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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9303-8.txt b/9303-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b4e78d9 --- /dev/null +++ b/9303-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14325 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Post-Augustan Poetry, by H.E. Butler + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: Post-Augustan Poetry + From Seneca to Juvenal + +Author: H.E. Butler + +Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9303] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on September 19, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK POST-AUGUSTAN POETRY *** + + + + +Produced by Keren Vergon, Tapio Riikonen, and PG Distributed Proofreaders. + + + + +POST-AUGUSTAN POETRY + +From Seneca to Juvenal + +By + +H.E. BUTLER, Fellow of New College + + + +PREFACE + + +I have attempted in this book to provide something of an introduction +to the poetical literature of the post-Augustan age. Although few of +the writers dealt with have any claim to be called poets of the first +order, and some stand very low in the scale of poetry, as a whole the +poets of this period have suffered greater neglect than they deserve. +Their undeniable weaknesses tend in many cases to obscure their real +merits, with the result that they are at times either ignored or +subjected to unduly sweeping condemnation. I have attempted in these +pages to detach and illustrate their excellences without in any way +passing over their defects. + +Manilius and Phaedrus have been omitted on the ground that as regards +the general character of their writings they belong rather to the +Augustan period than to the subsequent age of decadence. Manilius indeed +composed a considerable portion of his work during the lifetime of +Augustus, while Phaedrus, though somewhat later in date, showed a +sobriety of thought and an antique simplicity of style that place him at +least a generation away from his contemporaries. The authorities to +whose works I am indebted are duly acknowledged in the course of the +work. I owe a special debt, however, to those great works of reference, +the Histories of Roman Literature by Schanz and Teuffel, to +Friedländer's _Sittengeschichte_, and, for the chapters on Lucan and +Statius, to Heitland's _Introduction to Haskin's edition of Lucan_ and +Legras' _Thébaïde de Stace_. I wish particularly to express my +indebtedness to Professor Gilbert Murray and Mr. Nowell Smith, who read +the book in manuscript and made many valuable suggestions and +corrections. I also have to thank Mr. A.S. Owen for much assistance in +the corrections of the proofs. + +My thanks are owing to Professor Goldwin Smith for permission to print +translations from 'Bay Leaves', and to Mr. A.E. Street and Mr. F.J. +Miller and their publishers, for permission to quote from their +translations of Martial (Messrs. Spottiswoode) and Seneca (Chicago +University Press) respectively. + +H.E. BUTLER. + +_November_, 1908. + + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER I + +THE DECLINE OF POST-AUGUSTAN POETRY + +Main characteristics, p. 1. +The influence of the principate, p. 1. +Tiberius, p. 2. +Caligula, p. 4. +Claudius, p. 5. +Nero, p. 6. +Decay of Roman character, p. 9. +Peculiar nature of Roman literature, p. 10. +Greatness of Augustan poets a bar to farther advance, p. 11. +Roman education: literary, p. 12; + rhetorical, p. 14. +Absence of true educational spirit, p. 16. +Recitations, p. 18. +Results of these influences, p. 19. + +CHAPTER II + +DRAMA + +i. THE STAGE. +Drama never really flourishing at Rome, p. 23. +Comedy, represented by Mime and Atellan farce, p. 24. +Legitimate comedy nearly extinct, p. 25. +Tragedy replaced by _salticae fabulae_, p. 26; + or musical recitations, p. 28. +Pomponius Secundus, p. 29. +Curiatius Maternus, p. 30. + +ii. SENECA: his life and character, p. 31. +His position in literature, p. 35. +His epigrams, p. 36. +His plays, p. 39. +Their genuineness, p. 40. +The _Octavia, Oedipus, Agamemnon,_ and _Hercules Oetaeus,_ p. 41. +Date of the plays, p. 43. +Their dramatic value, p. 44. +Plot, p. 45. +Descriptions, p. 48. +Declamation, p. 49; + at its best in _Troades_ and _Phaedra_, p. 51. +Dialogue, p. 55. +Stoicism, p. 58. +Poetry (confined mainly to lyrics), p. 63. +Cleverness of the rhetoric, p. 65. +_Sententiae_, p. 68. +Hyperbole, p. 69. +Diction and metre; iambics, p. 70; + lyrics, p. 71. +Plays not written for the stage, p. 72. +Influence on later drama, p. 74. + +iii. THE OCTAVIA. Sole example of _fabula praetexta_, p. 74. + +Plot, p. 75. +Characteristics, p. 76. +Date and authorship, p. 77. + +CHAPTER III + +PERSIUS + +Life, p. 79. +Works, p. 81. +Influence of Lucilius, p. 83; + of Horace, p. 84. +Obscurity, p. 85. +Qualifications necessary for a satirist; Persius' weakness through + lack of them, p. 87. +Success in purely literary satire, p. 88. +Lack of close observation of life, p. 90. +Persius' nobility of character, p. 91. +His Stoicism, p. 93. +His capacity for friendship, p. 95. + +CHAPTER IV + +LUCAN + +Life, p. 97. +Minor works, p. 99. +His choice of a subject, p. 101, +Choice of epic methods, p. 102. +Petronius' criticism of historical epic, p. 103. +Difficulties of the subject, p. 104. +Design of the poem, p. 106. +Characters: Pompey, p. 106. +Caesar, p. 108. +Cato, p. 109. +Descriptive passages, p. 112. +Hyperbole, p. 115. +Irrelevance, p. 116. +Lack of poetic vocabulary, p. 116. +Tendency to political satire, p. 117. +Speeches, p. 120. +_Sententiae,_ p. 122. +Metre, p. 123. +Summary, p. 123. + +CHAPTER V + +PETRONIUS + +Authorship of _Satyricon:_ character of Titus Petronius, p. 125. +Literary criticism, p. 127. +Attack on contemporary rhetoric, p. 128. +Eumolpus the poet, p. 129; +laments the decay of art, p. 130. +Poem on the Sack of Troy, p. 130. +Criticism of historical epic, p. 131. +The poetic fragments, p. 133. +Epigrams, p. 134. +Question of genuineness, p. 135. +Their high poetic level, p. 136. + +CHAPTER VI + +MINOR POETRY, 14-69 A.D. + +I. DIDACTIC POETRY + +i. THE AETNA. Its design, p. 140. +Characteristics of the poem, p. 141. +Authorship, p. 143. +Date, p. 145. + +ii. COLUMELLA. Life and works, p. 146. +His tenth book, a fifth Georgic on gardening, p. 147. +His enthusiasm and descriptive power, p. 148. + +II. CALPURNIUS SICULUS, THE EINSIEDELN FRAGMENTS, AND THE + PANEGYRICUS IN PISONEM + +Pastoral poetry, p. 150. +Calpurnius Siculus; date, p. 151. +Who was he? p. 152. +Debt to Vergil, p. 152. +Elaboration of style, p. 153. +Obscurity, affectation and insignificance, p. 154. +Einsiedeln fragments; was the author Calpurnius Piso? p. 156. +_Panegyricus in Pisonem,_ p. 157. +Graceful elaboration, p. 158. +Was the author Calpurnius Siculus? p. 159. + +III. ILIAS LATINA + +Early translations of _Iliad,_ p. 160. +Attius Labeo, p. 160. Polybius p. 161. +_Ilias Latina,_ a summary in verse, p. 161. +Date, p. 162. Authorship: the question of the acrostic, p. 162. +Wrongly attributed to Silius Italicus. p. 163. + +IV. MINOR POETS + +Gaetulicus, p. 163. +Caesius Bassua, p. 164. + +CHAPTER VII + +EMPERORS AND MINOR POETS, 70-117 A.D. + +I. EMPERORS AND POETS WHOSE WORKS ARE LOST + +Vespasian and Titus, p. 166. +Domitian. The Agon Capitolinus and Agon Albanus, p. 167. +Literary characteristics of the Flavian age, p. 168. +Saleius Bassus, Serranus, and others, p. 169. +Nerva, p. 169. +Trajan, p. 170. +Passennus Paulus, p. 170. +Sentius Augurinus, p. 171. +Pliny the Younger, p. 172. +Almost entire disappearance of poetry after Hadrian. p. 174. + +II. SULPICIA + +Sulpicia, a lyric poetess, p. 174. +Martial's admiration for her, p. 175. +Characteristics of her work, p. 176. +Her Satire, p. 176. +Is it genuine? p. 177. + +CHAPTER VIII + +VALERIUS FLACCUS + +Epic in the Flavian age, p. 179. +Who was Valerius? His date, p. 180. +The _Argonautica_, unfinished, p. 181. +Its general design, p. 182. +Merits and defects of the Argonaut-saga as a subject for epic, p. 183. +Valerius' debt to Apollonius Rhodius, p. 183. +Novelties introduced in treatment; Jason, p. 184; +Medea, p. 185. +Valerius has a better general conception as to how the story should be + told, but is far inferior as a poet, p. 186. +Obscure learning; lack of humour, p. 187. +Involved language, p. 188. +Preciosity; compression, p. 189. +Real poetic merit: compared with Statius and Lucan, p. 191. +Debt to Vergil, p. 191. +Metre, p. 192. +Brilliant descriptive power, p. 193. +Suggestion of mystery, p. 193. +Sense of colour, p. 195. +Similes, p. 195. +Speeches, p. 197. +The loves of Jason and Medea, p. 198. +General estimate, p. 200. + +CHAPTER IX + +STATIUS + +Life, p. 202. +Character, p. 205. +The _Thebais_; its high average level, p. 206. +Statius a miniature painter, p, 207. +Weakness of the Theban-saga as a subject for epic, p. 208. +Consequent lack of proportion and unity in _Thebais_, p. 210. +Vergil too closely imitated, p. 211. +Digressions, p. 212. +Character-drawing superficial, p. 213. +Tydeus, p. 214. +Amphiaraus, p. 216. +Parthenopaeus and other characters, p. 218. +Atmosphere that of literature rather than life, p. 220. +Fine descriptive passages, p. 221. +Dexterity, often degenerating into preciosity, p. 224. +Similes, p. 225. +Metre, p. 226. +The _Achilleis_, p. 227. +The _Silvae_, p. 227. +Flattery of Domitian, p. 228. +Extraordinary preciosity, p. 229. +Prettiness and insincerity, p. 230. +Brilliant miniature-painting, p. 232. +The _Genethliacon Lucani_, p. 233. +Invocation to Sleep, p. 234. +Conclusion, p. 235. + +CHAPTER X + +SILIUS ITALlCUS + +Life, p. 236. +Weakness of historical epic, p. 238. +Disastrous intrusion of mythology, p. 239. +Plagiarism from Vergil, p. 240. +Skill in composition of early books, p. 240. +Inadequate treatment of closing scenes of the war, p. 241. +The characters, p. 241. +Total absence of any real poetic gifts, p. 242. +Regulus, p. 244. +The death of Paulus, p. 246. +Fabius Cunctator, p. 247. +Conclusion, p. 249. + +CHAPTER XI + +MARTIAL + +Life, p. 251. +The epigram, p. 258. +Martial's temperament, p. 259. +Gift of style, p. 260. +Satirical tone, good-humoured and non-moral, p. 261. +Obscenity, p. 263. +Capacity for friendship, p. 264. +His dislike of Rome, p. 267. +His love of the country, p. 268. +Comparison with Silvae of Statius, p. 271. +Flattery of Domitian, p. 271. +Laments for the dead, p. 272. +Emotion as a rule sacrificed to point, p. 275. +The laureate of triviality, p. 276. +Martial as a client, p. 277. +His snobbery, p. 279. +Redeeming features; polish and wit, p. 281. +The one perfect post-Augustan stylist, p. 284. +Vivid picture of contemporary society, p. 285. + +CHAPTER XII + +JUVENAL + +Life, p. 287. +Date of satires, p. 289. +Motives (Sat, i), p. 291. +Themes of the various satires; third satire, p. 293; + fourth, fifth, and sixth satires, p. 294; + seventh and eighth satires; signs of waning power, p. 295; + tenth satire, p. 296; + eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth satires, p. 297; + fifteenth and sixteenth satires, showing further decline of + power, p. 298. +Juvenal's narrow Roman ideals; hatred of the foreigner, p. 299. +Exaggeration, p. 301. +Coarseness, p. 303. +Vividness of description, p. 304. +Mordant epigram and rhetoric, p. 308. +Moral and religious ideals, p. 311. +_Sententiae_, p. 315. +Poetry, p. 316. +Metre, p. 317. +The one great poet of the Silver Age, p. 317. + +INDEX OF NAMES, p. 321 + +FOOTNOTES + + + +CHAPTER I + + +THE DECLINE OF POST-AUGUSTAN POETRY + +During the latter years of the principate of Augustus a remarkable +change in literary methods and style begins to make itself felt. The +gradual extinction of the great luminaries is followed by a gradual +disappearance of originality and of the natural and easy-flowing style +whose phrases and felicities adorn, without overloading or obscuring the +sense. In their place comes a straining after effect, a love of +startling colour, produced now by over-gorgeous or over-minute imagery, +now by a surfeit of brilliant epigram, while controlling good sense and +observance of due proportion are often absent and imitative preciosity +too frequently masquerades as originality. Further, in too many cases +there is a complete absence of moral enthusiasm, close observation, and +genuine insight. + +What were the causes of this change? Was it due mainly to the evil +influence of the principate or to more subtle and deep-rooted causes? + +The principate had been denounced as the _fons et origo mali_.[1] That +its influence was for evil can hardly be denied. But it was rather a +symptom, an outward and visible sign of a deep-engrained decay, which it +accentuated and brought to the surface, but in no way originated. We are +told that the principate 'created around itself the quiet of the +graveyard, since all independence was compelled under threat of death to +hypocritical silence or subterfuge; servility alone was allowed to +speak; the rest submitted to what was inevitable, nay, even endeavoured +to accommodate their minds to it as much as possible.' Even if this +highly coloured statement were true, the influence of such tyrannical +suppression of free thinking and free speaking could only have +_directly_ affected certain forms of literature, such as satire, recent +history,[2] and political oratory, while even in these branches of +literature a wide field was left over which an intending author might +safely range. The _direct_ influence on poetry must have been +exceedingly small. If we review the great poets of the Augustan and +republican periods, we shall find little save certain epigrams of +Catullus that could not safely have been produced in post-Augustan +times. Moreover, when we turn to what is actually known of the attitude +of the early emperors towards literature, the balance does not seriously +incline against them. It may be said without hesitation of the four +emperors succeeding Augustus that they had a genuine taste and some +capacity for literature. + +Of two only is it true that their influence was in any way repressive. +The principate of Tiberius is notorious for the silence of literature; +whether the fact is due as much to the character of Tiberius as to the +temporary exhaustion of genius following naturally on the brilliance of +the Augustan period, is more than doubtful. But Tiberius cannot be +acquitted of all blame. The cynical humour with which it pleased him to +mark the steady advance of autocracy, the _lentae maxillae_ which +Augustus attributed to his adopted son,[3] the icy and ironic cruelty +which was--on the most favourable estimate--a not inconsiderable element +in his character, no doubt all exercised a chilling influence, not only +on politics but on all spontaneous expression of human character. +Further, we find a few instances of active and cruel repression. +Lampoons against the emperor were punished with death.[4] Cremutius +Cordus was driven to suicide for styling 'Brutus and Cassius the last of +all the Romans'.[5] Mamercus Scaurus had the misfortune to write a +tragedy on the subject of Atreus in which he advised submission to +Atreus in a version of the Euripidean + + [Greek: tas t_on turann_on amathias pherein chre_on][6] + +He too fell a victim to the Emperor's displeasure, though the chief +charges actually brought against him were of adultery with the Princess +Livilla and practice of the black art. We hear also of another case in +which _obiectum est poetae quod in tragoedia Agamemnonem probris +lacessisset_ (Suet. _Tib_. 61). It is worthy of notice that actors also +came under Tiberius's displeasure.[7] The mime and the Atellan farce +afforded too free an opportunity for improvisation against the emperor. +Even the harmless Phaedrus seems to have incurred the anger of Sejanus, +and to have suffered thereby.[8] Nor do the few instances in which +Tiberius appears as a patron of literature fill us with great respect +for his taste. He is said to have given one Asellius Sabinus 100,000 +sesterces for a dialogue between a mushroom, a finch, an oyster, and a +thrush,[9] and to have rewarded a worthless writer,[10] Clutorius +Priscus, for a poem composed on the death of Germanicus. On the other +hand, he seems to have had a sincere love of literature,[11] though he +wrote in a crabbed and affected style. He was a purist in language with +a taste for archaism,[12] left a brief autobiography[13] and dabbled in +poetry, writing epigrams,[14] a lyric _conquestio de morte Lucii +Caesaris_[15] and Greek imitations of Euphorion, Rhianus, and +Parthenius, the learned poets of Alexandria. His taste was bad: he went +even farther than his beloved Alexandrians, awaking the laughter of his +contemporaries even in an age when obscure mythological learning was at +a premium. The questions which delighted him were--'Who was the mother +of Hecuba?' 'What was the name of Achilles when disguised as a girl?' +'What did the sirens sing?'[16] Literature had little to learn from +Tiberius, but it should have had something to gain from the fact that he +was not blind to its charms: at the worst it cannot have required +abnormal skill to avoid incurring a charge of _lèse-majesté_. + +The reign of the lunatic Caligula is of small importance, thanks to its +extreme brevity. For all his madness he had considerable ability; he was +ready of speech to a remarkable degree, though his oratory suffered from +extravagant ornament[17] and lack of restraint. He had, however, some +literary insight: in his description of Seneca's rhetoric as _merae +commissiones_, 'prize declamations,' and 'sand without lime' he gave an +admirable summary of that writer's chief weaknesses.[18] But he would in +all probability have proved a greater danger to literature than +Tiberius. It is true that in his desire to compare favourably with his +predecessors he allowed the writings of T. Labienus, Cremutius Cordus, +and Cassius Severus, which had fallen under the senate's ban in the two +preceding reigns, to be freely circulated once more.[19] But he by no +means abandoned trials for _lèse-majesté_. The rhetorician Carinas +Secundus was banished on account of an imprudent phrase in a _suasoria_ +on the hackneyed theme of tyrannicide.[20] A writer of an Atellan farce +was burned to death in the amphitheatre[21] for a treasonable jest, and +Seneca narrowly escaped death for having made a brilliant display of +oratory in the senate.[22] He also seriously meditated the destruction +of the works of Homer. Plato had banished Homer from his ideal state. +Why should not Caligula? He was with difficulty restrained from doing +the like for Vergil and Livy. The former, he said, was a man of little +learning and less wit;[23] the latter was verbose and careless. Even +when he attempted to encourage literature, his eccentricity carried him +to such extremes that the competitors shrank in horror from entering the +lists. He instituted a contest at Lugudunum in which prizes were offered +for declamations in Greek and Latin. The prizes were presented to the +victors by the vanquished, who were ordered to write panegyrics in +honour of their successful rivals, while in cases where the declamations +were decided to be unusually poor, the unhappy authors were ordered to +obliterate their writings with a sponge or even with their own tongues, +under penalty of being caned or ducked in the Rhone.[24] + +Literature had some reason to be thankful for his early assassination. +The lunatic was succeeded by a fool, but a learned fool. Claudius was +historian, antiquary, and philologist. He wrote two books on the civil +war, forty-one on the principate of Augustus, a defence of Cicero, eight +books of autobiography,[25] an official diary,[26] a treatise on +dicing.[27] To this must be added his writings in Greek, twenty books of +Etruscan history, eight of Carthaginian,[28] together with a comedy +performed and crowned at Naples in honour of the memory of +Germanicus.[29] His style, according to Suetonius, was _magis ineptus +quam inelegans_.[30] He did more than write: he attempted a reform of +spelling, by introducing three new letters into the Latin alphabet. His +enthusiasm and industry were exemplary. Such indeed was his activity +that a special office,[31] _a studiis_, was established, which was +filled for the first time by the influential freedman Polybius. Claudius +lacked the saving grace of good sense, but in happier days might have +been a useful professor: at any rate his interest in literature was +whole-hearted and disinterested. His own writing was too feeble to +influence contemporaries for ill and he had the merit of having given +literature room to move. Seneca might mock at him after his death,[32] +but he had done good service. + +Nero, Claudius' successor, was also a liberal, if embarrassing, patron +of literature. His tastes were more purely literary. He had received an +elaborate and diversified education. He had even enjoyed the privilege +of having Seneca--the head of the literary profession--for his tutor. +These influences were not wholly for the good: Agrippina dissuaded him +from the study of philosophy as being unsuited for a future emperor, +Seneca from the study of earlier and saner orators that he might himself +have a longer lease of Nero's admiration.[33] The result was that a +temperament, perhaps falsely styled artistic,[34] was deprived of the +solid nutriment required to give it stability. Nero's great ambition was +to be supreme in poetry and art as he was supreme in empire. He composed +rapidly and with some technical skill,[35] but his work lacked +distinction, connexion of thought, and unity of style.[36] Satirical[37] +and erotic[38] epigrams, learned mythological poems on Attis and the +Bacchae,[39] all flowed from his pen. But his most famous works were his +_Troica_,[40] an epic on the Trojan legend, which he recited before the +people in the theatre,[41] and his [Greek: Iion al_osis], which may +perhaps have been included in the _Troica_, and is famous as having--so +scandal ran--been declaimed over burning Rome.[42] But his ambition +soared higher. He contemplated an epic on the whole of Roman history. It +was estimated that 400 books would be required. The Stoic Annaeus +Cornutus justly remarked that no one would read so many. It was pointed +out that the Stoic's master, Chrysippus, had written even more. 'Yes,' +said Cornutus, 'but they were of some use to humanity.' Cornutus was +banished, but he saved Rome from the epic. Nero was also prolific in +speeches and, proud of his voice, often appeared on the stage. He +impersonated Orestes matricida, Canace parturiens, Oedipus blind, and +Hercules mad.[43] It is not improbable that the words declaimed or sung +in these scenes were composed by Nero himself.[44] For the encouragement +of music and poetry he had established quinquennial games known as the +Neronia. How far his motives for so doing were interested it is hard to +say. But there is no doubt that he had a passionate ambition to win the +prize at the contest instituted by himself. In A.D. 60, on the first +occasion of the celebration of these games, the prize was won by Lucan +with a poem in praise of Nero.[45] Vacca, in his life of Lucan, states +that this lost him Nero's favour, the emperor being jealous of his +success. The story is demonstrably false,[46] but that Nero subsequently +became jealous of Lucan is undoubted. Till Lucan's fame was assured, +Nero extended his favour to him: then partly through Lucan's extreme +vanity and want of tact, partly through Nero's jealousy of Lucan's +pre-eminence that favour was wholly withdrawn.[47] Nevertheless, though +Nero may have shown jealousy of successful rivals, he seems to have had +sufficient respect for literature to refrain from persecution. He did +not go out of his way to punish personal attacks on himself. If names +were delated to the senate on such a charge, he inclined to mercy. Even +the introduction into an Atellan farce of jests on the deaths of +Claudius and Agrippina was only punished with exile.[48] Only after the +detection of Piso's conspiracy in 65 did his anger vent itself on +writers: towards the end of his reign the distinguished authors, +Virginius Flavus and the Stoic Musonius Rufus, were both driven into +exile. As for the deaths of Seneca and Lucan, the two most distinguished +writers of the day, though both perished at Nero's hands, it was their +conduct, not their writings, that brought them to destruction. Both were +implicated in the Pisonian conspiracy. If, then, Nero's direct influence +on literature was for the bad, it was not because he was adverse: it +suffered rather from his favour: the extravagant tastes of the princeps +and the many eccentricities of his life and character may perhaps find a +reflection in some of the more grotesque extravagances of Lucan, such +for instance as the absurdly servile dedication of the _Pharsalia_. But +even in this direction his influence was probably comparatively small. + +In view, then, of what is known of the attitude of the four emperors of +the period most critical for Silver Latin literature, the period of its +birth, it may be said that, on the worst estimate, their direct +influence is not an important factor in the decline.[49] On the other +hand, the indirect influence of the principate was beyond doubt evil. +Society was corrupt enough and public life sufficiently uninspiring +under Augustus. After the first glow of enthusiasm over the restoration +of peace and order, and over the vindication of the Roman power on the +frontiers of empire had passed away, men felt how thinly veiled was +their slavery. Liberty was gradually restricted, autocracy cast off its +mask: the sense of power that goes with freedom dwindled; little was +left to waken man's enthusiasm, and the servility exacted by the +emperors became more and more degrading. Unpleasing as are the +flatteries addressed to Augustus by Vergil and Horace, they fade into +insignificance compared with Lucan's apotheosis of Nero; or to take +later and yet more revolting examples, the poems of the Silvae addressed +by Statius to Domitian or his favourites. Further, these four emperors +of the Julio-Claudian dynasty set a low standard of private life: they +might command flattery, they could hardly exact respect. Two clever +lunatics, a learned fool, and a morose cynic are not inspiring. + +Nevertheless, however unhealthy its influence may have been--and there +has been much exaggeration on this point--it must be remembered that the +principate found ready to its hand a society with all the seeds of decay +implanted deep within it. Even a succession of sane and virtuous Caesars +might well have failed, with the machinery and material at their +disposal, to put new and vigorous life into the aristocracy and people +of Rome. Even the encroachments of despotism on popular liberty must be +attributed in no small degree to the incapacity of what should have been +the ruling class at Rome. Despotism was in a sense forced upon the +emperors: they were not reluctant, but, had they been so, they would +still have had little choice. The primary causes of the decline of +literature, as of the decay of life and morals, lie much deeper. The +influence of princeps and principate, though not negligible, is +_comparatively_ small. + +The really important causes are to be found first in the general decay +of Roman character--far-advanced before the coming of Caesarism, +secondly in the peculiar nature of Roman literature, and thirdly in the +vicious system of Roman education. + +It was the first of these factors that produced the lubricity that +defiles and the lack of moral earnestness that weakens such a large +proportion of the literature of this age. It is not necessary to +illustrate this point in any detail.[50] The record of Rome, alike in +home and foreign politics, during the hundred and twenty years preceding +the foundation of the principate forms one of the most fascinating, but +in many respects one of the most profoundly melancholy pages in history. +The poems of Catullus and the speeches of Cicero serve equally to +illustrate the wholesale corruption alike of public and private +morality. The Roman character had broken down before the gradual inroads +of an alien luxury and the opening of wide fields of empire to plunder. +It is an age of incredible scandal, of mob law, of _coups d'état_ and +proscriptions, saved only from utter gloom by the illusory light shed +from the figures of a few great men and by the never absent sense of +freedom and expansion. There still remained a republican liberty of +action, an inspiring possibility of reform, an outlet for personal +ambition, which facilitated the rise of great leaders and writers. And +Rome was now bringing to ripeness fruit sprung from the seed of +Hellenism, a decadent and meretricious Hellenism, but even in its decay +the greatest intellectual force of the world. + +Wonderful as was the fruit produced by the graft of Hellenism, it too +contained the seeds of decay. For Rome owed too little to early Greek +epic and to the golden literature of Athens, too much to the later age +when rhetoric had become a knack, and + + the love of letters overdone + Had swamped the sacred poets with themselves.[51] + +Roman literature came too late: that it reached such heights is a +remarkable tribute to the greatness of Roman genius, even in its +decline. With the exception of the satires of Lucilius and Horace there +was practically no branch of literature that did not owe its inspiration +and form to Greek models. Even the primitive national metre had died +out. Roman literature--more especially poetry--was therefore bound to be +unduly self-conscious and was always in danger of a lack of spontaneity. +That Rome produced great prose writers is not surprising; they had +copious and untouched material to deal with, and prose structure was +naturally less rapidly and less radically affected by Greek influence. +That she should have produced a Catullus, a Lucretius, a Vergil, a +Horace, and--most wonderful of all--an Ovid was an amazing achievement, +rendered not the less astonishing when it is remembered that the stern +bent of the practical Roman mind did not in earlier days give high +promise of poetry. The marvel is not wholly to be explained by the +circumstances of the age. The new sense of power, the revival of the +national spirit under the warming influence of peace and hope, that +characterize the brilliant interval between the fall of the republic and +the turbid stagnation of the empire, are not enough to account for it. +Their influence would have been in vain had they not found remarkable +genius ready for the kindling. + +The whole field of literature had been so thoroughly covered by the +great writers of Hellas, that it was hard for the imitative Roman to be +original. As far as epic poetry was concerned, Rome had poor material +with which to deal: neither her mythology--the most prosaic and +business-like of all mythologies--nor her history seemed to give any +real scope for the epic writer. The Greek mythology was ready to hand, +but it was hard for a Roman to treat it with high enthusiasm, and still +harder to handle it with freshness and individuality. The purely +historical epic is from its very nature doomed to failure. Treated with +accuracy it becomes prosy, treated with fancy it becomes ridiculous. +Vergil saw the one possible avenue to epic greatness. He went back into +the legendary past where imagination could have free play, linked +together the great heroic sagas of Greece with the scanty materials +presented by the prehistoric legends of Rome, and kindled the whole work +to life by his rich historical imagination and his sense of the grandeur +of the Rome that was to be. His unerring choice of subject and his +brilliant execution seemed to close to his successors all paths to epic +fame. They had but well-worn and inferior themes wherefrom to choose, +and the supremacy of Vergil's genius dominated their minds, becoming an +obsession and a clog rather than an assistance to such poetic genius as +they possessed. The same is true of Horace. As complete a master in +lyric verse as Vergil in heroic, he left the after-comer no possibility +of advance. As for Ovid, there could be only one Ovid: the cleverest and +most heartless of poets, he at once challenged and defied imitation. +Satire alone was left with real chance of success: while the human race +exists, there will always be fresh material for satire, and the imperial +age was destined to give it peculiar force and scope. Further, satire +and its nearest kin, the epigram, were the only forms of literature that +were not seriously impaired by the artificial system of education that +had struck root in Rome. + +Otherwise the tendency to artificiality on the one hand and inadequacy +of thought on the other, to which the conditions of its birth and growth +exposed Roman literature, were aggravated to an almost incredible extent +by the absurd system of education to which the unformed mind of the +young Roman was subjected. It will be seen that what Greece gave with +the right hand she took away with the left. + +There were three stages in Roman education, the elementary, the +literary, the rhetorical. The first, in which the _litterator_ taught +the three R's, does not concern us here. In the second stage the +_grammaticus_ gave instruction in Greek and Latin literature, together +with the elements of grammar and style. The profound influence of Greece +is shown by Quintilian's recommendation[52] that a boy should start on +Greek literature, and by the fact that boys began with Homer.[53] Greek +authors, particularly studied, were Aesop, Hesiod, the tragedians, and +Menander.[54] Among Roman authors Naevius, Ennius, Pacuvius, Accius, +Afranius, Plautus, Caecilius, and Terence were much read, though there +was a reaction against these early authors under the empire, and they +were partly replaced by Vergil, Horace, and Ovid.[55] These authors were +made vehicles for the teaching of grammar and of style. The latter point +alone concerns us here. The Roman boy was taught to read aloud +intelligently and artistically with the proper modulation of the voice. +For this purpose he was carefully taught the laws of metre, with special +reference to the peculiarities of particular poets. After the reading +aloud (_lectio_) came the _enarratio_ or explanation of the text. The +educational value of this was doubtless considerable, though it was +impaired by the importance assigned to obscure mythological knowledge +and unscientific archaeology.[56] The pupil would be further instructed +by exercises in paraphrase and by the treatment in simple essay form of +themes (_sententiae_). 'Great store was set both in speaking and writing +on a command of an abundance of general truths or commonplaces, and even +at school boys were trained to commit them to memory, to expand them, +and illustrate them from history.'[57] Finally they were taught to write +verse. Such at least is a legitimate inference from the extraordinary +precocity shown by many Roman authors.[58] This literary training +contained much that was of great value, but it also had grave +disadvantages. There seems in the first place to have been too much +'spoon-feeding', and too little genuine brain exercise for the +pupil.[59] Secondly, the fact that at this stage boys were nurtured +almost entirely on poetry requires serious consideration. The quality of +the food supplied to the mind, though pre-eminently palatable, must have +tended to be somewhat thin. The elaborate instruction in mythological +erudition was devoid of religious value; and indeed of any value, save +the training of a purely mechanical memory. Attention was called too +much to the form, too little to the substance. Style has its value, but +it is after all only a secondary consideration in education. The effect +upon literature of this poetical training was twofold. It caused an +undue demand for poetical colour in prose, and produced a horrible +precocity and _cacoethes scribendi_[60] in verse, together with an +abnormal tendency to imitation of the great writers of previous +generations.[61] + +But the rhetorical training which succeeded was responsible for far +worse evils. The importance of rhetoric in ancient education is easily +explained. The Greek or Roman gentleman was destined to play a part in +the public life of the city state. For this purpose the art of speaking +was of enormous value alike in politics and in the law courts. Hence the +universal predominance of rhetoric in higher education both in Rome and +Greece.[62] The main instrument of instruction was the writing of themes +for declamation. These exercises were divided into _suasoriae_-- +deliberative speeches in which some course of action was discussed-- +and _controversiae_--where some proposition was maintained or denied. +Pupils began with _suasoriae_ and went on to _controversiae_. Regarded +as a mental gymnastic, these themes may have possessed some value. But +they were hackneyed and absurdly remote from real life, as can be judged +from the examples collected by the elder Seneca. Typical subjects of the +_suasoria_ are--'Agamemnon deliberates whether to slay Iphigenia';[63] +'Cicero deliberates whether to burn his writings, Antony having promised +to spare him on that condition';[64] 'Three hundred Spartans sent against +Xerxes after the flight of troops sent from the rest of Greece deliberate +whether to stand or fly.'