that of Caius bold and figurative. The +oratory of the former was of a gentle kind, and pity was the +emotion it chiefly raised—that of the latter was strongly impassioned, +and calculated to excite terror. In speaking, indeed, +Caius was often so hurried away by the violence of his +passion, that he exalted his voice above the regular pitch, +indulged in abusive expressions, and disordered the whole +tenor of his oration. In order to guard against such excesses, +he stationed a slave behind him with an ivory flute, which was +modulated so as to lead him to lower or heighten the tone of +his voice, according as the subject required a higher or a +softer key. <q>The flute,</q> says Cicero, <q>you may as well leave +at home, but the meaning of the practice you must remember +at the bar<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Orator.</hi> Lib. III. c. 60. Plutarch and Cicero’s accounts of the eloquence +of C. Gracchus, seem not quite consistent with what is delivered on the subject by +Gellius.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +In the time of the Gracchi, oratory became an object of +assiduous and systematic study, and of careful education. A +youth, intended for the profession of eloquence, was usually +introduced to one of the most distinguished orators of the city, +<pb n='116'/><anchor id='Pg116'/>whom he attended when he had occasion to speak in any public +or private cause, or in the assemblies of the people, by +which means he heard not only him, but every other famous +speaker. He thus became practically acquainted with business +and the courts of justice, and learned the arts of oratoric +conflict, as it were, in the field of battle. <q>It animated,</q> says +the author of the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Causis Corruptæ Eloquentiæ</hi>,—<q>it +animated the courage, and quickened the judgment of +youth, thus to receive their instructions in the eye of the world, +and in the midst of affairs, where no one could advance an +absurd or weak argument, without being exposed by his adversary, +and despised by the audience. Hence, they had also +an opportunity of acquainting themselves with the various sentiments +of the people, and observing what pleased or disgusted +them in the several orators of the Forum. By these means +they were furnished with an instructor of the best and most +improving kind, exhibiting not the feigned resemblance of +eloquence, but her real and lively manifestation—not a pretended +but genuine adversary, armed in earnest for the combat—an +audience ever full and ever new, composed of foes +as well as of friends, and amongst whom not a single expression +could fall but was either censured or applauded.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The minute attention paid by the younger orators to all the +proceedings of the courts of justice, is evinced by the fragment +of a Diary, which was kept by one of them in the time +of Cicero, and in which we have a record, during two days, of +the various harangues that were delivered, and the judgments +that were pronounced<note place="foot">Funccius, <hi rend='italic'>De Virili Ætate Lat. Ling.</hi> c. 1. § 24.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Nor were the advantages to be derived from fictitious oratorical +contests long denied to the Roman youth. The practice +of declaiming on feigned subjects, was introduced at Rome +about the middle of its seventh century. The Greek rhetoricians, +indeed, had been expelled, as well as the philosophers, +towards the close of the preceding century; but, in the year +661, Plotius Gallus, a Latin rhetorician, opened a declaiming +school at Rome. At this period, however, the declamations +generally turned on questions of real business, and it was not +till the time of Augustus, that the rhetoricians so far prevailed, +as to introduce common-place arguments on fictitious subjects. +</p> + +<p> +The eloquence which had originally been cultivated for +seditious purposes, and for political advancement, began now +to be considered by the Roman youth as an elegant accomplishment. +It was probably viewed in the same light that we +<pb n='117'/><anchor id='Pg117'/>regard horsemanship or dancing, and continued to be so in +the age of Horace— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Namque, et nobilis, et decens,</q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Et pro sollicitis non tacitus reis,</l> +<l>Et centum puer artium,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><q rend="pre: none">Latè signa feret militiæ suæ<note place="foot">Lib. IV. Od. 1.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Under all these circumstances it is evident, that in the middle +of the seventh century oratory would be neglected by +none; and in an art so sedulously studied, and universally +practised, many must have been proficients. It would be +endless to enumerate all the public speakers mentioned by +Cicero, whose catalogue is rather extensive and dry. We +may therefore proceed to those two orators, whom he commemorates +as having first raised the glory of Roman eloquence +to an equality with that of Greece—Marcus Antonius, and +Lucius Crassus. +</p> + +<p> +The former, sirnamed <hi rend='italic'>Orator</hi>, and grandfather of the celebrated +triumvir, was the most employed patron of his time; +and, of all his contemporaries, was chiefly courted by clients, +as he was ever willing to undertake any cause which was proposed +to him. He possessed a ready memory, and remarkable +talent of introducing everything where it could be placed +with most effect. He had a frankness of manner which precluded +any suspicion of artifice, and gave to all his orations +an appearance of being the unpremeditated effusions of an +honest heart. But though there was no apparent preparation +in his speeches, he always spoke so well, that the judges were +never sufficiently prepared against the effects of his eloquence. +His language was not perfectly pure, or of a constantly sustained +elegance, but it was of a solid and judicious character, +well adapted to his purpose—his gesture, too, was <anchor id="corr117"/><corr sic="appropiate">appropriate</corr>, +and suited to the sentiments and language—his voice was strong +and durable, though naturally hoarse—but even this defect he +turned to advantage, by frequently and easily adopting a +mournful and querulous tone, which, in criminal questions, +excited compassion, and more readily gained the belief of the +judges. He left, however, as we are informed by Cicero, +hardly any orations behind him<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. II. c. 2.</note>, having resolved never to +publish any of his pleadings, lest he should be convicted of +maintaining in one cause something which was inconsistent +with what he had alleged in another<note place="foot">Valer. Maxim. Lib. VII. c. 3.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The first oration by which Antony distinguished himself, +<pb n='118'/><anchor id='Pg118'/>was in his own defence. He had obtained the quæstorship of +a province of Asia, and had arrived at Brundusium to embank +there, when his friends informed him that he had been summoned +before the Prætor Cassius, the most rigid judge in +Rome, whose tribunal was termed the rock of the accused. +Though he might have pleaded a privilege, which forbade the +admission of charges against those who were absent on the +service of the republic, he chose to justify himself in due form. +Accordingly, he returned to Rome, stood his trial, and was acquitted +with honour<note place="foot">Valer. Maxim. Lib. III. c. 7; and Lib. VI. c. 8.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +One of the most celebrated orations which Antony pronounced, +was that in defence of Norbanus, who was accused +of sedition, and a violent assault on the magistrate, Æmilius +Cæpio. He began by attempting to show from history, that +seditions may sometimes be justifiable from necessity; that +without them the kings would not have been expelled, or the +tribunes of the people created. The orator then proceeded +to insinuate, that his client had not been seditious, but that all +had happened through the just indignation of the people; and +he concluded with artfully attempting to renew the popular +odium against Cæpio, who had been an unsuccessful commander<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. II. c. 28, 29, 48, 49.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +What Cicero relates concerning Antony’s defence of Aquilius, +is an example of his power in moving the passions, and +is, at the same time, extremely characteristic of the manner of +Roman pleading. Antony, who is one of the speakers in the +dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, is introduced relating it himself. Seeing +his client, who had once been Consul and a leader of armies, +reduced to a state of the utmost dejection and peril, he +had no sooner begun to speak, with a view towards melting +the compassion of others, than he was melted himself. Perceiving +the emotion of the judges when he raised his client +from the earth, on which he had thrown himself, he instantly +took advantage of this favourable feeling. He tore open the +garments of Aquilius, and showed the scars of those wounds +which he had received in the service of his country. Even +the stern Marius wept. Him the orator then apostrophized; +imploring his protection, and invoking with many tears the +gods, the citizens, and the allies of Rome. <q>But whatever I +could have said,</q> remarks he in the dialogue, <q>had I delivered +it without being myself moved, it would have excited the derision, +instead of the sympathy, of those who heard me<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Id.</hi> Lib. II. c. 47.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<pb n='119'/><anchor id='Pg119'/> + +<p> +Antony, in the course of his life, had passed through all the +highest offices of the state. The circumstances of his death, +which happened in 666, during the civil wars of Marius and +Sylla, were characteristic of his predominant talent. During +the last proscription by Marius, he sought refuge in the house +of a poor person, whom he had laid under obligations to him +in the days of his better fortune. But his retreat being discovered, +from the circumstance of his host procuring for him +some wine nicer than ordinary, the intelligence was carried to +Marius, who received it with a savage shout of exultation, and, +clapping his hands for joy, he would have risen from table, +and instantly repaired to the place where his enemy was concealed; +but, being detained by his friends, he immediately +despatched a party of soldiers, under a tribune, to slay him. +The soldiers having entered his chamber for this purpose, and +Antony suspecting their errand, addressed them in terms of +such moving and insinuating eloquence, that his assassins burst +into tears, and had not sufficient resolution to execute their +mission. The officer who commanded them then went in, and +cut off his head<note place="foot">Plutarch <hi rend='italic'>In Mario</hi>. Valerius Maximus, Lib. VIII. c. 9.</note>, which he carried to Marius, who affixed it +to that rostrum, whence, as Cicero remarks, he had ably defended +the lives of so many of his fellow-citizens<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. III. c. 3.</note>; little aware +that he would soon himself experience, from another Antony, +a fate similar to that which he deplores as having befallen the +grandsire of the triumvir. +</p> + +<p> +Crassus, the forensic rival of Antony, had prepared himself +in his youth, for public speaking, by digesting in his memory +a chosen number of polished and dignified verses, or a certain +portion of some oration which he had read over, and then delivering +the same matter in the best words he could select<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Id.</hi> Lib. I. c. 33.</note>. +Afterwards, when he grew a little older, he translated into +Latin some of the finest Greek orations, and, at the same time, +used every mental and bodily exertion to improve his voice, +his action, and memory. He commenced his oratorical career +at the early age of nineteen, when he acquired much +reputation by his accusation of C. Carbo; and he, not long +afterwards, greatly heightened his fame, by his defence of the +virgin Licinia. Another of the best speeches of Crassus, was +that addressed to the people in favour of the law of Servilius +Cæpio, restoring in part the judicial power to the Senate, +of which they had been recently deprived, in order to vest it +solely in the body of knights. But the most, splendid of all +the appearances of Crassus, was one that proved the immediate +cause of his death, which happened in 662, a short while +<pb n='120'/><anchor id='Pg120'/>before the commencement of the civil wars of Marius and +Sylla; and a few days after the time in which he is supposed +to have borne his part in the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>. The Consul +Philippus had declared, in one of the assemblies of the +people, that some other advice must be resorted to, since, +with such a Senate as then existed, he could no longer direct +the affairs of the government. A full Senate being immediately +summoned, Crassus arraigned, in terms of the most glowing +eloquence, the conduct of this Consul, who, instead of +acting as the political parent and guardian of the Senate, +sought to deprive its members of their ancient inheritance of +respect and dignity. Being farther irritated by an attempt on +the part of Philippus, to force him into compliance with his +designs, he exerted, on this occasion, the utmost efforts of +his genius and strength; but he returned home with a pleuritic +fever, of which he died in the course of seven days. This oration +of Crassus, followed as it was by his almost immediate +death, made a deep impression on his countrymen; who, long +afterwards, were wont to repair to the senate-house, for the +purpose of viewing the spot where he had last stood, and fallen, +as it may be said, in defence of the privileges of his order. +</p> + +<p> +Crassus left hardly any orations behind him, and he died +while Cicero was still in his boyhood; yet that author, having +collected the opinions of those who had heard him, speaks with +a minute and apparently perfect intelligence of his mode of +oratory. He was what may be called the most ornamental +speaker that had hitherto appeared in the Forum. Though not +without force, gravity, and dignity, these were happily blended +with the most insinuating politeness, urbanity, ease, and gaiety. +He was master of the most pure and accurate language, and +of perfect elegance of expression, without any affectation, or +unpleasant appearance of previous study. Great clearness of +exposition distinguished all his harangues, and, while descanting +on topics of law or equity, he possessed an inexhaustible +fund of argument and illustration. In speaking, he showed +an uncommon modesty, which went even the length of +bashfulness. When a young man, he was so intimidated +at the opening of a speech, that Q. Maximus, perceiving +him overwhelmed and disabled by confusion, adjourned the +court, which the orator always remembered with the highest +sense of gratitude. This diffidence never entirely forsook +him; and, after the practice of a long life at the +bar, he was frequently so much agitated in the exordium +of his discourse, that he was observed to grow pale, and to +tremble in every part of his frame<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De Orat.</hi>. Lib. I. c. 26, 27.</note>. Some persons considered +<pb n='121'/><anchor id='Pg121'/>Crassus as only equal to Antony; others preferred him as the +more perfect and accomplished orator: Antony chiefly trusted +to his intimate acquaintance with affairs and ordinary life: +He was not, however, so destitute of knowledge as he seemed; +but he thought the best way to recommend his eloquence to +the people, was to appear as if he had never learned anything<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De Orat.</hi> Lib. II. c. 1.</note>. +Crassus, on the other hand, was well instructed in literature, +and showed off his information to the best advantage. Antony +possessed the greater power of promoting conjecture, +and of allaying or exciting suspicion, by opposite and well-timed +insinuations; but no one could have more copiousness +or facility than Crassus, in defining, interpreting, and discussing, +the principles of equity. The language of Crassus was +indisputably preferable to that of Antony; but the action and +gesture of Antony were as incontestably superior to those of +Crassus. +</p> + +<p> +Sulpicius and Cotta, who were both born about 630, were +younger orators than Antony or Crassus, but were for some +time their contemporaries, and had risen to considerable reputation +before the death of the latter and assassination of the +former. Sulpicius lived for some years respected and admired; +but, about the year 665, at the first breaking out of the +dissensions between Sylla and Marius, being then a tribune of +the people, he espoused the part of Marius. Plutarch gives a +memorable account of his character and behaviour at this +conjuncture, declaring that he was second to none in the most +atrocious villainies. Alike unrestrained in avarice and cruelty, +he committed the most criminal and enormous actions without +hesitation or reluctance. He sold by public auction the freedom +of Rome to foreigners—telling out the purchase-money +on counters erected for that purpose in the Forum! He kept +3000 swordsmen in constant pay, and had always about him +a company of young men of the equestrian order, ready on +every occasion to execute his commands; and these he styled +his anti-senatorian band<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>In Sylla</hi>.</note>. Cicero touches on his crimes with +more tenderness; but says, that when he came to be tribune, +he stript of all their dignities those with whom, as a private individual, +he had lived in the strictest friendship<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. III. c. 3.</note>. Whilst +Marius kept his ground against his rival, Sulpicius transacted +all public affairs, in his capacity of tribune, by violence and +force of arms. He decreed to Marius the command in the +Mithridatic war: He attacked the Consuls with his band +while they were holding an assembly of the people in the +Tem<pb n='122'/><anchor id='Pg122'/>ple of Castor and Pollux, and deposed one of them<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>In Sylla</hi>.</note>. Marius, +however, having been at length expelled by the ascendancy of +Sylla, Sulpicius was betrayed by one of his slaves, and immediately +seized and executed. <q>Thus,</q> says Cicero, <q>the chastisement +of his rashness went hand in hand with the misfortunes +of his country; and the sword cut off the thread of that life, +which was then blooming to all the honours that eloquence can +bestow<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. III. c. 3.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Cicero had reached the age of nineteen, at the period of +the death of Sulpicius. He had heard him daily speak in the +Forum, and highly estimates his oratoric powers<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 89.</note>. He was +the most lofty, and what Cicero calls the most tragic, orator +of Rome. His attitudes, deportment, and figure, were of supreme +dignity—his voice was powerful and sonorous—his elocution +rapid; his action variable and animated. +</p> + +<p> +The constitutional weakness of Cotta prevented all such +oratorical vehemence. In his manner he was soft and relaxed; +but every thing he said was sober and in good taste, and he +often led the judges to the same conclusion to which Sulpicius +impelled them. <q>No two things,</q> says Cicero, <q>were +ever more unlike than they are to each other. The one, in a +polite, delicate manner, sets forth his subject in well-chosen +expressions. He still keeps to his point; and, as he sees with +the greatest penetration what he has to prove to the court, he +directs to that the whole strength of his reasoning and eloquence, +without regarding other arguments. But Sulpicius, +endued with irresistible energy, with a full strong voice, with +the greatest vehemence, and dignity of action, accompanied +with so much weight and variety of expression, seemed, of all +mankind, the best fitted by nature for eloquence.</q> +</p> + +<p> +It was supposed that Cotta wished to resemble Antony, as +Sulpicius obviously imitated Crassus; but the latter wanted +the agreeable pleasantry of Crassus, and the former the force +of Antony. None of the orations of Sulpicius remained in the +time of Cicero—those circulated under his name having been +written by Canutius after his death. The oration of Cotta for +himself, when accused on the Varian law, was composed, it is +said, at his request by Lucius Ælius; and, if this be true, nothing +can appear to us more extraordinary, than that so accomplished +a speaker as Cotta should have wished any of the +trivial harangues of Ælius to pass for his own. +</p> + +<p> +The renown, however, of all preceding orators, was now +about to be eclipsed at Rome; and Hortensius burst forth in +<pb n='123'/><anchor id='Pg123'/>eloquence at once calculated to delight and astonish his fellow-citizens. +This celebrated orator was born in the year +640, being thus ten years younger than Cotta and Sulpicius. +His first appearance in the Forum was at the early age of +nineteen—that is, in 659; and his excellence, says Cicero, was +immediately acknowledged, like that of a statue by Phidias, +which only requires to be seen in order to be admired<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 63.</note>. The +case in which he first appeared was of considerable responsibility +for one so young and inexperienced, being an accusation, +at the instance of the Roman province of Africa, against +its governors for rapacity. It was heard before Scævola and +Crassus, as judges—the one the ablest lawyer, the other the +most accomplished speaker, of his age; and the young orator +had the good fortune to obtain their approbation, as well as +that of all who were present at the trial<note place="foot">Ibid.</note>. His next pleading +of importance was in behalf of Nicomedes, King of Bithynia, +in which he even surpassed his former speech for the Africans<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. III. c. 61.</note>. +After this we hear little of him for several years. The imminent +perils of the Social War, which broke out in 663, interrupted, +in a great measure, the business of the Forum. Hortensius +served in this alarming contest for one year as a +volunteer, and in the following season as a military tribune<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 89.</note>. +When, on the re-establishment of peace in Italy in 666, he +returned to Rome, and resumed the more peaceful avocations +to which he had been destined from his youth, he found himself +without a rival<note place="foot">Ibid.</note>. Crassus, as we have seen, died in 662, before +the troubles of Marius and Sylla. Antony, with other +orators of inferior note, perished in 666, during the temporary +and last ascendancy of Marius, in the absence of Sylla. +Sulpicius was put to death in the same year, and Cotta driven +into banishment, from which he was not recalled until the +return of Sylla to Rome, and his election to the dictatorship +in 670. Hortensius was thus left for some years without a +competitor; and, after 670, with none of eminence but Cotta, +whom also he soon outshone. His splendid, warm, and animated +manner, was preferred to the calm and easy elegance +of his rival. Accordingly, when engaged in a cause on the +same side, Cotta, though ten years senior, was employed to +open the case, while the more important parts were left to the +management of Hortensius<note place="foot">Ibid.</note>. He continued the undisputed +sovereign of the Forum, till Cicero returned from his quæstorship +in Sicily, in 679, when the talents of that orator first +<pb n='124'/><anchor id='Pg124'/>displayed themselves in full perfection and maturity. Hortensius +was thus, from 666 till 679, a space of thirteen years, +at the head of the Roman bar; and being, in consequence, +engaged during that long period, on one side or other, in every +cause of importance, he soon amassed a prodigious fortune. +He lived, too, with a magnificence corresponding to his +wealth. An example of splendour and luxury had been set to +him by the orator Crassus, who inhabited a sumptuous palace +in Rome, the hall of which was adorned with four pillars of +Hymettian marble, twelve feet high, which he brought to +Rome in his ædileship, at a time when there were no pillars +of foreign marble even in public buildings<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XVII. c. 1.</note>. The court of +this mansion was ornamented by six lotus trees, which Pliny +saw in full luxuriance in his youth, but which were afterwards +burned in the conflagration in the time of Nero. He had also +a number of vases, and two drinking-cups, engraved by the +artist Mentor, but which were of such immense value that he +was ashamed to use them<note place="foot">Ibid. Lib. XXXIII. c. 11.</note>. Hortensius had the same tastes +as Crassus, but surpassed him and all his contemporaries in +magnificence. His mansion stood on the Palatine Hill, which +appears to have been the most fashionable situation in Rome, +being at that time covered with the houses of Lutatius Catulus, +Æmilius Scaurus, Clodius, Catiline, Cicero, and Cæsar<note place="foot">Nardini, <hi rend='italic'>Roma Antica</hi>, Lib. VI. c. 15.</note>. +The residence of Hortensius was adjacent to that of Catiline; +and though of no great extent, it was splendidly furnished. +After the death of the orator, it was inhabited by Octavius +Cæsar<note place="foot">Sueton. <hi rend='italic'>in Augusto</hi>, c. 72.</note>, and formed the centre of the chief imperial palace, +which increased from the time of Augustus to that of Nero, +till it covered a great part of the Palatine Mount, and branched +over other hills. Besides his mansion in the capital, he +possessed sumptuous villas at Tusculum, Bauli, and Laurentum, +where he was accustomed to give the most elegant and +expensive entertainments. He had frequently peacocks at his +banquets, which he first served up at a grand augural feast, +and which, says Varro, were more commended by the luxurious, +than by men of probity and austerity<note place="foot">Varro, <hi rend='italic'>De Re Rustica</hi>, Lib. III. c. 6.</note>. His olive plantations +he is said to have regularly moistened and bedewed +with wine; and, on one occasion, during the hearing of an +important case, in which he was engaged along with Cicero, +begged that he would change with him the previously arranged +order of pleading, as he was obliged to go to the country to +pour wine on a favourite <hi rend='italic'>platanus</hi>, which grew near his + Tus<pb n='125'/><anchor id='Pg125'/>culan villa<note place="foot">Macrobius, <hi rend='italic'>Saturnalia</hi>, Lib. III. c. 13.</note>. Notwithstanding this profusion, his heir found +not less than 10,000 casks of wine in his cellar after his death<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XIV. c. 14.</note>. +Besides his taste for wine, and fondness for plantations, he +indulged a passion for pictures and fish-ponds. At his Tusculan +villa, he built a hall for the reception of a painting of +the expedition of the Argonauts, by the painter Cydias, which +cost the enormous sum of a hundred and forty-four thousand +sesterces<note place="foot">Ibid. Lib. XXV. c. 11.</note>. At his country-seat, near Bauli, on the sea shore, +he vied with Lucullus and Philippus in the extent of his fish-ponds, +which were constructed at immense cost, and so formed +that the tide flowed into them<note place="foot">Varro, <hi rend='italic'>De Re Rustica</hi>, Lib. III. c. 3.</note>. Under the promontory of +Bauli, travellers are yet shown the <hi rend='italic'>Piscina Mirabilis</hi>, a subterraneous +edifice, vaulted and divided by four rows of arcades, +and which is supposed by some antiquarians to have been a +fish-pond of Hortensius. Yet such was his luxury, and his reluctance +to diminish his supply, that when he gave entertainments +at Bauli, he generally sent to the neighbouring town of +Puteoli to buy fish for supper<note place="foot">Ibid. Lib. III. c. 17.</note>. He had a vast number of +fishermen in his service, and paid so much attention to the +feeding of his fish, that he had always ready a large stock of +small fish to be devoured by the great ones. It was with the +utmost difficulty he could be prevailed on to part with any of +them; and Varro declares, that a friend could more easily get +his chariot mules out of his stable, than a mullet from his ponds. +He was more anxious about the welfare of his fish than the +health of his slaves, and less solicitous that a sick servant might +not take what was unfit for him, than that his fish might not +drink water which was unwholesome<note place="foot">Ibid.</note>. It is even said, that +he was so passionately fond of a particular lamprey, that he +shed tears for her untimely death<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. IX. c. 55.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The gallery at the villa, which was situated on the little +promontory of Bauli, and looking towards Puteoli, commanded +one of the most delightful views in Italy. The inland +prospect towards Cumæ was extensive and magnificent. Puteoli +was seen along the shore at the distance of 30 <hi rend='italic'>stadia</hi>, in +the direction of Pompeii; and Pompeii itself was invisible only +from its distance. The sea view was unbounded; but it was +enlivened by the numerous vessels sailing across the bay, and +the ever changeful hue of its waters, now saffron, azure, or +purple, according as the breeze blew, or as the sun ascended +or declined<note place="foot">Cicer. <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>, Lib. II. c. 25, 31, 33.</note>. +</p> + +<pb n='126'/><anchor id='Pg126'/> + +<p> +Hortensius possessed another villa in Italy, which rivalled +in its sylvan pomp the marine luxuries of Bauli. This mansion +lay between Ostia and Lavinium, (now Pratica,) near to +the town of Laurentum, so well remembered from ancient +fable and poetry, as having been the residence of King Latinus, +at the time of the arrival of Æneas in Italy, and at present +known by the name of Torre di Paterno. The town of +Laurentum was on the shore, but the villa of Hortensius stood +to the north-east at some distance from the coast,—the grounds +subsequently occupied by the villa of the younger Pliny intervening +between it and Laurentum, and also between it and the +Tuscan sea. Around were the walks and gardens of patrician +villas; on one side was seen the town of Laurentum, with its public +baths; on the other, but at a greater distance, the harbour +of Ostia. Near the house were groves, and fields covered with +herds—beyond were hills clothed with woods. The horizon +to the north-east was bounded by magnificent mountains, and +beyond the low maritime grounds, which lay between the port +of Ostia and Laurentum, there was a distant prospect of the +Tuscan sea<note place="foot">Bonstetten, <hi rend='italic'>Voyage dans le Latium</hi>, p. 152–160. Nibby, <hi rend='italic'>Viaggio Antiquario +ne contorni di Roma</hi>, T. II.</note>. +</p> + +<p>Hortensius had here a wooded park of fifty acres, encompassed +with a wall. This enclosure he called a nursery of +wild beasts, all which came for their provender at a certain +hour, on the blowing of a horn—an exhibition with which he +was accustomed to amuse the guests who visited him at his +Laurentian villa. Varro mentions an entertainment, where +those invited supped on an eminence, called a <hi rend='italic'>Triclinium</hi>, in +this sylvan park. During the repast, Hortensius summoned +his Orpheus, who, having come with his musical instruments, +and being ordered to display his talents, blew a trumpet, when +such a multitude of deer, boars, and other quadrupeds, rushed +to the spot from all quarters, that the sight appeared to the +delighted spectators as beautiful as the courses with wild animals +in the great Circus of the Ædiles<note place="foot">Varro, <hi rend='italic'>De Re Rustica</hi>, Lib. III. c. 13.</note>!</p> + +<p> +The eloquence of Hortensius procured him not only all this +wealth and luxury, but the highest official honours of the state. +He was Ædile in 679, Prætor in 682, and Consul two years +afterwards. The wealth and dignities he had obtained, and +the want of competition, made him gradually relax from that +assiduity by which they had been acquired, till the increasing +fame of Cicero, and particularly the glory of his consulship, +stimulated him to renew his exertions. But his habit of labour +had been in some degree lost, and he never again recovered +<pb n='127'/><anchor id='Pg127'/>his former reputation. Cicero partly accounts for this decline, +from the peculiar nature and genius of his eloquence<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 95.</note>. It was +of that showy species called Asiatic, which flourished in the +Greek colonies of Asia Minor, and was infinitely more florid +and ornamental than the oratory of Athens, or even Rhodes, +being full of brilliant thoughts and of sparkling expressions. +This glowing style of rhetoric, though deficient in solidity and +weight, was not unsuitable in a young man; and being farther +recommended by a beautiful cadence of periods, met with the +utmost applause. But Hortensius, as he advanced in life, did +not prune his exuberance, or adopt a chaster eloquence; and +this luxury, and glitter of phraseology, which, even in his earliest +years, had occasionally excited ridicule or disgust among +the graver fathers of the senatorial order, being totally inconsistent +with his advanced age and consular dignity, which required +something more serious and composed, his reputation +diminished with increase of years; and though the bloom of +his eloquence might be in fact the same, it appeared to be +somewhat withered<note place="foot">Varro, <hi rend='italic'>De Re Rustica</hi>. Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. V. Ep. 2.</note>. Besides, from his declining health and +strength, which greatly failed in his latter years, he may not +have been able to give full effect to that showy species of rhetoric +in which he indulged. A constant toothache, and swelling +in the jaws, greatly impaired his power of elocution and +utterance, and became at length so severe as to accelerate his +end— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Ægrescunt teneræ fauces, quum frigoris atri</q></l> +<l>Vis subiit, vel quum ventis agitabilis aër</l> +<l>Vertitur, atque ipsas flatus gravis inficit auras,</l> +<l>Vel rabidus clamor fracto quum forte sonore</l> +<l>Planum radit iter. Sic est Hortensius olim</l> +<l>Absumptus: caussis etenim confectus agendis</l> +<l>Obticuit, quum vox, domino vivente, periret,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Et nondum exstincti moreretur lingua diserti<note place="foot">Seren. Samonicus, <hi rend='italic'>De Medicina</hi>, c. 15.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +A few months, however, before his death, which happened +in 703, he pleaded for his nephew, Messala, who was accused +of illegal canvassing, and who was acquitted, more in consequence +of the astonishing exertions of his advocate, than the +justice of his cause. So unfavourable, indeed, was his case +esteemed, that however much the speech of Hortensius had +been admired, he was received on entering the theatre of Curio +on the following day, with loud clamour and hisses, which +were the more remarked, as he had never met with similar +<pb n='128'/><anchor id='Pg128'/>treatment in the whole course of his forensic career<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>Epist. Familiares</hi>, Lib. VIII. Ep. 2.</note>. The +speech, however, revived all the ancient admiration of the +public for his oratorical talents, and convinced them, that had +he always possessed the same perseverance as Cicero, he would +not have ranked second to that orator. Another of his most +celebrated harangues was that against the Manilian law, which +vested Pompey with such extraordinary powers, and was so +warmly supported by Cicero. That against the sumptuary +law proposed by Crassus and Pompey, in the year 683, which +tended to <anchor id="corr128"/><corr sic="restain">restrain</corr> the indulgence of his own taste, was well +adapted to Hortensius’ style of eloquence; and his speech was +highly characteristic of his disposition and habits of life. He +declaimed, at great length, on the glory of Rome, which required +splendour in the mode of living followed by its citizens<note place="foot"><anchor id="corr128a"/><hi rend='italic'><corr sic="Dio.">Dio</corr> Cassius</hi>, Lib. XXXIX.</note>. +He frequently glanced at the luxury of the Consuls themselves, +and forced them at length, by his eloquence and sarcastic declamation, +to relinquish their scheme of domestic retrenchment. +</p> + +<p> +The speeches of Hortensius, it has been already mentioned, +lost part of their effect by the orator’s advance in years, but +they suffered still more by being transferred to paper. As his +chief excellence consisted in action and delivery, his writings +were much inferior to what was expected from the high fame +he had enjoyed; and, accordingly, after death, he retained +little of that esteem, which he had so abundantly possessed +during his life<note place="foot">Quint. <hi rend='italic'>Inst. Orat.</hi> Lib. XI. c. 3.</note>. Although, therefore, his orations had been +preserved, they would have given us but an imperfect idea of +the eloquence of Hortensius; but even this aid has been denied +us, and we must, therefore, now chiefly trust for his oratorical +character to the opinion of his great but unprejudiced rival. +The friendship and honourable competition of Hortensius and +Cicero, present an agreeable contrast to the animosities of +Æschines and Demosthenes, the two great orators of Greece. +It was by means of Hortensius that Cicero was chosen one of +the college of Augurs—a service of which his gratified vanity +ever appears to have retained an agreeable recollection. In +a few of his letters, indeed, written during the despondency of +his exile, he hints a suspicion that Hortensius had been instrumental +in his banishment, with a view of engrossing to himself +the whole glory of the bar<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Atticum</hi>, Lib. III. Ep. 9, &c.</note>; but this mistrust ended with his +recall, which Hortensius, though originally he had advised him +to yield to the storm, urged on with all the influence of which +he was possessed. Hortensius also appears to have been free +from every feeling of jealousy or envy, which in him was still +<pb n='129'/><anchor id='Pg129'/>more creditable, as his rival was younger than himself, and +yet ultimately forced him from the supremacy. Such having +been their sentiments of mutual esteem, Cicero has done his +oratoric talents ample justice—representing him as endued +with <anchor id="corr129"/><corr sic="alnost">almost</corr> all the qualities necessary to form a distinguished +speaker. His imagination was fertile—his voice was sweet +and harmonious—his demeanour dignified—his language rich +and elegant—his acquaintance with literature extensive. So +prodigious was his memory, that, without the aid of writing, he +recollected every word he had meditated, and every sentence +of his adversary’s oration, even to the titles and documents +brought forward to support the case against him—a faculty +which greatly aided his peculiarly happy art of recapitulating +the substance of what had been said by his antagonists or by +himself<note place="foot">As a proof of his astonishing memory, it is recorded by Seneca, that, for a trial +of his powers of recollection, he remained a whole day at a public auction, and +when it was concluded, he repeated in order what had been sold, to whom, and at +what price. His recital was compared with the clerk’s account, and his memory +was found to have served him faithfully in every particular. Senec. <hi rend='italic'>Præf.</hi> Lib. I. +<hi rend='italic'>Controv.</hi></note>. He also originally possessed an indefatigable application; +and scarcely a day passed in which he did not speak +in the Forum, or exercise himself in forensic studies or preparation. +But, of all the various arts of oratory, he most remarkably +excelled in a happy and perspicuous arrangement of his +subject. Cicero only reproaches him, and that but slightly, +with showing more study and art in his gestures than was +suitable for an orator. It appears, however, from Macrobius, +that he was much ridiculed by his contemporaries, on account +of his affected gestures. In pleading, his hands were constantly +in motion, whence he was often attacked by his adversaries +in the Forum for resembling an actor; and, on one +occasion, he received from his opponent the appellation of +<hi rend='italic'>Dionysia</hi>, which was the name of a celebrated dancing girl<note place="foot">Aulus Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. I. c. 5.</note>. +Æsop and Roscius frequently attended his pleadings, to catch +his gestures, and imitate them on the stage<note place="foot">Valerius Maximus, Lib. VIII. c. 10.</note>. Such, indeed, +was his exertion in action, that it was commonly said that it +could not be determined whether people went to hear or to see +him<note place="foot">Ibid.</note>. Like Demosthenes, he chose and put on his dress with +the most studied care and neatness. He is said, not only to +have prepared his attitudes, but also to have adjusted the plaits +of his gown before a mirror, when about to issue forth to the +Forum; and to have taken no less care in arranging them, than +in moulding the periods of his discourse. He so tucked up +his gown, that the folds did not fall by chance, but were +form<pb n='130'/><anchor id='Pg130'/>ed with great care, by means of a knot artfully tied, and concealed +in the plies of his robe, which apparently flowed carelessly +around him<note place="foot">Macrobius, <hi rend='italic'>Saturnalia</hi>, Lib. III. c. 13.</note>. Macrobius also records a story of his +instituting an action of damages against a person who had +jostled him, while walking in this elaborate dress, and had +ruffled his toga, when he was about to appear in public with +his drapery adjusted according to the happiest arrangement<note place="foot">Ibid.</note>—an +anecdote, which, whether true or false, shows, by its +currency, the opinion entertained of his finical attention to +everything that concerned the elegance of his attire, or the +gracefulness of his figure and attitudes. He also bathed himself +in odoriferous waters, and daily perfumed himself with the +most precious essences<note place="foot">Meiners, <hi rend='italic'>Decadence des Mœurs chez les Romains</hi>.</note>. This too minute attention to his +person, and to gesticulation, appears to have been the sole +blemish in his oratorical character; and the only stain on his +moral conduct, was his practice of corrupting the judges of +the causes in which he was employed—a practice which must +be, in a great measure, imputed to the defects of the judicial +system at Rome; for, whatever might be the excellence of the +Roman laws, nothing could be worse than the procedure under +which they were administered<note place="foot"><anchor id="notep130"/>Hortensius was first married to a daughter of Q. Catulus, the orator, who is one +of the speakers in the Dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>. (Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. III. c. +61.) He afterwards asked, and obtained from Cato, his wife Marcia; who, having +succeeded to a great part of the wealth of Hortensius on his death, was then taken +back by her former husband. (Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>In Catone</hi>.) By his first wife, Hortensius +had a son and daughter. In his son Quintus, he was not more fortunate than his +rival, Cicero, in his son Marcus. Cicero, while Proconsul of Cilicia, mentions, in +one of his letters, the ruffian and scandalous appearance made by the younger Hortensius +at Laodicea, during the shows of gladiators.—<q>I invited him once to supper,</q> +says he, <q>on his father’s account; and, on the same account, only once.</q> +(<hi rend='italic'>Epist. Ad Attic.</hi> Lib. VI. Ep. 3.) Such, indeed, was his unworthy conduct, that +his father at this time entertained thoughts of disinheriting him, and making his +nephew, Messala, his heir; but in this intention he did not persevere. (Valer. +Maxim. Lib. V. c. 9.) After his father’s death, he joined the party of Cæsar, (Cicero, +<hi rend='italic'>Epist. Ad Att.</hi> Lib. X. Ep. 16, 17, 18,) by whom he was appointed Proconsul of +Macedonia; in which situation he espoused the side of the conspirators, subsequently +to the assassination of Cæsar. (Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>Philip.</hi> X. c. 5 and 6.) By order +of Brutus, he slew Caius Antonius, brother to the Triumvir, who had fallen into his +hands; and, being afterwards taken prisoner at the battle of Philippi, he was slain +by Marc Antony, by way of reprisal, on the tomb of his brother. (Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>In M. +Bruto</hi>.) +<lb/> +Hortensia, the daughter, inherited something of the spirit and eloquence of her +father. A severe tribute having been imposed on the Roman matrons by the Triumvirs, +Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus, she boldly pleaded their cause before these +noted extortioners, and obtained some alleviation of the impost. (Valer. Maxim. +Lib. VIII. c. 3.) +<lb/> +Quintus, the son of the orator, left two children, Q. Hortensius Corbio, and M. +Hortensius Hortalus. The former of these was a monster of debauchery; and is +mentioned by his contemporary, Valerius Maximus, among the most striking examples +of those descendants who have degenerated from the honour of their ancestors. (Lib. III. c. 5.) This wretch, not being likely to become a father, and the +wealth of the family having been partly settled on the wife of Cato, partly dissipated +by extravagance, and partly confiscated in the civil wars, Augustus Cæsar, who was +a great promoter of matrimony, gave Hortensius Hortalus a pecuniary allowance to +enable him to marry, in order that so illustrious a family might not become extinct. +He and his children, however, fell into want during the reign of his benefactor’s +successor. Tacitus has painted, with his usual power of striking delineation, that +humiliating scene, in which he appeared, with his four children, to beg relief from +the Senate; and the historian has also recorded the hard answer which he received +from the unrelenting Tiberius. Perceiving, however, that his severity was disliked +by the Senate, the Emperor said, that, if they desired it, he would give a certain +sum to each of Hortalus’s male children. They returned thanks; but Hortalus, either +from terror or dignity of mind, said not a word; and, from this time, Tiberius +showing him no favour, his family sunk into the most abject poverty: (Tacit. <hi rend='italic'>Annal.</hi> +Lib. II. c. 37 and 38.) And such were the descendants of the orator with the +park, the plantations, the ponds, and the pictures!</note>. +</p> + +<pb n='131'/><anchor id='Pg131'/> + +<p> +Hortensius has received more justice from Cicero than another +orator, Licinius Calvus, who, for a few years, was also considered +as his rival in eloquence. Calvus has already been +mentioned as an elegant poet; but Seneca calls his competition +with Cicero in oratory, <hi rend='italic'>iniquissimam litem</hi>. His style of +speaking was directly the reverse of that of Hortensius: he +affected the Attic taste in eloquence, such as it appeared in +what he conceived to be its purest form—the orations of +Lysias. Hence that correct and slender delicacy at which he +so studiously aimed, and which he conducted with great skill +and elegance; but, from being too much afraid of the faults +of redundance and unsuitable ornament, he refined and attenuated +his discourse till it lost its raciness and spirit. He +compensated, however, for his sterility of language, and diminutive +figure, by his force of elocution, and vivacity of action. +<q>I have met with persons,</q> says Quintilian, <q>who preferred +Calvus to all our orators; and others who were of opinion, +that the too great rigour which he exercised on himself, in +point of precision, had debilitated his oratorical talents. +Nevertheless, his speeches, though chaste, grave, and correct, +are frequently also vehement. His taste of writing was Attic; +and his untimely death was an injury to his reputation, if he +designed to add to his compositions, and not to retrench +them.</q> His most celebrated oration, which was against the +unpopular Vatinius, was delivered at the age of twenty. The +person whom he accused, overpowered and alarmed, interrupted +him, by exclaiming to the judges, <q>Must I be condemned +because he is eloquent?</q> The applause he obtained in this +case may be judged of from what is mentioned by Catullus, +of some one in the crowd clapping his hands in the middle of +his speech, and exclaiming, <q>O what an eloquent little darling<note place="foot">Catull. <hi rend='italic'>Carm.</hi> 53.</note>!</q> +Calvus survived only ten years after this period, +<pb n='132'/><anchor id='Pg132'/>having died at the early age of thirty. He left behind him +twenty-one books of orations, which are said to have been +much studied by the younger Pliny, and were the models he +first imitated<note place="foot">Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> Lib. I. ep. 2.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Calvus, though a much younger man than Cicero, died many +years before him, and previous to the composition of the dialogue +<hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>. Most of the other contemporaries, whom +Cicero records in that treatise on celebrated orators, were +dead also. Among an infinite variety of others, he particularly +mentions Marcus Crassus, the wealthy triumvir, who +perished in the ill-fated expedition against the Parthians; and +who, though possessed but of moderate learning and capacity, +was accounted, in consequence of his industry and popular +arts, among the chief forensic patrons. His language was +pure, and his subject well arranged; but in his harangues there +were none of the lights and flowers of eloquence,—all things +were expressed in the same manner, and the same tone. +</p> + +<p> +Towards the conclusion of the dialogue, Cicero mentions so +many of his predeceased contemporaries, that Atticus remarks, +that he is drawing up the dregs of oratory. Calidius, indeed, +seems the only other speaker who merits distinguished notice. +He is characterized as different from all other orators,—such +was the soft and polished language in which he arrayed his +exquisitely delicate sentiments. Nothing could be more easy, +pliable, and ductile, than the turn of his periods; his words +flowed like a pure and limpid stream, without anything hard +or muddy to impede or pollute their course; his action was +genteel, his mode of address sober and calm, his arrangement +the perfection of art. <q>The three great objects of an orator,</q> +says Cicero, while discussing the merits of Calidius, <q>are to +instruct, delight, and move. Two of these he admirably accomplished. +He rendered the most abstruse subject clear by +illustration, and enchained the minds of his hearers with delight. +But the third praise of moving and exciting the soul +must be denied him; he had no force, pathos, or animation<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 80.</note>.</q> +Such, indeed, was his want of emotion, where it was most appropriate, +and most to be expected, that, while pleading his +own cause against Q. Gallius for an attempt to poison him, +though he stated his case with elegance and perspicuity, yet +it was so smoothly and listlessly detailed, that Cicero, who +spoke for the person accused, argued, that the charge must be +false and an invention of his own, as no one could talk so +calmly, and with such indifference, of a recent attempt which +threatened his own existence<note place="foot">Ibid.</note>. +</p> + +<pb n='133'/><anchor id='Pg133'/> + +<p> +These were the most renowned orators who preceded the +age of Cicero, or were contemporaries with him; and before +proceeding to consider the oratorical merits of him by whom +they have been all eclipsed, at least in the eye of posterity, it +may be proper, for a single moment, to remind the reader of +the state of the Roman law,—of the judicial procedure, and of +the ordinary practice of the Forum, at the time when he commenced +and pursued his brilliant career of eloquence. +</p> + +<p> +The laws of the first six kings of Rome, called the <hi rend='italic'>Leges +Regiæ</hi>, chiefly related to sacred subjects,—regulations of +police,—divisions of the different orders in the state,—and +privileges of the people. Tarquinius Superbus having laid a +plan for the establishment of despotism at Rome, attempted to +abolish every law of his predecessors which imposed control +on the royal prerogative. About the time of his expulsion<note place="foot">According to some authorities it was a short while before, and according to +others a short while after, the expulsion of Tarquin.</note>, +the Senate and people, believing that the disregard of the laws +was occasioned by their never having been reduced in writing, +determined to have them assembled and recorded in one +volume; and this task was intrusted by them to Sextus Papyrius, +a <anchor id="corr133"/><corr sic="patrician">patrician.</corr> Papyrius accordingly collected, with great +assiduity, all the laws of the monarchs who had governed +Rome previously to the time of Tarquin. This collection, +which is sometimes called the <hi rend='italic'>Leges Regiæ</hi>, and sometimes +the Papyrian Code, did not obtain that confirmation and permanence +which might have been expected. Many of the <hi rend='italic'>Leges +Regiæ</hi> were the result of momentary emergencies, and +inapplicable to future circumstances. Being the ordinances, +too, of a detested race, and being in some respects but ill +adapted to the genius and temper of a republican government, +a great number of them soon fell into desuetude<note place="foot"><q>Exactis deinde regibus leges hæ exoleverunt; iterumque cœpit populus Romanus +incerto magis jure et consuetudine ali, quam per latam legem.</q>—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Pompon. Lætus</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>De Leg.</hi> II. § 3.</note>. The new +laws promulgated immediately after the expulsion of the kings, +related more to those constitutional modifications which were +rendered necessary by so important a revolution, than to the +civil rights of the citizen. In consequence of the dissensions +of the patricians and plebeians, every <hi rend='italic'>Senatusconsultum</hi> proceeding +from the deliberations of the Senate was negatived by +the <hi rend='italic'>veto</hi> of the Tribunes, while the Senate, in return, disowned +the authority of the <hi rend='italic'>Plebiscita</hi>, and denied the right of the +Tribunes to propose laws. There was thus a sort of legal interregnum +at Rome; at least, there were no fixed rules to +which all classes were equally subjected: and the great body +<pb n='134'/><anchor id='Pg134'/>of the people were too often the victims of the pride of the +patricians and tyranny of the consular government. In this +situation, C. Terentius Arsa brought forward the law known +by the name of <hi rend='italic'>Terentilla</hi>, of which the object was the election +by the people of ten persons, who should compose and +arrange a body of laws for the administration of public affairs, +as well as decision of the civil rights of individuals according +to established rules. The Senate, who maintained that the +dispensation of justice was solely vested in the supreme magistrates, +contrived, for five years, to postpone execution of this +salutary measure; but it was at length agreed, that, as a preparatory +step, and before the creation of the Decemvirs, who were +to form this code, three deputies should be sent to Greece, +and the Greek towns of Italy, to select such enactments as they +might consider best adapted to the manners and customs of the +Roman people. +</p> + +<p> +The delegates, who departed on this embassy towards the +close of the year 300, were occupied two years in their important +mission. From what cities of Greece, or Magna Græcia, +they chiefly borrowed their laws, has been a topic of much +discussion, and seems to be still involved in much uncertainty<note place="foot">Gibbon, <hi rend='italic'>Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</hi>, c. 44.</note>; +though Athens is most usually considered as having been the +great fountain of their legislation. +</p> + +<p> +On the return of the deputies to Rome, the office of Consul +was suppressed, and ten magistrates, called Decemvirs, among +whom these deputies were included, were immediately created. +To them was confided the care of digesting the prodigious +mass of laws which had been brought from Greece. +This task they accomplished with the aid of Hermodorus, an +exile of Ephesus, who then happened to be at Rome, and acted +as their interpreter. But although the importation from +Greece formed the chief part of the twelve tables, it cannot +be supposed that the ancient laws of Rome were entirely superseded. +Some of the <hi rend='italic'>Leges Regiæ</hi>, which had no reference +to monarchical government, as the laws of Romulus, +concerning the <hi rend='italic'>Patria potestas</hi>, those concerning parricides, +the removal of landmarks, and insolvent debtors, had, by tacit +consent, passed into consuetudinary law; and all those which +were still in observance were incorporated in the Decemviral +Code; in the same manner as the institutions of the heroic +ages of Greece formed a part of the laws of Solon and Lycurgus. +</p> + +<p> +Before a year had elapsed from the date of their creation, +the Decemvirs had prepared ten books of laws; which, being +<pb n='135'/><anchor id='Pg135'/>engraved on wooden or ivory tables, were presented to the +people, and received the sanction of the Senate, and ratification +of the Comitia Centuriata. Two supplementary tables +were soon afterwards added, in consequence of some omissions +which were observed and pointed out to the Decemvirs. In +all these tables the laws were briefly expressed. The first +eight related to matters of private right, the ninth to those of +public, and the tenth to those of religious concern. These +ten tables established very equitable rules for all different +ranks, without distinction; but in the two supplemental tables +some invidious distinctions were introduced, and many exclusive +privileges conferred on the patricians. +</p> + +<p> +On the whole, the Decemvirs appear to have been very +well versed in the science of legislation. Those who, like +Cicero<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>, Lib. II. c. 23. <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. I, c. 42.</note> and Tacitus, possessed the Twelve Tables complete, +and who were the most competent judges of how far they +were adapted to the circumstances and manners of the people, +have highly commended the wisdom of these laws. Modern +detractors have chiefly objected to the sanguinary punishments +they inflicted, the principles of the law of retaliation +which they recognized, and the barbarous privileges permitted +to creditors on the persons of their debtors. The severer +enactments, however, of the Twelve Tables, were evidently +never put in force, or so soon became obsolete, that the Roman +laws were at length esteemed remarkable for the mildness +of their punishments—the penalties of scourging, or death, +being scarcely in any case inflicted on a Roman citizen. +</p> + +<p> +The tables on which the Decemviral Code had been inscribed, +were destroyed by the Gauls at the sack of the city; +but such pains were taken in recovering copies, or making +them out from recollection, that the laws themselves were almost +completely re-established. +</p> + +<p> +It might reasonably have been expected that a system of +jurisprudence, carefully extracted from the whole legislative +wisdom of Italy and Greece, should have restored in the commonwealth +that good order and security which had been overthrown +by the uncertainty of the laws, and the disputes of the +patricians and plebeians. But the event did not justify the +well-founded expectation. The ambition and lawless passions +of the chief Decemvir had rendered it necessary for him +and his colleagues to abdicate their authority before they had +settled with sufficient precision how their enactments were to +be put in practice or enforced. It thus became essential to +introduce certain <hi rend='italic'>formulæ</hi>, called <hi rend='italic'>Legis Actiones</hi>, in order +<pb n='136'/><anchor id='Pg136'/>that the mode of procedure might not remain arbitrary and +uncertain. These, consisting chiefly of certain symbolical +gestures, adapted to a legal claim or defence, were prepared by +Claudius Cœcus about the middle of the fifth century of Rome, +but were intended to be kept private among the pontiffs +and patrician Jurisconsults, that the people might not have +the benefit of the law without their assistance. Cl. Flavius, +however, a secretary of Claudius, having access to these +formularies, transcribed and communicated them to the people +about the middle of the fifth century of Rome. From +this circumstance they were called the <hi rend='italic'>Jus civile Flavianum</hi>. +This discovery was so disagreeable to the patricians, that +they devised new legal forms, which they kept secret with +still more care than the others. But in 553, Sextus Ælius +Catus divulged them again, and in consequence, these last +prescripts obtained the name of <hi rend='italic'>Jus Ælium</hi>, which may be regarded +as the last part and completion of the Decemviral +laws; and it continued to be employed as the form of process +during the whole remaining period of the existence of the +commonwealth. +</p> + +<p> +As long as the republic survived, the Twelve Tables formed +the foundation of the Roman law, though they were interpreted +and enlarged by such new enactments as the circumstances +of the state demanded<note place="foot"><q>Decem tabularum leges,</q> says Livy, <q>nunc quoque, in hoc immenso aliarum +super aliis acervatarum legum cumulo, fons omnis publici privatique est +juris.</q></note>. Thus the <hi rend='italic'>Lex Aquilia</hi> and +<hi rend='italic'>Alinia</hi> were mere modifications of different heads of the +twelve tables. Most of the new laws were introduced in +consequence of the increase of empire and luxury, and the +conflicting interests of the various orders in the state. Laws, +properly so called, were proposed by a superior magistrate, +as the Consul, Dictator, or Prætor, with consent of the Senate; +they were passed by the whole body of the people, patricians +and plebeians, assembled in the Comitia Centuriata, +and bore ever after the name of the proposer. +</p> + +<p> +The <hi rend='italic'>Plebiscita</hi> were enacted by the plebeians in the Comitia +Tributa, apart from the patricians, and independently of +the sanction of the Senate, at the <hi rend='italic'>rogation</hi> of their own Tribunes, +instead of one of the superior magistrates. The patricians +generally resisted these decrees, as they were chiefly +directed against the authority of the Senate, and the privileges +of the higher orders of the state. But, by the <hi rend='italic'>Lex Horatia</hi>, +the same weight and authority were given to them as to +laws properly so termed, and thenceforth they differed only in +name, and the manner in which they were enacted. +</p> + +<pb n='137'/><anchor id='Pg137'/> + +<p> +A <hi rend='italic'>Senatusconsultum</hi> was an ordinance of the Senate on +those points concerning which it possessed exclusive authority; +but rather referred to matters of state, as the distribution of +provinces, the application of public money, and the like, than +to the ordinary administration of justice. +</p> + +<p> +The patricians, being deprived by the Twelve Tables of the +privilege of arbitrarily pronouncing decisions, as best suited +their interests; and being frustrated in their miserable attempts +to maintain an undue advantage in matters of form, +by secreting the rules of procedure held in courts of justice, +they had now reserved to them only the power of interpreting +to others the scope and spirit of the laws. Till the age, at +least, of Augustus, the civil law was completely unconnected +and dissipated; and no systematic, accessible, or authoritative +treatise on the subject, appeared during the existence of the +republic<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. II. c. 33.</note>. The laws of the Twelve Tables were extremely +concise and elliptical; and it seems highly probable that they +were written in this style, not for the sake of perspicuity, but +to leave all that required to be supplied or interpreted in the +power of the Patricians<note place="foot">Saint Prix, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. du Droit Romain</hi>, p. 23. Ed. Paris, 1821.</note>. The changes, too, in the customs +and language of the Romans, rendered the style of the Twelve +Tables less familiar to each succeeding generation; and the +ambiguous passages were but imperfectly explained by the +study of legal antiquarians. It was the custom, likewise, for +each successive Prætor to publish an edict, announcing the +manner in which justice was to be distributed by him—the +rules which he proposed to follow in the decision of doubtful +cases; and the degree of relief which his equity would afford +from the precise rigour of ancient statutes. This annual alteration +in forms, and sometimes even in the principles of law, +introduced a confusion, which persons engrossed with other +occupations could not unravel. The obscurity of old laws, +and fluctuating jurisdiction of the Prætors, gave rise to that +class of men called Jurisconsults, whose business it was to explain +legal difficulties, and reconcile statutory contradictions. +It was the relation of patron and client, which was coeval almost +with the city itself, and was invested with a sacred, inviolable +character, that gave weight to the <hi rend='italic'>dicta</hi> of those who, +in some measure, came in place of the ancient patrons, and +usually belonged to the patrician order.—<q>On the public +days of market or assembly,</q> says Gibbon, <q>the masters of +the art were seen walking in the Forum, ready to impart the +needful advice to the meanest of their fellow-citizens, from +<pb n='138'/><anchor id='Pg138'/>whose votes, on a future occasion, they might solicit a grateful +return. As their years and honours increased, they seated +themselves at home on a chair or throne, to expect with +patient gravity the visits of their clients, who, at the dawn of +day, from the town and country, began to thunder at their +door. The duties of social life, and incidents of judicial proceedings, +were the ordinary subject of these consultations; +and the verbal or written opinions of the jurisconsults were +framed according to the rules of prudence and law. The +youths of their own order and family were permitted to listen; +their children enjoyed the benefit of more private lessons; and +the Mucian race was long renowned for the hereditary knowledge +of the civil law<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</hi>, c. 44.</note>.</q> Though the judges and prætors +were not absolutely obliged, till the time of the emperors, to +follow the recorded opinions of the Jurisconsults, they possessed +during the existence of the republic a preponderating +weight and authority. The province of legislation was thus +gradually invaded by these expounders of ancient statutes, till +at length their recorded opinions, the <hi rend='italic'>Responsa Prudentum</hi>, +became so numerous, and of such authority, that they formed +the greatest part of the system of Roman jurisprudence, +whence they were styled by Cicero, in his oration for Cæcina, +<hi rend='italic'>Jus Civile</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +It is perfectly evident, however, that the civil law was neither +much studied nor known by the <hi rend='italic'>orators</hi> of the Senate, +and Forum. Cicero, in his treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, informs us, +that Ser. Galba, the first speaker of his day, was ignorant of +law, inexperienced in civil rights, and uncertain as to the institutions +of his ancestors. In his <hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi> he says nearly the +same thing of Antony and Sulpicius, who were the two greatest +orators of their age, and who, he declares, knew nothing of +public, private, or civil law. Antony in particular, always +expressed a contempt for the study of the civil law<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>De Orat.</hi> Lib. I. c. 57.</note>. Accordingly, +in the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, he is made to say, <q>I never +studied the civil law, nor have I been sensible of any loss from +my ignorance of it in those causes which I was capable of +managing in our courts<note place="foot">Ibid. Lib. I. c. 58.</note>.</q> In the same dialogue, Scævola +says, <q>The present age is totally ignorant of the laws of the +Twelve Tables, except you, Crassus, who, led by curiosity, +rather than from its being any province annexed to eloquence, +studied civil law under me.</q> In his oration for Muræna, Cicero +talks lightly of the study of the civil law, and treats his opponent +with scorn on account of his knowledge of its words of +<pb n='139'/><anchor id='Pg139'/>style and forms of procedure<note place="foot">It must be admitted, however, that Cicero, in other passages of his works, has +given the study of civil law high encomiums, particularly in the following beautiful +passage delivered in the person of Crassus: <q>Senectuti vero celebrandæ et ornandæ +quid honestius potest esse perfugium, quàm juris interpretatio? Equidem mihi hoc +subsidium jam inde ab adolescentiâ comparavi, non solum ad causarum usum forensem, +sed etiam ad decus atque ornamentum senectutis; ut cùm me vires (quod +fere jam tempus adventat) deficere <anchor id="corr139"/><corr sic="coepissent">cœpissent</corr>, ab solitudine domum meam vindicarem.</q> +(<hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. I. c. 45.) Schultingius, the celebrated civilian, in his +dissertation <hi rend='italic'>De Jurisprudentia Ciceronis</hi>, tries to prove, from various passages in his +orations and rhetorical writings, that Cicero was well versed in the most profound +and nice questions of Roman jurisprudence, and that he was well skilled in international +law, as Grotius has borrowed from him many of his principles and illustrations, +in his treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Jure Belli et Pacis</hi>.</note>. With exception, then, of Crassus, +and of Scævola, who was rather a jurisconsult than a speaker, +the orators of the age of Cicero, as well as those who +preceded it, were uninstructed in law, and considered it as no +part of their duty to render themselves masters, either of the +general principles of jurisprudence, or the municipal institutions +of the state. Crassus, indeed, expresses his opinion, +that it is impossible for an orator to do justice to his client +without some knowledge of law, particularly in questions tried +before the Centumviri, who had cognizance of points with regard +to egress and regress in property, the interests of minors, +and alterations in the course of rivers; and he mentions several +cases, some of a criminal nature, which had lately occurred at +Rome, where the question hinged entirely on the civil law, +and required constant reference to precedents and authorities. +Antony, however, explains how all this may be managed. A +speaker, for example, ignorant of the mode of drawing up an +agreement, and unacquainted with the forms of a contract, might +defend the rights of a woman who has been contracted in +marriage, because there were persons who brought everything +to the orator or patron, ready prepared,—presenting him with +a brief, or memorial, not only on matters of fact, but on the +decrees of the Senate, the precedents and the opinions of the +jurisconsults. It also appears that there were solicitors, or +professors of civil law, whom the orators consulted on any +point concerning which they wished to be instructed, and the +knowledge of which might be necessary previous to their appearance +in the Forum. In this situation, the harangue of the +orator was more frequently an appeal to the equity, common +sense, or feelings of the judge, than to the laws of his country. +Now, where a pleader addresses himself to the equity of his +judges, he has much more occasion, and also much more scope, +to display his eloquence, than where he must draw his arguments +from strict law, statutes, and precedents. In the former +case, many circumstances must be taken into account; many +<pb n='140'/><anchor id='Pg140'/>personal considerations regarded; and even favour and inclination, +which it belongs to the orator to conciliate, by his +art and eloquence, may be disguised under the appearance of +equity. Accordingly, Cicero, while speaking in his own person, +only says, that the science of law and civil rights should +not be neglected; but he does not seem to consider it as essential +to the orator of the Forum, while he enlarges on the +necessity of elegance of language, the erudition of the scholar, +a ready and popular wit, and a power of moving the passions<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. I.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +That these were the arts to which the Roman orators chiefly +trusted for success in the causes of their clients, is apparent +from the remains of their discourses, and from what is said of +the mode of pleading in the rhetorical treatises of Cicero. +<q>Pontius,</q> says Antony, in the dialogue so often quoted, <q>had +a son, who served in the war with the Cimbri, and whom he +had destined to be his heir; but his father, believing a false report +which was spread of his death, made a will in favour of +another child. The soldier returned after the decease of his +parent; and, had you been employed to defend his cause, you +would not have discussed the legal doctrine as to the priority +or validity of testaments; you would have raised his father +from the grave, made him embrace his child, and recommend +him, with many tears, to the protection of the Centumviri.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Antony, speaking of one of his own most celebrated orations, +says, that his whole address consisted, 1st, in moving +the passions; 2d, in recommending <hi rend='italic'>himself</hi>; and that it was +thus, and not by convincing the understanding of the judges, +that he baffled the impeachment against his clients<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> Lib. II. c. 49.</note>. Valerius +Maximus has supplied, in his eighth book, many examples +of unexpected and unmerited acquittals, as well as condemnations, +from bursts of compassion and theatrical incidents. The +wonderful influence, too, of a ready and popular wit in the +management of causes, is apparent from the instances given +in the second book <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi> of the effects it had produced +in the Forum. The jests which are there recorded, though +not very excellent, may be regarded as the finest flowers of +wit of the Roman bar. Sometimes they were directed against +the opposite party, his patron, or witnesses; and, if sufficiently +impudent, seldom failed of effect. +</p> + +<p> +That the principles and precepts of the civil law were so +little studied by the Roman orators, and hardly ever alluded +to in their harangues, while, on the other hand, the arts of persuasion, +and wit, and excitement of the passions, were +all-pow<pb n='141'/><anchor id='Pg141'/>erful, and were the great engines of legal discussion, must be +attributed to the constitution of the courts of law, and the +nature of the judicial procedure, which, though very imperfect +for the administration of justice, were well adapted to promote +and exercise the highest powers of eloquence. It was the +forms of procedure—the description of the courts before which +questions were tried—and the nature of these questions themselves<note place="foot"><q>An non pudeat, certam creditam pecuniam periodis postulare, aut circa stillicidia +affici?</q>—Quint. <hi rend='italic'>Inst. Orat.</hi> Lib. VIII. c. 3.</note>—that +gave to Roman oratory such dazzling splendour, +and surrounded it with a glory, which can never shine on the +efforts of rhetoric in a better-regulated community, and under +a more sober dispensation of justice. +</p> + +<p> +The great exhibitions of eloquence were, 1st, In the civil +and criminal causes tried before the Prætor, or judges appointed +under his eye. 2d, The discussions on laws proposed in +the assemblies of the people. 3d, The deliberations of the +Senate. +</p> + +<p> +The Prætor sat in the Forum, the name given to the great +square situated between Mount Palatine and the Capitol, and +there administered justice. Sometimes he heard causes in +the Basilicæ, or halls which were built around the Forum; +but at other times the court of the Prætor was held in the area +of the Forum, on which a tribunal was hastily erected, and a +certain space for the patron, client, and witnesses, was railed +off, and protected from the encroachment of surrounding +spectators. This space was slightly covered above for the +occasion with canvass, but being exposed to the air on all +sides, the court was an open one, in the strictest sense of the +term<note place="foot">Polletus, <hi rend='italic'>Historia Fori Romani, ap. Supplement. ad Graevii et Gronov. antiquitat.</hi> +T. I. p. 351.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +From the time of the first Punic war there were two Prætors, +to whom the cognizance of <hi rend='italic'>civil</hi> suits was committed,—the +<hi rend='italic'>Prætor urbanus</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>Prætor peregrinus</hi>. The former +tried the causes of citizens according to the Roman laws; +the latter judged the cases of allies and strangers by the principles +of natural equity; but as judicial business multiplied, the +number of Prætors was increased to six. The Prætor was the +chief judge in all questions that did not fall under the immediate +cognizance of the assemblies of the people or the Senate. +Every action, therefore, came, in the first instance, before the +Prætor; but he decided only in civil suits of importance: and +if the cause was not of sufficient magnitude for the immediate +investigation of his tribunal, or hinged entirely on matters of +fact, he appointed one or more persons to judge of it. These +<pb n='142'/><anchor id='Pg142'/>were chosen from a list of <hi rend='italic'>judices selecti</hi>, which was made up +from the three orders of senators, knights, and people. If but +one person was appointed, he was properly called a <hi rend='italic'>judex</hi>, or +<hi rend='italic'>arbiter</hi>. The <hi rend='italic'>judex</hi> determined only such cases as were easy, +or of small importance; and he was bound to proceed according +to an express law, or a certain form prescribed to him by +the Prætor. The <hi rend='italic'>arbiter</hi> decided in questions of equity +which were not sufficiently defined by law, and his powers +were not so restricted by the Prætor as those of the ordinary +<hi rend='italic'>judex</hi>. When more persons than one were nominated by the +Prætor, they were termed <hi rend='italic'>Recuperatores</hi>, and they settled +points of law or equity requiring much deliberation. Certain +cases, particularly those relating to testaments or successions, +were usually remitted by the Prætor to the <hi rend='italic'>Centumviri</hi>, who +were 105 persons, chosen equally from the thirty-five tribes. +The Prætor, before sending a case to any of those, whom I +may call by the general name of judges, though, in fact, they +more nearly resembled our jury, made up a <hi rend='italic'>formula</hi>, as it was +called, or issue on which they were to decide; as, for example, +<q>If it be proved that the field is in possession of Servilius, give +sentence against Catulus, unless he produce a testament, from +which it shall appear to belong to him.</q> +</p> + +<p> +It was in presence of these judges that the patrons and +orators, surrounded by a crowd of friends and retainers, pleaded +the causes of their clients. They commenced with a brief +exposition of the nature of the points in dispute. Witnesses +were afterwards examined, and the arguments on the case +were enforced in a formal harangue. A decision was then +given, according to the opinion of a majority of the judges. +The Centumviri continued to act as judges for a whole year; +but the other <hi rend='italic'>judices</hi> only sat till the particular cause was determined +for which they had been appointed. They remained, +however, on the numerous list of the <hi rend='italic'>judices selecti</hi>, and were +liable to be again summoned till the end of the year, when a +new set was chosen for the judicial business of the ensuing +season. The Prætor had the power of reversing the decisions +of the judges, if it appeared that any fraud or gross error had +been committed. If neither was alleged, he charged himself +with the duty of seeing the sentence which the judges had pronounced +carried into execution. Along with his judicial and +ministerial functions, the Prætor possessed a sort of legislative +power, by which he supplied the deficiency of laws that were +found inadequate for many civil emergencies. Accordingly, +each new Prætor, as we have already seen, when he entered +on his office, issued an edict, announcing the supplementary +code which he intended to follow. Every Prætor had a +to<pb n='143'/><anchor id='Pg143'/>tally different edict; and, what was worse, none thought of +adhering to the rules which he had himself traced; till at +length, in the year 686, the Cornelian law, which met with +much opposition, prohibited the Prætor from departing in +practice from those principles, or regulations, he had laid down +in his edict. +</p> + +<p> +Capital trials, that is, all those which regarded the life or +liberty of a Roman citizen, had been held in the <hi rend='italic'>Comitia +Centuriata</hi>, after the institution of these assemblies by Servius +Tullius; but the authority of the people had been occasionally +delegated to Inquisitors, (<hi rend='italic'>Quæsitores</hi>,) in points previously +fixed by law. For some time, all criminal matters of consequence +were determined in this manner: But from the multiplicity +of trials, which increased with the extent and vices of +the republic, other means of despatching them were necessarily +resorted to. The Prætors, originally, judged only in civil +suits; but in the time of Cicero, and indeed from the beginning +of the seventh century, four of the six Prætors were nominated +to preside at criminal trials—one taking cognizance of questions +of extortion—a second of peculation—a third of illegal +canvass—and the last, of offences against the state, as the +<hi rend='italic'>Crimen majestatis</hi>, or treason. To these, Sylla, in the middle +of the seventh century, added four more, who inquired +into acts of public or private violence. In trials of importance, +the Prætor was assisted by the counsel of select judges or +jurymen, who originally were all chosen from the Senate, and +afterwards from the order of Knights; but in Cicero’s time, in +consequence of a law of Cotta, they were taken from the Senators, +Knights, and Tribunes of the treasury. The number +of these assessors, who were appointed for the year, and nominated +by the Prætor, varied from 300 to 600; and from them +a smaller number was chosen by lot for each individual case. +Any Roman citizen might accuse another before the Prætor; +and not unfrequently the young patricians undertook the +prosecution of an obnoxious magistrate, merely to recommend +themselves to the notice or favour of their countrymen. In +such cases there was often a competition between two persons +for obtaining the management of the impeachment, and the +preference was determined by a previous trial, called <hi rend='italic'>Divinatio</hi>. +This preliminary point being settled, and the day of the +principal trial fixed, the accuser, in his first speech, explained +the nature of the case,—fortifying his statements as he proceeded +by proofs, which consisted in the voluntary testimony +of free citizens, the declarations of slaves elicited by torture, +and written documents. Cicero made little account of the +evidence of slaves; but the art of extracting truth from a free +<pb n='144'/><anchor id='Pg144'/>witness—of exalting or depreciating his character—and of +placing his deposition in a favourable light, was considered +among the most important qualifications of an orator. When +the evidence was concluded, the prosecutor enforced the +proofs by a set speech, after which the accused entered on his +defence. +</p> + +<p> +But though the cognizance of crimes was in ordinary cases +delegated to the Prætors, still the Comitia reserved the power +of judging; and they actually did judge in causes, in which +the people, or tribunes, who dictated to them, took an interest, +and these were chiefly impeachments of public magistrates, +for bribery or peculation. It was not understood, in any +case, whether tried before the whole people or the Prætor, that +either party was to be very scrupulous in the observance of +truth. The judges, too, were sometimes overawed by an +array of troops, and by menaces. Canvassing for acquittal +and condemnation, were alike avowed, and bribery, at least +for the former purpose, was currently resorted to. Thus the +very crimes of the wretch who had plundered the province +intrusted to his care, afforded him the most obvious means of +absolution; and, to the wealthy peculator, nothing could be +more easy than an escape from justice, except the opportunity +of accusing the innocent and unprotected. <q>Foreign +nations,</q> says Cicero, <q>will soon solicit the repeal of the law, +which prohibits the extortions of provincial magistrates; for +they will argue, that were all prosecutions on this law abolished, +their governors would take no more than what satisfied +their own rapacity, whereas now they exact over and above +this, as much as will be sufficient to gratify their patrons, the +<hi rend='italic'>Prætor and the judges</hi>; and that though they can furnish +enough to glut the avarice of one man, they are utterly unable +to pay for his impunity in guilt<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>In Verrem</hi>, Act. I. c. 14.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The organization of the judicial tribunals was wretched, +and their practice scandalous. The Senate, Prætors, and +Comitia, all partook of the legislative and judicial power, and +had a sort of reciprocal right of opposition and reversal, which +they exercised to gratify their avarice or prejudices, and not +with any view to the ends of justice. But however injurious +this system might be to those who had claims to urge, or +rights to defend, it afforded the most ample field for the excursions +of eloquence. The Prætors, though the supreme +judges, were not men bred to the law—advanced in years—familiarized +with precedents—secure of independence—and +fixed in their stations for life. They were young men of +lit<pb n='145'/><anchor id='Pg145'/>tle experience, who held the office for a season, and proceeded +through it, to what were considered as the most important +situations of the republic. Though their procedure was +strict in some trivial points of preliminary form, devised by +the ancient Jurisconsults, they enjoyed, in more essential matters, +a perilous latitude. On the dangerous pretext of equity, +they eluded the law by various subtilties or fictions; and +thus, without being endued with legislative authority, they +abrogated ancient enactments according to caprice. It was +worse when, in civil cases, the powers of the Prætor were +intrusted to the judges; or when, in criminal trials, the jurisdiction +was assumed by the whole people. The inexperience, +ignorance, and popular prejudices of those who were to +decide them, rendered litigations extremely uncertain, and +dependent, not on any fixed law or principle, but on the +opinions or passions of tumultuary judges, which were to be +influenced and moved by the arts of oratory. This furnished +ample scope for displaying all that interesting and various +eloquence, with which the pleadings of the ancient orators +abounded. The means to be employed for success, were +conciliating favour, rousing attention, removing or fomenting +prejudice, but, above all, exciting compassion. Hence we +find, that in the defence of a criminal, while a law or precedent +was seldom mentioned, every thing was introduced +which could serve to gain the favour of the judges, or move +their pity. The accused, as soon as the day of trial was fixed, +assumed an apparently neglected garb; and although allowed, +whatever was the crime, to go at large till sentence was +pronounced, he usually attended in court surrounded by his +friends, and sometimes accompanied by his children, in order +to give a more piteous effect to the lamentations and exclamations +of his counsel, when he came to that part of the oration, +in which the fallen and helpless state of his client was +to be suitably bewailed. Piso, justly accused of oppression +towards the allies, having prostrated himself on the earth in +order to kiss the feet of his judges, and having risen with his +face defiled with mud, obtained an immediate acquittal. +Even where the cause was good, it was necessary to address +the passions, and to rely on the judge’s feelings of compassion, +rather than on his perceptions of right. Rutilius prohibited +all exclamations and entreaties to be used in his defence: +He even forbade the accustomed and expected excitement of +invocations, and stamping with the feet; and <q>he was condemned,</q> +says Cicero, <q>though the most virtuous of the Romans, +because his counsel was compelled to plead for him as +he would have done in the republic of Plato.</q> It thus +ap<pb n='146'/><anchor id='Pg146'/>pears, that it was dangerous to trust to innocence alone, and +the judges were the capricious arbiters of the fate of their +fellow-citizens, and not (as their situation so urgently required) +the inflexible interpreters of the laws of their exalted +country. +</p> + +<p> +But if the manner of treating causes was favourable to the +exertions of eloquence, much also must be allowed for the +nature of the questions themselves, especially those of a criminal +description, tried before the Prætor or people. One can +scarcely figure more glorious opportunities for the display of +oratory, than were afforded by those complaints of the oppressed +and plundered provinces against their rapacious governors. +From the extensive ramifications of the Roman +power, there continually arose numerous cases of a description +that can rarely occur in other countries, and which are +unexampled in the history of Britain, except in a memorable +impeachment, which not merely displayed, but created such +eloquence as can be called forth only by splendid topics, +without which rhetorical indignation would seem extravagant, +and attempted pathos ridiculous. +</p> + +<p> +The spot, too, on which the courts of justice assembled, +was calculated to inspire and heighten eloquence. The Roman +Forum presented one of the most splendid spectacles that +eye could behold, or fancy conceive. This space formed an +oblong square between the Palatine and Capitoline hills, composed +of a vast assemblage of sumptuous though irregular +edifices. On the side next the Palatine hill stood the ancient +Senate-house, and Comitium, and Temple of Romulus the +Founder. On the opposite quarter, it was bounded by the +Capitol, with its ascending range of porticos, and the temple +of the tutelar deity on the summit. The other sides of the +square were adorned with basilicæ, and piazzas terminated by +triumphal arches; and were bordered with statues, erected +to the memory of the ancient heroes or preservers of their +country<note place="foot">Nardini, <hi rend='italic'>Roma Antica</hi>, Lib. V. c. 2, &c.</note>. Having been long the theatre of the factions, the +politics, the intrigues, the crimes, and the revolutions of the +capital, every spot of its surface was consecrated to the +recollection of some great incident in the domestic history of +the Romans; while their triumphs over foreign enemies were +vividly called to remembrance by the Rostrum itself, which +stood in the centre of the vacant area, and by other trophies +gained from vanquished nations:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Et cristæ capitum, et portarum ingentia claustra,</q></l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Spiculaque, clipeique, ereptaque rostra carinis<note place="foot">Virg. <hi rend='italic'>Æneid.</hi> Lib. VII.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<pb n='147'/><anchor id='Pg147'/> + +<p> +A vast variety of shops, stored with a profusion of the most +costly merchandize, likewise surrounded this heart and centre +of the world, so that it was the mart for all important commercial +transactions. Being thus the emporium of law, +politics, and trade, it became the resort of men of business, +as well as of those loiterers whom Horace calls <hi rend='italic'>Forenses</hi>. +Each Roman citizen, regarding himself as a member of the +same vast and illustrious family, scrutinized with jealous +watchfulness the conduct of his rulers, and looked with anxious +solicitude to the issue of every important cause. In all +trials of oppression or extortion, the Roman multitude took a +particular interest,—repairing in such numbers to the Forum, +that even its spacious square was hardly sufficient to contain +those who were attracted to it by curiosity; and who, in the +course of the trial, were in the habit of expressing their feelings +by shouts and acclamations, so that the orator was ever +surrounded by a crowded and tumultuary audience. This +numerous assembly, too, while it inspired the orator with +confidence and animation, after he had commenced his harangue, +created in prospect that anxiety which led to the most +careful preparation previous to his appearance in public. +The apprehension and even trepidation felt by the greatest +speakers at Rome on the approach of the day fixed for the +hearing of momentous causes, is evident from many passages +of the rhetorical works of Cicero. The Roman orator thus +addressed his judges with all the advantages derived both +from the earnest study of the closet, and the exhilaration imparted +to him by unrestrained and promiscuous applause. +</p> + +<p> +2. Next to the courts of justice, the great theatre for the +display of eloquence, was the Comitia, or assemblies of the +people, met to deliberate on the proposal of passing a new +law, or abrogating an old one. A law was seldom offered +for consideration but some orator was found to dissuade its +adoption; and as in the courts of justice the passions of the +judges were addressed, so the favourers or opposers of a law +did not confine themselves to the expediency of the measure, +but availed themselves of the prejudices of the people, alternately +confirming their errors, indulging their caprices, gratifying +their predilections, exciting their jealousies, and fomenting +their dislikes. Here, more than anywhere, the many were +to be courted by the few—here, more than anywhere, was +created that excitement which is most favourable to the influence +of eloquence, and forms indeed the element in which +alone it breathes with freedom. +</p> + +<p> +3. Finally, the deliberations of the Senate, which was the +great council of the state, afforded, at least to its members, +<pb n='148'/><anchor id='Pg148'/>the noblest opportunities for the exertions of eloquence. +This august and numerous body consisted of individuals who +had reached a certain age, and who were possessed of a certain +extent of property, who were supposed to be of unblemished +reputation, and most of whom had passed through the +annual magistracies of the state. They were consulted upon +almost everything that regarded the administration or safety +of the commonwealth. The power of making war and peace, +though it ultimately lay with the people assembled in the +Comitia Centuriata, was generally left by them entirely to the +Senate, who passed a decree of peace or war previous to the +suffrages of the Comitia. The Senate, too, had always reserved +to itself the supreme direction and superintendance of +the religion of the country, and the distribution of the public +revenue—the levying or disbanding troops, and fixing the +service on which they should be employed—the nomination +of governors for the provinces—the rewards assigned to successful +generals for their victories, and the guardianship of +the state in times of civil dissension. These were the great +subjects of debate in the Senate, and they were discussed on +certain fixed days of the year, when its members assembled of +course, or when they were summoned together for any emergency. +They invariably met in a temple, or other consecrated +place, in order to give solemnity to their proceedings, +as being conducted under the immediate eye of Heaven. +The Consul, who presided, opened the business of the day, +by a brief exposition of the question which was to be considered +by the assembly. He then asked the opinions of the +members in the order of rank and seniority. Freedom of debate +was exercised in its greatest latitude; for, though no senator +was permitted to deliver his sentiments till it came to his +turn, he had then a right to speak as long as he thought proper, +without being in the smallest degree confined to the point in +question. Sometimes, indeed, the Conscript Fathers consulted +on the state of the commonwealth in general; but +even when summoned to deliberate on a particular subject, +they seem to have enjoyed the privilege of talking about anything +else which happened to be uppermost in their minds. +Thus we find that Cicero took the opportunity of delivering +his seventh Philippic when the Senate was consulted concerning +the Appian Way, the coinage, and Luperci—subjects +which had no relation to Antony, against whom he inveighed +from one end of his oration to the other, without taking the +least notice of the only points which were referred to the +consideration of the +senators<note place="foot"><q>Parvis de rebus,</q> says he, <q>sed fortasse necessariis consulimur, Patres conscripti. De Appiâ viâ et de monetâ Consul—De Lupercis tribunus plebis refert. +Quarum rerum etsi facilis explicatio videtur, tamen animus aberrat a sententiâ, suspensus +curis majoribus.</q>—C. I.</note>. The resolution of the + major<pb n='149'/><anchor id='Pg149'/>ity was expressed in the shape of a decree, which, though not +properly a law, was entitled to the same reverence on the +point to which it related; and, except in matters where the +interests of the state required concealment, all pains were +taken to give the utmost publicity to the whole proceedings +of the Senate. +</p> + +<p> +The number of the Senate varied, but in the time of Cicero, +it was nearly the same as the British House of Commons; but +it required a larger number to make a quorum. Sometimes +there were between 400 and 500 members present; but 200, +at least during certain seasons of the year, formed what was +accounted a full house. This gave to senatorial eloquence +something of the spirit and animation created by the presence +of a popular assembly, while at the same time the deliberative +majesty of the proceedings required a weight of argument +and dignity of demeanour, unlooked for in the Comitia, +or Forum. Accordingly, the levity, ingenuity, and wit, +which were there so often crowned with success and applause, +were considered as misplaced in the Senate, where the consular, +or prætorian orator, had to prevail by depth of reasoning, +purity of expression, and an apparent zeal for the public +good. +</p> + +<p> +It was the authority of the Senate, with the calm and +imposing aspect of its deliberations, that gave to Latin oratory +a somewhat different character from the eloquence of +Greece, to which, in consequence of the Roman spirit of imitation, +it bore, in many respects, so close a resemblance. +The power of the Areopagus, which was originally the most +dignified assembly at Athens, had been retrenched amid the +democratic innovations of Pericles. From that period, everything, +even the most important affairs of state, depended entirely, +in the pure democracy of Athens, on the opinion, or +rather the momentary caprice of an inconstant people, who +were fond of pleasure and repose, who were easily swayed by +novelty, and were confident in their power. As their precipitate +decisions thus often hung on an instant of enthusiasm, +the orator required to dart into their bosoms those electric +sparks of eloquence which inflamed their passions, and left +no corner of the mind fitted for cool consideration. It was +the business of the speaker to allow them no time to recover +from the shock, for its force would have been spent had they +been permitted to occupy themselves with the beauties of +style and diction. <q>Applaud not the orator,</q> says +Demos<pb n='150'/><anchor id='Pg150'/>thenes, at the end of one of his Philippics, <q>but do what I +have recommended. I cannot save you by my words, you +must save yourselves by your actions.