[65] + +The _controversia_ requires further explanation. A general law is +stated, e.g. _incesta saxo deiciatur_. A special case follows, e.g. +_incesti damnata antequam deiceretur invocavit Vestam: deiecta vixit_. +The special case had to be brought under the general rule; _repetitur ad +poenam_.[66] Other examples are equally absurd:[67] one and all are +ridiculously remote from real life. It was bad enough that boys' time +should be wasted thus, but the evil was further emphasized by the +practice of recitation. These exercises, duly corrected and elaborated, +were often recited by their youthful authors to an audience of +complaisant friends and relations. Of such training there could be but +one possible result. 'Less and less attention was paid to the substance +of the speech, more and more to the language; justness and +appropriateness of thought came to be less esteemed than brilliance and +novelty of expression.'[68] + +These formal defects of education were accompanied by a widespread +neglect of the true educational spirit. The development on healthy lines +of the _morale_, and intellect of the young became in too many instances +a matter of indifference. Throughout the great work of Quintilian we +have continued evidence of the lack of moral and intellectual enthusiasm +that characterized the schools of his day. Even more passionate are the +denunciations levelled against contemporary education by Messala in the +_Dialogus_ of Tacitus.[69] Parents neglect their children from their +earliest years: they place them in the charge of foreign slaves, often +of the most degraded character; or if they do pay any personal attention +to their upbringing, it is to teach them not honesty, purity, and +respect for themselves and their elders, but pertness, luxurious habits, +and neglect alike of themselves and of others. The schools moreover, +apart from their faulty methods and ideals of instruction, encourage +other faults. The boys' interests lie not in their work, but in the +theatres, the gladiatorial games, the races in the circus--those ancient +equivalents of twentieth-century athleticism. Their minds are utterly +absorbed by these pursuits, and there is little room left for nobler +studies. 'How few boys will talk of anything else at home? What topic of +conversation is so frequent in the lecture-room; what other subject so +frequently on the lips of the masters, who collect pupils not by the +thoroughness of their teaching or by giving proof of their powers of +instruction, but by interested visits and all the tricks of +toadyism?'[70] Messala goes on[71] to denounce the unreality of the +exercises in the schools, whose deleterious effect is aggravated by the +low standard exacted. 'Boys and young men are the speakers, boys and +young men the audience, and their efforts are received with +undiscriminating praise.' + +The same faults that were generated in the schools were intensified in +after-life. In the law courts the same smart epigrams, the same +meretricious style were required. No true method had been taught, with +the result that 'frivolity of style, shallow thoughts, and disorderly +structure' prevailed; orators imitated the rhythms of the stage and +actually made it their boast that their speeches would form fitting +accompaniments to song and dance. It became a common saying that 'our +orators speak voluptuously, while our actors dance eloquently'.[72] +Poetical colour was demanded of the orator, rhetorical colour of the +poet. The literary and rhetorical stages of education reacted on one +another.[73] + +Further, just as the young poet had to his great detriment been +encouraged to recite at school, so he had to recite if he was to win +fame for his verse in the larger world. Even in a saner society poetry +written primarily for recitation must have run to rhetoric; in a +rhetorical age the result was disastrous. In an enormous proportion of +cases the poet of the Silver Age wrote literally for an audience. Great +as were the facilities for publication the poet primarily made his name, +not by the gradual distribution of his works among a reading public, but +by declaiming before public or private audiences. The practice of +gathering a circle of acquaintances together to listen to the +recitations of a poet is said first to have been instituted by Asinius +Pollio, the patron of Vergil. There is evidence to show that all the +poets of the Augustan age gave recitations.[74] But the practice +gradually increased and became a nuisance to all save the few who had +the courage to stand aloof from these mutual admiration societies. +Indiscriminate praise was lavished on good and bad work alike. Even +Pliny the younger, whose cultivation and literary taste place him high +above the average literary level of his day, approves of the increase of +this melancholy harvest of minor poetry declaimed by uninspired +bards.[75] The effect was lamentable. All the faults of the _suasoria_ +and _controversia_ made their appearance in poetry.[76] The poet had +continually to be performing acrobatic feats, now of rhetoric or +epigram, now of learning, or again in the description of blood-curdling +horrors, monstrous deaths and prodigious sorceries. Each work was +overloaded with _sententiae_ and purple patches.[77] So only could the +author keep the attention of his audience. The results were disastrous +for literature and not too satisfactory[78] for the authors themselves, +as the following curious passage from Tacitus (_Dial._ 9) shows: + +Bassus is a genuine poet, and his verse possesses both beauty and +charm: but the only result is that, when after a whole year, working +every day and often well into the night, he has hammered out one +book of poems, he must needs go about requesting people to be +good enough to give him a hearing: and what is more he has to +pay for it: for he borrows a house, constructs an auditorium, +hires benches and distributes programmes. And then--admitting +his recitations to be highly successful--yet all that honour and +glory falls within one or two days, prematurely gathered like grass +in the blade or flowers in their earliest bloom: it has no sure or +solid reward, wins no friendship or following or lasting gratitude, +naught save a transient applause, empty words of praise and a +fleeting enthusiasm. + +The less fortunate poet had to betake himself to the forum or the public +baths or some temple, there to inflict his tawdry wares upon the ears of +a chance audience.[79] Others more fortunate would be lent a room by +some rich patron.[80] Under Nero and Domitian we get the apotheosis of +recitation. Nero, we have seen, established the Neronia in 60 and +himself competed. Domitian established a quinquennial competition in +honour of Jupiter Capitolinus in 86 and an annual competition held every +Quinquatria Minervae at his palace on the Alban mount.[81] From that +time forward it became the ambition of every poet to be crowned at these +grotesque competitions. + +The result of all these co-operating influences will be evident as we +deal with the individual poets. Here we can only give a brief summary +of the general characteristics of this fantastic literature. We have a +striving after originality that ends in eccentricity: writers were +steeped in the great poets of the Augustan age: men of comparatively +small creative imagination, but, thanks to their education, possessed +of great technical skill, they ran into violent extremes to avoid the +charge of imitating the great predecessors whom they could not help but +imitate; hence the obscurity of Persius--the disciple of Horace--and of +Statins and Valerius Flaccus--the followers of Vergil. Hence Lucan's +bold attempt to strike out a new type of epic, an attempt that ended in +a wild orgy of brilliant yet turbid rhetoric. The simple and natural +was at a discount: brilliance of point, bombastic description, gorgeous +colour were preferred to quiet power. Alexandrian learning, already too +much in evidence in the Augustan age, becomes more prominent and more +oppressive. For men of second-rate talent it served to give their work +a spurious air of depth and originality to which it was not entitled. +The necessity of patronage engendered a fulsome flattery, while the +false tone of the schools of rhetoric,[82] aided perhaps by the +influence of the Stoical training so fashionable at Rome, led to a +marvellous conceit and self-complacency, of which a lack of humour was +a necessary corollary. These symptoms are seen at their worst during +the extravagant reign of Nero, though the blame attaches as much to +Seneca as to his pupil and emperor. Traces of a reaction against this +wild unreality are perhaps to be found in the literary criticism +scattered tip and down the pages of Petronius,[83] but it was not till +the extinction of Nero and Seneca that any strong revolt in the +direction of sanity can be traced. Even then it is rather in the sphere +of prose than of poetry that it is manifest. Quintilian headed a +Ciceronian reaction and was followed by Pliny the younger and for a +time by Tacitus. But we may perhaps trace a similar Vergilian reaction +in the verse of Silius, Statius, and Valerius.[84] Their faults do not +nauseate to the same extent of those of their predecessors. But the +mischief was done, and in point of extravagance and meretricious taste +the differense is only one of degree. + +Satire alone attains to real eminence: rhetoric and epigram are its most +mordant weapons, and the schools of rhetoric, if they did nothing else, +kept those weapons well sharpened: the gross evils of the age opened an +ample field for the satirist. Hence it is that all or almost all that is +best in the literature of the Silver Age is satirical or strongly tinged +with satire. Tacitus, who had many of the noblest qualifications of a +poet, almost deserves the title of Rome's greatest satirist; the works +of Persius and Juvenal speak openly for themselves while many of the +finest passages in Lucans are most near akin to satire. It is true that +under the principate satire had to be employed with caution; under the +first two dynasties it was compelled to be general in tone: it was not +until after the fall of Domitian, under the enlightened rule of Nerva +and Trajan, that it found a freer scope and was at least allowed to lash +the vices of the present under the names of the past. + +It is in satire alone that we find any trace of genuine moral +earnestness and enthusiasm; and the reason for this is primarily that +the satirists wrote under the influence of the one force that definitely +and steadily made for righteousness. It is the Stoic philosophy that +kindles Persius and Lucan, while Tacitus and Juvenal, even if they make +no profession of Stoicism, have yet been profoundly influenced by its +teaching. Their morality takes its colour, if not its form, from the +philosophy oh the 'Porch'. The only non-satirical poetry primarily +inspired by Stoicism is the dramatic verse of Seneca. That its influence +here is not wholly for the best is due only in part to the intrinsic +qualities of its teaching. It is rather in its application that the +fault lies; it dominates and crushes the drama instead of suffusing it +and lending it wings; it insists on preaching instead of suggesting. It +is too insistent and aggressive a creed to harmonize with poetry, unless +that poetry be definitely didactic in type and aim. But it is admirably +suited to be the inspiration of satire, and it is therefore that the +satire makes a far stronger moral appeal than any other form of +post-Augustan literature. + +Satire apart, the period is in the main an age of _belles lettres_, of +'the literary _gourmet_, the connoisseur, the _blasé_ and disillusioned +man of society, passionately appreciative of detail, difficulties +overcome, and petty felicities of expression.'[85] It is the fashion to +despise its works, and the fashion cannot be described as unhealthy or +unjust. Yet it produced a few men of genius, while even in the works of +those who were far removed from genius, the very fact that there is much +refinement of wit, much triumphing over technical difficulties, much +elaborate felicity of expression, makes them always a curious and at +times a remunerative study. But perhaps its greatest claim upon us lies +in the unexpected service that it rendered to the cause of culture. In +the darkness of the Middle Ages when Greek was a hidden mystery to the +western world, Lucan and Statius, Juvenal and Persius, and even the +humble and unknown author of the _Ilias Latina_, did their part in +keeping the lamp alive and illumining the midnight in which lay hidden +the 'budding morrow' of the Renaissance. + + + +CHAPTER II + +DRAMA + + +I + +THE STAGE + +The drama proper had never flourished at Rome. The causes are not far +to seek. Tragic drama was dead in Greece by the time Greek influence +made itself felt, while the New Comedy which then held the stage was of +too quietly realistic a type and of too refined a wit and humour to be +attractive to the coarser and less intelligent audiences of Rome. +Terence, the _dimidiatus Menander_, as Caesar called him, though he won +himself a great name with the cultured classes by the purity and +elegance of his Latin and the fine drawing of his characters, was a +failure with popular audiences owing to his lack of broad farcical +humour. Plautus with his coarse geniality and lumbering wit made a +greater success. He had grafted the festive spirit of Roman farce on to +the more artistic comedy of Athens. Tragedy obtained but a passing +vogue. Ennius, Accius, and Pacuvius were read and enjoyed by not a few +educated readers, but for the Augustan age, as far as the stage was +concerned, they were practically dead and buried. The Roman populace +had by that period lost all taste for the highest and most refined +forms of art. The races in the circus, the variety entertainments and +bloodshed of the amphitheatre had captured the favour of the polyglot, +pampered multitude that must have formed such a large proportion of a +Roman audience. + +Still, dramatic entertainments had by no means wholly disappeared by the +time of the Empire. But what remained was of a degraded type. The New +Comedy of Athens, as transferred to the Roman stage, had given ground +before the advance of the mime and the _fabula Atellana_. The history of +both these forms of comedy belongs to an earlier period. For the +post-Augustan age our evidence as to their development is very scanty. +Little is known save that they were exceedingly popular. Both were +characterized by the broadest farce and great looseness of construction; +both were brief one-act pieces and served as interludes or conclusions +to other forms of spectacle. + +The Atellan was of Italian origin and contained four stock characters, +Pappus the old man or pantaloon, Dossennus the wise man, corresponding +to the _dottore_ of modern Italian popular comedy, Bucco the clown, and +Maccus the fool. It dealt with every kind of theme, parodied the legends +of the gods, laughed at the provincial's manners or at the inhabitants +of Italian country towns, or depicted in broad comic style incidents in +the life of farmer and artisan. Maccus appeared as a young girl, as a +soldier, as an innkeeper; Pappus became engaged to be married; Bucco +turned gladiator; and in the rough and tumble of these old friends the +Roman mob found rich food for laughter.[86] + +The mime was of a very similar character, but freer in point of form. It +renounced the use of masks and reached, it would seem, an even greater +pitch of indecency than the Atellan. The subjects of a few mimes are +known to us. Among the most popular were the _Phasma_ or _Ghost_[87] and +the _Laureolus_[888] of Catullus, a writer of the reign of Caligula. In +the latter play was represented the death by crucifixion of the famous +brigand 'Laureolus'; so degraded was popular taste that on one occasion +it is recorded that a criminal was made to take the part of Laureolus +and was crucified in grim earnest upon the stage.[89] In another mime of +the principate of Vespasian the chief attraction was a performing +dog,[90] which, on being given a pretended opiate, went to sleep and +later feigned a gradual revival in such a realistic manner as to rouse +the wildest applause on the part of the audience. + +Both Atellan and mime abounded in topical allusions and spared not even +the emperors. Allusion was made to the unnatural vices attributed to +Tiberius,[91] to the deaths of Claudius and Agrippina,[92] to the +avarice of Galba,[93] to the divorce of Domitian,[94] and on more than +one occasion heavy punishment was meted out to authors and actors +alike.[95] + +Legitimate comedy led a struggling existence. An inscription at +Aeclanum[96] records the memory of a certain Pomponius Bassulus, who not +only translated certain comedies of Menander but himself wrote original +comedies; while in the letters of Pliny[97] we meet with Vergilius +Romanus, a writer of comedies of 'the old style' and of _mimiambi_. He +possessed, so Pliny writes, 'vigour, pungency, and wit. He gave honour +to virtue and attacked vice.' It is to be feared that such a form of +comedy can hardly have been intended for the public stage, and that +Vergilius, like so many poets of his age, wrote for private performance +or recitation. These two writers are the only authors of legitimate +comedies known to us during the Silver Age. But both _fabulae palliatae_ +and _togatae_, that is to say, comedies representing Greek and Roman +life respectively, continued to be acted on the public stage. The +_Incendium_[98] of Afranius, a _fabula togata_, was performed in the +reign of Nero, and the evidence of Quintilian[99] and Juvenal[100] shows +that _palliatae_ also continued to be performed. But true comedy had +been relegated to a back place and the Silver Age did nothing to modify +the dictum of Quintilian,[101] _in comoedia maxime claudicamus_. + +As with comedy so with tragedy. Popular taste rejected the Graeco-Roman +tragedy as tedious, and it was replaced by a more sensuous and +sensational form of entertainment. The intenser passions and emotions +were not banished from the stage, but survived in the _salticae fabulae_ +and a peculiar species of dramatic recitation. Infinitely debased as +were these substitutes for true drama, the forms assumed by the +decomposition of tragedy are yet curious and interesting. The first step +was the separation of the _cantica_ from the _diverbia._ Lyric scenes or +even important iambic monologues were taken from their setting and sung +as solos upon the stage.[102] It was found difficult to combine +effective singing with effective gesture and dancing, for music had +become more florid and exacting than in the days of Euripides. A second +actor appeared who supplied the gesture to illustrate the first actor's +song.[103] From this peculiar and to us ridiculous form of entertainment +it is a small step to the _fabula saltica,_ which was at once nearer the +legitimate drama and further from it. It was nearer in that the scenes +were not isolated, but formed part of a more or less carefully +constructed whole. It was further inasmuch as the actor disappeared, +only the dancer remaining upon the stage. The words of the play were +relegated to a chorus, while the character, actions, and emotions of the +person represented by the words of the chorus were set forth by the +dress, gesticulation, and dancing of the _pantomimus_. How the various +scenes were connected is uncertain; but it is almost a necessary +inference that the connexion was provided by the chorus or, as in modern +oratorio, by recitative. To us the mimetic posturing of the _pantomimus_ +appears an almost ridiculous substitute for drama; but the dancing of +the actors seems to have been extraordinarily artistic and at times to +have had a profound effect upon the emotions of the audience,[104] while +the brilliant success in our own time of plays in dumb show, such as the +famous _Enfant Prodigue,_ should be a warning against treating the +_pantomimus_ with contempt. + +This form of entertainment was first introduced at Rome in 22 B.C. by +the actors Pylades and Bathyllus,[105] the former being famed for his +tragic dancing, the latter for a broader and more comic style, whose +dramatic counterpart would seem to have been the satyric drama.[106] The +satyric element seems, however, never to have become really popular, the +_fabula saltica_ as we know it dealing mainly with tragic or highly +emotional themes. Indeed, to judge from Lucian's disquisition on the art +of dancing, the subjects seem to have been drawn from almost every +conceivable source both of history and mythology.[107] Many of these +_salticae fabulae_ must have been mere adaptations of existing +tragedies. Their literary value was, according to Plutarch, by no means +high;[108] it was sacrificed to the music and the dancing, for the +emotional effect of which Lucian can scarcely find sufficiently high +terms of praise.[109] The themes appear to have been drawn from the more +lurid passages in mythology and history. If the libretto was not coarse +in itself, there is abundant evidence to show that the subjects chosen +were often highly lascivious, while the movements of the dancers--not +seldom men of the vilest character--were frequently to the last degree +obscene.[110] Inadequate as this substitute for the drama must seem to +us, we must remember that southern peoples were--and indeed are--far +more sensitive to the language of signs, to expressive gesticulation and +the sensuous movements of the body[111] than are the less quick-witted +and emotional peoples of the North; and further, even if for the most +part these _fabulae salticae_ had small literary value, distinguished +poets did not disdain to write librettos for popular actors. Passages +from the works of Vergil were adapted for such performances;[112] Lucan +wrote no less than fourteen _fabulae salticae,_[113] while the _Agave_ +of Statius,[114] written for the dancer Paris, is famous from the +well-known passage in the seventh satire of Juvenal. Nothing survives of +these librettos to enlighten us as to their literary characteristics, +and the other details of the performance do not concern us here.[115] It +is sufficient to say that the _pantomimus_ had an enormous vogue in the +Silver Age, and won a rich harvest by his efforts, and that the factions +of the theatre, composed of the partisans of this or that actor, were +scarcely less notorious than the factions of the circus for the +disturbances to which they gave rise.[116] + +Of the musical recitations of portions of existing tragedies or of +tragic episodes written for the occasion we possess even less knowledge. +The passages selected or composed for this purpose were in all +probability usually lyric, but we hear also of the chanting of iambics, +as, for instance, in the case of the _Oedipus in Exile,_ in which Nero +made his last appearance on the stage.[117] Of the part played by the +chorus and of the structure of the librettos we know nothing; they may +have been purely episodic and isolated or may, as in the _salticae +fabulae,_ have been loosely strung together into the form of an +ill-constructed play. That they were sometimes written in Greek is known +from the fact that the line quoted by Suetonius from the _Oedipus in +Exile_ mentioned above is in that language. Of the writers of this +debased and bastard offspring of drama we know nothing save that Nero, +who was passionately fond of appearing in them, seems also to have +written them. (Suet. Ner. 39.) + +The tragic stage had indeed sunk low, when it served almost entirely for +exhibitions such as these. Nevertheless tragedy had not ceased to exist +even if it had ceased to hold the stage.[118] Varius and Ovid had won +fame in the Augustan age by their Thyestes and Medea, and the +post-Augustan decadence was not without its tragedians. One only is +mentioned by Quintilian in his survey of Roman poetry, Pomponius +Secundus. Of him he says (x. 1. 98), 'Of the tragedians whom I myself +have seen, Pomponius Secundus is by far the most eminent; a writer whom +the oldest men of the day thought not quite tragic enough, but +acknowledged that he excelled in learning and elegance of style.' +Pomponius was a man of great distinction.[119] His friendship for Aelius +Gallus, the son of Sejanus, had brought him into disgrace with Tiberius, +but he recovered his position under Claudius. He attained to the +consulship, and commanded with distinction in a war against the Chatti +in A.D. 50. Of his writings we know but very little. Of his plays +nothing is left save a brief fragment[120] from a play entitled +_Aeneas_; whether it dealt with the deeds of Aeneas in his native land +or in the land of his adoption is uncertain, though it is on the whole +probable that the scene was Italian and that the drama was therefore a +_fabula praetexta_. Whether his plays were performed on the public stage +is not quite clear. Tacitus tells us of riots in the theatre in A.D. +44,[121] when 'poems' by Pomponius were being recited on the stage. But +the words used by the historian (_is carmina scaenae dabat_) point +rather to the recitation of a dramatic solo than to a complete tragedy +of the orthodox type. Pomponius, dramatist and philologist,[122] remains +a mere name for us. + +Another distinguished writer of plays was Curiatius Maternus, a +well-known orator; it is in his house that Tacitus places the scene of +the _Dialogus_, and he is the chief character of the conversation. He +had written his first tragedy under Nero,[123] and at the time of the +_Dialogus_ (A.D. 79-81) his _Cato_--a _fabula praetexta_--was the talk +of Rome.[124] He had written another historical drama on the ancestor of +Nero, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, the persistent foe of Julius Caesar, who +perished on the field of Pharsalia.[125] He had also written plays on +the more hackneyed themes of Medea and Thyestes.[126] He had all the +opportunities and all the requisite gifts for a successful public +career, but his heart was with the Muses, and he resolved to quit public +life and to devote himself wholly to poetry, for there, in his +estimation, the truest fame was to be found.[127] Here our knowledge +ends. Of the details of his life we are as ignorant as of his plays. + +A few other names of tragic poets are known to us. Paccius wrote an +_Alcithoe_,[128] Faustus a _Thebais_ and a _Tereus_,[129] Rubrenus Lappa +an _Atreus_,[130] while Scaevus Memor,[131] victor at the Agon +Capitolinus and brother of Turnus the satirist, wrote a _Hercules_ and a +_Hecuba_ or _Troades_.[132] Martial (xi. 9) styles him the 'glory of the +Roman buskin', but he too is but the shadow of an empty name. The +tragedies of the age are lost to us, all save the tragedies of the +philosopher Seneca, plays of which, save for one casual reference[133] +in Quintilian, contemporary literature gives no hint, but which, however +little they may have deserved it, were destined to have no negligible +influence on the subsequent history of the world's drama. + + +II + +SENECA + +Lucius Annaeus Seneca, one of the most striking figures among the great +writers of Rome, was born at Cordova[134] about the opening of the +Christian era, to be the most remarkable member of a remarkable family. +His father, who bore the same name, was the famous rhetorician to whom +we have already referred. His elder brother, M. Annaeus Novatus,[135] +was adopted by L. Iunius Gallio, whose name he assumed, had a +distinguished public career, and is best known to us, in his capacity of +governor of Achaea, as the 'Gallio' of the Acts. The youngest of the +family, M. Annaeus Mela,[136] remained in the equestrian order and +devoted himself to the acquisition of wealth, regarding this as the +safest path to fame. He succeeded to some extent in his object, but his +main claim upon our remembrance is as the father of the poet Lucan. +Lucius Seneca came to Rome at an early age,[137] and, in spite of the +bad health which afflicted him all his life long,[138] soon made his +mark as an orator. Indeed, so striking was his success that--although he +showed no particular eagerness for a political career--his sheer mastery +of the Roman speech wakened the jealousy of Caligula,[139] who only +spared his life on the ground that he suffered from chronic asthma and +was not likely to live long, and contented himself, therefore, with +mordant but not unjust criticism of the style of his intended +victim.[140] But though oratory provided Seneca with the readiest means +for the gratification of his not inconsiderable vanity, and for the +exercise of his marvellous powers of wit and epigram, it was not the +pursuit of rhetoric and its prizes that really held the first place in +his heart. That place was claimed by philosophy. His first love was +Pythagoreanism, which he studied under Sotion[14l] of Alexandria, whose +influence was sufficient to induce his youthful pupil to become a +convinced vegetarian. But his father, who hated fads and philosophers, +persuaded Seneca without much difficulty to 'dine better', and the +doctrines of Pythagoras were soon displaced by the more fashionable +teaching of the Stoics. From the lips of Attalus[142] he learned all the +principles of that ascetic school. 'I besieged his class-room,' he +writes; 'I was the first to come, the last to go; I would waylay him +when out walking and lead him to discuss serious problems.' Whether he +denounced vice and luxury, or extolled poverty, Attalus found a +convinced disciple in Seneca. His convictions did not possess sufficient +weight to lead him to embrace a life of austere poverty, but he at least +learned to sleep on a hard mattress, and to eschew hot baths, wine, +unguents, oysters, and mushrooms. How far his life conformed to the +highest principles of his creed, it is hard to say. If we are to believe +his detractors, he was guilty of committing adultery with the Princess +Julia Livilla, was surrounded with all the luxuries that the age could +supply, and drained the life-blood of Italy and the provinces by +extortionate usury.[143] During his long exile in Corsica he could write +a consolatory treatise to his mother on the thesis that the true +philosopher is never an exile;[144] wherever he is, there he is at home; +but little more than a year later he writes another consolatory treatise +to the imperial freedman Polybius, full of the most grovelling flattery +of Polybius himself and of the Emperor Claudius,[145] the same Claudius +whom he afterwards bespattered with the coarse, if occasionally +humorous, vulgarity of the _Apocolocyntosis_.[146] He was tutor to the +young Nero, but had not the strength to check his vices. He sought to +control him by flattery and platitudes rather than by the high example +of the philosophy which he professed.[147] The composition of the +treatise _ad Neronem de Clementia_ was a poor reply to Nero's murder of +Britannicus.[148] He could write eloquently of Stoic virtue, but when he +himself was confronted with the hard facts of life over which Stoicism +claimed to triumph, he proved no more than a 'lath painted to look like +iron'. Such is the case against Seneca. That it can be rebutted entirely +it is impossible to claim. But we must remember the age in which he +lived. Its love of debauchery was only equalled by its prurient love of +scandal. Seneca's banishment on the charge of an intrigue with Livilla +is not seriously damaging. The accusation _may_ have been true: it is at +least as likely to have been false, for it was instigated by Messalina. +That he lived in wealth and luxury is undoubted: his only defence was +that he was really indifferent to it; he could face any future; he had, +therefore, a right to enjoy the present.[149] That he ground down the +provincials by his usury is possible; the standard in such matters was +low, and the real nature of his extortions may never have come home to +him; he must have depended largely on his agents. With regard to his +management of the young princeps the case is different. Seneca was given +an almost impossible task. Neither his nature nor his surroundings made +Nero a suitable subject for moral instruction. Seneca must have been +hampered at every turn. He must either bend or break. At least he won +the respect of his pupil, and the good governance of the empire during +the first five years of Nero's reign was due largely to the fact that +the power was really in the hands of Seneca and Burrus.[150] Many of the +weaknesses of his character may be accounted for by physical debility, +and we must further remember that a Stoic of the age of Nero found +himself in a most difficult position. He could not put his principles +into full practice in public life without incurring the certain +displeasure of the emperor. The stricter Stoic, therefore, like Thrasea, +retired to the seclusion of his estates 'condemning the wicked world of +Rome by his absence from it'.[151] Seneca, weaker, but possessed of +greater common sense, chose the _via media_. He was content to sacrifice +something of his principles to the service of Rome--and of himself. It +is not necessary to regard him as wholly disinterested in his conduct; +it is unjust and absurd to regard him as a glorified Tartuffe.[152] Such +a supposition is adequately refuted by his writings. It is easy for a +writer at once so fluent and so brilliant to give the impression of +insincerity; but the philosophical works of Seneca ring surprisingly +true. We cannot doubt his faith, though his life may at times have +belied it. He reveals a warmth of human feeling, a richness of +imagination, a comprehension of human failings and sorrows, that make +him rank high among the great preachers of the world. Even here, it is +true, he has his failings; he repeats himself, has little constructive +talent, and fails at times to conceal a passion for the obvious beneath +the brilliance of his epigram. But alike in the spheres of politics and +literature he is the greatest man of his age. In literature he stands +alone: he is a prose Ovid, with the saving gift of moral fervour. His +style is terse and epigrammatic, but never obscure; it lacks the roll of +the continuous prose of the Augustan age, but its phrases have a beauty +and a music of their own: at their best they are touched with a genuine +vein of poetry, at their worst they have a hard brilliance against the +attractions of which only the most fastidious eye is proof. He towered +over all his contemporaries. In him were concentrated all the +excellences of the rhetorical schools of the day. Seneca became the +model for literary aspirants to copy. But he was a dangerous model. His +lack of connexion and rhythm became exaggerated by his followers, and +the slightest lack of dexterity in the imitator led to a flashy +tawdriness such as Seneca himself had as a rule avoided. He was too +facile and careless a composer to yield a canon for style. The reaction +came soon. Involved, whether justly or not, in the Pisonian conspiracy +of 65 A.D., he was forced to commit suicide. He died as the Stoics of +the age were wont to die, cheerfully, courageously, and with +self-conscious ostentation.[153] Within a few years of his death the +great Ciceronian reaction headed by Quintilian began. The very vehemence +with which the Senecan style was attacked, now by Quintilian[154] and +later by Fronto,[155] shows what a commanding position he held. + +He was poet as well as philosopher. Quintilian tells us that he left +scarcely any branch of literature untouched. 'We possess,' he says, 'his +speeches, poems, letters, and dialogues.'[156] Two collections of poems +attributed to Seneca have come down to us, a collection of epigrams and +a collection of dramas. There is strangely little external evidence to +support either attribution, but in neither case can there be any serious +doubt as to the general correctness of the tradition. + +The _Anthologia Latina_, compiled at Carthage in the sixth century, +opens with seventy-three epigrams, of which three are attributed by the +MSS. to Seneca (_Poet. Lat. Min._ 1-3, Baehrens). The first is entitled +_de qualitate temporis_ and descants on the ultimate destruction of the +world by fire--a well-known Stoical doctrine. The second and third are +fierce denunciations of Corsica, his place of exile. The rest are +nameless. But there are several which can only be attributed to Seneca. +The ninth is entitled _de se ad patriam_, and is addressed to Cordova by +one plunged in deep misfortune--a clear reference to his banishment in +Corsica. The fifty-first is a prayer that the author's two brothers may +be happier than himself, and that 'the little Marcus may rival his +uncles in eloquence'. The brothers are described one as older, the other +as younger than the author. It is an obvious inference that the brothers +referred to are Gallio and Mela, while it is possible that the little +Marcus is no other than the gifted son of Mela, Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, +the epic poet.[157] The fifteenth represents him as an exile in a barren +land: he appeals to a faithful friend named Crispus, probably the +distinguished orator Passienus Crispus, the younger, who was consul for +the second time in 44 A.D.[158] There are also other epigrams which, +though less explicit, suit the circumstances of Seneca's exile. The +fifth is written in praise of the quiet life. The author has two +brothers (l. 14), and at the opening of the poem cries, 'let others seek +the praetorship!' In this connexion it is noteworthy that at the time of +his banishment Seneca had held no higher office than the quaestorship. +The seventeenth and eighteenth are on the same subject, and contain a +solemn warning against _regum amicitiae_, appropriate enough in the +mouth of the victim of a court intrigue. Epigrams 29-36 are devoted to +the praises of Claudius for his conquest of Britain. Claudius had +banished him and was a suitable subject for flattery. For the rest the +poems are largely of the republican character so fashionable in Stoic +circles during the first century of the empire. There are many epigrams +on Cato [159] and the Pompeys. Others, again, are of a rhetorical +nature, dealing with scholastic themes;[160] others of an erotic and +even scandalous character. We can claim no certainty for the view that +all these poems are by Seneca, but there is a general resemblance of +style throughout, and probability points to the whole collection being +by the same author. The fact that the same theme is treated more than +once scarcely stands in the way. We cannot dictate the amusements of a +weary exile. It would be rash even to deny the possibility of his being +the author of the erotic poems.[161] Philosopher as he was, he had been +banished on a charge of adultery: without in any way admitting the truth +of that accusation, we may readily believe that he stooped to one of the +fashionable amusements of the day, the composition of pointed and +unsavoury verse; for the standard of morality in writing was far lower +than the standard of morals in actual life.[162] + +The poems repay reading, but call for little comment. They lack +originality. The thought is thin, the expression neat, though scarcely +as pointed as we might expect from such an author, while the metre is +graceful: the treatment of the elegiac is freer than that of Ovid, but +pleasing and melodious. At times powerful lines flash out. + + qua frigida semper + praefulget stellis Arctos inocciduis (xxxvi. 6) + + Where the cold constellation of the heaven gleams + ever with unsetting stars. + +shines out from the midst of banal flattery of the emperor with +astonishing splendour. The poem _de qualitate temporis_ (4) closes with +four fine lines with the unmistakable Senecan ring about them-- + + quid tam parva loquor? moles pulcerrima caeli + ardebit flammis tota repente suis. + omnia mors poscit. lex est, non poena, perire: + hic aliquo mundus tempore nullus erit. + + Why speak of things so small? The glorious vault of + heaven one day shall blaze with sudden self-kindled + flame. Death calls for all creation. 'Tis a law, not + a penalty to perish. The universe itself shall one day + be as though it had never been. + +Cato (9) deliberates on suicide with characteristic rhetoric, artificial +in the extreme, but not devoid of dignity-- + + estne aliquid, quod Cato non potuit? + dextera, me vitas? durum est iugulasse Catonem? + sed, quia liber erit, iam puto, non dubitas. + fas non est vivum cuiquam servire Catonem: + quinctiam vivit nunc Cato, si moritur.[2] + + Is there then that which Cato had not the heart to do? + Right-hand, dost thou shrink from me? Is it hard to slay + Cato? Nay, methinks thou dost hesitate no more, for thou + shalt set Cato free. 'Tis a crime that Cato should live + to be any man's slave; nay, Cato truly lives if Cato die. + +Cleverest of all is the treatment of the rhetorical theme of the two +brothers who meet in battle in the civil war (72). The one unwittingly +slays the other, strips the slain, and discovers what he has done-- + + quod fuerat virtus, factum est scelus. haeret in hoste + miles et e manibus mittere tela timet. + inde ferox: 'quid, lenta manus, nunc denique cessas? + iustius hoste tibi qui moriatur adest. + fraternam res nulla potest defendere caedem; + mors tua sola potest: morte luenda tua est, + scilicet ad patrios referes spolia ampla penates? + ad patrem victor non potes ire tuum. + sed potes ad fratrem: nunc fortiter utere telo! + impius hoc telo es, hoc potes esse pius. + vivere si poteris, potuisti occidere fratrem! + nescisti: sed scis: haec mora culpa tua est. + viximus adversis, iaccamus partibus isdem + (dixit et in dubio est utrius ense cadat). + ense meo moriar, maculato morte nefanda? + cui moreris, ferrum quo moriare dabit.' + dixit et in fratrem fraterno concidit ense: + victorem et victum condidit una manus.[163] + + What had been valour now is made a crime. The soldier + halts by his foe and fears to launch his shafts. Then + his courage rekindled. 'What! coward hand, dost thou + delay _now_? There is one here whom thou shouldst slay + sooner than the foe. Naught can assoil of the guilt of + a brother's blood save only death; 'tis thy death must + atone. Shalt thou bear home to thy father's halls rich + spoil of war? Nay, victor thus, thou canst not go to meet + thy sire. But victor thou canst go to meet thy brother; + _now_ use thy weapon bravely. This weapon stained thee with + crime, 'tis this weapon shall make thee clean. If thou hast + heart to live, thou hadst the heart to slay thy brother; + thou _hadst_ no such murderous thought, but _now_ thou hast; + this thy tarrying brings thee guilt. We have lived foes, let + us lie united in the peace of the grave.' He ceased and + doubted on whose sword to fall.' Shall I die by mine own + sword, thus foul with shameful murder. He for whom thou diest + shall give thee the steel wherewith to die.' He ceased, and + fell dead upon his brother, slain by his brother's sword. + The same hand slew both victor and vanquished. + +This is not poetry of the first class, if indeed it is poetry at all. +But it is trick-rhetoric of the most brilliant kind without degenerating +into bombastic absurdity. There is, in fact, a restraint in these +epigrams which provides a remarkable contrast with the turgid +extravagance that defaces so much of the dramas. This is in part due to +the difference of the moulds into which the rhetoric is run, but it is +hard to resist the belief that the epigrams--written mainly during the +exile in Corsica--are considerably later than the plays. They are in +themselves insignificant; they show no advance in dexterity upon the +dramas, but they do show a distinct increase of maturity. + +The plays are ten in number; they comprise a _Hercules Furens, Troades, +Phoenissae_ (or _Thebais_), _Medea, Phaedra_ (or _Hippolytus_), +_Oedipus, Agamemnon, Thyestes, Hercules Oetaeus_, and--sole example of +the _fabula praetexta_--the _Octavia_. Despite the curious silence of +Seneca himself and of his contemporaries, there can be little doubt as +to the general correctness of the attribution which assigns to Seneca +the only Latin tragedies that grudging time has spared us. The _Medea, +Hercules Furens, Troades, Phaedra, Agamemnon_, and _Thyestes_ are all +cited by late writers, while Quintilian[164] himself cites a line from +the Medea as the work of Seneca. The name Seneca, without any further +specification, points as clearly to Seneca, the philosopher, as the name +Cicero to the great orator. The absence of any further or more explicit +reference on the part of Quintilian to Seneca's achievements as a +tragedian is easily explained on the supposition that the critic +regarded them as but an insignificant portion of his work. Yet stronger +confirmation is afforded by the internal evidence. The verse is marked +by the same brilliant but fatiguing terseness, the same polish and +point, the same sententiousness, the same succession of short stabbing +sentences, that mark the prose works of Seneca.[165] More remarkable +still is the close parallelism of thought. The plays are permeated +through and through with Stoicism, and the expression given to certain +Stoical doctrines is often almost identical with passages from the +philosophical works.[166] Against these evidences the silence of Seneca +himself counts for little. We may charitably suppose that he rated his +plays at their just value. In any case a poet is under no compulsion to +quote his own verses, or even to refer to them, in works of a totally +different nature.[167] + +A more serious question is whether Seneca is the author of all the plays +transmitted to us under his name. The authenticity of four of these +dramas has been seriously questioned. That the _Octavia_ is by a later +hand may be regarded as certain. Seneca could hardly have dared to write +a play on so dangerous a theme--the brutal treatment by Nero of his +young wife Octavia. Moreover, Seneca himself is one of the dramatis +personae, and there are clear references to the death of Nero, while the +style is simple and restrained, and wholly unlike that of the other +plays. It is the work of a saner and less flamboyant age.[168] The +_Agamemnon_ and the _Oedipus_ have been suspected on the ground that +certain of the lyric portions are written in a curious patchwork metre +of a character fortunately unique in Latin lyric verse. The _Agamemnon_ +further has two choruses.[169] But in all other respects the language, +technique, and metre closely resemble the other dramas. Neither +objection need carry any weight. There is no reason why Seneca should +not have introduced a double chorus or have indulged in unsuccessful +metrical experiments.[170] Far more difficult is the problem presented +by the _Hercules Oetaeus_. It presents many anomalies, of which the +least are a double chorus and a change of scene from Oechalia to +Trachis. Imitations and plagiarisms from the other plays abound, and the +work has more than its fair share of vain repetitions and tasteless +absurdities. On the other hand, metre and diction closely recall the +dramas accepted as genuine. It is hard to give any certain answer to +such a complicated problem, but it is noteworthy that all the worst +defects in this play (which among its other peculiarities possesses +abnormal length) occur after l. 705, while the earlier scenes depicting +the jealousy of Deianira show the Senecan dramatic style almost at its +best. Even in the later portion of the play there is much that may be by +the hand of Seneca. It is impossible to brand the drama as wholly +spurious. The opening lines (1-232) may not belong to the play, but may +form an entirely separate scene dealing with the capture of Oechalia: +there is no reason to suppose that they are not by Seneca, and the same +statement applies to the great bulk of ll. 233-705. The remainder has in +all probability suffered largely from interpolation, but its general +resemblance to Seneca in style and diction is too strongly marked to +permit us to reject it _en bloc_. The problem is too obscure to repay +detailed discussion.[171] The most probable solution of the question +would seem to be that the work was left in an unfinished condition with +inconsistencies, self-plagiarisms, repetitions, and absurdities which +revision would have removed; this unfinished drama was then worked over +and corrected by a stupid, but careful student of Seneca. + +There is such a complete absence of evidence as to the period of +Seneca's life during which these dramas were composed, that much +ingenuity has been wasted in attempts to solve the problem. The view +most widely held--why it should be held is a mystery--is that they were +composed during Seneca's exile in Corsica (41-9 A.D.).[172] Others, +again, hold that they were written for the delectation of the young +Nero, who had early betrayed a taste for the stage. This view has +nothing to support it save the accusation mentioned by Tacitus,[173] to +the effect that the patronage and approval of Nero led Seneca to write +verse more frequently than his wont. Direct evidence there is none, but +the general crudity of the work, coupled with the pedantic hardness and +rigidity of the Stoicism which pervades the plays, points strongly to an +early date, considerably earlier than the exile in Corsica. There is no +trace of the mature experience and feeling for humanity that +characterize the later philosophical works. On the contrary, these plays +are just what might be expected of a young man fresh from the schools of +rhetoric and philosophy.[174] As to the order in which the plays were +written there is practically nothing to guide us.[175] The _Hercules +Oetaeus_ is probably the latest, for in it we find plagiarisms from the +_Hercules Furens, Oedipus, Thyestes, Phoenissae, Phaedra_, and +_Troades_. Even here, however, there is an element of uncertainty, for +it is impossible to ascertain whether any given plagiarism is due to +Seneca or to his interpolators. + +Leaving such barren and unprofitable ground, what can we say of the +plays themselves? Even after making due allowance for the hopeless +decline of dramatic taste and for the ruin wrought by the schools of +rhetoric, it is hard to speak with patience of such productions, when we +recall the brilliance and charm of the prose works of Seneca. We can +forgive him being rhetorical when he speaks for himself; when he speaks +through the lips of others he is less easily tolerable. + +Drama is a reading of human life: if it is to hold one's interest it +must deal with the feelings, thought, and action of genuine human beings +and represent their complex interaction: the characters must be real and +must differ one from the other, so that by force of contrast and by the +continued play of diverse aspects and developments of the human soul, +the significance, the pathos, and the power of the fragment of human +life selected for representation may be fully brought out and set before +our eyes. If these characteristics be absent, the drama must of +necessity be an artistic failure by reason of its lack of truth. But it +requires also plot, with a logical growth leading to some great climax +and developing a growing suspense in the spectator as to what shall be +the end. It is true that plot without reality may give us a successful +melodrama, that truth of character-drawing with a minimum of plot may +move and interest us. But in neither case shall we have drama in its +truest and noblest form. + +Seneca gives us neither the half nor the whole. The stage is ultimately +the touchstone of dramatic excellence. But if it is to be such a +touchstone, it must have an audience with a penetration of intelligence +and a soundness of taste such as had long ceased to characterize Roman +audiences. The Senecan drama has lost touch with the stage and lacks +both unity and life. Such superficial unity as his plots possess is due +to the fact that they are ultimately imitations of Greek[176] drama. A +full discussion of the plots is neither necessary here nor possible. A +few instances of Seneca's treatment of his material must suffice.[177] +He has no sense of logical development; the lack of sequence and of +proportion traceable in the letters is more painfully evident in the +tragedies. + +The _Hercules Furens_ supplies an excellent example of the weakness of +the Senecan plot. It is based on the [Greek: H_erakl_es mainomenos] of +Euripides, and such unity as it possesses is in the main due to that +fact. It is in his chief divergences from the Euripidean treatment of +the story that his deficiencies become most apparent. Theseus appears +early in the play merely that he may deliver a long rhodomontade on the +appearance of the underworld, whence Hercules has rescued him; and, +worst of all, the return of Hercules is rendered wholly ineffective. +Amphitryon hears the approaching steps of Hercules as he bursts his way +to the upper world and cries (523)-- + + est est sonitus Herculei gradus. + +The chorus then, as if they had heard nothing, deliver themselves of a +chant that describes Hercules as still a prisoner in Hades. When +Hercules at last is allowed to appear, he appears alone, and delivers a +long ranting glorification of himself (592-617) before he is joined by +his father, wife, and children. As Leo has remarked,[178] this episode +has been tastelessly torn into two fragments merely to give Hercules an +opportunity for turgid declamation. + +The _Medea_, again, is, on the whole, Euripidean in form, though it +probably owes much to the influence of Ovid.[179] It is, moreover, the +least tasteless and best constructed of his tragedies. It loses +comparatively little by the omission of the Aegeus episode, but suffers +terribly by the insertion of a bombastic description of Medea's +incantations. The love of the Silver Age for rhetoric has converted +Medea into a skilful rhetorician, its love for the black art has +degraded her to a vulgar sorceress. Nothing, again, can be cruder or +more awkward than the manner in which the news of the death of Creon and +his daughter is announced. After an interval so brief as scarcely to +suffice even for the conveyance of the poisoned gifts to the palace, in +rushes a messenger crying (879)-- + + periere cuncta, concidit regni status. + nata atque genitor cinere permixto iacent. + + _Cho_. qua fraude capti? _Nunt_. qua solent + reges capi, donis. + + _Cho_. in illis esse quis potuit dolus? + + _Nunt_. et ipse miror vixque iam facto malo + potuisse fieri credo; quis cladis modus? + avidus per omnem regiae partem furit + ut iussus ignis: iam domus tota occidit, + urbi timetur. + + _Cho_. unda flammas opprimat. + + _Nunt_. et hoc in ista clade mirandum accidit, + alit unda flammas, quoque prohibetur magis, + magis ardet ignis: ipsa praesidia occupat. + + + All is lost! the kingdom's fallen! Father and + daughter lie in mingled dust! + + _Ch_. By what snare taken? + + _Mess_. By gifts, the snare of kings. + + _Ch_. What harm could lurk in them? + + _Mess_. Myself I marvel, and scarce though the deed + is done can I believe it possible. How died they? + Devouring flames rage through all the palace as at + her command. Now the whole house is fallen and men + fear for the city. + + _Ch_. Let water quench the flames. + + _Mess_. Nay, in this overthrow is this added wonder. + Water feeds the flames and opposition makes the fire + burn fiercer. It hath seared even that which should + have stayed its power. + +That is all: if we had not read Euripides we should scarcely understand +the connexion between the gifts and the mysterious fire. Seneca, with +the lack of proportion displayed in nearly all his dramas, has spent so +much time in describing the wholly irrelevant and absurd details of +Medea's incantations that he finds no room to give what might be a +really dramatic description of the all-important catastrophe in which +Medea's vengeance finds issue. There is hardly a play which will not +provide similar instances of the lack of genuine constructive power. In +the _Oedipus_ we get the same long narrative of horror that has +disfigured the _Hercules Furens_ and the _Medea_. Creon describes to us +the dark rites of incantation used to evoke the shade of Laius.[180] In +the _Phaedra_ we find what at first would seem to be a clever piece of +stagecraft. Hippolytus, scandalized at Phaedra's avowal of her +incestuous passion, seizes her by the hair and draws his sword as though +to slay her. He changes his purpose, but the nurse has seen him and +calls for aid, denouncing Hippolytus' violence and clearly intending to +make use of it as damning evidence against him. But the chorus refuse to +credit her, and the incident falls flat.[181] Everywhere there is the +same casual workmanship. If we stop short of denying to Seneca the +possession of any dramatic talent, it is at any rate hard to resist the +conviction that he treated the plays as a _parergon_, spending little +thought or care on their _ensemble_, though at times working up a scene +or scenes with an elaboration and skill as unmistakable as it is often +misdirected. + +The plays are, in fact, as Nisard has admirably put it, _drames de +recette_. The recipe consists in the employment of three +ingredients--description, declamation, and philosophic aphorism. There +is room for all these ingredients in drama as in human life, but in +Seneca there is little else: these three elements conspire together to +swamp the drama, and they do this the more effectively because, for +all their cleverness, Seneca's description and declamation are +radically bad. It is but rarely that he shows himself capable of +simple and natural language. If a tragic event enacted off the stage +requires description, it must outdo all other descriptions of the same +type. And seeing that one of the chief uses of narrative in tragedy is +to present to the imagination of the audience events which are too +horrible for their eyes, the result in Seneca's hands is often little +less than revolting. For example, the self-blinding of Oedipus is set +forth with every detail of horror, possible and impossible, till the +imagination sickens. + +(961) gemuit et dirum fremens + manus in ora torsit, at contra truces + oculi steterunt et suam intenti manum + ultro insequuntur, vulneri occurrunt suo. + scrutatur avidus manibus uncis lumina, + radice ab ima funditus vulsos simul + evolvit orbes; haeret in vacuo manus + et fixa penitus unguibus lacerat cavos + alte recessus luminum et inanes sinus + saevitque frustra plusque quam satis est furit. + +The last line is an epitome of Seneca's methods of description. Yet more +revolting is the speech of the messenger describing the banquet, at +which Atreus placed the flesh of Thyestes' murdered sons before their +father (623-788). Nothing is spared us, much that is impossible is +added.[182] At times, moreover, this love of horrors leads to the +introduction of descriptions wholly alien to the play. In the _Hercules +Furens_ the time during which Hercules is absent from the scene, engaged +in the slaying of the tyrant Lycus, is filled by a description of Hades +from the mouth of Theseus, who is fresh-come from the underworld. The +speech is not peculiarly bad in itself; it is only very long[183] +(658-829) and very irrelevant. + +The effect of the declamation is not less unhappy. Seneca's dramatis +personae rarely speak like reasoning human beings: they rant at one +another or at the audience with such overwrought subtleties of speech +and rhetorical perversions that they give the impression of being no +more than mechanical puppets handled by a crafty but inartistic showman. +All speak the same strange language, a language born in the rhetorical +schools of Greece and Rome. Gods and mortals alike suffer the same +melancholy fate. Juno, when she declares her resolve to afflict Hercules +with madness, addresses the furies who are to be her ministers as +follows (_H.F._ 105): + + concutite pectus, acrior mentem excoquat + quam qui caminis ignis Aetnaeis furit: + ut possit animo captus Alcides agi + magno furore percitus, nobis prius + insaniendum est--Iuno, cur nondum furis? + me me, sorores, mente deiectam mea + versate primam, facere si quicquam apparo + dignum noverca; vota mutentur mea: + natos reversus videat incolumes precor + manuque fortis redeat: inveni diem + invisa quo nos Herculis virtus iuvet. + me vicit et se vincat et cupiat mori + ab inferis reversus.... + pugnanti Herculi + tandem favebo. + + Distract his heart with madness: let his soul + More fiercely burn than that hot fire which glows + On Aetna's forge. But first, that Hercules + May be to madness driven, smitten through + With mighty passion, I must be insane. + Why rav'st thou not, O Juno? Me, oh, me, + Ye sisters, first of sanity deprive, + That something worthy of a stepdame's wrath + I may prepare. Let all my hate be change + To favour. Now I pray that he may come + To earth again, and see his sons unharmed; + May he return with all his old time strength. + Now have I found a day when Hercules + May help me with his strength that I deplore. + Now let him equally o'ercome himself + And me; and let him, late escaped from death, + Desire to die... And so at last I'll help + Alcides in his wars. MILLER. + +She is clearly a near relative of that Oedipus who, in the _Phoenissae_, +begs Antigone to lead him to the rock where the Sphinx sat of old (120): + + dirige huc gressus pedum, + hic siste patrem. dira ne sedes vacet. + monstrum repone maius. hoc saxum insidens + obscura nostrae verba fortunae loquar, + quae nemo solvat. + ... saeva Thebarum lues + luctifica caecis verba committens modis + quid simile posuit? quid tam inextricabile? + avi gener patrisque rivalis sui + frater suorum liberum et fratrum parens; + uno avia partu liberos. peperit viro, + sibi et nepotes. monstra quis tanta explicat? + ego ipse, victae spolia qui Sphingis tuli, + haerebo fati tardus interpres mei. + + + Direct me thither, set thy father there. + Let not that dreadful seat be empty long, + But place me there a greater monster still. + There will I sit and of my fate propose + A riddle dark that no man shall resolve. + * * * * * + What riddle like to this could she propose, + That curse of Thebes, who wove destructive words + In puzzling measures? What so dark as this? + _He was his grandsire's son-in-law, and yet + His father's rival; brother of his sons, + And father of his brothers: at one birth + The grandame bore unto her husband sons, + And grandsons to herself_. Who can unwind + A tangle such as this? E'en I myself, + Who bore the spoils of triumph o'er the Sphinx, + Stand mute before the riddle of my fate. + MILLER. + +There is no need to multiply instances; each play will supply many. Only +in the _Troades_[184] and the _Phaedra_ does this declamatory rhetoric +rise to something higher than mere declamation and near akin to true +poetry. In these plays there are two speeches standing on a different +plane to anything else in Seneca's iambics. In the _Troades_ Agamemnon +is protesting against the proposed sacrifice of Polyxena to the spirit +of the dead Achilles (255). + + quid caede dira nobiles clari ducis + aspergis umbras? noscere hoc primum decet, + quid facere victor debeat, victus pati. + violenta nemo imperia continuit diu, + moderata durant; ... + magna momento obrui + vincendo didici. Troia nos tumidos facit + nimium ac feroces? stamus hoc Danai loco, + unde illa cecidit. fateor, aliquando impotens + regno ac superbus altius memet tuli; + sed fregit illos spiritus haec quae dare + potuisset aliis causa, Fortunae favor. + tu me superbum, Priame, tu timidum facis. + ego esse quicquam sceptra nisi vano putem + fulgore tectum nomen et falso comam + vinclo decentem? casus haec rapiet brevis, + nec mille forsan ratibus aut annis decem. + ... fatebor ... affligi Phrygas + vincique volui; ruere et aequari solo + utinam arcuissem. + + Why besmirch with murder foul the noble shade of that + renowned chief? First must thou learn the bounds of a + victor's power, of the vanquished's suffering. No man + for long has held unbridled sway; only self-control may + endure ... I myself have conquered and have learned + thereby that man's mightiness may fall in the twinkling + of an eye. Shall Troy o'erthrown exalt our pride and make + us overbold? Here we the Danaans stand on the spot whence + she has fallen. Of old, I own, I have borne myself too + haughtily, self-willed and proud of my power. But Fortune's + favour, which had made another proud, has broken my pride. + Priam, thou makest me proud, thou makest me tremble. I count + the sceptre naught save a glory bright with worthless tinsel + that sets the vain splendour of a crown upon my brow. All + this the chance of one short hour may take from me without + the aid of a thousand ships and ten long years of siege ... + I will own my fault ... I desired to crush and conquer Troy. + Would I had forbidden to lay her low and raze her walls to + the ground! + +The thought is not deep: the speech might serve for a model for a +_suasoria_ in the schools of rhetoric. But there is a stateliness and +dignity about it that is most rare in these plays. At last after dreary +tracts of empty rant we meet Seneca, the spiritual guide of the epistles +and the treatises. + +Far more striking, however, from the dramatic standpoint, are the great +speeches in the _Phaedra_, where the heroine makes known her passion for +Hippolytus (600 sqq.). They are frankly rhetorical, but direct, +passionate, and to the point. They contain few striking lines or +sentiments, but they are clear and comparatively free from affectation. +Theseus has maddened Phaedra by his infidelities, and has long been +absent from her, imprisoned in the underworld. An uncontrollable passion +for her stepson has come upon her. She appeals to the unsuspecting +Hippolytus for pity and protection (619): + + muliebre non est regna tutari urbium; + tu qui iuventae flore primaevo viges + cives paterno fortis imperio rege, + sinu receptam supplicem ac servam tege. + miserere viduae. + + _Hipp_. Summus hoc omen deus avertat. + aderit sospes actutum parens. + + 'Tis no woman's task to rule cities. Do thou, + strong in the flower of thy first youth, flinch + not, but govern the state by the power thy father + held. Take me and shield me in thy bosom, thy + suppliant and thy slave! Pity thy father's widow. + + _Hipp_. Nay, high heaven avert the omen. Soon shall + my father return unscathed. + +Phaedra then begins to show her true colours. 'Nay!' she replies, 'he +will not come. Pluto holds him fast, the would-be ravisher of his bride, +unless indeed Pluto, like others I wot of, is indifferent to love.' +Hippolytus attempts to console her: he will do all in his power to make +life easy for her: + + et te merebor esse ne viduam putes + ac tibi parentis ipse supplebo locum. + + I shall prove me worthy of thee: so thou shalt not deem + thyself a widow. I will fill up my absent father's room. + +These innocent words are as fuel to Phaedra's passion. She turns to him +again appealing for pity, pity for an ill she dare not name-- + + quod in novercam cadere vix credas malum. + +He bids her speak out. She replies, 'Love consumes me with an +all-devouring flame. 'He still fails to catch her meaning, supposing +that the passion of which she speaks is for the absent Theseus. She can +restrain herself no longer: 'Aye, 'tis for Theseus!' she cries (646): + + Hippolyte, sic est; Thesei vultus amo [185] + illos priores quos tulit quondam puer, + cum prima puras barba signaret genas + monstrique caecam Cnosii vidit domum + et longa curva fila collegit via. + quis tum ille fulsit! presserant vittae comam + et ora flavus tenera tinguebat pudor; + inerant lacertis mollibus fortes tori; + tuaeque Phoebes vultus aut Phoebi mei, + tuusque potius--talis, en talis fuit + cum placuit hosti, sic tulit celsum caput: + in te magis refulget incomptus decor; + est genitor in te totus et torvae tamen + pars aliqua matris miscet ex aequo decus; + in ore Graio Scythicus apparet rigor. + si cum parente Creticum intrasses fretum, + tibi fila potius nostra nevisset soror. + te te, soror, quacumque siderei poli + in parte fulges, invoco ad causam parem: + domus sorores una corripuit duas, + te genitor, at me natus. en supplex iacet + adlapsa genibus regiae proles domus, + respersa nulla labe et intacta, innocens + tibi mutor uni. certa descendi ad preces: + finem hic dolori faciet aut vitae dies, + miserere amantis.[186] + + Even so, Hippolytus; I love the face that Theseus wore, + in the days of old while yet he was a boy, when the first + down marked his bright cheeks and he looked on the dark + home of the Cretan monster and gathered the long magic + thread along the winding way. Ah! how then he shone upon my + eyes. A wreath was about his hair and his delicate cheeks + glowed with the golden bloom of modesty. Strong sinews stood + out upon his shapely arms and his countenance was the + countenance of the goddess that thou servest or of mine own + bright sun-god; nay, rather 'twas as thine own. Even so, even + so looked he when he won the heart of her that was his foe, + and lofty was his carriage like to thine. But in thee still + brighter shines an artless glory, and on thee is all thy + father's beauty. Yet mingled therewith in equal portion is + something of thy wild mother's fairness. On thy Greek face is + seen the fierceness of the Scythian. Hadst thou sailed o'er + the sea with thy sire to Crete, for thee rather had my sister + spun the magic thread. On thee, on thee, my sister, I call + where'er thou shinest in the starry heaven, on thee I call + to aid my cause. Lo! sisters twain hath one house brought to + naught--thee did the father ruin, me the son. Lo! suppliant at + thy knees I fall, the daughter of a king, stainless and pure + and innocent. For thee alone I swerve from my course. I have + steeled my soul and stooped to beg of thee. Today shall end + either my sorrow or my life. Pity, have pity, on her that + loves thee. + +Then the storm of Hippolytus' anger breaks. Here at least Seneca has +used his great rhetorical gifts to good effect. The passion may be +highly artificial when compared with the passion of the genuinely human +Phaedra of Euripides, but it is nevertheless passion and not bombast: +crudity there may be, but there is no real irrelevance. + +There is less to praise and more to wonder at in Seneca's dialogue. +Instead of rational conversation or controversy, he gives us a brilliant +but meretricious display of epigram, the mechanical nature of which is +often emphasized by a curious symmetry of structure. For line after line +one character takes up the words of another and turns them against him +with dexterity as extraordinary as it is monotonous. The resulting +artificiality is almost incredible. It appears in its most extravagant +form in the _Thyestes_.[187] Scarcely less strained, though from the +nature of the subject the extravagance is less repellent, is a passage +in the _Troades_. Achilles' ghost has demanded the sacrifice of +Polyxena. Agamemnon hesitates to give orders for the sacrifice. Pyrrhus, +Achilles' son, enumerates the great deeds of his father, and asks, +indignantly, if such glory is to win naught save neglect after death. +Agamemnon has sacrificed his own daughter, why should he not sacrifice +Priam's? Agamemnon--in the speech quoted above--refuses indignantly. +'Sacrifice oxen if you will: no human blood shall be shed!' Pyrrhus +replies (306): + + hac dextra Achilli victimam reddam suam. + quam si negas retinesque, maiorem dabo + dignamque quam det Pyrrhus; et nimium diu + a caede nostra regia cessat manus + paremque poscit Priamus. + +_Agam_. haud equidem nego hoc esse Pyrrhi + maximum in bello decus, saevo peremptus + ense quod Priamus iacet, _supplex paternus. + +_Pyrrh_. _supplices_ nostri _patris_ + hostesque eosdem novimus. Priamus tamen + praesens rogavit; tu gravi pavidus metu, + nec ad rogandum fortis Aiaci preces + Ithacoque mandas clausus atque hostem tremens. + + + By this right hand he shall receive his own. + And if thou dost refuse and keep the maid, + A greater victim will I slay, and one + More worthy Pyrrhus' gift: for all too long + From royal slaughter hath my hand been free, + And Priam asks an equal sacrifice. + +_Agam_. Far be it from my wish to dim the praise + That thou dost claim for this most glorious deed-- + Old Priam slain by thy barbaric sword, + Thy father's suppliant. + +_Pyrrh_. I know full well + My father's suppliants--and well I know + His enemies. Yet royal Priam came + And made his plea before my father's face; + But thou, o'ercome with fear, not brave enough + Thyself to make request, within thy tent + Did trembling hide, and thy desires consign + To braver men, that they might plead for thee. + MILLER. + +Agamemnon retorts, 'What of your father, when he shirked the toils of +war and lay idly in his tent?'-- + + levi canoram verberans plectro chelyn. + +_Pyrrh_. tunc magnus Hector, arma contemnens tua, + cantus Achillis timuit et tanto in metu + _navalibus pax alta Thessalicis fuit_. + +_Agam_. nempe isdem in _istis Thessalis navalibus + pax alta_ rursus Hectoris patri _fuit_. + +_Pyrrh_. est _regis_ alti _spiritum_ regi dare. + +_Agam_. cur dextra _regi spiritum_ eripuit tua? + +_Pyrrh_. mortem _misericors_ saepe pro vita dabit. + +_Agam_. et nunc _misericors_ virginem busto petis? + +_Pyrrh_. iamne immolari virgines credis nefas? + +_Agam_. praeferre patriam liberis regem decet. + +_Pyrrh_. _lex_ nulla capto parcit aut poenam impedit. + +_Agam_. quod non vetat _lex_, hoc vetat fieri pudor. + +_Pyrrh_. quodcumque _libuit_ facere victori _licet_. + +_Agam_. minimum decet _libere_ cui multum _licet_. + + + Idly strumming on his tuneful lyre. + +_Pyrrh_. Then mighty Hector, scornful of thy arms, + Yet felt such wholesome fear of that same lyre, + That our _Thessalian ships_ were left in _peace_. + +_Agam_. An equal _peace_ did Hector's father find, + When he betook him to Achilles' _ships_. + +_Pyrrh_. 'Tis regal thus to spare a _kingly life_. + +_Agam_. Why then didst thou a _kingly life_ despoil? + +_Pyrrh_. But _mercy_ oft doth offer death for life. + +_Agam_. Doth _mercy_ now demand a maiden's blood? + +_Pyrrh_. Canst thou proclaim such sacrifice a sin? + +_Agam_. A king must love his country more than child. + +_Pyrrh_. No _law_ the wretched captive's life doth spare. + +_Agam_. What _law_ forbids not, yet may shame forbid. + +_Pyrrh_. 