</q> When the people +were persuaded, every thing was accomplished, and their decision +was embodied in a sort of decree by the orator. The +people of Rome, on the other hand, were more reflective and +moderate, and less vain than the Athenians; nor was the whole +authority of the state vested in them. There was, on the +contrary, an accumulation of powers, and a complication of +different interests to be managed. Theoretically, indeed, the +sovereignty was in the people, but the practical government +was intrusted to the Senate. As we see from Cicero’s third +oration, <hi rend='italic'>De Lege Agraria</hi>, the same affairs were often treated +at the same time in the Senate and on the Rostrum. Hence, +in the judicial and legislative proceedings, in which, as we +have seen, the feelings of the judges and prejudices of the +vulgar were so frequently appealed to, some portion of the +senatorial spirit pervaded and controlled the popular assemblies, +restrained the impetuosity of decision, and gave to those +orators of the Forum, or Comitia, who had just spoken, or +were to speak next day in the Senate, a more grave and temperate +tone, than if their tongues had never been employed +but for the purpose of impelling a headlong multitude. +</p> + +<p> +But if the Greeks were a more impetuous and inconstant, +they were also a more intellectual people than the Romans. +Literature and refinement were more advanced in the age of +Pericles than of Pompey. Now, in oratory, a popular audience +must be moved by what corresponds to the feelings and taste +of the age. With such an intelligent race as the Greeks, the +orator was obliged to employ the most accurate reasoning, and +most methodical arrangement of his arguments. The flowers +of rhetoric, unless they grew directly from the stem of his discourse, +were little admired. The Romans, on the other hand, +required the excitation of fancy, of comparisons, and metaphors, +and rhetorical decoration. Hence, the Roman orator +was more anxious to seduce the imagination than convince +the understanding; his discourse was adorned with frequent +digressions into the field of morals and philosophy, and he +was less studious of precision than of ornament. +</p> + +<p> +On the whole, the circumstances in the Roman constitution +and judicial procedure, appear to have wonderfully +conspired to render +</p> +</div><div> +<pb n='151'/><anchor id='Pg151'/> +<index index="toc" level1="Cicero"/><index index="pdf" level1="Cicero"/> +<head>CICERO</head> + +<p> +an accomplished orator. He was born and educated at a +period when he must have formed the most exalted idea of his +country. She had reached the height of power, and had not +yet sunk into submission or servility. The subjects to be +discussed, and characters to be canvassed, were thus of the +most imposing magnitude, and could still be treated with +freedom and independence. The education, too, which Cicero +had received, was highly favourable to his improvement. He +had the first philosophers of the age for his teachers, and he +studied the civil law under Scævola, the most learned jurisconsult +who had hitherto appeared in Rome. When he came +to attend the Forum, he enjoyed the advantage of daily hearing +Hortensius, unquestionably the most eloquent speaker who +had yet shone in the Forum or Senate. The harangues of +this great pleader formed his taste, and raised his emulation, +and, till near the conclusion of his oratorical career, acted as +an incentive to exertions, which might have abated, had he +been left without a competitor in the Forum. The blaze of +Hortensius’s rhetoric would communicate to his rival a brighter +flame of eloquence than if he had been called on to refute a +cold and inanimate adversary. Still, however, the great +secret of his distinguished oratorical eminence was, that notwithstanding +his vanity, he never fell into the apathy with regard +to farther improvement, by which self-complacency is so +often attended. On the contrary, Cicero, after he had delivered +two celebrated orations, which filled the Forum with his +renown, so far from resting satisfied with the acclamations of +the capital, abandoned, for a time, the brilliant career on +which he had entered, and travelled, during two years, through +the cities of Greece, in quest of philosophical improvement +and rhetorical instruction. +</p> + +<p> +With powers of speaking beyond what had yet been known +in his own country, and perhaps not inferior to those which had +ever adorned any other, he possessed, in a degree superior to +all orators, of whatever age or nation, a general and discursive +acquaintance with philosophy and literature, together +with an admirable facility of communicating the fruits of his +labours, in a manner the most copious, perspicuous, and attractive. +To this extensive knowledge, by which his mind was +enriched and supplied with endless topics of illustration—to +the lofty ideas of eloquence, which perpetually revolved in his +thoughts—to that image which ever haunted his breast, of +<pb n='152'/><anchor id='Pg152'/>such infinite and superhuman perfection in oratory, that even +the periods of Demosthenes did not fill up the measure of his +conceptions<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Orator</hi>, c. 30.</note>, we are chiefly indebted for those emanations of +genius, which have given, as it were, an immortal tongue to +the now desolate Forum and ruined Senate of Rome. +</p> + +<p> +The first oration which Cicero pronounced, at least of those +which are extant, was delivered in presence of four judges +appointed by the Prætor, and with Hortensius for his opponent. +It was in the case of Quintius, which was pleaded in the year +672, when Cicero was 26 years of age, at which time he came +to the bar much later than was usual, after having studied civil +law under Mucius Scævola, and having further qualified himself +for the exercise of his profession by the study of polite literature +under the poet Archias, as also of philosophy under +the principal teachers of each sect who had resorted to Rome. +This case was undertaken by Cicero, at the request of the +celebrated comedian Roscius, the brother-in-law of Quintius; +but it was not of a nature well adapted to call forth or display +any of the higher powers of eloquence. It was a pure question +of civil right, and, in a great measure, a matter of form; +the dispute being whether his client had forfeited his recognisances, +and whether his opponent Nævius had got legal +possession of his effects by an edict which the Prætor had +pronounced, in consequence of the supposed forfeiture. But +even here, where the point was more one of dry legal discussion +than in any other oration of Cicero, we meet with much +invective, calculated to excite the indignation of the judges +against the adverse party, and many pathetic supplications, +interspersed with high-wrought pictures of the distresses of +his client, in order to raise their sympathy in his favour. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Sext. Roscio</hi>. In the year following that in which he +pleaded the case of Quintius, Cicero undertook the defence of +Roscius of Ameria, which was the first public or criminal trial +in which he spoke. The father of Roscius had two mortal +enemies, of his own name and district. During the proscriptions +of Sylla, he was assassinated one evening at Rome, +while returning home from supper; and, on pretext that he +was in the list proscribed, his estate was purchased for a +mere nominal price by Chrysogonus, a favourite slave, to whom +Sylla had given freedom, and whom he had permitted to buy +the property of Roscius as a forfeiture. Part of the valuable +lands thus acquired, were made over by Chrysogonus to the +Roscii. These new proprietors, in order to secure themselves +in the possession, hired Erucius, an informer and prosecutor +<pb n='153'/><anchor id='Pg153'/>by profession, to charge the son with the murder of his father, +and they, at the same time, suborned witnesses, in order to +convict him of the parricide. From dread of the power of +Sylla, the accused had difficulty in prevailing on any patron +to undertake his cause; but Cicero eagerly embraced this opportunity +to give a public testimony of his detestation of oppression +and tyranny. He exculpates his client, by enlarging +on the improbability of the accusation, whether with respect +to the enormity of the crime charged, or the blameless character +and innocent life of young Roscius. He shows, too, that +his enemies had completely failed in proving that he laboured +under the displeasure of his father, or had been disinherited +by him; and, in particular, that his constant residence in the +country was no evidence of this displeasure—a topic which +leads him to indulge in a beautiful commendation of a rural +life, and the ancient rustic simplicity of the Romans. But +while he thus vindicates the innocence of Roscius, the orator +has so managed his pleading, that it appears rather an artful +accusation of the two Roscii, than a defence of his own client. +He tries to fix on them the guilt of the murder, by showing +that they, and not the son, had reaped all the advantages of +the death of old Roscius, and that, availing themselves of the +strict law, which forbade slaves to be examined in evidence +against their masters, they would not allow those who were +with Roscius at the time of his assassination, but had subsequently +fallen into their own possession, to be put to the torture. +The whole case seems to have been pleaded with much +animation and spirit, but the oration was rather too much in +that florid Asiatic taste, which Cicero at this time had probably +adopted from imitation of Hortensius, who was considered +as the most perfect model of eloquence in the Forum; and +hence the celebrated passage on the punishment of parricide, +(which consisted in throwing the criminal, tied up in a sack, +into a river,) was condemned by the severer taste of his more +advanced years. <q>Its intention,</q> he declares, <q>was to strike +the parricide at once out of the system of nature, by depriving +him of air, light, water, and earth, so that he who had destroyed +the author of his existence might be excluded from +those elements whence all things derived their being. He +was not thrown to wild beasts, lest their ferocity should be +augmented by the contagion of such guilt—he was not committed +naked to the stream, lest he should contaminate that +sea which washed away all other pollutions. Everything in +nature, however common, was accounted too good for him to +share in; for what is so common as air to the living, earth to +the dead, the sea to those who float, the shore to those who are +<pb n='154'/><anchor id='Pg154'/>cast up. But the parricide lives so as not to breathe the air of +heaven, dies so that the earth cannot receive his bones, is tossed +by the waves so as not to be washed by them, so cast on the +shore as to find no rest on its rocks.</q> This declamation was +received with shouts of applause by the audience; yet Cicero, +referring to it in subsequent works, calls it the exuberance of +a youthful fancy, which wanted the control of his sounder +judgment, and, like all the compositions of young men, was +not applauded so much on its own account, as for the promise +it gave of more improved and ripened talents<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Orator</hi>, c. 30. spe et expectatione laudati.</note>. This pleading +is also replete with severe and sarcastic declamation on +the audacity of the Roscii, as well as the overgrown power +and luxury of Chrysogonus; the orator has even hazarded an +insinuation against Sylla himself, which, however, he was +careful to palliate, by remarking, that through the multiplicity +of affairs, he was obliged to connive at many things which +his favourites did against his inclination. +</p> + +<p> +Cicero’s courage in defending and obtaining the acquittal +of Roscius, under the circumstances in which the case was +undertaken, was applauded by the whole city. By this public +opposition to the avarice of an agent of Sylla, who was +then in the plenitude of his power, and by the energy with +which he resisted an oppressive proceeding, he fixed his character +for a fearless and zealous patron of the injured, as +much as for an accomplished orator. The defence of Roscius, +which acquired him so much reputation in his youth, was remembered +by him with such delight in his old age, that he +recommends to his son, as the surest path to true honour, to +defend those who are unjustly oppressed, as he himself had +done in many causes, but particularly in that of Roscius of +Ameria, whom he had protected against Sylla himself, in the +height of his authority<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Officiis</hi>, Lib. II. c. 14.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Immediately after the decision of this cause, Cicero, partly +on account of his health, and partly for improvement, travelled +into Greece and Asia, where he spent two years in the assiduous +study of philosophy and eloquence, under the ablest +teachers of Athens and Asia Minor. Nor was his style alone +formed and improved by imitation of the Greek rhetoricians: +his pronunciation also was corrected, by practising under +Greek masters, from whom he learned the art of commanding +his voice, and of giving it greater compass and variety than it +had hitherto attained<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 91.</note>. The first cause which he pleaded +after his return to Rome, was that of Roscius, the celebrated +<pb n='155'/><anchor id='Pg155'/>comedian, in a dispute, which involved a mere matter of civil +right, and was of no peculiar interest or importance. All the +orations which he delivered during the five following years, +are lost, of which number were those for Marcus Tullius, and +L. Varenus, mentioned by Priscian as extant in his time. At +the end of that period, however, and when Cicero was now in +the thirty-seventh year of his age, a glorious opportunity was +afforded for the display of his eloquence, in the prosecution +instituted against Verres, the Prætor of Sicily, a criminal infinitely +more hateful than Catiline or Clodius, and to whom the +Roman <hi rend='italic'>republic</hi>, at least, never produced an equal in turpitude +and crime. He was now accused by the Sicilians of many +flagrant acts of injustice, rapine, and cruelty, committed by +him during his triennial government of their island, which he +had done more to ruin than all the arbitrary acts of their native +tyrants, or the devastating wars between the Carthaginians +and Romans. +</p> + +<p> +In the advanced ages of the republic, extortion and violence +almost universally prevailed among those magistrates +who were exalted abroad to the temptations of regal power, +and whose predecessors, by their moderation, had called forth +in earlier times the applause of the world. Exhausted in fortune +by excess of luxury, they now entered on their governments +only to enrich themselves with the spoils of the +provinces intrusted to their administration, and to plunder the +inhabitants by every species of exaction. The first laws +against extortion were promulgated in the beginning of the +seventh century. But they afforded little relief to the oppressed +nations, who in vain sought redress at Rome; for the +decisions there depending on judges generally implicated in +similar crimes, were more calculated to afford impunity to the +guilty, than redress to the aggrieved. This undue influence +received additional weight in the case of Verres, from the +high quality and connections of the culprit. +</p> + +<p> +Such were the difficulties with which Cicero had to struggle, +in entering on the accusation of this great public delinquent. +This arduous task he was earnestly solicited to +undertake, by a petition from all the towns of Sicily, except +Syracuse and Messina, both which cities had been occasionally +allowed by the plunderer to share the spoils of the province. +Having accepted this trust, so important in his eyes +to the honour of the republic, neither the far distant evidence, +nor irritating delays of all those guards of guilt with which +Verres was environed, could deter or slacken his exertions. +The first device on the part of the criminal, or rather of his +counsel, Hortensius, to defeat the ends of justice, was an +<pb n='156'/><anchor id='Pg156'/>attempt to wrest the conduct of the trial from the hands of +Cicero, by placing it in those of Cæcilius<note place="foot">Cæcilius was <hi rend='italic'>a Jew</hi>, who had been domiciled in Sicily; whence Cicero, playing +on the name of Verres, asks, <q>Quid Judæo cum <hi rend='italic'>Verre</hi>?</q> (a boar.)</note>, who was a creature +of Verres, and who now claimed a preference to Cicero, +on the ground of personal injuries received from the accused, +and a particular knowledge of the crimes of his pretended +enemy. The judicial claims of these competitors had therefore +to be first decided in that kind of process called <hi rend='italic'>Divinatio</hi>, in +which Cicero delivered his oration, entitled <hi rend='italic'>Contra Cæcilium</hi>, +and shewed, with much power of argument and sarcasm, that +he himself was in every way best fitted to act as the impeacher +of Verres. +</p> + +<p> +Having succeeded in convincing the judges that Cæcilius +only wished to get the cause into his own hands, in order to +betray it, Cicero was appointed to conduct the prosecution, +and was allowed 110 days to make a voyage to Sicily, in order +to collect information for supporting his charge. He finished +his progress through the island in less than half the time which +had been granted him. On his return he found that a plan +had been laid by the friends of Verres, to procrastinate the +trial, at least till the following season, when they expected to +have magistrates and judges who would prove favourable to +his interests. In this design they so far succeeded, that time +was not left to go through the cause according to the ordinary +forms and practice of oratorical discussion in the course of +the year: Cicero, therefore, resolved to lose no time by enforcing +or aggravating the several articles of charge, but to +produce at once all his documents and witnesses, leaving the +rhetorical part of the performance till the whole evidence was +concluded. The first oration, therefore, against Verres, which +is extremely short, was merely intended to explain the motives +which had induced him to adopt this unusual mode of procedure. +He accordingly exposes the devices by which the culprit +and his cabal were attempting to pervert the course of +justice, and unfolds the eternal disgrace that would attach to +the Roman law, should their stratagems prove successful. This +oration was followed by the deposition of the witnesses, and +recital of the documents, which so clearly established the +guilt of Verres, that, driven to despair, he submitted, without +awaiting his sentence, to a voluntary exile<note place="foot">He ultimately, however, met with a well-merited and appropriate fate. Having +refused to give up his Corinthian vases to Marc Antony, he was proscribed for their +sake, and put to death by the rapacious Triumvir.</note>. It therefore appears, +that of the six orations against Verres, only one was +pronounced. The other five, forming the series of harangues +<pb n='157'/><anchor id='Pg157'/>which he intended to deliver after the proof had been completed, +were subsequently published in the same shape as if +the delinquent had actually stood his trial, and was to have +made a regular defence. +</p> + +<p> +The first of these orations, which to us appears rather foreign +to the charge, but was meant to render the proper part +of the accusation more probable, exposes the excesses and +malversations committed by Verres in early life, before his +appointment to the Prætorship of Sicily—his embezzlement +of public money while Quæstor of Gaul—his extortions under +Dolabella in Asia, and, finally, his unjust, corrupt, and partial +decisions while in the office of <hi rend='italic'>Prætor Urbanus</hi> at Rome, +which, forming a principal part of the oration, the whole has +been entitled <hi rend='italic'>De Prætura Urbana</hi>. In the following harangue, +entitled <hi rend='italic'>De Jurisdictione Siciliensi</hi>, the orator commences +with an elegant eulogy on the dignity, antiquity, and +usefulness of the province, which was not here a mere idle or +rhetorical embellishment, but was most appropriately introduced, +as nothing could be better calculated to excite indignation +against the spoiler of Sicily, than the picture he draws +of its beauty; after which, he proceeds to give innumerable +instances of the flagrant sale of justice, offices, and honours, +and, among the last, even of the priesthood of Jupiter. The +next oration is occupied with the malversations of Verres +concerning grain, and the new ordinances, by which he had +contrived to put the whole corps of the island at the disposal +of his officers. In this harangue the dry statements of the +prices of corn are rather fatiguing; but the following oration, +<hi rend='italic'>De Signis</hi>, is one of the most interesting of his productions, +particularly as illustrating the history of ancient art. For +nearly six centuries Rome had been filled only with the spoils +of barbarous nations, and presented merely the martial spectacle +of a warlike and conquering people. Subsequently, +however, to the campaigns in <hi rend='italic'>Magna Græcia</hi>, Sicily, and +Greece, the Roman commanders displayed at their triumphs +costly ornaments of gold, pictures, statues, and vases, instead +of flocks driven from the Sabines or Volsci, the broken arms +of the Samnites, and empty chariots of the Gauls. The statues +and paintings which Marcellus transported from Syracuse +to Rome, first excited that cupidity which led the Roman +provincial magistrates to pillage, without scruple or distinction, +the houses of private individuals, and temples of the +gods<note place="foot">Livy, Lib. XXV. c. 40.</note>. Marcellus and Mummius, however, despoiled only +hostile and conquered countries. They had made over their +<pb n='158'/><anchor id='Pg158'/>plunder to the public, and, after it was conveyed to Rome, +devoted it to the embellishment of the capital; but subsequent +governors of provinces having acquired a taste for +works of art, began to appropriate to themselves those masterpieces +of Greece, which they had formerly neither known nor +esteemed. Some contrived plausible pretexts for borrowing +valuable works of art from cities and private persons, without +any intention of restoring them; while others, less cautious, +or more shameless, seized whatever pleased them, whether +public or private property, without excuse or remuneration. +But though this passion was common to most provincial +governors, none of them ever came up to the full measure of +the rapacity of Verres, who, allowing much for the high colouring +of the counsel and orator, appears to have been infected +with a sort of disease, or mania, which gave him an irresistible +propensity to seize whatever he saw or heard of, which +was precious either in materials or workmanship. For this +purpose he retained in his service two brothers from Asia +Minor, on whose judgment he relied for the choice of statues +and pictures, and who were employed to search out everything +of this sort which was valuable in the island. Aided by +their suggestions, he seized tapestry, pictures, gold and silver +plate, vases, gems, and Corinthian bronzes, till he literally +did not leave a single article of value of these descriptions in +the whole island. The chief objects of this pillage were the +statues and pictures of the gods, which the Romans regarded +with religious veneration; and they, accordingly, viewed such +rapine as sacrilege. Hence the frequent adjurations and +apostrophes to the deities who had been insulted, which are +introduced in the oration. The circumstances of violence +and circumvention, under which the depredations were committed, +are detailed with much vehemence, and at considerable +length. Some description is given of the works of +sculpture; and the names of the statuaries by whom they were +executed, are also frequently recorded. Thus, we are told +that Verres took away from a private gentleman of Messina +the marble Cupid, by Praxiteles: He sacrilegiously tore a +figure of Victory from the temple of Ceres—he deprived the +city Tyndaris of an image of Mercury, which had been restored +to it from Carthage, by Scipio, and was worshipped by +the people with singular devotion and an annual festival. +Some of the works of art were openly carried off—some borrowed +under plausible pretences, but never restored, and +others forcibly purchased at an inadequate value. If the +speech <hi rend='italic'>De Signis</hi> be the most curious, that <hi rend='italic'>De Suppliciis</hi> is +incomparably the finest of the series of <hi rend='italic'>Verrine</hi> orations. The +<pb n='159'/><anchor id='Pg159'/>subject afforded a wider field than the former for the display +of eloquence, and it presents us with topics of more general +and permanent interest. Such, indeed, is the vehement +pathos, and such the resources employed to excite pity in +favour of the oppressed, and indignation against the guilty, +that the genius of the orator is nowhere more conspicuously +displayed—not even in the Philippics or Catilinarian harangues. +It was now proved that Verres had practiced every +species of fraud and depredation, and on these heads no room +was left for defence. But as the duties of provincial Prætors +were twofold—the administration of the laws, and the direction +of warlike operations—it was suspected that the counsel of +Verres meant to divert the attention of the judges from his +avarice to his military conduct and valour. This plea the orator +completely anticipates. His misconduct, indeed, in the course +of the naval operations against the pirates, forms one of the +chief topics of Cicero’s bitter invective. He demonstrates +that the fleet had been equipped rather for show than for +service; that it was unprovided with sailors or stores, and +altogether unfit to act against an enemy. The command was +given to Cleomenes, a Syracusan, who was ignorant of naval +affairs, merely that Verres might enjoy the company of his +wife during his absence. The description of the sailing of +the fleet from Syracuse is inimitable, and it is so managed +that the whole seems to pass before the eyes. Verres, who +had not been seen in public for many months, having retired +to a splendid pavilion, pitched near the fountain of Arethusa, +where he passed his time in company of his favourites, amidst +all the delights that arts and luxury could administer, at length +appeared, in order to view the departure of the squadron; and +a Roman Prætor exhibited himself, standing on the shore in +sandals, with a purple cloak flowing to his heels, and leaning +on the shoulder of a harlot! The fleet, as was to be expected, +was driven on shore, and there burned by the pirates, who +entered Syracuse in triumph, and retired from it unmolested. +Verres, in order to divert public censure from himself, put the +captains of the ships to death; and this naturally leads on to +the subject which has given name to the oration,—the cruel +and illegal executions, not merely of Sicilians, but Roman +citizens. The punishments of death and torture usually +reserved for slaves, but inflicted by Verres on freemen of +Rome, formed the climax of his atrocities, which are detailed +in oratorical progression. After the vivid description of his +former crimes, one scarcely expects that new terms of indignation +will be found; but the expressions of the orator become +more glowing, in proportion as Verres grows more daring in +<pb n='160'/><anchor id='Pg160'/>his guilt. The sacred character borne over all the world by +a Roman citizen, must be fully remembered, in order to read +with due feeling the description of the punishment of Gavius, +who was scourged, and then nailed to a cross, which, by a +refinement in cruelty, was erected on the shore, and facing +Italy, that he might suffer death with his view directed towards +home and a land of liberty. The whole is poured +forth in a torrent of the most rapid and fervid composition; +and had it actually flowed from the lips of the speaker, we +cannot doubt the prodigious effect it would have had on a +Roman audience, and on Roman judges. In the oration <hi rend='italic'>De +Signis</hi>, something, as we have seen, is lost to a modern reader, +by the diminished reverence for the mythological deities; and, +in like manner, <hi rend='italic'>we</hi> cannot enter fully into the spirit of the +harangue <hi rend='italic'>De Suppliciis</hi>, which is planned with a direct +reference to national feeling, to that stern decorum which +could not be overstepped without shame, and that adoration +of the majesty of Rome, which invested its citizens with inexpressible +dignity, and bestowed on them an almost inviolable +nature. Hence the appearance of Verres in public, in a long +purple robe, is represented as the climax of his enormities, +and the punishment of scourging inflicted on a Roman citizen +is treated (without any discussion concerning the justice of +the sentence) as an unheard-of and unutterable crime. Yet +even those parts least attractive to modern readers, are perfect +in their execution; and the whole series of orations will +ever be regarded as among the most splendid monuments of +Tully’s transcendent genius. +</p> + +<p> +In the renowned cause against Verres, there can be no doubt +that the orator displayed the whole resources of his vast talents. +Every circumstance concurred to stimulate his exertions +and excite his eloquence. It was the first time he had appeared +as an accuser in a public trial—his clients were the +injured people of a mighty province, rivalling in importance +the imperial state—the inhabitants of Sicily surrounded the +Forum, and an audience was expected from every quarter of +Italy, of all that was exalted, intelligent, and refined. But, +chiefly, he had a subject, which, from the glaring guilt of the +accused, and the nature of his crimes, was so copious, interesting, +and various, so abundant in those topics which an orator +would select to afford full scope for the exercise of his +powers, that it was hardly possible to labour tamely or listlessly +in so rich a mine of eloquence. Such a wonderful assemblage +of circumstances never yet prepared the course for the +triumphs of oratory; so great an opportunity for the exhibition +of forensic art will, in all probability, never again occur. +Suf<pb n='161'/><anchor id='Pg161'/>fice it to say, that the orator surpassed by his workmanship +the singular beauty of his materials; and instead of being +overpowered by their magnitude, derived from the vast resources +which they supplied the merit of an additional excellence, +in the skill and discernment of his choice. +</p> + +<p> +The infinite variety of entertaining anecdotes with which the +series of pleadings against Verres abounds—the works of art +which are commemorated—the interesting topographical descriptions—the +insight afforded into the laws and manners of +the ancient Sicilians—the astonishing profusion of ironical +sallies, all conspire to dazzle the imagination and rivet the +attention of the reader; yet there is something in the idea that +they were not actually delivered, which detracts from the +effect of circumstances which would otherwise heighten our +feelings. It appears to us even preposterous to read, in the +commencement of the second oration, of a report having been +spread that Verres was to abandon his defence, but that there +he sat braving his accusers and judges with his characteristic +impudence. The exclamations on his effrontery, and the adjurations +of the judges, lose their force, when we cannot help +recollecting that before one word of all this could be pronounced, +the person against whom they were directed as present +had sneaked off into voluntary exile. Whatever effect +this recollection may have had on the ancients, who regarded +oratory as an art, and an oration as an elaborate composition, +nothing can be more grating or offensive to the taste and feelings +of a modern reader, whose idea of eloquence is that of +something natural, heart-felt, inartificial, and extemporaneous. +</p> + +<p> +The Sicilians, though they could scarcely have been satisfied +with the issue of the trial, appear to have been sufficiently +sensible of Cicero’s great exertions in their behalf. Blainville, +in his Travels, mentions, that while at Grotta Ferrata, a convent +built on the ruins of Cicero’s Tusculan Villa, he had been +shown a silver medal, unquestionably antique, struck by the +Sicilians in gratitude for his impeachment of Verres. One +side exhibits a head of Cicero, crowned with laurel, with the +legend <hi rend='italic'>M. T. Ciceroni</hi>—on the reverse, there is the representation +of three legs extended in a triangular position, in the +form of the three great capes or promontories of Sicily, with +the motto,—<q><hi rend='italic'>Prostrato Verre Trinacria</hi>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Fonteio</hi>. It is much to be regretted, that the oration +for Fonteius, the next which Cicero delivered, has descended +to us incomplete. It was the defence of an unpopular governor, +accused of oppression by the province intrusted to his administration; +and, as such, would have formed an interesting +contrast to the accusation of Verres. +</p> + +<pb n='162'/><anchor id='Pg162'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Cæcina</hi>. This was a mere question of civil right, turning +on the effect of a Prætorian edict. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Lege Manilia</hi>. Hitherto Cicero had only addressed +the judges in the Forum in civil suits or criminal prosecutions. +The oration for the Manilian law, which is accounted one of +the most splendid of his productions, was the first in which he +spoke to the whole people from the rostrum. It was pronounced +in favour of a law proposed by Manilius, a tribune +of the people, for constituting Pompey sole general, with extraordinary +powers, in the war against Mithridates and Tigranes, +in which Lucullus at that time commanded. The chiefs +of the Senate regarded this law as a dangerous precedent in +the republic; and all the authority of Catulus, and eloquence +of Hortensius, were directed against it. It has been conjectured, +that in supporting pretensions which endangered the +public liberty, Cicero was guided merely by interest, since an +opposition to Pompey might have prevented his own election +to the consulship, which was now the great object of his ambition. +His life, however, and writings, will warrant us in +ascribing to him a different, though perhaps less obvious motive. +With the love of virtue and the republic, which glowed +so intensely in the breast of this illustrious Roman, that less +noble passion, the immoderate desire of popular fame, was +unfortunately mingled. <q>Fame,</q> says a modern historian, +<q>was the prize at which he aimed; his weakness of bodily +constitution sought it through the most strenuous labours—his +natural timidity of mind pursued it through the greatest +dangers. Pompey, who had fortunately attained it, he contemplated +as the happiest of men, and was led, from this illusion +of fancy, not only to speak of him, but really to think of +him,</q> (till he became unfortunate,) <q>with a fondness of respect +bordering on enthusiasm. The glare of glory that surrounded +Pompey, concealed from Cicero his many and great +imperfections, and seduced an honest citizen, and finest genius +in Rome, a man of unparalleled industry, and that generally +applied to the noblest purposes, into the prostitution of his +abilities and virtues, for exalting an ambitious chief, and investing +him with such exorbitant and unconstitutional powers, +as virtually subverted the commonwealth<note place="foot">Gillies, <hi rend='italic'>History of Greece</hi>, Part II. T. IV. c. 27.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +In defending this pernicious measure, Cicero divided his discourse +into two parts—showing, first, that the importance and +imminent dangers of the contest in which the state was engaged, +required the unusual remedy proposed—and, secondly, that +Pompey was the fittest person to be intrusted with the conduct +<pb n='163'/><anchor id='Pg163'/>of the war. This leads to a splendid panegyric on that renowned +commander, in which, while he does justice to the merits +of his predecessor, Lucullus, he enlarges on the military skill, +valour, authority, and good fortune of this present idol of his +luxuriant imagination, with all the force and beauty which +language can afford. He fills the imagination with the immensity +of the object, kindles in the breast an ardour of affection +and gratitude, and, by an accumulation of circumstances +and proofs, so aggrandizes his hero, that he exalts him to +something more than mortal in the minds of his auditory; +while, at the same time, every word inspires the most perfect +veneration for his character, and the most unbounded confidence +in his integrity and judgment. The whole world is +exhibited as an inadequate theatre for the actions of such a +superior genius; while all the nations, and potentates of the +earth, are in a manner called as witnesses of his valour and +his truth. By enlarging on these topics, by the most solemn +protestations of his own sincerity, and by adducing examples +from antiquity, of the state having been benefited or saved, +by intrusting unlimited power to a single person, he allayed +all fears of the dangers which it was apprehended might result +to the constitution, from such extensive authority being vested +in one individual—and thus struck the first blow towards the +subversion of the republic! +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Cluentio</hi>. This is a pleading for Cluentius, who, at +his mother’s instigation, was accused of having poisoned his +stepfather, Oppianicus. Great part of the harangue appears +to be but collaterally connected with the direct subject of the +prosecution. Oppianicus, it seems, had been formerly accused +by Cluentius, and found guilty of a similar attempt against his +life; but after his condemnation, a report became current that +Cluentius had prevailed in the cause by corrupting the judges, +and, to remove the unfavourable impression thus created +against his client, Cicero recurs to the circumstances of that +case. In the second part of the oration, which refers to the +accusation of poisoning Oppianicus, he finds it necessary to +clear his client from two previous charges of attempts to poison. +In treating of the proper subject of the criminal proceedings, +which does not occupy above a sixth part of the +whole oration, he shows that Cluentius could have had no +access or opportunity to administer poison to his father, who +was in exile; that there was nothing unusual or suspicious in +the circumstances of his death; and that the charge originated +in the machinations of Cluentius’ unnatural mother, against +whom he inveighs with much force, as one hurried along blindfold +by guilt—who acts with such folly that no one can +ac<pb n='164'/><anchor id='Pg164'/>count her a rational creature—with such violence that none +can imagine her to be a woman—with such cruelty, that none +can call her a mother. The whole oration discloses such a +scene of enormous villainy—of murders, by poison and assassination—of +incest, and subornation of witnesses, that the +family history of Cluentius may be regarded as the counterpart +in domestic society, of what the government of Verres +was in public life. Though very long, and complicated too, +in the subject, it is one of the most correct and forcible of all +Cicero’s judicial orations; and, under the impression that it +comes nearer to the strain of a modern pleading than any of +the others, it has been selected by Dr Blair as the subject of +a minute analysis and criticism<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Lectures on Rhetoric</hi>, &c. Vol. II. Lect. XXVIII.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>De Lege Agraria contra Rullum</hi>. In his discourse <hi rend='italic'>Pro +Lege Manilia</hi>, the first of the deliberative kind addressed to +the assembly of the people, Cicero had the advantage of +speaking for a favourite of the multitude, and against the chiefs +of the Senate; but he was placed in a very different situation +when he came to oppose the Agrarian law. This had been +for 300 years the darling object of the Roman tribes—the +daily attraction and rallying word of the populace—the signal +of discord, and most powerful engine of the seditious tribunate. +The first of the series of orations against the Agrarian +law, now proposed by Rullus, was delivered by Cicero in the +Senate-house, shortly after his election to the consulship: +The second and third were addressed to the people from the +rostrum. The scope of the present Agrarian law was, to appoint +Decemvirs for the purpose of selling the public domains +in the provinces, and to recover from the generals the spoils +acquired in foreign wars, by which a fund might be formed +for the purchase of lands in Italy, particularly Campania—to +be equally divided among the people. Cicero, in his first +oration, of which the commencement is now wanting, quieted +the alarms of the Senate, by assuring them of his resolution +to oppose the law with his utmost power. When the question +came before the people, he did not fear to encounter +the Tribunes on their own territory, and most popular subject; +he did not hesitate to make the rabble judges in their +own cause, though one in which their passions, interests, and +prejudices, and those of their fathers, had been engaged for +so many centuries. Conscious of his superiority, he invited +the Tribunes to ascend the rostrum, and argue the point with +him before the assembled multitude; but the field was left +clear to his argument and eloquence, and by alternately +flat<pb n='165'/><anchor id='Pg165'/>tering the people, and ridiculing the proposer of the law, he +gave such a turn to their inclinations, that they rejected the +proposition as eagerly as they had before received it. +</p> + +<p> +But although the Tribunes were unable to cope with Cicero +in the Forum, they subsequently contrived to instil suspicions +into the minds of the populace, with regard to his motives in +opposing the Agrarian law. These imputations made such an +impression on the city, that he found it necessary to defend +himself against them, in a short speech to the people. It has +been disputed, whether this third oration was the last which +Cicero pronounced on occasion of this Agrarian law. In the +letters to Atticus, while speaking of his consular orations, he +says, <q>that among those sent, was that pronounced in the +Senate, and that addressed to the people, on the Agrarian +law<note place="foot">Lib. II. Ep. 1.</note>.</q> These are the first and second of the speeches, which +we now have against Rullus; but he also mentions, that there +were two <hi rend='italic'>apospasmatia</hi>, as he calls them, concerning the +Agrarian law. Now, what is at present called the third, was +probably the first of these two, and the last must have perished. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Rabirio</hi>. About the year 654, Saturninus, a seditious +Tribune, had been slain by a party attached to the interests of +the Senate. Thirty-six years afterwards, Rabirius was accused +of accession to this murder, by Labienus, subsequently +well known as Cæsar’s lieutenant in Gaul. Hortensius had +pleaded the cause before the Duumvirs, Caius and Lucius +Cæsar, by whom Rabirius being condemned, appealed to the +people, and was defended by Cicero in the Comitia. The +Tribune, it seems, had been slain in a tumult during a season +of such danger, that a decree had been passed by the Senate, +requiring the Consuls to be careful that the republic received +no detriment. This was supposed to sanction every proceeding +which followed in consequence; and the design of the +popular party, in the impeachment of Rabirius, was to attack +this prerogative of the Senate. Cicero’s oration on this contention +between the Senatorial and Tribunitial power, gives +us more the impression of prompt and unstudied eloquence +than most of his other harangues. It is, however, a little obscure, +partly from the circumstance that the accuser would +not permit him to exceed half an hour in the defence. The +argument seems to have been, that Rabirius did not kill Saturninus; +but that even if he had slain him, the action was not +merely legal, but praiseworthy, since all citizens had been required +to arm in aid of the Consuls. +</p> + +<pb n='166'/><anchor id='Pg166'/> + +<p> +It was believed, that in spite of the exertions of Cicero, +Rabirius would have been condemned, had not the Prætor +Metellus devised an expedient for dissolving the Comitia, before +sentence could be passed. The cause was neither farther +prosecuted at this time, nor subsequently revived; the +public attention being now completely engrossed by the imminent +dangers of the Catilinarian Conspiracy, which was discovered +during the Consulship of Cicero. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Contra Catilinam</hi>. The detection and suppression of that +nefarious plot, form the most glorious part of the political +life of Cicero; and the orations he pronounced against the +chief conspirator, are still regarded as the most splendid +monuments of his eloquence. It was no longer to defend the +rights and prerogatives of a municipal town or province, nor +to move and persuade a judge in favour of an unfortunate +client, but to save his country and the republic, that Cicero +ascended the Rostrum. The conspiracy of Catiline tended to +the utter extinction of the city and government. Cicero, having +discovered his design, (which was to leave Rome and join +his army, assembled in different parts of Italy, while the other +conspirators remained within the walls, to butcher the Senators +and fire the capital,) summoned the Senate to meet in the +Temple of Jupiter Stator, with the intention of laying before +it the whole circumstances of the plot. But Catiline having +unexpectedly appeared in the midst of the assembly, his audacity +impelled the consular orator into an abrupt invective, +which is directly addressed to the traitor, and commences +without the preamble by which most of his other harangues are +introduced. In point of effect, this oration must have been +perfectly electric. The disclosure to the criminal himself of +his most secret purposes—their flagitious nature, threatening +the life of every one present—the whole course of his villainies +and treasons, blazoned forth with the fire of incensed eloquence—and +the adjuration to him, by flying from Rome, to +free his country from such a pestilence, were all wonderfully +calculated to excite astonishment, admiration, and horror. +The great object of the whole oration, was to drive Catiline +into banishment; and it appears somewhat singular, that so +dangerous a personage, and who might have been so easily +convicted, should thus have been forced, or even allowed, to +withdraw to his army, instead of being seized and punished. +Catiline having escaped unmolested to his camp, the conduct +of the Consul in not apprehending, but sending away this +formidable enemy, had probably excited some censure and +discontent; and the second Catilinarian oration was in consequence +delivered by Cicero, in an assembly of the people, in +<pb n='167'/><anchor id='Pg167'/>order to justify his driving the chief conspirator from Rome. +A capital punishment, he admits, ought long since to have +overtaken Catiline, but such was the spirit of the times, that the +existence of the conspiracy would not have been believed, and +he had therefore resolved to place his guilt in a point of view +so conspicuous, that vigorous measures might without hesitation +be adopted, both against Catiline and his accomplices. +He also takes this opportunity to warn his audience against +those bands of conspirators who still lurked within the city, +and whom he divides into various classes, describing, in the +strongest language, the different degrees of guilt and profligacy +by which they were severally characterized. +</p> + +<p> +Manifest proofs of the whole plot having been at length +obtained, by the arrest of the ambassadors from the Allobroges, +with whom the conspirators had tampered, and who were +bearing written credentials from them to their own country, +Cicero, in his third oration, laid before the people all the particulars +of the discovery, and invited them to join in celebrating +a thanksgiving, which had been decreed by the Senate to +his honour, for the preservation of his country. +</p> + +<p> +The last Catilinarian oration was pronounced in the Senate, +on the debate concerning the punishment to be inflicted on +the conspirators. Silanus had proposed the infliction of instant +death, while Cæsar had spoken in favour of the more +lenient sentence of perpetual imprisonment. Cicero does not +precisely declare for any particular punishment; but he shows +that his mind evidently inclined to the severest, by dwelling +on the enormity of the conspirators’ guilt, and aggravating all +their crimes with much acrimony and art. His sentiments +finally prevailed; and those conspirators, who had remained +in Rome, were strangled under his immediate superintendence. +</p> + +<p> +In these four orations, the tone and style of each of them, +particularly of the first and last, is very different, and accommodated +with a great deal of judgment to the occasion, and to +the circumstances under which they were delivered. Through +the whole series of the Catilinarian orations, the language of +Cicero is well calculated to overawe the wicked, to confirm the +good, and encourage the timid. It is of that description +which renders the mind of one man the mind of a whole assembly, +or a whole people<note place="foot">Wolf, in the preface to his edition of the Oration for Marcellus, mentions having +seen a scholastic declamation, entitled, <hi rend='italic'>Oratio Catilinæ, in M. Ciceronem</hi>. It +concludes thus,—<q>Me consularem patricium, civem et amicum reipublicæ a faucibus +inimici consulis eripite; supplicem atque insontem pristinæ claritudini, omnium +civium gratiæ, et benevolentiæ vestræ restitute. <hi rend='italic'>Amen.</hi></q></note>. +</p> + +<pb n='168'/><anchor id='Pg168'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Muræna</hi>.—The Comitia being now held in order to +choose Consuls for the ensuing year, Junius Silanus and Muræna +were elected. The latter candidate had for his competitor +the celebrated jurisconsult Sulpicius Rufus; who, +being assisted by Cato, charged Muræna with having prevailed +by bribery and corruption. This impeachment was +founded on the Calpurnian law, which had lately been rendered +more strict, on the suggestion of Sulpicius, by a <hi rend='italic'>Senatusconsultum</hi>. +Along with this accusation, the profligacy of Muræna’s +character was objected to, and also the meanness of his rank, +as he was but a knight and soldier, whereas Sulpicius was a +patrician and lawyer. Cicero therefore shows, in the first +place, that he amply merited the consulship, from his services +in the war with Mithridates, which introduces a comparison +between a military and forensic life. While he pays his usual +tribute of applause to cultivated eloquence, he derides the +forms and phraseology of the jurisconsults, by whom the civil +law was studied and practised. As to the proper subject of +the accusation, bribery in his election, it seems probable that +Muræna had been guilty of some practices which, strictly +speaking, were illegal, yet were warranted by custom. They +seem to have consisted in encouraging a crowd to attend him +on the streets, and in providing shows for the entertainment +of the multitude; which, though expected by the people, and +usually overlooked by the magistrates, appeared heinous offences +in the eye of the rigid and stoical Cato. Aware of the +weight added to the accusation by his authority, Cicero, in +order to obviate this influence, treats his stoical principles in +the same tone which he had already used concerning the profession +of Sulpicius. In concluding, he avails himself of the +difficulties of the times, and the yet unsuppressed conspiracy +of Catiline, which rendered it unwise to deprive the city of a +Consul well qualified to defend it in so dangerous a crisis. +</p> + +<p> +This case was one of great expectation, from the dignity of +the prosecutors, and eloquence of the advocates for the accused. +Before Cicero spoke, it had been pleaded by Hortensius, +and Crassus the triumvir; and Cicero, in engaging in the +cause, felt the utmost desire to surpass these rivals of his +eloquence. Such was his anxiety, that he slept none during +the whole night which preceded the hearing of the cause; and +being thus exhausted with care, his eloquence on this occasion +fell short of that of Hortensius<note place="foot">Funccius, <hi rend='italic'>De Viril. Ætat. Ling. Lat.</hi> Pars II. c. 2.</note>. He shows, however, much +delicacy and art in the manner in which he manages the attack +on the philosophy of Cato, and profession of Sulpicius, +<pb n='169'/><anchor id='Pg169'/>both of whom were his particular friends, and high in the +estimation of the judges he addressed<note place="foot">Aonius Palearius wrote a declamation in answer to this speech, entitled, <hi rend='italic'>Contra +Murænam</hi>.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Valerio Flacco</hi>.—Flaccus had aided Cicero in his discovery +of the conspiracy of Catiline, and, in return, was +defended by him against a charge of extortion and peculation, +brought by various states of Asia Minor, which he had governed +as Pro-prætor. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Cornelio Sylla</hi>.—Sylla, who was afterwards a great +partizan of Cæsar’s, was prosecuted for having been engaged +in Catiline’s conspiracy; but his accuser, Torquatus, digressing +from the charge against Sylla, turned his raillery on +Cicero; alleging, that he had usurped the authority of a king; +and asserting, that he was the third foreign sovereign who had +reigned at Rome after Numa and Tarquin. Cicero, therefore, +in his reply, had not only to defend his client, but to answer the +petulant raillery by which his antagonist attempted to excite +envy and odium against himself. He admits that he was a +foreigner in one sense of the word, having been born in a +municipal town of Italy, in common with many others who +had rendered the highest services to the city; but he repels +the insinuation that he usurped any kingly authority; and being +instigated by this unmerited attack, he is led on to the +eulogy of his own conduct and consulship,—a favourite subject, +from which he cannot altogether depart, even when he +enters more closely into the grounds of the prosecution. +</p> + +<p> +For this defence of Cornelius Sylla, Cicero privately received +from his client the sum of 20,000 sesterces, which +chiefly enabled him to purchase his magnificent house on the +Palatine Hill. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Archia</hi>.—This is one of the orations of Cicero on which +he has succeeded in bestowing the finest polish, and it is perhaps +the most <hi rend='italic'>pleasing</hi> of all his harangues. Archias had been +his preceptor, and, after having obtained much reputation by +his Greek poems, on the triumphs of Lucullus over Mithridates, +and of Marius over the Cimbri, was now attempting to +celebrate the consulship of Cicero; so that the orator, in pleading +his cause, expected to be requited by the praises of his +muse. +</p> + +<p> +This poet was a native of Antioch, and, having come to +Italy in early youth, was rewarded for his learning and genius +with the friendship of the first men in the state, and with +the citizenship of Heraclea, a confederate and enfranchised +town of Magna Græcia. A few years afterwards, a law was +<pb n='170'/><anchor id='Pg170'/>enacted, conferring the rights of Roman citizens on all who +had been admitted to the freedom of federate states, provided +they had a settlement in Italy at the time when the law was +passed, and had asserted the privilege before the Prætor within +sixty days from the period at which it was promulgated. After +Archias had enjoyed the benefit of this law for more than +twenty years, his claims were called in question by one +Gracchus, who now attempted to drive him from the city, under +the enactment expelling all foreigners who usurped, without +due title, the name and attributes of Roman citizens. +The loss of records, and some other circumstances, having +thrown doubts on the legal right of his client, Cicero chiefly +enlarged on the dignity of literature and poetry, and the various +accomplishments of Archias, which gave him so just a +claim to the privileges he enjoyed. He beautifully describes +the influence which study and a love of letters had exercised +on his own character and conduct. He had thence imbibed +the principle, that glory and virtue should be the darling objects +of life, and that to attain these, all difficulties, or even +dangers, were to be despised. But, of all names dear to literature +and genius, that of poet was the most sacred: hence it +would be an extreme of disgrace and profanation, to reject a +bard who had employed the utmost efforts of his art to make +Rome immortal by his muse, and had possessed such prevailing +power as to touch with pleasure even the stubborn and intractable +soul of Marius. +</p> + +<p> +The whole oration is interspersed with beautiful maxims +and sentences, which have been quoted with delight in all +ages. There appears in it, however, perhaps too much, and +certainly more than in the other orations, of what Lord Monboddo +calls <hi rend='italic'>concinnity</hi>. <q>We have in it,</q> observes he, speaking +of this oration, <q>strings of antitheses, the figure of like +endings, and a perfect similarity of the structure, both as to +the grammatical form of the words, and even the number of +them<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Origin and Progress of Language</hi>, Book IV.</note>.</q> The whole, too, is written in a style of exaggeration +and immoderate praise. The orator talks of the poet Archias, +as if the whole glory of Rome, and salvation of the commonwealth, +depended on his poetical productions, and as if the +smallest injury offered to him would render the name of Rome +execrable and infamous in all succeeding generations. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Cn. Plancio</hi>.—The defence of Plancius was one of the +first orations pronounced by Cicero after his return from banishment. +Plancius had been Quæstor of Macedon when +Cicero came to that country during his exile, and had received +<pb n='171'/><anchor id='Pg171'/>him with honours proportioned to his high character, rather +than his fallen fortunes. In return for this kindness, Cicero +undertook his defence against a charge, preferred by a disappointed +competitor, of bribery and corruption in suing for the ædileship. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Sextio</hi>.—This is another oration produced by the gratitude +of Cicero, and the circumstances of his banishment. +Sextius, while Tribune of the people, had been instrumental +in procuring his recall, and Cicero requited this good office +by one of the longest and most elaborate of his harangues. +The accusation, indeed, was a consequence of his interposition +in favour of the illustrious exile; for when about to propose +his recall to the people, he was violently attacked by the +Clodian faction, and left for dead on the street. His enemies, +however, though obviously the aggressors, accused him of +violence, and exciting a tumult. This was the charge against +which Cicero defended him. The speech is valuable for the +history of the times; as it enters into all the recent political +events in which Cicero had borne so distinguished a part. +The orator inveighs against his enemies, the Tribune Clodius, +and the Consuls Gabinius and Piso, and details all the circumstances +connected with his own banishment and return, +occasionally throwing in a word or two about his client Sextius. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Contra Vatinium</hi>.—Vatinius, who belonged to the Clodian +faction, appeared, at the trial of Sextius, as a witness against +him. This gave Cicero an opportunity of interrogating him; +and the whole oration being a continued invective on the +conduct of Vatinius, poured forth in a series of questions, +without waiting for an answer to any of them, has been +entitled, <hi rend='italic'>Interrogatio</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Cælio</hi>.—Middleton has pronounced this to be the most +entertaining of the orations which Cicero has left us, from the +vivacity of wit and humour with which he treats the gallantries +of Clodia, her commerce with Cælius, and in general the +gaieties and licentiousness of youth. +</p> + +<p> +Cælius was a young man of considerable talents and accomplishments, +who had been intrusted to the care of Cicero on +his first introduction to the Forum; but having imprudently +engaged in an intrigue with Clodia, the well-known sister of +Clodius, and having afterwards deserted her, she accused him +of an attempt to poison her, and of having borrowed money +from her in order to procure the assassination of Dio, the +Alexandrian ambassador. In this, as in most other prosecutions +of the period, a number of charges, unconnected with +the main one, seem to have been accumulated, in order to +<pb n='172'/><anchor id='Pg172'/>give the chief accusation additional force and credibility. +Cicero had thus to defend his client against the suspicions +arising from the general libertinism of his conduct. He justifies +that part of it which related to his intercourse with +Clodia, by enlarging on the loose character of this woman, +whom he treats with very little ceremony; and, in order to +place her dissolute life in a more striking point of view, he +conjures up in fancy one of her grim and austere ancestors +of the Clodian family reproaching her with her shameful degeneracy. +All this the orator was aware would not be +sufficient for the complete vindication of his client; and it is +curious to remark the ingenuity with which the strenuous +advocate of virtue and regularity of conduct palliates, on this +occasion, the levities of youth,—not, indeed, by lessening the +merits of strict morality, but by representing those who withstand +the seductions of pleasure as supernaturally endued. +</p> + +<p> +This oration was a particular favourite of one who was +long a distinguished speaker in the British Senate. <q>By +the way,</q> says Mr Fox, in a letter to Wakefield, <q>I know +no speech of Cicero more full of beautiful passages than +this is, nor where he is more in his element. Argumentative +contention is what he by no means excels in; and he is never, +I think, so happy as when he has an opportunity of exhibiting +a mixture of philosophy and pleasantry; and especially when +he can interpose anecdotes and references to the authority of +the eminent characters in the history of his country. No man +appears, indeed, to have had such real respect for authority +as he; and therefore, when he speaks upon that subject, he is +always natural and in earnest; and not like those among <hi rend='italic'>us</hi>, +who are so often declaiming about the wisdom of our ancestors, +without knowing what they mean, or hardly ever citing +any particulars of their conduct, or of their <hi rend='italic'>dicta</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Correspondence</hi>, p. 85.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>De Provinciis Consularibus</hi>. The government of Gaul +was continued to Cæsar, in consequence of this oration, +so that it may be considered as one of the immediate causes +of the ruin of the Roman Republic, which it was incontestibly +the great wish of Cicero to protect and maintain inviolate. +But Cicero had evidently been duped by Cæsar, as he formerly +had nearly been by Catiline, and as he subsequently was by +Octavius, Pollio, and every one who found it his interest to +cajole him, by proclaiming his praises, and professing ardent +zeal for the safety of the state. So little had he penetrated +the real views of Cæsar, that we find him asking the Senate, +in his oration, what possible motive or inducement Cæsar +<pb n='173'/><anchor id='Pg173'/>could have to remain in the province of Gaul, except the public +good. <q>For would the amenity of the regions, the beauty +of the cities, or civilization of the inhabitants, detain him +there—or can a return to one’s native country be so distasteful?</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Cornelio Balbo</hi>.—Balbus was a native of Cadiz, who +having been of considerable service to Pompey, during his +war in Spain, against Sertorius, had, in return, received the +freedom of Rome from that commander, in virtue of a special +law, by which he had obtained the power of granting this benefit +to whom he chose. The validity of Pompey’s act, however, +was now questioned, on the ground that Cadiz was not +within the terms of that relation and alliance to Rome, which +could, under any circumstances, entitle its citizens to such a +privilege. The question, therefore, was, whether the inhabitants +of a federate state, which had not adopted the institutions +and civil jurisprudence of Rome, could receive the rights of +citizenship. This point was of great importance to the municipal +towns of the Republic, and the oration throws considerable +light on the relations which existed between the provinces +and the capital. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>In Pisonem</hi>.—Piso having been recalled from his government +of Macedon, in consequence of Cicero’s oration, <hi rend='italic'>De +Provinciis Consularibus</hi>, he complained, in one of his first +appearances in the Senate, of the treatment he had received, +and attacked the orator, particularly on the score of his poetry, +ridiculing the well known line, +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q>Cedant arma togæ—concedat laurea linguæ.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Cicero replied in a bitter invective, in which he exposed the +whole life and conduct of his enemy to public contempt and +detestation. The most singular feature of this harangue is +the personal abuse and coarseness of expression it contains, +which appear the more extraordinary when we consider that +it was delivered in the Senate-house, and directed against an +individual of such distinction and consequence as Piso. Cicero +applies to him the opprobrious epithets of <hi rend='italic'>bellua</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>furia</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>carnifex</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>furcifer</hi>, &c.; he banters him on his personal deformities, +and upbraids him with his ignominious descent on one +side of the family, while, on the other, he had no resemblance +to his ancestors, except to the sooty complexion of their images. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Milone</hi>.—When Milo was candidate for the Consulship, +the notorious demagogue Clodius supported his competitors, +and during the canvass, party spirit grew so violent, that the +<pb n='174'/><anchor id='Pg174'/>two factions often came to blows within the walls of the city. +While these dissensions were at their height, Clodius and +Milo met on the Appian Way—the former returning from the +country towards Rome, and the latter setting out for Lanuvium, +both attended by a great retinue. A quarrel arose among +their followers, in which Clodius was wounded and carried +into a house in the vicinity. By order of Milo, the doors were +broken open, his enemy dragged out, and assassinated on the +highway. The death of Clodius excited much confusion and +tumult at Rome, in the course of which the courts of justice +were burned by a mob. Milo having returned from the banishment +into which he had at first withdrawn, was impeached +for the crime by the Tribunes of the people; and Pompey, in +virtue of the authority conferred on him by a decree of the Senate, +nominated a special commission to inquire into the murder +committed on the Appian Way. In order to preserve the +tranquillity of the city, he placed guards in the Forum, and +occupied all its avenues with troops. This unusual appearance, +and the shouts of the Clodian faction, which the military +could not restrain, so discomposed the orator, that he fell +short of his usual excellence. The speech which he actually +delivered, was taken down in writing, and is mentioned by +Asconius Pedianus as still extant in his time. But that beautiful +harangue which we now possess, is one which was retouched +and polished, as a gift for Milo, after he had retired +in exile to Marseilles. +</p> + +<p> +In the oration, as we now have it, Cicero takes his exordium +from the circumstances by which he was so much, though, +as he admits, so causelessly disconcerted; since he knew that +the troops were not placed in the Forum to overawe, but to +protect. In entering on the defence, he grants that Clodius +was killed, and by Milo; but he maintains that homicide is, +on many occasions, justifiable, and on none more so than when +force can only be repelled by force, and when the slaughter +of the aggressor is necessary for self-preservation. These +principles are beautifully illustrated, and having been, as the +orator conceives, sufficiently established, are applied to the +case under consideration. He shows, from the circumstantial +evidence of time and place—the character of the deceased—the +retinue by which he was accompanied—his hatred to Milo—the +advantages which would have resulted to him from the +death of his enemy, and the expressions proved to have been +used by him, that Clodius had laid an ambush for Milo. Cicero, +it is evident, had here the worst of the cause. The encounter +appears, in fact, to have been accidental; and though +the servants of Clodius may, perhaps, have been the assailants, +<pb n='175'/><anchor id='Pg175'/>Milo had obviously exceeded the legitimate bounds of self +defence. The orator accordingly enforces the argument, that +the assassination of Clodius was an act of public benefit, +which, in a consultation of Milo’s friends, was the only one +intended to have been advanced, and was the sole defence +adopted in the oration which Brutus is said to have prepared +for the occasion. Cicero, while he does not forego the advantage +of this plea, maintains it hypothetically, contending +that <hi rend='italic'>even if</hi> Milo had openly pursued and slain Clodius as a +common enemy, he might well boast of having freed the state +from so pernicious and desperate a citizen. To add force to +this argument, he takes a rapid view of the various acts of +atrocity committed by Clodius, and the probable situation of +the Republic, were he to revive. When the minds of the +judges were thus sufficiently prepared, he ascribes his tragical +end to the immediate interposition of the providential powers, +specially manifested by his fall near the temple of Bona Dea, +whose mysteries he had formerly profaned. Having excited +sufficient indignation against Clodius, he concludes with moving +commiseration for Milo, representing his love for his country +and fellow-citizens,—the sad calamity of exile from Rome,—and +his manly resignation to whatever punishment might +be inflicted on him. +</p> + +<p> +The argument in this oration was perhaps as good as the +circumstances admitted; but we miss through the whole that +reference to documents and laws, which gives the stamp of +truth to the orations of Demosthenes. Each ground of defence, +taken by itself, is deficient in argumentative force. +Thus, in maintaining that the death of Clodius was of no +benefit to Milo, he has taken too little into consideration the +hatred and rancour mutually felt by the heads of political factions: +but he supplies his weakness of argument by illustrative +digressions, flashes of wit, bursts of eloquence, and appeals +to the compassion of the judges, on which he appears to +have placed much reliance<note place="foot">Jenisch, <hi rend='italic'>Parallel der beiden grösten Redner des Althertum</hi>, p. 124, ed. Berlin, +1821.</note>. On the whole, this oration was +accounted, both by Cicero himself and by his contemporaries, +as the finest effort of his genius; which confirms what indeed +is evinced by the whole history of Roman eloquence, that the +judges were easily satisfied on the score of reasoning, and +attached more importance to pathos, and wit, and sonorous +periods, than to fact or law. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Rabirio Postumo</hi>.—This is the defence of Rabirius, +who was prosecuted for repayment of a sum which he was +<pb n='176'/><anchor id='Pg176'/>supposed to have received, in conjunction with the Proconsul +Gabinius, from King Ptolemy, for having placed him on the +throne of Egypt, contrary to the injunctions of the Senate. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Ligario</hi>.—This oration was pronounced after Cæsar, +having vanquished Pompey in Thessaly, and destroyed the remains +of the Republican party in Africa, assumed the supreme +administration of affairs at Rome. Merciful as the conqueror +appeared, he was understood to be much exasperated against +those who, after the rout at Pharsalia, had renewed the war in +Africa. Ligarius, when on the point of obtaining a pardon, +was formally accused by his old enemy Tubero, of having +borne arms in that contest. The Dictator himself presided at +the trial of the case, much prejudiced against Ligarius, as was +known from his having previously declared, that his resolution +was fixed, and was not to be altered by the charms of eloquence. +Cicero, however, overcame his prepossessions, and +extorted from him a pardon. The countenance of Cæsar, it +is said, changed, as the orator proceeded in his speech; but +when he touched on the battle of Pharsalia, and described +Tubero as seeking his life, amid the ranks of the army, the +Dictator became so agitated, that his body trembled, and the +papers which he held dropped from his hand<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>In Cicero.</hi></note>. +</p> + +<p> +This oration is remarkable for the free spirit which it +breathes, even in the face of that power to which it was addressed +for mercy. But Cicero, at the same time, shows much +art in not overstepping those limits, within which he knew he +might speak without offence, and in seasoning his freedom +with appropriate compliments to Cæsar, of which, perhaps, +the most elegant is, that he forgot nothing but the injuries +done to himself. This was the person whom, in the time of +Pompey, he characterized as <hi rend='italic'>monstrum et portentum tyrannum</hi>, +and whose death he soon afterwards celebrated as <hi rend='italic'>divinum +in rempublicam beneficium</hi>! +</p> + +<p> +The oration of Tubero against Ligarius, was extant in +Quintilian’s time, and probably explained the circumstances +which induced a man, who had fought so keenly against +Cæsar at Pharsalia, to undertake the prosecution of Ligarius. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Pro Rege Dejotaro</hi>.—Dejotarus was a Tetrarch of Galatia, +who obtained from Pompey the realm of Armenia, and from +the Senate the title of King. In the civil war he had espoused +the cause of his benefactors. Cæsar, in consequence, +deprived him of Armenia, but was subsequently reconciled to +him, and, while prosecuting the war against Pharnaces, visited +him in his original states of Galatia. Some time +after<pb n='177'/><anchor id='Pg177'/>wards, Phidippus, the physician of the king, and his grandson +Castor, accused him of an attempt to poison Cæsar, during the +stay which the Dictator had made at his <anchor id="corr177"/><corr sic="court">court.</corr> Cicero defended +him in the private apartments of Cæsar, and adopted +the same happy union of freedom and flattery, which he had +so successfully employed in the case of Ligarius. Cæsar, +however, pronounced no decision on the one side or other. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Philippica</hi>.—The remaining orations of Cicero are those +directed against Antony, of whose private life and political +conduct they present us with a full and glaring picture. The +character of Antony, next to that of Sylla, was the most singular +in the Annals of Rome, and in some of its features bore +a striking resemblance to that of the fortunate Dictator. Both +were possessed of uncommon military talents—both were imbued +with cruelty which makes human nature shudder—both +were inordinately addicted to luxury and pleasure—and both, +for men of their powers of mind and habits, had apparently, +at least, a strange superstitious reliance on destiny, portents, +and omens. Yet there were strong shades of distinction even +in those parts of their characters in which we trace the closest +resemblance: The cruelty of Sylla was more deliberate and +remorseless—that of Antony, more regardless and unthinking—and +amid all the atrocities of the latter, there burst forth +occasional gleams of generosity and feeling. But then Sylla +was a man of much greater discernment and penetration—a +much more profound and successful dissembler—and he was +possessed of many refined and elegant accomplishments, of +which the coarser Antony was destitute. Sylla gratified his +voluptuousness, but Antony was ruled by it. The former +indulged in pleasure when within his grasp, but ease, power, +and revenge, were his great and ultimate objects: The chief +aim of the latter, was the sensual pleasure to which he was +subservient. Sylla would never have been the slave of Cleopatra, +or the dupe of Octavius. Hence the wide difference +between the destiny of the triumphant Dictator, whose chariot +rolled on the wheels of Fortune to the close of his career, +and the sad fate of Antony. Yet that very fate has mitigated +the abhorrence of posterity, and weakness having been added +to wickedness, has unaccountably palliated, in our eyes, the +faults of the soft Triumvir, now more remembered as the devoted +lover of Cleopatra, than as the chief promoter of the +Proscriptions. +</p> + +<p> +The Philippics against Antony, like those of Demosthenes, +derive their chief beauty from the noble expression of just +indignation, which indeed composes many of the most splendid +and admired passages of ancient eloquence. They were all +<pb n='178'/><anchor id='Pg178'/>pronounced during the period which elapsed between the +assassination of Cæsar, and the defeat of Antony at Modena. +Soon after Cæsar’s death, Cicero, fearing danger from Antony, +who held a sort of military possession of the city, resolved on +a voyage to Greece. Being detained, however, by contrary +winds, after he had set out, and having received favourable +intelligence from his friends at Rome, he determined to return +to the capital. The Senate assembled the day after his arrival, +in order, at the suggestion of Antony, to consider of some new +and extraordinary honours to the memory of Cæsar. To this +meeting Cicero was specially summoned by Antony, but he +excused himself on pretence of indisposition, and the fatigue +of his journey. He appeared, however, in his place, when the +Senate met on the following day, in absence of Antony, and +delivered the first of the orations, afterwards termed Philippics, +from the resemblance they bore to those invectives which +Demosthenes poured forth against the great foe of the independence +of Greece. Cicero opens his speech by explaining +the motives of his recent departure from Rome—his sudden +return, and his absence on the preceding day—declaring, that +if present, he would have opposed the posthumous honours +decreed to the usurper. His next object, after vindicating +himself, being to warn the Senate of the designs of Antony, +he complains that he had violated the most solemn and +authentic even of Cæsar’s laws; and at the same time enforced, +as ordinances, what were mere jottings, found, or pretended +to have been found, among the Dictator’s <hi rend='italic'>Memoranda</hi>, after +his death. +</p> + +<p> +Antony was highly incensed at this speech, and summoned +another meeting of the Senate, at which he again required +the presence of Cicero. These two rivals seem to have been +destined never to meet in the Senate-house. Cicero, being +apprehensive of some design against his life, did not attend; +so that the Oration of Antony, in his own justification, which he +had carefully prepared in intervals of leisure at his villa, near +Tibur, was unanswered in the Senate. The second <anchor id="corr178"/><corr sic="Phillippic">Philippic</corr> +was penned by Cicero in his closet, as a reply to this speech +of Antony, in which he had been particularly charged with +having been not merely accessary to the murder of Cæsar, but +the chief contriver of the plot against him. Some part of +Cicero’s oration was thus necessarily defensive, but the larger +portion, which is accusatory, is one of the severest and most +bitter invectives ever composed, the whole being expressed in +terms of the most thorough contempt and strongest detestation +of Antony. By laying open his whole criminal excesses from +his earliest youth, he exhibits one continued scene of +debauch<pb n='179'/><anchor id='Pg179'/>ery, faction, rapine, and violence; but he dwells with peculiar +horror on his offer of the diadem to Cæsar, at the festival of +the Lupercalia—his drunken debauch at the once classic +villa of Terentius Varro—and his purchase of the effects that +belonged to the great Pompey—on which last subject he +pathetically contrasts the modesty and decorum of that renowned +warrior, once the Favourite of Fortune, and darling +of the Roman people, with the licentiousness of the military +adventurer who now rioted in the spoils of his country. In +concluding, he declares, on his own part, that in his youth he +had defended the republic, and, in his old age, he would not +abandon its cause.—<q>The sword of Catiline I despised; and +never shall I dread that of Antony.</q> This oration is adorned +with all the charms of eloquence, and proves, that in the decline +of life Cicero had not lost one spark of the fire and +spirit which animated his earlier productions. Although not +delivered in the Senate, nor intended to be published till +things were actually come to an extremity, and the affairs of +the republic made it necessary to render Antony’s conduct +and designs manifest to the people, copies of the oration were +sent to Brutus, Cassius, and other friends of the commonwealth: +hence it soon got into extensive circulation, and, by exciting +the vengeance of Antony, was a chief cause of the tragical +death of its author. +</p> + +<p> +The situation of Antony having now become precarious, +from the union of Octavius with the party of the Senate, and +the defection of two legions, he abruptly quitted the city, and +placing himself at the head of his army, marched into Cisalpine +Gaul, which, since the death of Cæsar, had been occupied by +Decimus Brutus, one of the conspirators. The field being +thus left clear for Cicero, and the Senate being assembled, he +pronounced the third Philippic, of which the great object was +to induce it to support Brutus, by placing an army at the disposal +of Octavius, along with the two Consuls elect, Hirtius +and Pansa. He exhorts the Senate to this measure, by enlarging +on the merits of Octavius and Brutus, and concludes with +proposing public thanks to these leaders, and to the legions +which had deserted the standard of Antony. +</p> + +<p> +From the Senate, Cicero proceeded directly to the Forum, +where, in his fourth Philippic, he gave an account to the +people of what had occurred, and explained to them, that +Antony, though not nominally, had now been actually declared +the enemy of his country. This harangue was so well received +by an audience the most numerous that had ever listened +to his orations, that, speaking of it afterwards, he declares he +would have reaped sufficient fruit from the exertions of his +<pb n='180'/><anchor id='Pg180'/>whole life, had he died on the day it was pronounced, when +the whole people, with one voice and mind, called out that he +had twice saved the republic<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Philip.</hi> VI. c. 1.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Brutus being as yet unable to defend himself in the field, +withdrew into Modena, where he was besieged by Antony. +Intelligence of this having been brought to Rome, Cicero, in +his fifth Philippic, endeavoured to persuade the Senate to +proclaim Antony an enemy of his country, in opposition to +Calenus, who proposed, that before proceeding to acts of hostility, +an embassy should be sent for the purpose of admonishing +Antony to desist from his attempt on Gaul, and submit +himself to the authority of the Senate. After three days’ successive +debate, Cicero’s proposal would have prevailed, had +not one of the Tribunes interposed his negative, in consequence +of which the measure of the embassy was resorted to. +Cicero, nevertheless, before any answer could be received, persisted, +in his sixth and seventh Philippics, in asserting that +any accommodation with a rebel such as Antony, would be +equally disgraceful and dangerous to the republic. The deputies +having returned, and reported that Antony would consent +to nothing which was required of him, the Senate declared +war against him—employing, however, in their decree, the +term tumult, instead of war or rebellion. Cicero, in his eighth +Philippic, expostulated with them on their timorous and impolitic +lenity of expression. In the ninth Philippic, pronounced +on the following day, he called on the Senate to erect +a statue to one of the deputies, Servius Sulpicius, who, while +labouring under a severe distemper, had, at the risk of his +life, undertaken the embassy, but had died before he could +acquit himself of the commission with which he was charged. +The proposal met with considerable opposition, but it was at +length agreed that a brazen statue should be erected to him +in the Forum, and that an inscription should be placed on the +base, importing that he had died in the service of the republic. +</p> + +<p> +The Philippics, hitherto mentioned, related chiefly to the +affairs of Cisalpine Gaul, the scene of the contest between D. +Brutus and Antony. A long period was now elapsed since the +Senate had received any intelligence concerning the chiefs of +the conspiracy, Marcus Brutus and Cassius, the former of +whom had seized on the province of Macedonia, while the latter +occupied Syria. Public despatches, however, at length +arrived from M. Brutus, giving an account of his successful +proceedings in Greece. The Consul Pansa having communicated +the contents at a meeting of the Senate, and having +<pb n='181'/><anchor id='Pg181'/>proposed for him public thanks and honours, Calenus, a creature +of Antony, objected, and moved, that as what he had +done was without lawful authority, he should be required to +deliver up his army to the Senate, or the proper governor of +the province. Cicero, in his tenth Philippic, replied, in a +transport of eloquent and patriotic indignation, to this most +unjust and ruinous proposal, particularly to the assertion by +which it was supported, that veterans would not submit to be +commanded by Brutus. He thus succeeded in obtaining from +the Senate an approbation of the conduct of Brutus, a continuance +of his command, and pecuniary assistance. +</p> + +<p> +About the same time accounts arrived from Asia, that Dolabella, +on the part of Antony, had taken possession of Smyrna, +and there put Trebonius, one of the conspirators, to death. +On receiving this intelligence, a debate arose concerning the +choice of a general to be employed against Dolabella, and +Cicero, in his eleventh Philippic, strenuously maintained the +right of Cassius, who was then in Greece, to be promoted to +that command. In the twelfth and thirteenth, he again +warmly and successfully opposed the sending a deputation +to Antony. All further mention of pacification was terminated +by the joyful tidings of the total defeat of Antony before Modena, +by the army under Octavius, and the Consuls Hirtius +and Pansa—the latter of whom was mortally wounded in the +conflict. The intelligence excited incredible joy at Rome, +which was heightened by the unfavourable reports that had +previously prevailed. The Senate met to deliberate on the +despatches of the Consuls communicating the event. Never +was there a finer opportunity for the display of eloquence, +than what was afforded to Cicero on this occasion; of which +he most gloriously availed himself in the fourteenth Philippic. +The excitation and tumult consequent on a great recent victory, +give wing to high flights of eloquence, and also prepare +the minds of the audience to follow the ascent. The success +at Modena terminated a long period of anxiety. It was for +the time supposed to have decided the fate of Antony and the +Republic; and the orator, who thus saw all his measures justified, +must have felt the exultation, confidence, and spirit, so +favourable to the highest exertions of eloquence. This, with +the detestable character of the conquered foe,—the wounds +of Pansa, who was once suspected by the Republic, but by +his faithful zeal had gradually obtained its confidence, and at +length sealed his fidelity with his blood,—the rewards due to +the surviving victors,—the honours to be paid to those who +had fallen in defence of their country,—the thanksgivings to +be rendered to the immortal gods,—all afforded topics of +tri<pb n='182'/><anchor id='Pg182'/>umph, panegyric, and pathos, which have been seldom supplied +to the orator in any age or country. In extolling those +who had fallen, Cicero dwells on two subjects; one appertaining +to the glory of the heroes themselves, the other to the +consolation of their friends and relatives. He proposes that a +splendid monument should be erected, in common to all who +had perished, with an inscription recording their names and +services; and in recommending this tribute of public gratitude, +he breaks out into a funeral panegyric, which has formed +a more lasting memorial than the monument he suggested. +</p> + +<p> +This was the last Philippic and last oration which Cicero +delivered. The union of Antony and Octavius soon after +annihilated the power of the Senate; and Cicero, like Demosthenes, +fell the victim of that indignant eloquence with which +he had lashed the enemies of his country:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Eloquio sed uterque periit orator; utrumque</q></l> +<l>Largus et exundans letho dedit ingenii fons.</l> +<l>Ingenio manus est et cervix cæsa, nec unquam</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Sanguine causidici maduerunt rostra pusilli<note place="foot">Juvenal, <hi rend='italic'>Satir.</hi> X. v. 118.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Besides the complete orations above mentioned, Cicero delivered +many, of which only fragments remain, or which are +now entirely lost. All those which he pronounced during +the five years intervening between his election to the Quæstorship +and the Ædileship have perished, except that for M. +Tullius, of which the exordium and narrative were brought to +light at the late celebrated discovery by Mai, in the Ambrosian +library at Milan. Tullius had been forcibly dispossessed (<hi rend='italic'>vi +armata</hi>) by one of the Fabii of a farm he held in Lucania; +and the whole Fabian race were prosecuted for damages, +under a law of Lucullus, whereby, in consequence of depredations +committed in the municipal states of Italy, every +family was held responsible for the violent aggressions of any +of its tribe. A large fragment of the oration for Scaurus +forms by far the most valuable part of the discovery in the +Ambrosian library. The oration, indeed, is not entire, but +the part we have of it is tolerably well connected. The +charge was one of provincial embezzlement, and in the exordium +the orator announces that he was to treat, 1st, of the +general nature of the accusation itself; 2d, of the character +of the Sardinians; 3d, of that of Scaurus; and, lastly, of the +special charge concerning the corn. Of these, the first two +heads are tolerably entire; and that in which he exposes the +faithless character of the Sardinians, and thus shakes the +cred<pb n='183'/><anchor id='Pg183'/>ibility of the witnesses for the prosecution is artfully managed. +The other fragments discovered in the Ambrosian library +consist merely of detached sentences, of which it is almost +impossible to make a connected meaning. Of this description +is the oration <hi rend='italic'>In P. Clodium</hi>; yet still, by the aid of the +Commentary found along with it, we are enabled to form +some notion of the tenor of the speech. The well-known +story of Clodius finding access to the house of Cæsar, in female +disguise, during the celebration of the mysteries of Bona +Dea, gave occasion to this invective. A sort of altercation +had one day passed in the Senate between Cicero and Clodius, +soon after the acquittal of the latter for this offence, which +probably suggested to Cicero the notion of writing a connected +oration, inveighing against the vices and crimes of +Clodius, particularly his profanation of the secret rites of the +goddess, and the corrupt means by which he had obtained his +acquittal. In one of his epistles to Atticus, Cicero gives a +detailed account of this altercation, which certainly does not +afford us a very dignified notion of senatorial gravity and +decorum. +</p> + +<p> +Of those orations of Cicero which have entirely perished, +the greatest loss has been sustained by the disappearance of +the defence of Cornelius, who was accused of practices against +the state during his tribuneship. This speech, which was +divided into two great parts, was continued for four successive +days, in presence of an immense concourse of people, who +testified their admiration of its bright eloquence by repeated +applause<note place="foot">Quintil. <hi rend='italic'>Inst. Orat.</hi> Lib. V.</note>. The orator himself frequently refers to it as +among the most finished of his compositions<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Orator</hi>, c. 67, 70.</note>; and the old +critics cite it as an example of genuine eloquence. <q>Not +merely,</q> says Quintilian, <q>with strong, but with shining armour +did Cicero contend in the cause of Cornelius.</q> We have also +to lament the loss of the oration for C. Piso, accused of oppression +in his government—of the farewell discourse delivered +to the Sicilians, (<hi rend='italic'>Quum Quæstor Lilybæo discederet</hi>,) in which +he gave them an account of his administration, and promised +them his protection at Rome—of the invective pronounced in +the Senate against Metellus, in answer to a harangue which +that Tribune had delivered to the people concerning Cicero’s +conduct, in putting the confederates of Catiline to death without +trial; and, finally, of the celebrated speech <hi rend='italic'>De Proscriptorum +Liberis</hi>, in which, on political grounds, he opposed, +while admitting their justice, the claims of the children of +those whom Sylla had proscribed and disqualified from holding +<pb n='184'/><anchor id='Pg184'/>any honours in the state, and who now applied to be relieved +from their disabilities. The success which he obtained in resisting +this demand, is described in strong terms by Pliny: +<q>Te orante, proscriptorum liberos honores petere puduit<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. VII. c. 30.</note>.</q> +A speech which is now lost, and which, though afterwards reduced +to writing, must have been delivered extempore, afforded +another strong example of the persuasiveness of his eloquence. +The appearance of the Tribune, Roscius Otho, who had set +apart seats for the knights at the public spectacles, having one +day occasioned a disturbance at the theatre, Cicero, on being +informed of the tumult, hastened to the spot, and, calling out +the people to the Temple of Bellona, he so calmed them by +the magic of his eloquence, that, returning immediately to the +theatre, they clapped their hands in honour of Otho, and vied +with the knights in giving him demonstrations of respect<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>In Cicer.</hi></note>. +One topic which he touched on in this oration, and the only +one of which we have any hint from antiquity, was the rioters’ +want of taste, in creating a tumult, while Roscius was performing +on the stage<note place="foot">Macrobius, <hi rend='italic'>Saturnal.</hi> Lib. III. c. 14.</note>. This speech, the orations against the +Agrarian law, and that <hi rend='italic'>De Proscriptorum Liberis</hi>, have long +been cited as the strongest examples of the power of eloquence +over the passions of mankind: And it is difficult to +say, whether the highest praise be due to the orator, who could +persuade, or to the people, who could be thus induced to +relinquish the most tempting expectations of property and +honours, and the full enjoyment of their favourite amusements. +</p> + +<p> +In the age of that declamation which prevailed at Rome +from the time of Tiberius to the fall of the empire, it +was the practice of rhetoricians to declaim on similar topics +with those on which Cicero had delivered, or was supposed +to have delivered, harangues. It appears from Aulus Gellius<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. I. c. 7.</note>, +that in the age of Marcus Aurelius doubts were +entertained with regard to the authenticity of certain orations +circulated as productions of Cicero. He was known +to have delivered four speeches almost immediately after his +recall from banishment, on subjects closely connected with +his exile. The first was addressed to the Senate<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Dio Cassius</hi>, XXXIX. c. 9.</note>, and the +second to the people, a few days subsequently to his return<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. IV. Ep. 1.</note>; +the third to the college of Pontiffs, in order to obtain restitution +of a piece of ground on the Palatine hill, on which his +house had formerly stood, but had been demolished, and a +temple erected on the spot, with a view, as he feared, to alienate +it irretrievably from the proprietor, by thus consecrating +<pb n='185'/><anchor id='Pg185'/>it to religious purposes<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. IV. Ep. 2.</note>. The fourth was pronounced in consequence +of Clodius declaring that certain menacing prodigies, +which had lately appeared, were indubitably occasioned by +the desecration of this ground, which the Pontiffs had now +discharged from religious uses. Four orations, supposed to +have been delivered on those occasions, and entitled, <hi rend='italic'>Post +Reditum in Senatu</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Ad Quirites post Reditum</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Pro domo sua +ad Pontifices</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>De Haruspicum Responsis</hi>, were published in +all the early editions of Cicero, without any doubts of their +authenticity being hinted by the commentators, and were also +referred to as genuine authorities by Middleton in his Life of +Cicero. At length, about the middle of last century, the well-known +dispute having arisen between Middleton and Tunstall, +concerning the letters to Brutus, Markland engaged in the +controversy; and his remarks on the correspondence of Cicero +and Brutus were accompanied with a <q>Dissertation on the +Four Orations ascribed to M. T. Cicero,</q> published in 1745, +which threw great doubts on their authenticity. Middleton +made no formal reply to this part of Markland’s observations; +but he neither retracted his opinion nor changed a word in his +subsequent edition of the Life of Cicero. +</p> + +<p> +Soon afterwards, Ross, the editor of Cicero’s <hi rend='italic'>Epistolæ Familiares</hi>, +and subsequently Bishop of Exeter, ironically showed, +in his <q>Dissertation, in which the defence of P. Sulla, ascribed +to Cicero, is clearly proved to be spurious, after the manner +of Mr Markland,</q> that, on the principles and line of argument +adopted by his opponent, the authenticity of any one of the +orations might be contested. This <hi rend='italic'>jeu d’esprit</hi> of Bishop Ross +was seriously confuted in a <q>Dissertation, in which the Objections +of a late Pamphlet to the Writings of the Ancients, +after the manner of Mr Markland, are clearly Answered; and +those Passages in Tully corrected, on which some of the Objections +are founded.