'Tis victor's right to do whate'er he _will_. + +_Agam_. Then should he _will_ the least, who most can do. + MILLER. + +The cleverness of this is undeniable: individual lines (e.g. the last) +are striking. Taken collectively they are ineffective; we feel, +moreover, that the cleverness is mere knack: the continued picking up of +the adversary's words to be used as weapons against himself is +wearisome. It would be nearly as great a strain to listen to such a +dialogue as to take part in it: the atmosphere is that of the school of +rhetoric, an atmosphere in which sensible and natural dialogue is +impossible.[188] + +The characters naturally suffer from this continued display of +declamatory rhetoric. They have but one voice and language; they differ +from one another only in their clothes and the situations in which they +are placed. It is true that some of them are patterns of virtue and +others monsters of iniquity. But strip off the coating of paint, and +within the limits of these two types--for there are but two--the puppets +are precisely the same. There is none of the play of light and shade so +essential to drama: all is agonizingly crude and lurid. This is not due +to the rhetoric alone, there is another influence at work. The plays are +permeated by a strong vein of Stoicism. Carried to its logical +conclusion Stoicism lays itself open to taunts such as Cicero levels at +his friend Cato in the _pro Murena_,[189] where he delivers a humorous +_reductio ad absurdum_ of its tenets. Such a philosophy is fatal to the +drama. It allows no room for human sentiment or human weakness; the most +virtuous affections are chilled and robbed of their attractiveness: +there are no gradations of temperament, intellect, or character: pathos +disappears. The Stoic ideal was a being in whom the natural impulses and +desires should be completely subjected to the laws of pure reason. It +tends in its intensity to a narrowness, an abstract unreality which is +unfavourable to the development of the more human virtues. What it gave +with one hand the more rigid Stoic philosophy took away with the other. +It preached the brotherhood of man and took away half the value of +sympathy. And here in the plays there is nothing of the _mitis +sapientia_, the concessions to mortal weakness, the humanity, which +characterize the prose works of Seneca and have won the hearts of many +generations of men. There the hardness of Stoicism is softened by ripe +experience and a tendency to eclecticism, and the doctrinaire stands +less sharply revealed. 'Sous l'austérité du philosophe, on trouve un +homme.' The most noteworthy result of this hard Stoicism upon the plays +is the almost complete absence of pathos springing from the tenderer +human affections. Seneca's tragedy may sometimes succeed in horrifying +us, as in the ghastly rhetoric of the _Thyestes_ or the _Medea_. He +moves us rarely. + +But there are a few striking exceptions to the rule, notably the +beautiful passage of the _Troades_, where Andromache bids her companions +in misfortune cease from useless lamentation[190] (409): + + quid, maesta Phrygiae turba, laceratis comas + miserumque tunsae pectus effuso genas + fletu rigatis? levia perpessae sumus, + si flenda patimur. Ilium vobis modo, + mihi cecidit olim, cum ferus curru incito + mea membra raperet et gravi gemeret sono + Peliacis axis pondere Hectoreo tremens. + tunc obruta atque eversa quodcumque accidit + torpens malis rigeusque sine sensu fero. + iam erepta Danais coniugem sequerer meum, + nisi hic teneret: hic meos animos domat + morique prohibet; cogit hic aliquid deos + adhuc rogare--tempus aerumnae addidit. + + Why, ye sad Phrygian women, do ye rend your hair and + beat your woeful breasts and bedew your cheeks with + streaming tears? But light is our sorrow, if it lies + not too deep for tears. For you Ilium but now has fallen, + for me it fell long ago, when the cruel wheels of the + swift ear of Peleus' son dragged in the dust the limbs of + him I loved, and groaned loud as they quivered beneath + the weight of Hector dead. Then was I overthrown, then + cast to utter ruin, and since then I bear whatso falleth + upon me, with a heart that is numb with grief, chilled and + insensible, and long since had I snatched myself from the + hands of the Greeks and followed my husband, did not my + child keep me among the living: he checks my purpose and + forbids me to die; he constrains me still to make + supplication to heaven and prolongs my anguish. + +Even here the pathos is the calm and reasoned pathos of hopelessness, +the pathos of a Stoic who preaches endurance of evils against which his +philosophy is not proof. Here, too, we find the Stoic attitude towards +death. Death is the end of all; there is naught to dread; death puts an +end to hope and fear: to die is to be as though we had never been (394): + + post mortem nihil est, ipsaque mors nihil. + velocis spatii meta novissima; + spem ponant avidi, solliciti metum. + tempus nos avidum devorat et chaos: + mors individua est, noxia corpori + nec parcens animae: Taenara et aspero + regnum sub domino limen et obsidens + custos non facili Cerberus ostio + rumores vacui verbaque inania + et par sollicito fabula somnio. + quaeris quo iaceas post obitum loco? + quo non nata iacent. + + Since naught remains, and death is naught + But life's last goal, so swiftly sought: + Let those who cling to life abate + Their fond desires, and yield to fate; + Soon shall grim time and yawning night + In their vast depths engulf us quite; + Impartial death demands the whole-- + The body slays nor spares the soul. + Dark Taenara and Pluto fell, + And Cerberus, grim guard of hell-- + All these but empty rumours seem, + The pictures of a troubled dream. + Where then will the departed spirit dwell? + Let those who never came to being tell. + MILLER. + +Death brings release from sorrow: the worst of torture is to be forced +to live on in the midst of woe-- + + mors votum meum--cries Hecuba--(1171) + infantibus violenta, virginibus venis, + ubique properas, saeva: me solam times. + + O death, my sole desire, for boys and maids + Thou com'st with hurried step and savage mien: + But me alone of mortals dost thou fear. + MILLER. + +So, too, Andromache, in the passage quoted above, almost apologizes for +not having put an end to her existence. Polyxena meets death with +exultation (_Tro_. 945, 1152-9): even the little Astyanax is infected +with Stoic passion for suicide (1090): + + nec gradu segni puer + ad alta pergit moenia. ut summa stetit + pro turre, vultus huc et huc acres tulit + intrepidus animo.... + non flet e turba omnium + qui fletur; ac, dum verba fatidici et preces + concipit Vlixes vatis et saevos ciet + ad sacra superos, sponte desiluit sua + in media Priami regna. + + And with no lingering pace the boy climbed the lofty + battlements, and all about him cast his keen gaze with + dauntless soul.... But he alone of all the throng who + wept for him wept not at all, and, while Ulysses 'uttered + in priestly wise the words of fate and prayed' and called + the cruel gods to the sacrifice, the boy of his own will + cast himself down to death on the fields that Priam ruled. + +The enthusiasm for death is carried too far.[191] Even the agony of the +_Troades_ fails really to stir us: it depresses us without wakening our +sympathy. So, too, with other scenes: in the _Hercules Furens_ we have +the virtuous Stoic--in the persons of Megara and Amphitryon--confronting +the _instans tyrannus_ in the person of Lycus: it is the hackneyed theme +of the schools of rhetoric,[192] but derives its inspiration from +Stoicism (426): + +_Lyc_. cogere. +_Meg_. cogi qui potest nescit mori. +_Lyc_. effare potius, quod novis thalamis parem + regale munus. +_Meg_. aut tuam mortem aut meam. +_Lyc_. moriere demens. +_Meg_. coniugi occurram meo. +_Lyc_. sceptrone nostro famulus est potior tibi? +_Meg_. quot iste famulus tradidit reges neci. +_Lyc_. cur ergo regi servit et patitur iugum? +_Meg_. imperia dura tolle: quid virtus erit?[193] +_Lyc_. obici feris monstrisque virtutem putas? +_Meg_. virtutis est domare quae cuncti pavent. +_Lyc_. tenebrae loquentem magna Tartareae premunt. +_Meg_. non est ad astra mollis e terris via.[194] +_Lyc_. Thou shalt be forced. +_Meg_. He can be forced, who knows not how to die. +_Lyc_. Tell me what gift I could bestow more rich + Than royal wedlock? +_Meg_. Or thy death or mine. +_Lyc_. Then die, thou fool. +_Meg_. 'Tis thus I'll meet my lord. +_Lyc_. Is that slave more to thee than I, a king? +_Meg_. How many kings has that slave given to death! +_Lyc_. Why does he serve a king and bear the yoke? +_Meg_. Remove hard tasks, and where would valour be? +_Lyc_. To conquer monsters call'st thou valour then? +_Meg_. 'Tis valour to subdue what all men fear. +_Lyc_. The shades of Hades hold that boaster fast. +_Meg_. No easy way leads from the earth to heaven. + MILLER + +So, too, a little later (463) Amphitryon crushes Lycus with a true +Stoic retort:-- + +_Lyc_. quemcumque miserum videris, hominem scias. +_Amph_. quemcumque fortem videris, miserum neges.[195] + +_Lyc_. Whoe'er is wretched, him mayst thou know for mortal. +_Amph_. Whoe'er is brave, thou mayst not call him wretched. + +Admirable as are the sentiments expressed by these virtuous and +calamitous persons, they leave us cold: they are too self-sufficient to +need our sympathy. Pain and death have no terrors for them; why should +we pity them? But it would be unjust to lay the blame for this absence +of pathetic power entirely on the influence of Stoicism. The scholastic +rhetoric is not a good vehicle for pathos, and must bear a large portion +of the blame, though even the rhetoric is due in no small degree to the +Stoic type of dialectic. As Seneca himself says, speaking of others than +himself, 'Philosophia quae fuit, facta philologia est.'[196] And it must +further be remembered that of the few flights of real poetry in these +plays some of the finest were inspired by Stoicism. The drama cannot +nourish in the Stoic atmosphere, poetry can. Seneca was sometimes a +poet. His best-known chorus, the famous _regem non faciunt opes_ of the +_Thyestes_ (345), is directly inspired by Stoicism. The speeches of +Agamemnon and Andromache, together with the chorus already quoted from +the _Troades_, all bear the impress of the Stoic philosophy. The same is +true of the scarcely inferior chorus on fate from the _Oedipus_ (980). + +But there are other passages of genuine poetry where the Stoic is +silent. The chorus in the _Hercules Furens_ (838), giving the +conventional view of death, will stand comparison with the chorus of the +_Troades_, giving the philosophic view. The chorus on the dawn (_H.F._ +125) brings the fresh sounds and breezes of early morning into the +atmosphere of the rhetorician's lecture-room. The celebrated + + venient annis saecula seris + quibus Oceanus vincula rerum + laxet et ingens pateat tellus + Tethysque novos detegat orbes + nec sit terris ultima Thule (_Med._ 375) + + Late in time shall come an age, when Ocean shall + unbar the world, and the whole wide earth be + revealed, and Tethys shall show forth a new world, + nor Thule be earth's limit any more. + +has acquired a fictitious importance since the discovery of the new +world, but shows a fine imagination, even if--as has been maintained--it +is merely a courtly reference to the British expedition of Claudius. And +the invocation to sleep in the _Hercules Furens_ proved worthy to +provide an inspiration for Shakespeare[197] (1063): + + solvite tantis animum monstris + solvite superi, caecam in melius + flectite mentem. tuque, o domitor + Somne malorum, requies animi, + pars humanae melior vitae, + volucre o matris genus Astracae, + frater durae languide Mortis, + veris miscens falsa, futuri + certus et idem pessimus auctor, + pax errorum, portus vitae, + lucis requies noctisque comes, + qui par regi famuloque venis, + pavidum leti genus humanum + cogis longam discere noctem: + placidus fessum lenisque fove, + preme devinctum torpore gravi. + + Save him, ye gods, from monstrous madness, save + him, restore his darkened mind to sanity. And thou, + O sleep, subduer of ill, the spirit's repose, thou + better part of human life, swift-winged child of + Astraca, drowsy brother of cruel death, mixing + false with true, prescient of what shall be, yet + oftener prescient of sorrow, peace mid our wanderings, + haven of man's life, day's respite, night's companion, + that comest impartially to king and slave, thou that + makest trembling mankind to gain a foretaste of the + long night of death; do thou bring gentle rest to his + weariness, and sweet balm to his anguish, and overwhelm + him with heavy stupor. + +But the poetry is confined mainly to the lyrics. In them, though the +metre be monotonous and the thought rarely more than commonplace, the +feeling rings true, the expression is brilliant, and the never absent +rhetoric is sometimes transmuted to a more precious substance with a +far-off resemblance to true lyrical passion. In the iambics, with the +exception of the passages already quoted from the _Troades_ and the +_Phaedra_, touches of genuine poetry are most rare.[198] In certain of +the long descriptive passages (_H.F._ 658 sqq., _Oed._ 530 sqq.) we get +a stagey picturesqueness, but no more. It is for different qualities +that we read the iambics of Seneca, if we read them at all. + +Even in its worst moments the rhetoric is capable of extorting our +unwilling admiration by its sheer cleverness and audacity. A good +example is to be found in the passage of the _Thyestes_, where Atreus +meditates whether he shall call upon his sons Menelaus and Agamemnon to +aid him in his unnatural vengeance on Thyestes. He has doubts as to +whether he is their father, for Thyestes had seduced their mother +Aerope (327):-- + + prolis incertae fides + ex hoc petatur scelere: si bella abnuunt + et gerere nolunt odia, si patruum vocant, + pater est. eatur. + + And by this test of crime, + Let their uncertain birth be put to proof: + If they refuse to wage this war of death + And will not serve my hatred; if they plead + He is their uncle--then he is their sire. + So to my work! + MILLER'S translation slightly altered. + +Equally ingenious is the closing scene between Atreus and Thyestes after +the vengeance is accomplished and Thyestes has feasted on the flesh of +his own sons (1100): + +_Thy_. quid liberi meruere? +_Atr_. quod fuerant tui. +_Thy_. natos parenti-- +_Atr_. fateor et, quod me iuvat, certos. +_Thy_. piorum praesides testor deos. +_Atr_. quin coniugales? +_Thy_. scelere quid pensas scelus? +_Atr_. scio quid queraris: scelere praerepto doles, + nec quod nefandas hauseris angit dapes; + quod non pararis: fuerat hic animus tibi + instruere similes inscio fratri cibos + et adiuvante liberos matre aggredi + similique leto sternere--hoc unum obstitit: + _tuos_ putasti. +_Thy_. What was my children's sin? +_Atr_. This, that they were thy children. +_Thy_. But to think + That children to the father-- +_Atr_. That indeed, + I do confess it, gives me greatest joy, + That thou art well assured they were thy sons. +_Thy_. I call upon the gods of innocence-- +_Atr_. Why not upon the gods of marriage call? +_Thy_. Why dost thou seek to punish crime with crime? +_Atr_. Well do I know the cause of thy complaint: + Because I have forestalled thee in the deed. + Thou grievest, not because thou hast consumed + This horrid feast, but that thou wast not first + To set it forth. This was thy fell intent, + To arrange a feast like this unknown to me, + And with their mother's aid attack my sons, + And with a like destruction lay them low. + But this one thing opposed--thou thought'st them thine. + MILLER. + +These passages are as unreal as they are repulsive, but they are +diabolically clever. Seneca's rhetoric is, however, as we have already +seen, capable of rising to higher things, and even where he does not +succeed, as in the passages quoted above from the _Phaedra_ and +_Troades_,[199] in introducing a genuine poetic element, he often +produces striking declamatory effects. The exit of the blind Oedipus, as +he goes forth into life-long banishment, bringing peace to Thebes at the +last, is highly artificial in form, but, given the rhetorical drama, is +not easily surpassed as a conclusion-- + + mortifera mecum vitia terrarum extraho. + violenta Fata et horridus Morbi tremor, + Maciesque et atra Pestis et rabidus Dolor, + mecum ite, mecum. ducibus his uti libet (1058). + + With me to exile lead I forth 'all pestilential humours of + the land. Ye blasting fates', ye trembling agues, famine and + deadly plague and maddened grief, go forth with me, with me! + My heart rejoices to follow in your train. + +So likewise the last despairing cry of Jason, as Medea sails +victoriously away in her magic car-- + + per alta vade spatia sublimi aethere, + testare nullos esse qua veheris deos + + Sail on through the airy depths of highest heaven, and + bear witness that, where thou soarest, no gods can be. + +forms a magnificent ending to a play which, for all its unreality, +succeeds for more than half its length (l 578) in arresting our +attention by its ingenious rhetoric and its comparative freedom from +mere bombast. Excellent, too, is the speech (_Phoen_. 193) in which +Antigone dissuades her father from suicide. 'What ills can time have in +store for him compared to those he has endured?'-- + + qui fata proculcavit ac vitae bona + proiecit atque abscidit et casus suos + oneravit ipse, cui deo nullo est opus, + quare ille mortem cupiat aut quare petat? + utrumque timidi est: nemo contempsit mori + qui concupivit. cuius haut ultra mala + exire possunt, in loco tuto est situs, + quis iam deorum, velle fac, quicquam potest + malis tuis adicere? iam nec tu potes + nisi hoc, ut esse te putes dignum nece-- + non es nec ulla pectus hoc culpa attigit. + et hoc magis te, genitor, insontem voca, + quod innocens es dis quoque invitis.... + ... ... quidquid potest + auferre cuiquam mors, tibi hoc vita abstulit. + + Who tramples under foot his destiny, + Who disregards and scorns the goods of life, + And aggravates the evils of his lot, + Who has no further need of Providence: + Wherefore should such a man desire to die, + Or seek for death? Each is the coward's act. + No one holds death in scorn who seeks to die. + The man whose evils can no further go + Is safely lodged. Who of the gods, think'st thou, + Grant that he wills it so, can add one jot + Unto thy sum of trouble? Nor canst thou, + Save that thou deem'st thyself unfit to live. + But thou art not unfit, for in thy breast + No taint of sin has come. And all the more, + My father, art thou free from taint of sin, + Because, though heaven willed it otherwise, + Thou still art innocent.... + Whatever death + From any man can take, thy life hath taken. + MILLER + +It is, however, in isolated lines and striking _sententiae_ that +Seneca's gift for rhetorical epigram is seen at its best. Nothing could +be better turned than + + quaeris Alcidae parem? + nemo est nisi ipse: (_H.F_. 84).[A] + curae leves loquuntur, ingentes stupent (_Phaedra_ 607).[B] + fortem facit vicina libertas senem (_Phaedra_ 139).[C] + qui genus iactat suum, + aliena laudat (_H.F_. 340). + fortuna fortes metuit, ignavos premit (_Med_. 159). + fortuna opes auferre, non animum potest (_Med_. 176). + maius est monstro nefas:[D] + nam monstra fato, moribus scelera imputes (_Phaedra_ 143). + +[A] Cp. Theobald: None but himself can be his parallel. + +[B] Cp. Sir W. Raleigh: Passions are best compared with floods and +streams, The shallow murmur but the deep are dumb. + +[C] For dawning freedom makes the aged brave. MILLER. + +[D] For thy impious love is worse + Than her unnatural and impious love. + The first you would impute to character, + The last to fate. + MILLER. + +If nothing had survived of Seneca's plays but a collection of +_sententiae_, we might have regretted his loss almost as we regret the +loss of Menander. + +Here his merits, such as they are, end: they fail to justify us in +placing him high as a dramatist; and he has many faults over and above +those incidental to his style and modes of thought. While freer than +most of his contemporaries from the vain display of obscure erudition, +he falls into the common vice of introducing 'catalogues'. They are dull +in epic: in drama they are worse than dull. The _Hercules Furens_ is no +place for a matter-of-fact catalogue of the hero's labours, set forth +(210-248) in monotonous iambics from the mouth of Amphitryon. If they +are to be described at all, they demand the decorative treatment of +lyric verse,[200] nor is a catalogue of the herbs used by Medea to +poison the robe destined for her rival any more excusable.[201] Again, +like his contemporaries, he shows a lack of taste and humour which in +its worst manifestations passes belief. Not a few of the passages +already quoted serve to illustrate the point. But for fatuity it would +be hard to surpass the words with which Amphitryon interrupts Theseus' +account of the horrors of the underworld: + + estne aliqua tellus Cereris aut Bacchi ferax? (_H.F._ 697.) + +Scarcely less absurd is the chorus in the _Phaedra_, who, when hymning +the power of love, give a long list of animals subject to such passion: +the catalogue culminates with the statement that even whales and +elephants fall in love (351): + + amat insani belua ponti + Lucaeque boves. + +But all such instances pale before the conclusion of the _Phaedra_. Not +content with giving a ghastly and exaggerated account of the death of +Hippolytus, Seneca must needs bring the fragments of his mutilated body +upon the scene. Theseus, at the suggestion of the chorus, attempts to +put them together again. The climax comes when, finding an +unidentifiable portion, he cries (1267): + +quae pars tui sit dubito, sed pars est tui! + +The actual language of the plays is pure and classical. There is no +trace of provincialism, nothing to suggest that Seneca was a Spaniard. +Its vices proceed from the false mould in which it has been cast. There +is a lack of connecting particles, and we proceed by a series of short +rhetorical jerks.[202] It is the style that Seneca himself condemns in +his letters (114. 1). Its faults are further aggravated by the metre: +taken line by line, the iambics of Seneca are impressive: taken +collectively they are monotonous in the extreme. The ear suffers a +continual series of stabs, which are not the less unpleasant because +none of them go deep. The verse seems formed, one might almost say +punched out, by a relentless machine. It is never modified by +circumstances; it is the same in narrative and dialogue, the same in +passion and in calm, if indeed Seneca can ever be said to be either +passionate or calm. Its pauses come with monotonous regularity at the +end of the line, diversified only by an occasional break at the caesura +in the third foot. Nor does the rule[203] observed by Seneca, that only +a spondee or anapaest is permitted in the fifth foot, tend to relieve +the monotony, though it does much to give the individual lines such +weight as they possess. A more complete contrast with the iambics of the +early Latin Tragedies cannot be imagined. What has been gained in polish +has been lost in dignity. Whence the Senecan iambic is derived, is a +question which cannot be answered with certainty. It is wholly unlike +the early Roman tragic iambic. Elision is rare, and there is little +variety. Instead of the massive and rugged measure of Pacuvius or +Accius, we have a finished and elegant monotony. In all likelihood it is +the lineal descendant of the iambic of Ovid.[204] In view of Seneca's +great admiration for Ovid--he quotes him continually in his prose +works--of Ovid's mastery of rhetoric and epigram, and yet more of the +distinct parallels traceable between the _Phaedra_ and _Medea_ of Seneca +and the corresponding _Heroides_ of Ovid, it becomes a strong +probability that the Senecan iambic was deeply influenced--if not +actually created--by the iambic style of the earlier poet's lost drama, +the famous _Medea_.[205] + +As to the models to which he is indebted for his treatment of choric +metres we know nothing. In spite of the fact that he employs a large +variety of metres, and that his choruses at times stray from rhetoric +into poetry of a high order, there is in them a still more deadly +monotony than in his iambics. The chorus are devoid of life; they are +there partly as a concession to convention, but mainly to supply +incidental music. Their inherent dullness is not relieved by the metre. +Of strophic arrangement there is no clear trace; in a large proportion +of cases the choruses are written in one fixed and rigid metre admitting +of no variety: even where different metres alternate, the relaxation is +but small, for the same monotony reigns unchecked within the limits of +each section. The strange experiments in mixed metres in the _Agamemnon_ +and _Oedipus_ show Seneca's technique at its worst: they are composed of +fragments of Horatian metres, thinly disguised by inversions and +resolutions of feet: they lack all governing principle and are an +unqualified failure. Of the remaining metres the Anapaestic, Asclepiad, +Sapphic, and Glyconic predominate. He is, perhaps, least unsuccessful in +his treatment of the Anapaest: the lines do not lack melody, and the +natural flexibility of the metre saves them from extreme monotony, +though they would have been more successful had he employed the +paroemiac line as a solemn and resonant close to the march of the +dimeter. But one wearies soon of the eternal Asclepiads and Glyconics +which he often allows to continue in unbroken and unvaried series for +seventy or eighty lines together. He rarely allows any variation within +the Glyconic and never makes use of it to break the monotony of the +Asclepiad. Still worse are his Sapphics. Abandoning the usual +arrangement in stanzas of three lesser Sapphics followed by an Adonic +verse, his Sapphic choruses consist almost entirely of the lesser +Sapphic varied by a very occasional Adonic. The continual succession of +these lines without so much as an occasional change of caesura to +diversify the rhythm is at times almost intolerable. At the close of +such choruses we feel as though we had jogged at a rapid trot for long +miles on a very hard and featureless road. + +Language and metre work hand in hand with rhetoric to make these +strange plays dramatically ineffective. So strange are they and in many +ways so unlike anything else in Classical literature, that the question +as to the purpose with which they were written and the place they +occupied in the literature of their day affords an interesting subject +for speculation. Were they written for the stage? Decayed as was the +taste for tragedy, tragedies may occasionally have been acted.[206] But +there are considerations which suggest doubt as to whether the plays of +Seneca were written with any such purpose. Even under Nero it is +scarcely credible that the introduction of the mangled fragments of +Hippolytus upon the stage would be possible or palatable.[207] Medea +kills her children _coram populo_, and, not content with killing them, +flings their bodies at Jason from her magic chariot high in air. +Hercules kills his children in full view of the audience, not within the +house as in the corresponding drama of Euripides. Such scenes suggest +that the plays were written not for the stage but for recitation with +musical interludes from a trained choir. Indications that this was the +case are to be found in the _Hercules Furens_. While the hero is engaged +in slaying his children, Amphitryon, in a succession of short speeches, +gives the details of the murder. This would be ridiculous and +unnecessary were the scene actually presented on the stage, whereas they +become absolutely necessary on the assumption that the play was written +for recitation.[208] This assumption has the further merit of being +charitable; skilful recitation would cover many defects that would be +almost intolerable on the stage. + +It is improbable, however, that the drama of Seneca occupied an +important position in the literature of their day. The golden age of +tragedy was past, and it is hard to believe that these plays are +favourable specimens even of their own age. The authors of the Silver +Age virtually ignore their existence, and, with the exception of two +references in Tertullian and one in Apollinaris Sidonius, they are +quoted only by scholars and grammarians. + +They have small intrinsic value: but they afford interesting evidence +for the taste[209] of their own day, and their influence on modern drama +has been enormous. In the Renaissance at the dawn of the drama's +revival, Seneca was regarded as a dramatist of the first order. Scaliger +ranked him above Euripides: it was to him men turned to find models for +tragedy. Everywhere we see traces of the Senecan drama.[210] It is a +tribute to the dexterity of his rhetoric that his influence should have +been so enormous, but it is to be regretted in the interests of the +drama. For to Seneca more than to any other man is due the excessive +prominence of declamatory rhetoric, which has characterized the drama +throughout Western Europe from the Renaissance down to the latter half +of the nineteenth century, and has proved a blemish to the work of all +save a few great writers who recognized the value of rhetoric, but never +mistook the shadow for the substance. + + +III + +THE 'OCTAVIA' + +A tragedy with this title is included by the MSS. among the plays of +Seneca. Its chief interest lies in the fact that it is the one surviving +example of a _fabula praetexta_, or tragedy, drawn from Roman life. It +deals with a tragic incident of Nero's reign, the final extinction of +the Claudian house. Octavia, daughter of Claudius and Messalina, is the +heroine. Her life was one long tragedy. Her childhood was darkened by +the disaster that befell her unworthy mother, her maturer years by her +marriage to Nero. She was a mere pawn in the game of politics. The +marriage was brought about by the designs of Agrippina, to render Nero +secure of the principate. To effect this end her betrothed Silanus was +killed, Claudius, her father, and Britannicus, her brother, dispatched +by poison. Soon her own wedded life turned to tragedy. Nero fell madly +in love with Poppaea, and resolved to put away Octavia. At Poppaea's +instigation she was accused of a base intrigue. The plot failed; the +false charge could not be pressed home; she was divorced on the ground +of sterility, and imprisoned in a town of Campania. A rumour arose that +she was to be reinstated; the mob of Rome declared itself in her favour +and gave wild expression to its joy. Poppaea's statues were cast down, +Octavia's replaced. Poppaea was furious. She laid siege to Nero and won +him to her will. The old false charge of adultery was trumped up; a +complaisant freed man was found to confess himself Octavia's lover. She +was banished to Pandataria and slain (June 9, 62 A.D.). + +The play gives us a compressed version of the tragedy. It opens with a +speech by Octavia's nurse, setting forth the sorrows of her young +mistress. The speech over, she leaves the stage to be succeeded by +Octavia, who, in a lament closely modelled on the lament of the +Sophoclean Electra,[211] bewails the sorrows of her house, the deaths of +Messalina, Claudius, and Britannicus. The nurse reappears, attempts to +console her, and counsels submission to fate. Octavia changes her strain +and prays for death. After a lament from the chorus, Nero and Seneca +enter on the scene. Seneca urges moderation and sets forth his ideal of +monarchy. Nero is quite his match in argument, rejects his advice, and, +concluding with the words + + desiste tandem, iam gravis nimium mihi, + instare: liceat facere quod Seneca improbat (588). + + Have done at last, + For wearisome has thine insistence grown; + One still may do what Seneca condemns ... + MILLER. + +declares his intention of marrying Poppaea without delay. An interesting +chorus follows, describing how Rome of old expelled the kings for their +crimes. Nero has sinned even more than they. Has he not slain even his +mother? There follows a long and interesting description of the +murder,[212] which serves as an introduction to the entrance of the +ghost of Agrippina in the guise of an avenging fury, prophesying the +dethronement and death of her unnatural son. She is succeeded on the +stage by Octavia, resigned to the surrender of her position and content +to be no more than Nero's sister; once more the chorus bewail her fate. +At last her rival Poppaea appears in conversation with her nurse. The +nurse congratulates her, but Poppaea has been terrified by visions of +the night and is ill at ease. Her rival is not yet removed and her own +place is still insecure. At this point comes the one ray of hope that +illumines this sombre drama. A messenger arrives with the news that the +people have risen in Octavia's favour. But the reader is not left in +suspense for a moment. Nero appears and orders the suppression of the +_émeute_ and the execution of Octavia. The chorus mourn the fate of the +beloved of the Roman people. Their power and splendour is but brief: +Octavia perishes untimely, like Gracchus and Livius Drusus. She herself +appears in the hands of soldiers, being dragged off to execution and +death. Like Cassandra,[213] she compares her fate with that of the +nightingale, to whom the gods gave a new life of peace full of sweet +lamentation as a close to her troubled human existence. One more song of +condolence from the chorus, one more song of sorrow from Octavia, and +she is taken from our sight, and the play closes with a denunciation by +the chorus of the hardness of heart and the insatiate cruelty of Rome. + +It is not hard to summarize the general effect of this curious drama. +Its author has read the Greek tragedians carefully and to some purpose; +he has studied the characters of Electra, Cassandra, and Antigone with +diligence, if without insight. He clearly feels deep sympathy for +Octavia, and to some extent succeeds in communicating this sympathy to +the audience. His heroine speaks in character: she is never a male +Stoic, flaunting in female garb, she is a genuine woman, a gentle, +lovable creature broken down by misfortune. The other characters are +uninteresting. Nero is an academic tyrant, Seneca an academic adviser, +Poppaea is little more than a lay figure. The most that can be said for +them is that they do not rant. The chorus are on the whole a fairly +satisfactory imitation of a chorus of sympathetic Greek women.[214] +There is nothing forced or unnatural about them; they are real human +beings; their sympathy is genuine, and its expression appropriate. But +they are dull; monotonous lamentation in monotonous anapaests is the +height of their capacity. The play is a failure: the subject is not in +itself dramatic; if it had been, it would have been spoiled by the +treatment it receives. We are never in suspense; Octavia has never the +remotest chance of escape; our pity for her is genuine enough, but her +character lacks both grandeur and psychological interest: the pathos of +her situation will not compensate us for the absence of a dramatic plot. +The fall of the house of Claudius compares ill with the tragedy of the +Pelopidae. And the treatment of the story, from the dramatic standpoint, +is childish. The play is scarcely more than a series of melancholy +monologues interspersed with not less melancholy dirges from the chorus. +The most we can say of it is that it is simple and unaffected: if it +lacks brilliance, it also lacks exaggeration. Thought and diction are +commonplace and uninspired, but they are never absurd--an extraordinary +merit in a poet of the Silver Age. + +It will have been sufficiently evident from this brief sketch that +the _Octavia_ is in all respects very different indeed from the other +plays that claim Seneca for their author. It is free from their +faults and their merits alike. It never sinks to their depths, but +it never rises to their heights. Apart, however, from these general +considerations,[215] there is evidence amounting almost to certainty +that the _Octavia_ is not by Seneca. The tragedy takes place in the +lifetime of Seneca. Seneca himself figures in the play. The story is of +such a nature that it could hardly have been written, much less +published, in the reign of Nero. Yet more conclusive is the fact that +the ghost of Agrippina prophesies the fate of Nero in such a way as to +make it certain that the author outlived the emperor and was acquainted +with the facts of his death.[216] + +Who then was the author? When did he write? Evidence is almost +absolutely lacking. From its comparative sanity and simplicity and its +intense hatred of Nero it may reasonably be conjectured that it is the +work of the Flavian age; the age of the anti-Neronian reaction and of +the return to saner models in life and literature. But there is no +certainty; it may have been written under Nerva, Trajan, or Hadrian. It +stands detached and aloof from the literature of its age. + + + +CHAPTER III + + +PERSIUS + +It is possible to form a clearer picture of the personality of Aulus +Persius Flaccus, the satirist, than of any other poet of the Silver Age. +Not only are the essential facts of his brief career preserved for us in +a concise, but extremely relevant biography taken from the commentary of +the famous critic Valerius Probus, but there are few poets whose works +so clearly reveal the character of their author. + +Persius was born at the lofty hill-town of Volaterrae, in Tuscany, on +the 4th of December, 34 A.D.