—1746.</q> This dissertation was printed +by Bowyer, and he is generally believed to have been the author +of it<note place="foot">See Nichol’s <hi rend='italic'>Literary Anecdotes</hi>. Harles, also, seems to suppose that Bishop +Ross was in earnest:—<q>Orationem pro Sulla spuriam esse audacter pronunciavit +vir quidam doctus in—A Dissertation, in which the defence of P. Sulla, &c. is proved +to be spurious.</q>—<hi rend='smallcaps'>Harles</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Introduct. in Notitiam Literat. Rom.</hi> Tom. II. p. 153.</note>. In Germany, J. M. Gesner, with all the weight +attached to his opinion, and <hi rend='italic'>Thesaurus</hi>, strenuously defended +these orations in two prelections, held in 1753 and 1754, and +inserted in the 3d volume of the new series of the Transactions +of the Royal Academy at Gottingen, under the title <hi rend='italic'>Cicero +Restitutus</hi>, in which he refuted, one by one, all the objections +of Markland. +</p> + +<pb n='186'/><anchor id='Pg186'/> + +<p> +After this, although the Letters of Brutus were no longer +considered as authentic, literary men in all countries—as De +Brosses, the French Translator of Sallust, Ferguson, Saxius, +in his <hi rend='italic'>Onomasticon</hi>, and Rhunkenius—adopted the orations as +genuine. Ernesti, in his edition of Cicero, makes no mention +of the existence of any doubts respecting them; and, in his +edition of Fabricius<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Bib. Lat.</hi> Lib. I. c. 8.</note>, alludes to the controversy concerning +them as a foolish and insignificant dispute. A change of opinion, +however, was produced by an edition of the four orations +which Wolfius published at Berlin in 1801, to which he prefixed +an account of the controversy, and a general view of the +arguments of Markland and Gesner. The observations of each, +relating to particular words and phrases, are placed below the +passages as they occur, and are followed by Wolf’s own remarks, +refuting, to the utmost of his power, the opinions of +Gesner, and confirming those of Markland. Schütz, the late +German editor of Cicero, has completely adopted the notions +of Wolf; and by printing these four harangues, not in their +order in the series, but separately, and at the end of the whole, +along with the discarded correspondence between Cicero and +Brutus, has thrown them without the classical pale as effectually +as Lambinus excluded the once recognized orations, <hi rend='italic'>In +pace</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>Antequam iret in Exilium</hi>. In the fourth volume +of his new edition of the works of Cicero now proceeding in +Germany, Beck has followed the opinion of Wolf, after an impartial +examination of the different arguments in his notes, +and in an <hi rend='italic'>excursus criticus</hi> devoted to this subject. +</p> + +<p> +Markland and Wolf believe, that these harangues were +written as a rhetorical exercise, by some declaimer, who lived +not long after Cicero, probably in the time of Tiberius, and +who had before his eyes some orations of Cicero now lost, +(perhaps those which he delivered on his return from exile,) +from which the rhetorician occasionally borrowed ideas or +phrases, not altogether unworthy of the orator’s genius and +eloquence. But, though they may contain some insulated Ciceronian +expressions, it is utterly denied that these orations +can be the continued composition of Cicero. The arguments +against their authenticity are deduced, <hi rend='italic'>first</hi> from their matter; +and, <hi rend='italic'>secondly</hi>, from their style. These critics dwell much on +the numerous thoughts and ideas inconsistent with the known +sentiments, or unsuitable to the disposition of the author,—on +the relation of events, told in a different manner from that +in which they have been recorded by him in his undoubted +works,—and, finally, on the gross ignorance shown of the laws, +<pb n='187'/><anchor id='Pg187'/>institutions, and customs of Rome, and even of the events +passing at the time. Thus it is said, in one of these four orations, +that, on some political occasion, all the senators changed +their garb, as also the Prætors and Ædiles, which proves, +that the author was ignorant that all Ædiles and Prætors were +necessarily senators, since, otherwise, the special mention of +them would be superfluous and absurd. What is still stronger, +the author, in the oration <hi rend='italic'>Ad Quirites post reditum</hi>, refers to +the speech in behalf of Gabinius, which was not pronounced +till 699, three years subsequently to Cæsar’s recall; whereas +the real oration, <hi rend='italic'>Ad Quirites</hi>, was delivered on the second or +third day after his return. With regard to the style of these +harangues, it is argued, that the expressions are affected, the +sentences perplexed, and the transitions abrupt; and that their +languor and want of animation render them wholly unworthy +of Cicero. Markland particularly points out the absurd repetition +of what the declaimer had considered Ciceronian +phrases,—as, <q>Aras, focos, penates—Deos immortales—Res +incredibiles—Esse videatur.</q> Of the orations individually he +remarks, and justly, that the one delivered by Cicero in the +Senate immediately after his return, was known to have been +prepared with the greatest possible care, and to have been +committed to writing before it was pronounced; while the +fictitious harangue which we now have in its place, is at all +events, quite unlike anything that Cicero would have produced +with elaborate study. The second is a sort of compendium +of the first, and the same ideas and expressions are slavishly +repeated; which implies a barrenness of invention, and sterility +of language, that cannot be supposed in Cicero. Of the +third oration he speaks, in his letters to Atticus, as one of his +happiest efforts<note place="foot">Lib. IV. Ep. 2.</note>; but nothing can be more wretched than that +which we now have in its stead,—the first twelve chapters, indeed, +being totally irrelevant to the question at issue. +</p> + +<p> +The oration for Marcellus, the genuineness of which has also +been called in question, is somewhat in a different style from +the other harangues of Cicero; for, though entitled <hi rend='italic'>Pro Marcello</hi>, +it is not so much a speech in his defence, as a panegyric +on Cæsar, for having granted the pardon of Marcellus at +the intercession of the Senate. Marcellus had been one of +the most violent opponents of the views of Cæsar. He had +recommended in the Senate, that he should be deprived of the +province of Gaul: he had insulted the magistrates of one of +Cæsar’s new-founded colonies; and had been present at Pharsalia +on the side of Pompey. After that battle he retired to +Mitylene, where he was obliged to remain, being one of the +<pb n='188'/><anchor id='Pg188'/>few adversaries to whom the conqueror refused to be reconciled. +The Senate, however, one day when Cæsar was present, +with an united voice, and in an attitude of supplication, having +implored his clemency in favour of Marcellus, and their request +having been granted, Cicero, though he had resolved to +preserve eternal silence, being moved by the occasion, delivered +one of the most strained encomiums that has ever been +pronounced. +</p> + +<p> +In the first part he extols the military exploits of Cæsar; but +shows, that his clemency to Marcellus was more glorious than +any of his other actions, as it depended entirely on himself, +while fortune and his army had their share in the events of the +war. In the second part he endeavours to dispel the suspicions +which it appears Cæsar still entertained of the hostile intentions +of Marcellus, and takes occasion to assure the Dictator +that his life was most dear and valuable to all, since on it +depended the tranquillity of the state, and the hopes of the +restoration of the commonwealth. +</p> + +<p> +This oration, which Middleton declares to be superior +to anything extant of the kind in all antiquity, and which +a celebrated French critic terms, <q>Le discours le plus noble, +le plus pathetique, et en meme tems le plus patriotique, +que la reconnaissance, l’amitié, et la vertu, puissent inspirer +<anchor id="corr188"/><corr sic="á">à</corr> une ame elevée et sensible,</q> continued to be not only of +undisputed authenticity, but one of Cicero’s most admired +productions, till Wolf, in the preface and notes to a new +edition of it, printed in 1802, attempted to show, that it was a +spurious production, totally unworthy of the orator whose +name it bore, and that it was written by some declaimer, soon +after the Augustan age, not as an imposition upon the public, +but as an exercise,—according to the practice of the rhetoricians, +who were wont to choose, as a theme, some subject on +which Cicero had spoken. In his letters to Atticus, Cicero +says, that he had returned thanks to Cæsar <hi rend='italic'>pluribus verbis</hi>. +This Middleton translates a <hi rend='italic'>long speech</hi>; but Wolf alleges it +can only mean a few words, and never can be interpreted to +denote a full oration, such as that which we now possess for +Marcellus. That Cicero did not deliver a long or formal +speech, is evident, he contends, from the testimony of Plutarch, +who mentions, in his life of Cicero, that, a short time +afterwards, when the orator was about to plead for Ligarius, +Cæsar asked, how it happened that he had not heard Cicero +speak for so long a period,—which would have been absurd if +he had heard him, a few months before, pleading for Marcellus. +Being an extemporary effusion, called forth by an unforeseen +occasion, it could not (he continues to urge) have been +pre<pb n='189'/><anchor id='Pg189'/>pared and written beforehand; nor is it at all probable, that, +like many other orations of Cicero, it was revised and made +public after being delivered. The causes which induced the +Roman orators to write out their speeches at leisure, were the +magnitude and public importance of the subject, or the wishes +of those in whose defence they were made, and who were +anxious to possess a sort of record of their vindication. But +none of these motives existed in the present case. The matter +was of no importance or difficulty; and we know that +Marcellus, who was a stern republican, was not at all gratified +by the intervention of the senators, or conciliated by the clemency +of Cæsar. As to internal evidence, deduced from the +oration, Wolf admits, that there are interspersed in it some +Ciceronian sentences; and how otherwise could the learned +have been so egregiously deceived? but the resemblance is +more in the varnish of the style than in the substance. We +have the words rather than the thoughts of Cicero; and the +rounding of his periods, without their energy and argumentative +connection. He adduces, also, many instances of phrases +unusual among the classics, and of conceits which betray the +rhetorician or sophist. His extolling the act of that day on +which Cæsar pardoned Marcellus as higher than all his warlike +exploits, would but have raised a smile on the lips of the +Dictator; and the slighting way in which the cause of the republic +and Pompey are mentioned, is totally different from the +manner in which Cicero expressed himself on these delicate +topics, even in presence of Cæsar, in his authentic orations for +Deiotarus and Ligarius. +</p> + +<p> +It is evident, at first view, that many of Wolf’s observations +are hypercritical; and that in his argument concerning the +encomiums on Cæsar, and the overrated importance of his +clemency to Marcellus, he does not make sufficient allowance +for Cicero’s habit of exaggeration, and the momentary enthusiasm +produced by one of those transactions, +</p> + +<lg> +<l>—— <q rend="post: none">Quæ, dum geruntur,</q></l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Percellunt animos.</q> ——</l> +</lg> + +<p> +Accordingly, in the year following that of Wolf’s edition, +Olaus Wormius published, at Copenhagen, a vindication of +the authenticity of this speech. To the argument adduced +from Plutarch, he answers, that some months had elapsed between +the orations for Marcellus and Ligarius, which might +readily be called a long period, by one accustomed to hear +Cicero harangue almost daily in the Senate or Forum. Besides, +the phrase of Plutarch, <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">λεγοντος</foreign><!--[Greek: legontos]--> may mean pleading +<pb n='190'/><anchor id='Pg190'/>for some one, which was not the nature of the speech for Marcellus. +As to the motive which led to write and publish the +oration, Cicero, above all men, was delighted with his own +productions, and nothing can be more probable than that he +should have wished to preserve the remembrance of that memorable +day, which he calls in his letters, <hi rend='italic'>diem illam pulcherrimam</hi>. +It was natural to send the oration to Marcellus, in +order to hasten his return to Rome, and it must have been an +acceptable thing to Cæsar, thus to record his fearlessness and +benignity. With regard to the manner in which Pompey and +the republican party are talked of, it is evident, from his letters, +that Cicero was disgusted with the political measures of +that faction, that he wholly disapproved of their plan of the +campaign, and foreseeing a renewal of Sylla’s proscriptions in +the triumph of the aristocratic power, he did not exaggerate +in so highly extolling the humanity of Cæsar. +</p> + +<p> +The arguments of Wormius were expanded and illustrated +by Weiske, <hi rend='italic'>In Commentario perpetuo et pleno in Orat. Ciceronis +pro Marcello</hi>, published at Leipsic, in 1805<note place="foot"><q>Cum Appendice De Oratione, quæ vulgo fertur, M. T. Ciceronis pro Q. Ligario,</q> +in which the author attempts to abjudicate from Cicero the beautiful oration for +Ligarius, which shook even the soul of Cæsar, while he has translated into his own +language the two wretched orations, <hi rend='italic'>Post Reditum</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>Ad Quirites</hi>, insisting on +the legitimacy of both, and enlarging on their truly classical beauties! In his Preface, +he has pleasantly enough parodied the arguments of Wolf against the oration +for Marcellus, ironically showing that they came not from that great scholar, but +from a <hi rend='italic'>pseudo</hi> Wolf, who had assumed his name.</note>, while, +on the other hand, Spalding, in his <hi rend='italic'>De Oratione pro Marcello +Disputatio</hi>, published in 1808, supported the opinions of +Wolfius. +</p> + +<p> +The controversy was in this state, and was considered as +involved in much doubt and obscurity, when Aug. Jacob, in +an academical exercise, printed at Halle and Berlin, in 1813, +and entitled <hi rend='italic'>De Oratione quæ inscribitur pro Marcello, Ciceroni +vel abjudicata vel adjudicata, Quæstio novaque conjectura</hi>, +adopted a middle course. Finding such dissimilarity in +the different passages of the oration, some being most powerful, +elegant, and beautiful, while others were totally futile and +frigid, he was led to believe that part had actually flowed from +the lips of Cicero, but that much had been subsequently interpolated +by some rhetorician or declaimer. He divides his +whole treatise into four heads, which comprehend all the various +points agitated on the subject of this oration: 1. The +testimony of different authors tending to prove the authenticity +or spuriousness of the production: 2. The history of the +period, with which every genuine oration must necessarily +concur: 3. The genius and manner of Cicero, from which no +<pb n='191'/><anchor id='Pg191'/>one of his orations could be entirely remote: 4. The style +and phraseology, which must be correct and classical. In the +prosecution of his inquiry in these different aspects of the +subject, the author successively reviews the opinions and +judgments of his predecessors, sometimes agreeing with Wolf +and his followers, at other times, and more frequently, with +their opposers. He thinks that the much-contested phrase +<hi rend='italic'>pluribus verbis</hi>, may mean a long oration, as Cicero elsewhere +talks of having pleaded for Cluentius, <hi rend='italic'>pluribus verbis</hi>, though +the speech in his defence consists of 58 chapters. Besides, +Cicero only says that he had <hi rend='italic'>returned thanks</hi> to Cæsar, <hi rend='italic'>pluribus +verbis</hi>. Now, the whole speech does not consist of +thanks to Cæsar, being partly occupied in removing the suspicions +which he entertained of Marcellus. With regard to +encomiums on Cæsar, which Spalding has characterized as +abject and fulsome, and totally different from the delicate +compliments addressed to him in the oration for Deiotarus or +Ligarius, Jacob reminds his readers that the harangues could +have no resemblance to each other, the latter being pleadings +in behalf of the accused, and the former a professed panegyric. +Nor can any one esteem the eulogies on Cæsar too extravagant +for Cicero, when he remembers the terms in which the +orator had formerly spoken of Roscius, Archias, and Pompey. +</p> + +<p> +Schütz, the late German editor of Cicero, has subscribed to +the opinion of Wolf, and has published the speech for Marcellus, +along with the other four doubtful harangues at the +end of the genuine orations. +</p> + +<p> +<anchor id="corr191"/><corr sic="Bnt">But</corr> supposing that these five contested speeches are spurious, +a sufficient number of genuine orations remain to enable +us to distinguish the character of Cicero’s eloquence. Ambitious +from his youth of the honours attending a fine speaker, +he early travelled to Greece, where he accumulated all the +stores of knowledge and rules of art, which could be gathered +from the rhetoricians, historians, and philosophers, of that +intellectual land. While he thus extracted and imbibed the +copiousness of Plato, the sweetness of Isocrates, and force of +Demosthenes, he, at the same time, imbued his mind with a +thorough knowledge of the laws, constitution, antiquities, and +literature, of his native country. Nor did he less study the +peculiar temper, the jealousies, and enmities of the Roman +people, both as a nation and as individuals, without a knowledge +of which, his eloquence would have been unavailing in +the Forum or Comitia, where so much was decided by favouritism +and cabal. By these means he ruled the passions and +deliberations of his countrymen with almost resistless +sway—<pb n='192'/><anchor id='Pg192'/>upheld the power of the Senate—stayed the progress of tyranny—drove +the audacious Catiline from Rome—directed the feelings +of the state in favour of Pompey—shook the strong mind +of Cæsar—and kindled a flame by which Antony had been +nearly consumed. But the main secret of his success lay in +the warmth and intensity of his feelings. His heart swelled +with patriotism, and was dilated with the most magnificent +conceptions of the glory of Rome. Though it throbbed with +the fondest anticipations of posthumous fame, the momentary +acclaim of a multitude was a chord to which it daily and most +readily vibrated; while, at the same time, his high conceptions +of oratory counteracted the bad effect which this exuberant +vanity might otherwise have produced. Thus, when two +speakers were employed in the same cause, though Cicero was +the junior, to him was assigned the peroration, in which he +surpassed all his contemporaries; and he obtained this pre-eminence +not so much on account of his superior genius or +knowledge of law, as because he was more moved and affected +himself, without which he would never have moved or affected +his judges. +</p> + +<p> +With such natural endowments, and such acquirements, he +early took his place as the refuge and support of his fellow-citizens +in the Forum, as the arbiter of the deliberations of +the Senate, and as the most powerful defender from the Rostrum +of the political interests of the commonwealth. +</p> + +<p> +Cicero and Demosthenes have been frequently compared. +Suidas says, that one Cicilus, a native of Sicily, whose works +are now lost, was the first to institute the parallel, and they +have been subsequently compared, in due form, by Plutarch +and Quintilian, and, (as far as relates to sublimity,) by Longinus, +among the ancients; and among the moderns, by Herder, +in his <hi rend='italic'>Philosophical History of Man</hi>, and by Jenisch, in a +German work devoted to the subject<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Paral. der Beyden Grösten Redner des Altherthums</hi>.</note>. Rapin, and all other +French critics, with the exception of Fenelon, give the preference +to Cicero. +</p> + +<p> +From what has already been said, it is sufficiently evident +that Cicero had not to contend with any of those obstructions +from nature which Demosthenes encountered; and his youth, +in place of being spent like that of the Greek orator, in remedying +and supplying defects, was unceasingly employed in +pursuit of the improvements auxiliary to his art. But if Cicero +derived superior advantages from nature, Demosthenes possessed +other advantages, in the more advanced progress of his +country in refinement and letters, at the era in which he +ap<pb n='193'/><anchor id='Pg193'/>peared. Greek literature had reached its full perfection before +the birth of Demosthenes, but Cicero was, in a great +measure, himself the creator of the literature of Rome, and no +prose writer of eminence had yet existed, after whom he could +model his phraseology. In other external circumstances, they +were placed in situations not very dissimilar. But Cicero had +a wider, and perhaps more beautiful field, in which to expatiate +and to exercise his powers. The wide extent of the Roman +empire, the striking vices and virtues of its citizens, the +memorable events of its history, supplied an endless variety of +great and interesting topics; whereas many of the orations of +Demosthenes are on subjects unworthy of his talents. Their +genius and capacity were in many respects the same. Their +eloquence was of that great and comprehensive kind, which +dignifies every subject, and gives it all the force and beauty it +is capable of receiving. <q>I judge Cicero and Demosthenes,</q> +says Quintilian, <q>to be alike in most of the great qualities they +possessed. They were alike in design, in the manner of dividing +their subject, and preparing the minds of the audience; +in short, in every thing belonging to invention.</q> But while +there was much similarity in their talents, there was a wide +difference in their tempers and characters. Demosthenes was +of an austere, harsh, melancholy disposition, obstinate and resolute +in all his undertakings: Cicero was of a lively, flexible, +and wavering humour. This seems the chief cause of the +difference in their eloquence; but the contrasts are too obvious, +and have been too often exhibited to be here displayed. +No person wishes to be told, for the twentieth time, that Demosthenes +assumes a higher tone, and is more serious, vehement, +and impressive, than Cicero; while Cicero is more +insinuating, graceful, and affecting: That the Greek orator +struck on the soul by the force of his argument, and ardour of +his expressions; while the Roman made his way to the heart, +alternately moving and allaying the passions of his hearers, by +all the arts of rhetoric, and by conforming to their opinions +and prejudices. +</p> + +<milestone unit="tb"/> +<p> +Cicero was not only a great orator, but has also left the fullest +instructions and the most complete historical details on +the art which he so gloriously practised. His precepts are +contained in the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi> and the <hi rend='italic'>Orator</hi>; while +the history of Roman eloquence is comprehended in the dialogue +entitled, <hi rend='italic'>Brutus, sive De Claris Oratoribus</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +In his youth, Cicero had written and published some undigested +observations on the subject of eloquence; but +consi<pb n='194'/><anchor id='Pg194'/>dering these as unworthy of the character and experience he +afterwards acquired, he applied himself to write a treatise on +the art which might be more commensurate to his matured talents. +He himself mentions several Sicilians and Greeks, who +had written on oratory<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 12, &c.</note>. But the models he chiefly followed, +were Aristotle, in his books of rhetoric<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Famil.</hi> Lib. I. Ep. 9.</note>; and Isocrates, the +whole of whose theories and precepts he has comprehended in +his rhetorical works. He has thrown his ideas on the subject +into the form of dialogue or conference, a species of composition, +which, however much employed by the Greeks, had not +hitherto been attempted at Rome. This mode of writing presented +many advantages: By adopting it he avoided that dogmatical +air, which a treatise from him on such a subject would +necessarily have worn, and was enabled to instruct without +dictating rules. Dialogue, too, relieved monotony of style, by +affording opportunity of varying it according to the characters +of the different speakers—it tempered the austerity of precept +by the cheerfulness of conversation, and developed each opinion +with the vivacity and fulness naturally employed in the +oral discussion of a favourite topic. Add to this, the facility +which it presented of paying an acceptable compliment to the +friends who were introduced as interlocutors, and its susceptibility +of agreeable description of the scenes in which the persons +of the dialogue were placed—a species of embellishment, +for which ample scope was afforded by the numerous villas of +Cicero, situated in the most beautiful spots of Italy, and in +every variety of landscape, from the Alban heights to the shady +banks of the Liris, or glittering shore of Baiæ. As a method +of communicating knowledge, however, (except in discussions +which are extremely simple, and susceptible of much delineation +of character,) the mode of dialogue is, in many respects, +extremely inconvenient. <q>By the interruptions which are +given,</q> says the author of the life of Tasso, in his remarks on +the dialogues of that poet,—<q>By the interruptions which are +given, if a dialogue be at all dramatic—by the preparations +and transitions, order and precision must, in a great degree, +be sacrificed. In reasoning, as much brevity must be used as +is consistent with perspicuity; but in dialogue, so much verbiage +must be employed, that the scope of the argument is +generally lost. The replies, too, to the objections of the opponent, +seem rather arguments <hi rend='italic'>ad hominem</hi>, than possessed of +the value of abstract truth; so that the reader is perplexed +and bewildered, and concludes the inquiry, beholding one of +the characters puzzled, indeed, and perhaps subdued, but not +<pb n='195'/><anchor id='Pg195'/>at all satisfied that the battle might not have been better +fought, and more victorious arguments adduced.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi> was written in the year 698, when +Cicero, disgusted with the political dissensions of the capital, +had retired, during part of the summer, to the country: But, +according to the supposition of the piece, the dialogue <anchor id="corr195"/><corr sic="occured">occurred</corr> +in 662. The author addresses it to his brother in a dedication, +strongly expressive of his fondness for study; and, after +some general observations on the difficulty of the oratoric art, +and the numerous accomplishments requisite to form a complete +orator, he introduces his dialogue, or rather the three +dialogues, of which the performance consists. Dialogue writing +may be executed either as direct conversation, in which +none but the speakers appear, and where, as in the scenes of +a play, no information is afforded except from what the persons +of the drama say to each other; or as the recital of the +conversation, where the author himself appears, and after a +preliminary detail concerning the persons of the dialogue, and +the circumstances of time and place in which it was held, proceeds +to give an account of what passed in the discourse at +which he had himself been present, or the import of which +was communicated to him by some one who had attended and +borne his part in the conference. It is this latter method that +has been followed by Cicero, in his dialogues <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>. +He mentions in his own person, that during the celebration of +certain festivals at Rome, the orator Crassus retired to his villa +at Tusculum, one of the most delightful retreats in Italy, whither +he was accompanied by Antony, his most intimate friend +in private life, but most formidable rival in the Forum; and by +his father-in-law, Scævola, who was the greatest jurisconsult +of his age, and whose house in the city was resorted to as an +oracle, by men of the highest rank and dignity. Crassus was +also attended by Cotta and Sulpicius, at that time the two +most promising orators of Rome, the former of whom afterwards +related to Cicero (for the author is not supposed to be +personally present) the conversation which passed among +these distinguished men, as they reclined on the benches under +a planetree, that grew on one of the walks surrounding the +villa. It is not improbable, that some such conversation may +have been actually held, and that Cicero, notwithstanding his +age, and the authority derived from his rhetorical reputation, +may have chosen to avail himself of the circumstance, in order +to shelter his opinions under those of two ancient masters, +who, previously to his own time, were regarded as the chief +organs of Roman eloquence. +</p> + +<p> +Crassus, in order to dissipate the gloom which had been +oc<pb n='196'/><anchor id='Pg196'/>casioned by a serious and even melancholy conversation, on +the situation of public affairs, turned the discourse on oratory. +The sentiments which he expresses on this subject are supposed +to be those which Cicero himself entertained. In +order to excite the two young men, Cotta and Sulpicius, to +prosecute with ardour the career they had so successfully +commenced, he first enlarges on the utility and excellence of +oratory; and then, proceeding to the object which he had +principally in view, he contends that an almost universal knowledge +is essentially requisite to perfection in this noble art. +He afterwards enumerates those branches of knowledge which +the orator should acquire, and the purposes to which he should +apply them: he inculcates the necessity of an acquaintance +with the antiquities, manners, and constitution of the republic—the +constant exercise of written composition—the study of +gesture at the theatre—the translation of the Greek orators—reading +and commenting on the philosophers, reading and +criticizing the poets. The question hence arises, whether a +knowledge of the civil law be serviceable to the orator? Crassus +attempts to prove its utility from various examples of cases, +where its principles required to be elucidated; as also from the +intrinsic nobleness of the study itself, and the superior excellence +of the Roman law to all other systems of jurisprudence. +Antony, who was a mere practical pleader, considered philosophy +and civil law as useless to the orator, being foreign to +the real business of life. He conceived that eloquence might +subsist without them, and that with regard to the other accomplishments +enumerated by Crassus, they were totally distinct +from the proper office and duty of a public speaker. It +is accordingly agreed, that on the following day Antony should +state his notions of the acquirements appropriate to an orator. +Previous to the commencement of the second conversation, the +party is joined by Catulus and Julius Cæsar, (grand-uncle to +the Dictator,) two of the most eminent orators of the time, the +former being distinguished by his elegance and purity of diction, +the latter by his turn for pleasantry. Having met Scævola, +on his way from Tusculum to the villa of Lælius, and +having heard from him of the interesting conversation which +had been held, the remainder of which had been deferred till +the morrow, they came over from a neighbouring villa to partake +of the instruction and entertainment. In their presence, +and in that of Crassus, Antony maintains his favourite system, +that eloquence is not an art, because it depends not on knowledge. +Imitation of good models, practice, and minute attention +to each particular case, which should be scrupulously +examined in all its bearings, are laid down by him as the +foun<pb n='197'/><anchor id='Pg197'/>dations of forensic eloquence. The great objects of an orator +being, in the first place, to recommend himself to his clients, +and then to prepossess the audience and judges in their favour, +Antony enlarges on the practice of the bar, in conciliating, +informing, moving, and undeceiving those on whom the decision +of causes depends; all which is copiously illustrated by +examples drawn from particular questions, which had occurred +at Rome in cases of proof, strict law, or equity. The chief +weight and importance is attributed to moving the springs of +the passions. Among the methods of conciliation and prepossession, +humour and drollery are particularly mentioned. Cæsar +being the oratorical wit of the party, is requested to give +some examples of forensic jests. Those he affords are for the +most part wretched quibbles, or personal reflections on the +opposite parties, and their witnesses. The length of the dissertation, +however, on this topic, shows the important share it +was considered as occupying among the qualifications of the +ancient orator. +</p> + +<p> +Antony having thus explained the mechanical part of the +orator’s duty, it is agreed, that in the afternoon Crassus should +enter on the embellishments of rhetoric. In the execution +of the task assigned him, he treats of all that relates to what +may be called the ornamental part of oratory—pronunciation, +elocution, harmony of periods, metaphors, sentiments, action, +(which he terms the predominant power in eloquence,) expression +of countenance, modulation of voice, and all those +properties which impart a finished grace and dignity to a public +discourse. +</p> + +<p> +Cicero himself highly approved of this treatise on Oratory, +and his friends regarded it as one of his best productions. The +style of the dialogue is copious, without being redundant, as is +sometimes the case in the orations. It is admirable for the +diversity of character in the speakers, the general conduct of +the piece, and the variety of matter it contains. It comprehends, +I believe, everything valuable in the Greek works on +rhetoric, and also many excellent observations, suggested by +the author’s long experience, acquired in the numerous causes, +both public and private, which he conducted in the Forum, +and the important discussions in which he swayed the counsels +of the Senate. As a composition, however, I cannot consider +the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi> altogether faultless. It is too +little dramatic for a dialogue, and occasionally it expands into +continued dissertation; while, at the same time, by adopting +the form of dialogue, a rambling and desultory effect is produced +in the discussion of a subject, where, of all others, method +and close connection were most desirable. There is also +<pb n='198'/><anchor id='Pg198'/>frequently an assumed liveliness of manner, which seems +forced and affected in these grave and consular orators. +</p> + +<p> +The dialogue entitled <hi rend='italic'>Brutus, sive De Claris Oratoribus</hi>, +was written, and is also feigned to have taken place, after Cæsar +had attained to sovereign power, though he was still engaged +in the war against Scipio in Africa. The conference +is supposed to be held among Cicero, Atticus, and Brutus, +(from whom it has received its name,) near a statue of Plato, +which stood in the pleasure-grounds of Cicero’s mansion, at +Rome. +</p> + +<p> +Brutus having experienced the clemency of the conqueror, +whom he afterwards sacrificed, left Italy, in order to amuse +himself with an agreeable tour through the cities of Greece +and Asia. In a few months he returned to Rome, resigned +himself to the calm studies of history and rhetoric, and passed +many of his leisure hours in the society of Cicero and Atticus. +The first part of the dialogue, among these three friends, contains +a few slight, but masterly sketches, of the most celebrated +speakers who had flourished in Greece; but these are +not so much mentioned with an historical design, as to support +by examples the author’s favourite proposition, that perfection +in oratory requires proficiency in all the arts. The +dialogue is chiefly occupied with details concerning Roman +orators, from the earliest ages to Cicero’s own time. He first +mentions such speakers as Appius Claudius and Fabricius, of +whom he knew nothing certain, whose harangues had never +been committed to writing, or were no longer extant, and concerning +whose powers of eloquence he could only derive conjectures, +from the effects which they produced on the people +and Senate, as recorded in the ancient annals. The second +class of orators are those, like Cato the Censor, and the Gracchi, +whose speeches still survived, or of whom he could speak traditionally, +from the report of persons still living who had heard +them. A great deal of what is said concerning this set of +orators, rests on the authority of Hortensius, from whom Cicero +derived his information<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. XII. Ep. 5, &c.</note>. The third class are the deceased +contemporaries of the author, whom he had himself seen and +heard; and he only departs from his rule of mentioning no +living orator at the special request of Brutus, who expresses +an anxiety to learn his opinion of the merits of Marcellus and +Julius Cæsar. Towards the conclusion, he gives some account +of his own rise and progress, of the education he had +received, and the various methods which he had practised in +order to reach those heights of eloquence he had attained.</p> +<pb n='199'/><anchor id='Pg199'/> + <p>This work is certainly of the greatest service to the history +of Roman eloquence; and it likewise throws considerable +light on the civil transactions of the republic, as the author +generally touches on the principal incidents in the lives of +those eminent orators whom he mentions. It also gives additional +weight and authority to the oratorical precepts contained +in his other works, since it shows, that they were +founded, not on any speculative theories, but on a minute +observation of the actual faults and excellencies of the most +renowned speakers of his age. Yet, with all these advantages, +it is not so entertaining as might be expected. The author +mentions too many orators, and says too little of each, which +gives his treatise the appearance rather of a dry catalogue, +than of a literary essay, or agreeable dialogue. He acknowledges, +indeed, in the course of it, that he had inserted in his +list of orators many who possessed little claim to that appellation, +since he designed to give an account of all the Romans, +without exception, who had made it their study to excel in +the arts of eloquence. +</p> + +<p> +The <hi rend='italic'>Orator</hi>, addressed to Brutus, and written at his solicitation, +was intended to complete the subjects examined in the +dialogues, <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>De Claris Oratoribus</hi>. It contains +the description of what Cicero conceived necessary to +form a perfect orator,—a character which, indeed, nowhere +existed, but of which he had formed the idea in his own imagination. +He admits, that Attic eloquence approached the +nearest to perfection; he pauses, however, to correct a prevailing +error, that the only genuine Atticism is a correct, +plain, and slender discourse, distinguished by purity of style, +and delicacy of taste, but void of all ornaments and redundance. +In the time of Cicero, there was a class of orators, +including several men of parts and learning, and of the first +quality, who, while they acknowledged the superiority of his +genius, yet censured his diction as not truely Attic, some calling +it loose and languid, others tumid and exuberant. These +speakers affected a minute and fastidious correctness, pointed +sentences, short and concise periods, without a syllable to +spare in them—as if the perfection of oratory consisted in +frugality of words, and the crowding of sentiments into the +narrowest possible compass. The chief patrons of this taste +were Brutus and Licinius Calvus. Cicero, while he admitted +that correctness was essential to eloquence, contended, that a +nervous, copious, animated, and even ornate style, may be +truely Attic; since, otherwise, Lysias would be the only Attic +orator, to the exclusion of Isocrates, and even Demosthenes +himself. He accordingly opposed the system of these +ultra-<pb n='200'/><anchor id='Pg200'/>Attic orators, whom he represents as often deserted in the +midst of their harangues; for although their style of rhetoric +might please the ear of a critic, it was not of that sublime, pathetic, +or sonorous species, of which the end was not only to +instruct, but to move an audience,—whose excitement and +admiration form the true criterions of eloquence. +</p> + +<p> +The remainder of the treatise is occupied with the three +things to be attended to by an orator,—what he is to say, in +what order his topics are to be arranged, and how they are to +be expressed. In discussing the last point, the author enters +very fully into the collocation of words, and that measured +cadence, which, to a certain extent, prevails even in prose;—a +subject on which Brutus wished particularly to be instructed, +and which he accordingly treats in detail. +</p> + +<p> +This tract is rather confusedly arranged; and the dissertation +on prosaic harmony, though curious, appears to us somewhat +too minute in its object for the attention of an orator. +Cicero, however, set a high value on this production; and, in +a letter to Lepta, he declares, that whatever judgment he possessed +on the subject of oratory, he had thrown it all into that +work, and was ready to stake his reputation on its merits<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Famil.</hi> Lib. VI. Ep. 18.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The <hi rend='italic'>Topica</hi> may also be considered as another work on the +subject of rhetoric. Aristotle, as is well known, wrote a book +with this title. The lawyer, Caius Trebatius, a friend of Cicero, +being curious to know the contents and import of the +Greek work, which he had accidentally seen in Cicero’s Tusculan +library, but being deterred from its study by the obscurity +of the writer, (though it certainly is not one of the most difficult +of Aristotle’s productions,) requested Cicero to draw up +this extract, or commentary, in order to explain the various +<hi rend='italic'>topics</hi>, or common-places, which are the foundation of rhetorical +argument. Of this request Cicero was some time afterwards +reminded by the view of Velia, (the marine villa of +Trebatius,) during a coasting voyage which he undertook, +with the intention of retiring to Greece, in consequence of the +troubles which followed the death of Cæsar. Though he had +neither Aristotle nor any other book at hand to assist him, he +drew it up from memory as he sailed along, and finished it before +he arrived at Rhegium, whence he sent it to Trebatius<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> Lib. VII. Ep. 19.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +This treatise shows, that Cicero had most diligently studied +Aristotle’s <hi rend='italic'>Topics</hi>. It is not, however, a translation, but an +extract or explanation of that work; and, as it was addressed +to a lawyer, he has taken his examples chiefly from the civil +law of the Romans, which he conceived Trebatius would +un<pb n='201'/><anchor id='Pg201'/>derstand better than illustrations drawn, like those of Aristotle, +from the philosophy of the Greeks. +</p> + +<p> +It is impossible sufficiently to admire Cicero’s industry and +love of letters, which neither the inconveniences of a sea voyage, +which he always disliked, nor the harassing thoughts of +leaving Italy at such a conjuncture, could divert from the calm +and regular pursuit of his favourite studies. +</p> + +<p> +The work <hi rend='italic'>De Partitione Rhetorica</hi>, is written in the form +of a dialogue between Cicero and his son; the former replying +to the questions of the latter concerning the principles and +doctrine of eloquence. The tract now entitled <hi rend='italic'>De Optimo +genere Oratorum</hi>, was originally intended as a preface to a +translation which Cicero had made from the orations of +Æschines and Demosthenes in the case of Ctesipho, in which +an absurd and trifling matter of ceremony has become the basis +of an immortal controversy. In this preface he reverts to +the topic on which he had touched in the <hi rend='italic'>Orator</hi>—the mistake +which prevailed in Rome, that Attic eloquence was +limited to that accurate, dry, and subtle manner of expression, +adopted in the orations of Lysias. It was to correct this +error, that Cicero undertook a free translation of the two +master-pieces of Athenian eloquence; the one being an example +of vehement and energetic, the other of pathetic and ornamental +oratory. It is probable that Cicero was prompted to +these repeated inquiries concerning the genuine character of +Attic eloquence, from the reproach frequently cast on his own +discourses by Brutus, Calvus, and other sterile, but, as they +supposed themselves, truely Attic orators, that his harangues +were not in the Greek, but rather in the Asiatic taste,—that is, +nerveless, florid, and redundant. +</p> + +<p> +It appears, that in Rome, as well as in Greece, oratory was +generally considered as divided into three different styles—the +Attic, Asiatic, and Rhodian. Quintilian, at least, so +classes the various sorts of oratory in a passage, in which he +also shortly characterizes them by those attributes from which +they were chiefly distinguishable. <q>Mihi autem,</q> says he, +<q>orationis differentiam fecisse et dicentium et audientium naturæ +videntur, quod <hi rend='italic'>Attici</hi> limati quidem et emuncti nihil inane +aut redundans ferebant. <hi rend='italic'>Asiana</hi> gens, tumidior alioquin et +jactantior, vaniore etiam dicendi gloria inflata est. Tertium +mox qui hæc dividebant adjecerunt genus <hi rend='italic'>Rhodium</hi>, quod +velut medium esse, atque ex utroque mixtum volunt<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Inst. Orat.</hi> Lib. XII. c. 10.</note>.</q> Brutus +and Licinius Calvus, as we have seen, affected the slender, +polished, and somewhat barren conciseness of Attic eloquence. +<pb n='202'/><anchor id='Pg202'/>The speeches of Hortensius, and a few of Cicero’s earlier +harangues, as that for Sextus Roscius, afforded examples of +the copious, florid, and sometimes tumid style of Asiatic oratory. +The latter orations of Cicero, refined by his study and +experience, were, I presume, nearly in the Rhodian taste. +That celebrated school of eloquence had been founded by +Æschines, the rival of Demosthenes, when, being banished +from his native city by the influence of his competitor, he had +retired to the island of Rhodes. Inferior to Demosthenes in +power of argument and force of expression, he surpassed him +in copiousness and ornament. The school which he founded, +and which subsisted for centuries after his death, admitted not +the luxuries of Asiatic diction; and although the most ornamental +of Greece, continued ever true to the principles of its +great Athenian master. A chief part of the two years during +which Cicero travelled in Greece and Asia was spent at +Rhodes, and his principal teacher of eloquence at Rome was +Molo the Rhodian, from whom he likewise afterwards received +lessons at Rhodes. The great difficulty which that rhetorician +encountered in the instruction of his promising disciple, +was, as Cicero himself informs us, the effort of containing +within its due and proper channel the overflowings of a youthful +imagination<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, c. 91. Is dedit operam (si modo id consequi potuit) ut nimis redundantes +nos juvenili quâdam dicendi impunitate et licentiâ reprimeret; et quasi extra +ripas diffluentes coerceret.</note>. Cicero’s natural fecundity, and the bent of +his own inclination, preserved him from the risk of dwindling +into ultra-Attic slenderness; but it is not improbable, that +from the example of Hortensius and his own copiousness, he +might have swelled out to Asiatic pomp, had not his exuberance +been early reduced by the seasonable and salutary discipline +of the Rhodian. +</p> + +<p> +Cicero, in his youth, also wrote the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica, seu de Inventione +Rhetorica</hi>, of which there are still extant two books, +treating of the part of rhetoric that relates to invention. This +is the work mentioned by Cicero, in the commencement of the +treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, as having been published by him in his +youth. It is generally believed to have been written in 666, +when Cicero was only twenty years of age, and to have originally +contained four books. Schütz, however, the German +editor of Cicero, is of opinion, that he never wrote, or at least, +never published, more than the two books we still possess. +</p> + +<p> +A number of sentences in these two books of the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica, +seu de Inventione</hi>, coincide with passages in the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetoricum +ad Herennium</hi>, which is usually published along with the +works of Cicero, but is not of his composition. Purgold thinks +<pb n='203'/><anchor id='Pg203'/>that the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetor. ad Herennium</hi> was published first, and that +Cicero copied from it those corresponding passages<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Observat. Critic. in Sophoc. et Ciceron.</hi> Lips. 1802.</note>. It appears, +however, a little singular, that Cicero should have borrowed +so largely, and without acknowledgment, from a recent +publication of one of his contemporaries. To account for this +difficulty some critics have supposed, that the anonymous author +of the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetor. ad Herennium</hi> was a rhetorician, whose +lectures Cicero had attended, and had inserted in his own +work notes taken by him from these prelections, before they +were edited by their author<note place="foot">Fuhrmann, <hi rend='italic'>Handbuch der Classisch. Literat.</hi></note>. Some, again, have imagined, +that Cicero and the anonymous author were fellow-students +under the same rhetorician, and that both had thus adopted +his ideas and expressions; while others believe, that both copied +from a common Greek original. But then, in opposition +to this last theory, it has been remarked, that the Latin words +employed by both are frequently the same; and there are the +same references to the history of Rome, and of its ancient native +poets, with which no Greek writer can be supposed to +have had much acquaintance. +</p> + +<p> +Who the anonymous author of the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetor. ad Herennium</hi> +actually was, has been the subject of much learned controversy, +and the point remains still undetermined. Priscian repeatedly +cites it as the work of Cicero; whence it was believed +to be the production of Cicero by Laurentius Valla, George +of Trebizond, Politian, and other great restorers of learning +in the fifteenth century; and this opinion was from time to +time, though feebly, revived by less considerable writers in +succeeding periods. It seems now, however, entirely abandoned; +but, while all critics and commentators agree in <hi rend='italic'>abjudicating</hi> +the work from Cicero, they differ widely as to the +person to whom the production should be assigned. Aldus +Manutius, Sigonius, Muretus, and Riccobonus, were of opinion, +that it was written by Q. Cornificius the elder, who was +Cæsar’s Quæstor during the civil war, and subsequently his +lieutenant in Africa, of which province, after the Dictator’s +death, he kept possession for the republican party, till he was +slain in an engagement with one of the generals of Octavius. +The judgment of these scholars is chiefly founded on some +passages in Quintilian, who attributes to Cornificius several +critical and philological definitions which coincide with those +introduced in the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica ad Herennium</hi>. Gerard Vossius, +however, has adopted an opinion, that if at all written by a +<pb n='204'/><anchor id='Pg204'/>person of that name, it must have been by the younger Cornificius<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Nat. et Const. Rhetor.</hi> c. 13.</note>, +who was born in 662, and, having followed the party +of Octavius, was appointed Consul by favour of the Triumvirate +in 718. Raphael Regius also seems inclined to attribute +the work to Cornificius the son<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Dissert. Utrum ars Rhetorica ad Herennium Ciceroni falsò inscribitur</hi>.</note>. But if the style be considered +too remote from that of the age of Cicero, to be ascribed +to any of his contemporaries, he conceives it may be plausibly +conjectured to have been the production of Timolaus, one of +the thirty tyrants in the reign of Gallienus. Timolaus had a +brother called Herenianus, to whom his work may have been +dedicated, and he thinks that <hi rend='italic'>Timolaus ad Herenianum</hi> may +have been corrupted into <hi rend='italic'>Tullius ad Herennium</hi>. J. C. Scaliger +attributes the work to Gallio, a rhetorician in the time of +Nero<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Re Poet.</hi> Lib. III. c. 31. and 34.</note>—an opinion which obtained currency in consequence +of the discovery of a MS. copy of the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica ad Herennium</hi>, + with the name of Gallio prefixed to it<note place="foot">See P. Burmanni Secund. + <hi rend='italic'>In <anchor id="corr204"/><corr sic="Praef.">Præf.</corr> ad Rhetoric. ad Herennium.</hi> Also Fabricius, +<hi rend='italic'>Bib. Lat.</hi> Lib. I. c. 8.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Sufficient scope being thus left for new conjectures, Schütz, +the German editor of Cicero, has formed a new hypothesis on +the subject. Cicero’s tract <hi rend='italic'>De Inventione</hi> having been written +in his early youth, the period of its composition may be placed +about 672. From various circumstances, which he discusses +at great length, Schütz concludes that the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica ad Herennium</hi> +was the work which was first written, and consequently +previous to 672. Farther, the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica ad Herennium</hi> +must have been written subsequently to 665, as it mentions the +death of Sulpicius, which happened in that year. The time +thus limited corresponds very exactly with the age of M. Ant. +Gnipho, who was born in the year 640; and him Schütz considers +as the real author of the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica ad Herennium</hi>. This +he attempts to prove, by showing, that many things which +Suetonius relates of Gnipho, in his work <hi rend='italic'>De Claris Rhetoribus</hi>, +agree with what the author of the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica ad Herennium</hi> +delivers concerning himself in the course of that production. +It is pretty well established, that both Gnipho and the anonymous +author of the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica ad Herennium</hi> were free-born, +had good memories, understood Greek, and were voluminous +authors. It is unfortunate, however, that these characteristics, +except the first, were probably common to almost all +rhetoricians; and Schütz does not allude to any of the more +particular circumstances mentioned by Suetonius, as that +Gnipho was a Gaul by birth, that he studied at Alexandria, +<pb n='205'/><anchor id='Pg205'/>and that he taught rhetoric in the house of the father of Julius +Cæsar. +</p> + +<milestone unit="tb"/> +<p> +Cicero, who was unquestionably the first orator, was as decidedly +the most learned philosopher of Rome; and while he +eclipsed all his contemporaries in eloquence, he acquired, towards +the close of his life, no small share of reputation as a writer +on ethics and metaphysics. His wisdom, however, was founded +entirely on that of the Greeks, and his philosophic writings +were chiefly occupied with the discussion of questions which +had been agitated in the Athenian schools, and from them had +been transmitted to Italy. The disquisition respecting the +certainty or uncertainty of human knowledge, with that concerning +the supreme good and evil, were the inquiries which +he chiefly pursued; and the notions which he entertained of +these subjects, were all derived from the Portico, Academy, or +Lyceum. +</p> + +<p> +The leading principles of the chief philosophic sects of +Greece flowed originally from Socrates— +</p> + +<lg> +<l>—— <q rend="post: none">From whose mouth issued forth</q></l> +<l>Mellifluous streams, that watered all the schools</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Of Academics, Old and New<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Paradise Regained</hi>.</note>;</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +and who has been termed by Cicero<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Orat.</hi> Lib. I. c. 10. Ab illo fonte et capite Socrate.</note> the perennial source of +philosophy, much more justly than Homer has been styled the +fountain of all poetry. Though somewhat addicted to them +from education and early habit, Socrates withdrew philosophy +from those obscure and intricate physical inquiries, in which +she had been involved by the founders and followers of the +Ionic school, and from the subtle paradoxical hypotheses of +the sophists who established themselves at Athens in the time +of Pericles. It being his chief aim to improve the condition +of mankind, and to incline them to discharge the several duties +of the stations in which they had been placed, this moral +teacher directed his examinations to the nature of vice and +virtue, of good and evil. To accomplish the great object he +had in view, his practice was to hazard no opinion of his own, +but to refute prevalent errors and prejudices, by involving the +pretenders to knowledge in manifest absurdity, while he himself, +as if in contrast to the presumption of the sophists, always +professed that he knew nothing. This confession of ignorance, +which amounted to no more than a general acknowledgment +<pb n='206'/><anchor id='Pg206'/>of the imbecility of the human understanding, and was merely +designed to convince his followers of the futility of those speculations +which do not rest on the firm basis of experience, or +to teach them modesty in their inquiries, and diffidence in +their assertions, having been interpreted in a different sense +from that in which it was originally intended, gave rise to the +celebrated dispute concerning the certainty of knowledge. +</p> + +<p> +The various founders of the philosophic sects of Greece, +imbibed that portion of the doctrines of Socrates which suited +their own tastes and views, and sometimes perverted his high +authority even to dogmatical or sophistical purposes. It is +from Plato we have derived the fullest account of his system; +but this illustrious disciple had also greatly extended his knowledge +by his voyages to Egypt, Sicily, and Magna Græcia. +Hence in the Academy which he founded, (while, as to morals, +he continued to follow Socrates,) he superadded the metaphysical +doctrines of Pythagoras; in physics, which Socrates +had excluded from philosophy, he adopted the system of Heraclitus; +and he borrowed his dialectics from Euclid of Megara. +The recondite and <hi rend='italic'>eisoteric</hi> tenets of Pythagoras—the obscure +principles of Heraclitus—the superhuman knowledge of Empedocles, +and the sacred <hi rend='italic'>Arcana</hi> of Egyptian priests, have +diffused over the page of Plato a majesty and mysticism very +different from what we suppose to have been the familiar tone +of instruction employed by his great master, of whose style at +least, and manner, Xenophon probably presents us with a more +faithful image. +</p> + +<p> +In Greece, the heads of sects were succeeded in their +schools or academies as in a domain or inheritance. Speusippus, +the nephew of Plato, continued to deliver lectures in the +Academy, as did also four other successive masters, Xenocrates, +Polemo, Crates, and Crantor, all of whom retained the +name of Academics, and taught the doctrines of their master +without mixture or corruption. But on the appointment of +Xenocrates to the chair of the Academy, Aristotle, the most +eminent of Plato’s scholars, had betaken himself to another +Gymnasium, called the Lyceum, which became the resort of the +Peripatetics. The commanding genius of their founder enlarged +the sphere of knowledge and intellect, devised the rules of +logic, and traced out the principles of rhetorical and poetical +criticism: But the sect which he exalted to unrivalled celebrity, +though differing in name from the contemporary Academics, +coincided with them generally in all the principal points of +physical and moral philosophy, and particularly in those concerning +which the Romans chiefly inquired. <q>Though they +<pb n='207'/><anchor id='Pg207'/>differed in terms,</q> says Cicero, <q>they agreed in things<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Academ.</hi> Lib. II. c. 5.</note>, and +those persons are grossly mistaken who imagine that the old +Academics, as they are called, are any other than the Peripatetics.</q> +Accordingly, we find that both believed in the superintending +care of Providence, the immortality of the soul, and +a future state of reward and punishment. The supreme good +they placed in virtue, with a sufficiency of the chief external +advantages of nature, as health, riches, and reputation. Such +enjoyments they taught, when united with virtue, make the +felicity of man perfect; but if virtuous, he is capable of being +happy, (though not entirely so,) without them. +</p> + +<p> +Plato, in his mode of communicating instruction, and promulgating +his opinions, had not strictly adhered to the method +of his master Socrates. He held the concurrence of memory, +with a recent impression, to be a criterion of truth, and he +taught that opinions might be formed from the comparison of +a present with a recollected perception. But his successors, +both in the Academy and Lyceum, departed from the Socratic +method still more widely. They renounced the maxim, of +affirming nothing; and instead of explaining everything with +a doubting reserve, they converted philosophy, as it were, into +an art, and formed a system of opinions, which they delivered +to their disciples as the peculiar tenets of their sect. They +inculcated the belief, that our knowledge has its origin in the +senses—that the senses themselves do not judge of truth, but +the mind through them beholds things as they really are—that +is, it perceives the ideas which always subsist in the same +state, without change; so that the senses, through the medium +of the mind, may be relied on for the ascertainment of truth. +Such was the state of opinions and instruction in the Academy +when Arcesilaus, who was the sixth master of that school from +Plato, and in his youth had heard the lessons of Pyrrho the +sceptic, resolved to reform the dogmatic system into which his +predecessors had fallen, and to restore, as he conceived, in all +its purity, the Socratic system of affirming nothing with certainty. +This founder of the New, or Middle Academy as it is +sometimes called, denied even the certain truth of the proposition +that we know nothing, which Socrates had reserved as +an exception to his general principle. While admitting that +there is an actual certainty in the nature of things, he rejected +the evidence both of the senses and reason as positive testimony; +and as he denied that there existed any infallible criterion +of truth or falsehood, he maintained that no wise man ought to +<pb n='208'/><anchor id='Pg208'/>give any proposition whatever the sanction of his assent. He +differed from the Sceptics or Pyrrhonists only in this, that he +admitted degrees of probability, whereas the Sceptics fluctuated +in total uncertainty. +</p> + +<p> +As Arcesilaus renounced all pretensions to the certain determination +of any question, he was chiefly employed in examining +and refuting the sentiments of others. His principal +opponent was his contemporary, Zeno, the founder of the stoical +philosophy, which ultimately became the chief of those +systems which flourished at Rome. The main point in dispute +between Zeno and Arcesilaus, was the evidence of the senses. +Arcesilaus denied that truth could be ascertained by their assistance, +because there is no criterion by which to distinguish +false and delusive objects from such as are real. Zeno, on the +other hand, maintained that the evidence of the senses is certain +and clear, provided they be perfect in themselves, and +without obstacle to prevent their effect. Thus, though on +different principles, the founder of the Stoics agreed with the +Peripatetics and old Academicians, that there existed certain +means of ascertaining truth, and consequently that there was +evident and certain knowledge. Arcesilaus, though he did not +deny that truth existed, would neither give assent nor entertain +opinions, because appearances could never warrant his +pronouncing on any object or proposition whatever. Nor did +the Stoics entertain opinions; but they refrained from this, +because they thought that everything might be perceived with +certainty. +</p> + +<p> +Arcesilaus, while differing widely from the teachers of the +old Platonic Academy in his ideas as to the certainty of knowledge, +retained their system concerning the supreme good, +which, like them, he placed in virtue, accompanied by external +advantages. This was another subject of contest with +Zeno, who, as is well known, placed the supreme good in virtue +alone,—health, riches, and reputation, not being by him +accounted essential, nor disease, poverty, and ignominy, injurious +to happiness. +</p> + +<p> +The systems promulgated in the old and new Academy, and +the stoical Portico, were those which became most prevalent +in Rome. But the Epicurean opinions were also fashionable +there. The philosophy of Epicurus has been already mentioned +while speaking of Lucretius. Moschus of Phœnicia, +who lived before the Trojan war, is said to have been the inventor +of the Atomic system, which was afterwards adopted +and improved by Leucippus and Democritus, whose works, as +Cicero expresses it, were the source from which flowed the +<pb n='209'/><anchor id='Pg209'/>streams that watered the gardens of Epicurus<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Natur. Deor.</hi> Lib. I. c. 43.</note>. To the evidence +of the senses this teacher attributed such weight, that +he considered them as an infallible rule of truth. The supreme +good he placed in pleasure, and the chief evil in pain. His +scholars maintained, that by pleasure, or rather happiness, he +meant a life of wisdom and temperance; but a want of clearness +and explicitness in the definition of what constituted pleasure, +has given room to his opponents for alleging that he +placed consummate felicity in sensual gratification. +</p> + +<p> +It was long before a knowledge of any portion of Greek +philosophy was introduced at Rome. For 600 years after the +building of the city, those circumstances did not arise in that +capital which called forth and promoted philosophy in Greece. +The ancient Romans were warriors and agriculturists. Their +education was regulated with a view to an active life, and +rearing citizens and heroes, not philosophers. The <hi rend='italic'>Campus +Martius</hi> was their school; the tent their Lyceum, and the traditions +of their ancestors, and religious rites, their science,—they +were taught to act, to believe, and to obey, not to reason +or discuss. Among them a class of men may indeed have existed +not unlike the seven sages of Greece—men distinguished +by wisdom, grave saws, and the services they had rendered +to their country; but these were not philosophers in our +sense of the term. The wisdom they inculcated was not sectarian, +but resembled that species of philosophy cultivated by +Solon and Lycurgus, which has been termed political by Brucker, +and which was chiefly adapted to the improvement of +states, and civilization of infant society. At length, however, +in the year 586, when Perseus, King of Macedon, was finally +vanquished, his conqueror brought with him to Rome the philosopher +Metrodorus, to aid in the instruction of his children<note place="foot">Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXXV. c. 11.</note>. +Several philosophers, who had been retained in the court of +that unfortunate monarch, auguring well from this incident, +followed Metrodorus to Italy; and about the same time a number +of Achæans, of distinguished merit, who were suspected +to have favoured the Macedonians, were summoned to Rome, +in order to account for their conduct. The younger Scipio +Africanus, in the course of the embassy to which he was appointed +by the Senate, to the kings of the east, who were in +alliance with the republic, having landed at Rhodes, took +under his protection the Stoic philosopher Panætius<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Mem. de l’Instit. Royale</hi>, Tom. XXX.</note>, who was +a native of that island, and carried him back to Rome, where +<pb n='210'/><anchor id='Pg210'/>he resided in the house of his patron. Panætius afterwards +went to Athens, where he became one of the most distinguished +teachers of the Portico<note place="foot">Cicero styles him Princeps Stoicorum, (<hi rend='italic'>De Divin.</hi> Lib. II. c. 47,) and eruditissimum +hominem, et pæne divinum (<hi rend='italic'>Pro Muræna</hi>, c. 31.)</note>, and composed a number +of philosophical treatises, of which the chief was that on the +Duties of Man. +</p> + +<p> +But though the philosophers were encouraged and cherished +by Scipio, Lælius, Scævola, and others of the more mild and +enlightened Romans, they were viewed with an eye of suspicion +by the grave Senators and stern Censors of the republic. +Accordingly, in the year 592, only six years after their first +arrival in Rome, the philosophers were banished from the city +by a formal decree of the Senate<note place="foot">Censuerunt ut M. Pomponius Prætor animadverteret <sic>uti e</sic> republicâ fideque +suâ videretur Romæ ne essent. (Au. Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. XV. c. 11.)</note>. The motives for issuing +this rigorous edict are not very clearly ascertained. A notion +may have been entertained by the severer members of the +commonwealth, that the established religion and constitution +of Rome might suffer by the discussion of speculative theories, +and that the taste for science might withdraw the minds of +youth from agriculture and arms. This dread, so natural to a +rigid, laborious, and warlike people, would be increased by +the degraded and slavish character of the Greeks, which, having +been an accompaniment, might be readily mistaken for a +consequence, of their progress in philosophy. As most of the +philosophers, too, had come from the states of a hostile monarch, +the Senate may have feared, lest they should inspire sentiments +in the minds of youth, not altogether patriotic or purely +republican. +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q>Sed vetuere patres quod non potuere vetare.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Though driven from Rome, many of the Greek philosophers +took up their residence in the municipal towns of Italy. By +the intercession likewise of Scipio Africanus, an exception +was made in favour of Panætius and the historian Polybius, +<anchor id="corr210"/><corr sic="whe">who</corr> were permitted to remain in the capital. The spirit of +inquiry, too, had been raised, and the mind had received an +impulse which could not be arrested by any senatorial decree, +and on which the slightest incident necessarily bestowed an +accelerated progress. +</p> + +<p> +The Greek philosophers returned to Rome in the year 598, +under the sacred character of ambassadors, on occasion of a +political complaint which had been made against the Athenians, +and from which they found it necessary to defend +them<pb n='211'/><anchor id='Pg211'/>selves. Notwithstanding the disrespect with which philosophers +had recently been treated in Italy, the Athenians resolved +to dazzle the Romans by a grand scientific embassy. The +three envoys chosen were at that time the heads of the three +leading sects of Greek philosophers,—Diogenes, the Stoic, +Critolaus, the Peripatetic, and Carneades of Cyrene, who now +held the place of Arcesilaus in the new Academy. Besides +their philosophical learning, they were well qualified by their +eloquence, (a talent which had always great influence with +the Romans,) to persuade and bring over the minds of men +to their principles. Such, indeed, were their extraordinary +powers of speaking and reasoning, that it was commonly +said at Rome that the Athenians had sent orators, not to persuade, +but to compel<note place="foot">Ælian, <hi rend='italic'>Histor. Var.</hi> Lib. III. c. 17.</note>. During the period of their embassy +at Rome they lectured to crowded audiences in the most public +parts of the city. The immediate effect of the display +which these philosophic ambassadors made of their eloquence +and wisdom, was to excite in the Roman youth an ardent +thirst after knowledge, which now became a rival in their +breasts to the love of military glory<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>In Catone</hi>.</note>. + <anchor id="corr211"/><corr sic="Scipio">Scipio,</corr> Lælius, and +Furius, showed the strongest inclination for these new studies, +and profited most by them; but there was scarcely a young +patrician who was not in some degree attracted by the modest +simplicity of Diogenes, the elegant, ornamental, and polished +discourse of Critolaus, or the vehement, rapid, and argumentative +eloquence of Carneades<note place="foot">Au. Gellius, <hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. VII. c. 14.</note>. The principles inculcated +by Diogenes, who professed to teach the art of reasoning, and +of separating truth from falsehood, received their strongest +support from the jurisconsults, most of whom became Stoics; +and in consequence of their responses, we find at this day that +the stoical philosophy exercised much influence on Roman +jurisprudence, and that many principles and divisions of the +civil law have been founded on its favourite maxims. Of +these philosophic ambassadors, however, Carneades was the +most able man, and the most popular teacher. <q>He was +blessed,</q> says Cicero, <q>with a divine quickness of understanding +and command of expression<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, Lib. III. c. 18.</note>.</q> <q>In his disputations, +he never defended what he did not prove, and never attacked +what he did not overthrow<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> Lib. II. c. 38.</note>.</q> By some he has been considered +and termed the founder of a third Academy, but there +appears to be no solid ground for such a distinction. In his +lectures, which chiefly turned on ethics, he agreed with both +<pb n='212'/><anchor id='Pg212'/>Academies as to the supreme good, placing it in virtue and +the primary gifts of nature. Like Arcesilaus, he was a zealous +advocate for the uncertainty of human knowledge, but he did +not deny, with him, that there were truths, but only maintained +that we could not clearly discern them<note place="foot">Hæc in philosophiâ ratio contra omnia disserendi, nullamque rem aperte judicandi, +profecta a Socrate, repetita ab Arcesilao, confirmata a Carneade, usque ad +nostram viguit ætatem. <hi rend='italic'>De Nat. Deor.</hi> Lib. I. c. 5.</note>. The sole +other difference in their tenets, is one not very palpable, mentioned +by Lucullus in the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>. Arcesilaus, it seems, +would neither assent to anything nor opine. Carneades, though +he would not assent, declared that he would opine; under the +constant reservation, however, that he was merely opinionating, +and that there was no such thing as positive comprehension +or perception<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Academ. Prior.</hi> Lib. II. c. 48.</note>. In this, Lucullus, who was a follower of the +<hi rend='italic'>old</hi> Academy, thinks Carneades the most absurd and inconsistent +of the two. Carneades succeeded to the old dispute +between the Academics and Stoics, and in his prelections he +combated the arguments employed by Chrysippus<note place="foot">Valer. Max. Lib. VIII. c. 7.</note>, in his age +the chief pillar of the Portico, as Arcesilaus had formerly maintained +the controversy with Zeno, its founder. He differed +from the Pyrrhonists, by admitting the real existence of good +and evil, and by allowing different degrees of probability<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Academ. Prior.</hi> Lib. II. c. 31.</note>, +while his sceptical opponents contended that there was no +ground for embracing or rejecting one opinion more than another. +Carneades was no less distinguished by his artful and +versatile talents for disputation, than his vehement and commanding +oratory. But his extraordinary powers of persuasion, +and of maintaining any side of an argument, for which the academical +philosophy peculiarly qualified him, were at length +abused by him, to the scandal of the serious and inflexible Romans. +Thus, we are told, that he one day delivered a discourse +before Cato, with great variety of thought and copiousness +of diction, on the advantages of a rigid observance of the +rules of justice. Next day, in order to fortify his doctrine of +the uncertainty of human knowledge, he undertook to refute +all his former arguments<note place="foot">Quintil. <hi rend='italic'>Inst. Orat.</hi> Lib. XII. c. 1. Lactant. <hi rend='italic'>Instit.</hi> Lib. V. c. 14.</note>. It is likely that his attack on justice +was a piece of pleasantry, like Erasmus’ Encomium of +Folly; and many of his audience were captivated by his ingenuity; +but the Censor immediately insisted, that the affairs +which had brought these subtle ambassadors to Rome, should +be forthwith despatched by the Senate, in order that they +might be dismissed with all possible expedition<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>In Catone</hi>. Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. VII. c. 30.</note>. Whether +<pb n='213'/><anchor id='Pg213'/>Cato entertained serious apprehensions, as is alleged by Plutarch, +that the military virtues of his country might be enfeebled, +and its constitution undermined, by the study of philosophy, +may, I think, be questioned. It is more probable that +he dreaded the influence of the philosophers themselves on the +opinions of his fellow-citizens, and feared lest their eloquence +should altogether unsettle the principles of his countrymen, or +mould them to whatever form they chose. Lactantius, too, +in a quotation from Cicero’s treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Republica</hi>, affords +what may be considered as an explanation of the reason why +Carneades’ lecture against justice was so little palatable to the +Censor, and probably to many others of the Romans. One of +the objections which he urged against justice, or rather against +the existence of a due sense of that quality, was, that if such +a thing as justice were to be found on earth, the Romans +would resign their conquests, and return to their huts and original +poverty<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Divin. Institut.</hi> Lib. V. c. 16.</note>. Cato likewise appears to have had a considerable +spirit of personal jealousy and rivalry; while, at the same +time, his national pride led him to scorn all the arts of a country +which the Roman arms had subdued. +</p> + +<p> +Carneades promulgated his opinions only in his eloquent +lectures; and it is not known that he left any writings of importance +behind him<note place="foot">Plutarch, <hi rend='italic'>De Fortitud. Alexandri</hi>.</note>. But his oral instructions had made a +permanent impression on the Roman youth, and the want of +a written record of his principles was amply supplied by his +successor Clitomachus, who was by birth a Carthaginian, and +was originally called Asdrubal. He had fled from his own +country to Athens during the siege of Carthage, by the Romans, +in the third Punic war<note place="foot">Diog. Laert. <hi rend='italic'>In Clitomacho</hi>.</note>; and in the year 623 he went +from Greece to Italy, to succeed Carneades in the school +which he had there established. Clitomachus was a most +voluminous author, having written not less than four ample +treatises on the necessity of withholding the assent from +every proposition whatever. One of these tracts was dedicated +to Lucilius, the satiric poet<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>Academic. Prior.</hi> Lib. II. c. 32.</note>, and another to the Consul +Censorinus. The essence of the principles which he maintained +in these works, has been extracted by Cicero, and +handed down to us in a passage inserted in the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>. +It is there said, that the resemblances of things are of such a +nature that some of them appear probable, and others not; +but this is no sufficient ground for supposing that some +objects may be correctly perceived, since many falsities are +probable, whereas no falsity can be accurately perceived or +<pb n='214'/><anchor id='Pg214'/>known: The Academy never attempted to deprive mankind +of the use of their senses, by denying that there are such things +as colour, taste, and sound; but it denied that there exists in +these qualities any criterion or characteristic of truth and certainty. +A wise man, therefore, is said, in a double sense, to +withhold his assent; in one sense, when it is understood that +he absolutely assents to no proposition; in another, when he +suspends answering a question, without either denying or +affirming. He ought never to assent implicitly to any proposition, +and his answer should be withheld until, according to +<hi rend='italic'>probability</hi>, he is in a condition to reply in the affirmative or +negative. But as Cicero admits, that a wise man, who, on +every occasion, suspends his assent, may yet be impelled and +moved to action, he leaves him in full possession of those motives +which excite to action, together with a power of answering +in the affirmative or negative to certain questions, and of +following the probability of objects; yet still without giving +them his assent<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Academic. Prior.</hi> Lib. II. c. 32.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Clitomachus was succeeded by Philo of Larissa, who fled +from Greece to Italy, during the Mithridatic war, and revived +at Rome a system of philosophy, which by this time began to +be rather on the decline. Cicero attended his lectures, and +imbibed from them the principles of the new Academy, to +which he ultimately adhered. Philo published two treatises, +explanatory of the doctrines of the new Academy, which were +answered in a work entitled <hi rend='italic'>Sosus</hi>, by Antiochus of Ascalon, +who had been a scholar of Philo, but afterwards abjured the +innovations of the new Academy, and returned to the old, as +taught by Plato and his immediate successors,—uniting with +it, however, some portion of the systems of Aristotle and +Zeno<note place="foot">Mater, <hi rend='italic'>Ecole d’Alexandrie</hi>, Tom. II. p. 131.</note>. In his own age, Antiochus was the chief support of +the original principles of the Academy, and was patronized by +all those at Rome, who were still attached to them, particularly +by Lucullus, who took the philosopher along with him +to Alexandria, when he went there as Quæstor of Egypt. +</p> + +<p> +In the circumstances of Rome, the first steps towards philosophical +improvement, were a general abatement of that contempt +which had been previously entertained for philosophical +studies—a toleration of instruction—the power of communicating +wisdom without shame or restraint, and its cordial +reception by the Roman youth. This proficiency, which +necessarily preceded speculation or invention, had already +taken place. Partly through the instructions of Greek +philo<pb n='215'/><anchor id='Pg215'/>sophers who resided at Rome, and partly by means of the +practice which now began to prevail, of sending young men +for education to the ancient schools of wisdom, philosophy +made rapid progress, and almost every sect found followers +or patrons among the higher order of the Roman citizens. +</p> + +<p> +From the earliest times, however, till that of Cicero, Greek +philosophy was chiefly inculcated by Greeks. There was no +Roman who devoted himself entirely to metaphysical contemplation, +and who, like Epicurus, Aristotle, and Zeno, lounged +perpetually in a garden, paced about in a Lyceum, or stood +upright in a portico. The Greek philosophers passed their +days, if not in absolute seclusion, at least in learned leisure +and retirement. Speculation was the employment of their +lives, and their works were the result of a whole age of study +and reflection<note place="foot">Dans la Grèce, aprés ces épreuves, commençoit enfin la vie champêtre dans les +jardins du Lycée ou de l’Academie, où l’on entreprenoit un cours de philosophie, +que les véritables amateurs avoient l’art singulier de ne jamais finir. Ils restoient +toute leur vie attachés à quelque chef de secte comme Metrodore à Epicure, moudroient +dans les écoles, et étoient ensuite enterrés à l’ombre de ces mêmes arbustes, +sous lesquels ils avoient tant médité. (De Pauw, <hi rend='italic'>Recherches Philosophiques sur +les Grecs</hi>, T. II.)</note>. The Romans, on the other hand, regarded +philosophy, not as the business of life, but as an elegant relaxation, +or the means of aiding their advancement in the state. +They heard with attention the ingenious disputes agitated +among the Greeks, and perused their works with pleasure; but +with all this taste for philosophy, they had not sufficient leisure +to devise new theories. The philosophers of Rome were +Scipio, Cato, Brutus, Lucullus—men who governed their +country at home, or combated her enemies abroad. They had, +indeed, little motive to invent new systems, since so many were +presented to them, ready formed, that every one found in the +doctrines of some Greek sect, tenets which could be sufficiently +accommodated to his own disposition and situation. In +the same manner as the plunder of Syracuse or Corinth supplied +Rome with her statues and pictures, and rendered unnecessary +the exertions of native artists; and as the dramas of +Euripides and Menander provided sufficient materials for the +Roman stage; so the Garden, Porch, and Academy, furnished +such variety of systems, that new inventions or speculations +could easily be dispensed with. The prevalence, too, of the +principles of that Academy, which led to doubt of all things, +must have discouraged the formation of new and original theories. +Nor were even the Greek systems, after their introduction +into Italy, classed and separated as they had been in +Greece. Most of the distinguished men of Rome, however, in +the time of Cicero, were more inclined to one school than +<pb n='216'/><anchor id='Pg216'/>another, and they applied the lessons of the sect which they +followed with more success, perhaps, than their masters, to +the practical purposes of active life. The jurisconsults, chief +magistrates, and censors, adopted the Stoical philosophy, +which had some affinity to the principles of the Roman constitution, +and which they considered best calculated for ruling +their fellow-citizens, as well as meliorating the laws and morals +of the state. The orators who aspired to rise by eloquence +to the highest honours of the republic, had recourse to the +lessons of the new Academy, which furnished them with weapons +for disputation; while those who sighed for the enjoyment +of tranquillity, amid the factions and dangers of the +commonwealth, retired to the Gardens of Epicurus. But +while subscribing to the leading tenets of a sect, they did not +strive to gain followers with any of the spirit of sectarism; +and it frequently happened, that neither in principle nor practice +did they adopt all the doctrines of the school to which +they chiefly resorted. Thus Cæsar, who was accounted an +Epicurean, and followed the Epicurean system in some things, +as in his belief of the materiality and mortality of the soul, +doubtless held in little reverence those ethical precepts, according +to which, +</p> + +<lg> +<l>—— <q rend="post: none">Nihil in nostro corpore prosunt,</q></l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Nec fama, neque nobilitas, nec gloria regni.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Lucretius was a sounder Epicurean, and gave to the precepts +of his master all the dignity and grace which poetical +embellishment could bestow. But Atticus, the well-known +friend and correspondent of Cicero, was perhaps the most +perfect example ever exhibited of genuine and practical Epicurism. +</p> + +<p> +The rigid and inflexible Cato, was, both in his life and principles, +the great supporter of the Stoical philosophy—conducting +himself, according to an expression of Cicero, as if he +had lived in the polity of Plato, and not amid the dregs of +Romulus. The old Academy boasted among its adherents +Lucullus, the conqueror of Mithridates—the Lorenzo of Roman +arts and literature—whose palaces rivalled the porticos +of Greece, and whose library, with its adjacent schools and +galleries, was the resort of all who were distinguished for their +learning and accomplishments. Whilst Quæstor of Macedonia, +and subsequently, while he conducted the war against +Mithridates, Lucullus had enjoyed frequent opportunities of +conversing with the Greek philosophers, and had acquired +such a relish for philosophical studies, that he devoted to +<pb n='217'/><anchor id='Pg217'/>them all the leisure he could command<note place="foot">Cicero, <hi rend='italic'>Academ. Prior.</hi> Lib. II. c. 4.</note>. At Rome, his constant +companion was Antiochus of Ascalon, who, though a +pupil of Philo, became himself a zealous supporter of the old +Academy; and accordingly, Lucullus, who favoured that system, +often repaired to his house, to partake in the private +disputations which were there carried on against the advocates +for the new or middle Academy. The old Academy +also numbered among its votaries Varro, the most learned of +the Romans, and Brutus, who was destined to perform so tragic +a part on the ensanguined stage of his country. +</p> + +<p> +Little was done by these eminent men to illustrate or enforce +their favourite systems by their writings. Even the +productions of Varro were calculated rather to excite to the +study of philosophy, than to aid its progress. The new Academy +was more fortunate in the support of Cicero, who has +asserted and vindicated its principles with equal industry and +eloquence. From their first introduction, the doctrines of +the new Academy had been favourably received at Rome. +The tenets of the dogmatic philosophers were so various and +contradictory, were so obstinately maintained, and rested on +such precarious foundations, that they afforded much scope +and encouragement to scepticism. The plausible arguments +by which the most discordant opinions were supported, led to +a distrust of the existence of absolute truth, and to an acquiescence +in such probable conclusions, as were adequate to +the practical purposes of life. The speculations, too, of the +new Academy, were peculiarly fitted to the duties of a public +speaker, as they left free the field of disputation, and habituated +him to the practice of collecting arguments from all quarters, +on every doubtful question. Hence it was that Cicero +addicted himself to this sect, and persuaded others to follow +his example. It has been disputed, if Cicero was really attached +to the new Academic system, or had merely resorted +to it as being best adapted for furnishing him with oratorical +arguments suited to all occasions. At first, its adoption was +subsidiary to his other plans. But, towards the conclusion of +his life, when he no longer maintained the place he was wont +to hold in the Senate or the Forum, and when philosophy +formed the occupation <q>with which existence was just tolerable, +and without which it would have been intolerable<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Familiares</hi>.</note>,</q> he +doubtless became convinced that the principles of the new +Academy, illustrated as they had been by Carneades and +Philo, formed the soundest system which had descended to +mankind from the schools of Athens. +</p> +<pb n='218'/><anchor id='Pg218'/> + +<p> +The attachment, however, of Cicero to the Academic philosophy, +was free from the exclusive spirit of sectarism, and +hence it did not prevent his extracting from other systems +what he found in them conformable to virtue and reason. His +ethical principles, in particular, appear Eclectic, having been, +in a great measure, formed from the opinions of the Stoics. +Of most Greek sects he speaks with respect and esteem. For +the Epicureans alone, he seems (notwithstanding his friendship +for Atticus) to have entertained a decided aversion and +contempt. +</p> + +<p> +The general purpose of Cicero’s philosophical works, was +rather to give a history of the ancient philosophy, than dogmatically +to inculcate opinions of his own. It was his great +aim to explain to his fellow-citizens, in their own language, +whatever the sages of Greece had taught on the most important +subjects, in order to enlarge their minds and reform their +morals; while, at the same time, he exercised himself in the +most useful employment which now remained to him—a +superior force having deprived him of the privilege of serving +his country as an orator or Consul. +</p> + +<p> +Cicero was in many respects well qualified for the arduous +but noble task which he had undertaken, of naturalizing philosophy +in Rome, and exhibiting her, according to the expression +of Erasmus, on the Stage of life. He was a man of +fertile genius, luminous understanding, sound judgment, and +indefatigable industry—qualities adequate for the cultivation +of reason, and sufficient for the supply of subjects of meditation. +Never <anchor id="corr218"/><corr sic="was">was a</corr> philosopher placed in a situation more +favourable for gathering the fruits of an experience employed +on human nature and civil society, or for observing the effects +of various qualities of the mind on public opinion and on the +actions of men. He lived at the most eventful crisis in the +fate of his country, and in the closest connection with men of +various and consummate talents, whose designs, when fully +developed by the result, must have afforded on reflection, a +splendid lesson in the philosophy of mind. But this situation, +in some respects so favourable, was but ill calculated for +revolving abstract ideas, or for meditating on those abstruse +and internal powers, of which the consequences are manifested +in society and the transactions of life. Accordingly, +Cicero appears to have been destitute of that speculative disposition +which leads us to penetrate into the more recondite +and original principles of knowledge, and to mark the internal +operations of thought. He had cultivated eloquence as +clearing the path to political honours, and had studied philosophy, +as the best auxiliary to eloquence. But the +contem<pb n='219'/><anchor id='Pg219'/>plative sciences only attracted his attention, in so far as they +tended to elucidate ethical, practical, and political subjects, +to which he applied a philosophy which was rather that of +life than of speculation. +</p> + +<p> +In the writings of Cicero, accordingly, everything deduced +from experience and knowledge of the world—every observation +on the duties of society, is clearly expressed, and remarkable +for justness and acuteness. But neither Cicero, nor +any other Roman author, possessed sufficient subtlety and +refinement of spirit, for the more abstruse discussions, among +the labyrinths of which the Greek philosophers delighted to +find a fit exercise for their ingenuity. Hence, all that required +research into the ultimate foundation of truths, or a more +exact analysis of common ideas and perceptions—all, in short, +that related to the subtleties of the Greek schools, is neither +so accurately expressed, nor so logically connected. +</p> + +<p> +In theoretic investigation, then,—in the explication of +abstract ideas—in the analysis of qualities and perceptions, +Cicero cannot be regarded as an inventor or profound original +thinker, and cannot be ranked with Plato and Aristotle, those +mighty fathers of ancient philosophy, who carried back their +inquiries into the remotest truths on which philosophy rests. +Where he does attempt fixing new principles, he is neither +very clear nor consistent; and it is evident, that his general +study of all systems had, in some degree, unsettled his belief, +and had better qualified him to dispute on either side with +the Academics, than to examine the exact weight of evidence +in the scale of reason, or to exhibit a series of arguments, in +close and systematic arrangement, or to deduce accurate conclusions +from established and certain principles. His philosophic +dialogues are rather to be considered as popular +treatises, adapted to the ordinary comprehension of well-informed +men, than profound disquisitions, suited only to a +Portico or Lyceum. They bespeak the orator, even in the +most serious inquiries. Elegance and fine writing, their +author appears to have considered as essential to philosophy; +and historic, or even poetical illustration, as its brightest +ornament. The peculiar merit, therefore, of Cicero, lay in the +happy execution of what had never been before attempted—the +luminous and popular exposition of the leading principles +and disputes of the ancient schools of philosophy, with judgments +concerning them, and the application of results, deduced +from their various doctrines to the peculiar manners or +employments of his countrymen. Hence, though it may be +honouring Cicero too highly, to term his works, with Gibbon, +a Repository of Reason, they are at least a Miscellany of +<pb n='220'/><anchor id='Pg220'/>Philosophic Information, which has become doubly valuable, +from the loss of the writings of many of those philosophers, +whose opinions he records; and though the merit of originality +rests with the Greek schools, no compositions transmitted +from antiquity present so concise and comprehensive a view +of the opinions of the Greek philosophers<note place="foot">Garve, <hi rend='italic'>Anmerk. zu Büchern von den Pflichten</hi>. Breslau, 1819. Schoell, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. +Abregée de la Litterat. Romaine</hi>.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +That the mind of Cicero was most amply stored with the +learning of the Greek philosophers, and that he had the whole +circle of their wisdom at his command, is evident, from the rapidity +with which his works were composed—having been all +written, except the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>, during the period +which elapsed from the battle of Pharsalia till his death; and +the greater part of them in the course of the year 708. +</p> + +<p> +It is justly remarked by Goerenz, in the introduction to his +edition of the book <hi rend='italic'>De Finibus</hi><note place="foot">P. XII.</note>, and assented to by Schütz<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ciceron. Opera</hi>, Tom. XIII. p. 15.</note>, +that it seems scarcely possible, that those numerous philosophical +works, which are asserted to have been composed by +Cicero in the year 708, could have been begun and finished +in one year; and that such speed of execution leads us to suppose, +that either the materials had been long collected, or +that the productions themselves were little more than versions. +In his <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>, Cicero remarks,—<q>Ego autem, dum me +ambitio, dum honores, dum causæ, dum reipublicæ non solum +cura, sed quædam etiam procuratio multis officiis implicatum +et constrictum tenebat, hæc inclusa habebam; et, ne obsolescerent, +renovabam, quum licebat, legendo. Nunc vero et fortunæ +gravissimo percussus vulnere, et administratione reipublicæ +liberatus, doloris medicinam a philosophiâ peto, et otii +oblectationem hanc, honestissimam judico.</q> It is not easy to +determine, as Schütz remarks, whether, by the expression +<q>hæc inclusa habebam,</q> Cicero means merely the writings +of philosophical authors, or treatises and materials for treatises +by himself. <q>We ought, however,</q> proceeds Schütz, <q>the +less to wonder that Cicero composed so many works in so +short a time, when we read the following passage in a letter +to Atticus, written in July 708—<q>De linguâ Latinâ securi es +animi, dices, qui talia conscribis! <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">ἀπογραφα</foreign><!--[Greek: apographa]--> sunt; minore labore +fiunt: verba tantum affero, quibus abundo<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. XII. + Ep. 52.</note></q><anchor id="corr220"/><corr sic="(quote missing)">;</corr> which words, +according to Gronovius, imply, that the philosophic writings +of Cicero are little more than versions from the Greek.</q> +</p> + +<p> +In the laudable attempt of naturalizing philosophy at Rome, +<pb n='221'/><anchor id='Pg221'/>the difficulty which Lucretius had encountered, in embodying +in Latin verse the precepts of Epicurus,— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q>Propter egestatem linguæ rerumque novitatem,</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +must have been almost as powerfully felt by Cicero. Philosophy +was still little cultivated among the Romans; and no +people will invent terms for thoughts or ideas with which it is +little occupied. One of his letters to Atticus is strongly expressive +of the trouble which he had in interpreting the philosophic +terms of Greece in his native tongue<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> Lib. XIII. Ep. 21.</note>. Thus, for +example, he could find no Latin word equivalent to the <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">ἐποχη</foreign><!--[Greek: epochê]-->, +or that withholding of assent from all propositions, which +the new Academy professed. The language of the Greeks +had been formed along with their philosophy. Their terms +of physics had their origin in the ancient Theogonies, or the +speculations of the Milesian sage; and Plato informs us, that +one might make a course of moral philosophy in travelling +through Attica and reading the inscriptions engraved on the +tombs, pillars, and monuments, erected in the earliest ages +near the public ways and centre of villages<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Dialog. Hipparchus</hi>.</note>. Hence, in +Greece, words naturally became the apposite signs of speculative +and moral ideas; but in Rome, a foreign philosophy +had to be inculcated in a tongue which was already completely +formed, which was greatly inferior in flexibility and precision +to the Greek; and which, though Cicero certainly used some +liberties in this respect, had too nearly reached maturity, to +admit of much innovation. Its words, accordingly, did not +always precisely express the subtle notions signified in the +original language, whence there was often an appearance of +obscurity in the idea, and of a defect in conclusions, drawn +from premises which were indefinite, or which differed by a +shade of meaning from those established in Greece. +</p> + +<p> +Aware of this difficulty, and conscious, perhaps, that he +possessed not precision and originality of thinking sufficient +to recommend a formal treatise, Cicero adopted the mode of +writing in dialogues, in which rhetorical diffuseness, and +looseness of definition, might be overlooked, and in which +ample scope would be afforded for the ornaments of language. +</p> + +<p> +It was by oral discourse that knowledge was chiefly communicated +at the dawn of science, when books either did not +exist, or were extremely rare. In the Porch, in the Garden, +or among the groves of the Academy, the philosopher conferred +with his disciples, listened to their remarks, and replied +<pb n='222'/><anchor id='Pg222'/>to their objections. Socrates, in particular, was accustomed +thus to inculcate his moral lessons; and it was natural for the +scholars, who recorded them, to follow the manner in which +they had been disclosed. Of these disciples, Plato, who was +the most distinguished, readily adopted a form of composition, +which gave scope to his own fertile and poetical imagination; +while, at the same time, it enabled him more accurately to +paint his great master. One of his chief objects, too, was to +represent the triumph of Socrates over the Sophists; and if a +writer wish to cover an opponent with ridicule, perhaps no +better mode could be devised, than to set him up as a man of +straw in a dialogue. As argumentative victory, or the embarrassment +of the antagonist of Socrates, was often all that +was aimed at, it was unnecessary to be very scrupulous about +the means, and, considered in this view, the agreeable irony +of that philosopher—the address with which, by seeming to +yield, he ensnares the adversary—his quibbles—his subtle +distinctions, and perplexing interrogatories, display consummate +skill, and produce considerable dramatic effect; while, +at the same time, the scenery and circumstances of the dialogue +are often described with a richness and beauty of imagination, +which no philosophic writer has as yet surpassed<note place="foot">Black’s <hi rend='italic'>Life of Tasso</hi>, Vol. II.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +When Cicero, towards the close of his long and meritorious +life, employed himself in transferring to Rome the philosophy +of Greece, he appears to have been chiefly attracted by the +diffusive majesty of Plato, whose intellectual character was in +many respects congenial to his own. His dialogues in so far +resemble those of Plato, that the personages are real, and of +various characters and opinions; while the circumstances of +time and place are, for the most part, as completely fictitious +as in his Greek models. Yet there is a considerable difference +in the manner of Cicero’s Dialogues, from those of the great +founder of the Academy. Plato ever preserved something of +the Socratic method of giving birth to the thoughts of others—of +awakening, by interrogatories, the sense of truth, and +supplanting errors. But Cicero himself, or the person who +speaks his sentiments, always takes the lead in the conference, +and gives us long, and often uninterrupted dissertations. His +object, too, appears to have been not so much to cover his +adversaries with ridicule, or even to prevail in the argument, +as to pay a complimentary tribute to his numerous and illustrious +friends, or to recall, as it were, from the tomb, the departed +heroes and sages of his country. +</p> + +<p> +In the form of dialogue, Cicero has successively treated of +Law, Metaphysics, Theology, and Morals. +</p> +<pb n='223'/><anchor id='Pg223'/> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>.—Of this dialogue there are only three books +now extant, and even in these considerable chasms occur. A +conjecture has been recently hazarded by a learned German, +in an introduction to a translation of the dialogue, that these +three books, as we now have them, were not written by Cicero, +but that they are mere excerpts taken from his lost writings, +by some monk or father of the church<note place="foot">Hulsemann, <hi rend='italic'>Uber die Principien und den Geist der Gesetze</hi>. Leipsic, 1802.</note>. There are few works, +however, in which more genuine marks of the master-hand of +Cicero may be traced, than in the tract <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>; and the +connection between the different parts is too closely preserved, +to admit of the notion that it has been made up in the manner +which this critic supposes. Another conjecture is, that it +formed part of the third, fourth, and fifth books of Cicero’s lost +treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Republica</hi>. This surmise, however, was highly improbable, +since Cicero, in the course of the work <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>, +refers to that <hi rend='italic'>De Republica</hi> as a separate production, and it is +now proved to be chimerical by the discovery of Mai. The +dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>, however, seems to have been drawn up +as a kind of supplement to that <hi rend='italic'>De Republica</hi>, being intended +to point out what laws would be most suitable to the perfect +republic, which the author had previously described<note place="foot">Quæque de optimâ republicâ sentiremus, in sex libris ante diximus; accommodabimus +hoc tempore leges ad illum, quem probamus civitatûs statum. <hi rend='italic'>De Legib.</hi> +Lib. III. c. 2.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +As to the period of composition, it thus manifestly appears +to have been written subsequently to the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Republica</hi>; +and it is evident, from his letters to his brother Quintus, +that the work <hi rend='italic'>De Republica</hi> was begun in 699, and finished in +700<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Quint. Frat.</hi> Lib. II. Ep. 14. Lib. III. Ep. 5 and 6.</note>, so that the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi> could not have been +composed before that year. It is further clear, that it was +written after the year 701, since he obviously alludes in it to +the murder of Clodius,—boasting that his chief enemy was +now not only deprived of life, but wanted sepulture, and the +accustomed funeral obsequies<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Legib.</hi> Lib. II. c. 17.</note>. Now, it is well known that +Clodius was slain in 701, and that his dead body was dragged +naked by a lawless mob into the Forum, where it was consumed +amid the conflagration raised in the Senate-house. It +is equally evident that the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi> was written before +that <hi rend='italic'>De Finibus</hi>, composed in 708, since, in the former +work, the author alludes to the questions which we find discussed +in the latter, as controversies which he is one day to +take up<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> Lib. I. c. 20.</note>. But it is demonstrable that the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi> +was written even previous to the battle of Pharsalia, which +was fought in 705, since the author talks in it of Pompey as of +<pb n='224'/><anchor id='Pg224'/>a person still alive, and in the plenitude of glory<note place="foot">Hominis Amicissimi, Cn. Pompeii, laudes illustrabit. Lib. I. c. 3.</note>. Chapman, +in his dissertation <hi rend='italic'>De Ætate Librorum de Legibus</hi>, subjoined +to Tunstall’s Latin letter to Middleton, concerning the epistles +to Brutus, thinks that it was not written till the year 709. +He is of opinion, that what is said of Pompey, and the allusions +to the murder of Clodius, as to a recent event, were only +intended to suit the time in which the dialogue takes place: +But then it so happens, that no historical period whatever is +assigned by the author of the dialogue, as the date of its actual +occurrence. Chapman also maintains, that this is the +only mode of accounting for the work <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi> not being +mentioned in the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Divinatione</hi>, where Cicero’s other +philosophical productions are enumerated. The reason of this +omission, however, might be, that the work <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi> never +was made public by the author; and, indeed, with exception +of the first book, the whole is but a sketch or outline of what +he intended to write, and is far from having received the polish +and perfection of those performances which he circulated +himself. +</p> + +<p> +The discussion <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi> is carried on, in the shape of +dialogue, by Cicero, his brother Quintus, and Atticus. Of +these Cicero is the chief interlocutor. The scene is laid amid +the walks and pleasure-grounds of Cicero’s villa of Arpinum, +which lay about three miles from the town of that name, and +was situated in a mountainous but picturesque region of the +ancient territory of the Samnites, now forming part of the +kingdom of Naples. This house was the original seat of the +family of Cicero, who was born in it during the life of his +grandfather, while it was yet small and humble as the Sabine +cottage of Curius or Cincinnatus; but his father had gradually +enlarged and embellished it, till it became a spacious and elegant +mansion, where, as his health was infirm, he passed the +greater part of his life in literary retirement<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>, Lib. II. c. 1.</note>. Cicero was +thus equally attracted to this villa by the many pleasing and +tender recollections with which it was associated, and by the +amenity of the situation, which was the most retired and delightful, +even in that region of enchanting landscape. It was +closely surrounded by a grove, and stood not far from the confluence +of the Fibrenus with the Liris. The former stream, +which murmured over a rocky channel, was remarkable for its +clearness, rapidity, and coolness; and its sloping verdant +banks were shaded with lofty poplars<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> Lib. I. c. 5.</note>. <q>Many streams,</q> +says Mr. Kelsall, one of our latest Italian tourists, <q>which are +celebrated in story and song, disappoint the traveller,— + +<pb n='225'/><anchor id='Pg225'/> + +<lg> +<l><q>Dumb are their fountains, and their channels dry,</q>—</l> +</lg> + +but, in the course of long travels, I never met with so abundant +and lucid a current as the Fibrenus; the length of the +stream considered, which does not exceed four miles and a +half. It flows with great rapidity, and is about thirty or thirty-five +feet in width near the Ciceronian isles. It is generally +fifteen and even twenty in depth; <q>largus et exundans,</q> like +the genius of him who had so often trodden its banks. The +water even in the intensest heats, still retains its icy coldness; +and, although the thermometer was above 80° in the shade, +the hand, plunged for a few seconds into the Fibrenus, caused +a complete numbness<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Excursion from Rome to Arpino</hi>, p. 89. Ed. Geneva, 1820.</note>.</q> Near to the house, the Fibrenus +was divided into equal streams by a little island, which was +fringed with a few plane-trees, and on which stood a portico<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXXI. c. 2.</note>, +where Cicero often retired to read or meditate, and composed +some of his sublimest harangues. Just below this islet, each +branch of the stream rushed by a sort of cascade, into the cerulean +Liris<note place="foot"><q>Cæruleus nos Liris amat.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Martial</hi>, Lib. XIII. Ep. 83. See also Lucan, +Lib. II.</note>, on which the Fibrenus bestowed additional +freshness and coolness, and after this union received the name +of the more noble river<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>, Lib. II. c. 2.</note>. The epithet <hi rend='italic'>taciturnus</hi>, applied to +the Liris by Horace, and <hi rend='italic'>quietus</hi>, by Silius Italicus, must be +understood only of the lower windings of its course. No river +in Italy is so noisy as the Liris about Arpino and Cicero’s +villa; for the space of a mile and a half after receiving the +Fibrenus, it formed no less than six cascades, varying in height +from three to twenty feet<note place="foot">Kelsall, <hi rend='italic'>Excursion</hi>, p. 116.</note>. This spot, embellished with all +the ornaments of hills and valleys, and wood and water-falls, +was one of Cicero’s most favourite retreats. When Atticus +first visited it, he was so charmed, that, instead of wondering +as before that it was such a favourite residence of his friend, +he expressed his surprise that he ever retired elsewhere<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>, Lib. II. c. 1.</note>; declaring, +at the same time, his contempt of the marble pavements, +arched ceilings, and artificial canals of magnificent +villas, compared with the tranquillity and natural beauties of +Arpinum. Cicero, indeed, appears at one time to have thought +of the island, formed by the Fibrenus, as the place most suitable +for the monument which he intended to raise to his beloved +daughter Tullia<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. XII. Ep. 12.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The situation of this villa was close to the spot where now +<pb n='226'/><anchor id='Pg226'/>stands the city of Sora<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Classic Tour through Italy</hi>, by Sir R. C. Hoare, Vol. I. p. 293.</note>. <q>The Liris,</q> says Eustace, <q>still +bears its ancient name till it passes Sora, when it is called the +Garigliano. The Fibrenus, still so called, falls into it a little +below Sora, and continues to encircle the island in which Cicero +lays the scene of the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>. Arpinum, +also, still retains its name<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Classical Tour</hi>, Vol. II. c. 9.</note>.</q> Modern travellers bear ample +testimony to the scenery round Sora being such as fully justifies +the fond partiality of Cicero, and the admiration of Atticus. +<q>Nothing,</q> says Mr Kelsall, <q>can be imagined finer +than the surrounding landscape. The deep azure of the sky, +unvaried by a single cloud—Sora on a rock at the foot of the +precipitous Apennines—both banks of the Garigliano covered +with vineyards—the <hi rend='italic'>fragor aquarum</hi>, alluded to by Atticus in +the work <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>—the coolness, rapidity, and ultramarine +hue of the Fibrenus,—the noise of its cataracts—the rich turquoise +colour of the Liris—the minor Apennines round Arpino, +crowned with umbrageous oaks to their very summits, +present scenery hardly elsewhere to be equalled, certainly not +to be surpassed, even in Italy<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Classical Excursion from Rome to Arpino</hi>, p. 99. Cicero always considered +the citizens of Arpinum as under his particular protection and patronage; and it is +pleasant to find, that its modern inhabitants still testify, in various ways, due veneration +for their illustrious townsman. Their theatre is called the <hi rend='italic'>Teatro Tulliano</hi>, +of which the drop-scene is painted with a bust of the orator; and even now, workmen +are employed in building a new town-hall, with niches, destined to receive +statues of Marius and Cicero.</note>.</q> The spot where Cicero’s +villa stood, was, in the time of Middleton, possessed by a convent +of monks, and was called the villa of St Dominic. It was +built in the year 1030, from the fragments of the Arpine +villa! +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q>Art, Glory, Freedom, fail—but Nature still is fair.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +The first conference, <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>, is held in a walk on the +banks of the Fibrenus; the other two in the island which it +formed, and which Cicero called Amalthea, from a villa belonging +to Atticus in Epirus. These three books are all that +are now extant. It appears, however, that, at the commencement +of the fifth dialogue, the sun having then passed the meridian, +and its beams striking in such a direction that the +speakers were no longer sheltered from its rays by the young +plane-trees, which had been recently planted, they left the +island, and descending to the banks of the Liris, finished their +discourse under the shade of the alder-trees, which stretched +their branches over its margin<note place="foot">Macrob. <hi rend='italic'>Saturnal.</hi> Lib. VI. c. 4.</note>. +</p> + +<pb n='227'/><anchor id='Pg227'/> + +<p> +An ancient oak, which stood in Cicero’s pleasure-grounds, +led Atticus to inquire concerning the augury which had been +presented to Marius, a native of Arpinum, from that very oak, +and which Cicero had celebrated in a poem devoted to the exploits +of his ferocious countryman, Cicero hints, that the +portent was all a fiction; which leads to a discussion on the +difference between poetry and history, and the poverty of +Rome in the latter department. As Cicero, owing to the multiplicity +of affairs, had not then leisure to supply this deficiency, +he is requested by his guests, to give them, in the +meanwhile, a dissertation on Laws—a subject with which he +was so conversant, that he could require no previous preparation. +It is agreed, that he should not treat of particular or +arbitrary laws,—as those concerning <hi rend='italic'>Stillicide</hi>, and the forms +of judicial procedure—but should trace the philosophic principles +of jurisprudence to their remotest sources. From this +recondite investigation he excludes the Epicureans, who decline +all care of the republic, and bids them retire to their gardens. +He entreats that the new Academy should be silent, +since her bold objections would soon destroy the fair and +well-ordered structure of his lofty system. Zeno, Aristotle, +and the immediate followers of Plato, he represents as the +teachers who best prepare a citizen for performing the duties +of social life. Them he professes chiefly to follow; and, in +conformity with their system, he announces in the first book, +which treats of laws in general, that man being linked to a +supreme God by reason and virtue, and the whole species +being associated by a communion of feelings and interests, +laws are alike founded on divine authority and natural benevolence. +</p> + +<p> +According to this sublime hypothesis, the whole universe +forms one immense commonwealth of gods and men, who participate +of the same essence, and are members of the same +community. Reason prescribes the law of nature and nations; +and all positive institutions, however modified by accident or +custom, are drawn from the rule of right which the Deity has +inscribed on every virtuous mind. Some actions, therefore, are +just in their own nature, and ought to be performed, not because +we live in a society where positive laws punish those +who pay no regard to them, but for the sake of that equity +which accompanies them, independently of human ordinances. +These principles may be applicable to laws in a certain +sense; but, in fact, it is rather moral right and justice than +laws that the author discusses—for bad or pernicious laws he +does not admit to be laws at all. To do justice, to love +mer<pb n='228'/><anchor id='Pg228'/>cy, and to worship God with a pure heart, were, doubtless, +laws in his meaning, (that is, they were right,) previous to +their enactment, and no human enactment to the contrary +could abrogate them. His principles, however, apply to laws +in this sense, and not to arbitrary civil institutions. +</p> + +<p> +Having, in the first discourse, laid open the origin of laws, +and source of obligations, he proceeds, in the remaining books, +to set forth a body of laws conformable to his own plan and +ideas of a well-ordered state;—announcing, in the first place, +those which relate to religion and the worship of the gods; +secondly, such as prescribe the duties and powers of magistrates. +These laws are, for the most part, taken from the ancient +government and customs of Rome, with some little modification +calculated to obviate or heal the disorders to which +the republic was liable, and to give its constitution a stronger +bias in favour of the aristocratic faction. The species of instruction +communicated in these two books, has very little reference +to the sublime and general principles with which the +author set out. Many of his laws are arbitrary municipal regulations. +The number of the magistrates, the period of the +duration of their offices, with the suffrages and elections in the +Comitia, were certainly not founded in the immutable laws of +God or nature; and the discussion concerning them has led +to the belief, that the second and third books merely comprehended +a collection of facts, from which general principles +were to be subsequently deduced. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of the third book it is mentioned, that the executive +power of the magistracy, and rights of the Roman citizens, +still remain to be discussed. In what number of books this +plan was accomplished, is uncertain. Macrobius, as we have +seen, quotes the fifth book<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Saturnal.</hi> Lib. VI. c. 4.</note>; and Goerenz thinks it probable +there were six,—the fourth being on the executive power, the +fifth on public, and the sixth on private rights. +</p> + +<p> +What authors Cicero chiefly followed and imitated in his +work <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>, has been a celebrated controversy since the +time of Turnebus. It seems now to be pretty well settled, that, +in substance and principles, he followed the Stoics; but that +he imitated Plato in the style and dress in which he arrayed +his sentiments and opinions. That philosopher, as is well +known, after writing on government in general, drew up a body +of laws adapted to that particular form of it which he had delineated. +In like manner, Cicero chose to deliver his sentiments, +not by translating Plato, but by imitating his manner +<pb n='229'/><anchor id='Pg229'/>in the explication of them, and adapting everything to the constitution +of his own country. The Stoic whom he principally +followed, was probably Chrysippus, who wrote a book <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Περι Νομου</foreign><!--[Greek: Peri Nomou]--><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Diogenes Laertius</hi>, Lib. VII.</note>, +some passages of which are still extant, and exhibit the outlines +of the system adopted in the first book <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>. +What of general discussion appears in the third book is taken +from Theophrastus, Dio, and Panætius the Stoic. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum</hi>.—This work is a philosophical +account of the various opinions entertained by the +Greeks concerning the Supreme Good and Extreme Evil, and +is by much the most subtle and difficult of the philosophic writings +of Cicero. It consists of five books, of that sort of dialogue, +in which, as in the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, the discourse is +not dramatically represented, but historically related by the +author. The constant repetition of <q>said I,</q> and <q>says he,</q> +is tiresome and clumsy, and not nearly so agreeable as the +dramatic form of dialogue, where the names of the different +speakers are alternately prefixed, as in a play. The whole is +addressed to Marcus Brutus in an Introduction, where the author +excuses his study of philosophy, which some persons had +blamed as unbecoming his character and dignity. The conference +in the first two books is supposed to be held at Cicero’s +Cuman villa, which was situated on the hills of old Cumæ, +and commanded a prospect of the Campi Phlegræi, the bay of +Puteoli, with its islands, the Portus Misenus the harbour of the +Roman fleet, and Baiæ, the retreat of the most wealthy patricians. +Here Cicero received a visit from Lucius Torquatus, +a confirmed Epicurean, and from a young patrician, Caius +Triarius, who is a mute in the ensuing colloquy. Torquatus +engages their host in philosophical discussion, by requesting +to know his objections to the Epicurean system. These Cicero +states generally; but Torquatus, in his answer, confines himself +to the question of the Supreme Good, which he placed in +pleasure. This tenet he supports on the principle, that, of all +things, Virtue is the most pleasurable; that we ought to follow +its laws, in consequence of the serenity and satisfaction +arising from its practice; and that honourable toil, or even +pain, are not always to be avoided, as they often prove necessary +means towards obtaining the most exquisite gratifications. +Cicero, in his refutation, which is contained in the second +book, gives rather a different representation of the philosophy +of Epicurus, from his great poetic contemporary Lucretius. +The term <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">ἡδονη</foreign><!--[Greek hêdonê]-->, (voluptas,) used by Epicurus to express his +Supreme Good, can only, as Cicero maintains, mean sensual +<pb n='230'/><anchor id='Pg230'/>enjoyment, and can never be so interpreted as to denote tranquillity +of mind. But supposing virtue to be cultivated merely +as productive of pleasure, or as only valuable because agreeable—a +cheat, who had no remorse or conscience, might enjoy +the <hi rend='italic'>summum bonum</hi> in defrauding a rightful owner of his +property; and no act would thus be accounted criminal, if it +escaped the brand of public infamy. On the other hand, if +pain be accounted the Supreme Evil, how can any man enjoy +felicity, when this greatest of all misfortunes may at any moment +seize him! +</p> + +<p> +In the third and fourth books, the scene of the dialogue is +changed. In order to inspect some books of Aristotelian philosophy, +Cicero walks over to the villa of young Lucullus, to +whom he had been appointed guardian, by the testament of +his illustrious father. Here he finds Cato employed in perusing +certain works of Stoical authors; and a discussion arises on +that part of the Stoical system, relating to the Supreme Good, +which Cato placed in virtue alone. Cicero, in his answer to +Cato, attempts to reconcile this tenet with the doctrines of the +Academic philosophy, which he himself professed, by showing +that the difference between them consisted only in the import +affixed to the term <hi rend='italic'>good</hi>—the Academic sect assigning a pre-eminence +to virtue, but admitting that external advantages +are good also in their decree. Now, the Stoics would not +allow them to be good, but merely valuable, eligible, or preferable; +so that the sects could be reconciled in sentiments, if the +terms were a little changed. The Academical system is fully +developed in the fifth book, in a dialogue held within the +Academy; and, at the commencement, the associations which +that celebrated, though then solitary spot, was calculated to +awaken are finely described. <q>I see before me,</q> says Piso, +<q>the perfect form of Plato, who was wont to dispute in this +very place: These gardens not only recall him to my memory, +but present his very person to my senses—I fancy to +myself that here stood Speusippus—there Xenocrates—and +here, on this bench, sat his disciple Polemo. To me, our ancient +Senate-house seems peopled with the like visionary +forms; for often when I enter it, the shades of Scipio, of Cato, +and of Lælius, and, in particular, of my venerable grandfather, +rise up to my imagination.</q> Here Piso, who was a great +Platonist, gives an account, in the presence of Cicero and +Cicero’s brother Quintus, of the hypothesis of the old Academy +concerning moral good, which was also that adopted by +the Peripatetics. According to this system, the <hi rend='italic'>summum bonum</hi> +consists in the highest improvement of all the mental +and bodily faculties. The perfection, in short, of everything +<pb n='231'/><anchor id='Pg231'/>consistent with nature, enters into the composition of supreme +felicity. Virtue, indeed, is the highest of all things, but other +advantages must also be valued according to their worth. +Even pleasures become ingredients of happiness, if they be +such as are included in the <hi rend='italic'>prima naturæ</hi>, or primary advantages +of nature. Cicero seems to approve this system, and +objects only to one of the positions of Piso, That a wise man +must be always happy. Our author thus contrasts with each +other the different systems of Greek philosophy, particularly +the Epicurean with the Stoical tenets; and hence, besides, +refuting them in his own person, he makes the one baffle the +other, till he arrives at what is most probable, the utmost +length to which the middle or new Academy pretended to +reach. The chief part of the work <hi rend='italic'>De Finibus</hi>, is taken from +the best writings of the different philosophers whose doctrines +he explains. The first book closely follows the tract of Epicurus, +<foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Κυριων δοξων</foreign><!--[Greek: Kyriôn doxôn]-->. Cicero’s second book, in which he refutes +Epicurism, is borrowed from the stoic Chrysippus, who wrote +ten books Of the beautiful, and of pleasure, (<foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Περι τοῦ καλοῦ και της ἡδονης</foreign><!--[Greek: Peri tou kalou kai +tês hêdonês]-->,) wherein he canvassed the Epicurean tenets concerning +the Supreme Good and Evil. His third book is derived +from a treatise of the same Chrysippus, entitled <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Περι τελων</foreign><!--[Greek: Peri telôn--><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Diog. Laert.</hi> Lib. VII.</note>. +The fourth, where he refutes the Stoics, is from the writings +of Polemo, who, following the example of his master Xenocrates, +amended the Academic doctrines, and nearly accommodated +them on this subject of Good and Evil to the opinions +of the ancient Peripatetics. Some works of Antiochus of Ascalon, +who, in the time of Cicero, was the head of the old +Academy, supplied the materials for the concluding dialogue. +</p> + +<p> +The work <hi rend='italic'>De Finibus</hi> was written in 708, and though begun +subsequently to the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>, was finished before it. The +period, however, of the three different conferences of which it +consists, is laid a considerable time before the date of its publication. +It is evident that the first dialogue is supposed to be +held in 703, since Torquatus, the principal speaker, who perished +in the civil war, is mentioned as <hi rend='italic'>Prætor Designatus</hi>, +and this prætorship he bore in the year 704. The following +conference is placed subsequently, at least, to the death of +the great Lucullus, who died in 701. The last dialogue is +carried more than thirty years back, being laid in 674, when +Cicero was in his twenty-seventh year, and was attending the +lessons of the Athenian philosophers. For this change, the +reason seems to have been, that as Piso was the fittest person +whom the author could find to support the doctrines of the +<pb n='232'/><anchor id='Pg232'/>old Academy, and as he had renounced his friendship during +the time of the disturbances occasioned by the Clodian faction, +it became necessary to place the conference at a period +when they were fellow-students at Athens. The critics have +observed some anachronisms in this last book, in making Piso +refer to the other two dialogues, of which he had no share, and +could have had no knowledge, as being held at a later period +than that of the conference he attended. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>.—This work is termed Academica, either because +it chiefly relates to the Academic philosophy, or because +it was composed at the villa of Puteoli, where a grove and +portico were called by Cicero, from an affected imitation of +the Athenians, his Academy<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXXI. c. 3.</note>. There evidently existed what +may be termed two editions of the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>, neither of +which we now possess perfect—what we have being the second +book of the first edition, and the first of the second. In +the first edition, the speakers were Cicero himself, Catulus, +Lucullus, and Hortensius. The first book was inscribed Catulus, +and the second Lucullus, these persons being the chief +interlocutors in their respective divisions. The first dialogue, +or Catulus, was held in the villa of that senator. Every word of it +is unfortunately lost, but the import may be gathered, from the +references to it in the Lucullus, or second book, which is still +extant. It appears to have contained a sketch of the history +of the old and the new Academy, and then to have entered +minutely into the doctrines and principles of the latter, to +which Catulus was attached. Catulus explained them as they +had been delivered by Carneades, whose lectures his father +had attended, and in his old age imparted their substance to +his son. He refuted the philosophy of Philo, where that writer +differed from Carneades, (which, though of the new Academy, +he did in some particulars,) and also the opinions of +Antiochus, who followed the old Academy. Hortensius seems +to have made a short reply, but the more ample discussion of +the system of the old Academy was reserved for Lucullus. +Previous, however, to entering on this topic, our philosophers +pass over from the Cuman villa of Catulus to that of Hortensius, +at Bauli, one of the many magnificent seats belonging to +that orator, and situated a little above the luxurious Baiæ, in +the direction towards Cumæ, on an inlet of the Bay of Naples. +Here they had resolved to remain till a favourable breeze should +spring up, which might carry Lucullus to his Neapolitan, and +Cicero to his Pompeian villa. While awaiting this opportunity, +they repaired to an open gallery, which looked towards +<pb n='233'/><anchor id='Pg233'/>the sea, whence they descried the vessels sailing across the +bay, and the ever changeful hue of its waters, which appeared +of a saffron colour under the morning beam, but became +azure at noon, till, as the day declined, they were rippled by +the western breeze, and empurpled by the setting sun<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Academ. Prior.</hi> Lib. II. c. 33.</note>. +Here Lucullus commenced his defence of the old Academy, +and his disputation against Philo, according to what he had +learned from the philosopher Antiochus, who had accompanied +him to Alexandria, when he went there as Quæstor of +Egypt. While residing in that city, two books of Philo +arrived, which excited the philosophic wrath of Antiochus, +and gave rise to much oral discussion, as well as to a book +from his pen, entitled <hi rend='italic'>Sosus</hi>, in which he attempted to refute +the doctrines so boldly promulgated by Philo. Lucullus was +thus enabled fully and faithfully to detail the arguments of the +chief supporter and reviver in those later ages of the old +Platonic Academy. His discourse is chiefly directed against +that leading principle of the new Academy, which taught that +nothing can be known or ascertained. Recurring to nature, +and the constitution of man, he confirms the faith we have in +our external senses, and the mental conclusions deduced from +them. To this Cicero replies, from the writings of Clitomachus, +and of course enlarges on the delusion of the senses—the +false appearances we behold in sleep, or while under the +influence of phrensy, and the uncertainty of everything so +fully demonstrated by the different opinions of the great philosophers, +on the most important of all subjects, the Providence +of the Gods—the Supreme Good and Evil, and the formation +of the world. +</p> + +<p> +These two books, the Catulus and Lucullus, of which, as +already mentioned, the last alone is extant, were written after +the termination of the civil wars, and a copy of them sent by +Cicero to Atticus. It occurred, however, to the author soon +afterwards, that the characters introduced were not very suitable +to the subjects discussed, since Catulus and Lucullus, +though both ripe scholars, and well-educated men, could not, +as statesmen and generals, be supposed to be acquainted with +all the <hi rend='italic'>minutiæ</hi> of philosophic controversy contained in the +books bearing their names. While deliberating if he should +not rather put the dialogue into the lips of Cato and Brutus, +he received a letter <anchor id="corr233"/><corr sic="fron">from</corr> Atticus, acknowledging the present +of his work, but mentioning that their common friend, Varro, +was displeased to find that none of his treatises were addressed +to him, or inscribed with his name. This intimation, and the +<pb n='234'/><anchor id='Pg234'/>incongruity of the former characters with the subject, determined +the author to dedicate the work to Varro, and to make +him the principal speaker in the dialogue<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Famil.</hi> Lib. IX. Ep. 8.</note>. This change, +and the reflection, perhaps, on certain defects in the arrangement +of the old work, as also the discovery of considerable +omissions, particularly with regard to the tenets of Arcesilaus, +the founder of the new academy, induced him to remodel the +whole, to add in some places, to abridge in others, and to bestow +on it more lustre and polish of style. In this new form, +the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi> consisted of four books, a division which was +better adapted for treating his subject: But of these four, +only the first remains. The dialogue it contains is supposed +to be held during a visit which Atticus and Cicero paid to +Varro, in his villa near Cumæ. His guests entreat him to +give an account of the principles of the old Academy, from +which Cicero and Atticus had long since withdrawn, but to +which Varro had continued steadily attached. This first +book probably comprehends the substance of what was contained +in the Catulus of the former edition. Varro, in complying +with the request preferred to him, deduces the origin +of the old Academy from Socrates; he treats of its doctrines +as relating to physics, logic, and morals, and traces its progress +under Plato and his legitimate successors. Cicero takes +up the discourse when this historical account is brought down +to Arcesilaus, the founder of the new Academy. But the +work is broken off in the most interesting part, and just as the +author is entering on the life and lectures of Carneades, who +introduced the new Academy at Rome. Cicero, however, +while he styles it the new Academy, will scarcely allow it to +be new, as it was in fact the most genuine exposition of those +sublime doctrines which Plato had imbibed from Socrates. +The historical sketch of the Academic philosophy having +been nearly concluded in the first book, the remaining books, +which are lost, contained the disputatious part. In the second +book the doctrines of Arcesilaus were explained; and from +one of the few short fragments preserved, there appears to +have been a discussion concerning the remarkable changes +that occur in the colour of objects, and the complexion of individuals, +in consequence of the alterations they undergo in +position or age, which was one of Arcesilaus’ chief arguments +against the certainty of evidence derived from the senses. +The third and fourth books probably contained the doctrines +of Carneades and Philo, with Varro’s refutation of them, according +to the principles of Antiochus. From a fragment of +<pb n='235'/><anchor id='Pg235'/>the third book, preserved by Nonius, it appears that the scene +of the dialogue was there transferred to the banks of the Lucrine +lake, which lay in the immediate vicinity of Varro’s +Cuman villa<note place="foot">Et ut nos nunc sedemus ad Lucrinum, pisciculosque exsultantes videmus. <hi rend='italic'>De +propriet. Serm.</hi> c. 1. 335. voc. <hi rend='italic'>exsultare</hi>.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +These four books formed the work which Cicero wished to +be considered as the genuine and improved Academics. The +former edition, however, which he had sent to Atticus, had +gone abroad, and as he could not recall it, he resolved to complete +it, by prefixing an introductory eulogy of Catulus to the +first, and of Lucullus to the second book,—extolling, in particular, +the incredible genius of the latter, which enabled him, +though previously inexperienced in the art of war, merely by +conversation and study, during his voyage from Rome, to land +on the coast of Asia, with the acquirements of a consummate +commander, and to extort the admission from his antagonist, +Mithridates, who had coped with Sylla, that he was the first of +warriors. +</p> + +<p> +This account of the two editions of the Academics, which +was first suggested by Talæus<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Dedicat. ad Prælect. in Cic. Acad.</hi></note>, has been adopted by + Goerenz<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Introduct. in Academic.</hi> Ed. Lips. 1810.</note>; +and it appears to me completely confirmed by the series +of Cicero’s letters to Atticus, contained in the 13th book of his +Epistles. It is by no means, however, unanimously assented +to by the French and German commentators. Lambinus, seeing +that Nonius quoted, as belonging to the fourth book of +the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>, passages which we find in the Lucullus, or +second book of the first edition, considered and inscribed it +as the fourth of the new edition, instead of the second of the +old, in which he was followed by many subsequent editors; +but this is easily accounted for, since the new edition, being +remodelled on the old, many things in the last or second book +of the old edition would naturally be transferred to the fourth +or last of the new, and be so cited by those grammarians who +wrote when the whole work was extant. Ranitz denies that +there ever were two editions of the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi> made public, +or preserved, and that, so far from the last three books being +lost, the Lucullus contains the whole of these three, but from +the error of transcribers they have been run into each other<note place="foot">Nec esse, nec dici posse novum opus, ac penitus mutatum; sed tantummodo +correctum, magis politum, et quoad formam et dictionem, hîc et illic, splendidius +mutatum. <hi rend='italic'>De Lib. Cic. Academ. Comment.</hi></note>. +This critic is right, indeed, in the notion he entertains, that +Cicero wished the first edition of the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi> to be destroyed, +or to fall into oblivion, but it does not follow that +<pb n='236'/><anchor id='Pg236'/>either of these wishes was accomplished; and indeed it is +proved, from Cicero’s own letters, that the older edition had +passed into extensive circulation. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Tusculanæ Disputationes</hi>, are so called by Cicero, from +having been held at his seat near Tusculum—a town which +stood on the summit of the Alban hill, about a mile higher up +than the modern Frescati, and communicated its name to all +the rural retreats in its neighbourhood. This was Cicero’s +chief and most favourite villa. <q>It is,</q> says he, <q>the only +spot in which I completely rest from all my uneasiness, and +all my toils.</q>—<q>It stood,</q> says Eustace, <q>on one of the <hi rend='italic'>Tumuli</hi>, +or beautiful hills grouped together on the Alban Mount. +It is bounded on the south by a deep dell, with a streamlet +that falls from the rock, then meanders through the recess, and +disappears in its windings. Eastward rises the lofty eminence, +once crowned with Tusculum—Westward, the view descends, +and passing over the Campagna, fixes on Rome, and the distant +mountains beyond it.—On the south, a gentle swell presents +a succession of vineyards and orchards; and behind it +towers the summit of the Alban Mount, once crowned with the +temple of Jupiter Latiaris. Thus Cicero, from his portico, enjoyed +the noblest and most interesting view that could be imagined +to a Roman and a Consul; the temple of the tutelary +divinity of the empire, the seat of victory and triumph, and the +theatre of his glorious labours,—the Capital of the World<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Classical Tour</hi>, Vol. II. c. 8.</note>.</q> +A yet more recent traveller informs us, that <q>the situation of +the ancient Tusculum is delightful. The road which leads to +it is shaded with umbrageous woods of oak and ilex. The ancient +trees and soft verdant meadows around it, almost remind +us of some of the loveliest scenes of England; and the little +brook that babbles by, was not the less interesting from the +thought, that its murmurs might perchance have once soothed +the ear of Cicero<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Rome in the Nineteenth Century</hi>, Vol. III. Let. 93.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The distance of Tusculum from Rome, which was only four +leagues, afforded Cicero an easy retreat from the fatigues of +the Senate and Forum. Being the villa to which he most frequently +resorted, he had improved and adorned it beyond all +his other mansions, and rendered its internal elegance suitable +to its majestic situation. It had originally belonged to Sylla, +by whom it was highly ornamented. In one of its apartments +there was a painting of his victory near Nola, during the Marsic +war, in which Cicero had served under him as a volunteer. +But its new master had bestowed on this seat a more classical +<pb n='237'/><anchor id='Pg237'/>and Grecian air. He had built several halls and galleries in +imitation of the schools and porticos of Athens, which he +termed Gymnasia. One of these, which he named the Academia, +was erected at a little distance from the villa, on the +declivity of the hill facing the Alban Mount<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Finibus</hi>, Lib. III. and IV. Kelsall, <hi rend='italic'>Excursion from Rome to Arpino</hi>, p. +193.</note>. Another Gymnasium, +which he called the Lyceum, stood higher up the hill +than the Academy: It was adjacent to the villa, and was chiefly +designed for philosophical conferences. Cicero had given a +general commission to Atticus, who spent much of his time in +Greece, to purchase any elegant or curious piece of Grecian +art, in painting or sculpture, which his refined taste might +select as a suitable ornament for his Tusculan villa. He, in +consequence, received from his friend a set of marble Mercuries, +with brazen heads, with which he was much pleased; +but he was particularly delighted with a sort of compound +emblematical figures called <hi rend='italic'>Hermathenæ</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>Hermeraclæ</hi> + <anchor id="corr237"/><corr sic="rerepresenting">representing</corr> +Mercury and Minerva, or Mercury and Hercules, +jointly on one base; for, Hercules being the proper deity of +the Gymnasium, Minerva of the Academy, and Mercury common +to both, they precisely suited the purpose for which he +desired them to be procured. One of these Minerval Mercuries +pleased him so wonderfully, and stood in such an advantageous +position, that he declared the whole Academy at Tusculum +appeared to have been contrived in order to receive +it<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. I. Ep. 1.</note>. So intent was he on embellishing this Tusculan villa +with all sorts of Grecian art, that he sent over to Atticus the +plans and devices for his ceilings, which were of stucco-work, +in order to bespeak various pieces of sculpture and painting +to be inserted in the compartments; as also the covers for two +of his wells or fountains, which, by the custom of those times, +were often formed after some elegant pattern, and adorned with +figures in relief<note place="foot">Middleton’s <hi rend='italic'>Life of Cicero</hi>, Vol. I. p. 142.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +La Grotta Ferrata, a convent of Basilian friars, is now, according +to Eustace, built on the site of Cicero’s Tusculan villa. +Nardini, who wrote about the year 1650, says, that there had +been recently found, among the ruins of Grotta Ferrata, a +piece of sculpture, which Cicero himself mentions in one of +his Familiar Epistles. In the middle of last century, there yet +remained vast subterranean apartments, as well as a great circumference +and extent of ruins<note place="foot">Blainville’s <hi rend='italic'>Travels</hi>, Vol. II.</note>. But these, it would appear, +have been still farther dilapidated since that period. <q>Scarce +<pb n='238'/><anchor id='Pg238'/>a trace,</q> says Eustace, <q>of the ruins of Tusculum is now discoverable: +Great part remained at the end of the 10th century, +when a Greek monk from Calabria demolished it, and +erected on the site, the monastery of Grotta Ferrata. At each +end of the portico is fixed in the wall a fragment of basso relievo. +One represents a philosopher sitting with a scroll in +his hand, in a thinking posture—in the other, are four figures +supporting the feet of a fifth of colossal size, supposed to +represent Ajax. These, with the beautiful pillars which support +the church, are the only remnants of the decorations and +furniture of the ancient villa. <q><hi rend='italic'>Conjiciant</hi>,</q> says an inscription +near the spot, <q><hi rend='italic'>quæ et quanta fuerunt</hi>.</q><note place="foot">Eustace, <hi rend='italic'>Classical Tour</hi>, Vol. II. c. 8. Grotta Ferrata was long considered both +by travellers (Addison, <hi rend='italic'>Letters on Italy</hi>, Blainville, <hi rend='italic'>Travels</hi>, &c.) and antiquarians +(Calmet, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Univers.</hi> Cluverius, <hi rend='italic'>Italic. Antiq.</hi>) as the site of Cicero’s Tusculan +villa. The opinion thus generally received, was first deliberately called in question +by Zuzzeri, in a dissertation published in 1746, entitled <hi rend='italic'>Sopra un’ antica Villa +scoperta sopra Frescati nell appartenenze della nuova villa dell collegio Romano</hi>. +This writer places the site close to the villa and convent of Ruffinella, which is +higher up the hill than Grotta Ferrata, lying between Frescati and the town of Tusculum. +He was answered by Cardoni, a monk of the Basilian order of Grotta Ferrata, +in his <hi rend='italic'>Disceptatio Apologetica de Tusculano Ciceronis</hi>, Romæ, 1757. Cardoni +chiefly rests his argument on a passage of Strabo, where that geographer says, +that the <hi rend='italic'>Tusculan hill</hi> is fertile, well watered, and surrounded with beautiful villas. +Now Cardoni, referring this passage (which applies to the Tusculan hill in general) +solely to the Tusculan villa, argues somewhat unfairly, that Strabo’s description answers +to Grotta Ferrata, but not to Ruffinella. (p. 8, &c.) Nibby in his <hi rend='italic'>Viaggio +Antiquario</hi>, supports the claims of Ruffinella, on the authority of a passage in Frontinus, +which he interprets with no greater candour or success. (T. II. p. 41.) With +exception of Eustace, however, all modern travellers, whose works I have consulted, +declare in favour of Ruffinella. <q>At the convent of Ruffinella, says Forsyth, farther +up the hill than Grotta Ferrata, his (Cicero’s) name was found stamped on some +ancient tiles, which should ascertain the situation of a villa in preference to any +moveable.</q>—<hi rend='italic'>Remarks on Italy</hi>, p. 281. See also <hi rend='italic'>Rome in the Nineteenth Century</hi>, +Vol. III. Letter 92, and Kelsall’s <hi rend='italic'>Classical Excursion</hi>, p. 192.</note></q> +</p> + +<p> +When Cæsar had attained the supremacy at Rome, and +Cicero no longer gave law to the Senate, he became the head +of a sort of literary or philosophical society. Filelfo, who delivered +public lectures at Rome, on the Tusculan Disputations, +attempted to prove that he had stated meetings of learned +men at his house, and opened a regular Academy at Tusculum<note place="foot">Alex. ab Alexandro, <hi rend='italic'>Dies Geniales</hi>, Lib. I. c. 23. Rossmini, <hi rend='italic'>Vita di Filelfo</hi>, +T. III. p. 59. Ed. Milan, 1808, 3 Tom. 8vo.</note>. +This notion was chiefly founded on a letter of Cicero +to Pætus, where he says that he had followed the example of +the younger Dionysius, who, being expelled from Syracuse, +taught a school at Athens. At all events, it was his custom, +in the opportunities of his leisure, to carry some friends with +him from Rome to the country, where the entertainments they +enjoyed were chiefly speculative. In this manner, Cicero, on +one occasion, spent five days at his Tusculan villa; and after +<pb n='239'/><anchor id='Pg239'/>employing the morning in declamation and rhetorical exercises, +retired in the afternoon with his friends to the gallery, +called the Academy, which he had constructed for the purpose +of philosophical conference. Here Cicero daily offered +to maintain a thesis on any topic proposed to him by his +guests; and the five dialogues thus introduced, were, as we +are informed by the author, afterwards committed to writing, +nearly in the words which had actually passed<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Tusc. Disp.</hi> Lib. II. c. 3. Lib. III. c. 3.</note>. They were +completed early in 709, and, like so many of his other works, +are dedicated to Brutus—each conference being at the same +time furnished with an introduction expatiating on the excellence +of philosophy, and the advantage of naturalizing the wisdom +of the Greeks, by transfusing it into the Latin language. +In the first dialogue, entitled <hi rend='italic'>De Contemnenda Morte</hi>, one of +the guests, who is called the <hi rend='italic'>Auditor</hi> through the remainder +of the performance, asserts, that death is an evil. This proposition +Cicero immediately proceeds to refute, which naturally +introduces a disquisition on the immortality of the soul—a subject +which, in the pages of Cicero, continued to be involved +in the same doubt and darkness that had veiled it in the +schools of Greece. +</p> + +<p> +It is true, that in the ancient world some notion had been entertained, +and by a few some hope had been cherished, that we +are here only in the infancy of our existence, and that the grave +might be the porch of immortality, and not the goal of our +career. The natural love that we have for life, amidst all its +miseries—the grief that we sometimes feel at being torn from +all that is dear to us—the desire for posterity and for posthumous +fame—the humiliating idea, that the thoughts which +wander through eternity, should be the operations of a being +destined to flutter for a moment on the surface of the earth, +and then for ever to be buried in its bosom—all, in short, that +is selfish, and all that is social in our nature, combined in giving +importance to the inquiry, If the thinking principle was +to be destroyed by death, or if that great change was to be an +introduction to a future state of existence. Having thus a natural +desire for the truth of this doctrine, the philosophers of +antiquity anxiously devised arguments, which might justify +their hopes. Sometimes they deduced them from metaphysical +speculations—the spirituality, unity, and activity of the +soul—sometimes from its high ideas of things moral and intellectual. +Is it possible, they asked, that a being of such excellence +should be here imprisoned for a term of years, only to +be the sport of the few pleasures and the many pains which +<pb n='240'/><anchor id='Pg240'/>chequer this mortal life? Is not its future destination seen +in that satiety and disrelish, which attend all earthly enjoyments—in +those desires of the mind for things more pure and +intellectual than are here supplied—in that longing and endeavour, +which we feel after something above us, and perfective +of our nature? At other times, they have found arguments +in the unequal distribution of rewards and punishments; +and in our sighs over the misfortunes of virtue, they have recognized +a principle, which points to a future state of things, +where that shall be discovered to be good which we now lament +as evil, and where the consequences of vice and virtue +shall be more fully and regularly unfolded, than in this inharmonious +scene. They have then looked abroad into nature, +and have seen, that if death follows life, life seemingly emanates +from death, and that the cheerful animations of spring +succeed to the dead horrors of winter. They have observed +the wonderful changes that take place in some sentient +beings—they have considered those which man himself has +undergone—and, charmed by all these speculations, they have +indulged in the pleasing hope, that our death may, like our +birth, be the introduction to a new state of existence. But all +these fond desires—all these longings after immortality, were +insufficient to dispel the doubts of the sage, or to fill the moralist +with confidence and consolation. The wisest and most +virtuous of the philosophers of antiquity, and who most strongly +indulged the hope of immortality, is represented by an illustrious +disciple as expressing himself in a manner which discloses +his sad uncertainty, whether he was to be released from +the tomb, or for ever confined within its barriers. +</p> + +<p> +In the age of Cicero, the existence of a world beyond the +grave was still covered with shadows, clouds, and darkness. +<q>Whichsoever of the opinions concerning the substance of +the soul be true,</q> says he, in his first Tusculan Disputation, +<q>it will follow, that death is either a good, or at least not an +evil—for if it be brain, blood, or heart, it will perish with the +whole body—if fire, it will be extinguished—if breath, it will +be dissipated—if harmony, it will be broken—not to speak of +those who affirm that it is nothing; but other opinions give +hope, that the vital spark, after it has left the body, may mount +up to Heaven, as its proper habitation.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Cicero then proceeds to exhaust the whole Platonic reasoning +for the soul’s immortality, and its ascent to the celestial +regions, where it will explore and traverse all space—receiving, +in its boundless flight, infinite enjoyment. From his +system of future existence, Cicero excludes all the gloomy +fables feigned of the descent to Avernus, the pale murky +re<pb n='241'/><anchor id='Pg241'/>gions, the sluggish stream, the gaunt hound, and the grim +boatman. But even if death is to be considered as the total +extinction of sense and feeling, our author still denies that it +should be accounted an evil. This view he strongly supports, +from a consideration of the insignificance of those pleasures +of which we are deprived, and beautifully illustrates, from the +fate of many characters distinguished in history, who, by an +earlier death, would have avoided the greatest ills of life. +Had <anchor id="corr241"/><corr sic="Metullus">Metellus</corr> died sooner, he would not have laid his sons on +the funeral pile—had Pompey expired, when the inhabitants +of all Italy were decked with wreaths and garlands, as testimonies +of joy for his restoration to health from the fever with +which he was seized in Campania, he would not have taken +arms unprepared for the contest, nor fled his home and country; +nor, having lost a Roman army, would he have fallen on +a foreign shore by the sword of a slave<note place="foot">Juvenal, I think, had probably this passage of the Tusculan Disputations in +view, in the noble and pathetic lines of his tenth Satire— +<lg> +<l><q>Provida Pompeio dederat Campania febres,</q> &c.</l> +</lg></note>. He completes these +illustrations by reference to his own misfortunes; and the arguments +which he deduced from them, received, in a few +months, a strong and melancholy confirmation.—<q>Etiam ne +mors nobis expedit? qui et domesticis et forensibus solatiis +ornamentisque privati, certe, si ante occidissemus, mors nos a +malis, non a bonis abstraxisset.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The same unphilosophical guest, who had asserted that +death was a disadvantage, and whom Cicero, in charity to his +memory, does not name, is doomed, in the second dialogue, +<hi rend='italic'>De Tolerando Dolore</hi>, to announce the still more untenable +proposition, that pain is an evil. But Cicero demonstrated, +that its sufferings may be overcome, not by remembrance of +the silly Epicurean maxims,—<q>Short if severe, and light if +long,</q> but by fortitude and patience; and he accordingly censures +those philosophers, who have represented pain in too +formidable colours, and reproaches those poets, who have described +their heroes as yielding to its influence. +</p> + +<p> +In the third book, <hi rend='italic'>De Ægritudine Lenienda</hi>, the author +treats of the best alleviations of sorrow. To foresee calamities, +and be prepared for them, is either to repel their assaults, or +to mitigate their severity. After they have occurred, we ought +to remember, that grieving is a folly which cannot avail us, +and that misfortunes are not peculiar to ourselves, but are the +common lot of humanity. The sorrow of which Cicero here +treats, seems chiefly that occasioned by deprivation of friends +and relatives, to which the recent loss of his daughter Tullia, +<pb n='242'/><anchor id='Pg242'/>and the composition of his treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Consolatione</hi>, had probably +directed his attention. +</p> + +<p> +The fourth book treats <hi rend='italic'>De Reliquis animi Perturbationibus</hi>, +including all those passions and vexations, which the author +considers as diseases of the soul. These he classes and defines—pointing +out, at the same time, the remedy or relief appropriate +to each disquietude. In the fifth book, in which he +attempts to prove that virtue alone is sufficient for perfect +felicity—<hi rend='italic'>Virtutem ad beate vivendum se ipsâ esse contentam</hi>—he +coincides more completely with the opinions of the +Stoics, than in his work <hi rend='italic'>De Finibus</hi>, where he seems to assent, +to the Peripatetic doctrine, <q>that though virtue be the +chief good, the perfection of the other qualities of nature enters +into the composition of supreme happiness.</q> +</p> + +<p> +In these Tusculan Disputations, which treat of the subjects +most important and subservient to the happiness of life, the +whole discourse is in the mouth of Tully himself;—the Auditor, +whose initial letter some editors have whimsically mistaken +for that of Atticus, being a mere man of straw. He is +set up to announce what is to be represented as an untenable +proposition: but after this duty is performed, no English hearer +or Welsh uncle could have listened with less dissent and interruption. +The great object of Cicero’s continued lectures, is +by fortifying the mind with practical and philosophical lessons, +adapted to the circumstances of life, to elevate us above +the influence of all its passions and pains. +</p> + +<p> +The first conference, which is intended to diminish the +dread of death, is the best; but they are all agreeable, chiefly +from the frequent allusion to ancient fable, the events of Greek +and Roman history, and the memorable sayings of heroes and +sages. There is something in the very names of such men as +Plato and Epaminondas, which bestows a sanctity and fervour +on the page. The references also to the ancient Latin poets, +and the quotations from their works, particularly the tragic +dramas, give a beautiful richness to the whole composition; +and even on the driest topics, the mind is relieved by the recurrence +of extracts characteristic of the vigour of the Roman +Melpomene, who, though unfit, as in Greece, +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q>To wake the soul by tender strokes of art,</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +long trod the stage with dignity and elevation. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Paradoxa</hi>.—This tract contains a defence of six peculiar +opinions or paradoxes of the Stoics, somewhat of the description +of those which Cato was wont to promulgate in the Senate. +These are, that what is morally fitting (<hi rend='italic'>honestum</hi>) is +<pb n='243'/><anchor id='Pg243'/>alone good,—that the virtuous can want nothing for complete +happiness—that there are no degrees in crimes or good actions—that +every fool is mad—that the wise alone are wealthy—that +the wise man alone is free, and that every fool is a slave. +These absurd and quibbling positions the author supports, in +a manner certainly more ingenious than philosophical. The +<hi rend='italic'>Paradoxa</hi>, indeed, seem to have been written as a sort of exercise +of rhetorical wit, rather than as a serious disquisition in +philosophy; and each paradox is personally applied or directed +against an individual. There is no precision whatever +in the definitions; the author plays on the ambiguity of the +words, <hi rend='italic'>bonum</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>dives</hi>, and his arguments frequently degenerate +into particular examples, which are by no means adequate +to support his general proposition. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>De Naturâ Deorum</hi>.—Of the various philosophical works +of Cicero, the most curious perhaps, and important, is that on +the Nature of the Gods. It is addressed to Brutus, and is written +in dialogue. This form of composition, besides the advantages +already pointed out, is peculiarly fitted for subjects +of delicacy and danger, where the author dreads to expose himself +to reproach or persecution. On this account chiefly it +seems to have been adopted by the disciples of Socrates. +That philosopher had fallen a victim to popular fury,—to +those imputations of impiety which have so often and so successfully +been repeated against philosophers. In the schools +of his disciples, a double doctrine seems to have been adopted +for the purpose of escaping persecution, and Plato probably +considered the form of dialogue as best calculated to secure +him from the imputations of his enemies. It was thus, in +later times, that Galileo endeavoured to shield himself from +the attacks of error and injustice, and imagined, that by presenting +his conclusions in the Platonic manner, he would shun +the malignant vigilance of the Court of Inquisition<note place="foot">Some of the advantages and disadvantages of the method of writing in dialogue, +are stated by Mr. Hume, in the introduction to his <hi rend='italic'>Dialogues concerning +Natural Religion</hi>, (London, 1779, 8vo,) a work apparently modelled on Cicero’s +Nature of the Gods.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +In the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Naturâ Deorum</hi>, the author presents +the doctrines of three of the most distinguished sects among +the ancients—the Epicureans, the Stoics, and the Academics—on +the important subject of the Nature of the Divine Essence, +and of Providence. He introduces three illustrious +persons of his country, each elucidating the tenets of the sect +that he preferred, and contending for them, doubtless, with +the chief arguments which the learning or talents of the author +himself could supply. Cicero represents himself as +hav<pb n='244'/><anchor id='Pg244'/>ing gone to the house of C. Cotta the Pontifex Maximus, whom +he found sitting in his study with C. Velleius, a Senator, who +professed the principles of Epicurus, and Q. Lucilius Balbus, +a supporter of the doctrines of the Stoics.—<q>As soon as Cotta +saw me, <q>You are come,</q> says he, <q>very seasonably, for I have +a dispute with Velleius upon an important subject, in which, +considering the nature of your studies, it is not improper for +you to join.</q>—<q>Indeed,</q> said I, <q>I am come very seasonably, +as you say, for here are three chiefs of the three principal +sects met together.</q></q> Cotta himself is a new Academic, and +he proceeds to inform Cicero that they were discoursing on +the nature of the gods, a topic which had always appeared to +him very obscure, and that therefore he had prevailed on Velleius +to state the sentiments of Epicurus upon the subject. +Velleius is requested to go on with his arguments; and after +recapitulating what he had already said, <q>with the confidence +peculiar to his sect, dreading nothing so much as to seem to +doubt about anything, he began, as if he had just then descended +from the council of the gods<note place="foot">In the English extracts from Cicero <hi rend='italic'>De Nat. Deor.</hi> I have availed myself of +a very good but anonymous translation, printed Lond. 1741, 8vo.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The discourse of Velleius consists, in a considerable degree, +of raillery and declamations directed against the doctrines of +different sects, of which he enumerates a great variety, and +which supposes in Cicero extensive philosophical erudition, or +rather, perhaps, from the slight manner in which they are +passed over, that he had taken his account of them from some +ancient Diogenes Laertius, or Stanley<note place="foot">In the Herculanensia, (p. 22,) Sir William Drummond contends, at considerable +length, that a work <hi rend='italic'>On Piety according to Epicurus</hi>, (<foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Περι Ευσεβεῖας κατ’ Επικουρον</foreign><!--[Greek: Peri Eusebeias kat’ +Epikouron]-->,) of which a fragment has been discovered at Herculaneum, was the prototype +of a considerable part of the discourse of Velleius. The reader will find a +version of the passages in which a resemblance appears, in the Quarterly Review, +(No. V.) where it is also remarked, <q>that Sir William seems to us to have failed +altogether in rendering it probable that Cicero had ever seen this important fragment, +the passages in which there is any resemblance, relating, without exception, +to what each author is reporting of the doctrines of certain older philosophers, as +expressed in their works; and the reports are not by any means so precisely similar +as to induce us to suppose that Cicero had even taken the very justifiable liberty of +saving himself some little trouble, by making use of another author’s abstract, from +Chrysippus, and from Diogenes the Babylonian.</q> Schütz, the German editor of +Cicero, enumerates some works, which he thinks Cicero had read, and others, +which he seems to have known merely from summaries and abridgments. The +following is his conjecture with regard to the writings of Epicurus:—<q>Epicuri +denique <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">κυριας δοξας</foreign><!--[Greek: kyrias doxas]-->, + ejus <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">κανονα</foreign><!--[Greek: kanona]--> seu libros, de Judicio, item + <foreign rend="Greek" lang="el">περι φυσεως</foreign><!--[Greek: peri physeôs]--> et + <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">περι ὁσιοτητος</foreign><!--[Greek: peri +hosiotêtos]-->, non ex aliorum tantum testimoniis, sed ex suâ ipsius lectione ei notos +fuisse, facile, tot locis ubi de eo agitur inter se collatis, intelligitur.</q> (Cicer. <hi rend='italic'>Opera</hi>, +Tom. XV. p. 27.) Perhaps the treatise, <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">περι Ὁσιοτητος</foreign><!--[Greek: Peri Hosiotêtos]-->, was a similar work to +that, <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Περι Ευσεβεῖας</foreign><!--[Greek: Peri Eusebeias-->.</note>.—<q>I have hitherto,</q> +says Velleius, <q>rather exposed the dreams of dotards than the +opinions of philosophers; and whoever considers how rashly +<pb n='245'/><anchor id='Pg245'/>and inconsiderately their tenets are advanced, must entertain +a veneration for Epicurus, and rank him in the number of +those beings who are the subject of this dispute, for he alone +first founded the existence of the gods, on the impression +which nature herself hath made on the minds of men.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Velleius having concluded his discourse, (the remainder of +which can now have little interest as relating to the form of +the gods and their apathy,) Cotta, after some compliments to +him, enters on a confutation of what he had advanced; and, +while admitting that there are gods, he pronounces the reasons +given by Velleius for their existence to be altogether insufficient. +He then proceeds to attack the other positions of Velleius, +with regard to the form of the gods, and their exemption +from the labours of creation and providence. His arguments +against Anthropomorphism are excellent; and in reply to the +hypothesis of Epicurus concerning the indolence of the gods, +he inquires, <q>What reason is there that men should worship +the gods, when the gods, as you say, not only do not regard +men, but are entirely careless of everything, and absolutely do +nothing? But they are, you say, of so glorious a nature, that +a wise man is induced by their excellence to adore them. Can +there be any glory in that nature, which only contemplates its +own happiness, and neither will do, nor does, nor ever did +anything? Besides, what piety is due to a being from whom +you receive nothing, or how are you indebted to him who bestows +no benefits?</q> +</p> + +<p> +When Cotta has concluded his refutation of Velleius, with +which the first book closes, Balbus is next requested to give +the sentiments of the Stoics, on the subject of the gods, to +which, making a slight excuse, he consents. His first argument +for their existence, after shortly alluding to the magnificence +of the world, and the prevalence of the doctrine, is <q>the +frequent appearance of the gods themselves. In the war with +the Latins,</q> he continues, <q>when A. Posthumius, the Dictator, +attacked Octavius Mamilius, the Tusculan, at Regillus, Castor +and Pollux were seen fighting in our army on horseback, +and since that time the same offspring of Tyndarus gave notice +of the defeat of Perseus; for P. Vatienus, grandfather of +the present youth of that name, coming in the night to Rome, +from his government of Reate, two young men on white horses +appeared to him, and told him King Perseus was that day taken +prisoner. This news he carried to the Senate, who immediately +threw him into prison, for speaking inconsiderately on +a state affair; but when it was confirmed by letters from Paullus, +he was recompensed by the Senate with land and exemption. +The voices of the Fauns have been often heard, and +<pb n='246'/><anchor id='Pg246'/>deities have appeared in forms so visible, that he who doubts +must be hardened in stupidity or impiety.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Balbus, after farther arguing for the existence of the gods, +from events consequent on auguries and auspices, proceeds to +what is more peculiarly the doctrine of the Stoics. He remarks,—<q>that +Cleanthes, one of the most distinguished philosophers +of that sect, imputes the idea of the gods implanted +in the minds of men, to four causes—The first is, what I just +now mentioned, a pre-knowledge of future things: The second +is, the great advantages we enjoy from the temperature of the +air, the fertility of the earth, and the abundance of various +kinds of benefits: The third is, the terror with which the mind +is affected by thunder, tempests, snow, hail, devastation, +pestilence, earthquakes, often attended with hideous noises, +showers of stones, and rain like drops of blood. His fourth +cause,</q> continues Balbus, <q>and that the strongest, is drawn +from the regularity of the motion, and revolution of the heavens, +the variety, and beauty, and order of the sun, moon, and +stars; the appearance only of which is sufficient to convince +us they are not the effects of chance; as when we enter +into a house, a school, or court, and observe the exact order, +discipline, and method therein, we cannot suppose they are so +regulated without a cause, but must conclude there is some +one who commands, and to whom obedience is paid; so we +have much greater reason to think that such wonderful motions, +revolutions, and order of those many and great bodies, +no part of which is impaired by the vast infinity of age, are +governed by some intelligent being.</q> +</p> + +<p> +This argument is very well stated, but Balbus, in a considerable +degree, weakens its effect, by proceeding to contend, +that the world, or universe itself, (the stoical deity,) and its +most distinguished parts, the sun, moon, and stars, are possessed +of reason and wisdom. This he founds partly on a +metaphysical argument, and partly on the regularity, beauty, +and order of their motions. +</p> + +<p> +Balbus, after various other remarks, enters on the topic of +the creation of the world, and its government by the providence +of the gods. He justly observes, that nothing can be +more absurd than to suppose that a world, so beautifully adorned, +could be formed by chance, or by a fortuitous concourse +of atoms<note place="foot">In his Dialogues on Natural Religion, Mr. Hume puts two very good remarks +into the mouth of one of his characters. Speaking of Cicero’s argument for a Deity, +deduced from the grandeur and magnificence of nature, he observes, <q>If this argument, +I say, had any force in former ages, how much greater must it have at present, +when the bounds of nature are so infinitely enlarged, and such a magnificent scene is +opened to us!</q> P. 103.—Again, in mentioning that the infidelity of Galen was +cured by the study of anatomy, (which was much more extended by him than it had +been in the days of Cicero,) he says, <q>And if the infidelity of Galen, even when +these natural sciences were still imperfect, could not withstand such striking appearances, +to what pitch of pertinacious obstinacy must a <anchor id="corr246"/><corr sic="phiosopher">philosopher</corr> in this age have +attained, who can now doubt of a Supreme Intelligence!</q> P. 23.—See also Lactantius, +<hi rend='italic'>De Opificio Dei</hi>.</note>. <q>He who believes this possible,</q> says he, <q>may +<pb n='247'/><anchor id='Pg247'/>as well believe, that if a great number of the one-and-twenty +letters, composed either of gold, or any other metal, were +thrown on the ground, they would fall into such order as legibly +to form the Annals of Ennius. I doubt whether fortune +could make a single verse of them.</q> He quotes a very beautiful +passage from a now lost work of Aristotle, in which that +philosopher urges the argument that may be deduced from +providential design, with more soundness and imagination than +are usual with him. Balbus then proceeds to display the +marks of deliberate plan in the universe, beginning with astronomy. +In treating of the constellations, he makes great +use of Cicero’s poetical version of Aratus, much of which he +is supposed, perhaps with little probability, or modesty in the +author, to have by heart; and, accordingly, we are favoured +with a considerable number of these verses. He also adduces +manifold proofs of design and sovereign wisdom, from a consideration +of plants, land animals, fishes, and the structure of +the human body; a subject on which Cicero discovers more +anatomical knowledge than one should have expected. Balbus +also contends that the gods not only provide for mankind +universally, but for individuals. <q>The frequent appearances +of the gods,</q> he observes, <q>demonstrate their regard for cities +and particular men. This, indeed, is also apparent from the +foreknowledge of events, which we receive either sleeping or +waking.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Cicero makes Balbus, in the conclusion of his discourse, express +but little confidence in his own arguments.—<q>This is +almost the whole,</q> says he, <q>that has occurred to my mind, +on the nature of the gods, and that I thought proper to advance. +Do you, Cotta, if I may advise, defend the same cause. +Remember that in Rome you keep the first rank—remember +you are Pontifex. It is a pernicious and impious custom, either +seriously or seemingly to argue against the gods.</q> +</p> + +<p> +In the third book of this very remarkable work, Cicero exhibits +Cotta as refuting the doctrines of Balbus. <q>But before +I enter on the subject,</q> says Cotta, <q>I have a word to say concerning +myself; for I am greatly influenced by your authority, +and your exhortation at the conclusion of your discourse, to +remember I was Cotta, and Pontifex; by which, I presume, +you intimated that I should defend the religion and +ceremo<pb n='248'/><anchor id='Pg248'/>nies which we received from our ancestors: Truly, I always +have, and always will defend them, nor shall the arguments, +either of the learned or unlearned, ever remove the opinions I +have imbibed concerning the worship of the immortal gods. +In matters of religion, I submit to the rules of the High Priests, +T. Coruncanius, P. Scipio, and P. Scævola. These, Balbus,</q> +continues he, <q>are my sentiments, both as a priest and Cotta. +But you must bring me to your opinion by the force of your +reason; for a philosopher should prove to me the religion he +would have me embrace; but I must believe without proof the +religion of our ancestors.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The Pontifex thus professing to believe the existence of the +gods merely on the authority of his ancestors, proceeds to ridicule +this very authority. He represents the appearances of +Castor and Pollux, and those others adduced by Balbus, as idle +tales. <q>Do you take these for fabulous stories?</q> says Balbus. +<q>Is not the temple built by Posthumius, in honour of Castor +and Pollux, to be seen in the Forum? Is not the decree of +the Senate concerning Vatienus still subsisting? Ought not +such authorities to move you?</q>—<q>You oppose me,</q> replies +Cotta, <q>with stories; but I ask reasons of you.</q> +</p> + +<p> +A chasm here follows in the original, in which Cotta probably +stated the reasons of his scepticism, in spite of the acts of +the Senate, and so many public memorials of supernatural +facts. <q>You believe,</q> continues Cotta, <q>that the Decii, in +devoting themselves to death, appeased the gods. How great, +then, was the iniquity of the gods, that they could not be appeased, +but at the price of such noble blood!—As to the voice +of the Fauns, I never heard it; if you assure me you have, I +shall believe you; though I am absolutely ignorant what a +Faun is. Truly, Balbus, you have not yet proved the existence +of the gods. I believe it, indeed, but not from any arguments +of the Stoics. Cleanthes, you said, attributes the idea that +men have of the gods to four causes. The first is a foreknowledge +of future events; the second,—tempests and other +shocks of nature; the third,—the utility and plenty of things +we enjoy; the fourth,—the invariable order of the stars +and heavens. Foreknowledge I have already answered. With +regard to tempests in the air, the sea, and the earth, I own, that +many people are affrighted by them, and imagine that the +immortal gods are the authors of them. But the question is +not, whether there be people who believe there are gods, but +whether there are gods or not. As to the two other causes of +Cleanthes, one of which is derived from the plenty we enjoy, +the other from the invariable order of the seasons and heavens, +<pb n='249'/><anchor id='Pg249'/>I shall treat on them when I answer your discourse concerning +the providence of the gods.</q> +</p> + +<p> +In the meantime, Cotta goes on to refute the Stoical notions +with regard to the reason and understanding attributed to the +sun, moon, and stars. He then proceeds to controvert, and +occasionally to ridicule, the opinions entertained of numerous +heathen gods; the three Jupiters, and other deities, and sons +of deities.—<q>You call Jupiter and Neptune gods,</q> says he; +<q>their brother Pluto, then, is one; Charon, also, and Cerberus, +are gods, but that cannot be allowed. Nor can Pluto be placed +among the deities; how then can his brothers?</q> Cotta next +ridicules the Stoics for the delight they take in the explication +of fables, and in the etymology of names; after which he says, +<q>Let us proceed to the two other parts of our dispute. 1st, +Whether there is a Divine Providence that governs the world? +and, lastly, Whether that Providence particularly regards mankind? +For these are the remaining propositions of your +discourse.</q> +</p> + +<p> +There follows a considerable <hi rend='italic'>hiatus</hi> in the original, so that +we are deprived of all the arguments of Cotta on the proposition +maintained by Balbus, that there is a Divine Providence +which governs the world. At the end of this chasm, we find +him quoting long passages from tragedies, and arguing +against the advantages of reason, from the ill use which has +been made of it. He then adduces a number of instances, +drawn from history and observation, of fortunate vice, and of +wrecked and ruined virtue, in order to overturn the doctrine of +<hi rend='italic'>particular providence</hi>; contending, that as no family or state +can be supposed to be formed with any judgment or discipline, +if there are no rewards for good actions, or punishment +for bad, so we cannot believe that a Divine Providence regulates +the world, when there is no distinction between the honest +and the wicked. +</p> + +<p> +<q>This,</q> concludes Cotta, <q>is the purport of what I had to +say concerning the nature of the gods, not with a design to +destroy their existence, but merely to show what an obscure +point it is, and with what difficulties an explanation of it is +attended.</q> Balbus observing that Cotta had finished his discourse, +<q>You have been very severe,</q> says he, <q>against the +being of a Divine Providence, a doctrine established by the +Stoics, with piety and wisdom; but, as it grows too late, I +shall defer my answer to another day.</q>—<q>There is nothing,</q> +replied Cotta, <q>I desire more than to be confuted.</q>—<q>The +conversation ended here, and we parted. Velleius judged that +the arguments of Cotta were the truest, but those of Balbus +seemed to me to have the greater probability.</q> +</p> + +<pb n='250'/><anchor id='Pg250'/> + +<p> +It seems likely that this profession or pretext, that the discourse +is left unfinished, may (like the occasional apologies +of Cotta) be introduced to save appearances<note place="foot">There was published, <hi rend='italic'>Bononiæ</hi>, 1811, <hi rend='italic'>M. T. Ciceronis de Naturâ Deorum +Liber Quartus: e pervetusto Codice MS. Membranaceo nunc primum edidit P. +Seraphinus Ord. Fr. Min.</hi>—This tract was republished, (Oxonii, 1813,) by Mr. +Lunn, who says in a prefatory note, that <q>he entertains no doubt, from the opinion +of several of his friends, of this production being a literary forgery.</q> Of this, indeed, +there can be no doubt, as appears among various other proofs, from the minute +account of the Jews.—<q>Sed etiam plures adhibere deos vel divos, a quibus ipsi +regantur, quos nomine Elohim designare soleant, secundi ordinis,</q> &c. (p. 12.)—There +is some humour in the manner in which the Italian editor, in a preface written +in the rude style of a simple friar, obtests that the work is not a forgery.—<q>Sed ne +quis existimet, me ipsum fecisse hunc librum, testor, detestor, obtestor, et contestor, +per S. Franciscum Assissium, me talem facere non posse, qui sacris incumbere +cogor, nec profanis possum,</q> &c.</note>. It is evident, +however, that Cicero intended to add, at least, new prefaces +to the two latter books of this work, probably from suspecting, +as he went on, that the discourses are too long to have +taken place in one day, as they are now represented. Balbus +says, in the second book, <q>Velut a te ipso, hesterno die dictum +est<note place="foot">C. 29.</note>.</q> Fulvius Ursinus had remarked that this was an +inadvertence, either in Cicero or a transcriber, as the discourse +is continued throughout the same day. That it was +not owing to a transcriber, or to any inadvertence in Cicero, +but to a design of altering the introductions to the second and +third books, appears from a passage in book third, where +Cotta says to Balbus, <q>Omniaque, quæ a te <hi rend='italic'>nudiustertius</hi> +dicta sunt<note place="foot">C. 7.</note>.</q> Now, it is extremely unlikely that there should +have been two such instances of inadvertency in the author, +or carelessness in the copyist. +</p> + +<p> +The work on the Nature of the Gods, though in many +respects a most valuable production, and a convincing proof +of the extensive learning of its author, gives a melancholy +picture of the state of his mind. Unfitted to bear adversity, +and borne down by the calamities of his country, and the +death of his beloved daughter, (misfortunes of which he often +complains,) Cicero seems to have become a sceptic, and +occasionally to have doubted even of a superintending Providence. +Warburton appears to be right in supposing, that +Cicero was advanced in years before he seriously adopted the +sceptical opinions of the new Academy. <q>This farther appears,</q> +says he, after some remarks on this head, <q>from a +place in his Nature of the Gods, where he says, that his +espousing the new Academy of a sudden, was a thing altogether +unlooked for<note place="foot">Multis etiam sensi mirabile videri, eam nobis potissimum probatam esse philosophiam, +quæ lucem eriperet, et quasi noctem quandam rebus offunderet, desertæque +disciplinæ et jampridem relictæ patrocinium nec opinatum a nobis esse susceptum.—(<hi rend='italic'>De +Nat. Deor.</hi> Lib. I. c. 3.)</note>. The change, then, was late, and after +<pb n='251'/><anchor id='Pg251'/>the ruin of the republic, when Cicero retired from business, +and had leisure in his recess to plan and execute this noble +undertaking. So that a learned critic appears to have been +mistaken, when he supposed the choice of the new Academy +was made in his youth. <q>This sect,</q> says he, <q>did best agree +with the vast genius, and ambitious spirit, of <hi rend='italic'>young Cicero</hi><note place="foot">Warburton, <hi rend='italic'>Divine Legation</hi>, Vol. II. p. 168. Ed. 1755. Warburton here +alludes to Bentley—<hi rend='italic'>Remarks on a late Discourse of Free-thinking</hi>, Part II. +Rem. 53.</note>.</q></q> +</p> + +<p> +It appears not, however, to have been, as Warburton supposes, +altogether from a systematic plan, of explaining to his +countrymen the philosophy of the Greeks, that Cicero became +a sceptic; but partly from gloomy views of nature and providence. +It seems difficult otherwise to account for the circumstance, +that Cotta, an ancient and venerable Consul, the +<hi rend='italic'>Pontifex</hi> of the metropolis of the world, should be introduced +as contending, even against an Epicurean, for the non-existence +of the gods. Lord Bolingbroke has justly remarked, +<q>that Cotta disputes so vehemently, and his arguments extend +so far, that Tully makes his own brother accuse him directly, +and himself by consequence indirectly, of atheism.—<q>Studio +contra Stoicos disserendi deos mihi videtur funditus tollere.</q> +Now, what says Tully in his own name? He tells his brother +that Cotta disputes in that manner, rather to confute the +Stoics than to destroy the religion of mankind.—<q>Magis quam +ut hominum deleat religionem.</q> But Quintus answers, that +is, Tully makes him answer, he was not the bubble of an artifice, +employed to save the appearance of departing from the +public religious institutions. <q>Ne communi jure migrare +videatur<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Bolingbroke’s Works</hi>, Vol. VIII. p. 81. ed. 8vo.</note>.</q></q> Cotta, indeed, goes so far in his attack on Providence, +that Lord Bolingbroke, who is not himself a model +of orthodoxy, takes up the other side of the question against +the Roman Pontiff, and pleads the cause of Providence with +no little reason and eloquence.<note place="foot">Ibid. p. 266, 278.</note> +</p> + +<p> +In the foregoing analysis, or abridgment of the work on the +Nature of the Gods, it will have been remarked, that two chasms +occur in the argument of Cotta. Olivet enters into some discussion +with regard to the latter and larger chasm. <q>I cannot,</q> +says he, <q>see any justice in the accusation against the primitive +Christians, of having torn this passage out of all the MSS. +What appearance is there, that through a pious motive they +should have erased this any more than many others in the +same book, which they must undoubtedly have looked upon +<pb n='252'/><anchor id='Pg252'/>as no less pernicious?</q> Olivet seems inclined to suspect the +Pagans; but, in my opinion, the chasms in the discourse of +Cotta, if not accidental, are to be attributed rather to Christian +than pagan zeal. Arnobius, indeed, speaking of this +work, says, That many were of opinion that it ought to have +been destroyed by the Roman Senate, as the Christian faith +might be approved by it, and the authority of antiquity subverted<note place="foot">Fuerint qui judicarent oportere statui per Senatum ut aboleantur hæc scripta, +quibus religio Christiana comprobetur, et vetustatis opprimatur auctoritas.—Arnobius, +<hi rend='italic'>Adversus Gentes</hi>, Lib. III.</note>. +There is no evidence, however, that any such destruction +or mutilation was attempted by the Pagans; and we +find that the satire directed against the heathen deities has +been permitted to remain, while the chasms intervene in portions +of the work, which might have been supposed by a pious +zealot, to bear, in some measure, against the Christian, as well +as the Pagan faith. In the first of them, the Pontifex begins, +and is proceeding to contend, that in spite of Acts of the +Senate, temples, statues, and other commemorations of miraculous +circumstances, all such prodigies were nothing but +mere fables, however solemnly attested, or generally believed. +Now, the transcriber might fear, lest a similar inference should +be drawn by the sceptic, to that which has in fact been deduced +by the English translator of this work, in the following +passage of a note:—<q>Hence we see what little credit ought +to be paid to facts, said to be done out of the ordinary course +of nature. These miracles are well attested: They were +recorded in the annals of a great people—believed by many +learned and otherwise sagacious persons, and received as +religious truths by the populace; but the testimonies of ancient +records, the credulity of some learned men, and the implicit +faith of the vulgar, can never prove that to have been, which +is impossible in the nature of things ever to be.</q> At the +beginning of the other and larger chasm, Cotta was proceeding +to argue against the proposition of the Stoics, that there is a +Divine Providence which governs the world. Now, there is +a considerable analogy between the system of the ancient +Stoics, and the Christian scheme of Providence, both in the +theoretical doctrine, and in the practical inference, of the propriety +of a cheerful and unqualified submission to the chain +of events—to the dispensations of nature in the Stoical, and +of God in the purer doctrine. To Christian zeal, therefore, +rather than to pagan prudence, we must attribute the two +chasms which now intervene in the discourse of Cotta. +</p> + +<p> +In the remarks which have been now offered on this work, +<hi rend='italic'>De Naturâ Deorum</hi>, I trust I have brought no unfounded or +<pb n='253'/><anchor id='Pg253'/>uncharitable accusation against Cicero. He was a person, at +least in his own age and country, of unrivalled talents and +learning—he was a great, and, on the whole, a good man—but +his mind was sensitive, and feeble against misfortune. +There are æras, and monuments perhaps in every æra, when +we are ready to exclaim with Brutus, <q>That virtue is an +empty name:</q> And the doubts and darkness of such a mind +as that of Cicero, enriched with all the powers of genius, and +all the treasures of philosophy, afford a new proof of the +necessity for the appearance of that Divine Messenger, who +was then on the eve of descending upon earth. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>De Divinatione</hi>.—The long account which has been given +of the dialogue on the Nature of the Gods, renders it unnecessary +to say much on the work <hi rend='italic'>De Divinatione</hi>. This treatise +may be considered, in some measure, as a supplement to +that <hi rend='italic'><anchor id="corr253"/><corr sic="De Natura Deorum">De Naturâ Deorum</corr></hi>. The religion of the Romans consisted +of two different branches—the worship of the gods, and +the observation of the signs by which their will was supposed +to be revealed. Cicero having already discussed what related +to the nature and worship of the gods, a treatise on Divination +formed a natural continuation of the subject<note place="foot">In the preface to the second book of this treatise, <hi rend='italic'>De Divinatione</hi>, Cicero, +enumerating his late philosophical compositions, says, <q>Quibus libris editis, tres +libri perfecti sunt <hi rend='italic'>De Naturâ Deorum</hi> * * quæ ut plene essent cumulateque perfecta, +<hi rend='italic'>De Divinatione</hi> ingressi sumus his libris <anchor id="corr253a"/><corr sic="(quote missing)">scribere.</corr></q>—(<hi rend='italic'>De Div.</hi> Lib. II. c. 1.)