[217] He was scarcely six years old when he +lost his father, a wealthy Roman knight, named Flaccus. His mother, +Fulvia Sisennia, married again, but her second husband, a knight named +Fusius, died after a few years of wedded life. Persius was educated at +home up to the age of twelve, when he was taken to Rome to be taught +literature by Remmius Palaemon and rhetoric by Verginius Flavus. Of the +latter nothing is known save that he wrote a much-approved textbook on +rhetoric and was exiled by Nero;[218] the former was a freedman whose +remarkable talents were only equalled by his gross vices; he had a +prodigious memory, was a skilful _improvvisatore_, and the most +distinguished teacher of the day.[219] At the age of sixteen, shortly +after his assumption of the _toga virilis_, the young Persius made the +friendship which was to be the ruling influence of his life. He learned +to know and love the great Stoic teacher, Cornutus, with an attachment +that was broken only by death. It was from Cornutus that he imbibed the +principles of Stoicism, and at his house that he met the Greek +philosophers, Petronius Aristocrates of Magnesia and the Lacedaemonian +physician, Claudius Agathurnus, whose influence upon his character was +only less than that of Cornutus. Among his intimates he counted +Calpurnius Statura, who died in early youth, and the famous lyric poet, +Caesius Bassus,[220] who was destined long to survive his friend and to +do him the last service of editing the satires, which his premature +death left unpublished and unfinished. Lucan also was one of his fellow +students in the house of Cornutus,[221] while at a later date he made +the acquaintance of Seneca, the leading writer of the day, although he +never felt the seductive attractions of his fluent style and subtle +intellect. More important influences were his almost filial respect and +affection for the distinguished orator,[222] M. Servilius Nonianus, and +his close companionship with Thrasea Paetus, the leader of the Stoic +opposition.[223] At one time Persius, if the scholiast may be +believed,[224] contemplated a military career. The statement is scarcely +probable in view of the contempt and dislike with which he invariably +speaks of soldiers, nor is it easy to conceive a profession less suited +to the temperament of the quiet and retiring poet. Whatever his original +intentions may have been, he actually chose the secluded life of study, +the _vita umbratilis_, as the Romans called it, remote from the dust and +heat of the great world. That he was wise we cannot doubt. It was the +only life possible in those days for a man of his character. 'Fuit morum +lenissimorum, verecundiae virginalis, pietatis erga matrem et sororem et +amitam exemplo sufficientis: fuit frugi, pudicus.' Even in a saner, +purer, and less turbulent age, such a one would have been more fitted +for the paths of study than for any branch of public life. He died of a +disease of the stomach on the 24th of November, 62 A.D., in his villa on +the Appian Way, some eight miles south of Rome,[225] leaving behind him +a valuable library, a small amount of unpublished verse, and a +considerable fortune, amounting to 2,000,000 sesterces. The whole of +this fortune he bequeathed to his mother and sister, only begging them +to give to his friend Cornutus a sum of 100,000 sesterces, twenty pounds +weight of silver plate, and the whole of his library, containing no less +than 700 volumes by the Stoic Chrysippus. Cornutus accepted the books, +but refused the rest, showing that indifference to wealth that was to be +looked for, though not always to be found, in professors of the Stoic +philosophy. The literary work left by the dead poet was submitted by his +mother to the judgement of Cornutus, himself a poet.[226] The bulk of +the work was not great. Persius had in his boyhood written a _praetexta_ +or tragedy with a Roman plot, a book of poems describing his journeys +with Thrasea,[227] and a few verses on his kinswoman Arria, the wife of +Caecina Paetus, immortalized by her devotion to her husband and her +heroic death.[228] As the work of his maturer years he left his satires. +Cornutus recommended that all save the satires should be destroyed; they +alone, unfinished though they might be, were worthy of the memory of his +dead friend. He began the task of correcting them for publication, but +transferred it to Caesius Bassus, at the latter's earnest entreaty. Of +the nature of the correction and editing required we are ignorant, save +for the statement of Probus that a few lines were removed from the end +of the book to give it an appearance of completion.[229] The poems met +with instant success;[230] they excited both wonder and criticism; that +they continued to be read is shown by the existence of copious scholia, +which must, indeed, have been almost necessary for such continuance of +their popularity.[231] + +The slender volume of Persius' works is composed of six satires in +hexameter verse and a prologue written in choliambi. The first deals +with the corruption of literature; the second, addressed to Macrinus on +his birthday, treats of the right and wrong objects of prayer; the third +is an appeal to an indolent young man for energy and earnestness; the +fourth, almost a continuation of the third, attacks the lack of +'self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control', in public men; the +fifth, addressed to his friend and teacher Cornutus, maintains the Stoic +doctrine that all the world are slaves; only the righteous man attains +to freedom; in the sixth, addressed to Caesius Bassus, the poet claims +the right to spend his wealth in reasonable enjoyment, and denounces the +grasping and unseemly selfishness of an imaginary heir to his fortune. +In the prologue--or epilogue as it is sometimes regarded[232]--he +sarcastically disclaims any pretensions to poetic inspiration, and hints +ironically that, in view of the number of poets who write merely to win +their bread, inspiration may be regarded as unnecessary. + +The ambition to win fame as a satirist was first fired in Persius by his +reading the tenth book of the satires of Lucilius. If we may believe +Probus, he imitated the opening of that book in his first satire, +beginning like Lucilius by detracting from himself and proceeding to +attack other authors indiscriminately.[233] Not enough of the tenth book +of Lucilius has survived to enable us to check the accuracy of this +statement, though it finds independent testimony in a remark of the +scholiast on Horace, that the tenth book of Lucilius contained free +criticisms of the early poets of Rome.[234] Further, the third satire is +said by the scholiast to have been modelled on the fourth book of +Lucilius, and there is a certain amount of evidence for supposing the +choliambi of the epilogue to be an imitation of a Lucilian model.[235] +We have, however, no means of testing the truth of these assertions: the +debt of Persius to Lucilius must be taken on trust. Of his enormous +indebtedness to Horace we have, on the other hand, the clearest +evidence. It is hard to conceive two poets with less in common as +regards ideals, temperament, and technique; and yet throughout Persius +we are startled by strange, though unmistakable, echoes of Horace. + +He knows his Horace by heart, and Horace has become a veritable +obsession. He is not content with giving his characters Horatian +names.[236] That might be convention, not plagiarism. But phrase after +phrase calls up the Horatian original. He runs through the whole gamut +of plagiarism. There is plagiarism, simple and direct. + + O si + sub rastro crepet argenti mihi seria, dextro + Hercule! (2. 10) + + O that I could hear a crock of silver chinking under + my harrow, by the blessing of Hercules. CONINGTON. + +is undisguisedly copied from Horace (_Sat._ ii. 6. 10). + + O si urnam argenti fors quae mihi monstret, ut illi, + thesauro invento, qui mercennarius agrum + ilium ipsum mercatus aravit, dives amico + Hercule! + +But as a rule, since he cannot keep Horace out, he strives to disguise +him. The familiar + + si vis me flere, dolendum est + primum ipsi tibi + + +of the _Ars Poetica_ (102) reappears in the far less natural + + verum nec nocte paratum + plorabit, qui me volet incurvasse querela (_Pers_. i. 91). + + A man's tears must come from his heart at the moment, not + from his brains overnight, if he would have me bowed down + beneath his piteous tale. CONINGTON. + +He speaks of his verses so finely turned and polished-- + + ut per leve severos + effundat iunctura unguis (i. 64). + + So that the critical nail runs glibly along even where the + parts join. CONINGTON. + +In this fantastically contorted and affected phrase we may espy an +ingenious blending of two Horatian phrases, + + totus teres atque rotundus, + externi ne quid valeat per leve morari (_Sat._ ii. 7. 86), + +and the simple + + ad unguem factus + +f _Sat._ i. 5. 32.[237] + +There is no need to multiply instances. Horace appears everywhere, but +_quantum mutatus ab illo!_ As the result of this particular method of +borrowing, assisted by affectations and obscurities which are all his +own, Persius attains to a kind of spurious originality of diction, which +often degenerates into sheer eccentricity. In spite of the fact that the +original text can almost everywhere be reconstructed with certainty, he +is almost the most obscure of Latin poets to the modern reader. A few +instances will suffice. There were, it appears, three ways of mocking a +person behind his back: one might tap the fingers against the lower +portion of the hand in imitation of a stork's beak, one might imitate a +donkey's ears, or one might put out one's tongue. When Persius wishes to +say 'Janus, I envy you your luck, for no one can mock at you behind your +back!' he writes (i. 58): + + O Iane, a tergo quem nulla ciconia pinsit, + nec manus auriculas imitari mobilis albas, + nec linguae, quantum sitiat canis Apula, tantae. + + Happy Janus, whom no stork's bill batters from behind, + no nimble hand quick to imitate the ass's white ears, + no long tongues thrust out like the tongue of a thirsty + Apulian bitch. + +The obscurity of the first line springs in part from the fact that the +custom is not elsewhere spoken of. The second line may pass. The third +defies literal translation. It means 'no long tongues thrust out like +the tongue of a thirsty Apulian bitch'. But the omission of all mention +both of 'protrusion' and of the 'dog days' makes the Latin almost +without meaning. The epithet _Apula_ becomes absurd. A 'thirsty Apulian +dog' is barely sufficient to suggest the midsummer drought of Apulia. +This is an extreme case; it is perhaps fairer to quote lines such as + + si puteal multa cautus vibice flagellas (iv. 49), + +'if in your zeal for the main chance you flog the exchange with many a +stripe,' a mysterious passage generally supposed to mean 'if you exact +exorbitant usury'. A little less enigmatic, but fully as forced and +unnatural is + + dum veteres avias tibi de pulmone revello (v. 92), + +'while I pull your old grandmotherly views from your heart,' or the +extraordinarily harsh metaphor of the first satire (24)-- + + quo didicisse, nisi hoc fermentum et quae semel intus + innata est rupto iecore exierit caprificus? + + What is the good of past study, unless this leaven--unless + the wild fig-tree which has once struck its root into the + breast, break through and come out? CONINGTON. + +which means nothing more than 'What is the good of study unless a man +brings out what he has in him?' A far more serious source of obscurity, +however, is his obscurity of thought. Even when the sense of individual +lines has been discovered, it is often difficult to see the drift of the +passage as a whole. Logical development is perhaps not to be expected in +the 'hotch-potch' of the 'satura'. But one has a right to demand that +the transitions should be easy and the drift of the argument clear. This +Persius refuses us. The difficulties which he presents are--as in the +case of Robert Browning--in part due to his adoption of the traditional +dramatic form in satire, a form in which clearness of expression is as +difficult as it is desirable. But we cannot excuse his obscurity as we +sometimes can in Browning--either as being to some extent a realistic +representation of the discursiveness and lack of method that +characterize the reasonings of the average intelligent man, or on the +other hand as springing from the intensity of the poet's thought. It is +not the case with Persius that his thoughts press so thick and quick +upon him, or are of so deep and complicated a character, as to be +incapable of simple and lucid expression. It is sheer waywardness and +perversity springing from the absence of true artistic feeling to which +we must attribute this cardinal defect. For his thought is commonplace, +and his observation of the minds and ways of men is limited. + +The qualities that go to the making of the true satirist are many. He +must be dominated by a moral ideal, not necessarily of the highest kind, +but sufficiently exalted to lend dignity to his work and sufficiently +strongly realized to permeate it. He must have a wide and comprehensive +knowledge of his fellow men. A knowledge of the broad outlines of the +cardinal virtues and of the deadly sins is not sufficient. The satirist +must know them in their countless manifestations in the life of man, as +they move our awe or our contempt, our admiration or our terror, our +love or our loathing, our laughter or our tears. He must be able to +paint society in all its myriad hues. He must have a sense of humour, +even if he lacks the sense of proportion; he must have the gift of +laughter, even though his laughter ring harsh and painful. He must have +the gift of mordant speech, of epigram, and of rhetoric. He must drive +his points home with directness and lucidity. Mere denunciation of vice +is not enough. Few prophets are satirists; few satirists are prophets. + +Of these qualities Persius has all too few. The man who has become the +pupil of a Cornutus at the age of sixteen, who has shunned a public +career, and is characterized by a _virginalis verecundia_, is not +likely, even in a long life, to acquire the knowledge of the world +required for genuine satire. The satirist, it might almost be said, must +not only have walked abroad in the great world, but must have passed +through the fire himself, and in some sense experienced the vices he has +set himself to lash. But Persius is young and, as far as might be in +that age, innocent. His outlook is from the seclusion of literary and +philosophic circles, and his satire lacks the peculiar vigour that can +only be got from jostling one's way in the wider world. In consequence +the picture of life which he presents lacks vividness. A few brilliant +sketches there are; but they are drawn from but a narrow range of +experience. There is nothing better of its kind than the description in +the first satire of the omnipresent poetaster of the reign of Nero, with +his affected recitations of tawdry, sensuous, and soulless verse (15): + + Scilicet haec populo pexusque togaque recenti + et natalicia tandem cum sardonyche albus + sede leges celsa, liquido cum plasmate guttur + mobile conlueris, patranti fractus ocello. + tunc neque more probo videas nec voce serena + ingentis trepidare Titos, cum carmina lumbum + intrant et tremulo scalpuntur ubi intima versu. + + Yes--you hope to read this out some day, got up sprucely with + a new toga, all in white, with your birthday ring on at last, + perched up on a high seat, after gargling your supple throat by + a liquid process of tuning, with a languishing roll of your + wanton eye. At this you may see great brawny sons of Rome all in + a quiver, losing all decency of gesture and command of voice, as + the strains glide into their very bones, and the marrow within is + tickled by the ripple of the measure. CONINGTON. + +A few lines later comes a similar and equally vivid picture (30): + + ecce inter pocula quaerunt + Romulidae saturi, quid dia poemata narrent. + hic aliquis, cui circum umeros hyacinthina laena est, + rancidulum quiddam balba de nare locutus, + Phyllidas Hypsipylas, vatum et plorabile siquid, + cliquat ac tenero subplantat verba palato. + + Listen. The sons of Rome are sitting after a full meal, and + inquiring in their cups, 'What news from the divine world of + poesy?' Hereupon a personage with a hyacinth-coloured mantle + over his shoulders brings out some mawkish trash or other, with + a snuffle and a lisp, something about Phyllises or Hypsipyles, + or any of the many heroines over whom poets have snivelled, + filtering out his tones and tripping up the words against the + roof of his delicate mouth. CONINGTON. + +Here the poet is describing what he has seen; in the world of letters he +is at home. He can laugh pungently enough at the style of oratory +prevailing in the courts-- + + nilne pudet capiti non posse pericula cano + pellere, quin tepidum hoc optes audire 'decenter'. + 'fur es', ait Pedio. Pedius quid? crimina rasis + librat in antithetis, doctas posuisse figuras + laudatur, 'bellum hoc?' (i. 83). + + Are you not ashamed not to be able to plead against perils + threatening your grey hairs, but you must needs be ambitious + of hearing mawkish compliments to your 'good taste'? The + accuser tells Pedius point blank, 'You are a thief.' What does + Pedius do? Oh, he balances the charges in polished antitheses-- + he is deservedly praised for the artfulness of his tropes. + Monstrous fine that! CONINGTON. + +He can parody the decadent poets with their effeminate rhythms and their +absurdities of speech.[238] He can mock the archaizer who goes to Accius +and Pacuvius for his inspiration.[239] He can give an admirable summary +of the genius of Lucilius and Horace-- + + secuit Lucilius urbem, + te Lupe, te Muci, et genuinum fregit in illis; + omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico + tangit et admissus circum praecordia ludit, + callidus excusso populum suspendere naso (i. 114). + + Lucilius bit deep into the town of his day, its Lupuses and + Muciuses, and broke his jaw-tooth on them. Horace, the rogue, + manages to probe every fault while making his friend laugh; he + gains his entrance and plays about the heartstrings with a sly + talent for tossing up his nose and catching the public on it. + CONINGTON. + +But the first satire stands alone _qua_ satire. It is not, perhaps, the +most interesting to the modern reader. It mocks at empty literary +fashions, which have comparatively small human interest. But it is in +this satire that Persius comes nearest the true satirist. The obscurity +and affectation of its language is its one serious fault; otherwise it +shows sound literary ideals, close observation, and a pretty vein of +humour. Elsewhere there is small trace of keen observation[240] of +actual life; he calls up before his reader no vision of the varied life +of Rome, whether in the streets or in the houses of the rich. Instead, +he laboriously tricks out some vice in human garb, converses with it in +language such as none save Persius ever dreamed of using, or scourges it +with all the heavy weapons of the Stoic armoury. There is at times a +certain violence and even coarseness[241] of description which does duty +for realism, but the words ring hollow and false. The picture described +or suggested is got at second-hand. He lacks the vivacity, realism, and +common sense of Horace, the cultured man of the world, the biting wit, +the astonishing descriptive power, and the masterly rhetoric of Juvenal. +We care little for the greater part of Persius' disquisition[242] on the +trite theme of the schools, 'what should be the object of man's prayers +to heaven?' when we have read the tenth satire of Juvenal. There is the +same commonplace theme in both, and there is perhaps less originality to +be found in the general treatment applied to it by Juvenal. But Juvenal +makes us forget the triteness of the theme by his extraordinary gift of +style. Like Victor Hugo, he has the gift of imparting richness and +splendour to the obvious by the sheer force and glory of his declamatory +power. Similarly the fifth satire, where Persius descants on the theme +that only the good man is free, while all the rest are slaves, compares +ill as a whole with the dialogue between Horace and Davus on the same +subject (_Sat._ ii. 7). There is such a harshness, an angularity and +bitterness about it, that he wholly fails of the effect produced by the +easy dignity of the earlier poet. It is abrupt, violent, and obscure; +and for this reason the austere Stoic makes less impression than his +more engaging and easy-going predecessor. Horace knew how to press home +his points, even while he played about the hearts of men. Persius has +neither the persuasiveness of Horace nor the force of Juvenal. + +But Persius, if he falls below his great rivals in point of art, is in +one respect immeasurably their superior. He is a better and a nobler +man. In his denunciations of vice his eyes are set on a more exalted +ideal, an ideal from which he never wanders. There is a world of +difference between the 'golden mean' of Horace, and the worship of +virtue that redeems the obscurities of Persius. There is a still greater +gulf between the high scorn manifested by Persius for all that is base +and ignoble, and the fierce, almost petulant, indignation of Juvenal, +that often seems to rend for the mere delight of rending, and is at +times disfigured by such grossness of language that many an +unsympathetic reader has wondered whether the indignation was genuine. +Neither Horace nor Juvenal ever rose to the moral heights of the +conclusion of the second satire (61): + + O curvae in terris animae et caelestium inanes, + quid iuvat hoc, templis nostros immittere mores + et bona dis ex hac scelerata ducere pulpa? + haec sibi corrupto casiam dissolvit olivo + et Calabrum coxit vitiato murice vellus, + haec bacam conchae rasisse et stringere venas + ferventis massae crudo de pulvere iussit. + peccat et haec, peccat, vitio tamen utitur. at vos + dicite, pontifices, in sancto quid facit aurum? + nempe hoc quod Veneri donatae a virgine pupae. + quin damus id superis, de magna quod dare lance + non possit magni Messalae lippa propago? + compositum ius fasque animo sanctosque recessus + mentis et incoctum generoso pectus honesto: + haec cedo ut admoveam templis et farre litabo. + + O ye souls that cleave to earth and have nothing heavenly + in you! How can it answer to introduce the spirit of the age + into the temple-service and infer what the gods like from + this sinful pampered flesh of ours? The flesh it is that has + got to spoil wholesome oil by mixing casia with it--to steep + Calabrian wool in purple that was made for no such use; that + has made us tear the pearl from the oyster, and separate the + veins of the glowing ore from the primitive slag. It sins--yes, + it sins; but it takes something by its sinning; but you, + reverend pontiffs, tell us what good gold can do in a holy + place. Just as much or as little as the dolls which a young + girl offers to Venus. Give _we_ rather to the gods such an + offering as great Messala's blear-eyed representative has no + means of giving, even out of his great dish--duty to God and + man well blended in the mind--purity in the shrine of the heart, + and a manly flavour of nobleness pervading the bosom. Let me + have these to carry to the temple, and a handful of meal shall + win me acceptance. CONINGTON. + +This is real enthusiasm, though the theme be trite, and it is +noteworthy that the enthusiasm has clarified the language, which goes +straight to the point without obscurity or circumlocution. Here alone +does the second satire of Persius surpass the more famous tenth satire +of Juvenal. Yet even this fine outburst is surpassed by the deservedly +well-known passage of the third satire, in which Persius appeals to a +young man 'who has great possessions' to live earnestly and +strenuously (23): + + udum et molle lutum es, nunc nunc properandus et acri + fingendus sine fine rota. sed rure paterno + est tibi far modicum, purum et sine labe salinum + (quid metuas?) cultrixque foci secura patella est. + hoc satis? an deceat pulmonem rumpere ventis, + stemmate quod Tusco ramum millesime ducis, + censoremve tuum vel quod trabeate salutas? + ad populum phaleras, ego te intus et in cute novi. + non pudet ad morem discincti vivere Nattae. + sed stupet hic vitio et fibris increvit opimum + pingue, caret culpa, nescit quid perdat, et alto + demersus summa rursus non bullit in unda. + magne pater divum, saevos punire tyrannos + haut alia ratione velis, cum dira libido + moverit ingenium ferventi tincta veneno: + virtutem videant intabescantque relicta. + anne magis Siculi gemuerunt aera iuvenci, + et magis auratis pendens laquearibus ensis + purpureas subter cervices terruit, 'imus, + imus praecipites' quam si sibi dicat et intus + palleat infelix quod proxima nesciat uxor? + + You are moist soft earth, you ought to be taken instantly, + instantly, and fashioned without end by the rapid wheel. But you + have a paternal estate with a fair crop of corn, a salt-cellar + of unsullied brightness (no fear of ruin surely!), and a snug + dish for fireside service. Are you to be satisfied with this? or + would it be decent to puff yourself and vapour because your branch + is connected with a Tuscan stem, and you are thousandth in the line, + or because you wear purple on review days and salute your censor? + Off with your trappings to the mob! I can look under them and see + your skin. Are you not ashamed to live the loose life of Natta? But he + is paralysed by vice; his heart is overgrown by thick collops of fat; + he feels no reproach; he knows nothing of his loss; he is sunk in the + depth and makes no more bubbles on the surface. Great Father of the + Gods, be it thy pleasure to inflict no other punishment on the monsters + of tyranny, after their nature has been stirred by fierce passion, that + has the taint of fiery poison--let them look upon virtue and pine that + they have lost her for ever! Were the groans from the brazen bull of + Sicily more terrible, or did the sword that hung from the gilded cornice + strike more dread into the princely neck beneath it, than the voice + which whispers to the heart, 'We are going, going down a precipice,' and + the ghastly inward paleness, which is a mystery, even to the wife of our + heart? CONINGTON. + +The man who wrote this has 'loved righteousness and hated iniquity'. In +the work of Persius' rivals it is scarcely an exaggeration to say that +it is the hatred of iniquity that is most prominent; the love of +righteousness holds but a secondary place. + +Persius is uncompromising; he is the true Stoic with the motto 'all or +nothing'. But he has nothing of the stilted Stoicism that is such a +painful feature of the plays of Seneca; nor, however perverse and +affected he may be in diction, do we ever feel that his Stoicism is in +some respects no better than a moral pose, a distressing feeling that +sometimes afflicts as we read Seneca's letters or consolatory treatises. +He speaks straight from the heart. His faults are more often the faults +of the school of philosophy than of the schools of rhetoric. The young +Lucan is said to have exclaimed, after hearing a recitation given by +Persius:[243] 'That is real poetry, my verses are mere _jeux d'esprit_.' + +If we take Persius at his noblest, Lucan's criticism is just. In these +passages not only is the thought singularly pure and noble, and the +expression felicitous, but the actual metre represents almost the +high-water mark of the post-Vergilian hexameter. Here, as in other +writers of the age, the influence of Ovid is traceable in the increase +of dactyls and the avoidance of elision. But the verse has a swing and +dignity, together with a variety, that can hardly be found in any other +poetry of the Silver Age. It is the existence of passages such as +these, and the high unswerving moral enthusiasm characterizing all his +work, that have made Persius live through the centuries. It is +fashionable for the critic to say, 'We lay down Persius with a sigh of +relief.' That is true, but we feel the better for reading him. He is +one of the few writers of Rome whose personality awakens a feeling of +warm affection. He was a rigid Stoic, yet not proud or cold. In an age +of almost universal corruption he kept himself unspotted from the +world. He had a rare capacity for whole-hearted friendship. If his +teacher Cornutus had never made another convert, and his preaching had +been vain, it would have been ample reward to have won such a tribute +of affection and gratitude as the lines in which Persius pours forth +his soul to him (v. 21): + + tibi nunc hortante Camena + excutienda damus praecordia, quantaque nostrae + pars tua sit, Cornute, animae, tibi, dulcis amice, + ostendisse iuvat. pulsa dinoscere cautus + quid solidum crepet et pictae tectoria linguae. + hic ego centenas ausim deposcere fauces, + ut quantum mihi te sinuoso in pectore fixi, + voce traham pura, totumque hoc verba resignent, + quod latet arcana non enarrabile fibra. + cum primum pavido custos mihi purpura cessit + bullaque subcinctis Laribus donata pependit, + cum blandi comites totaque inpune Subura + permisit sparsisse oculos iam candidus umbo, + cumque iter ambiguum est et vitae nescius error + deducit trepidas ramosa in compita mentes, + me tibi supposui. teneros tu suscipis annos + Socratico, Cornute, sinu. tune fallere sollers + adposita intortos extendit regula mores, + et premitur ratione animus vincique laborat + artificemque tuo ducit sub pollice vultum. + tecum etenim longos memini consumere soles, + et tecum primas epulis decerpere noctes. + unum opus et requiem pariter disponimus ambo, + atque verecunda laxamus seria mensa. + non equidem hoc dubites, amborum foedere certo + consentire dies et ab uno sidere duci: + nostra vel aequali suspendit tempora libra + Parca tenax veri, seu nata fidelibus hora + dividit in geminos concordia fata duorum, + Saturnumque gravem nostro Iove frangimus una: + nescio quod certe est quod me tibi temperat astrum. + + It is to you, at the instance of the muse within me, that I + would offer my heart to be sifted thoroughly; my passion is to + show you, Cornutus, how large a share of my inmost being is + yours, my beloved friend; strike it, use every test to tell what + rings sound, and what is the mere plaster of a varnished tongue. + An occasion indeed it is for which I may well venture to ask a + hundred voices, that I may bring out in clear utterance how + thoroughly I have lodged you in the very corners of my breast, and + unfold in words all the unutterable feelings which lie entwined + deep down among my heart-strings. When first the guardianship of the + purple ceased to awe me and the band of boyhood was hung up as an + offering to the quaint old household gods, when my companions made + themselves pleasant, and the folds of my gown, now white, the stripe + of purple gone, left me free to cast my eyes at will over the whole + Subura--just when the way of life begins to be uncertain, and the + bewildered mind finds that its ignorant ramblings have brought it to + a point where roads branch off--then it was that I made myself your + adopted child. You at once received the young foundling into the + bosom of a second Socrates; and soon your rule, with artful surprise, + straightens the moral twists that it detects, and my spirit becomes + moulded by reason and struggles to be subdued, and assumes plastic + features under your hand. Aye, I mind well how I used to wear away + long summer suns with you, and with you pluck the early bloom of the + night for feasting. We twain have one work and one set time for rest, + and the enjoyment of a moderate table unbends our gravity. No, I would + not have you doubt that there is a fixed law that brings our lives + into one accord, and one star that guides them. Whether it be in the + equal balance that truthful Destiny hangs our days, or whether the + birth-hour sacred to faithful friends shares our united fates between + the Heavenly Twins, and we break the shock of Saturn together by the + common shield of Jupiter, some star, I am assured, there is which + fuses me with you. CONINGTON. + +There is a sincerity about these beautiful lines that is as rare as it +is welcome in the poetry of this period. Much may be forgiven to the +poet who could write thus, even though rarely. And it must be remembered +that Persius is free from the worst of the besetting sins of his age, +the love of rhetorical brilliance at the expense of sense, a failing +that he criticizes with no little force in his opening satire. His +harshness and obscurity are due in part to lack of sufficient literary +skill, but still more to his attempt to assert his originality against +the insistent obsession of the satires of Horace. As in the case of so +many of his contemporaries, his literary fame must depend in the main on +his 'purple patches'. + +But he does what few of his fellow poets do; he leaves a vivid +impression of his personality, and reveals a genuine moral ardour and +nobility of character that refuse to be clouded or hidden by his dark +sayings and his perverse obscurity. + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +LUCAN + +Marcus Annaeus Lucanus,[244] the poet who more than any other exhibits +the typical excellences and defects of the Silver Age, was born at +Cordova on November 3, in the year 39 A.D.[245] He came of a +distinguished line. He was the son of M. Annaeus Mela, brother of Seneca +the philosopher and dramatist, and son of Seneca the rhetorician. Mela +was a wealthy man,[246] and in 40 A.D. removed with his family to Rome. +His son (whose future as a great poet is said to have been portended by +a swarm of bees that settled on the cradle and the lips of the bard that +was to be[247]) received the best education that Rome could bestow. He +showed extraordinary precocity in all the tricks of declamatory +rhetoric, soon equalling his instructors in skill and far out-distancing +his fellow pupils.[248] Among his preceptors was his kinsman, the famous +Stoic, L. Annaeus Cornutus, well known as the friend and teacher of +Persius.[249] His first appearance before the public was at the Neronia +in 60 A.D., when he won the prize for Latin verse with a poem in praise +of Nero.[250] Immediately afterwards he seems to have proceeded to +Athens. But his talents had attracted the attention and patronage of +Nero. He was recalled to Rome,[251] and at the nomination of the +princeps became Quaestor, although he had not yet attained the requisite +age of twenty-five.[252] He was also admitted to the College of Augurs, +and for some time continued to enjoy Nero's friendship. But it was not +to last. Lucan had been educated in Stoic surroundings. Though his own +relatives managed to combine the service of the emperor with their Stoic +principles, Lucan had not failed to imbibe the passionate regret for the +lost liberty of the republic that was so prominent a feature in Stoic +circles. It was not a mere pose that led him to select the civil war as +the subject of his poem. His enthusiasm for liberty may have been +literary rather than political in character. But when we are dealing +with an artistic temperament we must bear in mind that the ideals which +were primarily inspiration for art may on slight provocation become +incentives to action. And in the case of Lucan that provocation was not +lacking. As his fame increased, Nero's friendship was replaced by +jealousy. The protégé had become too serious a rival to the patron.[253] +Lucan's vanity was injured by Nero's sudden withdrawal from a +recitation.[254] From servile flattery he turned to violent criticism: +he spared his former patron neither in word nor deed. He turned the +sharp edge of his satire against him in various pungent epigrams, and +was forbidden to recite poetry or to plead in the law courts.[255] But +it would be unjust to Lucan to attribute his changed attitude purely to +wounded vanity. Seneca was at this very moment attempting to retire from +public life. The court of Nero had become no place for him. Lucan cannot +have been unaffected by the action of his uncle, and it is only just to +him to admit the possibility that the change in his attitude may have +been due, at any rate in part, to a change in character, an awakening to +the needs of the State and the needs of his own soul. There is no need +to question the genuineness of his political enthusiasm, even though it +tended to be theatrical and may have been largely kindled by motives not +wholly disinterested. The Pisonian conspiracy found in him a ready +coadjutor. He became one of the ringleaders of the plot ('paene signifer +coniurationis'), and in a bombastic vein would promise Nero's head to +his fellow-conspirators.[256] On the detection of the plot, in 65 A. D., +he, with the other chiefs of the conspiracy, was arrested. For long he +denied his complicity; at last, perhaps on the threat or application of +torture, his nerve failed him; he descended to grovelling entreaties, +and to win himself a reprieve accused his innocent mother, Acilia, of +complicity in the plot.