</note>. In his work +on this topic, which was one almost peculiar to the Romans, +Cicero professes to relate the substance of a conversation held +at Tusculum with his brother, in which Quintus, on the principles +of the Stoics, supported the credibility of divination, +while Cicero himself controverted it. The dialogue consists +of two books, the first of which comprehends an enumeration +by Quintus of the different kinds or classes of divination, with +the reasons or presumptions in their favour. The second +book contains a refutation by Cicero of his brother’s arguments. +</p> + +<p> +Quintus, while walking with his brother in the Lyceum at +Tusculum, begins his observations by stating, that he had +read the third book which Cicero had lately written, on the +Nature of the Gods, in which Cotta seemed to contend for +atheism, but had by no means been able to refute Balbus. +He remarks, at the same time, that the subject of divination +had not been treated of in these books, perhaps in order that +it might be separately discussed more fully, and that he would +gladly, if his brother had leisure and inclination, state his own +opinions on the subject. The answer of Cicero is very +noble.—<q>Ego vero, inquam, Philosophiæ, Quinte, semper +<pb n='254'/><anchor id='Pg254'/>vaco. Hoc autem tempore, quum sit nihil aliud quod libenter +agere possim multo magis aveo audire de divinatione quid +sentias.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Quintus, after observing that divinations of various kinds +have been common among all people, remarks, and afterwards +frequently repeats, that it is no argument against different +modes of divination, that we cannot explain how or why certain +things happen. It is sufficient, that we know from experience +and history, that they do happen<note place="foot">Hoc sum contentus; quod, etiamsi, quomodo quidque fiat, ignorem, quid fiat, +intelligo.</note>. He contends that +Cicero himself supports the doctrine of divination, in the poem +on his Consulship, from which he quotes a long passage, sufficient +to console us for the loss of that work. He argues, that +although events may not always succeed as predicted, it does +not follow that divination is not an art, more than that medicine +is not an art, because cures may not always be effected. In +the course of this book we have a complete account of the +state contrivances which were practised by the Roman government, +to instil among the people those hopes and fears whereby +it regulated public opinion, in which view it has been justly +termed a chapter in the history of man. The great charm, +however, of the first book, consists in the number of histories +adduced by Quintus, in proof of the truth of different kinds of +omens, dreams, portents, and divinations.—<q>Negemus omnia,</q> +says he, <q>comburamus annales.</q> He states various circumstances +consistent with his and his brother’s own knowledge; +and, among others, two remarkable dreams, one of which had +occurred to Cicero, and one to himself. He asks if the Greek +history be also a fable.—<q>Num etiam Græcorum historia +mentita est?</q> and, in short, throughout takes the following +high ground:—<q>Quid est, igitur, cur dubitandum sit, quin sint +ea, quæ disputavi, verissima? Si ratio mecum facit, si eventa, +si populi, si nationes, si Græci, si barbari, si majores etiam +nostri, si summi philosophi, si poetæ, et sapientissimi viri qui +res publicas constituerunt, qui urbes condiderunt; si denique +hoc semper ita putatum est: an dum bestiæ loquantur, expectamus, +hominum consentiente auctoritate, contenti non sumus<note place="foot">C. 38.</note>?</q> +</p> + +<p> +The second book of this work is introduced by a preface, in +which Cicero enumerates the philosophical treatises which he +had lately written. He then proceeds to state, that at the conclusion +of the discourse of Quintus, which was held while they +were walking in the Lyceum, they sat down in the library, and +he began to reply to his brother’s arguments. His commencement +is uncommonly beautiful.—<q>Atque ego; Accurate tu +<pb n='255'/><anchor id='Pg255'/>quidem, inquam, Quinte, et Stoice Stoicorum sententiam +defendisti: quodque me maxime delectat, plurimis nostris +exemplis usus es, et iis quidem claris et illustribus. Dicendum +est mihi igitur ad ea, quæ sunt a te dicta, sed ita, nihil ut +affirmem, quæram omnia, dubitans plerumque, et mihi ipse +diffidens<note place="foot">C. 3.</note>.</q> It is unnecessary to give any summary of the +arguments of Cicero against auguries, auspices, astrology, lots, +dreams, and every species of omens and prodigies. His discourse +is a masterpiece of reasoning; and if sufficiently studied +during the dark ages of Europe, would have sufficed, in a great +degree, to have prevented or dispelled the superstitious gloom. +Nothing can be finer than the concluding chapter on the evils +of superstition, and Cicero’s efforts to extirpate it, without +injuring religion. The whole thread, too, of his argumentative +eloquence, is interwoven and strengthened by curious and +interesting stories. As a specimen of the agreeable manner +in which these are introduced, the twenty-fourth chapter may +be cited:—<q>Vetus autem illud Catonis admodum scitum est, +qui mirari se aiebat, quod non rideret haruspex, haruspicem +quum vidisset. Quota enim quæque res evenit prædicta ab +ipsis? Aut si evenit quippiam, quid afferri potest, cur non +casu id evenerit? Rex Prusias, quum Annibali apud eum +exsulanti depugnari placeret, negabat se audere, quod exta +prohiberent. An tu, inquit, carunculæ vitulinæ mavis, quam +imperatori veteri, credere? Quid? Ipse Cæsar, quum a summo +haruspice moneretur, ne in Africam ante brumam transmitteret, +nonne transmisit? Quod ni fecisset, uno in loco omnes +adversariorum copiæ convenissent. Quid ego haruspicum +responsa commemorem, (possum equidem innumerabilia,) quæ +aut nullos habuerunt exitus, aut contrarios? Hoc civili bello, +Dii Immortales! Quam multa luserunt—quæ nobis in Græciam +Româ responsa haruspicum missa sunt? Quæ dicta +Pompeio? Etenim ille admodum extis et ostentis movebatur. +Non lubet commemorare, nec vero necesse est, tibi præsertim, +qui interfuisti. Vides tamen, omnia fere contra, ac dicta sunt, +evenisse.</q> One great charm of all the philosophical works of +Cicero, and particularly of this treatise, consists in the anecdotes +with which they abound. This practice of intermingling +histories, might have been partly owing to Tully’s habits as +a pleader—partly to the works having been composed in <q>narrative +old age.</q> His moral conclusions seem thus occasionally +to have the certainty of physical experiments, by the support +which they receive from occurrences, suggested to him by +his wide experience; while, at the same time,— +</p> + +<pb n='256'/><anchor id='Pg256'/> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">His candid style, like a clean stream doth slide,</q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>And his bright fancy, all the way,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><q rend="pre: none">Doth like the sun-shine on it play<note place="foot">Cowley.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>De Fato</hi>.—This tract, which is the last of Cicero’s philosophical +works, treats of a subject which occupied as important +a place in the metaphysics and theology of the ancients, as +free will and necessity have filled in modern speculation. The +dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Fato</hi> is held in the villa of Cicero, called the +Puteolan or the Academia, which was situated on the shore of +Baiæ, between the lake Avernus and the harbour of Puteoli. +It stood in the curve of the bay, and almost on the beach, so +as to enjoy the breezes and murmurs of the sea. The house +was built according to the plan of the Academy at Athens, +being adorned with a portico and grove, for the purposes of +philosophical conference<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. XXXI. c. 2.</note>; and with a gallery, which surrounded +a square court in the centre. <q>Twelve or thirteen +arches of the Puteolan villa,</q> says Mr Kelsall, <q>are still seen +on the side next the vineyard, and, intermixed as they are with +trees, are very picturesque seen from the sea. These ruins +are about one mile from Pozzuolo, and have always been styled +<hi rend='italic'>l’Academia di Cicerone</hi>. Pliny is very circumstantial in the +description of the site, <q><hi rend='italic'>Ab Averno lacu Puteolos tendentibus +imposita littori</hi>.</q> The classical traveller will not forget that the +Puteolan villa is the scene of some of the orator’s philosophical +works. I searched in vain for the mineral spring commemorated +by Laurea Tullius, in the well-known complimentary +verses preserved by Pliny; for it was defaced by the convulsions +which the whole of this tract experienced in the 16th +century, so poetically described in Gray’s hexameters.</q> After +the death of Cicero, the villa was acquired by Antistius Vetus, +who repaired and improved it. It was subsequently possessed +by the Emperor Hadrian, who, while expiring here<note place="foot">At least so says Middleton, (Vol. III. p. 297,) and he quotes as his authority +Spartian’s Life of Hadrian, (c. 25.) Spartian, however, only tells, that he was <hi rend='italic'>buried</hi> +at Cicero’s villa of Puteoli—<q>Apud ipsas Bajas periit, invisusque omnibus sepultus +est in villâ Ciceronianâ Puteolis.</q></note>, breathed +out the celebrated address to his fleeting, fluttering soul, on +its approaching departure for those cold and pallid regions, +that must have formed in his fancy such a gloomy contrast to +the glowing sunshine and animated shore which he left with +so much reluctance. +</p> + +<p> +The dialogue is held between Cicero and Hirtius, on one +of the many occasions on which they met to consult concerning +the situation of public affairs. Hirtius was the author of +<pb n='257'/><anchor id='Pg257'/>the Commentaries on the Civil Wars, and perished a few +months afterwards, at the battle of Modena, in the moment of +victory. The wonderful events which had recently occurred, +and the miserable fate of so many of the greatest and most +powerful of the Romans, naturally introduced a conversation +on destiny. We have now neither the commencement nor +conclusion of the dialogue; but some critics have supposed +that it originally consisted of two books, and that the fragment +we at present possess formed part of the second book—an +opinion which seems justified by a passage in the seventeenth +chapter of the second book, where the first conversation +is cited. Others, however, refer these words to a separate and +previous work on Fate. The part of the dialogue now extant, +contains a refutation of the doctrine of Chrysippus the Stoic, +which was that of fatality. <q>The spot,</q> says Eustace, <q>the +subject, the speakers, both fated to perish in so short a time, +during the contest which they both foresaw, and endeavoured +in vain to avert, were circumstances which give a peculiar interest +to this dialogue, and increase our regret that it has not +reached us in a less mutilated state<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Classical Tour</hi>, Vol. II. c. 11.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +I have now enumerated what may be strictly regarded as the +philosophical and theological writings of Cicero. Some of +the advantages to be derived from these productions, have +already been pointed out during our progress. But on a consideration +of the whole, it is manifest that the chief profit accruing +from them, is the satisfactory evidence which they +afford of the little reason we have to regret the loss of the +writings of Zeno, Cleanthes, Chrysippus, and other Greek philosophers. +The intrinsic value of these works of Cicero, consists +chiefly in what may be called the Roman portion of them—in +the anecdotes of distinguished Romans, and of the customs +and opinions of that sovereign people. +</p> + +<p> +We now proceed to the <hi rend='italic'>moral</hi> writings of Cicero, of which +the most important is the work <hi rend='italic'>De Officiis</hi>. The ancient +Romans had but an imperfect notion of moral obligations; +their virtues were more stern than amiable, and their ardent +exclusive patriotism restricted the wide claims of philanthropy, +on the one hand, and of domestic duties, on the other. Panætius, +a Greek philosopher, who resided at Rome, in the time of +Scipio, wrote a book entitled <foreign lang="el" rend="Greek">Περι Καθηκοντος</foreign><!--[Greek: Peri Kathêkontos]-->. He divided his +subject according to the threefold considerations which he +conceived should operate in determining our resolutions with +regard to the performance of moral duties; 1. Whether the +thing itself be virtuous or shameful; 2. Whether it conduce to +<pb n='258'/><anchor id='Pg258'/>utility and the enjoyment of life; 3. What choice is to be +made when an apparent utility seems to clash with virtue. +Cicero followed nearly the same arrangement. In the first +book he treats of what is virtuous in itself, and shows in what +manner our duties are founded in morality and virtue—in the +right perception of truth, justice, fortitude, and decorum; +which four qualities are referred to as the constituent parts of +virtue, and the sources from which all our duties are drawn. +In the second book, the author enlarges on those duties which +relate to utility, the improvement of life, and the means employed +for the attainment of wealth and power. This division +of the work principally regards political advancement, and the +honourable means of gaining popularity, as generosity, courtesy, +and eloquence. Thus far Cicero had, in all probability, +closely followed the steps of Panætius. Garve, in his commentary +on this work<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Philosophische Anmerkungen zu Cicero’s Büchern von den Pflichten</hi>, +Breslau, 1819.</note>, remarks, that it is quite clear, when he +comes to the more subtle and philosophic parts of his subject, +that Cicero translates from the Greek, and that he has not +always found words in his own language to express the nicer +distinctions of the Greek schools. The work of Panætius, +however, was left imperfect, and did not treat of the third +part of the subject, the choice and distinction to be made when +there was a jarring or inconsistency between virtue and utility. +On this topic, accordingly, Cicero was left to his own +resources. The discussion, of course, relates only to the subordinate +duties, as the true and undoubted <hi rend='italic'>honestum</hi> never +can be put in competition with private advantage, or be violated +for its sake. As to the minor duties, the great maxim +inculcated is that nothing should be accounted useful or profitable +but what is strictly virtuous, and that, in fact, there +ought to be no separation of the principles of virtue and utility. +Cicero enters into some discussion, however, and affords +some rules to enable us to form a just estimate of both in cases +of doubt, where seeming utility comes into competition with +virtue. Accordingly, he proposes and decides a good many +questions in casuistry, in order to fix in what situations one +may seek private gain with honour. He takes his examples +from Roman history, and particularly considers the case of +Regulus in the obligation of his oath, and the advice which he +gave to the Roman Senate. The author disclaims having been +indebted to any preceding writers on this subject; but it appears, +from what he afterwards states, that the sixth book of +the work of Hecato, a scholar of Panætius, was full of +ques<pb n='259'/><anchor id='Pg259'/>tions of this kind: As, for example—If something must be +thrown into the sea to lighten a vessel in a storm, whether one +should sacrifice a valuable horse, or a worthless slave? Whether, +if, during a shipwreck, a fool has got hold of a plank, a +wise man ought to take it from him, if he be able? If one, +unknowingly, receives bad money for his goods, may he pay it +away to a third hand, after he is aware that it is bad? Diogenes, +it seems, one of the three philosophic ambassadors who +came to Rome from Athens, in the end of the sixth century, +maintained the affirmative of this last proposition. +</p> + +<p> +The subject being too extensive for dialogue, (the form of +his other philosophical treatises,) the author has addressed +the work <hi rend='italic'>De Officiis</hi> to his son, and has represented it as written +for his instruction. <q>It is,</q> says Kelsall, <q>the noblest +present ever made by a parent to a child.</q> Cicero declares, +that he intended to treat in it of all the duties<note place="foot">Lib. I. c. 39.</note>; but it is generally +considered to have been chiefly drawn up as a manual +of political morality, and as a guide to young Romans of his +son’s age and distinction, which might enable them to attain +political eminence, and to tread with innocence and safety +<q>the slippery steeps of power.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>De Senectute</hi>.—— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">O Thou all eloquent, whose mighty mind</q></l> +<l>Streams from the depths of ages on mankind,</l> +<l>Streams like the day—who angel-like hast shed</l> +<l>Thy full effulgence on the hoary head;</l> +<l>Speaking in Cato’s venerable voice—</l> +<l><q>Look up and faint not—faint not, but rejoice</q>—</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">From thy Elysium guide us<note place="foot">Rogers, <hi rend='italic'>Human Life</hi>.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +The treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Senectute</hi> is not properly a dialogue, but a +continued discourse, delivered by Cato the Censor, at the request +of Scipio and Lælius. It is, however, one of the most +interesting pieces of the kind which have descended to us +from antiquity; and no reader can wonder that Cicero experienced +such pleasure in its composition, that the delightful +employment, not only, as he says, made him forget the infirmities +of old age, but rendered that portion of existence +agreeable. In consequence of the period of life to which Cicero +had attained, at the time of its composition, and the +circumstances in which he was then placed, it must, indeed, +have been penned with peculiar interest and feeling. It was +written by him in his 63d year, and is addressed to his friend +Atticus, (who reached the same term of existence,) with a +view of rendering to both the accumulating burdens of age as +<pb n='260'/><anchor id='Pg260'/>light as possible. In order to give his precepts the greater +force, he represents them as delivered by the elder Cato, +(while flourishing in the eighty-fourth year of a vigorous and +useful old age,) on occasion of young Scipio and Lælius expressing +their admiration at the wonderful ease with which +he still bore the load of life. This affords the author an opportunity +of entering into a full explanation of his ideas on +the subject. His great object is to show that the closing period +of life may be rendered, not only tolerable, but comfortable, +by internal resources of happiness. He reduces those +causes which are commonly supposed to constitute the infelicity +of advanced age, under four general heads:—That it +incapacitates from mingling in the affairs of the world—that +it produces infirmities of body—that it disqualifies for the enjoyment +of sensual gratifications—and that it brings us to the +verge of death. Some of these supposed disadvantages, he +maintains, are imaginary, and for any real pleasures of which +old men are deprived, others more refined and higher may be +substituted. The whole work is agreeably diversified and +illustrated by examples of eminent Roman citizens, who had +passed a respected and agreeable evening of life. Indeed, so +much is said of those individuals who reached a happy old +age, that it may rather be styled a Treatise on Old Men, than +on Old Age. On the last point, the near approach of death, +it is argued, conformably to the first book of the Tusculan +Questions, that if death extinguish the soul’s existence, it is +utterly to be disregarded, but much to be desired, if it convey +her to a happier region. The apprehension of future +punishment, as in the Tusculan Disputations, is laid entirely +aside, and it is assumed as a principle, that, after death, we +either shall not be miserable, or be superlatively happy. In +other respects, the tract <hi rend='italic'>De Senectute</hi> almost seems a confutation +of the first book of the Tusculan Questions, which is +chiefly occupied in showing the wretchedness of long-protracted +existence. The sentiments put into the mouth of Cato, +are acknowledged by Cicero as his own; but, notwithstanding +this, and also a more elegant and polished style of composition +than could be expected from the Censor, many characteristics +of his life, conversation, and manners, are brought +before us—his talk is a little boastful, and his sternness, though +softened down by old age into an agreeable gossipping garrulity, +is still visible; and, on the whole, the discourse is so +managed, that we experience, in reading it, something of that +complaisant respect, which we feel in intercourse with a venerable +old man, who has around him so much of the life to +<pb n='261'/><anchor id='Pg261'/>come, as to be purified at least from the grosser desires of +this lower world. +</p> + +<p> +It has been remarked as extraordinary, that, amidst the anxious +enumeration of the comforts of age, those arising from +domestic society are not mentioned by Cicero; but his favourite +daughter Tullia was now no more, and the husband of +Terentia, the father of Marcus Cicero, and the father-in-law +of Dolabella, may have felt something on that subject, of +which he was willing to spare himself the recollection. But +though he has omitted what we number among its chief consolations, +still he has represented advanced age under too +favourable a view. He denies, for instance, that the memory +is impaired by it—asserting, that everything continues to be +remembered, in which we take an interest, for that no old +man ever forgot where he had concealed his treasure. He +has, besides, only treated of an old age distinguished by deeds +or learning, terminating a life great and glorious in the eyes +of men. The table of the old man whom he describes, is +cheered by numerous friends, and his presence, wherever he +appears, is hailed by clients and dependants. All his examples +are drawn from the higher and better walks of life. In +the venerable picture of the Censor, we have no traces of +second childhood, or of the slippered pantaloon, or of that +melancholy and almost frightful representation, in the tenth +satire of Juvenal. But even persons of the station, and dignity, +and talents of Cato, are, in old age, liable to weaknesses +and misfortunes, with which the pleasing portrait, that Tully +has drawn, is in no way disfigured:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">In life’s last scene, what prodigies surprise,</q></l> +<l>Fears of the brave, and follies of the wise!</l> +<l>From Marlborough’s eyes the tears of dotage flow,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">And Swift expires a driveller and a show.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +The treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Senectute</hi> has been versified by Denham, +under the title of <hi rend='italic'>Cato Major</hi>. The subject of the evils of +old age is divided, as by Cicero, into four parts. <q>I can neither,</q> +says he, in his preface, <q>call this piece Tully’s nor my +own, being much altered from the original, not only by the +change of the style, but by addition and subtraction.</q> In +fact, the fine sentiments are Cicero’s—the doggerel English +verse, into which he has converted Cicero’s classical prose, +his own. The fourth part, on the approach of death, is that +which is best versified. +</p> + +<p> +This tract is also the model of the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>Spurinna, or +the Comforts of Old Age</hi>, by Sir Thomas Bernard. Hough, +Bishop of Worcester, who is in his ninetieth year at the date +<pb n='262'/><anchor id='Pg262'/>of the conference, supposed to be held in 1739, is the Cato +of the dialogue. The other interlocutors are Gibson, Bishop +of London, and Mr Lyttleton, subsequently Lord Lyttleton. +After considering, in the same manner as Cicero, the disadvantages +of old age, the English author proceeds to treat of +its advantages, and the best mode of increasing its comforts. +Many ideas and arguments are derived from Cicero; but +among the consolations of advanced age, the promises of revelation +concerning a future state of happiness, to which the +Roman was a stranger, are prominently brought forward, and +the illustrations are chiefly drawn from British, instead of +Grecian or Roman history. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>De Amicitiâ</hi>.—In this, as in all his other dialogues, Cicero +has most judiciously selected the persons whom he introduces +as speakers. They were men of eminence in the state; and +though deceased, the Romans had such a just veneration for +their ancestors, that they would listen with the utmost interest +even to the supposed conversation of the ancient heroes or +sages of their country. Such illustrious names bestowed additional +dignity on what was delivered, and even now affect +us with sentiments of veneration far superior to that which is +felt for the itinerant sophists, who, with the exception of Socrates, +are the chief speakers in the dialogues of Plato. +</p> + +<p> +The memorable and hereditary friendship which subsisted +between Lælius and the younger Scipio Africanus, rendered +them the most suitable characters from whom the sentiments +expressed on this delightful topic could be supposed to flow. +Their mutual and unshaken attachment threw an additional +lustre over the military glory of the one, and the contemplative +wisdom of the other. <q>Such,</q> says Cicero in the +introduction to the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, <q>was the common +law of friendship between them, that Lælius adored +Africanus as a god, on account of his transcendent +military fame; and that Scipio, when they were at home, +revered his friend, who was older than himself, as a father<note place="foot"><q>Fuit enim hoc in amicitiâ quasi quoddam jus inter illos, ut militiæ, propter +eximiam belli gloriam, Africanum ut deum coleret Lælius; domi vicissim Lælium, +quòd ætate antecedebat, observaret in parentis loco Scipio.</q></note><anchor id="corr262"/><corr sic="(quote missing)">.</corr></q> +The kindred soul of Cicero appears to have been +deeply struck with this delightful assemblage of all the +noblest and loveliest qualities of our nature. The friendship +which subsisted between himself and Atticus was another +beautiful example of a similar kind: And the dialogue +<hi rend='italic'>De Amicitiâ</hi> is accordingly addressed with peculiar propriety +to Atticus, who, as Cicero tells him in his dedication, +could not fail to discover his own portrait in the delineation of +<pb n='263'/><anchor id='Pg263'/>a perfect friend. This treatise approaches nearer to dialogue +than that <hi rend='italic'>De Senectute</hi>, for there is a story, with the circumstances +of time and place. Fannius, the historian, and Mucius +Scævola, the Augur, both sons-in-law of Lælius, paid him +a visit immediately after the sudden and suspicious death of +Scipio Africanus. The recent loss which Lælius had thus +sustained, leads to an eulogy on the inimitable virtues of the +departed hero, and to a discussion on the true nature of that +tie by which they had been so long connected. Cicero, while +in his earliest youth, had been introduced by his father to +Mucius Scævola; and hence, among other interesting matters +which he enjoyed an opportunity of hearing, he was one +day present while Scævola related the substance of the conference +on Friendship, which he and Fannius had held with +Lælius a few days after the death of Scipio. Many of the +ideas and sentiments which the mild Lælius then uttered, are +declared by Scævola to have originally flowed from Scipio, +with whom the nature and laws of friendship formed a favourite +topic of discourse. This, perhaps, is not entirely a +fiction, or merely told to give the stamp of authenticity to the +dialogue. Some such conversation was probably held and related; +and I doubt not, that a few of the passages in this celebrated +dialogue reflect the sentiments of Lælius, or even of +Africanus himself. +</p> + +<p> +The philosophical works of Cicero, which have been hitherto +enumerated, are complete, or nearly so. But it is well +known that he was the author of many other productions +which have now been entirely lost, or of which only fragments +remain. +</p> + +<p> +Of these, the most important was the Treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, +which, in the general wreck of learning, shared the fate +of the institutions it was intended to celebrate. The greater +part of this dialogue having disappeared along with the <hi rend='italic'>Origines</hi> +of Cato, the works of Varro, and the History of Sallust, +we have been deprived of all the writings which would have +thrown the most light on the Roman institutions, manners, +and government—of everything, in short, which philosophically +traced the progress of Rome, from its original barbarism +to the perfection which it had attained in the age of the +second Scipio Africanus. +</p> + +<p> +There are few monuments of ancient literature, of which +the disappearance had excited more regret, than that of the +work <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, which was long believed to have been +the grand repository of all the political wisdom of the ancients. +The great importance of the subject—treated, too, +by a writer at once distinguished by his genius and former +<pb n='264'/><anchor id='Pg264'/>official dignity; the pride and predilection with which the author +himself speaks of it, and the sublimity and beauty of the +fragment entitled <hi rend='italic'>Somnium Scipionis</hi>, preserved from it by +Macrobius, all concurred to exalt this treatise in the imagination +of the learned, and to exasperate their vexation at its loss. +The fathers of the church, particularly Lactantius, had afforded +some insight into the arguments employed in it on different +topics; several fragments existed in the works of the +grammarians, and a complete copy was extant as late as the +11th century. Since that time the literary world have been +flattered at different periods with hopes of its discovery; but +it is only within the last few years that such a portion of it has +been recovered, as may suffice, in a considerable degree, to +satisfy curiosity, though not perhaps to fulfil expectation. +</p> + +<p> +It is well known to many, and will be mentioned more fully +in the <ref target="appendix"><hi rend='italic'>Appendix</hi></ref>, that owing to a scarcity of papyrus and +parchment, it was customary, at different times, to erase old, +in order to admit new, writing. To a MS. of this kind, the +name of Palimpsest has been given—a term made use of by +Cicero himself. In a letter to the lawyer Trebatius, who had +written to him on such a sheet, Cicero says, <q>that while he +must praise him for his parsimony in employing a palimpsest, +he cannot but wonder what he had erased to scribble such a +letter, except it were his law notes: For I cannot think,</q> adds +he, <q>that you would efface my letter to substitute your own<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Famil.</hi> Lib. VII. ep. 18. In palimpsesto, laudo equidem parsimoniam, +sed miror, quid in illâ chartulâ fuerit, quod delere malueris quam hæc non scribere; +nisi forte tuas formulas: non enim puto te meas epistolas delere, ut reponas tuas.</note>.</q> +This practice became very common in the middle ages, when +both the papyrus and parchment were scarce, and when the +classics were, with few exceptions, no longer the objects of +interest. Montfaucon had remarked, that these obliterated +MSS. were perhaps more numerous than those which had been +written on for the first time<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Mem. de l’Academ. des Inscriptions, &c.</hi> Tom. VI.</note>. But though in some cases the +original writing was still visible on close observation, no practical +use was made of such inspection till Angelo Mai published +some fragments recovered from palimpsest MSS. in the +Ambrosian library, of which he was keeper. Encouraged by +his success, he persevered in this new pursuit, and published +at intervals fragments of considerable value. At length, being +called to Rome as a recompense for his learned labours, +Mai prosecuted in the Vatican those noble researches which +he had commenced at Milan; and it is to him we now owe the +discovery and publication of a considerable portion of Cicero +<hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, which had been expunged, (it is supposed in +<pb n='265'/><anchor id='Pg265'/>the 6th century,) and crossed by a new writing, which contained +a commentary by St Augustine on the Psalms<note place="foot">Mai published the <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi> at Rome, with a preface, giving a history of +his discovery, notes, and an index of emendations. It was reprinted from this edition +at London, without change, 1823; also at Paris, 1823, with the notes of Mai, +and excerpts from his preface; and <hi rend='italic'>cura</hi> Steinacker at Leipsic, 1823. To this German +edition there is a prefatory epistle by Hermann, which I was disappointed to +find contained only some observations on a single passage of the <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, +with regard to the division of the citizens into classes by Servius Tullius. In the +same year an excellent French translation was published by M. Villemain, accompanied +with an introductory review of the work he translates; as also notes and dissertations +on those topics of Education, Manners, and Religion, which he supposes +to have formed the subjects of the last three books which have not yet been recovered.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The work <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi> was begun by Cicero in the month +of May, in the year 699, when the author was in the fifty-second +year of his age, so that, of all his philosophical writings, +it was at least the earliest commenced. In a letter to his brother +Quintus, he tells him that he had employed himself in his +Cuman and Pompeian villas, in writing a large and laborious +political work; that, should it succeed to his mind, it would +be well, but, if not, he would cast it into that sea which was in +view when he wrote it; and, as it was impossible for him to be +idle, commence some other undertaking<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Quint. Frat.</hi> Lib. II. ep. 14.</note>. He had proceeded, +however, but a little way, when he repeatedly changed the +whole plan of the work; and it is curious to perceive, that an +author of so perfect a genius as Cicero, had similar advices +from friends, and the same discouragement, and doubts, and +irresolution, which agitate inferior writers. +</p> + +<p> +When he had finished the first and second books, they were +read to some of his friends at his Tusculan villa. Sallust, +who was one of the company present, advised him to change +his plan, and to treat the subject in his own person—alleging +that the introduction of those ancient philosophers and statesmen, +to whom Cicero had assigned parts in the dialogue, +instead of adding gravity, gave a fictitious air to the argument, +which would have greater weight if delivered from Cicero +himself, as being the work, not of a sophist or contemplative +theorist, but of a consular senator and statesman, conversant +in the greatest affairs, and writing only what his own experience +had taught him to be true. These reasons seemed to +Cicero very plausible, and for some time made him think of +altering his plan, especially since, by placing the scene of the +dialogue so far back, he had precluded himself from touching +on those important revolutions in the Republic, which were +later than the period to which he had confined himself. But +after some deliberation, feeling reluctant to throw away the +<pb n='266'/><anchor id='Pg266'/>two books which were already finished, and with which he was +much pleased, he resolved to adhere to his original plan<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Quint. Frat.</hi> Lib. III. ep. 5 and 6.</note>. +And as he had preferred it from the first, for the sake of +avoiding offence, so he pursued it without any other alteration +than that he now limited to six what he had before proposed +to extend to nine books. These six were made public previously +to his departure for the government of Cilicia. While +there, he received the epistolary congratulations of his friends +on their success<note place="foot">Cælius ad Ciceronem, <hi rend='italic'>Epist. Famil.</hi> Lib. VIII. Ep. 1. Tui libri politici omnibus +vigent.</note>, and in his answers he discloses all the delight +of a gratified and successful author<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. VI.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Mai discusses at considerable length the question, To whom +the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi> was dedicated. The beginning of +the proœmium to the first book, which might have determined +this point, is lost; but the author says, <q>Disputatio repetenda +memoriâ est, quæ mihi, <hi rend='italic'>tibique quondam adolescentulo</hi>, est a +P. Rutilio Rufo, Zmyrnæ cùm simul essemus, complures dies +exposita.</q> Cicero was at Smyrna in the twenty-ninth year of +his age, and it is evident that his companion, to whom this +treatise is dedicated, was younger than himself, as he says, +<q>Mihi, <hi rend='italic'>tibique</hi> quondam <hi rend='italic'>adolescentulo</hi>.</q> Atticus was two +years older than Cicero, and therefore could not be the person. +In fact, there is every reason to suppose that the treatise +<hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi> was dedicated to its author’s younger brother +Quintus, who, as we know from the proœmium of the +last book, <hi rend='italic'>De Finibus</hi>, was with Cicero at Athens during the +voyage, in the course of which he touched at Smyrna—who +probably attended him to Asia,—and whose age suited the +expression <q>mihi, tibique adolescentulo.</q> Add to this, that +Cicero, when he mentions to his brother, (in the passage of +the letter above referred to,) that he meant to alter the plan +of his work, says, <q>Nunc loquar ipse <hi rend='italic'>tecum</hi>, et tamen illa quæ +institueram ad te, si Romam venero, mittam<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Quint. Frat.</hi> Lib. III. ep. 6.</note>.</q> The work in +its first concoction, therefore, was addressed to Quintus, and, +as the author, after some hesitation, published it nearly in its +original form, it can scarcely be doubted that it was still dedicated +to his brother. +</p> + +<p> +The first book <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, which was one of those read +by Cicero to Sallust and some other friends, in his Tusculan +villa, is, as already mentioned, imperfect at the commencement. +Not much, however, seems to be wanting, and a prologue +of considerable length still remains, in which the author +<pb n='267'/><anchor id='Pg267'/>(pleading, perhaps, his own cause) combats the opinions of +philosophers, who, preferring a contemplative to an active life, +blame those who engage in public affairs. To the former he +opposes the example of many wise and great men, and answers +those objections to a busy political life, which have been repeatedly +urged against it. This prologue contains some good +reasoning, and, like all the writings of its illustrious author, +displays a noble patriotic feeling. He remarks, that he had +entered into this discussion as introductory to a book concerning +the republic, since it seemed proper, as prefatory to such +a work, to combat the sentiments of those who deny that a +philosopher should be a statesman. <q>As to the work itself,</q> +says he, addressing (as I have supposed) his brother, <q>I shall +lay down nothing new or peculiar to myself, but shall repeat +a discussion which once took place among the most illustrious +men of their age, and the wisest of our state, such as it was +related to myself, and to you when a youth, by P. Rutilius +Rufus, when we were with him some days at Smyrna—in +which discussion nothing of importance to the right constitution +of a commonwealth, appears to have been omitted.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The author then proceeds to mention, that during the consulship +of Tuditanus and Aquilius, (as he had heard from Rufus,) +the younger Scipio Africanus determined to pass the +Latin festivals (Latinæ Feriæ) in his gardens, where some of +his most intimate friends had promised to visit him. The first +of these who makes his appearance is his nephew, Quintus +Tubero, a person devoted to the Stoical philosophy, and noted +for the austerity of his manners. A remark which Tubero +makes about two suns, a prodigy which, it seems, had lately +appeared in the heavens, leads Scipio to praise Socrates for +his abandonment of physical pursuits, as neither very useful +to man, nor capable of being thoroughly investigated—a +sentiment (by the way) which, with all due submission to the +Greek philosopher, does little credit to his sagacity, as physical +inquiries have been not only highly useful to mankind, +but are almost the only subjects in which accurate science has +been attained. Furius, Philus, and Rutilius, who is stated to +have related the discussion to Cicero, now enter, and, at last, +comes Lælius, attended by his friend, Spurius Mummius, (brother +to the well-known connoisseur in the fine arts who took +Corinth,) and by his two sons-in-law, C. Fannius and Q. Scævola. +After saluting them, Scipio, as it was now winter, takes +them to a sunny spot, in a meadow, and in proceeding thither +the party is joined by M. Manilius. +</p> + +<p> +<q>In this choice of his principal speakers, Cicero,</q> as has +been well remarked, <q>was extremely judicious and happy. It +<pb n='268'/><anchor id='Pg268'/>was necessary that the persons selected should have been distinguished +both as statesmen and as scholars, in order that a +philosophical discussion might appear consistent with <anchor id="corr268a"/><corr sic="their +their">their</corr> known characters, and that a high political reputation +might give authority to their remarks on government. Scipio +and Lælius united both these requisites in a remarkable degree. +They were among the earliest of the Romans who +added the graces of Grecian taste and learning to the manly +virtues of their own ruder country. These accomplishments +had refined and polished their characters, without at all detracting +from their force and purity. The very name of the +Scipios, the <hi rend='italic'>duo fulmina belli</hi>, was the symbol of military +talent, patriotism, and magnanimity: Lælius was somewhat +less distinguished in active life; but enjoyed, on the other +hand, a still higher reputation for contemplative wisdom<note place="foot">The above quotation is from the XL. Number of the <hi rend='italic'>North American Review</hi>, +July 1823. It is highly creditable to the scholarship of our Transatlantic brethren, +that the work <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, should on its first publication, have been the subject +of an article in one of their principal literary journals, while, as far as I know, the +reviews of this ancient land of colleges and universities, have passed over, in absolute +silence, the most important classical discovery since the age of the Medici.</note><anchor id="corr268"/><corr sic="(quote missing)">.</corr></q> +</p> + +<p> +After the party had been all seated, the subject of the two +suns is resumed; and Lælius, while he remarks that they had +enough to occupy attention in matters more at hand, adds, +that since they were at present idle, he for his part, had no +objection to hear Philus, who was fond of astronomical pursuits, +on the subject. Philus, thus encouraged, proceeds to +give an account of a kind of Orrery, which had been formed +by Archimedes, and having been brought to Rome by Marcellus, +its structure, as well as uses, had on one occasion, when +Philus was present, been explained by C. Sulpicius Gallus. +The application of this explanation to the phenomenon of the +two suns is lost, as a <hi rend='italic'>hiatus</hi> of eight pages here occurs in the +palimpsest. Probably, the solution of the problem would not, +if extant, make a great figure in the <hi rend='italic'>Philosophical Transactions</hi>. +But one cannot fail to admire the discursive and active +genius of Cicero, who considered all knowledge as an object +deserving ardent pursuit<note place="foot">I do not know that this distinguishing feature of the character of Cicero has +been anywhere so well described as in the following passage of M. Villemain, in +which he has introduced in this respect a beautiful comparison between Cicero and +the most illustrious writer of his own nation. Talking of the digression concerning +the Parhelion and Orrery, he admits it was little to the purpose, but he adds, <q rend="post: none">Peut +on se défendre d’un mouvement de respect, quand on songe à ce beau caractère de +curiosité philosophique, à ce goût universel de la science dont fut animé Cicéron, +et qui au milieu d’une vie agitée par tant de travaux, et dans un état de civilisation +encore dénué de secours, lui fit rechercher avec un insatiable ardeur tous les moyens +de connoissances nouvelles et de lumières?</q> +<lb/> +<q rend="post: none">Cet homme qui avait si laborieusement médité l’art de l’éloquence, et le pratiquait +chaque jour dans le Forum, dans le sénat, dans les tribunaux; ce grand orateur, +qui même pendant son consulat plaidait encore des causes privées, au milieu d’une +vie toute de gloire, d’agitations, et de périls, dans ce mouvement d’inquiétudes et +d’affaires attesté par cette foule de lettres si admirables et si rapidement écrites, étudiait +encore tout ce que dans son siécle il était possible de savoir. Il avait cultivé +la poésie: il avait approfondi et transporté chez les Romains toutes les philosophies +de la Grèce; il cherchait à récueillir les notions encore imparfaites des sciences +physiques. Nous voyons même par une de ses lettres qu’il s’occupa de faire un +traité technique de géographie, à peu près comme <hi rend='smallcaps'>Voltaire</hi> compilait laborieusement +un abrégé chronologique de l’histoire d’Allemagne. Ces deux génies ont eu +en effet ce caractère distinctif de méler aux plus brillans trésors de l’imagination et +de goût, l’ardeur de toutes les connoissances, et cette activité intellectuelle qui ne +s’arrête, ni ne se lasse jamais.</q> +<lb/> +<q>Sans doute il y avait entre eux de grands dissemblances, surtout dans cette +vocation prédominante qui entrainait l’un vers l’éloquence et l’autre vers la poésie; +sans doute aussi la diversité des temps et des situations mettait plus de difference +encore entre l’auteur Français de dix huitième siécle, et le Consul de la republique +Romaine: mais cette ardeur de tout savoir, ce mouvement de la pensée qui s’appliquait +également à tout, forme un trait éminent qui les rapproche; et peutêtre le +sentiment confus de cette vérité agissait il sur Voltaire dans l’admiration si vivement +sentie, si sérieuse, que cet esprit contempteur de tant de renommées antiques +exprima toujours pour le génie de Cicéron.</q>—P. LXII. +</note>. +</p> + +<pb n='269'/><anchor id='Pg269'/> + +<p> +At the end of the <hi rend='italic'>hiatus</hi>, we find Scipio, in reference to +Gallus’s astronomical knowledge, which had been celebrated +by Philus, relating, that when his father, Paulus Æmilius, +commanded in Macedonia, the army being terrified by an +eclipse, Gallus had calmed their fears by explaining the phænomenon—an +anecdote, which, with another similar to it here +told of Pericles, proves the value of physical pursuits, and their +intimate connection with the affairs of life. This inference +seems to have been drawn in a passage which is lost; and +several beautiful sentiments follow, similar to some of those in +the <hi rend='italic'>Somnium Scipionis</hi>, on the calm exquisite delights of meditation +and science, and on the littleness of all earthly things, +when compared with immortality or the universe. <q>Quid +porro,</q> says Scipio, in the most elevated tone of moral and +intellectual grandeur—<q rend="post: none">quid porro aut præclarum putet in +rebus humanis, qui hæc deorum regna perspexerit? aut diuturnum, +qui cognoverit quid sit æternum? aut gloriosum, qui +viderit quàm parva sit terra, primum universa, deinde ea pars +ejus quam homines incolant, quamque nos in exiguâ ejus parte +adfixi, plurimis ignotissimi gentibus, speremus tamen nostrum +nomen volitare et vagari latissime? Agros, vero, et ædificia, +et pecudes, et immensum argenti pondus atque auri, qui bona +nec putare nec appellare soleat, quod earum rerum videatur +ei, levis fructus, exiguus usus, incertus dominatus, sæpe etiam +teterrimorum hominum immensa possessio. Quàm est hic +fortunatus putandus, cui soli vere liceat omnia non Quiritium +sed sapientium jure pro suis vindicare! nec civili nexo, sed +communi lege naturæ, quæ vetat ullam rem esse cujusquam +nisi ejus qui tractare et uti sciat: qui imperia consulatusque +<pb n='270'/><anchor id='Pg270'/>nostros in necessariis non in expetendis rebus muneris fungendi +gratiâ subeundos, non præmiorum aut gloriæ causâ adpetendos +putet: qui denique ut Africanum avum meum scribit Cato +solitum esse dicere, possit idem de se prædicare, nunquam se +plus agere, quàm nihil cùm ageret; nunquam minus solum +esse, quàm cùm solus esset.</q> +</p> + +<p> +<q>Quis enim putare vere potest plus egisse Dionysium tum +cùm omnia moliendo eripuerit civibus suis libertatem, quàm +ejus civem Archimedem, cùm istam ipsam Sphæram, nihil cùm +agere videretur, effecerit? Quis autem non magis solos esse +qui in foro turbâque quicum conloqui libeat non habeant, quam +qui nullo arbitro vel secum ipsi loquantur, vel quasi doctissimorum +hominum in concilio adsint cùm eorum inventis scriptisque +se oblectent? Quis vero divitiorem quemquam putet, +quàm eum cui nihil desit, quod quidem natura desideret? aut +potentiorem quàm illum, qui omnia quæ expetat, consequatur? +aut beatiorem quàm qui sit omni perturbatione animi +liberatus?</q> +</p> + +<p> +Lælius, however, is no way moved by these sonorous arguments; +and still persists in affirming, that the most important +of all studies are those which relate to the <hi rend='italic'>Republic</hi>, and that +it concerned them to inquire, not why two suns had appeared +in heaven, but why, in the present circumstances, (alluding to +the projects of the Gracchi,) there were two senates, and +almost two peoples. In this state of things, therefore, and +since they had now leisure, their fittest object would be to +learn from Scipio what he deemed the best condition of a +commonwealth. Scipio complies with this request, and begins +with defining a republic; <q>Est igitur respublica res populi—populus + autem non omnis hominum cœtus quoquo modo congregatus, +sed cœtus multitudinis juris consensu.</q> In entering +on the nature of what he had thus defined, he remounts to the +origin of society, which he refers entirely to that social spirit +which is one of the principles of our nature, and not to hostility, +or fear, or compact. A people, when united, may be +governed by <hi rend='italic'>one</hi>, by <hi rend='italic'>several</hi>, or by a <hi rend='italic'>multitude</hi>, any one of +which simple forms may be tolerable if well administered, but +they are liable to corruptions peculiar to themselves. Of these +three simple forms, Scipio prefers the monarchical; and for +this choice he gives his reasons, which are somewhat metaphysical +and analogical. But though he more approves of a +pure regal government than of the two other simple forms, he +thinks that none of them are good, and that a perfect constitution +must be compounded of the three. <q>Quod cùm ita sit, +tribus primis generibus longe præstat, meâ sententiâ, regium; +regio autem ipsi præstabit id quod erit æquatum et +tempera<pb n='271'/><anchor id='Pg271'/>tum ex tribus optimis rerum publicarum modis. Placet enim +esse quiddam in re publicâ præstans et regale; esse aliud +auctoritate principum partum ac tributum; esse quasdam res +servatas judicio voluntatique multitudinis. Hæc constitutio +primum habet æqualitatem quamdam magnam, quâ carere +diutius vix possunt liberi; deinde firmitudinem.</q> +</p> + +<p> +In this panegyric on a mixed constitution, Cicero has taken +his idea of a perfect state from the Roman commonwealth—from +its consuls, senate, and popular assemblies. Accordingly, +Scipio proceeds to affirm, that of all constitutions which had +ever existed, no one, either as to the distribution of its parts +or discipline, was so perfect as that which had been established +by their ancestors; and that, therefore, he will constantly +have his eye on it as a model in all that he means to +say concerning the best form of a state. +</p> + +<p> +This explains what was the chief scope of Cicero in his +work <hi rend='italic'>De Republica</hi>—an eulogy on the Roman government, +such as it was, or he supposed it to have been, in the early +ages of the commonwealth. In the time of Cicero, when +Rome was agitated by the plots of Catiline, and factions of +Clodius, with the proscriptions of Sylla but just terminated, +and the usurpation of Cæsar impending, the Roman constitution +had become as ideal as the polity of Plato; and in its +best times had never reached the perfection which Cicero +attributes to it. But when a writer is disgusted with the present, +and fearful for the future, he is ever ready to form an +<hi rend='italic'>Utopia</hi> of the past<note place="foot">This first book occupied in the palimpsest 211 pages. Of these, 72 are wanting; +but two short fragments belonging to this book are to be found in Lactantius +and Nonius, so that about a third of the book is still lost.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +In the <hi rend='italic'>second</hi> book, which, like the first, is imperfect at the +beginning, (though Mai seems to think that only a few words +are wanting;) Scipio records a saying of Cato the Censor, that +the constitution of Rome was superior to that of all other +states, because <hi rend='italic'>they</hi> had been modelled by single legislators, +as Crete by Minos, and Sparta by Lycurgus, whereas the +Roman commonwealth was the result of the gradually improved +experience and wisdom of ages. <q>To borrow, therefore,</q> +says he, <q>a word from Cato, I shall go back to the <hi rend='italic'>origin</hi> +of the Roman state; and show it in its birth, childhood, +youth, and maturity—a plan which seems preferable to the +delineation of an imaginary republic like that of Plato.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Scipio now begins with Romulus, whose birth, indeed, he +seems to treat as a fable; but in the whole succeeding development +of the Roman history, he, or, in other words, Cicero, +exercises little criticism, and indulges in no scepticism. He +<pb n='272'/><anchor id='Pg272'/>admires the wisdom with which Romulus chose the site of his +capital—not placing it in a maritime situation, where it would +have been exposed to many dangers and disadvantages, but +on a navigable river, with all the conveniences of the sea.—<q>Quî +potuit igitur divinitus et utilitates complecti maritimas +Romulus et vitia vitare? quàm quòd urbem perennis amnis +et æquabilis et in mare late influentis posuit in ripâ, quo +posset urbs et accipere ex mari quo egeret, et reddere quo +redundaret: eodemque ut flumine res ad victum cultumque +maxime necessarias non solum mari absorberet sed etiam advectas +acciperet ex terrâ: ut mihi jam tum divinâsse ille videatur, +hanc urbem sedem aliquando ut domum summo esse imperio + <anchor id="corr272"/><corr sic="praebituram">præbituram</corr>: nam hanc rerum tantam potentiam non +ferme facilius aliâ in parte Italiæ posita urbs tenere potuisset.</q>—In +like manner he praises the sagacity of the succeeding +rulers of the Roman state. <q>Faithful to his plan,</q> says M. +Villemain, <q>of referring all to the Roman constitution, and of +forming rather a history than a political theory, Cicero proceeds +to examine, as it were chronologically, the state of +Rome at the different epochs of its duration, beginning with +its kings. This plan, if it produced any new light on a very +dark subject, would have much more interest for us than ideas +merely speculative. But Cicero scarcely deviates from the +common traditions, which have often exercised the scepticism +of the learned. He takes the Roman history nearly as we +now have it, and his reflections seem to suppose no other facts +than those which have been so eloquently recorded by Livy.</q> +But although, for the sake of illustration, and in deference to +common opinion, he argues on the events of early Roman history, +as delivered by vulgar tradition, it is evident that, in his +own belief, they were altogether uncertain; and if any new +authority on that subject were wanting, Cicero’s might be +added in favour of their total uncertainty; for Lælius thus interrupts +his account of Ancus Martius—<q>Laudandus etiam +iste rex—sed obscura est historia Romana;</q> and Scipio replies, +<q>Ita est: sed temporum illorum tantum fere regum illustrata +sunt nomina.</q> +</p> + +<p> +At the close of Scipio’s discourse, which is a perpetual +panegyric on the successive governments of Rome, and, with +exception of the above passage, an uncritical acquiescence in +its common history, Tubero remarks, that Cicero had rather +praised the Roman government, than examined the constitution +of commonwealths in general, and that hitherto he had +not explained by what discipline, manners, and laws, a state +is to be constituted or preserved. Scipio replies, that this is +to be a farther subject of discussion; and he seems now to +<pb n='273'/><anchor id='Pg273'/>have adopted a more metaphysical tone: But of the remainder +of the book only a few fragments exist; from which, however, +it appears, that a question was started, how far the exact observance +of justice in a state is politic or necessary. This +discussion, at the suggestion of Scipio, is suspended till the +succeeding day<note place="foot">Mai cannot exactly state how much of the second book is wanting in the +palimpsest, but he thinks probably a third part; enough remains of it to console the +reader for the loss.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +As the <hi rend='italic'>third</hi> book of Cicero’s treatise began a second day’s +colloquy, it was doubtless furnished with a proœmium, the +greater part of which is now lost, as also a considerable portion +of the commencement of the dialogue. Towards the +conclusion of the preceding book, Scipio had touched on the +subject, how far the observance of justice is useful to a state, +and Philus had proposed that this topic should be treated +more fully, as an opinion was prevalent, that policy occasionally +required injustice. Previously to the discovery of Mai, +we knew from St Augustine, <hi rend='italic'>De Civitate Dei</hi>, that in the +third book of the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, Philus, as a disputant, +undertook the cause of injustice, and was answered by Lælius. +In the fragment of the third book, Philus excuses himself from +becoming (so to speak) the devil’s advocate; but at length +agrees to offer, not his own arguments on the subject, but +those of Carneades, who, some years before, had one day +pleaded the cause of justice at Rome, and next day overturning +his own arguments, became the patron of injustice. +Philus accordingly proceeds to contend, that if justice were +something real, it would be everywhere the same, whereas, in +one nation, that is reckoned equitable and holy, which in another +is unjust and impious; and, in like manner, in the same +city, what is just at one period, becomes unjust at another. +In the palimpsest, these sophisms, which have been revived +in modern times by Mandeville and others, are interrupted by +frequent chasms in the MS. Lælius, as we learn from St Augustine, +and from a passage in Aulus Gellius, was requested +by all present to undertake the defence of justice; but his +discourse, with the exception of a few sentences, is wholly +wanting in the palimpsest. At the close he is highly complimented +by Scipio, but a large <hi rend='italic'>hiatus</hi> again intervenes. After +this, Scipio is found contending, that wealth and power, Phidian +statues, or the most magnificent public works, do not +constitute a republic, but the <hi rend='italic'>res populi</hi>, the good of the whole, +and not of any single governing portion of the state. He then +concludes with affirming, that of all forms of government, the +<pb n='274'/><anchor id='Pg274'/>purely democratic is the worst, and next to that, an unmixed +aristocracy. +</p> + +<p> +Of the <hi rend='italic'>fourth</hi> book only one leaf remains in the palimpsest, +the contents of which seem to confirm what we learn from +other sources, that it treated of Education and Morals. It is +particularly to be regretted that this book has disappeared. +It is easy to supply abstract discussions about justice, democracy, +and power, and, if they be not supplied, little injury is +sustained; but the loss of details relating to manners and customs, +from such a hand as that of Cicero, is irreparable. The +fifth book is nearly as much mutilated as the fourth, and of +the sixth not a fragment remains in the palimpsest, so that +Mai’s discovery has added nothing to the beautiful extract +from this book, entitled the <hi rend='italic'>Somnium Scipionis</hi>, preserved by +Macrobius. The conclusion of the work <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, had +turned on immortality of fame here, and eternity of existence +elsewhere. The <hi rend='italic'>Somnium Scipionis</hi> is intended to establish, +under the form of a political fiction, the sublime dogma of the +soul’s immortality, and was probably introduced at the conclusion +of the work, for the purpose of adding the hopes and +fears of future retribution to the other motives to virtuous exertion. +In illustration of this sublime topic, Scipio relates +that, in his youth, when he first served in Africa, he visited the +court of Massinissa, the steady friend of the Romans, and particularly +of the Cornelian family. During the feasts and entertainments +of the day, the conversation turned on the words +and actions of the first great Scipio. His adopted grandchild +having retired to rest, the shade of the departed hero appeared +to him in sleep, darkly foretold the future events of his life, +and encouraged him to tread in the paths of patriotism and +true glory, by announcing the reward provided in Heaven for +those who have deserved well of their country. +</p> + +<p> +I have thought it proper to give this minute account of the +treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, for the sake of those who may not have +had an opportunity of consulting Mai’s publication, and who +may be curious to know somewhat of the value and extent of +his discovery. On the whole, I suspect that the treatise will disappoint +those whose expectations were high, especially if they +thought to find in it much political or statistical information. +It corresponds little to the idea that one would naturally form +of a political work from the pen of Cicero—a distinguished +statesman, always courted by the chiefs of political parties, +and at one time himself at the head of the government of his +country. But, on reflection, it will not appear surprising that +we receive from this work so little insight into the doubtful +and disputed points of Roman polity. Those questions, with +<pb n='275'/><anchor id='Pg275'/>regard to the manner in which the Senate was filled up—the +force of degrees of the people, and the rank of the different +jurisdictions, which in modern times have formed subjects of +discussion, had not become problems in the time of Cicero. +The great men whom he introduces in conversation together, +understood each other on such topics, by a word or suggestion; +and I am satisfied that those parts of the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, +which are lost, contained as little that could contribute +to the solution of such difficulties, as the portions that +have been recovered. +</p> + +<p> +But though the work of Cicero will disappoint those who +expect to find in it much political information, still, as in his +other productions, every page exhibits a rich and glowing magnificence +of style, ever subjected to the controul of a taste the +most correct and pure. It contains, like all his writings, some +passages of exquisite beauty, and everywhere breathes an +exalted spirit of virtue and patriotism. The Latin language, +so noble in itself, and dignified, assumes additional majesty in +the periods of the Roman Consul, and adds an inexpressible +beauty and loftiness to the natural sublimity of his sentiments. +No writings, in fact, are so full of moral and intellectual grandeur +as those of Cicero, none are more calculated to elevate +and purify our nature—to inculcate the <hi rend='smallcaps'>tu vero enitere</hi>, in +the path of knowledge and virtue, and to excite not merely +a fond desire, or idle longing, but strenuous efforts after immortality. +Indeed, the whole life of the Father of his Country +was a noble fulfilment, and his sublime philosophic works +are but an expansion of that golden precept, <hi rend='italic'>tu vero enitere</hi>, +enjoined from on high, to his great descendant, by the Spirit +of the first Africanus<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Somnium Scipionis</hi>.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +About a century after the revival of letters, when mankind +had at length despaired of any farther discovery of the philosophic +writings of Cicero, the learned men of the age employed +themselves in collecting the scattered fragments of his +lost works, and arranging them according to the order of the +books from which they had been extracted. Sigonius had +thus united the detached fragments of the work <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, +and he made a similar attempt to repair another lost treatise of +Cicero, entitled <hi rend='italic'>De Consolatione</hi>. But in this instance he not +merely collected the fragments, but connected them by sentences +of his own composition. The work <hi rend='italic'>De Consolatione</hi> +was written by Cicero in the year 708, on occasion of the +death of his much-loved Tullia, with the design of relieving +his own mind, and consecrating to all posterity the virtues +<pb n='276'/><anchor id='Pg276'/>and memory of his daughter<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Attic.</hi> Lib. XII. Ep. 14.</note>. In this treatise, he set out with +the paradoxical propositions, that human life is a punishment, +and that men are brought into the world only to pay the forfeit +of their sins<note place="foot">Lactantius, <hi rend='italic'>Divin. Inst.</hi> Lib. III. c. 18. Luendorum scelerum causâ nasci homines.</note>. Cicero chiefly followed Crantor the + Academic<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi> Lib. I. <hi rend='italic'>Pref.</hi></note>, +who had left a celebrated piece on the same topic; +but he inserted whatever pleased him in any other author who +had written on the subject. He illustrated his precepts, as he +proceeded, by examples from Roman history, of eminent +characters who had borne a similar loss with that which he +had himself sustained, or other severe misfortunes, with remarkable +constancy<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Divin.</hi> Lib. II. c. 9.</note>,—dwelling particularly on the domestic +calamities of Q. Maximus, who buried a consular son; of +Æmilius Paullus, who lost two sons in two days; and of M. +Cato, who had been deprived of a son, who was Prætor-Elect<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Tusc. Disput.</hi> Lib. III. c. 28.</note>. +Sigonius pretended, that the patched-up treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Consolatione</hi>, +which he gave to the public, was the lost work of +Cicero, of which he had discovered a MS. The imposture +succeeded for a considerable time, but was at length detected +and pointed out by Riccoboni<note place="foot">Scharfii, <hi rend='italic'>Dissert. de vero auctore Consolationis. Miscell. Lips. Observ.</hi> 130.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Cicero also wrote a treatise in two books, addressed to +Atticus, on the subject of Glory, which was the predominant +and most conspicuous passion of his soul. It was composed +in the year 710, while sailing along the delightful coast of the +Campagna, on his voyage to Greece:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">On as he moved along the level shore,</q></l> +<l>These temples, in their splendour eminent</l> +<l>Mid arcs, and obelisks, and domes, and towers,</l> +<l>Reflecting back the radiance of the west,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Well might he dream of <hi rend='smallcaps'>glory</hi><note place="foot">Rogers’ <hi rend='italic'>Lines, written at Pæstum</hi>.</note>!</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +This treatise was extant in the 14th century. A copy had +been presented to Petrarch, from his vast collection of books, +by Raymond Soranzo, a Sicilian lawyer<note place="foot">Petrarch, <hi rend='italic'>Epist. Rer. Senil.</hi> Lib. XV. Ep. 1.</note>. Petrarch long preserved +this precious volume with great care, and valued it +highly. Unfortunately a man called Convenoli, who resided +at Avignon, and who had formerly been his preceptor, begged +and obtained the loan of it; and having afterwards fallen into +indigent circumstances, pawned it for the relief of his necessities, +to some unknown person, from whom Petrarch never +<pb n='277'/><anchor id='Pg277'/>could regain its possession. Two copies, however, were still +extant in the subsequent century, one in a private library at +Nuremburg, and another in that of a Venetian nobleman, +Bernard Giustiniani, who, dying in 1489, bequeathed his books +to a monastery of nuns, to whom Petrus Alcyonius was physician. +Filelfo was accused, though on no good foundation, +of having burned the Nuremburg copy, after inserting passages +from it in his treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Contemptu Mundi</hi><note place="foot">Varillas, <hi rend='italic'>Vie de Louis XI. Menagiana</hi>, Tom. II.</note>. But the +charge of destroying the original MS. left by Giustiniani to the +nuns, has been urged against Alcyonius on better grounds, +and with more success. Paulus Manutius, of whose printing-press +Alcyonius had been at one time corrector, charged him +with having availed himself of his free access to the library of +the nuns, whose physician he was, to purloin the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De +Gloria</hi>, and with having destroyed it, to conceal his plagiarisms, +after inserting from it various passages in his dialogue +<hi rend='italic'>De Exilio</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>In Comment. Epist. Ad Attic.</hi> XV. 27.</note>. The assertion of Manutius is founded only on +the disappearance of the MS.,—the opportunities possessed +by Alcyonius of appropriating it, and his own critical opinion +of the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Exilio</hi>, in which he conceives that there +are many passages composed in a style evincing a writer of +talents, far superior to those of its nominal author. This accusation +was repeated by Paulus Jovius and others<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Eulogia</hi>.</note>. Mencken, +in the preface to his edition of the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Exilio</hi>, +has maintained the innocence of Alcyonius, and has related +a conversation which he had with Bentley on the subject, in +the course of which that great scholar declared, that he found +nothing in the work of Alcyonius which could convict him of +the imputed plagiarism<note place="foot">Mencken, <hi rend='italic'>Præf. P. Alcyonî de Exilio</hi>, Lips. 1707.</note>. He has been defended at greater +length by Tiraboschi, on the strong grounds that Giustiniani +lived after the invention of printing, and that had he actually +been in possession of Cicero’s treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Gloriâ</hi>, he would +doubtless have published it—that it is not said to what monastery +of nuns Giustiniani bequeathed this precious MS.—that +the charge against Alcyonius was not advanced till after his +death, although his dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Exilio</hi> was first printed in +1522, and he survived till 1527; and, finally, that so great a +proportion of it relates to modern events, that there are not +more than a few pages which could possibly have been pilfered +from Cicero, or any writer of his age<note place="foot">Tiraboschi, <hi rend='italic'>Stor. dell. Letter. Ital.</hi> Part. III. Lib. III. c. 4. § 14.—Ginguené +thinks that Tiraboschi has completely succeeded in justifying Alcyonius. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. +Litter. d’Ital.</hi> T. VII. p. 254.</note>. M. Bernardi, in a +<pb n='278'/><anchor id='Pg278'/>dissertation subjoined to a work above mentioned, <hi rend='italic'>De la Republique</hi>, +has revived the accusation, at least to a certain extent, +by quoting various passages from the work of Alcyonius, +which are not well connected with the others, and which, being +of a superior order of composition, may be conjectured to +be those he had detached from the treatises of Cicero. On the +whole, the question of the theft and plagiarism of Alcyonius +still remains undecided, and will probably continue so till +the discovery of some perfect copy of the tract <hi rend='italic'>De Gloriâ</hi>—an +event rather to be earnestly desired than reasonably anticipated. +</p> + +<p> +A fourth lost work of Cicero, is his <hi rend='italic'>Hortensius sive de Philosophia</hi>. +Besides the orator after whom it is named, Catulus, +Lucullus, and Cicero himself, were speakers in the dialogue. +In the first part, where Hortensius discourses, it was +intended to exalt eloquence above philosophy. To his arguments +Cicero replied, showing the service that philosophy +rendered to eloquence, even in an imperfect state of the +social progress, and its superior use in an improved condition +of society, in which there should be no wrong, and consequently +no tribunals of justice. All this appears from the +account given of the <hi rend='italic'>Hortensius</hi> by St Augustine, who has +also quoted from it many beautiful passages—declaring, at +the same time, that it was the perusal of this work which first +inspired him with a love of wisdom.—<q>Viluit mihi repente +omnis vana spes, et immortalitatem sapientiæ concupiscebam +æstu cordis incredibili<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Confess.</hi> III. 4, and <hi rend='italic'>De Vit. Beata</hi>. proœm.</note>.</q> This dialogue continued to be +preserved for a long period after the time of St Augustine, +since it is cited as extant in his own age by the famous Roger +Bacon<note place="foot">Tunstall, <hi rend='italic'>Observations on the Epistles between Cicero and Brutus</hi>, p. 20. +Ed. London, 1744.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +It was not till after the æra of Augustus, that works originally +destined for the public assumed the name and form of +letters. But several collections of epistles, written, during +the period on which we are now engaged, to relatives or +friends in private confidence, were afterwards extensively circulated. +Those of Cornelia, the daughter of the elder Scipio +Africanus, and mother of the Gracchi, addressed chiefly to +her sons, were much celebrated; but the most ample collection +now extant, is that of the Letters of Cicero. +</p> + +<p> +These may be divided into four parts,—1. The Epistolæ +Familiares, or Miscellaneous Correspondence; 2. Those to +Atticus; 3. To his brother Quintus; 4. To Brutus. +</p> + +<p> +The correspondence, usually entitled <hi rend='italic'>Ad Familiares</hi>, + in<pb n='279'/><anchor id='Pg279'/>cludes a period of about twenty years, commencing immediately +after Cicero’s consulate, and ending a few months before +his death. The letters which this collection comprehends, +are so extremely miscellaneous, that it is impossible even to +run over their contents. Previous to the battle of Pharsalia, +it chiefly consists of epistles concerning the distribution of +consular provinces, and the political intrigues relating to that +constantly recurring subject of contention,—recommendatory +letters sent with acquaintances going into the provinces—details +to absent friends, with regard to the state of parties at +Rome, particularly the designs of Pompey and Cæsar, and the +factions of Milo and Clodius; and, finally, entertaining anecdotes +concerning the most popular and fashionable amusements +of the Capital. +</p> + +<p> +Subsequently to the battle of Pharsalia, and during the +supremacy of Cæsar, the letters are principally addressed to +the chiefs of the Pompeian party, who were at that time in +banishment for their adherence to the same cause in which +Cicero had been himself engaged. These epistles are chiefly +occupied with consolatory reflections on the adverse circumstances +in which they were placed, and accounts of his own +exertions to obtain their recall. In the perusal of these letters, +it is painful and humiliating to observe the gratification which +Cicero evidently appears to have received at this period, from +the attentions, not merely of Cæsar, but of his creatures and +favourites, as Balbus, Hirtius, and Pansa. +</p> + +<p> +After the assassination of Cæsar, the correspondence for the +most part relates to the affairs of the Republic, and is directed +to the heads of the conspiracy, or to leading men in the state, +as Lepidus and Asinius Pollio, who were then in the command +of armies, and whom he anxiously exhorts to declare for the +commonwealth, and stand forward in opposition to Antony. +</p> + +<p> +There are a good many letters inserted in this collection, +addressed to Cicero by his friends. The greatest number are +from his old client <anchor id="corr279"/><corr sic="Cœlius">Cælius</corr>, who appears to have been an admirable +gossip. They are written to Cicero, during his absence +from Rome, in his government of Cilicia, and give him news +of party politics—intelligence of remarkable cases tried in +the Forum—and of the fashionable scandal of the day. The +great object of <corr sic="Cœlius">Cælius</corr> seems to have been to obtain in return, +the dedication of one of Cicero’s works, and a cargo of panthers +from Asia, for his exhibition of games to the Roman people. +Towards the conclusion, there are a good many letters from +generals, who were at the head of armies in the provinces at +the death of Cæsar, and continued their command during the +war which the Senate waged against Antony. All of them, +<pb n='280'/><anchor id='Pg280'/>but particularly Asinius Pollio, and Lepidus, appear to have +acted with consummate treachery and dissimulation towards +Cicero and the Senate. On the whole, though the <hi rend='italic'>Epistolæ +Familiares</hi> were private letters, and though some private +affairs are treated of in them, they chiefly relate to public +concerns, comprehending, in particular, a very full history of +Cicero’s government in Cilicia, the civil dissensions of Rome, +and the war between Pompey and Cæsar. Seldom, however, +do they display any flashes of that eloquence with which the +orator was so richly endued; and no transaction, however important, +elevated his style above the level of ordinary conversation. +</p> + +<p> +The <hi rend='italic'>Epistolæ ad Atticum</hi>, are also of great service for the +History of Rome. <q>Whoever,</q> says Cornelius Nepos, <q>reads +these letters of Cicero, will not want for a connected history +of the times. So well does he describe the views of the leading +men, the faults of generals, and the changes of parties in +the state, that nothing is wanting for our information; and +such was his sagacity, we are almost led to believe that it was +a kind of divination; for Cicero not only foretold what afterwards +happened in his own lifetime, but, like a prophet, predicted +events which are now come to pass<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Vit. Attici</hi>, c. 16.</note>.</q> Along with +this knowledge, we obtain more insight into Cicero’s private +character, than from the former series of letters, where he is +often disguised in the political mask of the great theatre on +which he acted, and where many of his defects are concealed +under the graceful folds of the <hi rend='italic'>toga</hi>. It was to Atticus that +he most freely unbosomed his thoughts—more completely than +even to Tullia, Terentia, or Tiro. Hence, while he evinces +in these letters much affection for his family—ardent zeal for +the interests of his friends—strong feelings of humanity and +justice—warm gratitude to his benefactors, and devoted love +to his country, he has not repressed his vanity, or concealed +the faults of a mental organization too susceptible of every +impression. His sensibility, indeed, was such, that it led him +to think his misfortunes were peculiarly distinguished from +those of all other men, and that neither himself nor the world +could ever sufficiently deplore them: hence the querulous and +plaintive tone which pervades the whole correspondence, and +which, in the letters written during his exile, resembles more +the wailings of the <hi rend='italic'>Tristia</hi> of Ovid, than what might be expected +from the first statesman, orator, and philosopher of the +Roman Republic. In every page of them, too, we see traces +of his inconsistencies and irresolution—his political, if not his +<pb n='281'/><anchor id='Pg281'/>personal timidity—his rash confidence in prosperity, his alarm +in danger, his despondence in adversity—his too nice jealousies +and delicate suspicions—his proneness to offence, and his +unresisting compliance with those who had gained him by +flattery, and hypocritical professions of attachment to the +commonwealth. Atticus, it is clear, was a bad adviser for his +fame, and perhaps for his ultimate safety; and to him may be +in a great measure attributed that compromising conduct +which has detracted so much from the dignity of his character. +<q>You succeeded,</q> says Cicero, speaking of Cæsar and +Pompey, <q>in persuading me to keep well with the one, because +he had rendered me services, and with the other, because +he possessed great power<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> Lib. VII. Ep. 1.</note>.</q> Again, <q>I followed your advice +so punctually, that neither of them had a favourite beyond +myself;</q> and after the war had actually broken out, <q>I take +it very kind that you, in so friendly a manner, advise me to +declare as little as possible for either party<note place="foot">Ibid. Ep. 26.</note>.</q> Such fatal +counsels, it is evident, accorded too well with his own inclinations, +and palliated, perhaps, to himself the weaknesses to +which he gave way. These weaknesses of Cicero it would, +indeed, be in vain to deny; but <hi rend='italic'>his</hi> feelings are little to be envied +who can think of them without regret, or speak of them +without indulgence. +</p> + +<p> +It is these letters, however, which have handed down the +remembrance of Atticus to posterity, and have rendered his +name almost as universally known as that of his illustrious +correspondent. <q>Nomen Attici perire,</q> says Seneca, <q>Ciceronis +Epistolæ non sinunt. Nihil illi profuissent gener Agrippa, +et Tiberius progener, et Drusus Cæsar pronepos. Inter tam +magna nomina taceretur nisi Cicero illum applicuisset.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps the most interesting correspondence of Cicero is +that with his brother Quintus, who was some years younger +than the orator. He attained the dignity of Prætor in 693, +and afterwards held a government in Asia as Pro-prætor for +four years. He returned to Rome at the moment in which his +brother was driven into exile; and for some time afterwards, +was chiefly employed in exerting himself to obtain his recall. +As Cæsar’s lieutenant, he served with credit in Gaul; but espoused +the republican party at the breaking out of the civil +war. He was pardoned, however, by Cæsar, and was slain +by the blood-thirsty triumvirate established after his death. +Quintus was a man of warm affections, and of some military +talents, but of impatient and irritable temper. The orator +<pb n='282'/><anchor id='Pg282'/>had evidently a high opinion of his qualifications, and has +introduced him as an interlocutor in the dialogues <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi> +and <hi rend='italic'>De Divinatione</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +The correspondence with Quintus is divided into three +books. The first letter in the collection, is one of the noblest +productions of the kind which has ever been penned. It is +addressed to Quintus on occasion of his government in Asia +being prolonged for a third year. Availing himself of the +rights of an elder brother, as well as of the authority derived +from his superior dignity and talents, Cicero counsels and exhorts +his brother concerning the due administration of his +province, particularly with regard to the choice of his subordinate +officers, and the degree of trust to be reposed in them. +He earnestly reproves him, but with much fraternal tenderness +and affection, for his proneness to resentment; and he +concludes with a beautiful exhortation, to strive in all respects +to merit the praise of his contemporaries, and bequeath to posterity +an untainted name. The second letter transmits to +Quintus an account of some complaints which Cicero had +heard in Rome, with regard to his brother’s conduct in the administration +of his government. The two following epistles, +which conclude the first book, are written from Thessalonica, +in the commencement of his exile. The first of these, beginning, +<q>Mi frater, mi frater, mi frater,</q> written in a sad state +of agitation and depression, is a fine specimen of eloquent and +pathetic expostulation. It is full of strong and almost unbounded +expressions of attachment, and exhibits much of that +exaggeration, both in sentiment and language, in which Cicero +indulged so frequently in his orations. +</p> + +<p> +The second and third books of letters, addressed to his brother +in Sardinia and Gaul, give an interesting account of the +state of public affairs during the years 697, 698, and part of +699, as also of his subsisting domestic relations during the +same period. +</p> + +<p> +Along with his letters to Quintus, there is usually printed +an epistle or memoir, which Quintus addressed to his brother +when he stood candidate for the consulship, and which is entitled +<hi rend='italic'>De Petitione Consulatûs</hi>. It gives advice with regard to +the measures he should pursue to attain his object, particularly +inculcating the best means to gain private friends, and acquire +general popularity. But though professedly drawn up merely +for the use of his brother, it appears to have been intended by +the author as a guide, or manual, for all who might be placed +in similar circumstances. It is written with considerable elegance, +and perfect purity of style, and forms an important +document for the history of the Roman republic, as it affords +<pb n='283'/><anchor id='Pg283'/>us a clearer insight than we can derive from any other work +now extant, into the intrigues resorted to by the heads of parties +to gain the suffrages of the people. +</p> + +<p> +The authenticity of the <hi rend='italic'>Correspondence between Cicero and +Brutus</hi>, has formed the subject of a literary controversy, perhaps +the most celebrated which has ever occurred, except that +concerning the Epistles of Phalaris. +</p> + +<p> +It is quite ascertained, that a correspondence had been carried +on between Cicero and Brutus; and a collection of the +letters which had passed between them, extending to not less +than eight books, existed for several ages after Cicero’s death. +They were all written during the period which elapsed from +the assassination of Cæsar to the tragical end of the orator, +which comprehended about a year and a half; and it appears +from the fragments of them, cited by Plutarch and the grammarians, +that they chiefly related to the memorable political +events of that important interval, and to a literary controversy +which subsisted between Cicero and Brutus, with regard to +the attributes of perfect eloquence<note place="foot">A few unimportant letters which had passed between these two great men, +during Cicero’s proconsulship in Cilicia, were included among the <hi rend='italic'>Epistolæ Familiares</hi>, +and are of undisputed authenticity. It does not seem clear, whether they ever +formed part of the great collection of eight books, which contained the subsequent +correspondence between Cicero and Brutus.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +This collection is mentioned, and passages cited from it, +by Quintilian, Plutarch, and even Nonius Marcellus<note place="foot">Middleton’s <hi rend='italic'>Pref. to the Epistles of Cicero and Brutus</hi>, p. 4. London, 1743.</note>, who +lived about the year 400. After this, all trace of it is lost, +till, in the fourteenth century, we find some of the disputed letters +in the possession of Petrarch; and it has been conjectured +that Petrarch himself was the discoverer of them<note place="foot">Tunstall, <hi rend='italic'>Observations</hi>, &c. p. 27.</note>. Eighteen +of these letters, which were all that were then known, were +published at Rome in 1470. Many years afterwards, five more, +but in a mutilated state, were found in Germany, and these, in +all subsequent editions, were printed along with the original +eighteen. All the letters relate to the situation of public affairs +after the death of Cæsar. They contain a good deal of recrimination: +Brutus blaming Cicero for his dangerous elevation +of Octavius, and conferring honours on him too profusely; +Cicero censuring Brutus for having spared the life of Antony +at the time of the conspiracy. +</p> + +<p> +Now the point in dispute is, If these twenty-three letters be +parts of the original eight books of the genuine correspondence +of Cicero and Brutus, so often cited by Plutarch, Quintilian, +and Nonius; or if they be the forgery of some monk or +<pb n='284'/><anchor id='Pg284'/>sophist, during the dark ages which elapsed between the time +of Nonius and Petrarch. +</p> + +<p> +From their very first appearance, the eighteen letters, which +had come into the possession of Petrarch, passed among the +learned for original epistles of Cicero and Brutus; and the five +discovered in Germany, though doubted for a while, were soon +received into the same rank with the others. Erasmus seems +to have been the first who suspected the whole to be the declamatory +composition of some rhetorician or sophist. They +continued, however, to be cited by every other commentator, +critic, and historian, as the unquestionable remains of the +great author to whom they were ascribed. Middleton, in +particular, in his Life of Cicero, freely referred to them as +biographical authorities, along with the Familiar Epistles, and +those to Atticus. +</p> + +<p> +Matters were in this situation, when Tunstall, in 1741, addressed +a Latin Epistle to Middleton, written professedly to +introduce a proposal for a new edition of Cicero’s letters to +Atticus, and his brother Quintus. In the first part of this +epistle, he attempted to retrieve the original readings of these +authentic treasures of Ciceronian history, and asserted their +genuine sense against the corruptions or false interpretations of +them, which had led to many erroneous conclusions in Middleton’s +Life of Cicero. In the second part, he denies the +authenticity of the whole correspondence <anchor id="corr284"/><corr sic="betwen">between</corr> Cicero and +Brutus, which he alleges is the production of some sophist or +scholiast of the middle ages, who probably wrote them, according +to the practice of those days, as an exercise for his rhetorical +talents, and with the view either of drawing up a supplement +to the Epistles to Atticus, so as to carry on the history +from the period at which they terminate, or to vindicate +Cicero’s character from the imputation of rashness, in throwing +too much power into the hands of Octavius. Tunstall farther +thinks, that the leading subject of these letters was suggested +to the sophist by a passage in Plutarch’s Life of Brutus, +where it is mentioned that Brutus had remonstrated with +Cicero, and complained of him to their mutual friend Atticus, +for the court he paid to Octavius, which showed that +his aim was not to procure liberty for his country, but a kind +master to himself. +</p> + +<p> +Middleton soon afterwards published an English translation +of the whole correspondence between Brutus and Cicero, with +notes; and, in a prefatory dissertation, written with considerable +and unprovoked asperity, he attempted to vindicate the +authority of the epistles, and to answer the objections of Tunstall. +His adversary replied in an immense English work, of +<pb n='285'/><anchor id='Pg285'/>more than 400 pages, entitled, <q>Observations on the present +Collection of Epistles between Cicero and Brutus, representing +several evident marks of Forgery in those Epistles, in answer +to the late pretences of Dr Middleton: 1744.</q> +</p> + +<p> +It is difficult to give any sketch of the argumentative part +of this famed controversy, as the merit of all such discussion +consists in the extreme accuracy and minuteness of investigation. +The main scope, however, of the objections, is thus +generally exhibited by Tunstall in his Latin epistle. He declares, +<q>that as he came fresh from the perusal of Cicero’s +genuine letters, he perceived that those to Brutus wanted the +beauty and copiousness of the Ciceronian diction—that the +epistles, both of Brutus and Cicero, were drawn in the same +style and manner of colouring, and trimmed up with so much +art and diligence, that they seemed to proceed rather from +scholastic subtlety and meditation, than from the genuine acts +and affairs of life—that when, both before and after the date +of the letters to Atticus, several epistles had been addressed +from Brutus to Cicero, and from Cicero to Brutus, it was +strange that those which preceded the letters to Atticus should +have been lost, and those alone remain which appear to have +been industriously designed for an epilogue to the Epistles to +Atticus—that such reasons induced him to suspect, but on +looking farther into the letters themselves, he discovered many +absurdities in the sense, many improprieties in the language, +many remarkable predictions of future events, both on Brutus’s +side and Cicero’s; but what was most material, a great number +of historical facts, not only quite new, but wholly altered, and +some even apparently false, and contradictory to the genuine +works of Cicero.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Such was the state of the controversy, as it stood between +Tunstall and Middleton. In 1745, the year after Middleton +had published his translation of the epistles, Markland engaged +in this literary contest, and came forward in opposition to the +authenticity of the letters, by publishing his <q>Remarks on the +Epistles of Cicero to Brutus, and of Brutus to Cicero, in a +Letter to a Friend.</q> The arguments of Tunstall had chiefly +turned on historical inconsistencies—those of Markland principally +hinge on phrases to be found in the letters, which are +not Ciceronian, or even of pure <anchor id="corr285a"/><corr sic="latinity">Latinity</corr>. +</p> + +<p> +I must here close this long account of the writings of Cicero—of +Cicero, distinguished as the Consul of the republic—as +the father and saviour of his country—but not less distinguished +as the orator, philosopher, and moralist of Rome.—<q>Salve + primus omnium Parens Patriæ <anchor id="corr285"/><corr sic="appellatæ">appellate</corr>,—primus in togâ triumphum +linguæque lauream merite, et facundiæ, Latiarumque +<pb n='286'/><anchor id='Pg286'/>Literarum parens: atque (ut Dictator Cæsar, hostis quondam +tuus, de te scripsit,) omnium triumphorum lauream adopte majorem; +quanto plus est, ingenii Romani terminos in tantum promovisse, +quàm imperii<note place="foot">Pliny, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Nat.</hi></note>.</q> +</p> + +<milestone unit="tb" rend="rule: 60%"/> +<p> +In the former volume of this work, I had traced the progress +of the language of the Romans, and treated of the different +poets by whom it was adorned till the era of Augustus. +I had chiefly occasion, in the course of that part of my inquiry, +to compare the poetical productions of Rome with those of +Greece, and to show that the Latin poetry of this early age, +being modelled on that of Athens or Alexandria, had acquired +an air of preparation and authorship, and appeared to have +been written to obtain the cold approbation of the public, or +smiles of a Patrician patron, while the native lines of the +Grecian bards seem to be poured fourth like the Delphic oracles, +because the god which inspired them was too great to be +contained within the bosom. In the prose compositions of +the Romans, which have been considered in the present volume, +though the <hi rend='italic'>exemplaria Græca</hi> were still the models of +style, we have not observed the same servility of imitation. +The agricultural writers of Latium treated of a subject in a +great measure foreign to the maritime feelings and commercial +occupations of the Greeks; while, in the Latin historians, orators, +and philosophers, we listen to a tone of practical utility, +derived from the familiar acquaintance which their authors +exercised with the affairs of life. The old Latin historians +were for the most part themselves engaged in the affairs they +related, and almost every oration of Cicero was actually delivered +in the Senate or Forum. Among the Romans, philosophy +was not, as it had been with many of the Greeks, an +academic dream or speculation, which was substituted for the +realities of life. In Rome, philosophic inquiries were chiefly +prosecuted as supplying arguments and illustrations to the +patron for his conflicts in the Forum, and as guiding the citizen +in the discharge of his duties to the commonwealth. +Those studies, in short, alone were valued, which, as it is beautifully +expressed by Cicero, in the person of Lælius—<q>Efficiant +ut usui civitati simus: id enim esse præclarissimum +sapientiæ munus, maximumque virtutis documentum puto.</q> +</p> + +</div> + </body> + <back rend="page-break-before: right"> + <pb n='A-1'/><anchor id='PgA01'/> + <div><head>APPENDIX.</head> +<pb n='A-2'/><anchor id='PgA02'/> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Some felt the silent stroke of mouldering age,</q></l> +<l>Some hostile fury, some religious rage:</l> +<l>Barbarian blindness, Christian zeal conspire,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">And Papal piety, and Gothic fire.</q></l> +<l rend="margin-left: 16"><hi rend='smallcaps'>Pope’s</hi> <hi rend='italic'>Epistle to Addison</hi>.</l> +</lg></div> + +<div rend="page-break-before: right"> + <index index="toc" level1="Appendix"/><index index="pdf" level1="Appendix"/> +<pb n='A-3'/><anchor id='PgA03'/> +<anchor id="appendix"/> +<head>APPENDIX.</head> + +<p> +In order to be satisfied as to the authenticity of the works commonly called Classical, +it is important to ascertain in what manner they were given to the public by +their respective authors—to trace how they were preserved during the long night +of the dark ages—and to point out by whom their perishing remains were first discovered +at the return of light. Nor will it be uninteresting to follow up this sketch +by an enumeration of the principal Editions of the Classics mentioned in the preceding +pages, and of the best Translations of them which, from time to time, have +appeared in the Italian, French, and English languages. +</p> + +<p> +The manuscripts of the Latin Classics, during the existence of the Roman republic +and empire, may be divided into what have been called <hi rend='italic'>notata</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>perscripta</hi>. +The former were those written by the author himself, or his learned slaves, in +contractions or signs which stood for syllables and words; the latter, those which +were fully transcribed in the ordinary characters by the <hi rend='italic'>librarius</hi>, who was employed +by the <hi rend='italic'>bibliopolæ</hi>, or booksellers, to prepare the productions of an author for public +sale. +</p> + +<p> +The books written in the hand of the authors were probably not very legible, at +least if we may judge of others by Cicero. His brother Quintus had complained +that he could not read his letters, and Cicero says in reply: <q>Scribis te meas literas +superiores vix legere potuisse; hoc facio semper ut quicumque calamus in manus +meas venerit, eo sic utar tamquam bono<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Quint. Frat.</hi> Lib. II. + <anchor id="corr289"/><corr sic="(italics removed)">Ep.</corr> 15.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +But the works,—at least the prose works,—of the Romans were seldom written +out in the hand of the author, and were generally dictated by him to some slave or +freedman instructed in penmanship. It is well known that many of the orations of +Cicero, Cato, and their great rhetorical contemporaries, were taken down by +short-hand writers stationed in the Senate or Forum. But even the works most +carefully prepared in the closet were <hi rend='italic'>notata</hi>, in a similar manner, by slaves and +freedmen. There was no part of his learned compositions on which Cicero took +more pains, or about which his thoughts were more occupied<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. + <anchor id="corr289a"/><corr sic="Ad.">Ad</corr> Attic.</hi> Lib. XIII. <hi rend='italic'>passim</hi>, ed. <corr sic="Schutz">Schütz</corr>.</note>, than the dedication +of the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi> to Varro, and even this he <hi rend='italic'>dictated</hi> to his slave Spintharus, though +he did so slowly, word by word, and not in whole sentences to Tiro, as was his +practice in his other productions. <q>Male mihi sit,</q> says he in a letter to Atticus, +<q>si umquam quidquam tam enitar. Ergo ne Tironi quidem dictavi, qui totas <hi rend='italic'>periochas</hi> +persequi solet, sed Spintharo syllabatim<note place="foot">Ibid. <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 25.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +This practice of authors dictating their works created a necessity, or at least a +conveniency, of writing with rapidity, and of employing contractions, or conventional +marks, in almost every word. +</p> + +<p> +Accordingly, from the earliest periods of Roman literature, words were contracted, +or were signified by notes, which sometimes stood for more than one letter, +sometimes for syllables, and at other times for whole words. Funccius, who +main<pb n='A-4'/><anchor id='PgA04'/>tains that Adam was the first short-hand writer<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Pueritia Ling. Lat.</hi> c. 1. § 10. Adamum scribendi atque <hi rend='italic'>signandi</hi> +modum præmonstrasse primitus ratio ipsa persuadet.</note>, has asserted, with more truth, that +the Romans contracted their words from the remotest ages of the republic, and to a +greater degree than any other ancient nation. Sometimes the abbreviations consisted +merely in writing the initial letter instead of the whole word. Thus P. C. stood +for Patres Conscripti; C. R., for Civis Romanus; S. N. L., for Socii Nominis Latini. +This sort of contraction being employed in words frequently recurring, and +which in one sense might be termed public, and being also universally recognized, +would rarely produce any misapprehension or mistake. But frequently the abbreviations +were much more complex, and the leading letters of words in less common +use being <hi rend='italic'>notata</hi>, the contractions became of much more difficult and dubious interpretation. +For example, <hi rend='italic'>Meit.</hi> expressed meminit; <hi rend='italic'>Acus.</hi>, Acerbus; <hi rend='italic'>Quit.</hi>, quærit; +<hi rend='italic'>Ror.</hi>, Rhetor. +</p> + +<p> +For the sake, however, of yet greater expedition in writing, and perhaps, in some +few instances for the purpose of secrecy, signs or marks, which could be currently +made with one dash or scratch with the <hi rend='italic'>stylus</hi>, and without lifting or turning it, +came to be employed, instead of those letters which were themselves the abbreviations +of words. Some writers have supposed that these signs were entirely arbitrary<note place="foot">Lennep, <hi rend='italic'>De Tirone</hi>, p. 77. Ed. Amsteld. 1804.</note>, +whilst others have, with more probability, maintained that their forms can be +resolved or analysed into the figures, or parts of the figures, of the letters themselves +which they were intended to represent, though they have often departed far from +the shape of the original characters<note place="foot">Kopp, <hi rend='italic'>Palæographia Critica</hi>. Ed. Manheim, 1817. 2 Tom. 4to.</note>. Ennius is said to have invented 1100 of +these signs<note place="foot">Isidorus, <hi rend='italic'>Originum</hi>, Lib. I. c. 21.</note>, which he no doubt employed in his multifarious compositions. Others +came into gradual use in the manual operation of writing with rapidity to dictation. +Tiro, the favourite freedman of Cicero, greatly increased the number, and brought +this sort of tachygraphy to its greatest perfection among the Romans. In consequence +of this fashion of authors dictating their works, expedition came to be considered +of the utmost importance; it was regarded as the chief accomplishment of +an amanuensis; and he alone was considered as perfect in his art, whose pen could +equal the rapidity of utterance: +</p> + +<lg> +<l>Hic et scriptor erit felix, cui litera verbum est,</l> +<l>Quique notis linguam superet, cursumque loquentis,</l> +<l>Excipiens longas per nova compendia voces<note place="foot">Manilius, <hi rend='italic'>Astronom.</hi> Lib. IV. v. 197.</note>.</l> +</lg> + +<p> +These lines were written by a poet of the age of Augustus, and it appears from Martial<note place="foot">Lib. XIV. Epig. 202.</note>, +Ausonius<note place="foot">Epigr. 138.</note>, and Prudentius, that this system of dictation by the author, and +rapid notation by his amanuensis, continued in practice during the later ages of the +empire. +</p> + +<p> +Such was the mode in which most of the writings of the ancients came originally +from their authors, and were delivered to those friends who were desirous to possess +copies, or to the booksellers to be <hi rend='italic'>perscripta</hi>, or transcribed, for publication. +</p> + +<p> +There exists sufficient proof of the high estimation in which accurate transcriptions +of the works of their own writers were held by the Romans. The correctness +of printing, however, could not be expected. In the original notation, some mistakes +might probably be made from carelessness of pronunciation in the author who +dictated, and haste in his amanuensis; but the great source of errors in MSS. was +the blunders made by the <hi rend='italic'>librarius</hi> in copying out from the noted exemplar. There +was the greatest ambiguity and doubt in the interpretation, both of words contracted +in the ordinary character and in the artificial signs. Sometimes the same word was +expressed by different letters; thus MR. MT. MTR. all expressed <hi rend='italic'>Mater</hi>. Sometimes, +on the other hand, the same set of letters expressed different words; for +instance, ACT. signified <hi rend='italic'>Actor</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Auctoritas</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>Hactenus</hi>. The collocation of the +letters was often inverted from the order in which they stood in the word when fully +expressed; and frequently one letter had not merely its own power, but that of several +<pb n='A-5'/><anchor id='PgA05'/>others. Thus AMO. signified <hi rend='italic'>animo</hi>, because M had there not only its own force, +but, as its shape in some measure announces, the power of <hi rend='italic'>ni</hi> also. Matters were +still worse, when not only abbreviations, but signs had been resorted to. These +were variously employed by different writers, and were also differently interpreted +by transcribers. Some of these signs were extremely similar in form: it was scarcely +possible to discriminate the sign which denoted the syllable <hi rend='italic'>ab</hi> from that which +expressed the syllable <hi rend='italic'>um</hi>; and the signs of the syllables <hi rend='italic'>is</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>it</hi> were nearly undistinguishable; +while <hi rend='italic'>ad</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>at</hi> were precisely the same. The mark which expressed +the word <hi rend='italic'>talis</hi>, being a little more sloped or inclined, expressed <hi rend='italic'>qualis</hi>; +and the difference in the Tironian signs which stood for the complete words <hi rend='italic'>Ager</hi> +and <hi rend='italic'>Amicus</hi>, was scarcely perceptible<note place="foot">Kopp, <hi rend='italic'>Palæographia Critica</hi>.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The ancient Latin writers also employed a number of marks to denote the accents +of words, and the quantities of syllables. The oldest writers, as Livius Andronicus +and Nævius, always placed two vowels when a syllable was to be pronounced long<note place="foot">Quintil. <hi rend='italic'>Inst. Orator.</hi> Lib. I. c. 3.</note>. +Attius, the great tragic author, was the first to relinquish this usage; and after his +time, in conformity to the new practice which he had adopted, a certain mark was +placed over the long vowels. When this custom also (which is stigmatised by +Quintilian as <hi rend='italic'>ineptissimus</hi><note place="foot">Ibid.</note>) fell into disuse, the mark was frequently misunderstood, +and Funccius has given several examples of corruptions and false readings +from the mistake of transcribers, who supposed that it was intended to express an <hi rend='italic'>m</hi>, +an <hi rend='italic'>n</hi>, or other letters<note place="foot">Funccius, <hi rend='italic'>De Virili Ætat. Ling. Lat.</hi> Pars II. c. 8. § 9.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +In addition to all this, little attention was paid to the separation of words and +sentences, and the art of punctuation was but imperfectly understood. +</p> + +<p> +Finally, and above all, the orthography of Latin was extremely fluctuating and +uncertain. We have seen, in an early part of this work, how it varied in the time +of the republic, and it, in fact, never became fixed. Mai talks repeatedly, in his +preface, of the strange inconsistencies of spelling in the Codex, which contained +Cicero’s work <hi rend='italic'>De Republica</hi>; and Cassiodorus, who of all his contemporaries chiefly +cultivated literature during the reign of the barbarians in Italy, often regrets that the +ancient Romans had left their orthography encumbered with the utmost difficulties. +<q>Orthographia,</q> says he, <q>apud Græcos plerumque sine ambiguitate probatur +expressa; inter Latinos vero sub ardua difficultate relicta monstratur; unde etiam +modo studium magnum lectoris inquiret.</q> +</p> + +<p> +In consequence of this dictation to short-hand, and this uncertain orthography, +we find that the corruption of the classics had begun at a very early period. The +ninth Satire of Lucilius was directed against the ridiculous blunders of transcribers, +and contained rules for greater correctness. Cicero, in his letters to his brother +Quintus, bitterly complains of the errors of copyists,—<q>De Latinis vero, quo me +vertam, nescio; ita mendose et scribuntur, et +veneunt<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'><anchor id="corr291"/><corr sic="Epist">Epist.</corr> + ad Quint. <corr sic="Frat">Frat.</corr></hi> Lib. III. Ep. 5.</note>.</q> Strabo says, that in his +time booksellers employed ignorant transcribers, who neglected to compare what +they wrote with the exemplar; which, he adds, has occurred in many works, copied +for the purpose of being sold, both at Rome and Alexandria<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Geograph.</hi> Lib. XIII.</note>. Martial, too, thus +cautions his reader against the mistakes occasioned by the inaccuracy and haste of +the venders of books, and the transcribers whom they employed: +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Si qua videbuntur chartis tibi, lector, in istis,</q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Sive obscura nimis, sive Latina parum;</l> +<l>Non meus est error: nocuit Librarius illis,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><q rend="pre: none">Dum properat versus annumerare tibi<note place="foot">Lib. II. Ep. 8.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Aulus Gellius repeatedly complains of the inaccuracy of copies in his time: We +learn from him, that the writings of the greatest Classics were already corrupted +and falsified, not only by the casual errors of copyists, but by the deliberate perversions +of critics, who boldly altered everything that was too elegant or poetical +for their own taste and understanding<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. II. c. 14. <hi rend='italic'>et passim</hi>.</note>. To the numerous corruptions in the text +of Sallust he particularly refers<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> Lib. XX. c. 6.</note>. +</p> +<pb n='A-6'/><anchor id='PgA06'/> + +<p> +The practice, too, of abridging larger works, particularly histories, and extracting +from them, was injurious to the preservation of MSS. This practice, occasioned +by the scarcity of paper, began as early as the time of Brutus, who extracted even +from the meagre annals of his country. These excerpts seldom compensated for +the originals, but made them be neglected, and in consequence they were lost. +</p> + +<p> +It seems also probable, that the destruction of the treasures of classical literature +commenced at a very early period. Varro’s library, which was the most extensive +private collection of books in Italy, was ruined and dispersed when his villa was +occupied by Antony<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. III. c. 10.</note>; and some of his own treatises, as that addressed to Pompey +on the duties of the Consulship, were irretrievably lost. Previous to the art of +printing, books, in consequence of their great scarcity and value, were chiefly +heaped up in public libraries. Several of these were consumed in the fire, by +which so many temples were burned to the ground in the reign of Nero<note place="foot">Tacit. <hi rend='italic'>Annal.</hi> Lib. XV. c. 38–41.</note>, particularly +the library in the temple of Apollo, on the Palatine Hill, which was founded +by Augustus, and contained all the Roman poets and historians previous to his age. +This literary establishment having been restored as far as was possible by Domitian, +suffered a second time by the flames; and the extensive library of the Capitol perished +in a fire during the reign of Commodus<note place="foot">Joann. Sarisberiensis, <hi rend='italic'>De Nug. Curial.</hi> Lib. VIII. c. 19. Lursenius, <hi rend='italic'>Dissert. +De Bibliothecis Veterum</hi>, p. 297.</note>. When it is considered, that at these +periods the copies of Latin works were few, and chiefly confined within the walls +of Rome, some notion may be formed of the extent of the loss sustained by these +successive conflagrations. +</p> + +<p> +From the portentous æra of the death of Pertinax, the brief reign of each succeeding +emperor ended in assassination, civil war, and revolution. The imperial throne +was filled by soldiers of fortune, who came like shadows, and like shadows departed. +Rome at length ceased to be the fixed and habitual residence of her sovereigns, who +were now generally employed at a distance in the field, in repelling foreign enemies, +or repressing usurpers. While it is certain, that during this period many of the finest +monuments of the arts were destroyed, and some of the most splendid works of +architecture defaced, it can hardly be supposed that the frail texture of the parchment, +or papyrus, should have resisted the stroke of sudden ruin, or the gradual +mouldering of neglect. +</p> + +<p> +But the chief destruction took place after the removal of the seat of empire by +Constantine. The loss of so many classical works subsequently to that æra, has +been attributed chiefly to the irruption of the northern barbarians; but it was fully +as much owing to the blind zeal of the early Christians. Many of the public libraries +were placed in temples, and hence were the more exposed to the fury of the +proselytes to the new faith. This devastation began in Italy in the fourth century, +before the barbarians had penetrated to the heart of the empire; and, in the same +century, if Sulpicius Severus may be credited, Bishop Martin undertook a crusade +against the temples of the Gauls<note place="foot">Sulp. Severus, <hi rend='italic'>De Martini Vita</hi>, c. 16.</note>. St Augustine, St Jerome, and Lactantius, +indeed, knew the classics well; but they considered them as a sort of forbidden +fruit: and St Jerome, as he himself informs us, was whipped by an angel for +perusing Plautus and Cicero<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> XVIII. <hi rend='italic'>Opera</hi>.</note>. The following or fifth century, was distinguished +by the first capture of Rome, and its successive devastations by Alaric, Genseric, +and Attila. In the latter part of the century, Milan, too, was plundered; which, +next to Rome, was the chief repository of books in Italy. +</p> + +<p> +Monachism, which, in its first institution, particularly in the east, had been so +destructive of literary works, became, when more advanced in its progress, a chief +cause of their preservation. When the monks were at length united, in a species +of civil union, under the fixed rules of St Benedict, in the beginning of the sixth +century, the institution contributed, if not to the diffusion of literature, at least to +the preservation of literary works. There was no prohibition in the ordinances of +St Benedict against the reading of classical writings, as in those of St Isidore: and +the consequence was, that wherever any abbot, or even monk, had a taste for +<pb n='A-7'/><anchor id='PgA07'/>letters, books were introduced into the convent. We have a remarkable example +of this in the instance of Cassiodorus, whose genius, learning, and virtue, shed a +lustre on one of the darkest periods of Italian history. After his pre-eminent services +as minister of state during the reign of Theodoric, and regency of Amalasuntha, +he retired, in the year 540, when he had reached the age of seventy, to the +monastery of Monte Casino, situated in a most delightful spot, near the place of his +birth, in Calabria. There he became as serviceable to literature as he had formerly +been to the state; and the convent to which he betook himself deserves to be first +mentioned in any future history of the preservation of the Classics. Before his +entrance into it, he possessed an extensive library, with which he enriched the +cloister<note place="foot">Cassiodor. <hi rend='italic'>Opera</hi>.</note>; and subsequently enlarged it by a collection of MSS., which he caused +to be brought to him from various quarters of Italy. There is still extant his order +to a monk to procure for him Albinus’ treatise on Music; which shows, that his +collection was not entirely confined to theological treatises: while his work <hi rend='italic'>De +Artibus ac Disciplinis liberalium Literarum</hi>, is an ample testimony of his classical +learning, and of the value which he attached to it. His library contained, at least, +Ennius, Terence, Lucretius, Varro, Cicero, and Sallust<note place="foot">Petit-Radel, <hi rend='italic'>Recherches sur les Biblioth. Anciennes</hi>.</note>. The monks of his convent +were excited by him to the transcription of MSS.; and, in his work <hi rend='italic'>De +Orthographia</hi>, he did not disdain to give minute directions for copying with +facility and correctness. +</p> + +<p> +Thus, in collecting an ample library—in diffusing copies of ancient MSS.—in +verbal instructions, written lectures, and the composition of voluminous works—he +closed, in the service of religion and learning, a long and meritorious life. +</p> + +<p> +The example of Cassiodorus was followed in other convents. About half a century +after his death, Columbanus founded a monastery of Benedictines at Bobbio, a +town situated among the northern Apennines. This religious society, as Tiraboschi +informs us, was remarkable, not only for the sanctity of its manners, but the +cultivation of literature. It was fortunate that receptacles for books had now been +thus provided, as otherwise the treasures of classical literature in Italy would, in all +likelihood, have perished during the wars of Belisarius, and Narses, and the invasion +of Totila. It is in the age of Cassiodorus,—that is, the beginning and middle of the +sixth century,—that Tiraboschi places the serious and systematic commencement of +the transcription of the classics<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Stor. dell Letter. Ital.</hi> Part I. Lib. I.</note>. He mentions the names of some of the most +eminent copyists; but a fuller list had been previously furnished by Fabricius<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca Latin.</hi></note>. +</p> + +<p> +In Gregory the Great, who was Pope at the end of the sixth and beginning of the +seventh century, literature, according to popular belief, found an enemy in the west, +as fatal to its interests as the Caliph Omar had been in the east. This pontiff was +accused of burning a classical library, and also some valuable works, which had replaced +those formerly consumed in the Palatine library. John of Salisbury is the +sole authority for this charge; and even he, who lived six centuries after the age of +Gregory, only mentions it as a tradition and report: <q>Fertur Beatus Gregorius +bibliothecam combussisse gentilem, quo divinæ paginæ gratior esset locus, et major +auctoritas, et diligentia studiosior<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Nug. Cur.</hi> Lib. VIII. c. 19.</note>;</q> and again, <q>Ut traditur a majoribus, incendio +dedit probatæ lectionis scripta, Palatinus quæcunque tenebat Apollo<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> Lib. II. c. 26.</note>.</q> Cardan informs +us, that Gregory also caused the plays of Nævius, Ennius, and Afranius, to be +burned. That he suppressed the works of Cicero, rests on the authority of a passage +in an edict published by Louis XI., dated 1473, and quoted by Lyron in his +<hi rend='italic'>Singularitéz Historiques</hi><note place="foot">Tom. I.</note>. St Antonius, who was Archbishop of Florence in the +middle of the fifteenth century, is cited by Vossius as the most ancient author who +has asserted that he burned the decades of Livy<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Historicis Latinis</hi>, Lib. I, c. 19.</note>. These charges have been +strenuously supported by Brucker<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Hist. Critic. Philosoph.</hi> Tom. III.</note>, while Tiraboschi, on the other hand, has endeavoured +to vindicate the memory of the pontiff from all such aspersions<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Stor. dell Letterat. Ital.</hi> Tom. III. Lib. II. c. 2.</note>. Bayle +<pb n='A-8'/><anchor id='PgA08'/>has adopted a prudent neutrality<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Dict. Histor.</hi> Art. <hi rend='smallcaps'>Gregoire</hi>.</note>. + Dendina<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Vicende della Letteratura</hi>, Lib. I. c. 3.</note> + and Ginguené<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Hist. Litter. d’Italie</hi>, Tom. I. c. 2.</note>, the most recent +authors who have touched on the subject, seem to consider the question, after all +that has been written on it, as still doubtful, and not likely to receive any farther +elucidation. It appears certain, that Gregory disliked classical, or profane literature, +on account of the oracles, idolatry, and rites, with which it is associated, and that +he prohibited its study by the clergy<note place="foot">Bayle, <hi rend='italic'>Diction. Histor.</hi> Art. <hi rend='smallcaps'>Gregoire</hi>. Rem. M. Gibbon’s <hi rend='italic'>Decline and +Fall of the Rom. Emp.</hi> c. 45.</note>;—whence may, perhaps, have originated +the reports of his wilfully destroying the then surviving libraries and books of Rome. +</p> + +<p> +During the course of the two centuries which followed the death of Gregory, Italy +was divided between the Greeks and Lombards, and was torn by spiritual dissensions. +The most numerous and barbarous swarm which had yet crossed the Alps +was the Lombards, who descended on Italy, under their king, Alboinus, in 568, immediately +after the death of Narses. It was no longer a tribe or army by which Italy +was invaded; but a whole nation of old men, women, and children, covered its +plains. This ignorant and ferocious race spread themselves from the Alps to Rome +during the seventh and eighth centuries. And although Rome itself escaped the +Lombard dominion, the horrors of a perpetual siege can alone convey an adequate +idea of its distressed situation. The feuds of the Lombard chiefs, their wars with +the Greeks, who still remained masters of Rome, and at length with the Franks, +(all which contests were marked with fire and massacre,) made a desert of the +Peninsular garden<note place="foot">Muratori, <hi rend='italic'>Antiquitates Italiæ Med. Ævi</hi>. Tom. III. p. 853. ed. Milan, 1741.</note>. Hitherto the superstitious feelings of the northern hordes +had inspired them with some degree of respect for the sacerdotal order which they +found established in Italy. Reverence for the person of the priest had extended +itself to the security of his property, and while the palace and castle were wrapt in +flames, the convent escaped sacrilege. But the Lombards extended their fury +to objects which their rude predecessors had generally respected; and learning +was now attacked in her most vulnerable part. Amid the general destruction, +the monasteries and their libraries were no longer spared; and with others, that +of Monte Casino, one of the most valuable and extensive in Italy, was plundered +by the Lombards<note place="foot">Tiraboschi, <hi rend='italic'>Stor. dell. Letterat. Ital.</hi> Tom. III. Lib. II.</note>. Some books preserved in the sack of the libraries were carried +back by these invaders to their native country, and a few were saved by monks, +who sought refuge in other kingdoms, which accounts for the number of classical +MSS. subsequently discovered in France and Germany<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi></note>. +</p> + +<p> +Amid the ruin of taste and letters in these ages, it is probable that but few new +copies were made from the MSS. then extant. Some of the classics, however, +were still spared, and remained in the monastic libraries. Anspert, who was Abbot +of Beneventum, in the eighth century, declares that he had never studied Homer, +Cicero, or Virgil, which implies, that they were still preserved, and accessible to his +perusal<note place="foot">Petit-Radel, <hi rend='italic'>Recherches sur les Biblioth. Anciennes</hi>, p. 53.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The division of Italy between the Lombards and Greeks continued till the end of +the eighth century, when Charlemagne put an end to the kingdom of the former, and +founded his empire. Whether this monarch himself had any pretensions to the +character of a scholar, is more than doubtful; but whether he possessed learning or +not, he was a generous patron of those who did. He assembled round his court +such persons as were most distinguished for talents and erudition; he established +schools and pensioned scholars; and he founded also a species of Academy, of which +Alcuin was the head, and in which every one adopted a scriptural or classic appellation. +This tended to multiply the MSS. of the classics, and many of them found a +place in the imperial library mentioned by Eginhard. Charlemagne also established +the monastery of Fulda, and, in consequence, copies of these MSS. found their way +to Germany in the beginning of the ninth century<note place="foot">Eichhorn, <hi rend='italic'>Litterargeschichte</hi>, ed. Gotting. 1812.</note>. The more recent Latin writers, +as Boethius, Macrobius, and Capella, were chiefly popular in his age; but Virgil, +<pb n='A-9'/><anchor id='PgA09'/>Cicero, and Livy, were not unknown. Alcuin’s poetical account of the library at +York, founded by Archbishop Egbert, and of which he had been the first librarian, +affords us some notion of the usual contents of the libraries at that time.— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Illic invenies veterum vestigia patrum;</q></l> +<l>Quicquid habet pro se Latio Romanus in orbe,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Græcia vel quicquid transmisit clara Latinis.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Then, after enumerating the works of all the Fathers which had a place in the +library, he proceeds with his catalogue.— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Historici veteres, Pompeius, Plinius, ipse</q></l> +<l>Acer Aristoteles rhetor, atque Tullius ingens;</l> +<l>Quid quoque Sedulius, vel quid canit ipse Juvencus,</l> +<l>Alcuinus, et Clemens Prosper, Paulinus orator;</l> +<l>Quid Fortunatus vel quid Lactantius edunt.</l> +<l>Quæ Maro Virgilius, Statius, Lucanus et auctor,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Artis grammaticæ vel quid scripsere magistri.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +But though there were libraries in other countries, Italy always contained the greatest +number of classical MSS. In the ninth century, Lupus, who was educated at +Fulda, and afterwards became Abbot of Ferrieres, a monastery in the Orleanois, requested +Pope Benedict III. to send him Cicero <hi rend='italic'>de Oratore</hi> and Quintilian, of +both of which he possessed parts, but had neither of them complete<note place="foot">Lupi, <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 103. dated 855.</note>; and in another +letter he begs from Italy a copy of Suetonius<note place="foot">Ibid. Ep. 91.</note>. The series of his letters gives us a +favourable impression of the state of profane literature in his time. In his very first +letter to Einhart, who had been his preceptor, he quotes Horace and the Tusculan +Questions. Virgil is repeatedly cited in the course of his epistles, and the lines of +Catullus are familiarly referred to as authorities for the proper quantities of syllables. +Lupus did not confine his care to the mere transcription of MSS. He bestowed +much pains on the rectification of the texts, as is evinced by his letter to Ansbald, +Abbot of Prum, where he acknowledges having received from him a copy of the +epistles of Cicero, which would enable him to correct the MSS. of them which he +himself possessed<note place="foot">Epist. 69.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +It was a rule in convents, that those who embraced the monasteric life should +employ some hours each day in manual labour; but as all were not fit for those occupations +which require much corporeal exertion, many of the monks fulfilled their +tasks by copying MSS. Transcription thus became a favourite exercise in the ninth +century, and was much encouraged by the Abbots<note place="foot">Ginguené, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Litt. d’Italie</hi>, Tom. I. p. 63.</note>. In every great convent there +was an apartment called the <hi rend='italic'>Scriptorium</hi>, in which writers were employed in transcribing +such books as were deemed proper for the library. The heads of monasteries +borrowed their classics from each other, and, having copied, returned them<note place="foot">Ziegel, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Rei Liter.</hi> Tom. I. <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Liter. de la France</hi>, Tom. IV.</note>.—By +this means, books were wonderfully multiplied. Libraries became the constant +appendages of cloisters, and in Italy existed nowhere else. We do not hear, during +this period, of either royal or private libraries. There was little information among +the priests or parochial clergy, and almost every man of learning was a member of +a convent. +</p> + +<p> +But while MSS. thus increased in the monasteries, there were, at the same time, +during this century, many counteracting causes, which rendered them more scarce +than they would otherwise have been. During the Norman invasion, the convents +were the chief objects of plunder. From the time, too, of the conquest of Alexandria +by the Saracens, in the seventh century, when the Egyptian papyrus almost +ceased to be imported into Europe, till the close of the tenth, when the art of making +paper from cotton rags seems to have been introduced, there were no materials for +writing except parchment, a substance too expensive to be readily spared for mere +purposes of literature<note place="foot">Hallam’s <hi rend='italic'>State of Europe during the Middle Ages</hi>, Vol. III. p. 332, 2d ed.</note>. The scarcity of paper, too, not only prevented the increase +<pb n='A-10'/><anchor id='PgA10'/>of classical MSS., but occasioned the loss of some which were then in existence, +from the characters having been deleted, in order to make way for a more favourite +production. The monkish scribes were accustomed to peel off the surface of parchment +MSS., or to obliterate the ink by a chemical process, for the purpose of fitting +them to receive the works of some Christian author; so that, by a singular and fatal +metamorphosis, a classic was frequently translated into a vapid homily or monastic +legend. That many valuable works of antiquity perished in this way, is evinced by +the number of MSS. which have been discovered, evidently written on erased parchments. +Thus the fragments of Cicero’s Orations, lately found in the Ambrosian +library, had been partly obliterated, to make room for the works of Sedulius, and the +Acts of the Council of Chalcedon; and Cicero’s treatise <hi rend='italic'>de Republica</hi> had been +effaced, in order to receive a commentary of St Augustine on the Psalms. +</p> + +<p> +The tenth century has generally been accounted the age of deepest darkness in +the west of Europe. During its course, Italy was united by Otho I. with the +German empire, and was torn by civil dissensions. Muratori gives a detailed +account of the plundering of Italian convents, which was the consequence of these +commotions, and of the irruption of the Huns in 899<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Annali d’Italia</hi>, Ad. Ann. 899, &c.</note>. Still, however, Italy continued +to be the great depository of classical MSS.; and in that country they were +occasionally sought with the utmost avidity. Gerbert, who became Pope in the +last year of the tenth century, by name of Silvester II., spared neither pains nor +expense in procuring transcriptions of MSS. This extraordinary man, impelled by +a thirst of science, had left his home and country at an early period of life: He had +visited various nations of Europe, but it was in Spain, then partly subject to the +Arabs, that he had chiefly obtained an opportunity of gratifying his mathematical +talent, and desire of general information. Being no less ready to communicate +than eager to acquire learning, he founded a school on his return to Italy, and +greatly increased the library at Bobbio, in Lombardy, to the abbacy of which he +had been promoted. While Archbishop of Rheims, in France, that kingdom +experienced the effects of his enlightened zeal. During his papacy, obtained for +him by his pupil Otho III., he persevered in his love of learning. In his generosity +to scholars, and his expenditure of wealth for the employment of copyists, as well +as for exploring the repositories in which the mouldering relics of ancient learning +were yet to be found, we trace a liberality, bordering on profusion.—<q>Nosti,</q> says +he, in one of his epistles to the monk Rainaldo, <q>quanto studio librorum exemplaria +undique conquiram; nosti quot scriptores in urbibus, aut in agris Italiæ passim +habeantur. Age ergo, et te solo conscio, ex tuis sumptibus fac ut mihi scribantur +Manilius de Astronomia, et Victorinus. Spondeo tibi, et certum teneo quod, +quicquid erogaveris, cumulatim remittam<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 130.</note>.</q> Having by this means exhausted +Italy, Silvester directed his researches to countries beyond the Alps, as we perceive +from his letter to Egbert, Abbot of Tours.—<q>Cui rei preparandæ bibliothecam +assidue comparo; et sicut Romæ dudum, et in aliis partibus Italiæ, in Germanià +quoque, et Belgicà, scriptores auctorumque exemplaria multitudine nummorum +redemi; adjutus benevolentia et studio amicorum comprovincialium: sic identidem +apud vos per vos fieri sinite ut exorem. Quos scribi velimus, in fine epistolæ +designabimus<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 44.</note>.</q> This list, however, is not printed in any of the editions of Gerbert’s +Letters, which I have had an opportunity of consulting. +</p> + +<p> +It thus appears that there were zealous researches for the classics, and successful +discoveries of them, long before the age of Poggio, or even of Petrarch; but so +little intercourse existed among different countries, and the monks had so little +acquaintance with the treasures of their own libraries, that a classical author might +be considered as lost in Italy, though familiar to a few learned men, and still +lurking in many of the convents. +</p> + +<p> +Gerbert, previous to his elevation to the Pontificate, had, as already mentioned, +been Abbot of Bobbio; and the catalogue which Muratori has given of the library +in that convent, may be taken as an example of the description and extent of the +classical treasures contained in the best monastic libraries of the tenth century. +While the collection, no doubt, chiefly consists of the works of the saints and +fathers, we find Persius, Valerius Flaccus, and Juvenal, contained in one volume. +<pb n='A-11'/><anchor id='PgA11'/>There are also enumerated in the list Cicero’s Topica, and his Catilinarian orations, +Martial, parts of Ausonius and Pliny, the first book of Lucretius, four books of +Claudian, the same number of Lucan, and two of Ovid<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Antiquitates Italiæ Med. Ævi</hi>, Tom. III. p. 818. The most valuable books +of the Bobbian collection were transferred, in the seventeenth century, by the Cardinal +Borromeo, to the Ambrosian library at Milan; and it is from the Bobbian Palimpsesti +there discovered, that Mai has recently edited his fragments of orations of +Cicero, and plays of Plautus.</note>. The monastery of Monte +Casino, which was the retreat, as we have seen, of Cassiodorus, was distinguished +about the same period for its classical library.—<q>The monks of Casino, in Italy,</q> +observes Warton, <q>were distinguished before the year 1000, not only for their +knowledge of the sciences, but their attention to polite learning, and an acquaintance +with the classics. Their learned Abbot, Desiderius, collected the best of the +Roman writers. This fraternity not only composed learned treatises on music, +logic, astronomy, and the Vitruvian architecture, but likewise employed a portion +of their time in transcribing Tacitus, Jornandes, Ovid’s Fasti, Cicero, Seneca, +Donatus the grammarian, Virgil, Theocritus, and Homer.</q> +</p> + +<p> +During the eleventh century, the Benedictines having excited scandal by their +opulence and luxury, the Carthusian and Cistertian orders attracted notice and +admiration, by a self-denying austerity; but they valued themselves not less than +the Benedictines, on the elegance of their classical transcriptions; and about the +same period, translations from the Classics into the <hi rend='italic'>Lingua volgare</hi>, first commenced +in Italy. +</p> + +<p> +At the end of the eleventh century, the Crusades began; and during the whole +course of the twelfth century, they occupied the public mind, to the exclusion of +almost every other object or pursuit. Schools and convents were affected with this +religious and military mania: All sedentary occupations were suspended, and a +mark of reproach was affixed to every undertaking which did not promote the +contagion of the times. +</p> + +<p> +About the middle of the thirteenth century, and after the death of the Emperor +Frederic II., Italy was for the first time divided into a number of petty sovereignties, +unconnected by any system of general union, except the nominal allegiance +still due to the Emperor. This separation, while it excited rivalry in arms, also +created some degree of emulation in learning. Many Universities were established +for the study of theology and the exercise of scholastic disputation; and though the +classics were not publicly diffused, they existed within the walls of the convent, +and were well known to the learned men of the period. Brunetto Latini, the +teacher of Dante, and author of the <hi rend='italic'>Tesoro</hi>, translated into Italian several of +Cicero’s orations, some parts of his rhetorical works, and considerable portions of +Sallust<note place="foot">Mehus, <hi rend='italic'>Vita Ambrosii Camaldulensis</hi>, p. 157. ed. Florent. 1759.</note>. Dante, in his <hi rend='italic'>Amoroso Convito</hi>, familiarly quotes Livy, Virgil, and +Cicero <hi rend='italic'>de Officiis</hi>; and Mehus mentions various translations of Seneca, Ovid, and +Virgil, which had been executed in the age of Dante, and which he had seen in +MSS. in the different libraries of Italy<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> p. 183.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +It was Petrarch, however, who, in the fourteenth century, led the way in drawing +forth the classics from the dungeons where they had been hitherto immured, +and holding up their light and glory to the eyes of men. While enjoying the reputation +of having perfected the most melodious and poetical language of Europe, Petrarch +has acquired a still higher title to fame, by his successful exertions in rousing +his country from a slumber of ignorance which threatened to be eternal. In his earliest +youth, instead of the dry and dismal works which at that time formed the general +reading, he applied himself to the reading of Virgil and Cicero; and when he +first commenced his epistolary correspondence, he strongly expressed his wish that +their fame should prevail over the authority of Aristotle and his commentators; and +declared his belief of the high advantages the world would enjoy if the monkish philosophy +should give place to classical literature. Petrarch, as is evinced by his letters, +was the most assiduous recoverer and restorer of ancient MSS. that had yet existed. +He was an enthusiast in this as he was in every thing else that merited enthusiasm—love, +friendship, glory, patriotism, and religion. He never passed an old convent +without searching its library, or knew of a friend travelling into those quarters +<pb n='A-12'/><anchor id='PgA12'/>where he supposed books to be concealed, without entreaties to procure for him some +classical MS. It is evident that he came just in time to preserve from total ruin +many of the mouldering remains of classical antiquity, and to excite among his countrymen +a desire for the preservation of those treasures when its gratification was on +the very eve of being rendered for ever impracticable. He had seen, in his youth, +several of Cicero’s now lost treatises, and Varro’s great work <hi rend='italic'>Rerum Divinarum et +Humanarum</hi><note place="foot">Petrarc. <hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad M. Varronem</hi>.</note>, which has forever disappeared from the world; and it is probable +that had not some one, endued with his ardent love of letters, and indefatigable research, +arisen, many similar works which we now enjoy, would soon have sunk into +a like oblivion. +</p> + +<p> +About the same period, Boccaccio also collected several Latin MSS., and copied +such as he could not purchase. He transcribed so many of the Latin poets, orators, +and historians, that it would appear surprising had a copyist by profession performed +so much. In a journey to Monte Casino, a place generally considered as remarkably +rich in MSS., he was both astonished and afflicted to find the library exiled from +the monastery into a barn, which was accessible only by a ladder. He opened many +of the books, and found much of the writing effaced by damp. His grief was +redoubled when the monks told him, that when they wanted money, they erased +an ancient writing, wrote psalters and legends on the parchment, and sold the new +MSS. to women and children<note place="foot">Mill’s <hi rend='italic'>Travels of Theodore Ducas</hi>, Vol. I. p. 28.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +But though, in the fourteenth century, copies of the classics were multiplied and +rendered more accessible to the world, and though a few were made by such hands +as those of Petrarch and Boccaccio, the transcriptions in general were much less +accurate than those of a former period. The Latin tongue, which had received +more stability than could otherwise have been expected, from having been consecrated +in the service of the church, had now at length become a dead language, and many +of the transcribers did not understand what they wrote. Still more mistakes than +those produced by ignorance, were occasioned by the presumption of pretenders to +learning, who were often tempted to alter the text, in order to accommodate the +sense to their own slender capacity and defective taste. Whilst a remedy has been +readily found for the gross oversight or neglect of the ignorant and idle, in substituting +one letter for another, or inserting a word without meaning, errors affecting the +sense of the author, which were thus introduced, have been of the worst species, +and have chiefly contributed to compose that mass of various readings, on which +the sagacity of modern scholars has been so copiously exercised. In a passage of +Coluccio Salutati’s treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Fato</hi>, published by the <anchor id="corr298"/><corr sic="Abbe">Abbé</corr> Mehus, the various +modes in which MSS. were depraved by copyists are fully pointed out<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Vita Ambrosii Camaldulensis</hi>, p. 290.</note>. To such +extent had these corruptions proceeded, that Petrarch, talking of the MSS. of his +own time, and those immediately preceding it, asks, <q>Quis scriptorum inscitiæ medebitur, +inertiæque corrumpenti omnia ac miscenti? Non quæro jam aut queror +Orthographiam, quæ jam dudum interiit; qualitercunque utinam scriberent quod jubentur. +An si redeat Cicero aut Livius, ante omnes Plinius Secundus, sua scripta +religentes intelligent?</q> So sensible was Coluccio Salutati of the injury which had +been done to letters by the ignorance or negligence of transcribers, that he proposed, +as a check to the evil, that public libraries should be every where formed, the superintendence +of which should be given to men of learning, who might carefully +collate the MSS. intrusted to them, and ascertain the most correct readings<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> p. 291.</note>. To +this labour, and to the detection of counterfeit works, of which many, from various +motives, now began to be circulated, Coluccio devoted a considerable portion of his +own time and studies. His plan for the institution of public libraries did not succeed; +but he amassed a private one, which, in that age, was second only to the +library of Petrarch. A considerable classical library, though consisting chiefly of the +later classics, particularly Seneca, Macrobius, Apuleius, and Suetonius, was amassed +by Tedaldo de Casa, whose books, with many remarks and emendations in his own +hand, were inspected by the Abbé Mehus in the library of Santa-Croce at Florence<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi> p. 335.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The path which had been opened up by Petrarch, Boccaccio, and Coluccio Salutati, +in the fourteenth century, was followed out in the ensuing century with wonderful +assiduity and success by Poggio Bracciolini, Filelfo, and Ambrosio +Traver<pb n='A-13'/><anchor id='PgA13'/>sari, Abbott of Camaldoli, under the guidance and protection of the Medicean Family +and Niccolo Niccoli. +</p> + +<p> +Of all the learned men of his time, Poggio seems to have devoted himself with +the greatest industry to the search for classical MSS. No difficulties in travelling, +or indifference in the heads of convents to his literary inquiries, could damp his zeal. +His ardour and exertions were fortunately crowned with most complete success. +The number of MSS. discovered by him in different parts of Europe, during the +space of nearly fifty years, will remain a lasting proof of his unceasing perseverance, +and of his sagacity in these pursuits. Having spent his youth in travelling through +different countries, he at length settled at Rome, where he continued as secretary, +in the service of eight successive Pontiffs. In this capacity he, in the year 1414, accompanied +Pope John XXIII. to the Council of Constance, which was opened in +that year. While residing at Constance, he made several expeditions, most interesting +to letters, in intervals of relaxation during the prosecutions of Jean Hus and +Jerome of Prague, of which he had the official charge. His chief excursion was to +the monastery of St Gal, about twenty miles distance from Constance, where his +information led him to expect that he might find some MSS. of the ancient Roman +writers<note place="foot">Roscoe’s <hi rend='italic'>Life of Lorenzo de Medici</hi>, c. 1.</note>. The earliest Abbots, and many of the first monks of St Gal, had +been originally transferred to that monastery from the literary establishment founded +by Charlemagne at Fulda. Werembert and Helperic, who were sent to St Gal +from Fulda in the ninth century, introduced in their new residence a strong taste for +letters, and the practice of transcribing the classics. In examining the <hi rend='italic'>Histoire Litteraire +de la France</hi>, by the Benedictines, we find that no monastery in the middle +ages produced so many distinguished scholars as St Gal. In this celebrated convent, +which, (as Tenhove expresses it) had been so long the Dormitory of the Muses, +Poggio discovered some of the most valuable classics,—not, however, in the library +of the cloister, but covered with dust and filth, and rotting at the bottom of a dungeon, +where, according to his own account, no criminal condemned to death would have +been thrown<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> Lib. V.</note>. This evinces that whatever care may at one time have been taken +of classical MSS. by the monks, they had subsequently been shamefully neglected. +</p> + +<p> +The services rendered to literature by Ambrosio of Camaldoli were inferior only to +those of Poggio. Ambrosio was born at Forli in 1386, and was a disciple of Emanuel +Chrysoloras. At the age of fourteen, he entered into the convent of Camaldoli +at Florence, and thirty years afterwards became the Superior of his order. In the kind +conciliatory disposition of Ambrosio, manifested by his maintaining an uninterrupted +friendship with Niccolo Niccoli, Poggio, and Filelfo, and by moderating the quarrels +of these irascible <hi rend='italic'>Literati</hi>—in his zeal for the sacred interests, discipline, and +purity of his convent, to which his own moral conduct afforded a spotless example—and, +finally, in his enthusiastic love of letters, in which he was second only to +Petrarch, we behold the brightest specimen of the monastic character, of which the +memory has descended to us from the middle ages. Though chiefly confined within +the limits of a cloister, Ambrosio had perhaps the best pretensions of any man of +his age, to the character of a polite scholar. The whole of the early part of his life, +and the leisure of its close, were employed in collecting ancient MSS. from every +quarter where they could be procured, and in maintaining a constant correspondence +with the most distinguished men of his age. His letters which have been published +in 1759, at Florence, with a long preface and life by the Abbé Mehus, contain the +fullest information that can be any where found with regard to the recovery of ancient +classical MSS. and the state of literature at Florence in the fifteenth century. +</p> + +<p> +It would appear from these Epistles, that though the monks had been certainly instrumental +in preserving the precious relics of classical antiquity, their avarice and +bigotry now rather obstructed the prosecution of the researches undertaken for the +purpose of bringing them to light. It was their interest to keep these treasures to +themselves, because it was a maxim of their policy to impede the diffusion of +knowledge, and because the transcription of MSS. was to them a source of considerable +emolument. Hence they often threw obstacles in the way of the inquiries of +the learned, who were obliged to have recourse to various artifices, in order to draw +classical MSS. from the recesses of the cloister<note place="foot">Morhoff, <hi rend='italic'>Polyhistor</hi>. Lib. I. c. 7. Lomeierus, <hi rend='italic'>De Bibliothecis</hi>, c. 9. § 2.</note>. +</p> + +<pb n='A-14'/><anchor id='PgA14'/> + +<p> +The exertions of Poggio and Ambrosio, however, were stimulated and aided by +the munificent patronage of many opulent individuals of that period, who spared no +expense in reimbursing and rewarding those who had made successful researches +after these favourite objects of pursuit. <q>To such an enthusiasm,</q> says Tiraboschi, +<q>was this desire carried, that long journeys were undertaken, treasures were levied, +and enmities were excited, for the sake of an ancient MS.; and the discovery of a +book was regarded as almost equivalent to the conquest of a kingdom.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The most zealous promoters of these researches, and most eager collectors of +MSS. during the fifteenth century, were the Cardinal Ursini, Niccolo Niccoli and +the Family of Medici. +</p> + +<p> +Niccolo Niccoli, who was an humble citizen of Florence, devoted his whole +time and fortune to the acquisition of ancient MSS. In this pursuit he had been +eminently successful, having collected together 800 volumes, of which a great proportion +contained Roman authors. Poggio, in his funeral oration of Niccolo, bears +ample testimony to his liberality and zeal, and attributes the successful discovery of +so many classical MSS. to the encouragement which he had afforded. <q>Quod autem,</q> +says he, <q>egregiam laudem meretur, summam operam, curamque adhibuit +ad pervestigandos auctores, qui culpâ temporum perierant. Quâ in re verè possum +dicere, omnes libros fere, qui noviter tum ab aliis reperti sunt, tum a me ipso, qui integrum +Quintilianum, Ciceronis nostri orationes, Silium Italicum, Marcellinum, +Lucretii partem, multosque præterea e Germanorum Gallorumque ergastulis, meâ +diligentiâ eripui, atque in lucem extuli, Nicholai suasu, impulsu, cohortatione, et +pæne verborum molestiâ esse Latinis literis restitutos<note place="foot">Ap. Mehus, <hi rend='italic'>Pref. ad Epist. Ambros. Camaldulensis</hi>, p. 33. ed. Florent. 1759.</note>.</q> Several of these classical +works Niccolo copied with his own hand, and with great accuracy, after he had received +them<note place="foot">Ibid. p. 31.</note>. The MSS. in his hand-writing were long known and distinguished +by the beauty and distinctness of the characters. Nor did he content himself with +mere transcription: He diligently employed himself in correcting the errors of the +MSS. which were transmitted to him, and arranging the text in its proper order. +<q>Quum eos auctores,</q> says Mehus, <q>ex vetustissimis codicibus exscriberet, qui +suo potissimum consilio, aliorum vero operâ inventi sunt, non solum mendis, quibus +obsiti erant, expurgavit, sed etiam distinxit, capitibusque locupletavit<note place="foot">Ibid. p. 50.</note>.</q> Such was +the judgment of Niccolo, in this species of emendation, that Politian always placed +the utmost reliance on his MS. copies<note place="foot">Ibid. p. 44.</note>; and, indeed, from a complimentary poem +addressed to him in his own time, it would seem that he had carefully collated +different MSS. of the same work, before he transcribed his own copy— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Ille hos errores, unâ exemplaribus actis</q></l> +<l>Pluribus ante oculos, ne postera oberret et ætas,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Corrigit.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Previous to the time of Niccolo, the only libraries of any extent or value in Italy, +were those of Petrarch, Coluccio Salutati, and Boccaccio. The books which had +belonged to Petrarch and Coluccio, were sold or dispersed after the decease of their +illustrious possessors. Boccaccio’s library had been bequeathed by him to a religious +order, the Hermits of St Augustine; and this library was repaired and arranged +by Niccolo, for the use of the convent, and a proper hall built for its reception<note place="foot">Ibid. p. 31.</note>. +Niccolo was likewise the first person in modern times who conceived the idea of +forming a public library. Previous to his death, which happened in 1437, he directed +that his books should be devoted to the use of the public; and for this purpose he +appointed sixteen curators, among whom was Cosmo de Medici. After his demise, +it appeared that he was greatly in debt, and that his liberal intentions were likely to +be frustrated by the insolvency of his circumstances. Cosmo therefore offered to his +associates, that if they would resign to him the exclusive right of the disposal of the +books, he would himself discharge all the debts of Niccolo, to which proposal they +readily acceded. Having thus obtained the sole direction of the MSS., he deposited +them for public use in the Dominican Monastery of St Marco, at Florence, which he +had himself erected at an enormous expense<note place="foot">Roscoe’s <hi rend='italic'>Life of Lorenzo de Medici</hi>, c. 1.</note>. This library, for some time celebrated +under the name of the <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca Marciana</hi>, or library of St Marc, was +<pb n='A-15'/><anchor id='Pga15'/>arranged and catalogued by Tommaso da Sarzana Calandrino, at that time a poor +but zealous scholar in the lower orders of the clergy, and afterwards Pope, by the +name of Nicholas V. The building which contained the books of Niccolo having +been destroyed by an earthquake in 1454, Cosmo rebuilt it on such a plan, as to admit +a more extensive collection. After this it was enriched by private donations +from citizens of Florence, who, catching the spirit of the reigning family, vied with +each other in the extent and value of their gifts<note place="foot">Mehus, <hi rend='italic'>Pref.</hi> p. 67.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +When Cosmo, having finally triumphed over his enemies, was recalled from banishment, +and became the first citizen of Florence, <q>which he governed without arms or +a title,</q> he employed his immense wealth in the encouragement of learned men, +and in collecting, under his own roof, the remains of the ancient Greek and Roman +writers. His riches, and extensive mercantile intercourse with different parts of +Europe and Asia, enabled him to gratify a passion of this kind beyond any other individual. +He gave injunctions to all his friends and correspondents, to search for +and procure ancient MSS., in every language, and on every subject. From these +beginnings arose the celebrated library of the Medici, which, in the time of Cosmo, +was particularly distinguished for MSS. of Latin classics—possessing, in particular, +full and accurate copies of Virgil, Cicero, Seneca, Ovid, and Tibullus<note place="foot">Avogradi, <hi rend='italic'>De Magnificentiâ Cosmi Medices</hi>, Lib. II. + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">O mira in tectis bibliotheca tuis!</q></l> +<l>Nunc legis altisoni sparsim pia scripta Maronis,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Nunc ea quæ Cicero ——</q> &c.</l> +</lg></note>. This collection, +after the death of its founder, was farther enriched by the attention of his +descendants, particularly his grandson, Lorenzo, under whom it acquired the name +of the Medicean-Laurentian Library. <q>If there was any pursuit,</q> says the biographer +of Lorenzo, <q>in which he engaged more ardently, and persevered more diligently, +than the rest, it was in that of enlarging his collections of books and antiquities. +His emissaries were dispersed through every part of the globe, for the purpose of +collecting books, and he spared no expense in procuring, for the learned, the materials +necessary for the prosecution of their studies<note place="foot">Roscoe, <hi rend='italic'>Life of Lorenzo</hi>, c. 7.</note>.</q> In the execution of his +noble design, he was assisted by Ermolao Barbaro, and Paulo Cortesi; but his principal +coadjutor was Politian, to whom he committed the care and arrangement of +his collection, and who made excursions, at intervals, through Italy, to discover +and purchase such remains of antiquity as suited the purposes of his patron. An +ample treasure of books was expected, during his last illness, under the care of +Lascaris. When the vital spark was nearly extinguished, he called Politian to his +side, and grasping his hand, told him he could have wished to have lived to see the +library completed<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Polit. Epist.</hi> Lib. IV. Ep. 2.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +After the death of Lorenzo, some of the volumes were dispersed, when Charles +VIII. of France invaded Italy; and, on the expulsion of the Medici family from +Florence, in 1496, the remaining volumes of the Laurentian collection were united +with the books in the library of St Mark. +</p> + +<p> +It being the great object of Lorenzo to diffuse the spirit of literature as extensively +as possible, he permitted the Duke of Urbino, who particularly distinguished himself +as a patron of learning, to copy such of his MSS. as he wished to possess. +The families, too, of Visconti at Milan, of Este at Ferrara, and Gonzaga at Mantua, +excited by the glorious example set before them, emulated the Medici in their patronage +of classical literature, and formation of learned establishments. <q>The division +of Italy,</q> says Mr Mills, <q>into many independent principalities, was a circumstance +highly favourable to the nourishing and expanding learning. Every city had a +Mæcenas sovereign. The princes of Italy rivalled each other in literary patronage +as much as in political power, and changes of dominion did not affect letters<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Travels of Theod. Ducas</hi>, c. 1.</note>.</q> +Eight Popes, in succession, employed Poggio as their secretary, which greatly aided +the promotion of literature, and the collecting of MSS. at Rome. The last Pontiff +he served was Nicholas V., who, before his elevation, as we have seen, had arranged +the library of St Mark at Florence. From his youth he had shown the most +wonderful avidity for copies of ancient MSS., and an extraordinary turn for elegant +<pb n='A-16'/><anchor id='PgA16'/>and accurate transcription, with his own hand. By the diligence and learning +which he exhibited in the schools of Bologna, he secured the patronage of many +literary characters. Attached to the family of Cardinal Albergati, he accompanied +him in several embassies, and seldom returned without bringing back with him +copies of such ancient works as had been previously unknown in Italy. The titles +of some of these are mentioned by his biographer, who adds, that there was no Latin +author, with whose writings he was unacquainted. This enabled him to be +useful in the arrangement of many libraries formed at this period<note place="foot">Berrington, <hi rend='italic'>Literary Hist. of the Middle Ages</hi>, Book VI.</note>. His promotion +to the Pontifical chair, in 1447, was, in the circumstances of the times, peculiarly +auspicious to the cause of letters. With the assistance of Poggio, he founded the +library of the Vatican. The scanty collection of his predecessors had been nearly +dissipated or destroyed, by frequent removals from Rome to Avignon: But Nicholas +more than repaired these losses; and before his death, had collected upwards of +5000 volumes of Greek and Roman authors—and the Vatican being afterwards increased +by Sixtus IV. and Leo X. became, both in extent and value, the first library +in the world. +</p> + +<p> +It is with Poggio, that the studies peculiar to the commentator may be considered +as having commenced, at least so far as regards the Latin classics. Poggio lived +from 1380 to 1459. He was succeeded towards the close of the fifteenth century, +and during the whole course of the sixteenth, by a long series of Italian commentators, +among whom the highest rank may be justly assigned to Politian.—(Born, +1454–died, 1494.) To him the world has been chiefly indebted for corrections +and elucidations of the texts of Roman authors, which, from a variety of causes, +were, when first discovered, either corrupt, or nearly illegible. In the exercise of +his critical talents, Politian did not confine himself to any one precise method, but +adopted such as he conceived best suited his purpose—on some occasions only comparing +different copies, diligently marking the variations, rejecting spurious readings, +and substituting the true. In other cases he proceeded farther, adding <hi rend='italic'>scholia</hi> and +notes, illustrative of the text, either from his own conjecture, or the authority of +preceding writers. To the name of Politian, I may add those of his bitter rival +and contemporary, Georgius Merula, (born, 1420–died, 1494); Aldus Manutius, +(1447–1516); his son Paullus; Landini, author of the <hi rend='italic'>Disputationes Camaldulenses</hi>, +(1424–1504); Philippus Beroaldus, (1453–1505); Petrus Victorius, +(1498–1585); Robortellus, (1516–1567). Most of these commentators were +entirely verbal critics; but this was by far the most useful species of criticism which +could be employed at the period in which they lived. We have already seen, that +in the time of Petrarch, classical manuscripts had been very inaccurately transcribed; +and, therefore, the first great duty of a commentator, was to amend and +purify the text. Criticisms on the general merits of the author, or the beauties of +particular passages, and even expositions of the full import of his meaning, deduced +from antiquities, mythology, history, or geography, were very secondary considerations. +Nor, indeed, was knowledge far enough advanced at the time, to supply +such illustrations. Grammar, and verbal criticism, formed the porch by which it +was necessary to enter that temple of sublimity and beauty which had been reared +by the ancients; and without this access, philosophy would never have enlightened +letters, or letters ornamented philosophy. <q>I cannot, indeed, but think,</q> says Mr +Payne Knight, in his Analytical Essay on the Greek Alphabet, <q>that the judgment +of the public, on the respective merits of the different classes of critics, is peculiarly +partial and unjust. Those among them who assume the office of pointing out the +beauties, and detecting the faults, of literary composition, are placed with the orator +and historian, in the highest ranks, whilst those who undertake the more laborious +task of washing away the rust and canker of time, and bringing back those forms +and colours, which are the objects of criticism, to their original purity and brightness, +are degraded with the index-maker and antiquary among the pioneers of literature, +whose business it is to clear the way for those who are capable of more splendid +and honourable enterprizes. Nevertheless, if we examine the effects produced by +those two classes of critics, we shall find that the first have been of no use whatever, +and that the last have rendered the most important services to mankind. All +persons of taste and understanding know, from their own feelings, when to approve +and disapprove, and therefore stand in no need of instructions from the critic. But +<pb n='A-17'/><anchor id='PgA17'/>whatever may be the taste or discernment of a reader, or the genius and ability of a +writer, neither the one nor the other can appear while the text remains deformed by +the corruptions of blundering transcribers, and obscured by the glosses of ignorant +grammarians. It is then that the aid of the verbal critic is required; and though +his minute labour in dissecting syllables and analysing letters may appear contemptible +in its operation, it will be found important in its effect.</q> It is to those early +critics, then, who washed away the rust and canker of time, and brought back those +forms and colours which are the subject of criticism, that classical literature has been +chiefly indebted. The newly discovered art of printing, which was itself the offspring +of the general ardour for literary improvement, and of the daily experience of +difficulties encountered in prosecuting classical studies, contributed, in an eminent +degree, to encourage this species of useful criticism. At the instigation of Lorenzo, +and other patrons of learning in Italy, many scholars in that country were induced +to bestow their attention on the collation and correction of the MSS. of ancient +authors, in order that they might be submitted to the press with the greatest possible +accuracy, and in their original purity. Nor was it a slight inducement to the industrious +scholar, that his commentaries were no longer to be hid in the recesses of a +few vast libraries, but were to be now placed in the view of mankind, and enshrined, +as it were, for ever in the immortal page of the poet or historian whose works he +had preserved or elucidated. +</p> + +<p> +With Fulvius Ursinus, who died in the year 1600, the first school of Italian commentators +may be considered as terminating. In the following century, classical +industry was chiefly directed to translation; and in the eighteenth century, the +list of eminent commentators was increased only by the name of Vulpius, who introduced +a new style in classical criticism, by an amusing collection of verses, both +in ancient and modern poets, which were parallel to passages in his author, not +merely in some words, but in the poetical idea. +</p> + +<p> +The career which had so gloriously commenced in Italy in the end of the fifteenth +century, was soon followed in France and Germany. Julius Scaliger, a +native of Verona, had been naturalized in France, and he settled there in the commencement +of the sixteenth century. In that country classical studies were introduced, +under the patronage of Francis I., and were prosecuted in his own and the +six following reigns, by a long succession of illustrious scholars, among whom Turnebus +(1512–1565), Lambrinus (1526–1572), the family of the Stephenses, who rivalled +the Manutii of Italy, Muretus (1526–1585), <anchor id="corra17"/><corr sic="Causaubon">Casaubon</corr> (1559–1614), Joseph +Scaliger (1540–1609), and Salmasius (1588–1653), distinguished themselves by the +illustration of the Latin classics, and the more difficult elucidation of those studies +which assist and promote a full intelligence of their meaning and beauties. Our geographical +and historical knowledge of the ancient world, was advanced by Charles Stephens—its +chronology was ascertained by Scaliger, and the whole circle of antiquities +was extended by Salmasius. After the middle of the <anchor id="corr303"/><corr sic="seventh">seventeenth</corr> century, a new taste in +the illustration of classical literature sprung up in France—a lighter manner and more +philosophic spirit being then introduced. The celebrated controversy on the comparative +merit of the ancients and moderns, aided a more popular elucidation of the +classics; and as the preceptors of the royal family were on the side of the ancients, +they promoted the famed Delphin edition, which commenced under the auspices of +the Duke De Montausier, and was carried on by a body of learned Jesuits, under the +superintendence of Bossuet and Huetius. Elegance and taste were required for the +instruction of a young French Prince; and accordingly, instead of profound philological +learning, or the assiduous collation of MSS., light notes were appended, explanatory +of the mythological and historical allusions contained in the works of the +author, as also remarks on his most prominent defects and excellencies. +</p> + +<p> +Joseph Scaliger and Salmasius, who were French Protestants, found shelter for +their heretical principles, and liberal reward for their learning, in the University of +Leyden; and with Douza (1545–1604), and Justus Lipsius (1547–1606), became +the fathers and founders of classical knowledge in the Netherlands. As the inhabitants +of that territory spoke and wrote a language which was but ill adapted for +the expression of original thought, their whole force of mind was directed to +throwing their humorous and grand conceptions on canvass, or to the elucidation +of the writings of those who had been gifted with a more propitious tongue. +These studies and researches were continued by Heinsius (1582–1655), Gerard +and Isaac Vossius (1577–1689), and Gronovius (1611–1671). At this period +Schrevelius (1615–1664) commenced the publication of the Classics, <hi rend='italic'>cum Notis +<pb n='A-18'/><anchor id='PgA18'/>Variorum</hi>; and in the end of the seventeenth century, his example was followed +by some of the most distinguished editors. The merit of these editions was very +different, and has been variously estimated. Morhoff, while he does justice to the +editorial works of Gronovius and other learned men, in which parts of the commentaries +of predecessors, judiciously extracted, were given at full length, has indulged +himself in an invective against other <hi rend='italic'>variorum</hi> editions, in which everything was +mutilated and incorrect. <q>Sane ne comparandæ quidem illi</q> (the editions of +Aldus) <q>sunt ineptæ Variorum editiones; quam nuper pestem bonis auctoribus +Bibliopolæ Batavi inducere cœperunt, reclamantibus frustra viris doctis<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Polyhistor</hi>. Lib. IV. c. 10.</note>.</q> In the +course of the eighteenth century, the Burmans (1668–1778), Oudendorp (1696–1761), +and Havercamp (1684–1742), continued to support the honour of a school, +which as yet had no parallel in certainty, copiousness, and depth of illustration. +</p> + +<p> +In Germany, the school which had been established by Charlemagne at Fulda, +and that at Paderborn, long flourished under the superintendence of Meinwerk. +The author of the Life of that scholar, speaking of these establishments, says, <q>Ibi +viguit Horatius, magnus atque Virgilius, Crispus et Sallustius, et Urbanus Statius.</q> +During the ninth century, Rabin Maur, a scholar of Alcuin, and head of the cathedral +school at Fulda, became a celebrated teacher; and profane literature was not +neglected by him amid the importance of his sacred lessons. Classical learning, +however, was first thoroughly awakened in Germany, by the scholars of Thomas +A’Kempis, in the end of the fifteenth century. A number of German youths, who +were associated in a species of literary fraternity, travelled into Italy, at the time +when the search for classical MSS. in that country was most eagerly prosecuted. +Rudolph Agricola, afterwards Professor of Philosophy at Worms, was one of the most +distinguished of these scholars. Living immediately after the invention of printing, +and at a time when that art had not yet entirely superseded the transcription of +MSS., he possessed an extensive collection of these, as well as of the works which +had just issued resplendent from the press. Both were illustrated by him with +various readings on the margin; and we perceive from the letters of Erasmus the +value which even he attached to these notes, and the use which he made of the +variations. Rudolph was succeeded by Herman von Busche, who lectured on the +classics at Leipsic. He had in his possession a number of the Latin classics; but +it is evident from his letters that some, as for instance Silius Italicus, were still +inaccessible to him, or could only be procured with great difficulty. The German +scholars did not bring so many MSS. to light, or multiply copies of them, so much +as the Italians, because, in fact, their country was less richly stored than Italy with +the treasures bequeathed to us by antiquity; but they exercised equal critical +acuteness in amending the errors of the MSS. which they possessed. The sixteenth +century was the age which produced in Germany the most valuable and +numerous commentaries on the Latin classics. That country, in common with the +Netherlands, was enlightened, during this period, by the erudition of Erasmus +(1467–1536). In the same and succeeding age, Camerarius (1500–1574), +Taubmann (1565–1613), Acidalius (1567–1595), and Gruterus (1560–1627), +enriched the world with some of the best editions of the classics which had hitherto +appeared. Towards the close of the seventeenth century, classical literature +had for some time rather declined in Germany—polemical theology and religious +wars having at this period exhausted and engrossed the attention of her universities. +But it was revived again about the middle of the eighteenth by J. +Math. Gesner (1691–1761), and Ernesti (1707–1781), who created an epoch +in Germany for the study of the ancient authors. These two scholars surpassed +all their predecessors in taste, in a philosophical spirit, and in a wide +acquaintance with the subsidiary branches of erudition: They made an advantageous +use of their critical knowledge of the languages; they looked at once to the +words and to the subject of the ancient writers, established and applied the rules of +a legitimate interpretation, and carefully analysed the meaning as well as the form +of the expression. Their task was extended from words to things; and what has +been called Æsthetic annotations, were combined with philological discussion. +<q>Non volui,</q> says Gesner, in the Preface to his edition of Claudian, <q>commentarios +scribere, collectos undique, aut locos communes: Non volui dictionem poetæ, +<pb n='A-19'/><anchor id='PgA19'/>congestis aliorum poetarum formulis illustrare; sed cum illud volui efficere poeta ut +intelligatur, tum judicio meo juvare volui juniorum judicium, quid pulchrum, atque +decens, et summorum poetarum simile putarem ostendendo, et contra, ea, ubi errâsse +illum a naturâ, a magnis exemplis, a decoro arbitrarer, cum fide indicando.</q> J. +Ernesti considers Gesner as unquestionably the first who introduced what he terms +the Æsthetic mode of criticism<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Luxurie Veterum Poet. Lat.</hi></note>. But the honour of being the founder of this new +school, has perhaps, with more justice, been assigned by others to Heyne<note place="foot">Eichhorn, <hi rend='italic'>Litterargeschichte</hi>, Tom. III. p. 569.</note> (1729–1811). +<q>From the middle of last century,</q> it is remarked, in a late biographical +sketch of Heyne, <q>several intelligent philologers of Germany displayed a more refined +and philosophic method in their treatment of the different branches of classical +learning, who, without neglecting either the grammatical investigation of the +language, or the critical constitution of the text, no longer regarded a Greek or Roman +writer as a subject for the mere grammarian and critic; but, considering the +study of the ancients as a school for thought, for feeling, and for taste, initiated us +into the great mystery of reading every thing in the same spirit in which it had originally +been written. They demonstrated, both by doctrine and example, in what +manner it was necessary for us to enter into the thoughts of the writer, to pitch ourselves +in unison with his peculiar tone of conception and expression, and to investigate +the circumstances by which his mind was affected—the motives by which he +was animated—and the influences which co-operated in giving the intensity and +character of his feelings. At the head of this school stands Heyne; and it must be +admitted, that nothing has contributed so decisively to maintain or promote the +study of classical literature, as the combination which he has effected of philosophy +with erudition, both in his commentaries on ancient authors, and those works in +which he has illustrated various points of antiquity, or discussed the habit of thinking +and spirit of the ancient world.</q> From the time of Heyne, almost the whole +grand inheritance of Roman literature has been cultivated by commentators, who +have raised the Germans to undisputed pre-eminence among the nations of Europe, +for profound classical learning, and all the delightful researches connected with literary +history. I have only space to mention the names of Zeunius (1736–1788), +Jani (1743–1790), Wernsdorff (1723–1793); and among those who still survive, +Harles (born 1738), Schütz (1747), Schneider (1751), Wolf (1757), Beck, +(1757), Doering (1759), Mitscherlich (1760), Wetzel (1762), <anchor id="corr305"/><corr sic="Georenz">Goerenz</corr> (1765), +Eichstädt (1771), Hermann (1772). +</p> + +<p> +While classical literature and topography were so highly cultivated abroad, England, +at the revival of literature, remained greatly behind her continental neighbours +in the elucidation and publication of the precious remains of ancient learning. It appears +from Ames’ Typographical Antiquities, that the press of our celebrated ancient +printers, as Caxton, Wynkin de Worde, and Pynson, was rarely employed in giving +accuracy or embellishment to the works of the classics; and, indeed, so late as the +middle of the sixteenth century, only Terence and Cicero’s <hi rend='italic'>Offices</hi> had been published +in this country, in their original tongue. Matters had by no means improved +in the seventeenth century. Evelyn, who had paid great attention to the subject, +gives the following account of the state of classical typography and editorship in +England, in a letter to the Lord Chancellor Clarendon, dated November 1666: +<q>Our booksellers,</q> says he, <q>follow their own judgment in printing the ancient authors, +according to such text as they found extant when first they entered their +copy; whereas, out of the <anchor id="corr305a"/><corr sic="MSS">MSS.</corr> collated by the industry of later critics, those authors +are exceedingly improved. For instance, about thirty years since, Justin was +corrected by Isaac Vossius, in many hundreds of places, most material to sense and +elegancy, and has since been frequently reprinted in Holland, after the purer copy; +but with us still according to the old reading. The like has Florus, Seneca’s Tragedies, +and near all the rest, which have, in the meantime, been castigated abroad +by several learned hands, which, besides that it makes ours to be rejected, and dishonours +our nation, so does it no little detriment to learning, and to the treasure of +the nation in proportion. The cause of this is principally the stationer driving as +hard and cruel a bargain with the printer as he can, and the printer taking up any +smatterer in the tongues, to be the less loser; an exactness in this no ways +import<pb n='A-20'/><anchor id='PgA20'/>ing the stipulation, by which means errors repeat and multiply in every + edition<note place="foot">Evelyn’s <hi rend='italic'>Memoirs and Corresp.</hi> Vol. II. p. 173. Second ed.</note>.</q> +Since the period in which this letter is dated, Bentley, who bears the greatest name +in England as a critic, however acute and ingenious, did more by his slashing alterations +to injure than amend the text, at least of the Latin authors on whom he commented. +He substituted what he thought best for what he actually found; and +such was his deficiency in taste, that what he thought best (as is evinced by his +changes on the text of Lucretius), was frequently destructive of the poetical idea, +and almost of the sense of his author. +</p> + +<p> +I have thought it right, before entering into detail concerning the <hi rend='italic'>Codices</hi> and +editions of the works of the early classics mentioned in the text, briefly to remind +the reader of the general circumstances connected with the loss and recovery of +the classical MSS. of Rome, and to recall to his recollection the names of a few +of the most celebrated commentators in Italy, France, Holland, and Germany. +This will render the following Appendix, in which there must be constant reference +to the discovery of MSS. and the labours of commentators, somewhat more distinct +and perspicuous than I could otherwise make it. +</p> +<div> + <index index="toc" level1="Livius Andronicus, Nævius"/><index index="pdf" level1="Livius Andronicus, Naevius"/> +<head>LIVIUS ANDRONICUS, NÆVIUS.</head> + +<p> +The fragments of these old writers are so inconsiderable, that no one has thought +of editing them separately. They are therefore to be found only in the general collections +of the whole Latin poets; as Maittaires <hi rend='italic'>Opera et Fragmenta Veterum +Poetarum Latinorum</hi>, London, 1713. 2 Tom. fo., (to some copies of which a +new title-page has been printed, bearing the date, Hag. Comit. 1721;) or in the collections +of the Latin tragic poets, as Delrio’s <hi rend='italic'>Syntagma Tragœdiæ Latinæ</hi>, Paris, +1620, and <anchor id="corra20"/><corr sic="Scriverius">Scriverius’</corr> <hi rend='italic'>Collectanea Veterum Tragicorum</hi>, Lugd. Bat. 1620. It is +otherwise with +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Ennius"/><index index="pdf" level1="Ennius"/> +<head>ENNIUS,</head> + +<p> +of whose writings, as we have seen, more copious fragments remain than from those +of his predecessors. The whole works of this poet were extant in the time of Cassiodorus; +but no copy of them has since appeared. The fragments, however, +found in Cicero, Macrobius, and the old grammarians, are so considerable, that they +have been frequently collected together, and largely commented on. They were +first printed in Stephen’s <hi rend='italic'>Fragmenta Veterum Poetarum Latinorum</hi>, but without +any proper connection or criticism. Ludovicus Vives had intended to collect and +arrange them, as we are informed in one of his notes to St Augustine, <hi rend='italic'>De Civitate +Dei</hi>: But this task he did not live to accomplish<note place="foot">Morhoff, <hi rend='italic'>Polyhistor</hi>. Lib. IV. c. 11.</note>. The first person who +arranged these scattered fragments, united them together, and classed them under +the books to which they belonged, was Hier. Columna. He adopted the orthography +which, from a study of the ancient Roman monuments and inscriptions, he +found to be that of the Latin language in the age of Ennius. He likewise added a +commentary, and prefixed a life of the poet. The edition which he had thus fully +prepared, was first published at Naples in 1590, four years after his death, by his +son Joannes Columna<note place="foot">Thuanus, <hi rend='italic'>Hist.</hi> Lib. LXXXIV.</note>. This <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi> of Ennius is very rare, but it was +reprinted under the care of Fr. Hesselius at Amsterdam in 1707. To the original +commentary of Columna there are added the annotations on Ennius which had +been inserted in Delrio and Scriverius’ collection of the Latin tragic poets; and +Hesselius himself supplied a very complete <hi rend='italic'>Index Verborum</hi>. The ancient +authors, who quote lines from Ennius, sometimes mention the book of the <hi rend='italic'>Annals</hi>, +or the name of the tragedy to which they belonged, but sometimes this information +is omitted. The arrangement, therefore, of the verses of the latter description +(which are marked with an asterisk in Columna’s edition), and indeed the precise +collocation of the whole, is in a great measure conjectural. Accordingly, we find +<pb n='A-21'/><anchor id='PgA21'/>that the order of the lines in the edition of Paulus Merula is very different from +that adopted by Columna. The materials for Merula’s edition, which comprehends +only the <hi rend='italic'>Annals</hi> of Ennius, had already been collected and prepared at the time +when Columna’s was first given to the world. Merula, however, conceived that +while the great object of Columna had been to compare and contrast the lines of +Ennius with those of other heroic poets, he himself had been more happy in the +arrangement of the verses, and the restoration of the ancient orthography, which is +much more antiquated in the edition of Merula than in that of Columna. He had +also discovered some fragments of the <hi rend='italic'>Annals</hi>, unknown to Columna, in the MS. +of a work of L. Calp. Piso, a writer of the age of Trajan, entitled <hi rend='italic'>De Continentiâ +Veterum Poetarum</hi>, and preserved in the library of St Victor at Paris. In these +circumstances, Merula was not deterred by the appearance of the edition of Columna, +from proceeding with his own, which at length came forth at Leyden in the +year 1595. The same sort of discrepance which exists between Columna and +Merula’s arrangement of the Annals, appears in the collocation of the <hi rend='italic'>Tragic Fragments</hi> +adopted by Columna, and that which has been preferred by Delrio, in his +<hi rend='italic'>Syntagma Tragœdiæ Latinæ</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +H. Planck published at Gottingen, in 1807, the fragments of Ennius’s tragedy of +<hi rend='italic'>Medea</hi>. These comprehend all the verses belonging to this drama, collected by +Columna, and some newly extracted by the editor from old grammarians. The +whole are compared with the parallel passages in the <hi rend='italic'>Medea</hi> of Euripides. Two +dissertations are prefixed; one on the Origin and Nature of Tragedy among the +Romans; and the other, on the question, whether Ennius wrote two tragedies, or +only a single tragedy, entitled <hi rend='italic'>Medea</hi>. A commentary is also supplied, in which, +as Fuhrmann remarks, one finds many things, but not much:—<q>Man findet in +demselben <hi rend='italic'>multa</hi>, aber nicht + <hi rend='italic'>multum</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'><anchor id="corr307"/><corr sic="Hundbuch">Handbuch</corr> der Classisch. Litteratur.</hi> T. III. p. 31.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +Some fine passages of the fragments of Ennius have been filled up, and the old +readings corrected, by the recent discovery of the work <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi> of Cicero, +who is always quoting from the ancient poets. Thus the passage in the Annals, +where the Roman people are described as lamenting the death of Romulus, stands +thus in Columna’s edition:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l>—— <q rend="post: none">O Romole, Romole, <hi rend='italic'>dic ô</hi></q></l> +<l>Qualem te patriæ custodem dii genuerunt,</l> +<l>Tu produxisti nos intra luminis oras,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">O pater, ô genitor, ô sanguen diis oriundum.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +This fragment may be now supplied, and the verses arranged and corrected, from +the quotation in the first book <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Pectora pia tenet desiderium; simul inter</q></l> +<l>Sese sic memorant—O Romule, Romule <hi rend='italic'>die</hi>,</l> +<l>Qualem te patriæ custodem di genuerunt,</l> +<l>O pater, ô genitor, ô sanguen dîs oriundum!</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Tu produxisti nos intra luminis oras.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +The fragments of the Annals of Ennius, as the text is arranged by Merula, have +been translated into Italian by Bernardo Philippini, and published at Rome in 1659, +along with his <hi rend='italic'>Poesie</hi>. I know of no other translations of these fragments. +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Plautus"/><index index="pdf" level1="Plautus"/> +<head>PLAUTUS.</head> + +<p> +There can be no doubt that even the oldest MSS. of Plautus were early corrupted +by transcribers, and varied essentially from each other. Varro, in his book <hi rend='italic'>De +Analogiâ</hi>, ascribes some phrase of which he did not approve, in the <hi rend='italic'>Truculentus</hi>, +to the negligence of copyists. The Latin comedies, written in the age of Plautus, +were designed to be represented on the stage, and not to be read at home. It is +<pb n='A-22'/><anchor id='PgA22'/>therefore, probable, that, during the reign of the Republic at least, there were few +copies of Plautus’s plays, except those delivered to the actors. The dramas were +generally purchased by the Ædiles, for the purpose of amusing the people during +the celebration of certain festivals. As soon as the poet’s agreement was concluded +with the Ædile, he lost his right of property in the play, and frequently all concern +in its success. It seems probable, therefore, that even during the life of the +author, these magistrates, or censors employed by them, altered the verses at their +own discretion, or sent the comedy for alteration to the author: But there is no +doubt that, after his death, the actors changed and modelled the piece according to +their own fancy, or the prevailing taste of the public, just as Cibber and Garrick +wrought on the plays of Shakspeare. Hence new prologues, adapted to circumstances, +were prefixed—whole verses were suppressed, and lines properly belonging +to one play, were often transferred to another. This corruption of MSS. is +sufficiently evinced by the circumstance, that the most ancient grammarians frequently +cite verses as from a play of Plautus, which can now no longer be found in +the drama quoted. Thus, a line cited by Festus and Servius, from the <hi rend='italic'>Miles</hi>, does +not appear in any MSS. or ancient edition of that comedy, though, in the more +recent impressions, it has been inserted in what was judged to be its proper place<note place="foot">Osannus, <hi rend='italic'>Analecta Critica</hi>, c. 8.</note>, +Farther—Plautus, and indeed the old Latin writers in general, were much corrupted +by transcribers in the middle ages, who were not fully acquainted with the variations +which had taken place in the language, and to whom the Latin of the age of +Constantine was more familiar than that of the Scipios. They were often +puzzled and confused by finding a letter, as c, for example, introduced into a word +which they had been accustomed to spell with a g, and they not unfrequently were +totally ignorant of the import or signification of ancient words. In a fragment of +Turpilius, a character in one of the comedies says, <q>Qui mea verba venatur pestis +arcedat;</q> now, the transcriber being ignorant of the verb <hi rend='italic'>arcedat</hi>, wrote <hi rend='italic'>ars cedat</hi>, +which converts the passage into nonsense<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Præf. ad Plautum</hi>, ed. Lambini.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The comedies of Plautus are frequently cited by writers of the fourteenth century, +particularly by Petrarch, who mentions the amusement which he had derived from +the <hi rend='italic'>Casina</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Famil.</hi> Lib. V.</note>. Previous, however, to the time of Poggio, only eight of them were +known, and we consequently find that the old MSS. of the fourteenth century just +contain eight comedies<note place="foot">Bandini, <hi rend='italic'>Catalog. Cod. Lat. Bibliothecæ Mediceæ-Laurentianæ</hi>, Tom. II. +p. 243, &c.</note>. By means, however, of Nicolas of Treves, whom Poggio +had employed to search the monasteries of Germany, twelve more were discovered. +The plays thus brought to light were the <hi rend='italic'>Bacchides</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Menæchmi</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Mostellaria</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Miles Gloriosus</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Mercator</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Pseudolus</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Pœnulus</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Persa</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Rudens</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Stichus</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Trinummus</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Truculentus</hi>. As soon as Poggio heard of this valuable and important +discovery, he urged the Cardinal Ursini to despatch a special messenger, in +order to convey the treasure in safety to Rome. His instances, however, were not +attended to, and the MSS. of the comedies did not arrive till two years afterwards, +in the year 1428, under the charge of Nicolas of Treves himself<note place="foot">Mehus, <hi rend='italic'>Pref. ad Epist. Ambros. Camaldul.</hi> p. 41.</note>. They were seized +by the Cardinal immediately after they had been brought to Italy. This proceeding +Poggio highly resented; and having in vain solicited their restoration, he accused +Ursini of attempting to make it be believed that Plautus had been recovered by his +exertions, and at his own expense<note place="foot">Ibid.</note>. At length, by the intervention of Lorenzo, +the brother of Cosmo de Medici, the Cardinal was persuaded to intrust the precious +volume to Niccolo Niccoli, who got it carefully transcribed. Niccolo, however, +detained it at Florence long after the copy from it had been made; and we find his +friend Ambrosio of Camaldoli using the most earnest entreaties on the part of the +Cardinal for its restitution.—<q>Cardinalis Ursinus Plautum suum recipere cupit. Non +video quam ob causam, Plautum illi restituere non debeas, quem olim transcripsisti. +Oro, ut amicissimo homini geratur mos<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ambros. Camaldul. Epist.</hi> Lib. VIII. Ep. 31.</note>.</q> The original MS. was at length restored +to the Cardinal, after whose death it fell into the possession of Lorenzo de +Medici, and thus came to form a part of the Medicean library. The copy taken by +<pb n='A-23'/><anchor id='PgA23'/>Niccolo Niccoli was transferred, on his decease, along with his other books, to the +convent of St Mark. +</p> + +<p> +From a transcript of this copy, which contained the twelve newly-recovered +plays, and from MSS. of the other eight comedies, which were more common and +current, Georgius Merula, the disciple of Filelfo, and one of the greatest Latin scholars +of the age, formed the first edition of the plays of Plautus, which was printed by J. +de Colonia and Vindelin de Spira, at Venice, 1472, folio, and reprinted in 1482 at +Trevisa. It would appear that Merula had not enjoyed direct access to the original +MS. brought from Germany, or to the copy deposited in the Marcian library; for +he says, in his dedication to the Bishop of Pavia, <q>that there was but one MS. of +Plautus, from which, as an archetype, all the copies which could be procured were +derived; and if, by any means,</q> he continues, <q>I could have laid my hands on it, the +<hi rend='italic'>Bacchides</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Mostellaria</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Menæchmi</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Miles</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>Mercator</hi>, might have been rendered +more correct; for the copies of these comedies, taken from the original MS., +had been much corrupted in successive transcriptions; but the copies I have procured +of the last seven comedies have not been so much tampered with by the critics, +and therefore will be found more accurate.</q> Merula then compares his toil, in +amending the corrupt text, to the labours of Hercules. His edition has usually been +accounted the <hi rend='italic'>editio princeps</hi> of Plautus; but I think it is clear, that at least eight +of the comedies had been printed previously: Harles informs us, that Morelli, in +one of his letters, had thus written to him:—<q>There is an edition of Plautus which +I think equally ancient with the Venetian one of 1472; it is <hi rend='italic'>sine ullâ notâ</hi>, and +has neither numerals, signatures, nor catch-words. It contains the following +plays: <hi rend='italic'>Amphitryo</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Asinaria</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Aulularia</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Captivi</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Curculio</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Casina</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Cistellaria</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Epidicus</hi><note place="foot">Harles, <hi rend='italic'>Supplement. ad Not. Literat. Rom.</hi> Tom. II. p. 483.</note>.