[257] His conduct does not admit of excuse. But +it is not for the plain, matter-of-fact man to pass judgement lightly on +the weakness of a highly-strung, nervous, artistic temperament; the +artist's imagination may transmute pain such as others might hope to +bear, to anguish such as they cannot even imagine. There lies the +palliation, if palliation it be, of Lucan's crime. But it availed him +nothing: the reprieve was never won; he was condemned to die, the manner +of his death being left to his free choice. He wrote a few instructions +for his father as to the editing of his poems, partook of a sumptuous +dinner, and then, adopting the fashionable form of suicide, cut the +arteries of his arms and bled to death. He died declaiming a passage +from his own poetry in which he had described the death of a soldier +from loss of blood.[258] It was a theatrical end, and not out of keeping +with his life. + +He lived but a little over twenty-five years and five months, but he +left behind him a vast amount of poetry and an extraordinary reputation. +His earliest work[259] seems to have been the _Iliacon_, describing the +death of Hector, his ransom and burial. Next came the _Catachthonion_, a +short work on the underworld. This was followed by the _laudes Neronis_, +to which reference has already been made, and the _Orpheus_, which was +extemporized in a competition with other poets.[260] If we follow the +order given by Statius, his next work was the prose declamation on the +burning of the city (64 A.D.) and a poem addressed to his wife Polla +(_adlocutio ad Pollam_). Then comes his _chef d'oeuvre_, the +_Pharsalia_, to which we shall return. Of the other works mentioned by +Vacca, the _Silvae_ must have been, like the _Silvae_ of Statius, +trifles thrown off hurriedly for the gratification of friends or for the +celebration of some great occasion.[261] The _salticae fabulae_ were +_libretti_ written for the _pantomimus_,[262] while the _Saturnalia_ +were light verse sent as presents to friends on the festival of +Saturn.[263] Of these works nothing has come down to us save a few +scanty fragments, not in any way calculated to make us regret their +loss.[264] Even Vacca can find no very high praise for them. Judging +alike from the probabilities of the case and from the _Pharsalia_ +itself, they must have suffered from Lucan's fatal gift of fluency. + +It was the _Pharsalia_ that won Lucan undying fame. Three books of this +ambitious historical epic were finished and given to the world during +the poet's lifetime.[265] These the poet had, at any rate in part, +recited in public, calling attention, with a vanity worthy of himself +and of the age, to his extreme youth; he was younger than Vergil when +he composed the _Culex_![266] The remaining seven books never had the +benefit of revision, owing to the poet's untimely end,[267] though +curiously enough they show no special signs of lack of finish, and +contain some of the finest passages in the whole work. The composition +of all ten books falls between 60 and 65 A.D. Lucan had chosen for his +theme the death-struggle of the republic. It was a daring choice for +more reasons than one. There were elements of danger in singing the +praises of Pompey and Cato under the principate. To that the fate of +Cremutius Cordus bore eloquent testimony.[268] But Nero was less +sensitive about the past than Tiberius. The republic had never become +officially extinct. Tyrannicide was a licensed and hackneyed theme of +the schools of rhetoric; in skilful hands it might be a subtle +instrument of flattery. Moreover, Nero was descended in direct line +from Domitius Ahenobarbus, who had fought and died for Pompey on the +field of Pharsalus. In the books published during Lucan's lifetime +there is not a line that could have given personal offence to the +princeps, while the fulsome dedication would have covered a multitude +of indiscretions.[269] Far more serious were the difficulties presented +by the nature of the story itself. Historical epic rarely admits of +artistic treatment, and the nearer the date of the events described, +the more insoluble is the problem. + +Two courses were open to Lucan: he might treat the story with +comparative fidelity to truth, avoiding all supernatural machinery, save +such as was justified by historical tradition; on the other hand he +might adopt the course subsequently pursued by Silius Italicus in his +poem on the Punic War, and introduce all the hackneyed interventions of +Olympus, sanctioned by Vergil and followed by many a poet since. The +latter method is obviously only suited for a purely legendary epic, +though even the legendary epic can well dispense with it, and it might +have been supposed that an age so sceptical and careless of the orthodox +theology, as that into which Lucan was born, would have felt the full +absurdity of applying such a device to historical epic. Lucan was wise +in his choice, and left Olympus severely alone. But his choice roused +contemporary criticism. In the _Satyricon_ of Petronius we find a +defence of the old conventional mechanism placed in the mouth of a +shabby and disreputable poet named Eumolpus (118). He complains 'that +young men plunge headlong into epic verse thinking that it requires no +more skill than a showy declamation at the school of rhetoric. They do +not realize that to be a successful poet one must be steeped in the +great ocean of literature. They do not recognize that there is such a +thing as a special poetic vocabulary,[270] or that the commonplaces of +rhetoric require to be interwoven with, not merely tacked on to, the +fabric of their verse, and so it comes about that the writer who would +turn the Civil War into an epic is apt to stumble beneath the burden he +takes upon his shoulders, unless indeed he is permeated through and +through with literature. You must not simply turn history into verse: +historians do it better in prose. Rather the poet should sweep on his +way borne by the breath of inspiration and untrammelled by hard fact, +making use of cunning artifice and divine intervention, and interfusing +his "commonplaces" with legendary lore; only so will his work seem to be +the fine frenzy of an inspired bard rather than the exactitude of one +who is giving sworn evidence before a judge'. He then proceeds in 295 +verses to deal, after the manner he has prescribed, with the events +contained in the first three books of the _Pharsalia_, the only books +that had been made public at the time when Petronius' romance was +composed. Pluto inspires Caesar to the crime of civil war. Peace, +Fidelity, and Concord fly from the earth at his approach. The gods range +themselves on this side and on that. Discord perched high on Apennine +incites the peoples of Italy to war. The verse is uninspired, the method +is impossible, the remedy is worse than the disease. The last hope of +our taking the poem seriously has departed. Yet this passage of +Petronius contains much sound criticism. Military and political history +does _not_ admit of being turned into genuine poetry; an epic on an +historic war must depend largely on its purple patches of description +and rhetoric: it almost demands that prominence of epigram and +'commonplace' that Eumolpus condemns.[27l] Petronius sees the weakness +of Lucan's epic; he fails because, like Silius Italicus, he thinks he +has discovered a remedy. The faults of Lucan's poem are largely inherent +in the subject chosen; they will stand out clearly as we review the +structure and style of the work. + +In taking the whole of the Civil War for his subject Lucan was +confronted with a somewhat similar problem to that which faced +Shakespeare in his _Julius Caesar_. The problem that Shakespeare had to +meet was how to prolong and sustain the interest of the play after the +death of Caesar and the events that centre immediately round it. The +difficulty was surmounted triumphantly. The obstacles in Lucan's path +were greater. The poem is incomplete, and there must be some uncertainty +as to its intended scope. That it was planned to include the death of +Cato is clear from the importance assigned him in the existing books. +But could the work have concluded on such a note of gloom as the death +of the staunchest champion of the republic? The whole tone of the poem +is republican in the extreme. If the republic must perish, it should not +perish unavenged. There are, moreover, many prophetic allusions to the +death of Caesar,[272] which point conclusively to Lucan's intention to +have made the vengeance of Brutus and Cassius the climax of his poem. +The problem which the poet had to resolve was how to prevent the +interest from nagging, as his heroes were swept away before the +triumphant advance of Caesar. He concentrates our attention at the +outset on Pompey. Throughout the first eight books it is for him that he +claims our sympathy. And then he is crushed by his rival and driven in +flight to die an unheroic death. It is only at this point that Cato +leaps into prominence. But though he has a firmness of purpose and a +grandeur of character that Lucan could not give Pompey, he never has the +chance to become the protagonist. Both Pompey and Cato, for all the fine +rhetoric bestowed on them, fail to grip the reader, while from the very +facts of history it is impossible for either of them to lend unity to +the plot. Both are dwarfed by the character of Caesar. Caesar is the +villain of the piece; he is a monster athirst for blood, he will not +permit the corpses of his enemies (over which he is made to gloat) to be +buried after the great battle, and when on his coming to Egypt the head +of his rival is brought him, his grief and indignation are represented +as being a mere blind to conceal his real joy. The successes are often +merely the result of good fortune. Lucan is loth to admit even his +greatness as a general. And yet, blacken his character as he may, he +feels that greatness. From the moment of his brilliant characterization +of Caesar in the first book[273] we feel we have a man who knows what he +desires and will shrink from nothing to attain his ends; he 'thinks +naught yet done while aught remains to do',[274] he 'strikes fear into +men's hearts because he knows not the meaning of fear',[275] and through +all the melodramatic rhetoric with which he addresses his soldiers, +there shines clear the spirit of a great leader of men. Whoever was +intended by the poet for his hero, the fact remains that Caesar +dominates the poem as none save the hero should do. He is the hero of +the _Pharsalia_ as Satan is the hero of _Paradise Lost_.[276] It is +through him above all that Lucan retains our interest. The result is +fatal for the proper proportion of the plot. Lucan does not actually +alienate our sympathies from the republic, but, whatever our moral +judgement on the conflict may be, our interest centres on Caesar, and it +is hardly an exaggeration to say that the true tragedy of the epic would +have come with his death. The _Pharsalia_ fails of its object as a +republican epic; its success comes largely from an unintended quarter. + +What the exact scale of the poem was meant to be it is hard to say. +Vergil had set the precedent for an epic of twelve books, and it is not +improbable that Lucan would have followed his example. On the other +hand, if Cato and Caesar had both to be killed in the last two books, +great compression would have been necessary. In view of the diffuseness +of Lucan's rhetoric, and the rambling nature of his narrative, it is +more than probable that the epic would have exceeded the limit of twelve +books and been a formidable rival in bulk to the _Punica_ of Silius +Italicus. On the other hand, the last seven books of the existing poem +are unrevised, and may have been destined for abridgement. There is so +much that is irrelevant that the task would have been easy. + +But it is not for the plot that Lucan's epic is read. It has won +immortality by the brilliance of its rhetoric, its unsurpassed +epigrams, its clear-cut summaries of character, its biting satire, and +its outbursts of lofty political enthusiasm. These features stand out +pre-eminent and atone for its astounding errors of taste, its strained +hyperbole, its foolish digression. Lucan fails to make his actors live +as they move through his pages; their actions and their speeches are +alike theatrical; he has no dramatic power. But he can sum up their +characters in burning lines that live through all time and have few +parallels in literature. And these pictures are in all essentials +surprisingly just and accurate. His affection for Pompey and the +demands of his plot presented strong temptations to exalt his character +at the expense of historical truth. Yet what can be more just than the +famous lines of the first book, where his character is set against +Caesar's? (129): + + vergentibus annis + in senium longoque togae tranquillior usu + dedidicit iam pace ducem: famaeque petitor + multa dare in volgus; totus popularibus auris + inpelli plausuque sui gaudere theatri; + nec reparare novas vires, multumque priori + credere fortunae, stat magni nominis umbra: + qualis frugifero querens sublimis in agro + exuvias veteres populi sacrataque gestans + dona ducum: nec iam validis radicibus haerens + pondere fixa suo est, nudosque per aera ramos + effundens trunco non frondibus efficit umbram. + + One aged grown + Had long exchanged the corselet for the gown: + In peace forgotten the commander's art, + And learned to play the politician's part,-- + To court the suffrage of the crowd, and hear + In his own theatre the venal cheer; + Idly he rested on his ancient fame, + And was the shadow of a mighty name. + Like the huge oak which towers above the fields + Decked with ancestral spoils and votive shields. + Its roots, once mighty, loosened by decay, + Hold it no more: weight is its only stay; + Its naked limbs bespeak its glories past, + And by its trunk, not leaves, a shade is cast. + PROF. GOLDWIN SMITH. + +Even the panegyric pronounced on him by Cato on hearing the news of his +death is as moderate as it is true and dignified (ix. 190): + + civis obit, inquit, multum maioribus inpar + nosse modum iuris, sed in hoc tamen en utilis aevo, + cui non ulla fuit iusti reverentia; salva + libertate potens, et solus plebe parata + privatus servire sibi, rectorque senatus, + sed regnantis, erat. + ... invasit ferrum, sed ponere, norat; + praetulit arma togae, sed pacem armatus amavit: + iuvit sumpta ducem iuvit dimissa potestas. + + + A man, he said, is gone, unequal far + To our good sires in reverence for the law, + Yet useful in an age that knew not right, + One who could power with liberty unite, + Uncrowned 'mid willing subjects could remain, + The Senate rule, yet let the Senate reign. + * * * * * + He drew the sword, but he could sheathe it too, + War was his trade, yet he to peace inclined, + Gladly command accepted-and resigned.--PROF. GOLDWIN SMITH. + +Elsewhere he is as one of the 'strengthless dead', here he lives. +Elsewhere he may be invested with the pathos that must cling to the +shadow of a mighty name, but he is too weak and ineffective to be +interesting. His wavering policy in his last campaign is unduly +emphasized.[277] When he is face to face with Caesar at Pharsalus and +exhorts his men, he can but boast, he cannot inspire.[278] When the +battle turns against him he bids his men cease from the fight, and +himself flies, that he may not involve them in his own disaster.[279] No +less convincing portrait could be drawn. The material was unpromising, +but Lucan emphasizes all his weaknesses and wholly fails to bring out +his nobler elements. He is unworthy of the line + + nec cinis exiguus tantam compescuit umbram. + +So, too, in a lesser degree with Caesar. For a moment in the first book +he flashes upon us in his full splendour (143): + + sed non in Caesare tantum + nomen erat nec fama ducis: sed nescia virtus + stare loco, solusque pudor non vincere bello. + acer et indomitus, quo spes quoque ira vocasset. + ferre manum et numquam temerando parcere ferro, + successus urgere suos, instare fauori + numinis, inpellens quidquid sibi summa petenti + obstaret, gaudensque viam fecisse ruina. + + Not such the talisman of Caesar's name, + But Caesar had, in place of empty fame. + The unresting soul, the resolution high + That shuts out every thought but victory. + Whate'er his goal, nor mercy nor dismay + He owned, but drew the sword and cleft his way: + Pressed each advantage that his fortune gave; + Constrained the stars to combat for the brave; + Swept from his path whate'er his rise delayed, + And marched triumphant through the wreck he made. + PROF. GOLDWIN SMITH. + +Here at any rate is Caesar the general: in such a poem there is no room +for Caesar the statesman. But from this point onward we see no true +Caesar. Henceforward, save for a few brief moments, he is a figure for +the melodramatic stage alone, a 'brigand chief', a master hypocrite, the +favourite of fortune. And yet, for all his unreality, Lucan has endowed +him with such impetuous vigour and such a plenitude of power that he +dwarfs the other puppets that throng his pages even more, if possible, +than in real life he overtopped his contemporaries. + +Cato, the third great figure of the _Pharsalia_, was easier to draw. +Unconsciously stagey in life, he is little stagier in Lucan. And yet, +in spite of his absurdity, he has a nobility and a sincerity of purpose +which is without parallel in that corrupt age. He was the hero of the +Stoic republicans[280] of the early principate, the man of principle, +stern and unbending. He requires no fine touches of light and shade, +for he is the perfect Stoic. But from the very rigidity of his +principles he was no statesman and never played more than a secondary +part in politics. + +Lucan's task is to exalt him from the second rank to the first. But it +is no easy undertaking, since it was not till after the disaster of +Pharsalus that he played any conspicuous part in the Civil War. He first +appears as warrant for the justice of the republican cause (i. 128). We +next see him as the hope of all true patriots at Rome (ii. 238). Pompey +has fled southward. Cato alone remains the representative of all that is +noblest and best in Rome. He has no illusions as to Pompey's character. +He is not the leader he would choose for so sacred a cause; but between +Pompey and Caesar there can be no wavering. He follows Pompey. Not till +the ninth book does he reappear in the action. Pompey is fallen, and all +turn to Cato as their leader. The cause is lost, and Cato knows it well; +but he obeys the call of duty and undertakes the hopeless enterprise +undismayed. He is a stern leader, but he shares his men's hardships to +the full, and fortifies them by his example. He is in every action what +the real Cato only was at Utica. On him above all others Lucan has +lavished all his powers; and he has succeeded in creating a character of +such real moral grandeur that, in spite of its hardness and austerity, +it almost succeeds in winning our affection (ii. 380): + + hi mores, haec duri inmota Catonis + secta fuit, servare modum finesque tenere + naturamque sequi patriaeque inpendere vitam + nec sibi sed toti genitum se credere mundo. + + 'Twas his rule + Inflexible to keep the middle path + Marked out and bounded; to observe the laws + Of natural right; and for his country's sake + To risk his life, his all, as not for self + Brought into being, but for all the world. + SIR E. RIDLEY. + +Here is a man indeed worthy to be the hero of a republican epic, did +history permit it. Our chief reason--at moments there is a temptation to +say 'our only reason'--for regretting the incompletion of the +_Pharsalia_ is that Lucan did not live to describe Cato's death. _There_ +was a subject which was worthy of his pen and would have been a labour +of love. With what splendour of rhetoric he might have invested it can +only be conjectured from the magnificent passage where Cato refuses to +inquire into his fate at Ammon's oracle (ix. 566): + + quid quaeri, Labiene, iubes? an liber in armis + occubuisse velim potius quam regna videre? + an sit vita nihil, sed longa? an differat aetas? + an noceat vis ulla bono, fortunaque perdat + opposita virtute minas, laudandaque velle + sit satis, et numquam successu crescat honestum? + scimus, et hoc nobis non altius inseret Hammon. + haeremus cuncti superis, temploque tacente + nil facimus non sponte dei; nec vocibus ultis + numen eget, dixitque semel nascentibus auctor + quidquid scire licet, steriles nec legit harenas, + ut caneret paucis, mersitque hoc pulvere verum. + estque dei sedes, nisi terra et pontus et aer + et caelum et virtus? superos quid quaerimus ultra? + Iuppiter est quodcumque vides quodcumque moveris. + sortilegis egeant dubii semperque futuris + casibus ancipites; me non oracula certum, + sed mors certa facit. pavido fortique cadendum est; + hoc satis est dixisse Iouem. + + What should I ask? Whether to live a slave + Is better, or to fill a soldier's grave? + What life is worth drawn to its utmost span, + And whether length of days brings bliss to man? + Whether tyrannic force can hurt the good, + Or the brave heart need quail at Fortune's mood? + Whether the pure intent makes righteousness, + Or virtue needs the warrant of success? + All this I know: not Ammon can impart + Force to the truth engraven on my heart. + All men alike, though voiceless be the shrine, + Abide in God and act by will divine. + No revelation Deity requires, + But at our birth, all men may know, inspires. + Nor is truth buried in this desert sand + And doled to few, but speaks in every land. + What temple but the earth, the sea, the sky, + And heaven and virtuous hearts, hath deity? + As far as eye can range or feet can rove + Jove is in all things, all things are in Jove. + Let wavering souls to oracles attend, + The brave man's course is clear, since sure his end. + The valiant and the coward both must fall + This when Jove tells me, he has told me all. + PROF. GOLDWIN SMITH. + +One Cato will not lend life to an epic, and history, to the great loss +of art, forbids him to play a sufficiently important role. It is +unnecessary to comment on the lesser personages of the epic; if the +leading characters lack life, the minor characters lack individuality as +well.[281] Lucan has nothing of the dramatic vitalising power that is so +necessary for epic. + +He is equally defective in narrative power. He can give us brilliant +pictures as in the lines describing the vision of Caesar at the +Rubicon[282] or Pompey's last sight of Italy.[283] But such passages are +few and far between. Of longer passages there are not perhaps more than +three in the whole work where we get any sustained beauty of +narrative-the parting of Pompey and his wife,[284] Pompey's dream before +Pharsalus,[285] and a description of a Druid grove in Southern +Gaul.[286] The first of these is noticeable as being one of the few +occasions on which Lucan shows any command of simple pathos unmarred by +tricks of tawdry rhetoric. The whole episode is admirably treated. The +speeches of both husband and wife are commendably and unusually simple +and direct, but the climax comes after Cornelia's speech, where the poet +describes the moment before they part. With the simplest words and the +most severe economy of diction, he produces an effect such as Vergil +rarely surpassed, and such as was never excelled or equalled again in +the poetry of Southern Europe till Dante told the story of Paolo and +Francesca (v. 790): + + sic fata relictis + exsiluit stratis amens tormentaque nulla + vult differre mora. non maesti pectora Magni + sustinet amplexu dulci, non colla tenere, + extremusque perit tam longi fructus amoris, + praecipitantque sues luctus, neuterque recedens + sustinuit dixisse 'vale', vitamque per omnem + nulla fuit tarn maesta dies; nam cetera damna + durata iam mente malis firmaque tulerunt. + + So spake she, and leaped frenzied from the couch, loth to + put off the pangs of parting by the least delay. She cannot + bear to cast her arms about sad Magnus' bosom, or clasp his + neck in a last sweet embrace; and thus the last delight, such + long love as theirs might know, is cast away: they hasten + their own agony; neither as they parted had the heart to say + farewell; and while they lived they knew no sadder day than + this. All other losses they bore with hearts hardened and + steeled by misery. + +It is faulty and monotonous in rhythm, but one would gladly have more +from Lucan of the same poetic quality, even at the expense of the same +blemishes. The dream of Pompey is scarcely inferior (vii. 7): + + at nox, felicis Magno pars ultima vitae, + sollicitos vana decepit imagine somnos. + nam Pompeiani visus sibi sede theatri + innumeram effigiem Romanae cernere plebis + attollique suum laetis ad sidera nomen + vocibus et plausu cuneos certare sonantes; + qualis erat populi facies clamorque faventis, + olim cum iuvenis primique aetate triumphi + * * * * * + sedit adhuc Romanus eques; seu fine bonorum + anxia venturis ad tempera laeta refugit, + sive per ambages solitas contraria visis + vaticinata quies magni tulit omina planctus. + seu vetito patrias ultra tibi cernere sedes + sic Romam fortuna dedit. ne rumpite somnos, + castrorum vigiles, nullas tuba verberet aures. + crastina dira quies et imagine maesta diurna + undique funestas acies feret, undique bellum. + + But night, the last glad hours that Magnus' life should + know, beguiled his anxious slumbers with vain images of + joy. He seemed to sit in the theatre himself had built, and + to behold the semblance of the countless Roman multitude, + and hear his name uplifted to the stars by joyous voices, + and all the roaring benches vying in their applause. Even so + he saw the people and heard their cheers in the days of old, + when still a youth, in the hour of his first triumph ... he sat + no more as yet than a knight of Rome; whether it was that at + thy fortune's close thy sleep, tormented with the fears of what + should be, fled back to happier days, or riddling as 'tis wont, + foretold the contrary of thy dreams and brought thee omens of + mighty woe; or whether, since ne'er again thou mightest see thy + father's home, thus even in dreams fortune gave it to thy sight. + Break not his slumbers, guardians of the camp; let not the + trumpet strike his ears at all. Dread shall to-morrow's slumbers + be, and, haunted by the sad image of the disastrous day, shall + bring before his eyes naught save war and armies doomed to die. + +The scene is well and naturally conceived; there is no rant or false +pathos; it is an oasis in a book which, though in many ways the finest +in the _Pharsalia_, yet owes its impressiveness to a rhetoric which, +for all its brilliance and power, will not always bear more than +superficial examination. The last passage, with its description of the +Druid's grove near Massilia,[287] is on a different plane. It gives +less scope to the higher poetical imagination; it describes a scene +such as the Silver Age delighted in,[288] a dark wood, whereto the +sunlight scarce can penetrate; altars stand there stained with dark +rites of human sacrifice; no bird or beast will approach it; no wind +ever stirs its leaves; if they rustle, it is with a strange mysterious +rustling all their own: there are dark pools and ancient trees, their +trunks encircled by coiling snakes; strange sounds and sights are +there, and when the sun rides high at noon, not even the priest will +approach the sanctuary for fear lest unawares he come upon his lord and +master. While similar descriptions may be found in other poets of the +age, there is a strength and simplicity about this passage that rivets +the attention, whereas others leave us cold and indifferent. But Lucan +does not always exercise such restraint, and such passages are as rare +as they are welcome. The reason for this is obvious: the narrative must +necessarily consist in the main of military movements. In the words of +Petronius,[289] that is better done by the historians. The adventures +on the march are not likely as a rule to be peculiarly interesting; +there are no heroic single combats to vary and glorify the fighting. +Conscious of this inevitable difficulty, and with all the rhetorician's +morbid fear of being commonplace, Lucan betakes himself to desperate +remedies, hyperbole and padding. If he describes a battle, he must +invent new and incredible horrors to enthral us; his sea-fight at +Massilia is a notable instance;[290] death ceases to inspire horror and +becomes grotesque. If a storm arises he must outdo all earlier epic +storms. Vergil had attempted to outdo the storms of the Odyssey. Lucan +must outdo Vergil. Consequently, in the storm that besets Caesar on his +legendary voyage to Italy in the fisherman's boat[291] that 'carried +Caesar and his fortunes', strange things happen. The boat rocks +helplessly in mid-sea-- + + Its sails in clouds, its keel upon the ground, + For all the sea was piled into the waves + And drawn from depths between laid bare the sand.[292] + +In the same tempest-- + + The sea had risen to the clouds + In mighty mass, had not Olympus' chief + Pressed down its waves with clouds,[293] + +If he is concerned with a march through the African desert, he must +introduce the reader to a whole host of apocryphal serpents, with +details as to the nature of their bites.[294] So terrible are these +reptiles that it is a positive relief to the army to enter the region of +lions.[295] Before such specimens as this the hyperbole of Seneca seems +tame and insignificant. + +The introduction of irrelevant episodes would be less reprehensible were +it not that such episodes are for the most part either dull or a fresh +excuse for bombast or (worse still) a display of erudition.[296] He +devotes no less than 170 lines in the first book to a description of the +prodigies that took place at Rome on the outbreak of the Civil War, and +of the rites performed to avert their omens.[297] + +In the next book a hundred and sixty-six lines are given to a lurid +picture of the Marian and Sullan proscriptions,[298] and forty-six to a +compressed geography of Italy.[299] In the fifth book we are given the +tedious story of how a certain obscure Appius consulted the Delphian +oracle[300] and how he fared, merely, we suspect, that Lucan may have an +opportunity for depicting the frenzies of the Pythian prophetess. +Similarly, at the close of the sixth book, Pompey's son consults a +necromancer as to the result of the war.[301] The scene is described +with not a little skill and ingenuity, but it has little _raison d'etre_ +save the gratification of the taste for witchcraft which Lucan shared +with his audience and his fellow poets. + +Apart from these weaknesses of method and execution, Lucan's style is +unsuited to epic whether historical or legendary. He has not sufficient +command of a definitely poetical vocabulary to enable him to captivate +the reader by pure sensuous charm. He is, as Quintilian says, 'magis +oratoribus quam poetis imitandus.' He cannot shake himself free from the +influence of his rhetorical training. It is a severe condemnation of an +epic poet to deny him, as we have denied, the gifts of narrative and +dramatic power. Yet much of Lucan is more than readable, to some it is +even fascinating. He has other methods of meeting the difficulties +presented by historical epic. The work is full of speeches, moralising, +and apostrophes. He will not let the story tell itself; he is always +harping on its moral and political significance. As a result, we get +long passages that belong to the region of elevated political satire. +They are not epic, but they are often magnificent. It is in them that +Lucan's political feeling appears at its truest and strongest.[302] The +actual fortunes of the republican armies, as recounted by Lucan, must +fail to rouse the emotions of the most ardent anti-Caesarian, and it is +doubtful whether they would have responded to more skilful treatment. +But in the apostrophes grief and indignation can find a voice and stir +the heart. They may reveal a monstrous lack of the sense of historical +proportion. To attribute the depopulation of the rural districts of +Italy to the slaughter at Pharsalus is absurd. That Lucan does this is +undeniable, but his words have a deeper significance. It was at +Pharsalus, above all other battles, that the republic fell to ruin, and +the poet is justified in making it the symbol of that fall.[303] And +even where the sentiment is at bottom false, there is such an +impetuosity and vigour in the lines, and such a depth of scorn in each +epigram, that the reader is swept off his balance and convinced against +his will. We hardly pause to think whether Pharsalus, or even the whole +series of civil wars, really prevented the frontiers of Rome being +conterminous with the limits of the inhabited globe, when we read such +lines as (vii. 419)-- + + quo latius orbem + possedit, citius per prospera fata cucurrit. + omne tibi bellum gentes dedit omnibus annis: + te geminum Titan procedere vidit in axem; + haud multum terrae spatium restabat Eoae, + ut tibi nox, tibi tota dies, tibi curreret aether, + omniaque errantes stellae Romana viderent. + sed retro tua fata tulit par omnibus annis + Emathiae funesta dies, hac luce cruenta + effectum, ut Latios non horreat India fasces, + nec vetitos errare Dahas in moenia ducat + Sarmaticumque premat succinctus consul aratrum, + quod semper saevas debet tibi Parthia poenas, + quod fugiens civile nefas redituraque numquam + libertas ultra Tigrim Rhenumque recessit + ac totiens nobis iugulo quaesita vagatur, + Germanum Scythicumque bonum, nec respicit ultra + Ausoniam. + + The wider she lorded it o'er the world, the swifter did she + run through her fair fortunes. Each war, each year, gave thee + new peoples to rule thee did the sun behold advancing towards + either pole; little remained to conquer of the Eastern world; + so that for thee, and thee alone, night and day and heaven + should revolve, and the planets gaze on naught that was not + Rome's. But Emathia's fatal day, a match for all the bygone + years, has swept thy destiny backward. This day of slaughter + was the cause that India trembles not before the lictor-rods + of Rome, and that no consul, with toga girded high, leads the + Dahae within some city's wall, forbidden to wander more, and in + Sarmatia drives the founder's plough. This day was the cause + that Parthia still owes thee a fierce revenge, that freedom + flying from the crimes of citizens has withdrawn behind Tigris + and the Rhine, ne'er to return, and, sought so oft by us with + our life's blood, wanders the prize of German and of Scyth, and + hath no further care for Ausonia. + +But this famous apostrophe closes on a truer note with six lines of +unsurpassed satire (454)-- + + mortalia nulli + sunt curata deo. cladis tamen huius habemus + vindictam, quantam terris dare numina fas est: + bella pares superis facient civilia divos; + fulminibus manes radiisque ornabit et astris, + inque deum templis iurabit Roma per umbras. + + No god has a thought for the doings of mortal men: yet for this + overthrow this vengeance is ours, so far as gods may give + satisfaction to the earth: civil wars shall raise dead Caesars + to the level of the gods above; and Rome shall deck the spirits + of the dead with rays and thunderbolts and stars, and in the + temples of the gods shall swear by the name of shades. + +Noblest of all are the lines that close another apostrophe on the same +subject a little later in the same book (638)-- + + maius ab hac acie quam quod sua saecula ferrent + volnus habent populi; plus est quam vita salusque + quod perit; in totum mundi prosternimur aevum, + vincitur his gladiis omnis quae serviet aetas. + proxima quid suboles aut quid meruere nepotes + in regnum nasci? pavide num gessimus arma + teximus aut iugulos? alieni poena timoris + in nostra cervice sedet. post proelia natis + si dominum, Fortuna, dabas, et bella dedisses. + + A deeper wound than their own age might bear was dealt the + peoples of this earth in this battle: 'tis more than life and + safety that is lost: for all future ages of the world are we + laid low: these swords have vanquished generations yet unborn, + and doomed them to eternal slavery. What had the sons and + grandsons of those who fought that day deserved that they + should be born into slavery? Did we bear our arms like cowards, + or screen our throats from death? Upon our necks is riveted the + doom that we should live in fear of another. Nay, Fortune, since + thou gavest a tyrant to those born since the war, thou shouldst + have given them also the chance to fight for freedom. + +These are the finest of not a few[304] remarkable expressions of Lucan's +hatred for the growing autocracy of the principate: it is noteworthy +that almost all occur in the last seven books. They can hardly be +regarded as mere abstract meditations; they have a force and bitterness +which justify us in regarding them as evidence of his changed attitude +towards Nero. The first three books were published while he yet basked +in the sunshine of court favours. Then came the breach between himself +and Nero. His wounded vanity assisted his principles to come to the +surface.