</q> Now, it will be remarked, that these were the eight comedies current +in Italy before the important discovery of the remaining twelve, made by Nicholas +of Treves, in Germany; and the presumption is, that they were printed previous to +the date of the edition of Merula, because by that time the newly-recovered comedies +having got into circulation, it is not likely that any editor would have given to +the world an imperfect edition of only eight comedies, when the whole dramas were +accessible, and had excited so much interest in the mind of the public. +</p> + +<p> +Eusebius Scutarius, a scholar of Merula, took charge of an edition, which was +amended from that of his master, and was printed in 1490, Milan, folio, and reprinted +at Venice 1495. +</p> + +<p> +In 1499, an edition was brought out at Venice, by the united labour of Petrus +Valla, and Bernard Saracenus. To these, succeeded the edition of Jo. Bapt. Pius, +at Milan, 1500, with a preface by Phillip Beroald. Taubman says, that <q>omnes +editiones mangonum manus esse passas ex quo Saracenus et Pius regnum et tyrannidem +in literis habuere.</q> In the Strasburg impression, 1508, the text of Scutari +has been followed, and about the same time there were several reprints of the editions +of Valla and Pius. +</p> + +<p> +The edition of Charpentier, in 1513, was prepared from a collation of different +editions, as the editor had no MSS.; but the editions of Pius and Saracenus were +chiefly employed. Charpentier has prefixed arguments, and has divided the lines +better than any of his predecessors; and he has also arranged the scenes, particularly +those of the <hi rend='italic'>Mostellaria</hi>, to greater advantage. +</p> + +<p> +Few Latin classics have been more corrupted than Plautus, by those who wished +to amend his text. In all the editions which had hitherto appeared, the perversions +were chiefly occasioned by the anxiety of the editors to bend his lines to the supposed +laws of metre. Nic. Angelius, who superintended an edition printed by the +Giunta at Florence, 1514, was the first who observed that the corruptions had arisen +from a desire <q>ad implendos pedum numeros.</q> He accordingly threw out, in his +edition, all the words which had been unauthorizedly inserted to fill up the verses. +From some MSS. which had not hitherto been consulted, he added several prologues +to the plays; and also the commencement of the first act of the <hi rend='italic'>Bacchides</hi>, +which Lascaris, in one of his letters to Cardinal Bembo, says he had himself found +at Messina, in Sicily. These, however, though they have been inserted into all +subsequent editions of Plautus, are evidently written by a more modern hand than +that of Plautus. Two editions were superintended and printed by the Manutii, +<pb n='A-24'/><anchor id='PgA24'/>1516 and 1522; that in 1522, though prepared by F. Asulanus, from a MS. corrected +in the hand of the elder Aldus and Erasmus, is not highly valued<note place="foot">Renouard, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. de l’Imprim. des Aldes</hi>. Tom. I. p. 162.</note>. Two +editions, by R. Stephens, 1529 and 1530, were formed on the edition of the Giunta, +with the correction of a few errors. These were followed by many editions in Italy, +France, and Germany, some of which were merely reimpressions, but others were +accompanied with new and learned commentaries. +</p> + +<p> +To no one, however, has Plautus been so much indebted as to Camerarius, whose +zeal and diligence were such, that there was scarcely a verse of Plautus which did +not receive from him some emendation. In 1535, there had appeared at Magdeburg +six comedies (<hi rend='italic'>Aulularia</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Captivi</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Miles Gloriosus</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Menæchmi</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Mostellaria</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Trinummus</hi>,) +which he had revised and commented on, but which were published +from his MS. without his knowledge or authority. The privilege of the first complete +edition printed under his own direction, is dated in 1538. +</p> + +<p> +The text and annotations of Camerarius now served as the basis for most of the +subsequent editions. The Plantin editions, of which Sambucus was the editor, and +which were printed at Antwerp 1566, and Basil 1568, contain the notes and corrections +of Camerarius, with about 300 verses more than any preceding impression. +</p> + +<p> +Lambinus, in preparing the Paris edition, 1577, collated a number of MSS. and +amassed many passages from the ancient grammarians. He only lived, however, to +complete thirteen of the comedies; but his colleague, Helias, put the finishing hand +to the work, and added an index, after which it came forth with a prefatory dedication +by Lambinus’s son. On this edition, (in which great critical learning and +sagacity, especially in the discovery of <hi rend='italic'>double entendres</hi>, were exhibited,) the subsequent +impressions, Leyden, 1581<note place="foot">Muretus, in a letter dated about this time, (1581,) and addressed to his friend +Paullus Sacratus, mentions, in the strongest terms of regret and resentment, that a +Plautus, on the correction and emendation of which he had bestowed the labour +and study of twenty-five years of his life, had been stolen from him by some person +whom he admitted to his library. (<hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> Lib. III. Ep. 28.)</note>, Geneva, 1581, and Paris 1587, were chiefly +formed. +</p> + +<p> +Lambinus, in preparing his edition, had chiefly trusted to his own ingenuity and +learning. Taubman, the next editor of Plautus of any note, compiled the commentaries +of others. The text of Camerarius was principally employed by him, but he +collated it with two MSS. in the Palatine library, which had once belonged to Camerarius; +and he received the valuable assistance of Gruterus, who was at that +time keeper of the library at Heidelberg. Newly-discovered fragments—the various +opinions of ancient and modern writers concerning Plautus—a copious <hi rend='italic'>index +verborum</hi>—a preface—a dedication to the triumvirs of literature of the day, Joseph +Scaliger, Justus Lipsius, and Casaubon—in short, every species of literary apparatus +accompanied the edition of Taubman, which first appeared at Frankfort in 1605. It +was very inaccurately printed, however; so incorrectly indeed, that the editor, in a letter +addressed to Jungerman, in September 1606, acknowledges that he was ashamed +of it. Philip Pareus, who had long been pursuing similar studies with those of Taubman, +embraced the opportunity, afforded by the inaccuracy of this edition, of publishing +in Frankfort, in 1610, a Plautus, which was professedly the rival of that which had +been produced by the united efforts of Taubman and Gruterus, and which had not +only disappointed the expectations of the public, but of the learned editors themselves. +Their feelings on this subject, and the <hi rend='italic'>opposition Plautus</hi> edited by +Pareus, stimulated Taubman to give an amended edition of his former one. This +second impression, which is much more accurate than the first, was printed at Wittenberg +in 1612, and was accompanied with the dissertation of Camerarius <hi rend='italic'>De Fabulis +Plautonicis</hi>, and that of Jul. Scaliger, <hi rend='italic'>De Versibus Comicis</hi>. Taubman died the +year after the appearance of this edition: Its fame, however, survived him, and not +only retrieved his character, which had been somewhat sullied by the bad ink and +dirty paper of the former edition, but completely eclipsed the classical reputation of +Pareus. Envious of the renown of his rivals, that scholar obtained an opportunity of +inspecting the MSS. which had been collated by Taubman and Gruterus. These +he now compared more minutely than his predecessors had done, and published the +fruits of his labour at Neustadt, in 1617. This was considered as derogating from +<pb n='A-25'/><anchor id='PgA25'/>the accuracy and critical ingenuity of Gruterus, and insulting to the manes of +Taubman.—<q>Hinc jurgium, tumultus Grutero et Pareo.</q> Gruterus attacked Pareus in +a little tract, entitled <hi rend='italic'>Asini Cumani fraterculus e Plauto electis electus per Eustathium +Schwarzium puerum</hi>, 1619, and was answered by Pareus not less bitterly, +in his <hi rend='italic'>Provocatio ad Senatum Criticum adversus personatos Pareomastigos</hi>. +From this time Pareus and Gruterus continued to print successive editions of Plautus, +in emulation and odium of each other. Gruterus printed one at Wittenberg in +1621, with a prefatory invective against Pareus, and with the <hi rend='italic'>Euphemiæ amicorum +in Plautum Gruteri</hi>. Pareus then attempted to surpass his rival, by comprehending +in his edition a collection of literary miscellanies—as Bullengerus’ description +of Greek and Roman theatres. At length Pareus got the better of his obstinate +opponent, in the only way in which that was possible—by surviving him; +he then enjoyed an opportunity of publishing, unmolested, his last edition of +Plautus, printed at Frankfort, 1641, containing a Dissertation on the Life and +Writings of Plautus; the Eulogies pronounced on him; Remarks on his Versification; +a diatribe <hi rend='italic'>de jocis et salibus Plautinis</hi>; an exhibition of his Imitations from +the Greek Poets; and, finally, the <hi rend='italic'>Euphemiæ</hi> of Learned Friends. Being now relieved +of all apprehensions from the animadversions of Gruterus, he boldly termed his +edition <q>Absolutissimam, perfectissimam, omnibusque virtutibus suis ornatissimam.</q> +</p> + +<p> +I have now brought the history of this notable controversy to a conclusion. +During its subsistence, various other editions of Plautus had been published—that +of Isaac Pontanus, Amsterdam, 1620, from a MS. in his own possession—that of +Nic. Heinsius, Leyden, 1635, and that of Buxhornius, 1645, who had the advantage +of consulting a copy of Plautus, enriched with MS. notes, in the handwriting of +Joseph Scaliger. +</p> + +<p> +Gronovius at length published the edition usually called the <hi rend='italic'>Variorum</hi>. Bentley, +in his critical emendations on Menander, speaks with great contempt of the notes +which Gronovius had compiled. The first Variorum edition was printed at Leyden +in 1664, the second in 1669, and the third, which is accounted the best, at Amsterdam, +1684. +</p> + +<p> +The Delphin edition was nearly coeval with these Variorum editions, having been +printed at Paris, 1679. It was edited under care of Jacques l’Œuvre or Operarius, +but is not accounted one of the best of the class to which it belongs. The text +was principally formed on the last edition of Gruterus, and the notes of Taubman +were chiefly employed. The <hi rend='italic'>Prolegomena</hi> on the Life and Writings of Plautus, +is derived from various sources, and is very copious. None of the old commentators +could publish an edition of Plautus, without indulging in a dissertation <hi rend='italic'>De Obscœnis</hi>. +In every Delphin edition of the classics we are informed, that <hi rend='italic'>consultum +est pudori Serenissimi Delphini</hi>; but this has been managed in various ways. +Sometimes the offensive lines are allowed to remain, but the <hi rend='italic'>interpretatio</hi> is +omitted, and in its place star lights are hung out alongside of the passage: but in +the Delphin Plautus they are concentrated in one focus, <q><hi rend='italic'>in gratiam</hi>,</q> as it is +expressed, <q><hi rend='italic'>provectioris ætatis</hi>,</q> at the end of the volume, under the imposing +title <q><hi rend='smallcaps'>Plauti Obscœna</hi>:</q> +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">And there we have them all at one full swoop;</q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Instead of being scattered through the pages,</l> +<l>They stand forth marshalled in a handsome troop,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>To meet the ingenuous youth of future ages.</l> +<l>Till some less rigid editor shall stoop</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>To call them back into their separate cages;</l> +<l>Instead of standing staring all together,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Like garden gods, and not so decent either<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Don Juan</hi>.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +What is termed the Ernesti edition of Plautus, and which is commonly accounted +the best of that poet, was printed at Leipsic, 1760. It was chiefly prepared by +Aug. Otho, but Ernesti wrote the preface, containing a full account of the previous +editions of Plautus. +</p> + +<p> +The two editions by the Vulpii were printed at Padua, 1725 and 1764. +</p> + +<p> +The text of the second Bipontine edition, 1788, was corrected by Brunck. The +<pb n='A-26'/><anchor id='PgA26'/>plan of the Bipontine editions of the Latin classics is well known. There are +scarcely any annotations or commentary subjoined; but the text is carefully corrected, +and an account of previous editions is prefixed. +</p> + +<p> +In the late edition by Schmieder (Gottingen, 1804), the text of Gronovius has +been principally followed; but the editor has also added some conjectural emendations +of his own. The commentary appears to have been got up in considerable +haste. The preliminary notices concerning the Life and Writings of Plautus, and +the previous editions of his works, are very brief and unsatisfactory. There is yet a +more recent German edition by Bothe, which has been published in volumes from +time to time at Berlin. Two MSS. never before consulted, and which the editor +believes to be of the eleventh or twelfth century, were collated by him. His principal +aim in this new edition is to restore the lines of Plautus to their proper metrical +arrangement. +</p> + +<p> +With a similar view of restoring the proper measure to the verses, various editions +of single plays of Plautus have, within these few years, been printed in Germany. +Of this sort is the edition of the <hi rend='italic'>Trinummus</hi>, by Hermann (Leipsic, 1800), and of +the <hi rend='italic'>Miles</hi> (Weimar, 1804), by Danz, who has made some very bold alterations on +the text of his author. +</p> + +<p> +<hi rend='italic'>Italy</hi> having been the country in which learning first revived,—in which the +MSS. of the Classics were first discovered, and the first editions of them printed,—it +was naturally to be expected, that, of all the modern tongues of Europe, the +classics should have been earliest translated into the Italian language. Accordingly +we find, that the most celebrated and popular of them appeared in the <hi rend='italic'>Lingua +Volgare</hi>, previous to the year 1500<note place="foot">Maffei, <hi rend='italic'>Traduttori Italiani</hi>, p. 8. Ed. Venez. 1720.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +With regard to Plautus, Maffei mentions, as the first translation of the <hi rend='italic'>Amphitryon</hi>, +a work in <hi rend='italic'>ottava rima</hi>, printed without a date. This work was long believed +to be a production of Boccaccio<note place="foot">Ibid. 70.</note>, but it was in fact written by Ghigo Brunelleschi, +an author of equal or superior antiquity, and whose initials were mistaken for those +of Giovanni Boccaccio. Though spoken of by Maffei as a dramatic version, it is in +fact a tale or novel founded on the comedy of Plautus, and was called <hi rend='italic'>Geta e Birria</hi><note place="foot">Paitoni, <hi rend='italic'>Biblioteca degli autor. Lat. Volgarizzati</hi>, Tom. III. p. 118.</note>. +Pandolfo Collenuccio was the first who translated the <hi rend='italic'>Amphitryon</hi> in its proper +dramatic form, and <hi rend='italic'>terza rima</hi>. He was in the service of Hercules, first Duke +of Ferrara, who made this version be represented, in January, 1487, in the splendid +theatre which he had recently built, and on occasion of the nuptials of his daughter +Lucretia. The <hi rend='italic'><sic>Menechmi</sic></hi>, partly translated in <hi rend='italic'>ottava</hi> and partly in <hi rend='italic'>terza rima</hi>, was +the first piece ever acted on that theatre. The Este family were great promoters +of these versions; which, though not printed till the sixteenth century, were for +the most part made and represented before the close of the fifteenth. The dramatic +taste of Duke Hercules descended to his son Alphonso, by whose command +Celio Calcagnino translated the <hi rend='italic'>Miles Gloriosus</hi>. Paitoni enumerates four different +translations of the <hi rend='italic'>Asinaria</hi>, in the course of the sixteenth century, one of +which was acted in the monastery of St Stephen’s, at Venice. +</p> + +<p> +There were also a few versions of particular plays in the course of the <hi rend='italic'>eighteenth</hi> +century; but Paitoni, whose work was printed in 1767, mentions no complete Italian +translation of Plautus, nor any version whatever of the <hi rend='italic'>Truculentus</hi>, or <hi rend='italic'>Trinummus</hi>. +The first version of all the comedies was that of Nic. Eug. Argelio, which was +accompanied by the Latin text, and was printed at Naples, 1783, in 10 volumes 8vo. +</p> + +<p> +The subject of translation was early attended to in <hi rend='italic'>France</hi>. In the year 1540, a +work containing rules for it was published by Steph. Dolet, which was soon followed +by similar productions; and, in the ensuing century, its principles became a +great topic of controversy among critics and scholars. Plautus, however, was not +one of the classics earliest rendered. Though Terence had been repeatedly translated +while the language was almost in a state of barbarism, Plautus did not appear +in a French garb, till clothed in it by the Abbé Marolles, at the solicitation of Furetiere, +in 1658. The Abbé, being more anxious to write many than good books, +completed his task in a few months, and wrote as the sheets were throwing off. +His translation is dedicated to the King, Louis XIV., and is accompanied by the +Latin text. We shall find, as we proceed, that almost all the Latin authors of this +<pb n='A-27'/><anchor id='PgA27'/>period were translated into French by the indefatigable Abbé de Marolles. He was +unfortunately possessed of the opulence and leisure which Providence had denied +to Plautus, Terence, and Catullus; and the leisure he enjoyed was chiefly devoted +to translation. <q>Translation,</q> says D’Israeli, <q>was the mania of the Abbé de +Marolles; sometimes two or three classical victims in a season were dragged into +his slaughter-house. The notion he entertained of his translations was their closeness; +he was not aware of his own spiritless style and he imagined that poetry +only consisted in the thoughts, and not in the grace and harmony of verse<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Curiosities of Literature</hi>, Vol, I. New series.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +De Coste’s translation of the <hi rend='italic'>Captivi</hi>, in prose, 1716, has been already mentioned. +This author was not in the same hurry as Marolles, for he kept his version ten +years before he printed it. He has prefixed a Dissertation, in which he maintains, +that Plautus, in this comedy, has rigidly observed the dramatic unities of time and +place. +</p> + +<p> +Mad. Dacier has translated the <hi rend='italic'>Amphitryon</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Rudens</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>Epidicus</hi>. Her version, +which is accompanied by the Latin text, and is dedicated to Colbert, was first +printed 1683. An examination of the defects and beauties of these comedies, particularly +in respect of the dramatic unities, is prefixed, and remarks by no means +deficient in learning are subjoined. Some changes from the printed Latin editions +are made in the arrangement of the scenes. In her dissertation on the <hi rend='italic'>Epidicus</hi>, +which was a favourite play of Plautus himself, Mad. Dacier attempts to justify this +preference of the poet, and wishes indeed to persuade us, that it is a faultless production. +Goujet remarks that one is not very forcibly struck with all the various +beauties which she enumerates in perusing the original, and still less sensible of +them in reading her translation. +</p> + +<p> +M. de Limiers, who published a version of the whole plays of Plautus in 1719, +has not rendered anew those which had been translated by Mad. Dacier and by De +Coste, but has inserted their versions in his work. These are greatly better than +the others, which are translated by Limiers himself. All of them are in prose, except +the <hi rend='italic'>Stichus</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>Trinummus</hi>, which the author has turned into verse, in +order to give a specimen of his poetic talents. In the versifications, he has +placed himself under the needless restraint of rendering each Latin line by only one +in French, so that there should not be a verse more in the translation than the original; +the consequence of which is, that the whole is constrained and obscure. Examinations +and analyses of each piece, expositions of the plots, with notices of Plautus’ +imitations of the ancient writers, and those of the moderns after him, are inserted +in this work. +</p> + +<p> +In the same year in which Limiers published his version, Gueudeville brought out +a translation of Plautus. It is a very free one; and Goujet says, it is <q>Plaute travesti, +plutot que traduit.</q> He attempts to make his original more burlesque by exaggerations; +and by singular hyperbolical expressions; the <hi rend='italic'>obscœna</hi> are a good +deal enhanced; and he has at the end formed a sort of table, or index, of the obscene +passages, referring to their proper page, which may thus be found without perusing +any other part of the drama. The professed object of the table is, that the reader +may pass them over if he choose. +</p> + +<p> +A contemporary journal, comparing the two translations, observes,—<q>Il semble +que M. Limiers s’attache davantage à son original, et qu’il en fait mieux sentir le +véritable caractère; et que le Sieur Gueudeville est plus badin, plus vif, plus bouffon<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Journal Historique</hi>. Amsterdam, 1719.</note>.</q> +Fabricius passes on them nearly the same judgment<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Bib. Lat.</hi> Lib. I. c. 1. § 8.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The <hi rend='italic'>English</hi> were early acquainted with the plays of Plautus. It appears from +Holinshed, that in the eleventh year of King Henry VIII.—that is, in 1520—a +comedy of Plautus was played before the King<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Pref.</hi> to Johnson and Steevens’ <hi rend='italic'>Shakspeare</hi>, p. 96. 3d Ed.</note>. We are informed by Miss Aikin, +in her <hi rend='italic'>Memoirs of the Court of Elizabeth</hi>, that when that Queen visited Cambridge +in 1564, she went on a Sunday morning to King’s Chapel, to hear a Latin sermon, +<hi rend='italic'>ad clerum</hi>; <q>and in the evening, the body of this solemn edifice being converted +into a temporary theatre, she was there gratified with a representation of the <hi rend='italic'>Aulularia</hi> +of Plautus<note place="foot">Vol. I. p. 370.</note>.</q> It has been mentioned in the text, that, in 1595, there appeared +a translation of the <hi rend='italic'>Menæchmi</hi> of Plautus, by W. W.—initials which have +<pb n='A-28'/><anchor id='PgA28'/>generally been supposed to stand for William Warner, author of <hi rend='italic'>Albion’s England</hi>. +In 1694, Echard published a prose translation of the three comedies which had been +selected by Mad. Dacier—the <hi rend='italic'>Amphitryon</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Epidicus</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>Rudens</hi>. It is obvious, +however, that he has more frequently translated from the French, than from his +original author. His style, besides, is coarse and inelegant; and, while he aims at +being familiar, he is commonly low and vulgar. Some passages of the <hi rend='italic'>Amphitryon</hi> +he has translated in the coarsest dialogue of the streets:—<q>By the mackins, I believe +Phœbus has been playing the good fellow, and’s asleep too! I’ll be hanged if +he ben’t in for’t, and has took a little too much of the creature.</q> In every page, +also, we find the most incongruous jumble of ancient and of modern manners. He +talks of the Lord Chief Justice of Athens, of bridewell, and aldermen; and makes +his heathen characters swear British and Christian oaths, such as, <q>By the Lord +Harry!—’Fore George!—’Tis as true as the Gospel!</q> +</p> + +<p> +In the year 1746, Thomas Cooke, the well-known translator of Hesiod, published +proposals for a complete translation of Plautus, but he printed only the <hi rend='italic'>Amphitryon</hi>. +Dr Johnson has told, that Cooke lived twenty years on this translation of Plautus, +for which he was always taking in subscriptions<note place="foot">Boswell’s <hi rend='italic'>Tour to the Hebrides</hi>.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +In imitation of Colman, who, in his Terence, had introduced a new and elegant +mode of translation in familiar blank verse, Mr Thornton, in 1667, published a version +of seven of the plays after the same manner,—<hi rend='italic'>Amphitryon</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Miles Gloriosus</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Captivi</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Trinummus</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Mercator</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Aulularia</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Rudens</hi>. Of these, the translation of +the <hi rend='italic'>Mercator</hi> was furnished by Colman, and that of the <hi rend='italic'>Captivi</hi> by Mr Warner. +Thornton intended to have translated the remaining thirteen, but was prevented by +death. The work, however, was continued by Mr. Warner, who had translated the +<hi rend='italic'>Captivi</hi>. To both versions, there were subjoined remarks, chiefly collected from the +best commentators, and from the notes of the French translators of Plautus. +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Terence"/><index index="pdf" level1="Terence"/> +<head>TERENCE.</head> + +<p> +The MSS. of Terence which were coeval with the age of the author, or shortly +posterior to it, were corrupted from the same cause as the MSS. of Plautus. Varro +says, that, in his time, the copies of Terence then existing were extremely corrupt. +He is, however, one of the classics whose works cannot properly be said to have +been discovered at the revival of literature, as, in fact, his comedies never were lost. +They were commented on, during the later ages of the empire, by Æmilius Asper, +Valerius Probus, Martius Salutaris, Flavius Caper, and Helenius Acro; and towards +the end of the fifth century, Rufinus wrote a diatribe on the metres of Terence. +Sulpicius Apollinaris, a grammarian of the second century, composed arguments to +the plays, and Ælius Donatus commented on them in the fourth century. The person +styling himself Calliopius, revised and amended, in the eighth century, a MS. +which was long preserved in the Vatican. Eugraphius commented on Terence, +again, in the tenth, and Calpurnius in the middle of the fifteenth century. Guiniforte +delivered lectures on Terence at Novarra in 1430, and Filelfo at Florence about +the same period<note place="foot"><anchor id="corr314"/><corr sic="Ginguené">Ginguené,</corr> <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Lit. d’Italie</hi>, Tom. II. p. 290.</note>. Petrarch, too, when Leontius Pilatus, disgusted with Italy, returned +to his native country, gave him a copy of Terence as his travelling companion,—a +foolish present, as Petrarch adds, for there is no resemblance between +the most gloomy of all the Greeks, and the most lively of the Africans. As Petrarch +at this time seems to have cordially disliked Leontius, it is not probable that the +copy of Terence he gave him was very scarce. All this shows, that the six plays of +Terence were not merely extant, but very common in Italy, during the dark ages. +One of the oldest MSS. of Terence, and that which was probably used in the earliest +printed editions, was preserved in the Vatican library: Fabricius has described +it as written by Hrodogarius in the time of Charlemagne, and as revised by Calliopius<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Bib. Lat.</hi> Lib. I. c. 3. § 4.</note>. +Another MS. of Terence in the Vatican library, is one which, in the sixteenth +century, had fallen into the possession of Cardinal Bembo. It had been +revised by Politian<note place="foot">Polit. <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi></note>, who wrote on it, in his own hand, that he had never seen one +<pb n='A-29'/><anchor id='PgA29'/>more ancient:—<q>Ego, Angelus Politianus, homo vetustatis minime incuriosus, +nullum me vidisse, ad hanc diem, codicem vetustiorem fateor.</q> Its age, when +Fabricius wrote, in 1698, was, as that author testifies, more than a thousand years, +which places its transcription at the latest in 698. In this MS. there is a division of +verses which is not employed in that above mentioned, written by Hrodogarius. +Politian corrected from it, with his own hand, a copy which was in the Laurentian +library, and collated with it another, which subsequently belonged to Petrus Victorius. +After the death of Cardinal Bembo, this ancient MS. came into the possession +of Fulvius Ursinus, and was by him bequeathed to the Vatican library<note place="foot">Bandini, <hi rend='italic'>Catalog. Bib. Med. Laurent.</hi> p. 264. Hawkin’s <hi rend='italic'>Inquiry into Lat. +Poet.</hi> p. 200.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +There is much uncertainty with regard to the <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi> of Terence, and, +indeed, with regard to most of the editions of his works which appeared during the +fifteenth century. That printed by Mentelin at Strasburg, without date, but supposed +to be 1468, seems now to be considered as having the best claims to priority<note place="foot">Dibdin, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca Spenceriana</hi>, Tom. II.</note>. +The Terence printed by Pynson in 1497, was, I believe, the first Latin classic published +in this country. The earliest editions of Terence are without any separation +of verses, the division of them having been first introduced in the edition of 1487, +according to the arrangement made by Politian from Cardinal Bembo’s copy. +Westerhovius, in the <hi rend='italic'>prolegomena</hi> to his edition, 1726, enumerates not fewer than +248 editions of Terence previous to his time. Though the presses of the Aldi +(1517–21), the Stephenses (1529–52, &c.), and the Elzevirs (1635), were successively +employed in these editions, the text of Terence does not seem to have +engaged the attention of any of the most eminent scholars or critics of the sixteenth +and seventeenth centuries, with the exception of Muretus. The edition of Faernus, +(Florence, 1565,) for which various valuable MSS. were collated, became the +foundation of almost all subsequent impressions, particularly that of Westerhovius, +which is usually accounted the best edition of Terence. It is nevertheless declared, +by Mr Dibdin, <q>to be more admirable for elaborate care and research, than the +exhibition of any critical niceties in the construction of the text, or the illustration +of difficult passages.</q> It contains the Commentaries of Donatus, Calpurnius, and +Eugraphius, and there are prefixed the Life of Terence, attributed to Suetonius,—a +dissertation of D. Heinsius, <hi rend='italic'>Ad Horatii de Plauto et Terentio judicium</hi>,—Evanthius, +<hi rend='italic'>De Tragœdiâ et Comœdiâ</hi>,—and a treatise, compiled by the editor from the +best authorities, concerning the scenic representations of the Romans. +</p> + +<p> +Bentley’s first edition of Terence was printed at Cambridge in the same year +with that of Westerhovius. One of Bentley’s great objects was the reformation of +the metres of Terence, concerning which he prefixed a learned dissertation. The +boldness of his alterations on the text, which were in a great measure calculated to +serve this purpose, drew down on him, in his own age, the appellation of <q>slashing +Bentley,</q> and repeated castigation from subsequent editors. +</p> + +<p> +Of the more recent editions, that of Zeunius (Leipsic, 1774) is deservedly accounted +the best in point of critical excellence. There are, however, three German +editions still more recent; that by <anchor id="corra29"/><corr sic="Schmeider">Schmieder</corr>, (Halle, 1794,) by Bothe, (Magdeburg, +1806,) and by Perlet, (Leipsic, 1821;) which last is chiefly remarkable for its +great number of typographical errors—about as numerous as those in one of the old +English <hi rend='italic'>Pearl Bibles</hi>. +</p> + +<milestone unit="tb"/> +<p> +The plays of Terence being much less numerous than those of Plautus, translations +of the whole of them appeared at an earlier period, both in Italian and French. +The first complete <hi rend='italic'>Italian</hi> translation of Terence was in prose. It is dedicated to +Benedetto Curtio, by a person calling himself Borgofranco; but from the ambiguity +of some expressions in this dedication, there has been a dispute, whether he be +the author, or only the editor of the version—Fontanini supporting the former, and +Apostolo Zeno the latter proposition<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Minerva, o Giornal. de Letter. d’Ital.</hi></note>. It was first printed at Venice, 1533; and +Paitoni enumerates six subsequent editions of it in the course of the sixteenth +century. The next version was that of Giovanni Fabrini, which, as we learn by +the title, is rendered word for word from the original; it was printed at Venice, +<pb n='A-30'/><anchor id='PgA30'/>1548. A third prose translation, published at Rome, 1612, is dedicated to the +Cardinal Borghese by the printer Zanetti, who mentions, that it was the work of +an unknown author, which had fallen accidentally into his hands: Fontanini, however, +and Apost. Zeno, have long since discovered, that the author was called +Cristoforo Rosario. Crescimbeni speaks favourably of a version by the Marchioness +of Malespini. Another lady, Luisa Bergalli, had translated in <hi rend='italic'>verso sciolto</hi>, +and printed separately, some of the plays of Terence: These she collected, and, +having completed the remainder, published them together at Venice, in 1733. In +1736, a splendid edition of a poetical translation of Terence, and accompanied by +the Latin, was printed at Urbino, with figures of the actors, taken from a MS. preserved +in the Vatican. It is written in <hi rend='italic'>verso sciolto</hi>, except the prologues, which +are in <hi rend='italic'>versi sdruccioli</hi>. The author, who was Nicholas Fortiguerra, and who died +before his version was printed, says, that the comedies are <hi rend='italic'>nunc primum Italicis +versibus redditæ</hi><note place="foot">Argelati, <hi rend='italic'>Biblioteca de Volgarizzatori</hi>, Tom. IV. p. 44.</note>; but in this he had not been sufficiently informed, as his version +was preceded by that of Luisa Bergalli, and by many separate translations of each +individual play. A translation of two of Terence’s plays, the <hi rend='italic'>Andria</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>Eunuchus</hi>, +into <hi rend='italic'>versi sdruccioli</hi>, by Giustiano de Candia, was printed by Paullus Manutius +in 1544<note place="foot">Renouard, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. de l’Imprim. des Aldes</hi>, Tom. I.</note>. + Three of Terence’s plays, the <hi rend='italic'>Andria</hi>, <hi rend="italic">Eunuchus</hi>, + and <hi rend='italic'>Heautontimorumenos</hi>, +were subsequently translated in <hi rend='italic'>versi sdruccioli</hi>, by the Abbé +Bellaviti, and published at Bassan in 1758. +</p> + +<p> +It is not certain who was the author of the first <hi rend='italic'>French</hi> translation of Terence, or +even at what period he existed. Du Verdier and Fabricius say, he was Octavien +de Saint Gelais, Bishop of Angouleme, who lived in the reign of Charles VIII. +This, however, is doubtful, since Pierre Grosnet, a French poet, contemporary with +the Bishop, while mentioning the other classics which he had translated, says +nothing of any version of Terence by him, but expressly mentions one by Gilles +Cybile— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Maistre Gilles nommé Cybile,</q></l> +<l>Il s’est montré très-fort habile:</l> +<l>Car il a tout traduit Therence</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Ou il y a mainte sentence<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De la louange des bons facteurs en Rime</hi>.</note>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +The author, whoever he may be, mentions, that the translation was made by order +of the King; but he does not specify by which of the French monarchs the command +was given. His work was first printed, but without date, by Anthony <anchor id="corra30"/><corr sic="Varard">Verard</corr>, +so well known as the printer of some of the earliest romances of chivalry; and +as Verard died in 1520, it must have been printed before that date<note place="foot">Sulzer, <hi rend='italic'>Theorie der Schönen Wissensch. Terenz</hi>.</note>. It is in one +volume folio, ornamented with figures in wood-cuts, and is entitled, <hi rend='italic'>Le Grant +Therence en François, tant en rime qu’en prose, avecques le Latin</hi>. As this +title imports, there is both a prose and verse translation; and the Latin text is likewise +given. It is difficult to say which of the translations is worst; that in verse, +which is in lines of eight syllables, is sometimes almost unintelligible, and the variation +of masculine and feminine rhymes, is scarcely ever attended to. +</p> + +<p> +The translation, printed 1583, with the Latin text, and of which the author is +likewise unknown, is little superior to that by which it was preceded. Beauchamp, +in his <hi rend='italic'>Recherches sur les Théatres de France</hi>, mentions two other translations of +the sixteenth century—one in 1566, the other in 1584. The first by Jean Bourlier, +is in prose—the second is in rhyme, and is translated verse for verse. Mad. Dacier +includes all the versions of the sixteenth century in one general censure, only excepting +that of the <hi rend='italic'>Eunuch</hi> by Baif, printed 1573, in his <hi rend='italic'>jeux poëtiques</hi>. It is in +lines of eight and ten syllables, and was undertaken by order of Queen Catharine, +mother of Charles IX. Mad. Dacier pronounces it to be a good translation, except +that, in about twenty passages, the sense of the original author has been mistaken. +It is remarked by Goujet, in his <hi rend='italic'>Bibliothéque Françoise</hi>, that if Mad. Dacier had +<pb n='A-31'/><anchor id='PgA31'/>been acquainted with the <hi rend='italic'>Andrian</hi>, by Bonaventure des Perriers, printed in 1537, +she would have made an exception in favour of it also. Bonaventure was the valet +of Margaret, Queen of Navarre, and after her death the editor of her tales, and himself +the author of a collection in a similar taste. He wrote at a time when the +French language was at its highest perfection, being purified from the coarseness +which appeared in the romances of chivalry, and yet retaining that energy and simplicity, +which it in a great measure lost, soon after the accession of the Bourbons. +This version was one of Bonaventure’s first productions, as, in the <hi rend='italic'>Avis aux Lecteurs</hi>, +he says, <q>Que c’etait son apprentissage:</q> he intended to have translated +the whole plays of Terence, but was prevented by his tragical death. The same +comedy chosen by Bonaventure des Perriers, was translated into prose by Charles +Stephens, brother of the celebrated printers. +</p> + +<p> +The Abbé Marolles has succeeded no better in his translation of Terence, than +in that of Plautus. We recognize in it the same heaviness—the same want of elegance +and fidelity to the original. Chapelain remarks, <q>Que ce traducteur etoit +l’Antipode du bon sens, et qu’il s’eloignoit partout de l’intelligence des auteurs qui +avoient le malheur de passer par ses mains.</q> His translation appeared in 1659, in +two volumes 8vo, accompanied by remarks, in the same taste as those with which +he had loaded his Plautus. +</p> + +<p> +About this period, the Gentlemen of the Port-Royal, in France, paid considerable +attention to the education of youth, and to the cultivation of classical learning. M. +de Sacy, a distinguished member of that religious association, and well known in his +day as the author of the <hi rend='italic'>Heures de Port-Royal</hi>, translated into prose the <hi rend='italic'>Andria</hi>, +<hi rend='italic'>Adelphi</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>Phormio</hi><note place="foot">Baillet, <hi rend='italic'>Jugemens des Sçavans</hi>.</note>. This version, which he printed in 1647, under the assumed +name of M. de Saint-Aubin, is much praised in the <hi rend='italic'>Parnasse Reformé</hi>, and +the <hi rend='italic'>Jugemens des Sçavans</hi>. There were many subsequent editions of it, and some +even after the appearance of the translation by Mad. Dacier. The version of the +other three comedies, by the Sieur de Martignac, was intended, and announced as +a supplement, or continuation of the work of M. de Sacy. +</p> + +<p> +It still remains for me to mention the translation of Terence by Mad. Dacier. +This lady was advised against the undertaking by her friends, but she was determined +to persevere<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Mem. de Trevoux</hi>, 1721.</note>. She rose at five o’clock every morning, during a whole winter, +in the course of which she completed four comedies; but having perused them +at the end of some months, she thought them too much laboured and deficient in +ease. She therefore threw them into the fire, and, with more moderation, recommenced +her labour, which she at length completed, with satisfaction to herself and +the public. Her translation was printed in 1688, 3 vols. 12mo, accompanied with +the Latin text, a preface, a life of the poet, and remarks on each of his +pieces. She has not entered, as in her translations of Plautus, into a particular examination +of every scene, but has contented herself with some general observations. +This lady has also made considerable changes as to the commencement and termination +of the scenes and acts; and her conjectures on these points are said to have +been afterwards confirmed by an authoritative and excellent MS., discovered in the +<hi rend='italic'>Bibliothéque de Roi</hi><note place="foot"><anchor id="corr317"/><corr sic="Goujet">Goujet,</corr> <hi rend='italic'>Bib. Fran.</hi> Tom. IV. p. 436.</note>. The first edition was improved on, in one subsequently +printed at Rotterdam in 1717, which was also ornamented with figures from two +MSS. There is yet a more recent translation by Le Monnier, 1771, which is now +accounted the best. +</p> + +<p> +The first translation which appeared in this country, and which is entitled +<q>Terence in Englysh,</q> is without date, but is supposed to have been printed in +1520. It was followed by Bernard’s translation, 1598—Hoole’s, 1670—Echard’s, +1694—and Dr Patrick’s, 1745. All those prose versions are flat and obsolete, and +in many places unfaithful to their original. At length Colman published a translation +in familiar blank verse, in which he has succeeded extremely well. He has +seldom mistaken the sense of his author, and has frequently attained to his polished +ease of style and manner. The notes, which have been judiciously selected from +former commentators, with some observations of his own, form a valuable part of the +work. +</p> +</div><div> +<pb n='A-32'/><anchor id='PgA32'/> +<index index="toc" level1="Lucilius"/><index index="pdf" level1="Lucilius"/> +<head>LUCILIUS.</head> + +<p> +F. Douza was the first who collected the fragments of this satiric poet, and +formed them into a <hi rend='italic'>cento</hi>. Having shewn his MS. and notes to Joseph Scaliger, he +was encouraged to print them, and an edition accordingly came forth at Leyden, in +1597. It soon, however, became very scarce. A single copy of it was accidentally +discovered by Vulpius, in one of the principal public libraries of Italy; but, owing to +the place which it had occupied, it had been so destroyed by constant eaves-dropping +from the roof of the house, that when he laid his hands on it, it was scarcely +legible. Having restored, however, and amended the text as far as possible, he reprinted +it at Padua in 1735. +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Lucretius"/><index index="pdf" level1="Lucretius"/> +<head>LUCRETIUS.</head> + +<p> +The work of Lucretius, like the Æneid of Virgil, had not received the finishing +hand of its author, at the period of his death. The tradition that Cicero revised it, +and gave it to the public, does not rest on any authority more ancient than that of +Eusebius; and, had the story been true, it would probably have been mentioned in +some part of Cicero’s voluminous writings, or those of the early critics. Eichstädt<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>De Vit. et Carm. Lucret. Præf.</hi></note>, +while he denies the revisal by Cicero, is of opinion that it had been corrected by some +critic or grammarian; and that thus two MSS., differing in many respects from each +other, had descended to posterity—the one as it came from the hand of the poet, +and the other as amended by the reviser. This he attempts to prove from the +great inequality of the language—now obsolete and rugged—now polished and +refined—which difference can only, he thinks, be accounted for, from the +original and corrected copies having been mixed together in some of those +middle-age transcriptions, on which the first printed editions were formed. The old +grammarians, too, he alleges, frequently quote verses of Lucretius, which no longer +compose parts of his poem, and which therefore must have been altogether omitted +by the corrector; and, finally, the readings in the different MSS. are so widely different, +that it is incredible that the variations could have proceeded from the transcribers +or interpolators, and could have been occasioned only by the author or reviser +of the poem. +</p> + +<p> +But though not completely polished by the author, there is no ground for the +conjecture, that the poem ever consisted of more than the present six books—an +opinion which seems to have originated in an orthographical error, and which is +contradictory to the very words of the poet himself.<note place="foot">See Good’s <hi rend='italic'>Lucretius, Pref.</hi> p. 99. Eichstädt, <hi rend='italic'>De Vit. &c. Lucret.</hi> p. 65.</note> +</p> + +<p> +The work of Lucretius does not appear to have been popular at Rome, and the +MSS. of it were probably not very numerous in the latter ages of the empire. It is +quoted by Raban Maur, Abbot of Fulda, in his book <hi rend='italic'>De Universo</hi><note place="foot">Lib. XV. c. 2.</note>, which was written +in the ninth century. The copies of it, however, seem to have totally disappeared, +previous to the revival of literature; but at length Poggio Bracciolini, while attending +the Council of Constance, whither he repaired in 1414, discovered a MS. in +the monastery of St Gal, about twenty miles from that city<note place="foot">Barbari, <hi rend='italic'>Epist. I. ad Poggium</hi>.</note>. It is from the following +lines, in a Latin elegy, by Cristoforo Landini, on the death of this celebrated +ornament of his age, that we learn to whom we are indebted for the first of philosophic +poems. Landini, recording the discoveries of his friend, exclaims— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Illius manu, nobis, doctissime rhetor,</q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Integer in Latium, Quintiliane, redis;</l> +<l>Et te, Lucreti, longo post tempore, tandem</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><q rend="pre: none">Civibus et Patriæ reddit habere tuæ.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Poggio sent the newly-discovered treasure to Niccolo Niccoli, who kept the original +MS. fourteen years. Poggio earnestly demanded it back, and at length +ob<pb n='A-33'/><anchor id='PgA33'/>tained it; but before it was restored, Niccoli made from it, with his own hand, a +transcript, which is still extant in the Laurentian library<note place="foot">Mehus, <hi rend='italic'>Præf. ad Epist. Ambros. Camaldul.</hi> p. 38.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +The edition published at Verona, 1486, which is not a very correct one, was long +accounted the <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi> of Lucretius. A more ancient impression, however, +printed at Brescia, 1473, has recently become known to bibliographers. It was +edited by Ferrandus from a single MS. copy, which was the only one he could +procure. But though he had not the advantage of collating different MSS., the +edition is still considered valuable, for its accuracy and excellent readings. There +are, I believe, only three copies of it now extant, two of which are at present in +England. The text of Lucretius was much corrupted in the subsequent editions of +the fifteenth century, and even in that of Aldus, published at Venice in 1500, of +which Avancius was the editor, and which was the first <hi rend='italic'>Latin</hi> classic printed by +Aldus<note place="foot">Renouard, <hi rend='italic'>Annales de l’Imprimerie des Aldes</hi>, Tom. I.</note>. This was partly occasioned by the second edition of 1486 being unfortunately +chosen as the basis of all of them, instead of the prior and preferable edition, +printed at Brescia. In a few, but very few readings, the second edition has improved +on the first, as, for example, in the beautiful description of the helplessness +of a new-born infant— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Navita, nudus humi jacet infans, <hi rend='italic'>indigus</hi> omni</q></l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Vitali auxilio,</q> ——</l> +</lg> + +<p> +where the Brescian edition reads <hi rend='italic'>indignus</hi>, instead of <hi rend='italic'>indigus</hi>. And again, in the +fifth book— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Nec poterat quenquam placidi pellacia ponti,</q></l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Subdola <hi rend='italic'>pellicere</hi> in fraudem, ridentibus undis,</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +where the Brescian edition reads <hi rend='italic'>pollicere</hi>, instead of <hi rend='italic'>pellicere</hi>, which seems to be +wrong. At length Baptista Pius, by aid of some emendations of his preceptor, +Philippus Beroaldus, to which he had access, and by a laborious collation of MSS., +succeeded in a great measure in restoring the depraved text of his author to its +original purity. His edition, printed at Bologna in 1511, and the two Aldine +editions, published in 1515, under the superintendence of Nevagero, who was a +much better editor than Avancius, continued to be regarded as those of highest authority +till 1563, when Lambinus printed at Paris an edition, prepared from the collation +of five original MSS., and all the previous editions of any note, except the first +and second, which seem to have been unknown to him. The text, as he boasts in +the preface, was corrected in 800 different places, and was accompanied by a very +ample commentary. Lambinus was succeeded by Gifanius, who was more a +grammarian than an acute or tasteful critic. He amassed together, without discrimination, +the notes and conjectures on Lucretius, of all the scholars of his own +and the preceding age. Douza, in a sot of satirical verses, accused him of having +appropriated and published in his edition, without acknowledgment, some writings +of L. Fruterius, which had been committed to him on death-bed, in order to be +printed. His chief merit lies in what relates to grammatical interpretation, and the +explanation of ancient customs, and in a more ample collection of parallel passages +than had hitherto been made. The editions of D. Pareus, (Frankfort, 1631,) and +of Nardius, (Florence, 1647,) were not better than that of Gifanius; and the Delphin +edition of Lucretius, by M. Le Fay, has long been known as the very worst of the +class to which it belongs. <q>Notæ ejus,</q> says Fabricius, <q>plenæ sunt pudendis +hallucinationibus.</q> Indeed, so much ashamed of it were his colleagues, and those +who directed this great undertaking of the Delphin classics, that they attempted, +though unsuccessfully, to suppress it. +</p> + +<p> +Nearly a century and a half had elapsed, from the first publication of the edition +of Lambinus, without a tolerable new impression of Lucretius being offered to the +public, when Creech, better known as the translator of Lucretius, printed, in 1695, a +Latin edition of the poet, to whose elucidation he had devoted his life. His study +of the Epicurean system, and intimate acquaintance with the works of Gassendi, +<pb n='A-34'/><anchor id='PgA34'/>fully qualified him for the philosophic illustration of his favourite author. On the +whole, however, Havercamp’s edition, Leyden, 1725, is the best which has yet appeared +of Lucretius. It was prepared from the collation of twenty-five <anchor id="corr320"/><corr sic="MSS">MSS.</corr>, as +well as of the most ancient editions, and contained not only the whole annotations +of Creech and Lambinus, but also some notes of Isaac Vossius, which had not previously +been printed. The prefaces of the most important editions are prefixed; +and the only fault which has been found with it is, that in his new readings the editor +has sometimes injured the harmony of the versification. Lucretius certainly can +not be considered as one of the classics who have been most fortunate in their editors +and commentators. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, he failed to +obtain the care of the most pre-eminent critics of the age, and was thus left to the +conjectures of second-rate scholars. It was his lot to be assigned to the most ignorant +and barbarous of the Delphin editors; and his catastrophe has been completed +by falling into the hands of Wakefield, whose edition is one of the most injudicious +and tasteless that ever issued from the press. In preparing this work, which is dedicated +to Mr Fox, the editor had the use of several MSS. in the University of Cambridge +and the British Museum; and also some MS. notes of Bentley, found in a +copy of a printed edition, which originally belonged to Dr Mead. In his preface, +he expresses himself with much asperity against Mr Cumberland, for withholding +from him some other MS. notes of Bentley, which were in his possession. It would +have been fortunate for him if he had never seen any of Bentley’s annotations, since +many of his worst readings are derived from that source. By an assiduous perusal of +MSS. and the old editions, he has restored as much of the ancient Latin orthography, +as renders the perusal of the poet irksome, though, by his own confession, he has not in +this been uniform and consistent; and he has most laboriously amassed, particularly +from Virgil, a multitude of supposed parallel passages, many of which have little +resemblance to the lines with which they are compared. The long Latin poem, addressed +to Fox, lamenting the horrors of war, does not compensate for the very +brief and unsatisfactory notices, as to every thing that regards the life and writings +of the poet, and the previous editions of his works. The commentary is dull, beyond +the proverbial dulness of commentaries; and wherever there was a disputed or +doubtful reading, that one is generally selected, which is most tame and unmeaning—most +grating to the ear, and most foreign, both to the spirit of the poet, and of +poetry in general. I shall just select one instance from each book, as an example of +the manner in which the finest lines have been utterly destroyed by the alteration of +a single word, or even letter, and I shall choose such passages as are familiar to every +one. In his magnificent eulogy of Epicurus, in the first book, Lucretius, in admiration +of the enlightened boldness of that philosopher, described him as one— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Quem neque fama Deûm, nec fulmina, nec minitanti</q></l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Murmure compressit cœlum.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +The expression <hi rend='italic'>Fama Deûm</hi> implies, that Epicurus could not be restrained by that +imposing character, with which deep-rooted prejudice, and the authority of fable, +had invested the gods of Olympus—a thought highly poetical, and at the same time +panegyrical of the mighty mind which had disregarded all this superstitious renown. +But Wakefield, by the alteration of a single letter, strips the passage both of its +sense and poetry—he reads, +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q>Quem neque <hi rend='italic'>fana</hi> Deûm, nec fulmina, nec minitanti,</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +which imports that the determined mind of Epicurus could not be controlled by the +temples of the gods, which, if it has any meaning at all, is one most frigid and +puerile. This innovation, which the editor calls, in the note, <hi rend='italic'>egregiam emendationem</hi>, +is not supported, as far as he informs us, by the authority of any ancient MS. +or edition whatever, but it was so written on the margin of the copy of Lucretius, +which had belonged to Bentley, where it was placed, as Wakefield admits, <hi rend='italic'>nude +ascripta et indefensa</hi>. In the second book, Lucretius maintaining that absence of +splendour is no diminution of happiness, says, +</p> + +<pb n='A-35'/><anchor id='PgA35'/> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Si non aurea sunt juvenum simulacra per ædes, &c.</q></l> +<l> * * * * *</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Nec citharæ reboant laqueata aurataque <hi rend='italic'>tecta</hi>.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +But Wakefield, instead of <hi rend='italic'>tecta</hi>, reads <hi rend='italic'>templa</hi>, and justifies his reading, not on the +authority of any ancient MSS., but by showing that <hi rend='italic'>templa</hi> is used for <hi rend='italic'>tecta</hi> by +some authors, and applied to private dwellings! The third book commences very +spiritedly with an eulogy of Epicurus: +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">E tenebris tantis tam clarum extollere lumen</q></l> +<l>Qui primus potuisti, illustrans commoda vitæ,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Te sequor, O Graiæ gentis decus!</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +This sudden and beautiful apostrophe is weakened and destroyed by a change to +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q>O tenebris tantis tam clarum extollere lumen.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +The lines are rendered worse by the interjection being thus twice repeated in the +course of three verses. In the fourth book, Lucretius, alluding to the merits of his +own work, says, +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Deinde, quod obscurâ de re tam lucida <hi rend='italic'>pango</hi></q></l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Carmina, Musæo contingens cuncta lepore.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Here the word <hi rend='italic'>pango</hi> presents us with the image of the poet at his lyre, pouring +forth his mellifluous verses, and it has besides, in its sound, something of the twang +of a musical instrument. Wakefield, however, has changed the word into <hi rend='italic'>pando</hi>, +which reminds us only of transcription and publication. Lucretius, in book fifth, +assigns as the reason why mankind supposed that the abode of the gods was in heaven, +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Per cœlum volvi quia nox et luna videtur,</q></l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Luna, dies, et nox, et noctis signa <hi rend='italic'>serena</hi>!</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +This last word Wakefield has changed into <hi rend='italic'>severa</hi>, which greatly impairs the beauty +of the line. <hi rend='italic'>Noctis signa serena</hi>, are the stars and planets; but if instead of these +be substituted the <hi rend='italic'>signa severa</hi>, the passage becomes tautological, for the <hi rend='italic'>signa +severa</hi> are introduced immediately afterwards in the line +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q>Noctivagæque faces cœli flammæque volantes.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +I have only selected passages where Wakefield has departed from the usual +readings, without support from any ancient edition or authoritative MS. whatever. +The instances where, in a variation of the MSS. and editions, he has chosen the +worse reading, are innumerable. +</p> + +<p> +The first edition of Wakefield’s Lucretius was printed at London in 1796; the +second at Glasgow, 1813, which is rendered more valuable than the first, by a running +collation in the last volume of the readings of the <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi>, printed at +Brescia; that of Verona, 1486—Venice 1495—the Aldine edition, 1500—and the +Bipontine, 1782, which places in a very striking point of view the superiority of the +<hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi> over those by which it was immediately succeeded. At the end of +this edition, there are published some MS. notes and emendations, taken from +Bentley’s own copy of Faber’s edition of Lucretius, in the library of the British +Museum. They are not of much consequence, and though a few of them are +doubtless improvements on Faber’s text, yet, taken as a whole, they would injure +the lines of the poet, should they be unfortunately adopted in subsequent editions. +</p> + +<p> +Eichstädt, in his recent impression, published at Leipsic, has chiefly followed the +text of Wakefield, but has occasionally deviated from it when he thought the innovations +too bold. He had the advantage of consulting the <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi>, which +no modern editor enjoyed. He has prefixed Wakefield’s prefaces, and a long dissertation +of his own, on the Life and Poetical Writings of Lucretius, in which he +scarcely does justice to the poetical genius of his author. The first volume, containing +the text and a very copious verbal index, was printed at Leipsic in 1801. It +is intended that the second volume should comprise the commentary, but it has not +yet been published. +</p> + +<pb n='A-36'/><anchor id='PgA36'/> + +<p> +There is hardly any poet more difficult to translate happily than Lucretius. In the +abstruse and jejune philosophical discussions which occupy so large a proportion of +the poem, it is hardly possible, without a sacrifice of perspicuity, to retain the harmony +of versification; and, in the ornamental passages, the diction is so simple, +pure, and melodious, that it is an enterprize of no small difficulty to translate with +fidelity and elegance. +</p> + +<p> +In consequence, perhaps, of the freedom of his philosophical, and a misrepresentation +of his moral tenets, Lucretius was longer of being rendered into the <hi rend='italic'>Italian</hi> language +than almost any other classic. It was near the end of the seventeenth century, +before any version was executed, when a translation into <hi rend='italic'>verso sciolto</hi>, was undertaken +by Marchetti, Professor of Mathematics and Philosophy in the University of Pisa. +Marchetti has evidently translated from the edition of Lambinus—the best which had +at that time appeared. His version, however, though completed in the seventeenth +century, was not published till 1717, three years after his death, when it was printed, +with the date of London, under the care of a person styling himself Antinoo Rullo, +with a prefatory dedication to the great Prince Eugene, in which the editor terms +it, <q>la più grande, e la più bella poetic’ opera che nel passato secolo nascesse ad +accrescere un nuovo lume di gloria ad Italia.</q> Public opinion, both in Italy and +other countries, has confirmed that of the editor, and it is universally admitted, that +the translator has succeeded in faithfully preserving the spirit and meaning of the +Latin original, without forfeiting any of the beauties of the Italian language. It has +been said, that such was the freedom and freshness of this performance, that unless +previously informed as to the fact, no one could distinguish whether the Latin or +Italian Lucretius was the original. Graziana, himself a celebrated poet, who had +perused it in MS., thus justly characterizes its merits, in a letter addressed to the +author:—<q>you have translated this poem with great felicity and ease; unfolding its +sublime and scientific materials in a delicate style and elegant manner; and, what +is still more to be admired, your diction seldom runs into a lengthened paraphrase, +and never without the greatest judgment.</q> The perusal of this admirable translation +was forbidden by the inquisition, but the prohibition did not prevent a subsequent +impression of it from being printed at Lausanne, in 1761. This edition, which +is in two volumes, contains an Italian translation of Polignac’s Anti-Lucretius, by +F. Maria Ricci. The editor, Deregni, indeed declares that he would not have +ventured to publish any translation of Lucretius, however excellent, unless accompanied +by this powerful antidote. There are prefixed to this edition historical and +critical notices; as also the preface, and the <hi rend='italic'>Protesta del Traduttore</hi>, which had +been inserted in the first edition. +</p> + +<p> +Most of the <hi rend='italic'>French</hi> translations of Lucretius are in prose. Of all sorts of poetry, +that called didactic, which consists in the detail of a regular system, or in rational +precepts, which flow from each other in a connected train of thought, suffers least +by being transfused into prose. Almost every didactic poet, however, enriches his +work with such ornaments as spring out of his subject, though not strictly attached +to it; but in no didactic poem are these passages so numerous and so charming as +in that of Lucretius; and, accordingly, in a prose translation, while all that is systematic +or preceptive may be rendered with propriety, all that belongs to embellishment, +and which forms the principal grace of the original, appears impertinent and +misplaced. The earliest translation of Lucretius into the French language, was by +Guillaume des Autels, about the middle of the sixteenth century. The Abbé +Morolles, already mentioned as the translator of Plautus and Terence, turned Lucretius +into French prose: Of this version there were two editions, the first of +which was printed in 1650. It was addressed to Christina, Queen of Sweden; and, +as the author had been very liberal to this princess in compliment, he hoped she +would be equally liberal in reward; but he was much deceived, and of this disappointment +he bitterly complains in his Memoirs. Of this translation, Goujet +remarks, that one is constantly obliged to have recourse to the Latin text, in order +to comprehend its meaning<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Biblioth. Franc.</hi> Tom. V.</note>. It was a good deal amended, however, in the second +edition, 1659, under circumstances of which the author introduces an account in +the list of his works subjoined to his translation of Virgil. Gassendi, who had profoundly +studied the system of Epicurus and Lucretius, having procured a copy of +Ma<pb n='A-37'/><anchor id='PgA37'/>rolles’ first edition, he sent a few days before his death for the author, and pointed out +to him, with his own hand, those passages in which he thought his translation defective, +and also supplied him with a number of notes in illustration of the poet. The +Abbé was thus provided with ample materials for the improvement of his work, and +so pleased was he with his second edition, that he got a prohibition against reprinting +the first introduced into the <hi rend='italic'>Privilége</hi> of the second. He inserted in it a +<hi rend='italic'>Discours Apologetique</hi>, defending the translating and reading of Lucretius, and +prefixed a dedication to M. Lamoignon, President of the Parliament, whom he now +substituted for Queen Christina. Moliere having seen the first edition of Marolles’ +prose translation, was thereby induced to render Lucretius into French verse. His +original intention was to have versified the whole poem, but he afterwards confined +his rhymes to the more decorative parts, and delivered the rest in plain prose. As he +proceeded with his version, he uniformly rehearsed it both to Chapelle and Rohaut, +who jointly testified their approbation of the performance. But it was destined to +perish when brought very near its completion. A valet of the translator, who had +charge of his dress-wig, being in want of paper to put it into curl, laid hold of a +loose sheet of the version, which was immediately rent to pieces, and thrown into +the fire as soon as it had performed its office. Moliere was one of the most irritable +of the <hi rend='italic'>genus irritabile vatum</hi>, and the accident was too provoking to be endured. +He resolved never to translate another line, and threw the whole remainder +of his version into the flames, which had thus consumed a part of it<note place="foot">Good’s <hi rend='italic'>Lucretius</hi>, <hi rend='italic'>Preface</hi>.</note>. This +abortive attempt of Moliere incited the Abbé Marolles to render the whole of Lucretius +into verse. He completed this task in less than four months, and published +the fruits of his labour in 1677. Rapidity of execution, however, is the only merit +of which he has to boast. His translation is harsh, flat, and inverted; and it is +also very diffuse: The poem of Lucretius consists of 7389 lines, and the version of +not less than 12338<note place="foot">See Goujet, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheque Françoise</hi>, Tom. V. p. 18. Fabricius, however, +says, that he does not know who was the author of this verse translation, and Mr +Good, in the preface to his Lucretius, attributes it to one James Langlois, who, he +says, translated not from the original Latin, but from Marolles’ prose version.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +Lucretius was subsequently translated into prose by the Baron des Coutures. His +version, printed at Paris 1685, is somewhat better in point of style than those of +Marolles, but is not more faithful to the original, being extremely paraphrastic. A +Life of Lucretius, drawn up from the materials furnished by Hubert, Gifanius, Lambinus, +and other commentators, is prefixed, and to every book is appended a small +body of notes, which shew that the author was better acquainted with his subject +than Marolles. Still, however, the poem of Lucretius was not much known in +France during the seventeenth century, either in the original or translated form. +Chaulieu, one of the most elegant and polished poets of that age, was so little acquainted +with the moral lessons which it inculcated, as to write the following +lines:— +</p> + +<lg> +<l>—— <q rend="post: none">Epicure et Lucrece</q></l> +<l>M’ont appris que la Sagesse</l> +<l>Veut qu’au sortir d’un repas,</l> +<l>Ou des bras de sa maîtresse,</l> +<l><q rend="pre: none">Content l’on aille là bas.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +At length La Grange translated Lucretius in 1768, and Le Blanc de Guillet in +1788. Brunet speaks highly of the version of La Grange, which he seems to think +is the best in the French language, and he says that of Le Blanc de Guillet is <hi rend='italic'>peu +recherché</hi>. Mr Good, in mentioning the various translations of Lucretius, does not +allude to the production of La Grange, but speaks highly of the version of Le Blanc +de Guillet. He is sometimes, he admits, incorrect, and still more frequently obscure: +<q>On the whole, however,</q> he continues, <q>it is a work of great merit, and +ranks second amid the translations of Lucretius, which have yet appeared in any +nation:</q> Of course, it ranges immediately next to that of Marchetti. This version +is accompanied with the Latin text in alternate pages. It is decorated with plates, +<pb n='A-38'/><anchor id='PgA38'/>illustrated by notes, and introduced by a comprehensive preliminary discourse, +which contains a biography of the original author, drawn up from Gifanius and +Creech, and also some general observations on the Epicurean philosophy. +</p> + +<p> +The first attempt to transfer the poem of Lucretius into the <hi rend='italic'>English</hi> language, +was made by Evelyn, the celebrated author of the <hi rend='italic'>Sylva</hi>. It was one of his earliest +productions, having been printed in 1656. It was accompanied by an appendix +of notes, which show considerable acquaintance with his subject, and there are prefixed +to it complimentary letters or verses by Waller, Fanshaw, Sir Richard Brown, +and Christopher Wasse. Evelyn commenced his arduous task with great enthusiasm, +a due admiration of his original, and anxious desire to do it full justice. On +actual trial, however, he became conscious of his own inability to produce, as he +expresses it, <q>any traduction to equal the elegancy of the original;</q> and he accordingly +closed his labours with the first book. To this resolution, the negligent +manner in which his specimen of the translation was printed, contributed, as he +alleges, in no small degree. Prefixed to the copy in the library at Wotton, is this +note in his own handwriting: <q>Never was book so abominably misused by the +printer; never copy so negligently surveyed, by one who undertook to look over +the proof-sheets with all exactness and care, namely, Dr Triplet, well known for his +ability, and who pretended to oblige me in my absence, and so readily offered himself. +This good I received by it, that publishing it vainly, its ill success at the printer’s +discouraged me with troubling the world with the rest<note place="foot">Evelyn’s <hi rend='italic'>Memoirs</hi>, Tom. I.</note>.</q> This pretended disgust, +however, at the typography of his Lucretius, was probably a pretext. It is +more likely that he was deterred from the farther execution of his version, either by +its want of success, or by the hints which he received from some of his friends concerning +the moral and religious danger of his undertaking. <q>For your Lucretius,</q> +says Jeremy Taylor, in a letter to him, dated 16th April, 1656, <q>I perceive you have +suffered the importunity of your too kind friends to prevail with you. I will not +say to you that your Lucretius is as far distant from the severity of a Christian as +the fair Ethiopian was from the duty of Bishop Heliodorus; for indeed it is nothing +but what may become the labours of a Christian gentleman, those things only +abated which our evil age needs not: for which also I hope you either have by +notes, or will by preface, prepare a sufficient antidote; but since you are engaged +in it, do not neglect to adorn it, and take what care of it it can require or need; for +that neglect will be a reproof of your own act, and look as if you did it with an unsatisfied +mind; and then you may make that to be wholly a sin, from which, only by prudence +and charity, you could before be advised to abstain. But, sir, if you will give +me leave, I will impose such a penance upon you, for your publication of Lucretius, +as shall neither displease God nor you; and since you are busy in these things which +may minister directly to learning, and indirectly to error, or the confidences of men, +who, of themselves, are apt enough to hide their vices in irreligion, I know you +will be willing, and will suffer to be entreated, to employ the same pen in the glorification +of God, and the ministries of eucharist and prayer<note place="foot">Evelyn’s <hi rend='italic'>Memoirs and Correspondence</hi>, Vol. II. p. 102, 2d edit.</note>.</q> +</p> + +<p> +In 1682, Creech, who was deterred by no such religious scruples, published his +translation of the whole poem of Lucretius. As a scholar, he was eminently qualified +for the arduous undertaking in which he had engaged: but he wrote with such +haste, that his production everywhere betrays the inaccuracies of an author who acquiesces +in the first suggestions of his mind, and who is more desirous of finishing, +than ambitious of finishing well. Besides, he is at all times rather anxious to communicate +the simple meaning of his original, than to exhibit any portion of the ornamental +garb in which it is arrayed. Hence, though generally faithful to his +author, he is almost everywhere deficient in one of the most striking characteristics +of the Roman poet—grandeur and felicity of expression. He is often tame, prosaic, +and even doggerel; and he sometimes discovers the conceits of a vitiated taste, in +the most direct opposition to the simple character and majestic genius of his Roman +original. Pope said, <q>that Creech had greatly hurt his translation of Lucretius, by +imitating Cowley, and bringing in turns even into some of the most grand parts<note place="foot">Spence’s <hi rend='italic'>Anecdotes</hi>, p. 106.</note>.</q> +It is also remarked by Dr Drake, <q>that in this version the couplet has led in almost +<pb n='A-39'/><anchor id='PgA39'/>every page to the most ridiculous redundancies. A want of taste, however, in the +selection of language, is as conspicuous in Creech as a deficiency of skill and address +in the management of his versification<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Literary Hours</hi>, No. II.</note>.</q> The ample notes with which the +translation is accompanied, are chiefly extracted from the works of Gassendi. A +number of commendatory poems are prefixed, and among others one from Evelyn, +in which he acknowledges, that Creech had succeeded in the glorious enterprize +in which he himself had failed. Dryden was also much pleased with Creech’s translation, +but this did not hinder him from versifying some of the higher and more ornamental +passages, to which Creech had hardly done justice, as those at the beginning +of the first and second books, the concluding part of the third book, against the +fear of death, and of the fourth concerning the nature of love. On these fine passages +Dryden bestowed the ease, the vigour, and harmony of his muse; but though +executed with his accustomed spirit, his translations want the majestic solemn colouring +of Lucretius, and are somewhat licentious and paraphrastic. For this, however, +he accounts in his Poetical Miscellanies, in mentioning his translations in +comparison with the version of Creech. <q>The ways of our translation,</q> he observes, +<q>are very different—he follows Lucretius more closely than I have done, which +became an interpreter to the whole poem, I take more liberty, because it best suited +with my design, which was to make him as pleasing as I could. He had been too +voluminous had he used my method in so long a work, and I had certainly taken his, +had I made it my business to translate the whole.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The translations by Creech and Dryden are both in rhyme. That of Mr Good, +printed in 1805, is in blank verse, and it may well be doubted if this preference was +conducive to the successful execution of his purpose. The translation is accompanied +with the original text of Lucretius, printed from Wakefield’s edition, and +very full notes are subjoined, containing passages exhibiting imitations of Lucretius +by succeeding poets. The preface includes notices of preceding editions of +his author, and the explanation of his own plan. Then follow a Life of Lucretius, +and an Appendix to the Life, comprehending an analysis and defence of the system +of Epicurus, with a comparative sketch of most other philosophical theories, both +ancient and modern. +</p> + +<p> +The translation of Mr Good was succeeded, in 1813, by that of Dr Busby, which +is in rhyme, and is introduced by enormous <hi rend='italic'>prolegomena</hi> on the Life and Genius of +Lucretius, and the Philosophy and Morals of his Poem. +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Catullus"/><index index="pdf" level1="Catullus"/> +<head>CATULLUS.</head> + +<p> +The MSS. of Catullus were defaced and imperfect, as far back as the time of +Aulus Gellius<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Noct. Attic.</hi> Lib. VII. c. 20.</note>, who lived in the reigns of Adrian and the Antonines; and there were +<hi rend='italic'>variæ lectiones</hi> in his age, as well as in the fifteenth century. There was a MS. of +Catullus extant at Verona in the tenth century which was perused by the Bishop +Raterius, who came from beyond the Alps, and who refers to it in his Discourses as +a work he had never seen till his arrival at Verona. Another was possessed in the +fourteenth century by Pastrengo, a Veronese gentleman, and a friend of Petrarch<note place="foot">Maffei, <hi rend='italic'>Verona Illustrata</hi>, Part II. p. 4.</note>, +who quotes it twice in his work <hi rend='italic'>De Originibus</hi>; but these and all other MSS. had +entirely disappeared amid the confusions with which Italy was at that time agitated, +and Catullus may, therefore, be considered as one of the classics brought to light at +the revival of literature. The MS. containing the poems of Catullus was not found +in Italy, but in one of the monasteries of France or Germany, (Scaliger says of +France,) in the course of the fifteenth century, and according to Maffei, in 1425<note place="foot">Ibid. Part II. p. 6.</note>. +All that we know concerning its discovery is contained in a barbarous Latin epigram, +written by Guarinus of Verona, who chose to give his information on the subject +in an almost unintelligible riddle. It was prefixed to an edition of Catullus, +printed in Italy 1472, where it is entitled <hi rend='italic'>Hextichum Guarini Veronensis Oratoris +Clariss. in libellum V. Catulli ejus concivis</hi>: +</p> + +<pb n='A-40'/><anchor id='PgA40'/> + +<lg> +<l><q rend="post: none">Ad Patriam venio longis de finibus exul:</q></l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Causa mei reditûs compatriota fuit.</l> +<l>Scilicet a calamis tribuit cui Francia nomen,</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'>Quique notat turbæ prætereuntis iter.</l> +<l>Quo licet ingenio vestrum celebrate Catullum</l> +<l rend='margin-left: 2'><q rend="pre: none">Quovis sub modio clausa papyrus erat.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +The first line explains that the MS. was brought to Italy from beyond the Alps, and +the second that it was discovered by a countryman of Catullus, that is, by a citizen +of Verona. The third line contains the grand <hi rend='italic'>conundrum</hi>. Some critics have supposed +that it points out the name of a monastery where the MS. was discovered; +others, that it designates the name of the person who found it. Lessing is of this +last opinion; and, according to his interpretation, the line implies, that it was discovered +by some one whose name is the French word for quills or pens, that is, +<hi rend='italic'>plumes</hi>. The name nearest this is Plumatius, on which foundation Lessing attributes +the discovery of Catullus to Bernardinus Plumatius, a great scholar and physician +of Verona, who flourished during the last half of the fifteenth century<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Sammtliche Schriften</hi>, Tom. I.</note>. This +conjecture of Lessing was better founded than he himself seems to have been aware, +as the second syllable in the name Plumatius is not remote from the French verb +<hi rend='italic'>hater</hi>, which, in one sense, as the epigram expresses it— +</p> + +<lg> +<l><q>Notat turbæ prætereuntis iter.</q></l> +</lg> + +<p> +Lucius Pignorius, who thinks that these lines were not written by Guarinus of +Verona, but that the MS. was discovered by him, also conjectures that it was found +in a barn, since it is said in the last line, that it was concealed <hi rend='italic'>sub modio</hi>, and +bushels are nowhere but in barns<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Symbol. Epist.</hi> XVI.</note>. This is taking the line in its most literal signification, +but the expression probably was meant only as proverbial. +</p> + +<p> +The wretched situation in which this MS. was found, and the circumstance of +its being the only one of any antiquity extant, sufficiently accounts for the numerous +and evident corruptions of the text of Catullus, and for the editions of that poet +presenting a greater number of various and contradictory readings than those of +almost any other classic. +</p> + +<p> +After this MS. was brought to Italy, it fell into the hands of Guarinus of Verona, +who took much pains in correcting it, and it was further amended by his son Baptista +Guarinus, as a third person of the family, Alexander Guarinus, informs us, in +the <hi rend='italic'>proœmium</hi> to his edition of Catullus, 1521, addressed to Alphonso, third +Duke of Ferrara. Baptista Guarinus, as Alexander farther mentions in his <hi rend='italic'>proœmium</hi>, +published an edition of Catullus from the MS. which he had taken +so much pains to correct, but without any commentary. This edition, however, +has now entirely disappeared; and that of 1472, printed by Spira, at Venice, in +which Catullus is united with Tibullus and Propertius, is accounted the <hi rend='italic'>Editio +Princeps</hi>. The different editions in which these poets have appeared conjoined, +will be more conveniently enumerated hereafter: both in them, and in the impressions +of Catullus printed separately, the editors had departed widely from the corrected +text of Baptista Guarinus. Accordingly, Alexander Guarinus, in 1521, +printed an edition of Catullus, with the view of restoring the genuine readings of his +father and grandfather, who had wrought on the ancient MS. which was the prototype +of all the others. It would appear, however, that the erroneous readings had +become inveterate. Maffei, in his <hi rend='italic'>Verona Illustrata</hi><note place="foot">Part. II. p. 5.</note>, points out the absurd and +unauthorized alterations of Vossius and Scaliger on the pure readings of the Guarini. +</p> + +<p> +Muretus took charge of an edition of Catullus, which was printed by the younger +Aldus Manutius in 1558. This production is not accounted such as might be +expected from the consummate critic and scholar by whom it was prepared. Isaac +Vossius had commented on Catullus; but his annotations lay concealed for many +years after his death, till they were at length brought to light by his amanuensis +Beverland, who, by means of this valuable acquisition, was enabled to prepare the +best edition which had yet appeared of Catullus, and which was first printed in +London in 1684. His commentary was on every point profoundly learned.—<q>Poetam,</q> +says Harles, <q>commentario eruditissimo, ita tamen ut inverecundiâ illi +interdum haud cederet, illustravit.</q> Vulpius published a yet better edition at +<pb n='A-41'/><anchor id='PgA41'/>Padua, in 1737, in the preparation of which he made great use of the <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi>. +In the notes, he has introduced a new and most agreeable species of commentary,—illustrating +his author by parallel passages from the ancient and modern +poets, particularly the Italian; not such parallel passages as Wakefield has amassed, +where the words <hi rend='italic'>qui</hi> or <hi rend='italic'>atque</hi> occur in both, but where there is an obvious imitation +or resemblance in the thought or image. He has also prefixed a diatribe <hi rend='italic'>De Metris +Catullianis</hi>. In the year 1738, a curious fraud was practised with regard to Catullus. +Carradini de Allio, a scholar of some note, published at Venice an edition, which he +pretended to have printed from an ancient MS. accidentally discovered by him in a +pottery, without a cover or title-page, and all besmeared with filth. It was dedicated +to the Elector of Bavaria; and though one of the most impudent cheats of the +sort that had been practised since the time of Sigonius and Annius Viterbiensis, it +imposed on many learned men. The credit it obtained, introduced new disorders +into the text of Catullus; and when the fraud was at length detected, the contriver +of it only laughed at the temporary success of his imposture. +</p> + +<p> +Doering, in early life, had printed an edition of the principal poem of Catullus, +the <hi rend='italic'>Epithalamium of Peleus and Thetis</hi>. Encouraged by the success of this publication, +he subsequently prepared a complete edition of Catullus, which came +forth at Leipsic in 1788. +</p> + +<milestone unit="tb"/> +<p> +The <hi rend='italic'>Epithalamium of Peleus and Thetis</hi>, the chief production of Catullus, was +translated into <hi rend='italic'>Italian</hi> by Ludovico Dolce, and printed in 1538, at the end of a +small volume of miscellaneous works dedicated to Titian. In the colophon it is +said, <q>Il fine dell’ epitalamio tradotto per M. Lod. Dolce, in verso sciolto.</q> This +Epithalamium was also translated in the eighteenth century, into <hi rend='italic'>Ottava Rima</hi>, by +Parisotti, with a long preface, in which he maintains that the <hi rend='italic'>ottava</hi>, or <hi rend='italic'>terza rima</hi>, +is better adapted for the translation of the Latin classics than <hi rend='italic'>versi sciolti</hi>. Ginguené, +in the preface to his French translation of this Epithalamium, mentions three +other Italian versions of the last century, those of Neruci, Torelli, and the Count +d’Ayano, all of which, he says, possess considerable merit. He also informs us, that +Antonio Conti had commenced a translation of this poem, which was found incomplete +at his death; but it was accompanied by many valuable criticisms and annotations, +which have been much employed in a Memoir inserted in the transactions of +the French Academy, by M. D’Arnaud, whose plagiarisms from the Italian author +have been pointed out at full length by M. Ginguené, in his preface. Conti completed +a translation of the <hi rend='italic'>Coma Berenices</hi> in <hi rend='italic'>versi sciolti</hi>, accompanied by an explanation +of the subject, and learned notes, which was printed along with his works +at Venice, in 1739. The <hi rend='italic'>Coma Berenices</hi> was also translated in <hi rend='italic'>terza rima</hi> by the +Neapolitan Saverio Mattei, and by Pagnini in <hi rend='italic'>versi sdruccioli</hi>. At length, in +1803, M. Ugo Foscolo, now well known in this country as the author of the Letters +of Jacopo Ortis, printed at Milan a translation of this elegy, in blank verse, under +the title of <hi rend='italic'>La Chioma di Berenice, poema di Callimaco, tradotto da Valerio Catullo, +volgarizzato ed illustrato da Ugo Foscolo</hi>. The version is preceded by four +dissertations; the text is accompanied with notes, and followed by fourteen <hi rend='italic'>considerazioni</hi>, +as they are called, in which the author severely censures and satirizes +the pedantic commentators and philologers of his country. Mr Hobhouse, in his +<hi rend='italic'>Illustrations of Childe Harold</hi><note place="foot">P. 477.</note>, says, that the whole lucubration, extending to +nearly 300 pages of large octavo, is a grave and continued irony on the verbal criticisms +of commentators. <q>Some of the learned,</q> he continues, <q>fell into the +snare, and Foscolo, who had issued only a few copies, now added a Farewell to his +readers, in which he repays their praises, by exposing the mysteries and abuses of +the philological art. Those whom he had deceived must have been not a little +irritated to find that his frequent citations were invented for the occasion, and that +his commentary had been purposely sprinkled with many of the grossest faults.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The whole works of Catullus were first translated into Italian by the Abbot +Francis Maria Biacca of Parma, who concealed his real designation, according to +the affected fashion of the times, under the appellation of Parmindo Ibichense, +<hi rend='italic'>Pastor Arcade</hi>. The Abbot died in 1735, and his version was printed at Milan +after his death, in 1740, in the twenty-first volume of the General Collection of +<pb n='A-42'/><anchor id='PgA42'/>Italian Translations from the Ancient Latin Poets. The most recent Italian version +is that of Puccini, printed at Pisa in 1805. It is very deficient in point of spirit; +and the last English translator of Catullus observes, <q>that it is chiefly remarkable +for the squeamishness with which it omits all warmth in the love verses, while it +unblushingly retains some of the most disgusting passages.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The <hi rend='italic'>French</hi> have at all times dealt much in prose translations of the Classics. +These did not suit very well for the epic poems, or even comedies or the Romans; +and were totally abhorrent from the lyrical or epigrammatic productions of Catullus. +A great deal of the beauty of every poem consists in the melody of its numbers. +But there are certain species of poetry, of which the <hi rend='italic'>chief</hi> merit lies in the sweetness +and harmony of versification. A boldness of figures, too—a luxuriance of +imagery—a frequent use of metaphors—a quickness of transition—a freedom of +digression, which are allowable in every sort of poetry, are to many species of it +essential. But these are quite unsuitable to the character of prose, and when seen +in a prose translation, they appear preposterous and out of place, because they are +never found in any original prose composition. Now, the beauties of Catullus are +precisely of that nature, of which it is impossible to convey the smallest idea in a +prose translation. Many of his poems are of a lyric description, in which a greater +degree of irregularity of thought, and a more unrestrained exuberance of fancy, are +permitted than in any other kind of composition. To attempt, therefore, a translation +of a lyric poem into prose, is the most absurd of all undertakings; for those very +characters of the original, which are essential to it, and which constitute its highest +beauty, if transferred to a prose translation, become unpardonable blemishes. What +could be more ridiculous than a French prose translation of the wild dithyrambics of +Atis, or the fervent and almost phrenzied love verses to Lesbia? It is from poetry +that the elegies of Catullus derive almost all their tenderness—his amorous verses +all their delicacy, playfulness, or voluptuousness—and his epigrams all their sting. +</p> + +<p> +That indefatigable translator of the Latin poets, the Abbé Marolles, was the first +person who <hi rend='italic'>traduced</hi> Catullus in French. He was an author, of all others, the worst +qualified to succeed in the task which he had undertaken, as his heavy and leaden +pen was ill adapted to express the elegant light graces of his original. His prose +translation was printed in 1653. It was succeeded, in 1676, by one in verse, also +by Marolles, but of which only thirty copies were thrown off and distributed among +the translator’s friends. La Chapelle (not the author of the <hi rend='italic'>Voyage</hi>) translated +most of the poems of Catullus, and inserted them in his <hi rend='italic'>Histoire Galante</hi>, entitled +the <hi rend='italic'>Amours de Catulle</hi>, printed in 1680, which relates, in the style of an amatory +prose romance, the adventures and intrigues of Catullus, his friends, and mistresses. +The next translation, though not of the whole of his pieces, is by M. Pezay, printed +1771, who misses no opportunity of ridiculing Marolles and his work. It is in prose, +as is also a more recent French translation by M. Noel, Paris, 1806. The first +volume of Noel’s work contains the <hi rend='italic'>Discours Preliminaire</hi> on the Life, Poetry, +Editions, and Translations of Catullus; and the version itself, which is accompanied +with the Latin text. The second volume comprises a very large body of notes, +chiefly exhibiting the imitations of Catullus by French poets. Brunet mentions a +translation still more recent, by M. Mollevaut, which is in verse, and proves that +more justice may be done to Catullus in rhyme than prose. +</p> + +<p> +An <hi rend='italic'>English</hi> translation of Catullus, usually ascribed to Dr Nott, was published +anonymously in 1795, accompanied with some valuable annotations. He was the +first to give, as he himself says, the whole of Catullus, without reserve, and in some +way or other, to translate all his indecencies. This version adheres very closely to +the original, and has the merit of being simple and literal, but it is meagre and inelegant: +it is defective in ease and freedom, and but seldom presents us with any of +those graces of poetry, and indeed almost unattainable felicities of diction, which +characterize the original. While writing this, the poetical translation by Mr Lamb +has come to my hands. It is also furnished with a long preface and notes, which +appear to be tasteful and amusing. The chief objections to the translation are quite +the reverse of those which have been stated to the version by which it was preceded—it +seems defective in point of fidelity, and is too diffuse and redundant. No +author suffers so much by being diluted as Catullus, and he can only be given with +effect by a brevity as condensed and <hi rend='italic'>piquant</hi> as his own. Indeed, the thoughts and +language of Catullus throw more difficulties in the way of a translator, than those of +almost any other classic author. His peculiarities of feeling—his idiomatic delicacies +<pb n='A-43'/><anchor id='PgA43'/>of style—that light ineffable grace—that elegant ease and spirit, with which he was +more richly endued than almost any other poet, can hardly pass through the hands +of a translator without being in some degree sullied or alloyed. +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Laberius—Publilius Syrus"/><index index="pdf" level1="Laberius--Publilius Syrus"/> +<head>LABERIUS—PUBLIUS SYRUS.</head> + +<p> +The only fragment of any length or importance which we possess of Laberius, +has been saved by Macrobius, in his <hi rend='italic'>Saturnalia</hi>. The fragments of Publius Syrus +were chiefly preserved by Seneca and Au. Gellius, and the scattered maxims which +they had recorded, were collected in various MSS. of the fourteenth and fifteenth +centuries. They were first printed together, under the superintendence of Erasmus, +in 1502, as revised and corrected from a MS. in the University of Cambridge. Fabricius +published some additional maxims, which had not previously been printed, +in 1550. Stephens edited them at the end of his Fragments from the Greek and +Latin Comic Poets, 1564; and Bentley published them along with Terence and the +Fables of Phædrus, at Cambridge, in 1726. An improved edition, which had been +prepared by Gruter, was printed under the superintendence of Havercamp, from +a MS. after his death. The most complete edition, however, which has yet +appeared, is that published by Orellius, at Leipsic, 1822. It contains 879 maxims, +arranged in alphabetical order, from which, at least as the editor asserts, all those +which are spurious have been rejected, and several that are genuine added. A +Greek version of the maxims, by Jos. Scaliger, is given by him on the opposite side +of the page, and he has appended a long commentary, in which he has quoted all +the maxims of preceding or subsequent authors, who have expressed sentiments +similar to those of Publius Syrus. +</p> + +<p> +The sentences were translated into <hi rend='italic'>English</hi> from the edition of Erasmus, under +the following title: <q>Proverbs or Adagies, with newe Additions, gathered out of the +Chiliades of Erasmus, by Richard Taverner. Hereunto be also added, Mimi Publiani. +Imprinted at Lo’don, in Fletstrete, at the signe of the Whyte Harte. <hi rend='italic'>Cum +privilegio ad imprimendum solum.</hi></q> On the back of the title is <q>the Prologe of +the author, apologizing for his slender capacitie;</q> and concluding, <q>yet my harte +is not to be blamed.</q> It contains sixty-four leaves, the last blank. On the last +printed page are the <q>Faultes escaped in printynge,</q> which are seven in number. +Beneath is the colophon, <q>Imprinted at London by Richarde Bankes, at the Whyte +Harte, 1539.</q> This book was frequently reprinted. James Elphinston, long known +to the public by his unsuccessful attempt to introduce a new and uniform mode of +spelling into the English language, translated, in 1794, <q>The Sentencious Poets—Publius +dhe Syrrian—Laberius dhe Roman Knight, &c. arrainged and translated +into correspondent Inglish Mezzure<note place="foot">Brüggemann, <hi rend='italic'>View of the English Editions, Translations, &c. of the Ancient +Latin Authors</hi>.</note>.</q> +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Cato—Varro"/><index index="pdf" level1="Cato--Varro"/> +<head>CATO—VARRO.</head> + +<p> +It appears from Aulus Gellius, that, even in his time, the works of Cato had begun +to be corrupted by the ignorance of transcribers. As mentioned in the text, +his book on Agriculture, the only one of his numerous writings which survives, has +come down to us in a very imperfect and mutilated state. A MS. of Cato, but very +faulty and incomplete, was in possession of Niccolo Niccoli; and a letter from him is +extant, requesting one of his correspondents, called Michelotius, to borrow for him +a very ancient copy from the Bishop Aretino, in order that his own might be rendered +more perfect<note place="foot">Mehus, <hi rend='italic'>Præf.</hi> p. 50.</note>. Most of the editions we now have, follow a MS. which is +said to have been discovered at Paris by the architect Fra Giocondo of Verona, and +was brought by him to Italy. Varro’s treatise on Agriculture was first discovered +by Candidi, as he himself announces in a letter to Niccolo Niccoli<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Ad Ambrosium Camald.</hi> Ep. 39.</note>. +</p> + +<pb n='A-44'/><anchor id='PgA44'/> + +<p> +The agricultural works of Cato and Varro have generally been printed together, +and also along with those of Columella and Palladius, under the title of <hi rend='italic'>Rei +Rusticæ Scriptores</hi>. There is no ancient MS. known, in which all the <hi rend='italic'>Rei Rusticæ +Scriptores</hi> are collected together. They were first combined in the <hi rend='italic'>Editio +Princeps</hi>, edited by Georgius Merula, and printed at Venice, in 1470. The next +edition, superintended by Bruschius, and printed in 1482, has almost entirely disappeared. +In many passages, its readings were different from those of all other +editions, as appears from the annotations communicated from Rome, by Pontedera +to Gesner, while he was preparing his celebrated edition<note place="foot">Gesner, <hi rend='italic'>Præf.</hi></note>. Philippus Beroaldus +corrected a good many faults and errors which had crept into the <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi>. +His emendations were made use of in the edition of Bologna, 1494, by Benedict +Hector. Gesner has assiduously collated that edition with the <hi rend='italic'>Editio princeps</hi>, +and he informs us, that it contained many important corrections. Though differing +in some respects, he considers all the editions previous to that of Aldus, as belonging +to the same class or family. The Aldine edition, printed 1514, was superintended +by Fra Giocondo of Verona, who, having procured at Paris some MSS. not previously +consulted, introduced from them many new readings, and filled up several chasms in +the text, particularly the fifty-seventh chapter<note place="foot">See Maffei, <hi rend='italic'>Verona Illustrata</hi>, Part II. Lib. III.</note>. This edition, however, is not highly +esteemed; <q>Sequitur,</q> says Fabricius, <q>novi nec optimi generis editio Aldina:</q> +And Schneider, the most recent editor of the <hi rend='italic'>Rei Rusticæ Scriptores</hi>, affirms that +Giocondo corrupted and perverted almost every passage which he changed. Nicholas +Angelius took charge of the edition published by the Giunta at Florence, in +1515. His new readings are ingenious; but many of them are quite unauthorized +and conjectural. The Aldine continued to form the basis of all subsequent editions, +till the time of Petrus Victorius, who was so great a restorer and amender of the <hi rend='italic'>Rei +Rusticæ Scriptores</hi>, that he is called their <hi rend='italic'>Æsculapius</hi> by Gesner, and <hi rend='italic'>Sospitator</hi> +by Fabricius. Victorius had got access to a set of MSS. which Politian had collated +with the <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi>. The most ancient and important of these MSS., +containing Cato, and almost the whole of Varro, was found by Victorius in the +library of St Mark; another in French characters was in the Medicean library; and +a third had belonged to Franciscus Barbarus, and was transcribed by him from an +excellent exemplar at Padua<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Præf. Pet. Victor. in explicationes, suar. Castig. in Cat. &c.</hi></note>. But though Victorius had the advantage of consulting +these MSS., it does not appear that he possessed the collation by the able +hand of Politian; because that was inserted, not in the MSS., but in his own printed +copy of the <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi>; and Gesner shows at great length that Petrus Victorius +had never consulted any copy whatever of the <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Præf.</hi> p. 20.</note>. Victorius +first employed his learning and critical talents on Varro. Some time afterwards, +Giovanni della Casa being sent by the Pope on some public affairs to Florence, +where Victorius at that time resided, brought him a message from the Cardinal Marcellus +Cervinus, requesting that he should exert on Cato some part of that diligence +which he had formerly employed on Varro. Victorius soon completed the task assigned +him. He also resumed Varro, and attentively revised his former labours on +that author<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Ad Marcel. Cervinum</hi>.</note>. At last he determined to collate whatever MSS. of the Rustic writers +he could procure. Those above-mentioned, as having been inspected by Politian, +were the great sources whence he derived new and various readings. +</p> + +<p> +It is not known that Victorius printed any edition containing the text of the <hi rend='italic'>Rei +Rusticæ Scriptores</hi> in Italy. His letter to Cervinus speaks as if he was just about +to <anchor id="corra44"/><corr sic="edite">edit</corr> them; but whether he did so is uncertain. <q>Quartam classem,</q> says +Harles, <q>constituit Victorius, sospitator horum scriptorum: qui quidem num primum +in Italiâ recensitos dederit eos cum Gesnero et Ernesti ignoro<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Introduct. in Notit. Litt. Rom.</hi></note>.</q> As far as +now appears, his corrections and emendations were first printed in the edition of +Leyden, 1541, where the authors it contains, are said in the title to be <hi rend='italic'>Restituti per +Petrum Victorium, ad veterum exemplarium fidem, suæ integritati</hi>. His castigations +were printed in the year following, but without the text of the authors, at +Florence. The Leyden edition was reprinted at Paris, in 1543, by Robert Stephens, +and was followed by the edition of Hier. Commellinus, 1595. +</p> + +<pb n='A-45'/><anchor id='PgA45'/> + +<p> +At length Gesner undertook a complete edition of the <hi rend='italic'>Rei Rusticæ Scriptores</hi>, +under circumstances of which he has given us some account in his preface. The +eminent bookseller, Fritschius, had formed a plan of printing these authors; and to +aid in this object, he had employed Schoettgenius, a young, but even then a distinguished +scholar. A digest of the best commentators, and a collection of various +readings, were accordingly prepared by him. The undertaking, however, was then +deferred, in expectation of the arrival of MSS. from Italy; and Schoettgenius was +meanwhile called to a distance to some other employment, leaving the fruits of his +labour in the hands of Fritschius. In 1726, that bookseller came to Gesner, and informed +him, that Politian’s collations, written on his copy of the <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi>, +had at length reached him, as also some valuable observations on the rustic writers, +communicated from Italy by Pontedera and Facciolati. Fritschius requested that +Gesner should now arrange the whole materials which had been compiled. Selections +from the commentaries, and the various readings previous to the time of +Victorius, were prepared to his hand; but he commenced an assiduous study of +every thing that was valuable in more recent editions. At length his ponderous +edition came out with a preface, giving a full detail of the labours of others and his +own, and with the prefaces to the most celebrated preceding editions. Some of the +notes had been previously printed, as those of Meursius, Scaliger, and Fulvius Ursinus—others, +as those of Schoettgenius, Pontedera, and Gesner himself, had never +yet seen the light. Though Gesner never names Pontedera without duly styling +him Clarissimus Pontedera, that scholar was by no means pleased with the result of +Gesner’s edition, and attacked it with much asperity, in his great work, <hi rend='italic'>Antiquitatum +Rusticarum</hi>. Gesner’s first edition was printed at Leipsic, 1735. Ernesti +took charge of the publication of the second edition; and, in addition to the dissertation +of Ausonius Popma, <hi rend='italic'>De Instrumento Fundi</hi>, which formed an appendix to +the first, he has inserted Segner’s description and explanation of the aviary of +Varro. +</p> + +<p> +The most recent edition of the <hi rend='italic'>Scriptores Rei Rusticæ</hi>, is that of Schneider, who +conceives that he has perfected the edition of Gesner, by having collated the ancient +edition of Bruschius, and the first Aldine edition, neither of which had been +consulted by his predecessor. +</p> + +<p> +Besides forming parts of every collection of the <hi rend='italic'>Rei Rusticæ Scriptores</hi>, the +agricultural treatises of Cato and Varro have been repeatedly printed by themselves, +and apart from those of Columella and Palladius. Ausonius Popma, in his separate +edition of Cato, 1590, has chiefly, and without much acknowledgment, employed +some valuable annotations and remarks contained in the <hi rend='italic'>Adversaria</hi> of Turnebus. +This edition was accompanied by some other fragments of Cato. These, however, +were of small importance; and the principal part of the publication being the work +on Agriculture, its sale was much impeded by Commellinus’ full edition of the agricultural +writers, published five years afterwards. Raphellengius, however, reprinted +it in 1598, with a new title; and with the addition of the notes of Meursius. +Popma again revised his labours, and published an improved edition in 1620. Varro’s +treatise, <hi rend='italic'>De Re Rusticâ</hi>, was published alone in 1545, and with his other writings, +by Stephens, in 1569. Ausonius Popma also edited it in 1601, appropriating, +according to his custom, the notes and observations of others. +</p> +<milestone unit="tb"/> +<p> +Cato’s work <hi rend='italic'>De Re Rusticâ</hi>, has been translated into <hi rend='italic'>Italian</hi> by Pagani, whose +version was printed at Venice, 1792; and into <hi rend='italic'>French</hi> by Saboureux, Paris, 1775. +I am not aware of any full <hi rend='italic'>English</hi> translation of Cato, but numerous extracts are +made from it in Dickson’s <hi rend='italic'>Husbandry of the Ancients</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Italy has produced more translations of the Latin writers than any other country; +and one would naturally suppose, that the agricultural writings of those who had +cultivated the same soil as themselves, would be peculiarly interesting to the Italians. +I do not know, however, of any version of Varro in their language. There +is an <hi rend='italic'>English</hi> translation, by the Rev. Mr Owen, printed at Oxford in 1800. In +his preface, the author says,—<q>Having collated many copies of this work of the +Roman writer in my possession, and the variations being very numerous, I found it +no easy task to make a translation of his treatise on agriculture. To render any +common Arabic author into English, would have been a labour less difficult to me +some years ago, than it has been to translate this part of the works of this celebrated +writer.</q> +</p> + +</div><div> +<pb n='A-46'/><anchor id='PgA46'/> +<index index="toc" level1="Sallust"/><index index="pdf" level1="Sallust"/> +<head>SALLUST.</head> + +<p> +This historian was criticized in a work of Asinius Pollio, particularly on account +of his affected use of obsolete words and expressions. Sulpicius Apollinaris, the +grammarian, who lived in the reigns of the Antonines, boasted that he was the only +person of his time who could understand Sallust. His writings were illustrated by +many of the ancient grammarians, as Asper and Statilius Maximus. In the course +of the ninth century, we find Lupus, Abbot of Ferriers, in one of his letters, praying +his friend Regimbertus to procure for him a copy of Sallust<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 104.</note>; and there was a +copy of his works in the Library of Glastonbury Abbey, in the year 1240<note place="foot">Warton, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. of English Poetry</hi>, Vol. I. Dissert. II.</note>. The +style of Sallust is very peculiar: He often omits words which other writers would +insert, and inserts those which they would omit. Hence his text became early, and +very generally, corrupted, from transcribers and copyists leaving out what they naturally +enough supposed to be redundancies, and supplying what they considered as +deficiencies. +</p> + +<p> +There appeared not less than three editions of Sallust in the course of the year +1470. It has been much disputed, and does not seem to be yet ascertained, which +of them is the <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi>. One was printed under the care of Merula, by +Spira, at Venice; but the other two are without name of place or printer: It has been +conjectured, that of these two, the one which is in folio was printed at Rome<note place="foot">Fuhrmann, <hi rend='italic'>Handbuch der Classisch. Lit.</hi></note>; and +the other, in quarto, at Paris, by Gering, Crantz, and Friburg<note place="foot">Dibdin, <hi rend='italic'>Introduction to the Classics</hi>, Vol. II. p. 197.</note>. The Venice Edition +is usually accounted the <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi><note place="foot">Fabricius, <hi rend='italic'>Bib. Lat.</hi> Lib. I. c. 9.</note>, but Fuhrmann considers both the +Paris and Roman editions as prior to it. The Roman, he thinks, in concurrence +with the opinion of Harles, is the earliest of all. The Bipontine editors style the +Parisian impression the <hi rend='italic'>Primaria Princeps</hi>. Besides these three, upwards of thirty +other editions were published in the course of the fifteenth century. One of them +was printed at Venice, 1493, from the <hi rend='italic'>Recension</hi> of Pomponius Lætus, who has +been accused by subsequent editors of introducing many of the corruptions which +have crept into the text of Sallust<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi></note>. There were also a number of commentaries in +this century, by scholars, who did not themselves publish editions of the historian, +but greatly contributed to the assistance of those who prepared them in the next. +The commentary of Laurentius Valla, in particular, which was first printed at Rome +in 1490, and in which scarcely a single word is passed over without remark or explanation, +enriched most of the editions which appeared in the end of the fifteenth, +and the beginning of the subsequent century<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Ibid.</hi></note>. The first of any note in the sixteenth +century, were those of Aldus, Venice, 1509, and 1521. Carrio, who published +an edition at Antwerp in 1579, collected many of the fragments of Sallust’s +great History of Rome; and he amended the text of the Catilinarian and Jugurthine +Wars, as he himself boasts, in several thousand places. The edition of Gruter, in +1607, in which the text received considerable alterations, on the authority of the +Palatine MS., obtained in its time considerable reputation. The earliest <hi rend='italic'>Variorum</hi> +edition is in 1649; but the best is that printed at Leyden, with the notes of Gronovius, +in 1690. An immense number of MSS., and copies of the most ancient editions, +were collated by Wasse for the Cambridge edition, 1710. He chiefly followed +the text of Gruter, but he has added the notes of various commentators, and also +some original observations of his own, particularly comparisons, which he has instituted +between his author and the ancient Greek writers. The editions of Cortius +(Leipsic, 1724), and of Havercamp (Amsterdam, 1742), are both excellent. The +former, in preparing his work, consulted not less than thirty MSS., fifteen of which +were preserved in the Wolfenbuttel library. He also assiduously collated most of +the old editions, and found some good readings in those of Venice, 1470–1493, and +that of Leipsic, 1508. Most of the editions, however, of the fifteenth century, he +affirms, are very bad; and, according to him, a greater number of the errors, which +<pb n='A-47'/><anchor id='PgA47'/>had crept into the text of Sallust, are to be attributed to them, than to the corruptions +of Pomponius Lætus. Cortius chiefly erred in conceiving that Sallust’s conciseness +consisted solely in paucity of words, so that he always preferred the readings +where the greatest number of them were thrown out, though the meaning was +thereby obscured, and sometimes altogether lost. The readings in Havercamp’s +edition are all founded on those of Wasse and Gruter. The text is overloaded with +notes: <q>Textus,</q> says Ernesti, <q>velut cymba in oceano, ita in notis natat.</q> The +various readings are separated from the notes, being inserted between the text and +the commentary. In the first volume, we have the text of Sallust, and the annotations—in +the second, the prefaces of different editors of Sallust—his life—the fragments +of his works—and the judgments pronounced by ancient authors on his writings. +The text of Teller’s edition, Berlin, 1790, is formed on that of Cortius, but +departs from it, where the editor conceived himself justified by the various readings +of a rare and ancient edition, published at Brescia, 1495, which he had consulted. +It is totally unprovided with <hi rend='italic'>prolegomena</hi>, or notices, with regard to the life and +writings of the author, or his works; but there is appended to it a recension of the +celebrated Spanish Translation, executed under the auspices of the Infant Don Gabriel, +and a very full <hi rend='italic'>Index Latinitatis</hi>. The best of the recent German editions, is +that of Lange, Halle, 1815. In this work, the editor chiefly follows Havercampus. +His great object was to restore the purity of the text, which he believed to have +been greatly corrupted by the rash and unauthorized alterations of preceding editors, +more particularly of Cortius. Notes are subjoined, partly illustrative of Sallust’s +genius and talents, and partly of that portion of Roman history, of which he +treated. +</p> +<milestone unit="tb"/> +<p> +Sallust has been translated into <hi rend='italic'>Italian</hi>, by a Genoese of the name of Agost. +Ortica, (Venice, 1518). The work of Ortica also comprehends a version of +Cicero’s fourth Catilinarian orations, and the supposed reply of Catiline. The style +is barbarous, involved, and obscure, and in some passages nearly unintelligible. +In point of style, the translation of Lelio Carani (Florence, 1530) is purer, but it is +too paraphrastic, and has not always accurately expressed the meaning of the +original. The version of Paulo Spinola (1564) was scarcely more happy. These +three translations having become scarce by the middle of last century, +and being defective in many of the most essential qualities of a translation, the +Doctor Battista Bianchi, Professor of Latin at Sienna, undertook an improved +translation, in which he attempted to imitate the brevity of Sallust, though he did +not, like some of his predecessors, insert obsolete Italian words, corresponding to +the antique Latin expressions adopted by his original. To this translation, first +printed at Venice, 1761, there is prefixed a long and elaborate preface, in which +the author discusses the historical and literary merits of Sallust, and enumerates +the translations of his works which had at that time appeared in the different +languages of Europe. After this follows the life of the Latin author. There are +likewise annotations at the foot of the page, and an index at the end of the whole. +The next Italian translation of any note which appeared, was that by Alfieri, which +is considered in Italy as a masterpiece: His prose style, which was founded on that +of the classic writers, qualified him admirably for the task. +</p> + +<p> +There have been more translations of Sallust in <hi rend='italic'>French</hi>, than in any other language. +It was translated, it is said, as far back as the reign of King John of France, +who died in 1364. <q>Le Roi Jean,</q> says Villaret, <q>ainsi qu’on l’a rapporté, avoit +fait entreprendre des versions de quelques auteurs Latins, tels que Salluste et Tite-Live<note place="foot">Villaret, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. de France</hi>, T. XI. p. 121.</note>.</q> +I do not suppose, however, that this translation was given to the press on +the invention of printing. The first version printed was that of Baudoin, in 1617; +which was succeeded, in the course of the same century, by the futile attempts of +Cassagne and Du Teil. The version of the Abbé Le Masson, which appeared in +the commencement of the ensuing century, was accompanied with a defence of +the moral character of the historian. It was followed, in a few years afterwards, by +that of the Abbé Thyvon, which, though it does not convey an adequate idea of +the strength and sententious brevity of the original, is for the most part extremely +faithful to the meaning of the author. Its deficiency in the former qualities, seems +to have induced M Dotteville to attempt a new translation, as he appears to be +<pb n='A-48'/><anchor id='PgA48'/>always striving at terseness and conciseness of style. <q>His Sallust,</q> says the +most recent English translator, <q>like his Tacitus, is harsh and dry; and his fruitless +endeavours to vie in brevity with either historian, are sufficient to prove, if +such proof were needful, how absurd an attempt it is in any translator, for the sake +of seizing some peculiar feature of resemblance, or some fancied grace of diction, +to violate the genius of his native language.</q> A similar criticism is extended, in +the following paragraph, to the version of M. Beauzie, though it is admitted to be +the most faithful and accurate that ever appeared in the French language. The +translation of Dotteville was first printed in 1760, and that of Beauzie fifteen years +afterwards. About the same time M. de Brosses, President of the Parliament of +Dijon, published a History of Rome during the Seventh Century, which professes +to be chiefly made up from the fragments of Sallust. The War of Jugurtha comes +first in the historical arrangement—then follow the events which intervened between +that contest and the Conspiracy of Catiline, taken from the fragments of Sallust, +which are interwoven with the body of the narrative—and, lastly, the Conspiracy. +The work, which extends to three volumes 4to, comprehends very full notes, and +includes a life of Sallust, which, though written in an indifferent style, displays considerable +learning and research. Although the version of De Brosses was generally +accounted one of the best translations of the Classics, which had appeared in the +French, or any other language, it does not seem to have been considered as precluding +subsequent attempts. A translation by Dureau Delamalle appeared in +1808, and one by Mollevaut, yet more recent, which has gone through at least +three editions. Still, however, many persons in France prefer the version of +Dotteville to the more modern translations. +</p> + +<p> +It would appear, that the writings of Sallust became known and popular in <hi rend='italic'>England</hi> +soon after the revival of literature. A translation of the Jugurthine War, +executed by <q>Sir Alexander Barclay, Priest, at the command of the Duke of Norfolke, +and printed by Richard Pynson,</q> in folio, was published as early as the reign +of Henry VIII. It bears on the title-page—<q>Here begynneth the famous Cronycle +of the Warre which the Romaynes had against Jugurth, usurper of the Kyngdome +of Numidy: Which Cronycle was compyled in Latin by the renowned Sallust. And +translated into English by Sir Alexander Barclay, Preest, at commandment of the +right hye and mighty Prince, Thomas Duke of Northfolke.</q> The volume is without +date, but is supposed to have been printed about 1540. It was twice reprinted in +1557, and in one of these editions was accompanied with Catiline’s Conspiracy, +translated by Thomas Paynel. The version of Barclay, though a good one for the +time, having become obsolete, not less than three translations appeared in the +middle and end of the seventeenth century—one by William Crosse, and the other +two by anonymous authors. These early translations are all <q>Faithfully done in +Englysh,</q> according to the taste of the time, which, if the sense were tolerably +rendered, was little solicitous for accuracy, and still less for elegance of diction<note place="foot">Stuart’s <hi rend='italic'>Sallust</hi>, Essay II.</note>. +In Rowe’s translation, 1709, the sense of the author is given with correctness, but +the style is feeble and colloquial. Gordon, better known as the translator of Tacitus, +also translated Sallust in 1744. His version is accompanied with a series of discourses +on topics connected with Roman history, as on faction and parties, public +corruption, and civil wars. The Epistles of Sallust to Cæsar on Government, are +also translated by him, and their authenticity vindicated. In 1751, Dr Rose published +a new translation of the Catilinarian and Jugurthine Wars. <q>This translation,</q> +says Steuart, <q>is justly entitled to the esteem in which it has been held, and the +author himself to considerable praise, for his endeavours to combine the advantages +of a free and literal version. His chief defect proceeds from what constitutes the +great difficulty in all classical translation—the uniting a clear transfusion of the sense +with the ease and freedom of original composition. To the critical reader, this will +be abundantly obvious, if he compare the version of Sallust with the original pieces +of Dr Rose himself. In the speeches, too, where the ancient writers laid out all +their energy, and in which they should be followed by a like effort of the translator, +the author is cold and languid, and he rises on no occasion above the level of ordinary +narrative.</q> The most recent English translation is that by the author above +quoted—1806, two volumes quarto. Two long Essays, with notes, are prefixed to it—the +one on the Life, and the other on the Literary Character and Writings of Sallust. +<pb n='A-49'/><anchor id='PgA49'/>The Spanish translation of Sallust, executed under the auspices of the Infant Don +Gabriel, has been much celebrated on account of its plates and incomparable typography. +It was printed in 1772. +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Cæsar"/><index index="pdf" level1="Caesar"/> +<head>CÆSAR.</head> + +<p> +Lupus, Abbot of Ferriers, says, in one of his letters, that no historic work of +Cæsar was extant, except his Commentaries on the Gallic War, of which he promises +to send his correspondent, the Bishop Heribold, a copy, as soon as he can +procure one<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 37.</note>. The other Commentaries, <hi rend='italic'>De Bello Civili</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>De Bello Alexandrino</hi>, +of which he speaks as being also extant, were written, he affirms, by Hirtius. +It thus appears, that though Lupus was mistaken as to the author of the work <hi rend='italic'>De +Bello Civili</hi>, the whole series of memoirs now known by the name of Cæsar’s Commentaries, +was extant in the ninth century. About a century afterwards, Pope +Gerbert, or Sylvester II., writes to the Archbishop of Rheims to procure the loan of +a copy of Cæsar from the Abbot of Terdon, who was possessed of one, and to have +it transcribed for him<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 8.</note>. Cæsar’s Commentaries are repeatedly quoted in the <hi rend='italic'>Speculum +Historiale</hi> of Vincent de Beauvais, a work of the thirteenth century, and in +various other productions of the same period. It is probable, therefore, that copies +of them were not very scarce in that age; but they had become so rare by the +middle of the fifteenth century, that Candidi, in a letter to Niccolo Niccoli, announces +the discovery of a MS. of Cæsar as a great event. +</p> + +<p> +Andrea, Bishop of Aleria, took charge of the first edition of Cæsar, and an erudite +epistle by him is prefixed to it. It came forth at Rome, from the printing-press of +<anchor id="corra49"/><corr sic="Sweyn">Sweynheim</corr> and Pannartz, as early as the year 1469. Of this <hi rend='italic'>Editio Princeps</hi> of Cæsar, +only 275 copies were thrown off; but it was reprinted at the same place in 1472. +There were a good many editions published towards the end of the fifteenth century, +most of which have now become rare. The first of the ensuing century was +that of Philippus Beroaldus, (Bologna 1504). It was followed by the Aldine editions, +(Venice 1513–19,) which are not so remarkable either for accuracy or beauty as +the other early editions of the Classics which issued from the celebrated press of the +Manutii. The first had seven pages of errata—<q>Mendis scatet,</q> say the Bipontine +editors. In the edition, 1566, there were inserted plates of warlike instruments, +encampments, and the most celebrated places mentioned in Cæsar’s campaigns, +which became a common ornament and appendage in subsequent impressions. +</p> + +<p> +Fulvius Ursinus published an edition of considerable note in 1570. Ursinus had +discovered a MS. written in the middle of the tenth century, which he chiefly employed +in the correction of the text. He is accused of having committed a literary +theft in the publication of this work, it being alleged that he had received many +annotations from Petrus Ciacconius, which he mixed up with his own, and inserted +as such, suppressing altogether the name of the real author. +</p> + +<p> +The next edition of any eminence, was that of Strada (Frankfort, 1574). This +impression is remarkable for containing forty plates of battles, and other things relating +to the campaigns of Cæsar; as also inscriptions, found in various cities of +Spain. It is also distinguished as having been the prototype of Clarke’s splendid +edition of Cæsar, which Mr Dibdin pronounces to be <q>the most sumptuous classical +volume which this country ever produced. It contains,</q> says he, <q>eighty-seven +copperplates, which were engraved at the expense of the different noblemen to +whom they are dedicated. Of these plates, I am not disposed to think so highly +as some fond admirers: The head of Marlborough, to whom this courtly work is +dedicated, by Kneller and Vertue, does not convey any exalted idea of that renowned +hero; and the bust of Julius Cæsar, which follows it, will appear meagre +and inelegant to those who have contemplated a similar print in the quarto publication +of Lavater’s Physiognomy. The plates are in general rather curious than +ably executed; and compared with what Flaxman has done for Homer and Æschylus, +are tasteless and unspirited. The type of this magnificent volume is truly +beautiful and splendid, and for its fine lustre and perfect execution, reflects immortality +on the publisher. The text is accompanied with various readings in the +mar<pb n='A-50'/><anchor id='PgA50'/>gin; and at the end of the volume, after the fragments of Cæsar, are the critical +notes of the editor, compiled with great labour from the collation of ancient MSS. +and former editions. A MS. in the Queen’s library, and one belonging to the Bishop +of Ely, were particularly consulted by Dr Clarke. The work closes with a large +and correct index of names and places. It is upon the whole a most splendid edition, +and will be a lasting monument of the taste, as well as erudition of the editor.</q> +</p> + +<p> +The best edition since the time of Dr Clarke’s, is that by Oudendorp, printed at +Leyden in 1737. This editor had the use of many ancient MSS., particularly two +of the beginning of the ninth century, one of which had belonged to Julius Bongarsius, +and the other to Petrus Bellovacensis. <q>The preceding commentators on +Cæsar,</q> says Harles, <q>have all been eclipsed by the skill and researches of Oudendorp, +who, by a careful examination of numerous MSS. and editions, has often successfully +restored the true ancient reading of his author.</q> He has inserted in his +publication Dodwell’s disquisition concerning the author of the books <hi rend='italic'>De Bello +Alexandrino</hi>, and Scaliger’s <hi rend='italic'>Topographical Description of Gaul</hi>. Morus reprinted +this edition, but with many critical improvements, at Leipsic, 1780. He +has illustrated the military tactics of Cæsar, from Ritter’s History of the Gauls, and +from the books of Guischardus, <hi rend='italic'>De Re Militari Veterum</hi>. The best modern German +edition is that of Oberlin, (Leipsic, 1805). It is founded on the basis of those of +Oudendorp and Morus, with additional observations, and a careful revision of the +text. In the preface, those writings in which the faith due to Cæsar’s Commentaries +is attempted to be shaken, are reviewed and refuted; and there are added several +fragments of Cæsar, as also those notices of ancient authors concerning him, +which had been neglected or omitted by Morus. +</p> +<milestone unit="tb"/> +<p> +Cæsar was first rendered into <hi rend='italic'>Italian</hi> by Agost. Ortica, the translator of Sallust. +He says, in the preface, that his version was executed in a very hurried manner, as +it was transcribed and printed all in the course of six months. Argelati could not +ascertain the date of the most ancient edition, which was printed at Milan, but he +thinks that it was as old as the fifteenth century<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Biblioteca degli Volgarizzatori</hi>, Tom. I. p. 206.</note>. This impression was followed +by not fewer than twelve others, before the middle of the sixteenth century. A +subsequent translation, by F. Baldelli, appeared at Venice, 1554. This edition was, +succeeded by many others, particularly one at Venice in 1595, quarto, of which +Palladio, the great architect, took charge. He inserted in it various engravings of +battles, encampments, sieges, and other military operations, from plates which had +been executed by his two sons, Leonida and Orazio, and had come into his hands +soon after their premature decease. He prepared the edition chiefly for the sake of +introducing these designs, and thereby honouring the memory of his children. To +this edition there is a preface by Palladio on the military affairs of the Romans, their +legions, arms, and encampments. A splendid impression of Baldelli’s version, accompanied +with Palladio’s designs, was thrown off at Venice in 1619. In 1737, a +translation appeared at Venice, bearing to be printed from an ancient MS. of Cæsar, +in Italian, which the editor says he had discovered, (<hi rend='italic'>where</hi> he does not specify,) +and had in some few places corrected and modernized. Paitoni has exposed this +literary fraud, and has shown, that it is just the translation of Baldelli, with a few +words altered at the beginning of paragraphs. In some respects, however, it is a +good edition, containing various tables and notices conducive to the proper understanding +of the author. +</p> +<milestone unit="tb"/> +<p> +We have seen that several translations of the Latin classics were executed by +order of the French king, John. Charles V., who succeeded him in 1364, was a +still warmer patron of learning, and was himself tolerably versed in Latin literature. +<q>Tant que compettement,</q> says Christine de Pise, in her Memoirs of him, <q>entendoit +son Latin.</q> By his order and directions the first <hi rend='italic'>French</hi> translation of +Cæsar was undertaken<note place="foot">Villaret, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. de France</hi>, T. XI. p. 121.</note>. But the earliest French translation of Cæsar’s Commentaries +which was printed, was that of Robert Gaguin, dedicated to Charles VIII. and +published in 1488. Of the recent French versions the most esteemed is that by +Turpin de Crissi, accompanied by historical and critical notes, and printed at Montargis, +1785. +</p> + +<pb n='A-51'/><anchor id='PgA51'/> + +<p> +The part of Cæsar’s Commentaries which relates to the Gallic wars was translated +into <hi rend='italic'>English</hi> as early as 1565, by Arthur Golding, who dedicated his work to Sir William +Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh. In 1695, a translation of the whole Commentaries +was printed with the following title: <q>The Commentaries of Cæsar, of his +Wars in Gallia, and of the Civil Wars betwixt him and Pompey, <hi rend='italic'>with many excellent +and judicious Observations</hi> thereupon; as also, the Art of our Modern Training; +by Clement Edmonds, Esq.</q> The best translation is that by <q>William Duncan, +Professor of Philosophy in the University of Aberdeen, printed at London, +1755,</q> with a long preliminary Discourse concerning the Roman Art of War. +</p> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Cicero"/><index index="pdf" level1="Cicero"/> +<head>CICERO.</head> + +<p> +Some of Cicero’s orations were studied harangues, which he had prepared and +written over previous to their delivery. This, however, was not the case with the +greater proportion of his speeches, most of which were pronounced without much +premeditation, but were afterwards copied out, with such corrections and embellishments +as bestowed on them a greater polish and lustre than when they had originally +fallen from his lips. Before the invention of printing had increased the means of +satisfying public curiosity, as no oration was given to the world but by the author +himself, he had always the power of altering and improving by his experience of the +effect it produced at delivery. Pliny informs us, that many things on which Cicero +had enlarged at the time when he actually spoke in the Senate and the Forum, +were retrenched when he ultimately gave his orations to the public in writing<note place="foot">Plin. <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> Lib. I. Ep. 20.</note>. +Cicero himself had somewhere declared, that the defence of Cornelius had occupied +four days, whence Pliny concludes, that those orations which, when delivered at +full length, took up so much time at the bar, were greatly altered and abridged, +when he afterwards comprised them in a single volume. The orations, in particular, +for Muræna and Varenus, he says, seem now to contain merely the general heads +of a discourse. Sometimes, however, they were extended and not curtailed, by the +orator in the closet, as was confessedly the case in the defence of Milo. A few of +the orations which Cicero had delivered, he did not consider as at all worthy of preservation. +Thus, of the oration for Dejotarus, he says, in one of his letters to Dolabella, +<q>I did not imagine that I had preserved among my papers the trifling speech +which I made in behalf of Dejotarus; however, I have found it, and sent it to you, +agreeably to your request<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Famil.</hi> Lib. IX. Ep. 12.</note>.</q> This accounts for many speeches of Cicero, the delivery +of which is recorded in history, being now lost. It appears, however, that +those which he considered deserving of his care, though they may be widely different +from the state in which they were originally pronounced, came pure from the +hand of the author, either in the shape in which he would have wished to have delivered +them, or in that which he considered best adapted for publication and perusal. +They were probably transcribed by himself, and copies of them multiplied by +his freedmen, such as Tyro and Tyrannio, whom he had accustomed to accurate +transcription. His orations had also the good fortune to meet, at a very early period, +with a judicious and learned commentator in the person of Asconius Pedianus, +a grammarian in the reign of Nero, part of whose Commentary was discovered by +Poggio, along with other classical works, in the monastery of St Gall, near Constance. +</p> + +<p> +All the orations of Cicero were not lost during the middle ages. Pope Gerbert, +in one of his letters, asks from the Abbot Gesilbert a copy of the concluding part of +the speech for Dejotarus; and he writes to another of his correspondents, to bring +him Cicero’s treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Republicâ</hi>, and the Orations against Verres, <q>Comitentur +iter tuum Tulliana opuscula, et de Republicâ et in Verrem<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 87.</note>:</q> Brunetto Latini, +who died in 1294, translated into Italian the orations for Dejotarus, Marcellus, and +Ligarius, which were afterwards printed at Lyons in 1568<note place="foot">Tiraboschi, <hi rend='italic'>Stor. dell Lett. Ital.</hi> Tom. IV. Lib. III. c. 5. § 21. Maffei, <hi rend='italic'>Traduttori +Ital.</hi> p. 41.</note>. These three harangues +<pb n='A-52'/><anchor id='PgA52'/>being in a great measure complimentary addresses to Cæsar, and containing no +sentiment but what might be safely expressed in presence of an unlimited sovereign, +more transcripts had been made of them in Rome’s tyrannical ages, than of +those orations which breathed forth the expiring spirit of liberty. +</p> + +<p> +Cicero was the idol of Petrarch, the great restorer of classical literature. He +never could speak of him but in terms of deep and enthusiastic admiration. The +sweetness and sonorousness of Tully’s periods charmed his ear; and though unable +to penetrate the depths of his philosophy, yet his vigorous fancy often soared with +the Roman orator into the highest regions of imagination. Hence, while eager for +the discovery of all the classics, his chief diligence was exercised in endeavouring +to preserve such works of Cicero as were then known, and to recover such as were +lost<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Ad Vir. Illust.</hi> ep. 2.</note>. Petrarch received in loan from Lapo of Castiglionchio a copy of several of +Cicero’s orations, among which were the Philippics, and the oration for Milo. +These he kept by him for four years, that he might transcribe them with his own +hand, on account of the blunders of the copyists in that age. This we learn from +the letters of Lapo, published by the Abbé Mehus. Coming to Liege when about +twenty-five years of age, that is, in 1329, Petrarch remained there till two orations +of Cicero, which he had discovered in that city, were transcribed, one by his own +hand, and another by a friend, both of which were immediately transmitted by him +to Italy. He was detained at Liege for some time by the difficulty of procuring +even the worst sort of ink. Several other orations of Cicero were discovered by +Petrarch in different parts of Italy. +</p> + +<p> +Dominico Arretino, who was nearly contemporary with Petrarch, declares, in one +of his works, entitled <hi rend='italic'>Fons</hi>, that he had seen eleven of Cicero’s orations, and that +a person had told him that he actually possessed and had read twenty of them<note place="foot">Mehus, <hi rend='italic'>Vit. Ambros. Camald.</hi> p. 213.</note>. +It appears, however, that in the time of Cosmo de Medici those works of Cicero +which were extant were very much corrupted. <q>Illorum librorum,</q> says Niccolo +Niccoli, speaking of some of the works of Cicero, <q>magna pars interierit, hi vero +qui supersunt adeo mendosi sunt, ut paulo ab interitu distent;</q> hence, in the middle +of the fifteenth century, the discovery of a new MS. of Cicero was hailed as a +new acquisition. At Langres, in a library of the monks of Clugni, in Burgundy, +Poggio found the oration for Cæcina, which he immediately transcribed, and sent +various copies of it to his friends in Italy. In the monasteries around Constance he +discovered the two orations against Rullus, <hi rend='italic'>De Lege Agrariâ</hi>, and that to the people +on the same subject; also the orations <hi rend='italic'>Pro Rabirio</hi>, and <hi rend='italic'>Pro Roscio</hi>. A note +on the MS. copy of the oration <hi rend='italic'>in Pisonem</hi>, preserved in the abbey of Santa Maria, +in Florence, records the fact of this harangue having been likewise discovered by +Poggio<note place="foot">Ginguené, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Lit. d’Italie</hi>, Tom. II. Shepherd’s <hi rend='italic'>Life of Poggio</hi>. Bandini, +<hi rend='italic'>Catal. Codic. Biblioth. Medic. Laurent.</hi> Tom. II. p. 432.</note>. +</p> + +<p> +A compendium of Cicero’s treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Inventione</hi> was well known in the dark +ages, having been translated into Italian, in an abridged form, in the thirteenth century, +by a professor of Bologna. This was almost the first prose work which had +appeared in the language, and was printed at Lyons with the <hi rend='italic'>Ethica d’Aristotile</hi>, +by Brunetto Latini, who also translated the first book <hi rend='italic'>De Inventione</hi><note place="foot">Paitoni, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotec. degli Autor. Volgarizzati</hi>.</note>. Lupus of +Ferrieres possessed a copy of Cicero’s <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica</hi>, as he himself informs us<note place="foot">Epist. 1.</note>, but it +was incomplete; and he accordingly asks Einhart, who had been his preceptor, for +the loan of his MS. of this work, in order that his own might be perfected. Ingulphus, +who flourished in England towards the close of the eleventh century, declares, +that he was sent from Westminster to the school at Oxford, where he learned Aristotle, +and the first two books of Tully’s <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica</hi><note place="foot">Hallam’s <hi rend='italic'>Europe during the Middle Ages</hi>, Vol. III. p. 524. 3d ed.</note>. Now, if the first two books +of the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica</hi>, which are all that have hitherto been discovered, were used as an +elementary work in the public school at Oxford, they can hardly be supposed to +have been very scarce in Italy. From the jurisconsult, Raymond Superantius, or +Sorranza, to whom he had been indebted for the books <hi rend='italic'>De Gloriâ</hi>, Petrarch +received an imperfect copy of the tract <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, of which the MSS., though +generally incomplete, were by no means uncommon at that period. <q>Ab hoc +<pb n='A-53'/><anchor id='PgA53'/>habui,</q> says he, <q>et Varronis et Ciceronis aliqua: Cujus unum volumen de communibus +fuit; sed inter ipsa communia libri de Oratore ac de Legibus imperfecti, ut +fere semper inveniuntur.</q> Nearly half a century from the death of Petrarch had +elapsed, before the discovery of a complete copy of Cicero’s rhetorical works. It +was about the year 1418, during the Popedom of Martin V., and while Poggio +was in England, that Gerard Landriani, Bishop of Lodi, found in that city, among +the ruins of an ancient monastery, a MS., containing Cicero’s treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>, +his <hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>Orator</hi>. He carried the MS. with him to Milan, and there gave it +to Gaspar Bazizza. The character, however, in which it was written, was such, +that few scholars or antiquaries in that city could read it. At length Cosmus, a +young Veronese scholar, deciphered and transcribed the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>. +Blondus Flavius, the author of the <hi rend='italic'>Italia Illustrata</hi>, who had come in early youth +from his native place, Forli, to Milan, transcribed the <hi rend='italic'>Brutus</hi>, and sent copies of it +to Guarinus of Verona, and Leonard Justiniani, at Venice. By these means the +rhetorical works of Cicero were soon diffused all over Italy. The discovery was +hailed as a triumph, and subject of public congratulation. Poggio was informed of +it while in England, and there awaited the arrival of a copy with the most lively +impatience<note place="foot">B. Flavii, <hi rend='italic'>Ital. Illust.</hi> p. 346. ap. Meiners, <hi rend='italic'>Lebenschreibung Beruhmter manner</hi>, +Tom. I. p. 39. Ginguené, <hi rend='italic'>Hist. Lit.</hi> Tom. II. Pet. Victor, <hi rend='italic'>in Castigat. ad +Cicer. post castig. in Paradox.</hi></note>. +</p> + +<p> +The philosophic writings of Cicero have descended to us in a more imperfect +state than his oratorical dialogues or orations. In consequence of the noble spirit +of freedom and patriotism which they breathe, their proscription would no doubt +speedily follow that of their author. There is a common story of a grandson of +Augustus concealing one of Cicero’s philosophic works, on being detected while +perusing it by his grandfather, and though he received his gracious permission to +finish it, the anecdote shews that it was among the <hi rend='italic'>libri prohibiti</hi>. The chief +reading, indeed, of Alexander Severus, was the <hi rend='italic'>Republic</hi> and <hi rend='italic'>Offices</hi><note place="foot">Lemprid. <hi rend='italic'>in Alex. Sev.</hi> c. 29. <q>Latina cùm legeret, non alia magis legebat +quàm de Officiis Ciceronis et De Republicâ.</q></note>: But Alexander +was an imperial phœnix, which never revived in the Roman empire; and we +hear little of Cicero during the reigns of the barbarian sovereigns of Italy in the +middle ages. +</p> + +<p> +Petrarch procured an imperfect copy of Cicero’s treatise <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>, from the +Lawyer Raymond Sorranza<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. Senil.</hi> Lib. XV. Ep. 1.</note>, who had a most extensive library, and to whom, as +we have just seen, he had been indebted for a MS. of the dialogue <hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +No further discovery was subsequently made of the remaining parts of the work +<hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi>. The other philosophical writings of Cicero were found by Petrarch +among the books in his father’s library, or were recovered for him by the persons +whom he employed for this purpose in almost every quarter of Italy: <q>Abeuntibus +amicis,</q> says he, <q>et, ut fit, petentibus numquid e patriâ suâ vellem, respondebam,—nihil +præter libros Ciceronis.</q> Petrarch frequently quotes the treatise <hi rend='italic'>De +Finibus</hi>, as a work with which he was familiar. Leonard Aretine, however, has +been generally considered as the discoverer of that dialogue, as also of the treatise +<hi rend='italic'>De Naturâ Deorum</hi><note place="foot">Clayton’s <hi rend='italic'>History of the House of Medici</hi>, c. 3</note>. +</p> + +<p> +<q>There is no collection of my letters,</q> says Cicero, in one of his epistles to Atticus; +<q>but Tiro has about seventy of them, and you can furnish some more. I +must look over and correct them, and then they may be published.</q> This, however, +never was accomplished by himself. After the revolution of the Roman state, the +publication of his letters must have been dangerous, on account of the freedom with +which he expresses himself concerning Octavius, and the ministers of his power. +Cornelius Nepos mentions, that some of Cicero’s letters were published, but that +sixteen books of Epistles to Atticus, from his consulship to his death, though extant, +were by no means in common circulation<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Vit. Attic.</hi> c. 16.</note>. The reigns of the princes who succeeded +Augustus, were not more favourable to freedom than his own; and hence the +Familiar Letters, as well as those to Atticus, probably remained long in the cabinets +<pb n='A-54'/><anchor id='PgA54'/>of the curious, before they received any critical inspection. The Letters of Cicero, +however, were well known in the middle ages, and even in those times pains were +taken to have accurate copies of them. Lupus Ferrariensis procured duplicates of +Cicero’s Epistles, in order to collate them with his own MSS., and thus to make +up a correct and complete collection<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 69.</note>. John of Salisbury cites two of Cicero’s letters +to Caius Cassius; one of which is now contained in the twelfth, and the other +in the fifteenth book of the <hi rend='italic'>Familiar Epistles</hi>. In the Life of Julius Cæsar, which +passes under the name of Julius Celsus, and which was written during the middle +ages, extracts are occasionally made from the <hi rend='italic'>Familiar Epistles</hi>. They had become +scarce, however, at the time when Petrarch found a copy of them at Verona, a +place where he little expected to make such a discovery<note place="foot">Petrarc. <hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Viros Illust.</hi> Ep. 1.</note>. This old MS., which +Victorius thinks of the age of the Florentine Pandects, ultimately came into the +Medicean library; and a copy which Petrarch had transcribed from it, was brought +from Padua to Florence by Niccolo Niccoli, at whose death it was placed in the +library of St Marc in that city<note place="foot">Mehus, <hi rend='italic'>Vit. Ambros. Camald.</hi> p. 214.</note>. Several scholars who inspected both have observed, +that the transcript by Petrarch differed in some respects from the original<note place="foot">Fabricius, <hi rend='italic'>Bib. Lat.</hi> Lib. I. c. 8.</note>. +It was also marked with various corrections and glosses, in the hand-writing of Niccolo +Niccoli himself<note place="foot">Pet. Vict. <hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi></note>. All the other MSS. of the Familiar Epistles flowed from this +discovered by Petrarch, as we learn from a passage of Lagomarsinus, who speaks +thus of the different <hi rend='italic'>codices</hi> of the <hi rend='italic'>Epistolæ Familiares</hi>: <q>Quibus tamen ego codicibus +non tantum tribuo, quantum uni illi omnium quotquot ubique terrarum, idem +epistolarum corpus continentes, extant, vetustissimo, (et ex quo cæteros omnes qui +usquam sunt tanquam e fonte ac capite manâsse, et Angelus Politianus, et Petrus +Victorius memoriæ prodiderunt,) qui Florentiæ in Mediceo-Laurentianæ Bibliothecæ +XLIX. adservatur numero IX. extra notatus<note place="foot">Lagomarsini, <hi rend='italic'>ad Poggii Epist.</hi> I. 189.</note>.</q> There has been a good deal of +doubt and discussion how these Letters first came to obtain the title of <hi rend='italic'>Familiares</hi>. +They are not so called in any original MS. of Cicero, nor are they cited by this name +in any ancient author, as Aulus Gellius, or Priscian. These writers generally quote +each book of the Epistles by the name of the person to whom the first letter in +that book is addressed. Thus Gellius cites the first book by the name of the Letters +to Lentulus, because it commences with a letter to him. Nor are the MSS. +in which the appellation of the <hi rend='italic'>Epistolæ Familiares</hi> is employed uniform in the +title. In some MSS. they are called <hi rend='italic'>Epistolæ Familiares</hi>, in others, <hi rend='italic'>Epistolæ +ad Familiares</hi>, and in a Palatine MS. <hi rend='italic'>Libri Epistolarum Familiarum</hi>. +</p> + +<p> +Previous to the year 1340, Petrarch also discovered the <hi rend='italic'>Epistles to Atticus</hi><note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist. ad Vir. Illust.</hi> Ep. I.</note> +which had been missing for many centuries; and on perusing them, declared that +he now recognized Cicero as an inconsiderate and unfortunate old man. He copied +them over with his own hand, and arranged them in their proper order. The +MS. in his hand-writing passed, after his death, into the possession of Coluccio Salutati, +and subsequently became the property of Coluccio’s disciple Leonard Aretine. +Donatus, the son of Leonard, succeeded to it, and by him it was transferred to Donatus +Acciaiolus. After his decease, it fell into the hands of an obscure grammarian, +who gave it to Bartollomeo Cavalcanti, in whose library it was consulted by +P. Victorius, and was afterwards bestowed on him by the owner. Victorius, highly +valuing this MS., which he first recognised to be in the hand-writing of Petrarch, +conceived that it would be preserved with greatest security in some public collection; +and he accordingly presented it to Cosmo, the first Duke of Tuscany, to be +deposited in the Medicean library<note place="foot">Bandini, <hi rend='italic'>Catalog. Bib. Laurent.</hi> p. 474.</note>. With regard to the most ancient MS. from +which Petrarch made the copy, it unfortunately was lost, as Petrus Victorius laments +in one of his Epistles<note place="foot">Lib. VII.</note>. <q>Utinam inveniretur exemplum, unde has ad Atticum +descripsit Petrarca, ut exstat illud, quo usus est in describendis alteris illis, quæ +Familiares appellantur, de cujus libri antiquitate, omni veneratione digna, magnifice +multa vereque alio loco prædicavi.</q> It thus appears, that the Epistles to Atticus +were well known to Petrarch. Still, however, as they were scarce in the fifteenth +century, Poggio, who found a copy, while attending the Council of Constance, +<pb n='A-55'/><anchor id='PgA55'/>was considered in his own age as the discoverer of the entire collection of the +<hi rend='italic'>Epistles to Atticus</hi>, and has been regarded in the same light by modern writers. +</p> + +<p> +The three books of the Letters of Cicero to his brother Quintus, were found by +an Italian grammarian, Casparinus of Bergamo, who died in the year 1431; and who +some time before his death had taken great pains to amend their corrupted text<note place="foot">Fuhrmann, <hi rend='italic'>Handbuch der Classisch. Lit.</hi> T. IV. p. 208.</note>. +That they were much corrupted, may be conjectured from what we know of the +manner in which they were originally written, for it appears, from one of the Letters +of Cicero<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> Lib. II. Ep. 15.</note>, that Quintus had complained that he could scarcely read some of +his former letters. Now, when Quintus could scarcely read his brother’s hand-writing, +what must have been the difficulties and mistakes of the <hi rend='italic'>Librarius</hi> by +whom they were first collected and copied? +</p> + +<p> +Cicero’s translation of Aratus appears to have been extant in the ninth century. +Lupus of Ferrieres had an imperfect copy of it, and begs a complete copy from his +correspondent Ansbald. <q>Tu autem,</q> says he, <q>huic nostro cursori Tullium in +Arato trade; ut ex eo, quem me impetraturum credo, quæ deesse illi Egil noster +aperuit, suppleantur.<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Epist.</hi> 69.</note></q> +</p> +<milestone unit="tb"/> +<p> +Various editions of separate portions of the writings of Cicero were printed before +the publication of a complete collection of his works. <hi rend='italic'>The Orations</hi>—the treatise +<hi rend='italic'>De Oratore</hi>—the <hi rend='italic'>Opera Philosophica</hi>—the <hi rend='italic'>Epistolæ Familiares</hi>—and <hi rend='italic'>Ad Atticum</hi>, +were all edited in Italy between the years 1466 and 1471—most of them being +printed at Rome by Sweynheim and Pannartz. The most ancient printing-press in +Italy was that established at the Monastery of Subiaco, in the Campagna di Roma, by +these printers. Sweynheim and Pannartz were two German scholars, who had been +induced to settle at that convent by the circumstance that it was chiefly inhabited +by German monks. In 1467, they went from Subiaco, to Rome<note place="foot">Tiraboschi, <hi rend='italic'>Stor. dell’ Letterat. Ital.</hi> T. VI. Part I. Lib. I.</note>; after this removal, +they received in correcting their editions, the assistance of a poor but eminent +scholar, Giandrea de Bussi; and were aided by the patronage of Andrea, Bishop of +Aleria, who furnished prefaces to many of their classical editions. Notwithstanding +the rage for classical MSS. which had so recently existed, and the novelty, +usefulness, and importance of the art which they first introduced into Italy, as also +the support which they received from men of rank and learning, they laboured under +the greatest difficulties, and prosecuted their undertaking with very inadequate +compensation, as we learn from a petition presented, 1472, in their names, to Pope +Sextus, by the chief patron, the Bishop of Aleria. Their necessities were probably +produced by the number of copies of each impression which they threw off, and +which exceeding the demand, they were so encumbered by those left on their +hands, as to be reduced to the greatest poverty and distress<note place="foot">Beloe, <hi rend='italic'>Anecdotes of Literature and Scarce Books</hi>, Vol. VI. p. 140.</note>. The first book +which they printed at Rome, was the <hi rend='italic'>Epistolæ Familiares</hi> of Cicero. +</p> + +<p> +Alexander Minutianus, who published an edition of the whole works at Milan, +1498, in four volumes folio, was the first person who comprised the scattered publications +of Cicero in one uniform book. Harles informs us, in one passage, that +Minutianus did not consult any MSS. in the preparation of this edition, but merely +collated the editions of the separate parts of Cicero’s writings previously published, +so that his work is only a continued reimpression of preceding editions<note place="foot"><hi rend='italic'>Introduct. in Notit. Literat. Roman.</hi> p. 47.</note>; but he +elsewhere mentions, that he had inspected the MSS. of the Orations which Poggio +had brought from Germany to Italy<note place="foot">Ibid. p. 84.</note>. In the Orations, Minutianus chiefly followed +the Brescian edition, 1483, which was itself founded on that of Rome. The work +was printed off, not according to the best arrangement, but as the copies of the preceding +editions successively reached him, which he himself acknowledges in the +preface. <q>Sed quam necessitas præscripsit dum vetustiora exemplaria ex diversis +et longinquis locis exspectamus.</q> <q>If we peruse Saxius,</q> says Mr Dibdin, <q>we +shall see with what toil, and at what a heavy expense, this celebrated work of +Minutianus was compiled.</q> De Bure and Ernesti are lavish in their praises of its +typographical beauty. The latter says it is printed <q>grandi modulo, chartis et +lite<pb n='A-56'/><anchor id='PgA56'/>ris pulchris et splendidis.</q> The Aldine edition, which was published in parts from +1512 to 1523, is not accounted a very critical or correct one, though the latter portion +of it was printed under the care of Naugerius. It would be endless to enumerate +the subsequent editions of Cicero. That of Petrus Victorius, however, +whom Harles calls <hi rend='italic'>Ciceronis Æsculapius</hi>, printed at Venice in 1534–37, in four +volumes folio, should not be forgotten, as there is no commentator to whom Cicero +has been more indebted than to Victorius, particularly in the correction and +emendation of the Epistles. The edition of Lambinus, Paris, 1566, also deserves +notice. Lambinus was an acute and daring commentator, who made many corrections +on the text, but adopted some alterations too rashly. From his time +downwards, Harles thinks that the editors of Cicero may be divided into two classes; +some following the bold changes introduced by Lambinus, and others preferring +the more scrupulous text of Victorius. Of the latter class was Gruterus, who, +in his edition published at Hamburgh, 1618, appears to have obstinately rejected +even the most obvious emendations which had been recently made on the text of +his author. The three editions of Ernesti’s Cicero, (Lips. 1737, Hal. Sax. 1758–74,) +and the three of Olivet’s, (Paris, 1740, Geneva, 1758, Oxon. 1783,) are too +well known to be particularized or described. Olivet did not collate MSS.; but he +compared with each other what he considered as the four most important editions +of Cicero; those of P. Victorius, Paullus Manutius, Lambinus, and Gruterus. In +1795, the first volume of a new edition of Cicero, by Beck, was printed at Leipsic, +and since that period, three more volumes, at long intervals, have fallen from the +press. The last volume which appeared, was in 1807; and along with the three by +which it was preceded, comprehends the Orations of Cicero. The preface contains +a very full account of preceding editions, and the most authoritative MSS. of Cicero. +Ernesti’s editions were adopted as the basis of the text; but the editor departs from +them where he sees occasion. He does not propose many new emendations of his +own; but he seems a very acute judge of the merit of various readings, and a judicious +selector from the corrections of others. While this edition of Beck was proceeding +in Germany, Schütz brought forth another, which is now completed, except +part of the <hi rend='italic'>Index Latinitatis</hi>. There are few notes subjoined to the text; +but long summaries are prefixed to each oration and work of Cicero; and the <hi rend='italic'>Rhetorica +ad Herennium</hi> is introduced by an ample dissertation concerning the real author +of that treatise. A new arrangement of the <hi rend='italic'>Epistolæ Familiares</hi> has also been +adopted. They are no longer printed, as in most other editions, in a chronological +series, but are classed according to the individuals to whom they are addressed. +The whole publication is dedicated to Great Britain and the Allied Sovereigns, in +a long columnar panegyric. +</p> + +<p> +There have also been lately published in Germany, several learned and critical editions +of separate portions of the works of Cicero, particularly his Philosophical +Writings. The edition of all his Philosophic Treatises, by Goerenz, which is now +proceeding and already comprehends the <hi rend='italic'>Academica</hi>, the dialogues <hi rend='italic'>De Legibus</hi> and +<hi rend='italic'>De Finibus</hi>, is distinguished by intelligent Prefaces and Excursuses on the periods +of the composition of the respective Dialogues; as also on the design of the author +in their composition. +</p> +<milestone unit="tb"/> +<p> +The translations of Cicero are so numerous, that for the Italian translations I +must refer the reader to Paitoni, <hi rend='italic'>Biblioteca degli autori antichi Greci e Latini +Volgarizzati</hi>, Tom. I. p. 219; and Argelati, <hi rend='italic'>Biblioteca degli Volgarizzatori</hi>, Tom. +I. p. 214. For French versions, to Goujet, <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheque Françoise</hi>, Tom. II. p. +221; and, for English, to Brüggemann, <hi rend='italic'>View of the Editions and Translations of +the Ancient Greek and Latin authors</hi>, p. 481. +</p> + +<pb n='A-57'/><anchor id='PgA57'/> + +<milestone unit="tb" rend="rule: 60%"/> + +<p> +For the benefit of those who wish to prosecute their inquiries into the subject +of Roman Literature, I have subjoined a note of some of the most important Books +which treat of the subject. An asterisk is prefixed to the titles of those works +which have been consulted by me in the compilation of the preceding pages. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Aimerichius.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Specimen veteris Romanæ Literaturæ deperditæ vel adhuc +latentis, seu Syllabus Historicus et Criticus veterum olim notæ eruditionis +Romanorum, ab urbe conditâ ad Honorii Augusti excessum, eorum imprimis +quorum Latina opera vel omnino vel ex parte desiderantur</hi>. Ferrara, 1784. 8vo. +</p><p> +<q>This work is intended to give an idea of Roman literature, from the foundation +of the city to the death of the Emperor Honorius. The preface, written by a friend +of the author, gives an account of the manner in which the Romans lived, both in +the capital and in the provinces, during this long period. The historical and literary +Syllabus contains, under nine articles, a variety of literary matters. In the +first, the Abbé Aimerichius gives us brief notices, and a critical review of the ancient +Roman writers, both Pagan and Christian, whose works were extant in public +or private libraries, before the death of the Emperor Honorius. In the second, +we have the titles and subjects of several works which have been lost, but which +have been cited or indicated by contemporary writers, or writers nearly such, whose +testimonies are related by our author. The third contains an account of the most +celebrated public or private libraries, that were known at Rome before the death of +Honorius: and, in the fourth, we have the author’s inquiries concerning the pronunciation +of the Romans, their manner of writing, and the changes which took place +in their orthography. In the fifth, the Abbé treats of the magistracies that could not +be obtained, either at Rome or in the provinces, but by men of letters, as also of +rites and sacrifices, of luxury, riches, public shows, &c. In the sixth, he gives his +particular opinion concerning the ancient literature of the Romans, and the mixture +of the Latin and Greek languages which they employed, both in their conversation +and in their writings. The seventh contains an indication of the principal heresies +that disturbed the church, from the time of the Apostles to that of Honorius; and the +eighth several memorable facts and maxims, not generally known, which belong to +the literary, civil, military, and ecclesiastical history of this period. In the concluding +article, the Abbé takes notice of the Latin works which had been lost for a +considerable time, and shows how, and by whom, they were first discovered.</q>—From +this account, <anchor id="corr343"/><corr sic="whch">which</corr> I have extracted from Horne’s <hi rend='italic'>Introduction to the +Study of Bibliography</hi>, I regret extremely that I have had no opportunity of +consulting the work of Aimerichius. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Blessig.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Origine Philosophiæ apud Romanos</hi>. Strasburgh, 1770. 4to. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Becmannus.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Manductio ad linguam Latinam cum Tractatu de Originibus +Linguæ Latinæ</hi>. 1608. 8vo. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Casaubon.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Satyrica Græcorum Poësi et Romanorum Satira libri duo, +in quibus etiam Poëtæ recensentur, qui in utrâque poësi floruerunt</hi>. Halæ, 1774. +8vo. +</p><p> +This treatise, which is one of the most learned and agreeable productions of +Casaubon, is the source of almost everything that has been written by modern +<pb n='A-58'/><anchor id='PgA58'/>authors, on the subject of the satiric poetry of the Romans. Casaubon traces its +early history in the Fescennine verses, the Atellane fables, and the satires of Ennius +and Lucilius, and vindicates to the Romans the invention of this species of +composition, for which, he contends, they had no model in the poetry of the Greeks. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Cellarius.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Dissertatio de Studiis Romanorum Literariis</hi>. Halle, 1698. 4to. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Corradus.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Quæstura—Partes duæ, quarum altera de Ciceronis Vitâ et Libris—Altera +Ciceronis Libros permultis locis emendat.</hi> Lips. 1754. 8vo. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Crusius.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Lives of the Roman Poets</hi>. London, 1733. 2 Vols. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Eberhardt.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Uber den Zustand der Schönen Wissenschaften bei den Römern</hi>. +Altona, 1801. 8vo. +</p><p> +This work was written by a Swede, and in the Swedish language. It contains, +in its original form, a very superficial and inaccurate sketch of the subject; but +some valuable notes and corrections accompany the German translation. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Fabricius.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca Latina, digesta et aucta diligentiâ Jo. Aug. Ernesti</hi>. +Lips. 1773. 3 Tom. 8vo. +</p><p> +The well-known and justly-esteemed <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi> of Fabricius gives an account +of all the Latin writers from Plautus to Marcian Capella. In most of the articles +we have a biographical sketch of the author—a list of his writings—an account of +the most authoritative MSS. of his works—of the best editions, and of the most +celebrated translations in the modern languages of Europe. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Fuhrmann.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Handbuch der Classischen Literatur, oder Anleitung zur Kentniss +der Griechischen und Römischen Classischen Schriftsteller, ihren Schriften, +und der besten Ausgaben, und Uebersetzungen derselben</hi>. Rudolstadt, +1809–10. +</p><p> +Two of the volumes of this work relate to Roman literature. It is chiefly bibliographical, +containing very full accounts of the editions and translations of the +Classics which have appeared, particularly in Germany; but there are also some +critical accounts of the works of the Roman authors: these are chiefly extracted +from Journals and Reviews, and, in consequence, the author frequently repeats the +same thing in different words, and still more frequently contradicts himself. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Fuhrmann.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Anleitung zur Geschichte der Classischen Literatur der +Griechen und Römer</hi>. Rudolstadt, 1816. +</p><p> +An abridgment of the preceding work. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Funccius.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Origine et Pueritiâ, De Adolescentiâ, Virili Ætate, et Senectute +Linguæ Latinæ</hi>. Frankfort, 1720. +</p><p> +This is one of the most learned and valuable works extant on the subject of Latin +literature. In the first tract, <hi rend='italic'>De Pueritiâ</hi>, the author chiefly treats of the origin +and progress of the Roman language. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Gaudentius Paganinus.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Philosophiæ ap. Romanos Ortu et Progressu</hi>. +Pisa, 1643, 4. +</p><p> +A very dull and imperfect account of the state of philosophy among the Romans, +from the earliest periods to the time of Boethius. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Hankius.</hi> (<hi rend='smallcaps'>Mart.</hi>)—<hi rend='italic'>De Romanarum Rerum Scriptoribus</hi>. Lips. 1687. 4to. +</p><p> +The first part of this work contains a succinct account of the ancient Roman Annalists +and Historians. The latter part relates to modern writers who treated of +Roman affairs. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Harles.</hi> (<hi rend='smallcaps'>Th. Christ</hi>.)—<hi rend='italic'>Introductio in Notitiam Literaturæ Romanæ, +imprimis Scriptorum Latinorum</hi>. Noriberg. 1781. 2 Tom. 8vo. +</p><p> +This work of Harles, as far as it extends, is written on the same plan, and is much +of the same description, as the <hi rend='italic'>Bibliotheca</hi> of Fabricius. It is not continued farther, +however, than the Augustan age inclusive. +</p> + +<pb n='A-59'/><anchor id='PgA59'/> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Harles.</hi> (<hi rend='smallcaps'>Th. Christ.</hi>)—<hi rend='italic'>Brevior Notitia Literaturæ Romanæ, imprimis +Scriptorum Latinorum</hi>. Lips. 1788. 1 Tom. 8vo. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Harles.</hi> (<hi rend='smallcaps'>Th. Christ.</hi>)—<hi rend='italic'>Supplementa ad Breviorem Notitiam Literaturæ +Romanæ</hi>. Lips. 1788. 2 Tom. 8vo. +</p><p> +This work, and the preceding, are on the same plan as the <hi rend='italic'>Introductio</hi>; but bring +down the history of Roman writers, and the editions of their works, to the latest +periods. It is much to be regretted, that these works of Harles had not been incorporated +into one; since, taken separately, each is incomplete, and collectively, they +abound in repetitions. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Klügling.</hi> (C. F.)—<hi rend='italic'>Supplementa ad Breviorem Notitiam Literaturæ Romanæ</hi>. +Lips. 1817. +</p><p> +This Supplement to Harles, contains an account of the editions of the Classics +which had appeared chiefly in Germany, subsequent to the publication of the <hi rend='italic'>Brevior +Notitia</hi>. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>König.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Satirâ Romanorum</hi>. Oldenburgh, 1796. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Kriegk.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Diatribe de Veterum Romanorum Peregrinationibus Academicis</hi>. + <anchor id="corr345"/><corr sic="Jenae">Jenæ</corr>, 1704. 4to. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Leo</hi> (<hi rend='smallcaps'>Annibal di</hi>).—<hi rend='italic'>Memorie di Pacuvio</hi>. Neapol. 1763. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Meierotto.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Præcipuis rerum Romanarum Scriptoribus</hi>. Berlin, 1792. +folio. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Müller.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Einleitung zu nöthiger Kentniss und Gebrauche der alten Lateinischen +Schriftsteller</hi>. Dresden, 1747. 5 Tom. 8vo. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Moine d’Orgeval.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Considerations sur le Progrés des Belles Lettres chez +les Romains</hi>. Paris, 1749. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Osannus.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Analecta Critica, Poësis Romanorum scænicæ reliquias illustrantia</hi>. +Berlin, 1717. +</p><p> +This is a work of considerable ingenuity and research. It contains some discussion +concerning the date at which regular comedies and tragedies were first exhibited +at Rome; but it is chiefly occupied with comparisons between the Fragments +of the ancient Latin Dramatists, and the corresponding passages in the Greek originals. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Sagittarius</hi> (<hi rend='smallcaps'>Casp.</hi>)—<hi rend='italic'>Commentatio de Vitâ et Scriptis Liv. Andronici, +Nævii, Ennii, Cæcilii, Pacuvii, Attii, Attilii, Lucilii, Afranii, Catonis</hi>. Altenburg, +1672. +</p><p> +This is a small volume of 110 pages, which has now become extremely scarce. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +<hi rend='smallcaps'>Sagittarius</hi> (<hi rend='smallcaps'>Casp.</hi>)—<hi rend='italic'>De Vitâ, scriptis, editionibus, interpretibus, lectione, +atque imitatione Plauti, Terentii, Ciceronis</hi>. Altenburg, 1671. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Schoell.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Histoire Abregée de la Litterature Romaine</hi>. Paris, 1815. 4 +Tom. 8vo. +</p><p> +See above. Preface, <!-- xref -->p. xiii. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Tiraboschi.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Storia della Litteratura Italiana</hi>. Modena, 1787. Tom. I. +and II. +</p><p> +See above. Preface, <!-- xref -->p. xiii. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Vossius</hi> (<hi rend='smallcaps'>Gerard</hi>).—<hi rend='italic'>De Historicis Latinis Libri tres</hi>. Lugd. Bat. 1651. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Walchius.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>Historia Critica Latinæ Linguæ</hi>. Lips. 1761. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2"> +*<hi rend='smallcaps'>Ziegler.</hi>—<hi rend='italic'>De Mimis Romanorum</hi>. Gotting. 1789. +</p> +</div> + </div> + <div> +<pb n='A-60'/><anchor id='PgA60'/> +<index index="toc" level1="Chronological Table"/><index index="pdf" level1="Chronological Table"/> +<head>CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE.</head> + <pgIf output="txt"> + <then> + <p rend="white-space: pre"> + +--------------+--------+--------+ + | | Born. | Dies. | + | | A.U.C. | A.U.C. | + |L. Andronicus | | 534 | + |Nævius | | 550 | + |Ennius | 515 | 585 | + |Plautus | 525 | 570 | + |Cæcilius | | 586 | + |Terence | 560 | 594 | + |Pacuvius | 534 | 624 | + |Attius | 584 | 664 | + |Lucilius | 605 | 659? | + |Lucretius | 658 | 702 | + |Catullus | 667 | 708? | + |Laberius | | 710 | + |Cato | 519 | 605 | + |Varro | 637 | 727 | + |Sallust | 668 | 718 | + |Cæsar | 656 | 709 | + |Hortensius | 640 | 703 | + |Cicero | 647 | 710 | + +--------------+--------+--------+ + </p> + </then> + <else> + <table rend="rules: all; tblcolumns: 'l l l'; latexcolumns: '|l|l|l|'; margin-left: 2"> + <row> + <cell></cell> + <cell><hi rend="font-size: small">Born.</hi></cell> + <cell><hi rend="font-size: small">Dies.</hi></cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell></cell> + <cell><hi rend="font-size: small">A.U.C.</hi></cell> + <cell><hi rend="font-size: small">A.U.C.</hi></cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>L. Andronicus</cell> + <cell></cell> + <cell>534</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Nævius</cell> + <cell></cell> + <cell>550</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Ennius </cell> + <cell>515</cell> + <cell>585</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Plautus</cell> + <cell>525</cell> + <cell>570</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Cæcilius</cell> + <cell></cell> + <cell>586</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Terence</cell> + <cell>560</cell> + <cell>594</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Pacuvius</cell> + <cell>534</cell> + <cell>624</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Attius</cell> + <cell>584</cell> + <cell>664</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Lucilius</cell> + <cell>605</cell> + <cell>659?</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Lucretius</cell> + <cell>658</cell> + <cell>702</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Catullus</cell> + <cell>667</cell> + <cell>708?</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Laberius</cell> + <cell></cell> + <cell>710</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Cato</cell> + <cell>519</cell> + <cell>605</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Varro</cell> + <cell>637</cell> + <cell>727</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Sallust</cell> + <cell>668</cell> + <cell>718</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Cæsar</cell> + <cell>656</cell> + <cell>709</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Hortensius</cell> + <cell>640</cell> + <cell>703</cell> + </row> + <row> + <cell>Cicero</cell> + <cell>647</cell> + <cell>710</cell> + </row> + </table> + </else> + </pgIf> + +<pb n='A-61'/><anchor id='PgA61'/> +</div><div> + <index index="toc" level1="Index"/><index index="pdf" level1="Index"/> +<head>INDEX</head> + +<list> +<item>Afranius, his Comedies, vol. i. p. 170.</item> + +<item> +Agriculture, advantages of Italy for, ii. <ref target="Pg006">6</ref>–<ref target="Pg011">11</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Antias, Q. Valerius, Latin Annalist, ii. <ref target="Pg074">74</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Antipater, Cælius, Latin Annalist, ii. <ref target="Pg072">72</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Antonius, Marcus, character of his eloquence, ii. <ref target="Pg117">117</ref>. +<list rend="nested"><item>His death, <ref target="Pg119">119</ref>.</item></list> +</item> + +<item> +Arcesilaus founds the New Academy, ii. <ref target="Pg208">208</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Asellio, Sempronius, Latin Annalist, ii. <ref target="Pg073">73</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Atellane Fables, i. 229. +</item> + +<item> +Attius, his Tragedies, i. 214. +</item> +</list><list> +<item> +Brutus, his Historical Epitomes, ii. <ref target="Pg107">107</ref>. +</item> +</list><list> +<item> +Cæcilius, his Comedies, i. 168. +</item> + +<item> +Cæcina, his history, ii. <ref target="Pg108">108</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Cæsar compared with Xenophon, ii. <ref target="Pg094">94</ref>. +<list rend="nested"><item>His Commentaries, <ref target="Pg095">95</ref>–<ref target="Pg101">101</ref>.</item> +<item>His Ephemeris, whether the same work with his Commentaries, <ref target="Pg101">101</ref>.</item> +<item>His Anticatones, <ref target="Pg102">102</ref>.</item> +<item>His Analogia, <ref target="Pg103">103</ref>.</item> +</list></item> + +<item> +Calvus, Licinius, his Epigrams, i. 322. +<list rend="nested"><item>His orations, ii. <ref target="Pg131">131</ref>.</item></list> +</item> + +<item> +Carmen Saliare, i. 43. +</item> + +<item> +Carneades teaches the Greek philosophy at Rome, ii. <ref target="Pg211">211</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Cato, the Censor, his work on Agriculture, ii. <ref target="Pg012">12</ref>–<ref target="Pg016">16</ref>. +<list rend="nested"><item>His Orations, <ref target="Pg016">16</ref>.</item> +<item>His work De Originibus, <ref target="Pg018">18</ref>.</item> +<item>On Medicine, <ref target="Pg020">20</ref>–<ref target="Pg021">21</ref>.</item> +</list></item> + +<item> +Catullus, i. 271–320. +</item> + +<item> +Cethegus, Marcus, an orator, ii. <ref target="Pg110">110</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Cicero, his Orations, ii. <ref target="Pg152">152</ref>. +<list rend="nested"><item>Compared with Demosthenes, <ref target="Pg192">192</ref>.</item> +<item>His works on Rhetoric, <ref target="Pg193">193</ref>.</item> +<item>De Oratore, <ref target="Pg195">195</ref>.</item> +<item>Brutus, <ref target="Pg198">198</ref>.</item> +<item>The Orator, <ref target="Pg199">199</ref>.</item> +<item>Topica, <ref target="Pg200">200</ref>.</item> +<item>Rhetorica ad Herennium, inquiry concerning the author of, <ref target="Pg202">202</ref>.</item> +<item>His philosophical works—De Legibus, <ref target="Pg223">223</ref>.</item> +<item>De Finibus, <ref target="Pg229">229</ref>.</item> +<item>Academica, <ref target="Pg232">232</ref>.</item> +<item>Tusculanæ Disputationes, <ref target="Pg236">236</ref>.</item> +<item>De <anchor id="corra61"/><corr sic="Natura">Naturâ</corr> Deorum, <ref target="Pg243">243</ref>.</item> +<item>De Officiis, <ref target="Pg257">257</ref>.</item> +<item>De Senectute, <ref target="Pg259">259</ref>.</item> +<item>De Republica, <ref target="Pg263">263</ref>.</item> +<item>His Epistles, <ref target="Pg278">278</ref>.</item> +</list></item> + +<item> +Columna Rostrata, inscription on the, i. 46. +</item> + +<item> +Cotta, his style of oratory, ii. <ref target="Pg122">122</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Crassus, Lucius, character of his eloquence, ii. <ref target="Pg120">120</ref>. +<list rend="nested"><item>His death, <ref target="Pg120">ibid.</ref></item> +<item>Compared with Antony, <ref target="Pg121">121</ref>.</item> +</list></item> +</list><list> +<item> +Decemviral Laws, ii. <ref target="Pg134">134</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Dialogue, remarks on this species of composition, ii. <ref target="Pg194">194</ref>. +</item> +</list><list> +<item> +Eloquence, Roman, commencement of, ii. <ref target="Pg109">109</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Ennius, his tragedies, i. 67. +<list rend="nested"><item>Annals, 78.</item> +<item>Translation of Euhemerus, 94.</item> +</list></item> + +<item> +Etruscans, their origin, i. 20. +<list rend="nested"><item>Their conquests, 26.</item> +<item>Religion, 29.</item> +<item>Arts, 35.</item> +</list></item> + +<item> +Eugubian Tables, i. 47. +</item> + +<pb n='A-62'/><anchor id='PgA62'/> +</list><list> +<item> +Fabius Pictor, Latin Annalist, ii. <ref target="Pg067">67</ref>–<ref target="Pg071">71</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Fratres Arvales, hymn of the, i. 43. +</item> +</list><list> +<item> +Galba, Sergius, an orator, ii. <ref target="Pg110">110</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Gracchi, oratory of the, ii. <ref target="Pg113">113</ref>. +</item> +</list><list> +<item> +Hirtius, his continuation of Cæsar’s Commentaries, ii. <ref target="Pg105">105</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +History, Roman, uncertainty of, ii. <ref target="Pg057">57</ref>–<ref target="Pg067">67</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Hortensius, his luxury and magnificence, ii. <ref target="Pg124">124</ref>. +<list rend="nested"><item>His villas at Tusculum, Bauli, and Laurentum, <ref target="Pg124">124</ref>, +<ref target="Pg125">125</ref>.</item> +<item>Character of his eloquence, <ref target="Pg127">127</ref>.</item> +<item>His descendants, <ref target="notep130">130, Note</ref>.</item> +</list></item> +</list><list> +<item> +Jurisconsults, Roman, account of, ii. <ref target="Pg138">138</ref>. +</item> +</list><list> +<item> +Laberius, i. 328. +</item> + +<item> +Lælius, his oratory compared with that of Scipio, ii. <ref target="Pg111">111</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Latin Language, its origin, i. 32. +<list rend="nested"><item>Its changes, 48.</item></list> +</item> + +<item> +Laws, Roman, ii. <ref target="Pg133">133</ref>–<ref target="Pg138">138</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Leges Regiæ, ii. <ref target="Pg133">133</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Livius Andronicus, i. 54–58. +</item> + +<item> +Lucceius, his History of the Social War, ii. <ref target="Pg107">107</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Lucilius, i. 238–248. +</item> + +<item> +Lucretius, i. 250–271. +</item> + +<item> +Lucullus, his patronage of learning, ii. <ref target="Pg051">51</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Luscius Lavinius, i. 171. +</item> +</list><list> +<item> +Magna Græcia, its settlements, i. 50. +</item> + +<item> +Mimes, their origin and subjects, i. 324. +</item> +</list><list> +<item> +Nævius, i. 58–62. +</item> +</list><list> +<item> +Pacuvius, i. 209. +</item> + +<item> +Plautus, i. 96–168. +</item> + +<item> +Philosophy, Greek, introduction of, at Rome, ii. <ref target="Pg209">209</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Plebiscita, account of the, ii. <ref target="Pg136">136</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Prætor, account of the office of, ii. <ref target="Pg141">141</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Publius Syrus, i. 332. +</item> +</list><list> +<item> +Quadrigarius, Claudius, Latin Annalist, ii. <ref target="Pg073">73</ref>. +</item> +</list><list> +<item> +Sallust, his character, ii. <ref target="Pg082">82</ref>. +<list rend="nested"><item>His Gardens, <ref target="Pg082">ibid.</ref></item> +<item>His conspiracy of Catiline, and Jugurthine war, <ref target="Pg084">84</ref>–<ref target="Pg088">88</ref>.</item> +<item>His Roman History, <ref target="Pg092">92</ref>.</item> +</list></item> + +<item> +Satire, Roman, origin of, i. 232. +</item> + +<item> +Senatusconsultum, what, ii. <ref target="Pg137">137</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Sisenna, Roman Annalist, ii. <ref target="Pg075">75</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Sulpicius, his worthless character, ii. <ref target="Pg121">121</ref>. +<list rend="nested"><item>His style of oratory, <ref target="Pg122">122</ref>.</item></list> +</item> + +<item> +Sylla, his library, ii. <ref target="Pg050">50</ref>. +<list rend="nested"><item>His Memoirs of his Life, <ref target="Pg077">77</ref>.</item> +<item>His character, <ref target="Pg078">78</ref>.</item> +</list></item> +</list><list> +<item> +Terence, i. 175–206. +<list rend="nested"><item>Compared with Plautus, 206.</item></list> +</item> + +<item> +Theatre, Roman, its construction, i. 337–353. +</item> + +<item> +<anchor id="corr348"/><corr sic="Tirannio">Tyrannio</corr>, his library, ii. <ref target="Pg052">52</ref>. +</item> + +<item> +Trabea, i. 173. +</item> +</list><list> +<item> +Varro, his farms and villas, ii. <ref target="Pg025">25</ref>. +<list rend="nested"><item>His work on Agriculture, <ref target="Pg028">28</ref>–<ref target="Pg034">34</ref>.</item> +<item>De Lingua Latina, <ref target="Pg034">34</ref>.</item> +<item>Other works of Varro, <ref target="Pg040">40</ref>.</item> +</list></item> +</list> +<p rend="text-align: center; margin-top: 2"> +FINIS. +</p> + +<p rend="margin-top: 2; font-size: small"> +JAMES KAY, JUN. PRINTER. +</p> + </div> + + <div> + <pgIf output="pdf"> + <then></then> + <else> + <div id="footnotes" rend="page-break-before: right"> + <head>Footnotes</head> + <divGen type="footnotes" /> + </div> + </else> + </pgIf> + </div> + <div rend="page-break-before: right; x-class: boxed"> + <index index="toc" level1="Transcriber's note"/><index index="pdf" level1="Transcriber's note"/> + <head>Transcriber’s Note</head> + <p>The table of contents has been added in the electronic version.</p> + <p>The appendix is paginated separately. The page numbers of the appendix have been + prefixed with <q>A-</q>.</p> + <p><q>Ibid.</q> is sometimes printed in italics, sometimes not.</p> + <p>In the original, the Appendix was printed in a smaller font.</p> + <p>The book has many inconsistencies in spelling, capitalization or punctuation, + especially in the quotations from foreign languages, + where sometimes diacritical signs are missing or wrong. + They were not corrected or modernized, except in the following places which can be regarded as printing errors.</p> + <list> + <item><ref target="corr008">page 8</ref>, <q>Liv.</q> changed to <q>Lib.</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr016">page 16</ref>, <q>Appian</q> changed to <q>Oppian</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr022">page 22</ref>, <q>from</q> added before <q>the city</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr022a">page 22</ref>, <q>questiones</q> changed to <q>quæstiones</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr023">page 23</ref>, <q>Cumae</q> changed to <q>Cumæ</q>, <q>sylvae</q> to <q>sylvæ</q>, + <q>villae</q> to <q>villæ</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr028">page 28</ref>, <q>edile</q> changed to <q>ædile</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr032">page 32</ref>, <q>Edile</q> changed to <q>Ædile</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr040">page 40</ref>, <q>Theatreales</q> changed to <q>Theatrales</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr042">page 42</ref>, quote added following <q>vitâ.</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr057">page 57</ref>, period removed following <q>Taciti</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr068">page 68</ref>, <q>vented</q> changed to <q>invented</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr068a">page 68</ref>, comma changed to period following <q>fables</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr071">page 71</ref>, <q>givi g</q> changed to <q>giving</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr071a">page 71</ref>, <q>c.</q> added before <q>53</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr083">page 83</ref>, italics removed from second <q>Sat.</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr087">page 87</ref>, <q>Sullust’s</q> changed to <q>Sallust’s</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr091">page 91</ref>, <q>a</q> changed to <q>à</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr093">page 93</ref>, period added following <q>unsuccessfully</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr117">page 117</ref>, <q>appropiate</q> changed to <q>appropriate</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr128">page 128</ref>, <q>restain</q> changed to <q>restrain</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr128a">page 128</ref>, period removed following <q>Dio</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr129">page 129</ref>, <q>alnost</q> changed to <q>almost</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr133">page 133</ref>, period added following <q>patrician</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr139">page 139</ref>, <q>coepissent</q> changed to <q>cœpissent</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr177">page 177</ref>, period added following <q>court</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr178">page 178</ref>, <q>Phillippic</q> changed to <q>Philippic</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr188">page 188</ref>, <q>á</q> changed to <q>à</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr191">page 191</ref>, <q>Bnt</q> changed to <q>But</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr195">page 195</ref>, <q>occured</q> changed to <q>occurred</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr204">page 204</ref>, <q>Praef.</q> changed to <q>Præf.</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr210">page 210</ref>, <q>whe</q> changed to <q>who</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr211">page 211</ref>, comma added following <q>Scipio</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr218">page 218</ref>, <q>a</q> added before <q>philosopher</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr220">page 220</ref>, quote added following <q>abundo</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr233">page 233</ref>, <q>fron</q> changed to <q>from</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr237">page 237</ref>, <q>rerepresenting</q> changed to <q>representing</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr241">page 241</ref>, <q>Metullus</q> changed to <q>Metellus</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr246">page 246</ref>, <q>phiosopher</q> changed to <q>philosopher</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr253">page 253</ref> and <ref target="corra61">A-61</ref>, <q>Natura</q> changed to <q>Naturâ</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr253a">page 253</ref>, quote added following <q>scribere.</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr262">page 262</ref>, quote added following <q>father.</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr268a">page 268</ref>, double <q>their</q> removed before <q>known characters</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr268">page 268</ref>, quote added following <q>wisdom.</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr272">page 272</ref>, <q>praebituram</q> changed to <q>præbituram</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr279">page 279</ref>, <q>Cœlius</q> changed to <q>Cælius</q> (twice)</item> + <item><ref target="corr284">page 284</ref>, <q>betwen</q> changed to <q>between</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr285a">page 285</ref>, <q>latinity</q> changed to <q>Latinity</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr285">page 285</ref>, <q>appellatæ</q> changed to <q>appellate</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr289">page A-3</ref>, italics removed from <q>Ep.</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr289a">page A-3</ref>, period removed following <q>Ad</q>, <q>Schutz</q> changed to <q>Schütz</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr291">page A-5</ref>, period added following <q>Epist</q> and <q>Frat</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr298">page A-12</ref>, <q>Abbe</q> changed to <q>Abbé</q></item> + <item><ref target="corra17">page A-17</ref>, <q>Causaubon</q> changed to <q>Casaubon</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr303">page A-17</ref>, <q>seventh</q> changed to <q>seventeenth</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr305">page A-19</ref>, <q>Georenz</q> changed to <q>Goerenz</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr305a">page A-19</ref>, period added following <q>MSS</q></item> + <item><ref target="corra20">page A-20</ref>, apostroph added following <q>Scriverius</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr307">page A-21</ref>, <q>Hundbuch</q> changed to <q>Handbuch</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr314">page A-28</ref>, comma added following <q>Ginguené</q></item> + <item><ref target="corra29">page A-29</ref>, <q>Schmeider</q> changed to <q>Schmieder</q></item> + <item><ref target="corra30">page A-30</ref>, <q>Varard</q> changed to <q>Verard</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr317">page A-31</ref>, comma added following <q>Goujet</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr320">page A-34</ref>, period added following <q>MSS</q></item> + <item><ref target="corra44">page A-44</ref>, <q>edite</q> changed to <q>edit</q></item> + <item><ref target="corra49">page A-49</ref>, <q>Sweyn</q> changed to <q>Sweynheim</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr343">page A-57</ref>, <q>whch</q> changed to <q>which</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr345">page A-59</ref>, <q>Jenae</q> changed to <q>Jenæ</q></item> + <item><ref target="corr348">page A-62</ref>, <q>Tirannio</q> changed to <q>Tyrannio</q></item> + </list> + + <p>Some variant spellings were not changed (e. g. <q>Ferierres</q> and <q>Ferriers</q>, <q>truly</q> and <q>truely</q>).</p> + </div> + <div rend="page-break-before: right"> + <divGen type="pgfooter" /> + </div> + </back> + </text> +</TEI.2> |