[305] + +The speeches, with very few exceptions,[306] scarcely rank with the +apostrophes. Like the speeches in the plays of Seneca, they are little +more than glorified _suasoriae_. They are, for the most part, such +speeches as--after making the most liberal allowance for rhetorical +licence--no human being outside a school of rhetoric could have uttered. +Caesar's soldiery would have stared aghast had they been addressed by +their general in such language as Lucan makes him use to inspire them +with courage before Pharsalus. They would have understood little, and +cared less, had Caesar said (vii. 274)-- + + civilia paucae + bella manus facient; pugnae pars magna levabit + his orbem populis Romanumque obteret hostem; + + Not in civil strife + Your blows shall fall--the battle of to-day + Sweeps from the earth the enemies of Rome. + SIR E. RIDLEY. + +or (279)-- + + sitque palam, quas tot duxit Pompeius in urbem + curribus, unius gentes non esse triumphi. + + Make plain to all men that the crowds who decked + Pompeius' hundred pageants scarce were fit + For one poor triumph. + SIR E. RIDLEY. + + +They would have laughed at exaggerations such as (287)-- + + cuius non militis ensem + agnoscam? caelumque tremens cum lancea transit, + dicere non fallar quo sit vibrata lacerto. + + Of each of you shall strike, I know the hand: + The javelin's flight to me betrays the arm + That launched it hurtling. + SIR E. RIDLEY. + +And yet beneath all this fustian there is much that stirs the blood. +Lines such as (261)-- + + si pro me patriam ferro flammisque petistis, + nunc pugnate truces gladiosque exsolvite culpa. + nulla manus belli mutato iudice pura est. + non mihi res agitur, sed vos ut libera sitis + turba precor, gentes ut ius habeatis in omnes. + ipse ego privatae cupidus me reddere vitae + plebeiaque toga modicum compomere civem, + omnia dum vobis liceant, nihil esse recuso. + invidia regnate mea; + + + If for my sake you sought your fatherland with fire and sword, + fight fierce to-day, and by victory clear your swords from + guilt. No hand is guiltless judged by a new arbiter of war. + The struggle of to-day does naught for me; but for you, so + runs my prayer, it shall bring freedom and dominion o'er the + world. Myself, I long to return to private life, and, even + though my garb were that of the common people, to be a peaceful + citizen once more. So be it all be made lawful for you, there + is naught I would refuse to be: for me the hatred, so be yours + the power. + +or (290)-- + + quod si signa ducem numquam fallentia vestrum + conspicio faciesque truces oculosque minaces, + vicistis, + + Nay, if I behold those signs that ne'er deceived your leader, + fierce faces and threatening eyes, you are already conquerors. + +though they are not the words of the historical Caesar, have a stirring +sincerity and force. But the speeches fail because all speak the same +artificial language. A mutineer can say of Caesar (v. 289)-- + + Rheni mihi Caesar in undis + dux erat, hic socius. facinus quos inquinat aequat; + + Caesar was my leader by the waves of Rhine, here he is + my comrade. The stain of crime makes all men equal. + +or threaten with the words (292)-- + + quidquid gerimus fortuna vocatur. + nos fatum sciat esse suum. + + As fortune's gift + He takes the victory which our arms have won: + But _we_ his fortunes are, his fates are ours + To fashion as we will. + SIR E. RIDLEY. + +The lines are brilliant and worthy of life: in their immediate context +they are ridiculous. Epigrams have their value, however, even when they +suit their context ill, and neither Juvenal nor Tacitus has surpassed +Lucan in this respect, or been more often quoted. He is, says +Quintilian, _sententiis clarissimus_. Nothing can surpass (iv. 519)-- + + victurosque dei celant, ut vivere durent, + felix esse mori. + + And the gods conceal from those who are doomed to live how + happy it is to die. Thus only may they endure to live. + +or (viii. 631-2)-- + + mutantur prospera vitae, + non fit morte miser; + + Life may bring defeat, + But death no misery. + SIR E. RIDLEY. + +or (i. 32)-- + + alta sedent civilis volnera dextrae; + + Deep lie the wounds that civil war hath made. + +or (ix. 211)-- + + scire mori sors prima viris, sed proxima cogi. + + Best gift of all + The knowledge how to die: next, death compelled. + SIR E. RIDLEY. + +Lines such as (i. 281)-- + + semper nocuit differre paratis, + + To pause when ready is to court defeat. + SIR E. RIDLEY. + +or (v. 260)-- + + quidquid multis peccatur, inultum est + + The crime is free where thousands bear the guilt. + SIR E. RIDLEY. + +are commonplace enough in thought but perfect in expression. Of a +different character, but equally noteworthy, are sayings such as iv. +819-- + + momentumque fuit mutatus Curio rerum; + + The change of Curio turned the scale of history. + +or (iv. 185)-- + + usque adeone times, quem tu facis ipse timendum? + + Dost fear him so + Who takes his title to be feared from thee? + SIR E. RIDLEY, _slightly altered._ + +Lucan's gift for epigram is further enhanced by the nature of his metre. +Ponderous in the extreme, it is ill-suited for epic, though in isolated +lines its very weight gives added force. But he had a poor ear for +rhythm: his hexameter is monotonous as the iambics of Seneca. There is a +want of variety in pauses; he will not accommodate his rhythm to +circumstances; line follows line with but the slightest rhythmical +variation, and there is far too[307] sparing a use of elision. This +failing is in part due to his desire to steer clear of the influence of +Vergil and strike out on a line of his own. Faint echoes of Vergil, it +is true, occur frequently throughout the poem, but to the untrained eye +Lucan is emphatically un-Vergilian. His affinity to Ovid is greater. +Both are rhetorical, and Lucan is indebted to Ovid for much mythological +detail. And it is probable that he owes his smoothness and monotony of +metre largely to the influence of the _Metamorphoses_. His ponderosity +is all his own.[308] + +Lucan is the child of his age, but he is almost an isolated figure in +literature. He has almost every conceivable defect in every conceivable +degree, from the smallest detail to the general conception of his poem. +And yet he triumphs over himself. It is a hateful task to read the +_Pharsalia_ from cover to cover, and yet when it is done and the lapse +of time has allowed the feeling of immediate repulsion to evaporate, the +reader can still feel that Lucan is a great writer. The absurdities slip +from the memory, the dreariness of the narrative is forgotten, and the +great passages of lofty rhetoric, with their pungent epigram and their +high political enthusiasm, remain deeply engraven on the mind. It is +they that have given Lucan the immortality which he promised himself. +The _Pharsalia_ is dead, but Lucan lives. + +It is useless to conjecture what might have been the fate of such +remarkable gifts in a less corrupt age. This much, however, may be said, +Lucan never had a fair chance. The circle in which he moved, the +education which he received, suffered only his rhetorical talent to +develop, and to this were sacrificed all his other gifts, his clearness +of vision, his sense of proportion, his poetical imagination. He was +spoilt by admiration and his own facility. Moreover, Seneca was his +uncle: a comparison shows how profoundly the elder poet influenced the +younger. There is the same self-conscious arrogance begotten of +Stoicism, the same brilliance of wit and absence of humour. Their +defects and merits alike reveal them as kindred, though Lucan stands +worlds apart as a poet from Seneca, the ranting tragedian. He was but +twenty-five when he died. Age might have brought a maturity and dignity +of spirit which would have made rhetoric his servant and not his master, +and refined away the baser alloys of his character. Even as it was he +left much that, without being pure gold, yet possessed many elements and +much of the brilliance of the true metal. Dante's judgement was true +when he set him among the little company of true poets, of which Dante +himself was proud to be made one. + + + +CHAPTER V + + +PETRONIUS + +The most curious and in some respects the most remarkable work that the +Silver Age has bequeathed to us is a fragment of a novel, the +_Satyricon_ of Petronius Arbiter, Its author is generally identified +with Titus Petronius, the friend and victim of Nero. Tacitus has +described him in a passage, remarkable even among Tacitean portraits for +its extraordinary brilliance. 'His days he passed in sleep, his nights +in the business and pleasures of life. Indolence had raised him to fame, +as energy raises others, and he was reckoned not a debauchee and +spendthrift, like most of those who squander their substance, but a man +of refined luxury. And indeed his talk and his doings, the freer they +were, and the more show of carelessness they exhibited, were the better +liked for their look of a natural simplicity. Yet as proconsul of +Bithynia and soon afterwards as consul, he showed himself a man of +vigour and equal to business. Then, falling back into vice or affecting +vice, he was chosen by Nero to be one of his few intimate associates, as +a critic in matters of taste (_elegantiae arbiter_). The emperor thought +nothing charming or elegant in luxury unless Petronius had expressed his +approval. Hence jealousy on the part of Tigellinus, who looked on him as +a rival, and even his superior, in the science of pleasure. And so he +worked on the prince's cruelty, which dominated every other passion: +charging Petronius with having been the friend of Scaevinus, bribing a +slave to turn informer, robbing him of the means of defence, and +hurrying into prison the greater part of his domestics. It happened at +the time that the emperor was on his way to Campania, and that +Petronius, after going as far as Cumae, was there detained. He bore no +longer the suspense of fear or of hope. Yet he did not fling away life +with precipitate haste, but having made an incision in his veins and +then according to his humour bound them up, he again opened them, while +he conversed with his friends, not in a serious strain or on topics that +might win him the glory of courage. He listened to them as they +repeated, not thoughts on the immortality of the soul or on the theories +of philosophers, but light poetry and playful verses. To some of his +slaves he gave liberal presents, to others a flogging. He dined, +indulged himself in sleep, that death, even though forced, might have a +natural appearance. Even in his will he did not, as did many in their +last moments, flatter Nero or Tigellinus, or any other of the men in +power. On the contrary, he described fully the prince's shameful +excesses, with the names of his male and female companions and their +novelties in debauchery, and sent the account under seal to Nero. Then +he broke his signet-ring, that it might not be available to bring others +into peril.'[309] + +There is nothing definitely to bring this ingenious and brilliant +debauchee into connexion with the Petronius Arbiter of the _Satyricon_. +But the character of Titus Petronius is exactly in keeping with the tone +of the novel; the novelist's cognomen Arbiter, though in itself by no +means extraordinary, may well have sprung from or given rise to the +title _elegantiae arbiter_; and finally the few indications of date in +the novel all point to a period not far from the reign of Nero. There is +the criticism of Lucan,[310] which certainly loses point if not written +during Lucan's lifetime; there is the criticism of the rhetorical +training of the day,[311] which finds a remarkable echo in the criticism +of Vipstanus Messala in the _Dialogus_ of Tacitus, a work which, +whatever the date of its actual composition, certainly refers to a +period less than ten years after the death of T. Petronius; there is the +style of the work itself; wherever the writer abandons the colloquial +Latin, in which so much of the work is written, we find a finished +diction, whether in prose or verse, which no unprejudiced judge could +place later than the accession of Trajan, and which has nothing in it to +prevent its attribution to the reign of Nero. In that reign there is but +one Petronius to whom we can assign the _Satyricon_, the Petronius +immortalized by Tacitus.[312] + +Of the work as a whole this is no place to speak. The fragments which +survive are in the main in prose. But the work is modelled on the +Menippean satires of Varro, and belongs to the same class of writing as +the _Apocolocyntosis_ of Seneca. In the form of a loosely-strung and +rambling novel we have a satirical commentary on human life; the satire +is cynical and pungent, rather than mordant, makes no pretence of +logic, and proceeds not from a moral sense but from a sense of humour. +Wild and indecent as Petronius' laughter often is, it springs from one +who is a real artist, possessing a sense of proportion as well as the +sense of contrast that is the source and fount of humour. This is most +strongly evident in that portion of his satire which concerns us here, +inasmuch as it is directed against contemporary literary tendencies. We +must beware of fastening on the words of the characters in the novel as +necessarily expressing the thoughts of its author. But it is noteworthy +that all his literary criticism points in the same direction; it is +above all conservative. Through the mouths of Encolpius, the dissolute +hero of the story, and the rhetorician Agamemnon[313] he denounces the +flamboyant rhetoric of the day, its remoteness from reality, the lack +of sanity and industry on the part both of pupil and instructor. 'As +boys they pass their time at school at what is no better than play, as +youths they make themselves ridiculous in the forum, and, worst of all, +when they grow old they refuse to acknowledge the faults acquired by +their education.' Study is necessary, and above all the study of good +models. Sophocles, Euripides, Pindar, the great lyricists, Plato, +Demosthenes, Thucydides, Hyperides, all the great classics, these are +the true models for the young orator. Agamemnon cannot restrain himself +and even bursts into verse in the course of this disquisition on the +decadence of oratory: + + artis severae si quis ambit effectus + mentemque magnis applicat, prius mores + frugalitatis lege poliat exacta. + nec curet alto regiam trucem vultu + cliensve cenas impotentium captet + nec perditis addictus obruat vino + mentis calorem, neve plausor in scaenam + sedeat redemptus histrionis ad rictus. + sed sive armigerae rident Tritonidis arces, + seu Lacedaemonio tellus habitata colono + Sirenumve domus, det primos versibus annos + Maeoniumque bibat felici pectore fontem. + mox et Socratico plenus grege mittat habenas + liber et ingentis quatiat Demosthenis arma. + hinc Romana manus circumfluat et modo Graio + exonerata sono mutet suffusa saporem. + interdum subducta foro det pagina cursum + et cortina[314] sonet celeri distincta meatu; + dein[315] epulas et bella truci memorata canore + grandiaque indomiti Ciceronis verba minetur. + his animum succinge bonis: sic flumine largo + plenus Pierio defundes pectore verba. + + If any man court success in the lofty art of letters and + apply his mind to great things, he must first perfect his + character by simplicity's stern law; he must care naught for + the haughty frown of the fierce tyrant that lords it in his + palace, nor seek client-like for invitations to the board of + the profligate, nor deliver himself over to the company of + debauchees and drown the fire of his understanding in wine, + nor sit in the theatre the hired applauder of the mouthing + actor. But whether the citadel of panoplied Minerva allure him + with its smile, or the land where the Spartan exile came to + dwell, or the Sirens' home, let him devote his early years to + poesy, and let his spirit drink in with happy omen a draught + from the Maeonian fount. Thereafter, when his soul is full of + the lore of the Socratic school, let him give himself free rein + and brandish the weapons of great Demosthenes. Next let the band + of Roman authors throng him round, and, but newly freed from the + music of Greece, suffuse his soul and change its tone. Meanwhile, + let his pen run its course withdrawn from the forum, and let + Apollo's tripod send forth a voice rhythmic and swift: next let + him roll forth in lordly speech the tale of heroes' feasting and + wars, set forth in fierce strain and lofty language, such as fell + from the lips of dauntless Cicero. Prepare thy soul for joys such + as these; and, steeped in the plenteous stream of letters, thou + shalt give utterance to the thoughts of thy Pierian soul. + +This is not inspired poetry; but its advice is sound, and its point of +view just. Nor is this criticism a mere _jeu d'esprit_; it is hard to +resist the conclusion that the author is putting his own views into the +mouths of his more than shady characters. For, _mutatis mutandis_, the +same attitude towards literary art is revealed in the utterances of the +poet Eumolpus.[316] It is a curious fact that while none of the +characters in Petronius are to be taken seriously, their speech at times +soars from the reeking atmosphere of the brothel and the clamour of the +streets to clearer and loftier regions of thought, if not of action. The +first appearance of Eumolpus is conceived in a broadly comic vein. +'While I was thus engaged a grey-haired old man entered the picture +gallery. He had a troubled countenance, which seemed to promise some +momentous utterance. His dress was lamentable, and showed that he was +clearly one of those literary gentlemen so unpopular with the rich. He +took his stand by my side. "I am a poet," he said, "and no mean one, if +any trust is to be placed in wreaths of honour, which are so often +bestowed even on those who least deserve them." "Why, then, are you so +ill-clad?" I asked. "Just for that very reason. Devotion to art never +brought any one wealth"-- + + qui pelago credit magno se faenore tollit; + qui pugnas et castra petit, praecingitur auro; + vilis adulator picto iacet ebrius ostro, + et qui sollicitat nuptas, ad praemia peccat: + sola pruinosis horret facundia pannis + atque inopi lingua desertas invocat artes.[317] + + He who entrusts his fortunes to the sea, wins a mighty + harvest; he who seeks the camp and the field of war, may + gird him with gold: the vile flatterer lies drunken on + embroidered purple; the gallant who courts the favours of + wedded wives, wins wealth by his sin: eloquence alone + shivers in frosty rags and invokes the neglected arts + with pauper tongue. + +'There's no doubt as to the truth of it. If a man has a detestation of +vice and chooses the paths of virtue, he is hated on the ground that his +morals are eccentric. No one approves of ways of life other than his +own. Then there are those whose sole care is the acquisition of wealth; +they are unwilling that anything should be thought to be a superior good +to that which they themselves possess. And so they persecute lovers of +literature with all their might.' This _vitiorum omnium inimicus_ then +proceeds to tell a story which casts a startling light upon his +'eccentric morality'. Its undoubted humour can hardly be said to redeem +its amazing grossness. He has scarcely finished the narration of his own +shame when he is back again in another world--the world of letters. He +laments the decay of art and philosophy. 'The passion for money-making +has brought ruin in its train. While virtue went bare and was a welcome +guest, the noble arts flourished, and men vied with one another in the +effort to discover anything that might be of service to mankind.' He +quotes the examples of Democritus, Eudoxus, Chrysippus in the world of +science, of Myron in art. 'We have given ourselves up to wine and women, +and take no pains to become acquainted even with the arts already +discovered. We traduce antiquity by teaching and learning its vices +only. Where is dialectic? Where is astronomy? Where is philosophy?' He +sees that Encolpius is not listening, but is absorbed in the +contemplation of a picture representing the sack of Troy, and seizes the +opportunity of reciting a poem of his own upon the subject. The lines +are for the most part neither original nor striking; they form a kind of +abstract in iambics of the second Aeneid, from the appearance of Sinon +to the emergence of the Greeks from the Trojan horse. But the work is +finished and elegant,[318] and the simile which describes the arrival of +the serpents that were to slay Laocoon is not unworthy of a more +successful poet than Eumolpus is represented to have been: + + ecce alia monstra; celsa qua Tenedos mare + dorso replevit, tumida consurgunt freta + undaque resultat scissa tranquillo minans[319] + qualis silenti nocte remorum sonus + longe refertur, cum premunt classes mare + pulsumque marmor abiete imposita gemit. + respicimus; angues orbibus geminis ferunt + ad saxa fluctus, tumida quorum pectora + rates ut altae lateribus spumas agunt. + + Lo! a fresh portent; where the ridge of lofty Tenedos + filled the sea, there breaks a swelling surge, and the + broken waves rebound and threaten the calm: as when in + the silent night the sound of oars is borne afar, when + navies burden the main and the smitten deep groans beneath + its freight of pine. We looked round: the waves bear towards + the rocks two coiling snakes, whose swelling breasts, like + tall ships, drive the water in foam along their sides. + +The picture is at once vivid and beautiful, and we feel almost regretful +at the fate which his recitation brought on the unhappy poet. 'Those who +were walking in the colonnade began to throw stones at Eumolpus as he +recited. He recognized this method of applauding his wit, covered his +head with his cloak and fled from the temple. I was afraid that he would +denounce me as a poet. And so I followed him till I came to the +sea-shore and was out of range. "What do you mean," I said, "by +inflicting this disease of yours upon us? You have been less than two +hours in my company, and you have more often spoken like a poet than a +man. I'm not surprised that people throw stones at you. I'm going to +fill my own pockets with stones, and the moment you begin to unburden +yourself, I'm going to break your head." His face revealed a painful +emotion. "My good youth," said he, "to-day is not the first occasion on +which I have suffered this fate. Nay, I have never entered a theatre to +recite, without attracting this kind of welcome. But as I don't want to +quarrel with you, I will abstain from my daily food for the whole day."' +Eumolpus did not keep this promise; but the poem with which he broke it +is of small importance and need not detain us.[320] It is a little +disquisition on the refinements of luxury now prevalent, and has but one +notable line--the last-- + + quidquid quaeritur optimum videtur. + + Whatever must be sought for, that seems best. + +But later he has another outbreak. Encolpius and his friends have been +shipwrecked near Croton. On their way to the town Eumolpus beguiles the +tedium of the climb by the criticism of Lucan and the attempt to improve +on the _Pharsalia_, which have been discussed in the chapter on Lucan. +If neither his poetry nor his criticism as a whole are sound, they are +at least meant seriously. Here, again, we have a plea for earnest study, +and for the avoidance of mere tricks of rhetoric. As for the rhetorician +Agamemnon, so for Eumolpus, the great poets of the past are Homer and +the lyric poets; and nearer home are the 'Roman Vergil' and Horace. If +there was nothing else in this passage than the immortal phrase 'Horatii +curiosa felicitas', it would redeem it from the commonplace. Petronius +is a 'classicist'; the friend of Nero, he protests against the +flamboyance of the age as typified in the rhetorical style of Seneca and +Lucan. If the work was written at the time when Seneca and Lucan first +fell from the Imperial favour, such criticism may well have found favour +at court. If, with the brilliant whimsicality that characterizes all his +work, Petronius has placed these utterances in the mouth of disreputable +and broadly comic figures, that does not impair the value or sincerity +of the criticism. Eumolpus' complaint of the decline of the arts and the +baneful effect of the struggle for wealth is no doubt primarily inspired +by the fact that he is poor and can find no patron nor praise for his +verse, but must put up with execrations and showers of stones. But that +does not affect the truth of much that he says, nor throw doubt upon the +sincerity of Petronius himself. + +The same whimsicality is shown elsewhere in the course of the novel. +It contains not a few poems which, detached from their context, are +full of grace and charm, though their application is often disgusting +in the extreme. Such are the hexameters towards the close of the work +in which Encolpius describes the scene of his unhappy love affair with +a certain Circe: + + Idaeo quales fudit de vertice flores + terra parens, cum se concesso iunxit amori + Iuppiter et toto concepit pectore flammas: + emicuere rosae violaeque et molle cyperon, + albaque de viridi riserunt lilia prato: + talis humus Venerem molles clamavit in herbas, + candidiorque dies secreto favit amori (127); + + As the flowers poured forth by mother earth from Ida's peak, + when she yielded to Jove's embrace and the god's soul was + filled with passionate flame; the rose, the violet, and the + soft iris flashed forth, and white lilies gleamed from the + green meadow; so shone the earth when it called our love to + rest upon the soft grass, and the day, brighter than its wont, + smiled on our secret passion. + + + nobilis aestivas platanus diffuderat umbras + et bacis redimita Daphne tremulaeque cupressus + et circum tonsae trepidanti vertice pinus. + has inter ludebat aquis errantibus amnis + spumeus et querulo vexabat rore lapillos. + dignus amore locus: testis silvestris aedon + atque urbana Procne, quae circum gramina fusae + ac molles violas cantu sua furta colebant (131). + + A noble plane tree and the bay tree with its garland of berries, + and the quivering cypress and the trim pine with its tremulous + top, spread a sweet summer shade abroad. Amid them a foaming + river sported with wandering waters and lashed the pebbles with + its peevish spray. Meet was the place for love, with the woodland + nightingale and the town-haunting swallow for witness, that, + flitting all about the grass and the soft violets, told of their + loves in song. + +The unpleasing nature of the context cannot obscure the fact that here +we have genuine poetry of great delicacy and beauty.[321] + +Of the satirical epigrams contained in the novel little need be said. +They are not in any way pointless or feeble, but they lack the ease and +grace, and, it may be added, the sting, of the best work of Martial. +The themes are hackneyed and suffer from the absence of the personal +note. But it is at least refreshing to find that Petronius does not +attempt, like Martial and others, to excuse his obscenity on the ground +that his actual life is chaste. He speaks out frankly. 'Why hide what +all men know?' + + quid me constricta spectatis fronte Catones + damnatisque novae simplicitatis opus? + sermonis puri non tristis gratia ridet, + quodque facit populus, Candida lingua refert (132). + + Why gaze at me, ye Catos, with frowning brow, and damn the + fresh frankness of my work? my speech is Latin undefiled, and + has grace unmarred by gloom, and my candid tongue tells of what + all Rome's people do. + +A more interesting collection of poems, probably Petronian, remains to +be discussed. In addition to the numerous fragments of poetry included +in the surviving excerpts from the _Satyricon_, a considerable number of +epigrams, attributed with more or less certainty to Petronius, are +preserved in the fragments of the _Anthologia Latina_.[322] Immediately +following on the epigrams assigned to the authorship of Seneca, the +Codex Vossianus Q. 86 gives sixteen epigrams,[323] each headed by the +word _item_. Of these two are quoted by Fulgentius as the work of +Petronius.[324] There is, therefore, especially in view of the fact that +they all bear a marked family resemblance to one another, a strong +presumption that all are by the author of the _Satyricon_. Further, +there are eleven epigrams[325] published by Binet in his edition of +Petronius[326] from a MS. originally in the cathedral library of +Beauvais, but now unfortunately lost. The first of the series is quoted +by Fulgentius[327] as being by Petronius, and there is no reason for +doubting the accuracy of Binet or his MS.[328] as to the rest. These +poems are followed by eight more epigrams,[329] the first two of which +Binet attributes to Petronius on stylistic grounds, but without any MS. +authority.[330] Lastly, four epigrams are preserved by a third MS. (Cod. +Voss. F. III) under the title _Petronii_[331]. Of these the first two +are found in the extant portions of the _Satyricon_. The evidence for +the Petronian authorship of these thirty-seven poems is not conclusive. +Arguments based on resemblance or divergence in points of style are +somewhat precarious in the case of an author like Petronius, writing +with great variety of style on a variety of subjects. But there are some +very marked resemblances between certain of these poems and verses +surviving in the excerpts from the Satyricon[332], and the evidence +_against_ the Petronian authorship is of the slightest. A possible +exception may be made in the case of the last eight epigrams preserved +by Binet, though even here Binet is just enough in pointing out the +resemblance of the first two of these to what is admittedly the work of +Petronius. But with regard to the rest we shall run small risk in +regarding them as selected from the lost books of the _Satyricon_. + +These poems are very varied in character and as a whole reach a higher +poetical level than most of those preserved in the existing fragments of +the _Satyricon_.[1] The most notable features are simplicity and +unaffected grace of diction coupled with a delicate appreciation of the +beauties of nature. There is nothing that is out of keeping with the +classicism on which we have insisted as a characteristic of Petronius, +there is much that is worthy of the best writers of the Augustan age. +The five lines in which he describes the coming of autumn have much in +common with the descriptions of nature already quoted from the +_Satyricon_. The last line in particular has at once a conciseness and a +wealth of suggestion that is rare in any post-Ovidian poet: + + iam nunc algentes autumnus fecerat umbras + atque hiemem tepidis spectabat Phoebus habenis, + iam platanus iactare comas, iam coeperat uvas + adnumerare suas defecto palmite vitis: + ante oculos stabat, quidquid promiserat annus.[333] + + Now autumn had brought its cool shades, Phoebus' reins glowed + less hot and he was looking winterward. The plane was beginning + to shed her leaves, the vine to count its clusters, and its + fresh shoots were withered. Before our eyes stood all the + promise of the year. + +Equally charming and sincere in tone is the description of the delights +of the simple life: + + parvula securo tegitur mihi culmine sedes + uvaque plena mero fecunda pendet ab ulmo. + dant rami cerasos, dant mala rubentia silvae + Palladiumque nemus pingui se vertice frangit. + iam qua diductos potat levis area fontes, + Corycium mihi surgit olus malvaeque supinae + et non sollicitos missura papavera somnos. + praeterea sive alitibus contexere fraudem + seu magis inbelles libuit circumdare cervos + aut tereti lino pavidum subducere piscem, + hos tantum novere dolos mea sordida rura. + i nunc et vitae fugientis tempora vende + divitibus cenis! me qui manet exitus olim, + hic precor inveniat consumptaque tempora poscat.[334] + + My cottage is sheltered by a roof that fears no ill; the + grape, bursting with wine, hangs from the fertile elm; + cherries hang by the bough and my orchard yields its rosy + apples, and the tree that Pallas loves breaks beneath the + rich burden of its branches. And now, where the garden bed's + light soil drinks in the runnels of water, rises for me + Corycian kale and low-growing mallow, and the poppy that grants + easy slumber. Moreover, whether 'tis my pleasure to set snares + for birds or hem in the timid deer, or on fine-meshed net to + draw up the affrighted fish, this is all the guile known to my + humble lands. Go to, now, and waste the flying hours of life + on sumptuous feasts! I pray, that my destined end may find me + here, and here demand an account of the days I have lived. + +These lines may be no more than an academic exercise on a commonplace +theme, but there can be no doubt of their artistic success. We find the +same simplicity in Columella, but not the same art. Compare them with +the work of Petronius' contemporary, Calpurnius Siculus, and there is +all the difference between true poetry and mere poetising. More +passionate and more convincing is the elegiac poem celebrating the +poet's return to the scene of former happiness: + + o litus vita mihi dulcius, o mare! felix, + cui licet ad terras ire subinde tuas! + o formosa dies! hoc quondam rure solebam + naidas alterna[335] sollicitare manu. + hic fontis lacus est, illic sinus egerit algas: + haec statio est tacitis fida cupidinibus. + pervixi; neque enim fortuna malignior umquam + eripiet nobis, quod prior aura dedit.[336] + + O shore, O sea, that I love more than life! Happy is he + that may straightway visit the lands ye border. O fairest + day! 'Twas here that once I was wont to swim and vex the + sea-nymphs with my hands' alternate strokes. Here is a + stream's deep pool, there the bay casts up its seaweed: here + is a spot that can faithfully guard the secret of one's love. + I have lived my life to the full; nor can grudging fortune + ever rob me of that which her favouring breeze once gave me. + +But Petronius can attain to equal success in other veins. Now we have a +fragment in the epic style containing a simile at once original and +beautiful: + + haec ait et tremulo deduxit vertice canos + consecuitque genas; oculis nec defuit imber, + sed qualis rapitur per vallis improbus amnis, + cum gelidae periere nives et languidus auster + non patitur glaciem resoluta vivere terra, + gurgite sic pleno facies manavit et alto + insonuit gemitu turbato murmure pectus.[337] + + He spake, and rent the white hair on his trembling head + and tore his cheeks, and his eyes streamed with a flood of + tears. As when a resistless river sweeps down the valley + when the chill snows have melted and the languid south wind + thaws the earth and suffers not the ice to remain, even so + his face streamed with a torrent of weeping and his breast + groaned loud with a confused murmur of sorrow. + +Elsewhere we find him writing in satirical vein of the origin of +religion,[338] on the decay of virtue,[339] on the hardship of the +married state[340]: + + 'uxor legis onus, debet quasi census amari.' + nec censum vellem semper amare meum. + + 'One should love one's wife as one loves one's fortune.' + Nay, I desire not always to love even my fortune. + +But it is in a love-poem that he reaches his highest achievement: + + lecto compositus vix prima silentia noctis + carpebam et somno lumina victa dabam: + cum me saevus Amor prensat sursumque capillis + excitat et lacerum pervigilare iubet. + 'tu famulus meus,' inquit, 'ames cum mille puellas, + solus, io, solus, dure, iacere potes?' + exsilio et pedibus nudis tunicaque soluta + omne iter incipio, nullum iter expedio. + nunc propero, nunc ire piget, rursumque redire + paenitet et pudor est stare via media. + ecce tacent voces hominum strepitusque viarum + et volucrum cantus turbaque fida canum: + solus ego ex cunctis paveo somnumque torumque + et sequor imperium, magne Cupido, tuum.[341] + + I lay on my bed and began to enjoy the silence of the night + scarce yet begun, and was yielding my wearied eyes to sleep, + when fierce Love laid hold of me, and, seizing me by the + hair, aroused me, tore me, and bade me wake. 'Canst thou, my + servant,' he cried, 'the lover of a thousand girls, lie thus + alone, alone, hard-hearted?' I leapt from my couch, and + barefoot, with dishevelled robe, started on my errand, yet + never accomplished it. Now I hurry forward, now am loth to go; + now repent me that I have returned, and feel shame to stand + thus aimless in mid-street. So the voices of men, the murmur + of the streets, the song of birds, and the trusty watchdogs + all are silent; and I alone dread the slumbers of my couch and + follow thy behest, great god of love. + +If this is not great poetry, it is at least one of the most perfect +specimens of conventional erotic verse in all ancient literature. If we +except a very few of the best poems of Propertius, Latin Elegiacs have +nothing to show that combines such perfection of form with such +exquisite sensuous charm. It breathes the fragrance of the Greek +anthology. + +The general impression left by the poetical work of Petronius is +curiously unlike that left by any Latin poet. Sometimes dull, he is +never eccentric; without the originality of the greatest artists, he has +all the artist's sensibility for form. He writes not as one inspired, +but as one steeped in the best literature. Many were greater stylists, +but few were endowed with such an exquisite sense of style. As a poet he +is a _dilettante_, and his claim to greatness lies in the brilliant and +audacious humour of his 'picaresque novel'. But his verse at its best +has a charm and fragrance of its own that is almost unique in Latin, and +reveals a combination of grace and facility, to find a parallel for +which among writers of the post-Augustan age we must turn to the pages +of Martial. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +MINOR POETRY, 14-70 A.D. + + +I + +DIDACTIC POETRY + +Only two didactic poems of this period have survived, the poem of +Columella on gardening, and the anonymous work on Mount Etna, setting +forth a theory of volcanic action. + + +i + +THE 'AETNA' + +The _Aetna_ is a hexameter poem, 646 lines in length. The author laments +the indifference shown by poets to the natural phenomena of his day. +They waste their time on the description of the marvels of art, the +spectacular side of human civilization, and the surface-beauties of +Nature.[342] They write trivial epics on the voyage of Argo, the sack of +Troy, Niobe, Thyestes, Cadmus, Ariadne, the Battle of the Giants[343]. +They tell of the terrors of the underworld[344], and the loves of the +gods[345]: they seek the false rather than the true, they neglect the +genuine wonders of Nature, the laws that govern heavenly and terrestrial +phenomena. + +He will be wiser. But there is no need to travel far. He will not soar +skyward to treat of the stars in their courses, of the seasons and signs +of the weather, to the neglect of the marvels of mother earth.[346] The +greatest of miracles is close at hand, Etna, the home of eternal fire. +Deep in the heart of earth dwell two irresistible forces, wind and +fire.[347] It is their conflict that causes the outbursts of flame and +molten rock that devastate the slopes of Etna. It is no smithy of the +gods, no Titan's prison. The causes are natural, water and wind and +fire. He has seen Etna; he describes the crater,[348] the volcanic rock +that can imprison fire,[349] the clouds that continually veil the +mountain's crest,[350] the flames that burst from its summit, the +subterranean rumblings,[351] the terrors of the lava stream. He +concludes with the touching story of the Catanian brothers who, +neglecting all else, sought only to save their aged parents from the +flames. Their piety had its reward; they, and they alone, escaped from +the lava; their neighbours, who sought to save their chattels and their +wealth, perished in the stream, encumbered by their belongings. + +Of the poet's theory of volcanic action we need not speak; it was the +current scientific theory of the day, and has no value for us; nor has +the author any claim to originality. As to the style and composition of +the work, brief comment will suffice. We may give the author credit for +a real enthusiasm, and for a just contempt of the prevailing themes that +engaged the attention of the minor poets of the day. But he has no gifts +for poetry. His theme, although it gave considerable opportunities for +episodic display, was one of great difficulty. Much dry scientific +detail was necessarily required. If Lucretius is sometimes tedious and +prosaic in spite of the vastness of his theme, the magnificence of his +moral background, and his inspired enthusiasm, what can be expected of a +poem on a minor scientific theme such as Etna? Volcanoes can hardly +compete with the universe as a theme for poetry. The subject is one that +might have fascinated an Alexandrian poet and found skilful treatment at +his hands. But the author of the _Aetna_ had not the stylistic gifts of +the Alexandrian. The actual arrangement of his matter is good, but, even +when due allowance is made for the corruption of our text, his obscurity +is intolerable, his imagery confused, his language cumbrous and wooden. +He has, moreover, no poetic imagination. _Aetna_, not the poet, provides +the fire. Even the beautiful story of the Catanian brothers, which forms +by far the best portion of the poem, never rises to the level of pure +poetry. It is illumined neither by the fire of rhetoric nor by the +lambent light of sensuous diction and rich imagination. A few lines may +be quoted to show its general character (605): + + Nam quondam ruptis excanduit Aetna cavernis, + et velut eversis penitus fornacibus ingens + evecta in longum est rapidis fervoribus unda. + * * * * * + ardebant agris segetes et mollia cultu + iugera cum dominis, silvae collesque rubebant. + * * * * * + tum vero ut cuique est animus viresque rapinae + tutari conantur opes, gemit ille sub auro, + colligit ille arma et stulta cervice reponit, + defectum raptis illum sua carmina tardant, + hic velox minimo properat sub pondere pauper. + * * * * * + ... haec nullis parsura incendia pascunt, + vel solis parsura piis. namque optima proles + Amphinomus fraterque pari sub munere fortes, + cum iam vicinis streperent incendia tectis, + aspiciunt pigrumque patrem matremque senecta + eheu defessos posuisse in limine membra, + parcite, avara manus, dulces attollere praedas: + illis divitiae solae materque paterque: + hanc rapient praedam. mediumque exire per ignem + ipso dante fidem properant. o maxima rerum + et merito pietas homini tutissima virtus! + erubuere pios iuvenes attingere flammae + et, quacumque ferunt illi vestigia, cedunt + felix illa dies, illa est innoxia terra. + dextra saeva tenent, laevaque incendia fervent; + ille per obliquos ignes fraterque triumphant + tutus uterque pio sub pondere: suffugit illa + et circa geminos avidus sibi temperat ignis, + incolumes abeunt tandem et sua numina secum + salva ferunt. illos mirantur carmina vatum, + illos seposuit claro sub nomine Ditis + nec sanctos iuvenes attingunt sordida fata, + securas cessere domus et iura piorum. + + + For once Etna burst its caves and, glowing with fire, cast + forth all that its furnaces contained; a vast wave, swift and + hot with fire, streamed forth afar.... Crops blazed along the + fields, rich acres with their masters were consumed, forest and + hill glowed rosy red.... Then each man, as he had courage and + strength to bear away his goods, strove to protect his wealth. + One groans beneath a weight of gold, another collects his weapons + and slings them on his foolish neck. Another, unable to carry away + what he has snatched up, wastes time in repeating charms, while + there the poor man moves swift beneath his slender burden.... The + fire feeds on all it meets: nought will it spare, or, if aught it + spares, only the pious. For Amphinomus and his brother, the best of + sons, brave in the toil they shared, when the fires roared loud and + were already nigh their home, behold their father and their mother + fall fainting on the threshold fordone with years. Cease, greedy + folk, to shoulder the spoil of your fortunes that are so dear to + you: for these men father and mother are their sole wealth; this + only is the spoil that they would save. They hasten to escape + through the midst of the fire, which itself gave them confidence. + O piety, greatest of all that man may possess, of all virtues that + which most saves the righteous. The flames blushed to touch the + pious youths, and yield a path wherever they turn their steps. + Blest was that day; the ground they trod was unharmed. The fierce + burning holds all things on their right and blazes on their left. + The brethren move triumphant on their path aslant the flame, each + saved by his pious burden: the fire shuns their path and restrains + its greedy hunger where pass the twain; scatheless they escape at + length and bear those whom they worship to a place of safety. The + songs of poets hymn their praise and the underworld gives them a + glorious resting-place apart, nor does any unworthy fate befall + these youths that lived so holy. They have passed away to dwell + among the blessed, and sorrow cometh not nigh their dwelling-place. + +The narrative is clear, and the story delightful. But the telling of it, +though free from affectation, is dull, prosaic, and uninspired. And it +must be remembered that this passage shows the author in his most +favourable aspect. In his more technical passages the clearness and +simplicity is absent, the prosiness and lack of imagination remain, +nakedly hideous. + +The author of the poem is unknown, the very date is uncertain. The +conception of the work is Lucretian, but in point of style, while full +of reminiscences of Lucretius, the poem owes most to Vergil, whose +hexameter has undoubtedly been taken for a model, though it has lost all +its music. Except in the avoidance of elision there is no trace of the +influence of Ovid. The poem might easily have been written in the latter +half of the reign of Augustus.[352] The obscurity is due to the lack, +not the excess of art, and the poem has no special affinity with the +Silver Age. Servius and Donatus, indeed, both seem to ascribe the poem +to Vergil,[353] while it is found in the MSS. which give us the +_Appendix Vergiliana_. But there are considerations which have inclined +editors to place it later, in the reign of Nero, or in the opening years +of the principate of Vespasian. In one of his letters (Sen. 79) Seneca, +writing to his friend Lucilius Junior, urges him to 'describe Etna in +his poem, and by so doing treat a topic common to all poets'. The fact +that Vergil had already treated it was no obstacle to Ovid's essaying +the task, nor was Cornelius Severus deterred by the fact that both +Vergil and Ovid had handled the theme. Later he adds, 'If I know you +aright, the subject of Aetna will make your mouth water.' Lucilius was +procurator in Sicily, and had sung the story of the Syracusan nymph +Arethusa.[354] It has been suggested that he[355] wrote the _Aetna_. But +Lucilius was an imitator of Ovid,[356] and Seneca advises him _not_ to +write a didactic poem on Etna, but to treat it episodically (_in suo +carmine_), as Vergil and Ovid[357] had done. It is conceivable that he +may have written a didactic poem on the subject, but Seneca's remarks +yield absolutely no evidence for the fact. + +Others have made Cornelius Severus the author,[358] though it is +practically certain that his description of the volcano must have +occurred in his poem _On the Sicilian War_.[359] But the fact that +Seneca makes no reference to the existence of any learned didactic poem +on the subject carries a little more weight, and there are marked +parallels between Seneca's 'quaestiones Naturales' and passages in the +_Aetna_.[360] Further, the very badness of the poem makes us hesitate to +place it in the Augustan period. That age, no doubt, produced much bad +work as well as good, but a poem so obscure and inartistically prosaic +as the _Aetna_ was more likely to be produced and more likely to survive +in an imitative and uninspired age such as that which followed on the +death of Augustus. But for the evidence of Seneca we should place the +poem in the prosaic reign of Tiberius; the considerations adduced from +Seneca lead us, though with the utmost hesitation, to place it somewhere +between 57 and 79 A.D.[361] Of the lower limit there can be no doubt. +The fires of the Phlegraean plains are extinct,[362] therefore the poem +was composed before the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D.[363] The +question of the authorship of the _Aetna_ has necessarily been treated +at greater length than the merits of the poem deserve. It is a work of +small importance; its chief value is to show how low it was possible for +Roman didactic poetry to sink. In the _Aetna_ it sinks lower than epic +in the _Punica_ of Silius Italicus. That poem, for all its portentous +dullness, shows a certain ponderous technical skill and literary +facility. The author of the _Aetna_, though clearly a man of culture, is +never at his ease, the verse is laboured and lacking flexibility, and +there is no technical dexterity to compensate for a total absence of +genius. The terror and beauty of the mountain crowned with snow and fire +find no adequate expression in these monotonous lines. There remains a +conglomerate of unoriginal and unsound physical speculation. + + +ii + +COLUMELLA + +The _Aetna_ is a Lucretian poem decked out in a Vergilian dress. In the +tenth book of Columella we have a didactic poem modelled on the +_Georgics_ of Vergil. The author was of Spanish origin, a native of +Gades,[364] and the contemporary of his great compatriot the younger +Seneca.[365] He had served in a military capacity in Syria,[366] but his +real passion was agriculture. His ambition was to write a really +practical farmers' manual.[367] He had written nine books in prose, +covering the whole range of farming, from the tillage of the soil to the +breeding of poultry and cattle, and concluding with a disquisition on +wild animals and bee-keeping. But in the tenth book, yielding to the +solicitation of his friend Publius Silvinus,[368] he set himself a more +exalted task, no less than the writing of a fifth Georgic on gardening. +Vergil, in his fourth Georgic (148), had left the theme of gardens for +another's singing. Columella takes him at his word. The tenth book is +manifestly intended as the crown and conclusion of his work. But later +he changed his plan. Another friend, Claudius Augustalis,[369] demanded +a paraphrase, or rather an amplification in prose. This resulted in an +eleventh book, in which the care of the garden and the duties of the +_villicus_ are described, while the work was finally concluded in a +twelfth book setting forth the duties of the _villica_.[370] + +It may be doubted whether Columella was well advised when he yielded to +the entreaties of his friend Silvinus and wrote his tenth book in +verse. He had no great poetic talent, nor did he possess the sleight of +hand of Calpurnius, the imitator of the _Eclogues_. But he possesses +qualities which render his work far more attractive than that of +Calpurnius. He is a genuine enthusiast, with a real love of the +countryside and a charming affection for flowers. And as a stylist he +is modest. He makes no attempt at display, no contorted striving after +originality. His verse is clear and simple as his tastes. He is content +to follow humbly in the footsteps of his great master, the 'starry' +Vergil.[371] He imitates and even plagiarizes[372] because he loves, +not because it is the fashion. He shows no appreciation of the more +intimate harmonies of the Vergilian hexameter; like so many +contemporaries, he realizes neither the value of judicious elision nor +varied pauses; but his verse, in spite of its monotony and lack of life +and movement, is not unmelodious. The poem is a sober work, uninspired +in tone, straightforward and simple in plan. It need not be described +in detail; its advice is obvious, setting forth the times and seasons +to be observed by the gardener, the methods of preparing the soil, the +choice of flowers, with all the customary mythological allusions.[373] +At its worst, with its tedious lists of the names of flowers, it reads +like a seedsman's catalogue,[374] at its best it is lit up with a +quaint humour, a love of colour, and a homely yet vivid imagination. +Mother earth--'sweet earth' he calls her--is highly personified; that +she may be adorned anew, her green locks must be torn from their tangle +by the plough, her old raiment stripped from her, her thirst quenched +by irrigation, her hunger satisfied with fertilizing manure.[375] The +garden is to be no rich man's park for the display of statues and +fountains. Its one statue shall be the image of the garden god, its +patron and its protector.[376] Its splendour shall be the varied hue of +its flower-beds and its wealth in herbs that serve the use of man: + + verum ubi iam puro discrimine pectita tellus + deposito squalore nitens sua semina poscet, + pingite tunc varios, terrestria sidera, flores, + candida leucoia et flaventia lumina caltae + narcissique comas et hiantis saeva leonis + ora feri calathisque virentia lilia canis, + nec non vel niveos vel caeruleos hyacinthos, + tum quae pallet humi, quae frondens purpurat auro, + ponatur viola et nimium rosa plena pudoris (94). + + But when earth, with parted locks combed clear, gleams, all + soilure cast aside, and demands the seeds that are her due, + call forth the varied hues of flowers, earth's constellations, + the white snowflake and the marigold's golden eyes, the + narcissus-petals and the blossom that apes the fierce lion's + gaping maw; the lily, too, with calix shining white amid its + green leaves, the hyacinths white and blue; plant also the + violet lying pale upon the ground or purple shot with gold + among its leafage, and the rose with its deep shamefaced blush. + +He loves the return of spring with as deep a love as Vergil's, though he +must borrow Vergil's language to describe its coming and its power.[377] +But his painting of its harvest of colour is his own: + + quin et odoratis messis iam floribus instat: + iam ver purpureum, iam versicoloribus anni + fetibus alma parens pingi sua tempora gaudet. + iam Phrygiae loti gemmantia lumina promunt + et coniventis oculos violaria solvunt (255). + + Nay, more, the harvest-time draws near for sweet-scented + flowers. The purple spring has come, and kindly mother + earth rejoices that her brows are painted bright with all + the many-coloured offspring of the year. Now the Phrygian + lotus puts forth its jewelled orbs and the violet beds + open their winking eyes. + +All the glories of an Italian spring are in the lines in which a little +later he describes the joy of living when the year is young, and the +wasting heat of summer is still far off, when it is sweet to be in the +sun and watch the garden with its rainbow colours: + + nunc ver egelidum, nunc est mollissimus annus, + dum Phoebus tener ac tenera decumbere in herba + suadet et arguto fugientes gramine fontes + nec rigidos potare iuvat nec sole tepentes, + iamque Dionaeis redimitur floribus hortus, + iam rosa mitescit Sarrano clarior ostro. + nec tam nubifugo Borea Latonia Phoebe + purpureo radiat vultu, nec Sirius ardor + sic micat aut rutilus Pyrois aut ore corusco + Hesperus, Eoo remeat cum Lucifer ortu, + nec tam sidereo fulget Thaumantias arcu + quam nitidis hilares conlucent fetibus horti (282). + + Now cool spring is come, the gentlest season of the year, + while Phoebus yet is young and bids us recline in the young + herbage, and 'tis sweet to drink the rill that flows among + the murmuring grass, with waters neither icy cold nor warm + with the sun's heat. Now, too, the garden is crowned with the + flowers Dione loves, and the rose ripens brighter than Tyrian + purple. Not so brightly does Phoebe, Leto's daughter, shine + with radiant face when Boreas has dispersed the clouds, nor + glows hot Sirius so, nor ruddy Pyrois, nor Hesperus with + shining countenance when he returns as the daystar at the + break of dawn, not so fair gleams Iris with her starry + bow, as shines the joyous garden with its bright offspring. + +These are the words of an enthusiast and a poet, and these few +outbursts of song redeem the poem from dullness. There is wafted from +his pages the perfume of the countryside, and the fresh air breathes +welcome amid the hothouse cultures of contemporary poets. And he is +almost the only poet of the age that can be read without a wince of +pain. He is at least as good a laureate of the garden as Thomson of the +seasons, and he has all the grace of humility. Even when the artist +fails us, we love the man. + + +II + +CALPURNIUS SICULUS. THE EINSIEDELN FRAGMENTS AND THE 'PANEGYRICUS +IN PISONEM' + +It may be said of pastoral poetry, without undue disrespect, that it is +the most artificial and the least in touch with reality of all the more +important forms of poetic art. Even in the hands of a master like +Theocritus, invested as it is with an incomparable charm, and +distinguished in many respects by an astonishing truth and fidelity, it +is never other than highly artificial. For its birth an age was required +in which the class whence the majority of poets and their audience are +drawn had largely lost touch with country life, or had at any rate +developed ideals that can only spring up in town society. This does not +imply that men have ceased altogether to appreciate the value of the +country life or the beauty of country surroundings, only that they have +lost much of their understanding of them; and so their appreciation +takes new forms. They love the country as a half-forgotten paradise, +they fly back to it as a refuge from the artificiality of town life, but +they take much of that artificiality with them. From the time of +Theocritus pastoral poetry pure and simple has steadily declined. Great +poems have been written with exquisite pastoral elements or even cast in +pastoral form. But they have never owed their greatness entirely, or +even chiefly, to the pastoral element. That element has merely provided +a charming setting for scenes or thoughts that have nothing genuinely +pastoral about them. + +Of the small amount of pastoral poetry extant in Latin it need hardly be +said that the _Bucolica_ of Vergil stand in a class by themselves. And +yet for all their beauty they are unsatisfactory to those who know and +love Theocritus. Their charm is undeniable, but they are immature and +too obviously imitative. But Vergil was at least country-born and had a +deep sympathy for country life. When we come to the scanty relics of his +successors and imitators we are conscious of a lamentable falling away. +If Vergil's imitations of Theocritus fail to ring as true as their +original, what shall be said of the imitators of Vergil's imitations? +Even if they had been true poets, their verse must have rung false. But +the poets with whom we have to deal, Calpurnius Siculus and the +anonymous author of two poems known as the Einsiedeln fragments, were +not genuine poets. They had little of the intimacy with nature and +unsophisticated man that was demanded by their self-chosen task. That +they possessed some real affection for the country is doubtless true, +but it was not the prime inspiration of their verse. They had the +ambition to write poetry rather than the call; a slight bent towards the +country, heightened by a vague dissatisfaction and weariness with the +artificial luxury of Rome, led them to choose pastoral poetry. They make +up for depth of observation by a shallow minuteness. In the seven +eclogues of Calpurnius may be found a larger assortment of vegetables, +of agricultural implements and operations, than in the _Bucolics_ of +Vergil, but there is little poetry, pastoral or otherwise. The 'grace of +all the Muses' and the breath of the country are fled for ever; the +dexterous phrasing of a laborious copyist reigns in their stead. + +Of the life of Calpurnius Siculus nothing is known and but little can be +conjectured. Of his date there can be little doubt. We learn from the +evidence of the poems themselves that they were written in the +principate of a youthful Caesar (i. 44; iv. 85, 137; vii. 6), beautiful +to look upon (vii. 84), the giver of splendid games (vii. 44), the +inaugurator of an age of peace, liberty and plenty (i. 42-88; iv +_passim_). This points strongly to the opening of Nero's reign. The +young Nero was handsome and personally popular, and the opening years of +his reign (_quinquennium Neronis_) were famous for good government and +prosperity. But there are two further pieces of internal evidence which +clinch the argument. A comet is mentioned (i. 77) as appearing in the +autumn, an appearance which would tally with that of the comet observed +shortly before the death of Claudius in 54 A.D., while the line + + maternis causam qui vicit Iulis (i. 45) + +seems clearly to refer to the speech delivered by the young Nero for the +people of Ilium,[378] from whom the Iuli, Nero's ancestors on the +mother's side, claimed to trace their descent. It may therefore safely +be assumed that the poems were written early in the reign of Nero. A +most ingenious attempt has been made to throw some light on the identity +of their author.[379] He speaks of himself as Corydon, and he has a +patron whom he styles Meliboeus. He prays that Meliboeus may bring him +before Caesar's notice as Pollio brought Vergil (iv. 157 sqq.; also i. +94). It has been suggested with some plausibility that Meliboeus is no +other than C. Calpurnius Piso, the distinguished noble round whom in 65 +A.D. centred the great conspiracy against Nero. The evidence rests on +the existence of a poem entitled _panegyricus in Pisonem_,[380] in which +a nameless poet seeks by his laudations to win Piso for a patron. The +style of the poem has a marked resemblance to that of Calpurnius. If, as +is possible, it should be assigned to his authorship, it becomes fairly +certain that he was a dependent of Piso, and the name Calpurnius would +suggest that he may have been the son of one of his freedmen. + +The eclogues of Calpurnius are seven in number.[381] The first is in +praise of the Golden Age, with special reference to the advent of the +young princeps. Though given a different setting it is clearly modelled +on the fourth eclogue of Vergil. The second, describing a contest of +song between two shepherds before a third as judge, follows Vergil even +more closely.[382] Parallels might be further elaborated, but it is +sufficient to say here that only two of the poems show any originality, +namely, the fifth and the seventh. In the former we have the advice +given by an aged farmer to his son, to whom he is handing over his farm. +It is inclined to be prosy, but is simple and pleasing in tone, and the +old countryman may be forgiven if he sometimes seems to be quoting the +Georgics. The seventh is a more ambitious effort. A rustic describes the +great games that he has seen given in the amphitheatre at Rome. The +language, though characteristically decadent in its elaboration, shows +considerable originality. The amphitheatre is, for instance, thus +described (vii. 30): + + qualiter haec patulum concedit vallis in orbem + et sinuata latus resupinis undique silvis + inter continuos curvatur concava montes, + sic ibi planitiem curvae sinus ambit arenae + et geminis medium se molibus alligat ovum. + * * * * * + balteus en gemmis, en illita porticus auro + certatim radiant; nec non, ubi finis arenae + proxima marmoreo praebet spectacula muro, + sternitur adiunctis ebur admirabile truncis + et coit in rotulum, tereti qui lubricus axe + impositos subita vertigine falleret ungues + excuteretque feras. auro quoque torta refulgent + retia, quae totis in arenam dentibus extant, + dentibus aequatis: et erat (mihi crede, Lycota, + si qua fides) nostro dens longior omnis aratro. + + Even as this vale rounds to a wide circle, and with + bending sides and slanting woods on every side makes + a curved hollow amid the unbroken hills, so there the + circle of the curving arena surrounds its level plain + and locks either side of its towering structure into + an oval about itself.... See how the gangway's parapet + studded with gems and the colonnade plated with gold + vie with each other's brightness; nay more, where the + arena's bound sets forth its shows close to the marble + wall, ivory is overlaid in wondrous wise on jointed beams + and is bent into a cylinder, which, turning nimbly on its + trim axle, may cheat with sudden whirl the wild beast's + claws and cast them from it. Nets, too, of twisted gold + gleam forth, hung out into the arena on tusks in all their + length and of equal size, and--believe me, Lycotas, if you + can--each tusk was longer than our ploughshare. + +In its defence it may be urged that the very nature of the subject +demands elaboration, and that the resulting picture has the merit of +being vivid despite its elaborate ingenuity. It is in this poem that +Calpurnius is seen at his best. Elsewhere his love for minute and +elaborate description is merely wearisome. It would be hard, for +instance, to find a more tiresomely circuitous method of claiming to be +an authority on sheep-breeding than (ii. 36)-- + + me docet ipsa Pales cultum gregis, ut niger albae + terga maritus ovis nascenti mutet in agna + quae neque diversi speciem servare parentis + possit et ambiguo testetur utrumque colore. + + Pales herself teaches me how to breed my flocks and tells + me how the black ram transforms the fleece of the white + ewe in the lamb that comes to birth, that cannot reproduce + the colour of its sire, so different from that of its dam, + and by its ambiguous hue testifies to either parent. + +It is difficult to give a poetic description of the act of +rumination, but + + et matutinas revocat palearibus herbas (iii. 17) + + And recalls to its dewlaps the grass of its morning's meal. + +is needlessly grotesque. And the vain struggle to give life to old and +outworn themes leads to laboured lines such as (iii. 48)-- + + non sic destricta marcescit turdus oliva, + non lepus extremas legulus cum sustulit uvas, + ut Lycidas domina sine Phyllide tabidus erro. + + Not so does the thrush pine when the olives are plucked, + not so does the hare pine when the vintager has gathered + the last grapes, as I, Lycidas, droop while I roam apart + from my mistress Phyllis. + +Calpurnius yields little to compensate for such defects. He meanders on +through hackneyed pastoral landscapes haunted by hackneyed shepherds. It +is only on rare occasions that a refreshing glimmer of poetry revives +the reader. In lines such as (ii. 56)-- + + si quis mea vota deorum + audiat, huic soli, virides qua gemmeus undas + fons agit et tremulo percurrit lilia rivo + inter pampineas ponetur faginus ulmos; + + If any of the gods hear my prayer, to his honour, and his + alone, shall his beechwood statue be planted amid my + vine-clad elms, where the jewelled stream rolls its green + wave and with rippling water runs through the lilies. + +or, in the pleasant description of the return of spring (v. 16), + + vere novo, cum iam tinnire volueres + incipient nidosque reversa lutabit hirundo, + protinus hiberno pecus omne movebis ovili. + tune etenim melior vernanti germine silva + pullat et aestivas reparabilis incohat umbras, + tune florent saltus viridisque renascitur annus,[383] + + When spring is young and the birds begin to pipe once more, + and the swallow returns to plaster its nest anew, then move + all your flock from its winter fold. For then the wood sprouts + in fresh glory with its spring shoots and builds anew the + shades of summer, then all the glades are bright with flowers + and the green year is born again. + +we seem to catch a glimpse of the real countryside; but for the most +part Calpurnius paints little save theatrical and _maniéré_ miniatures. +Of such a character is the clever and not unpleasing description of the +tame stag in the sixth eclogue (30). He shows a pretty fancy and no +more. + +The metre is like the language, easy, graceful, and correct. But the +pauses are poorly managed; the rhythm is unduly dactylic; the verse +trips all too lightly and becomes monotonous. + +The total impression that we receive from these poems is one of +insignificance and triviality. The style is perhaps less rhetorical and +obscure than that of most writers of the age; as a result, these poems +lack what is often the one saving grace of Silver Latin poetry, its +extreme cleverness. To find verse as dull and uninspired, we must turn +to Silius Italicus or the _Aetna_. + + * * * * * + +The two short poems contained in a MS. at Einsiedeln and distinguished +by the name of their place of provenance are also productions of the +Neronian age. The first, in the course of a contest of song between +Thamyras and Ladas, with a third shepherd, Midas, as arbiter, sets +forth the surpassing skill of Nero as a performer on the _cithara_.[384] +The second celebrates the return of the Golden Age to the world now +under the beneficent guidance of Nero. Neither poem possesses the +slightest literary importance; both are polished but utterly insipid +examples of foolish court flattery. The author is unknown. An ingenious +suggestion[385] has been made that he is no other than Calpurnius Piso, +the supposed Meliboeus of Calpurnius Siculus. The second of these +eclogues begins, 'Quid tacitus, Mystes?' The fourth eclogue of +Calpurnius Siculus begins (Meliboeus loquitur), 'Quid tacitus, Corydon?' +Is Meliboeus speaking in person and quoting his own poem? It may be so, +but the evidence is obviously not such as to permit any feeling of +certainty. + +But it is at least probable that the poet had access to the court and had +been praised by Nero. Such is the most plausible interpretation of a +passage in the first eclogue, where Ladas, in answer to Thamyras, who +claims the prize on the ground that his song shall be of Caesar, replies +(16, 17): + + et me sidereo respexit Cynthius ore + laudatamque chelyn iussit variare canendo.[386] + + On me, too, has the Cynthian god cast his starry glance and + bidden me accompany the lyre he praised with diverse song. + +Whether the author be Piso or another, the poems do him small credit. + +The _Panegyricus in Pisonem_ remains to be considered. Attributed to +Vergil by one MS.,[387] to Lucan by another,[388] the poem is certainly +by neither. Quite apart from stylistic evidence, which is convincing +against its attribution to Lucan, it is almost certain that the name of +Lucan has been wrongly inserted for that of Vergil. That it is not by +Vergil would be clear from the very inferior nature of the verse, but it +can further be shown that the Piso addressed is the Calpurnius Piso of +the reigns of Claudius and Nero to whom we have alluded above. If the +account of Piso given by Tacitus be compared with the characteristics +described in the _Panegyricus_, it will be found that both alike refer +in strong terms to his eloquence in the law courts so readily exercised +in defence of accused persons, and also to his affability and capacity +for friendship.[389] Further, we have the evidence of a scholium on +Juvenal as to his skill in the game of draughts.[390] He played so well +that crowds would throng to see him. One of the chief points mentioned +in the _Panegyricus_ is the skill of Piso at the same game.[391] Nor is +it a mere casual allusion; on the contrary, the writer treats this +portion of his eulogy with even greater elaboration than the rest. There +can, therefore, be little doubt as to the date of the poem. It is +addressed to Calpurnius Piso after his rise to fame (i.e. during the +latter portion of the principate of Claudius, or during the earlier part +of the reign of Nero). The poet prays that Piso may be to him what +Maecenas was to Vergil. It is hardly possible for a poem of this type to +possess any real interest for others than the recipient of the flattery +and its author. But in this case the poet has done his work well. The +flattery never becomes outrageous and is expressed in easy flowing verse +and graceful diction. At times the language is genuinely felicitous. Any +great man might be proud to receive such a tribute as (129)-- + + tu mitis et acri + asperitate carens positoque per omnia fastu + inter ut aequales unus numeraris amicos, + obsequiumque doces et amorem quaeris amando. + + Mild is thy temper and free from sharp harshness. Thou + layest aside thy pride in thy every act, and among thy + friends thou art counted a friend and equal, thou teachest + men to follow thee and seekest to be loved by loving. + +There is, moreover, little straining after effect and little real +obscurity. The difficulties of the description of Piso's +draught-playing are due to our ignorance of the exact nature of the +game.[392] The actual language is at least as lucid as Pope's famous +description of the game of ombre in _The Rape of the Lock_. The verse +is of the usual post-Augustan type, showing strongly the primary +influence of Vergil modified by the secondary influence of Ovid. It is +light and easy and not ill-suited to its subject. It has distinct +affinities, both in metre and diction, with the verse of Calpurnius +Siculus, and may be by the same hand; but the resemblance is not so +close as to afford anything approaching positive proof. Minor poets, +lacking all individuality, the victims and not the controlling forces +of the tendencies of the age, are apt to resemble one another. There +are, however, two noteworthy passages which point strongly to the +identity of the author of the _Panegyricus_ with the Bucolic poet. The +former, addressing Piso as his patron (246), says: + + mea vota + si mentem subiere tuam, memorabilis olim + tu mihi Maecenas tereti cantaberé versu. + + If my prayers reach thy mind, thou shalt be sung + of as Maecenas in my slender verse, and future ages + shall tell of thy glory. + +The latter, addressing his patron Meliboeus and begging him to commend +him to Caesar, exclaims (iv. 152): + + o mihi quae tereti decurrent carmina versu + tunc, Meliboee, meum si quando montibus istis (i.e. at Rome) + dicar habere larem. + + O how shall my songs trip in slender verse then, Meliboeus, + if ever men shall say of me 'He has a house on yonder mountain'. + + + +Is it a mere coincidence, a plagiarism, or a direct allusion? There is +no certainty, but the coincidence is--to say the least--suggestive. If +the identity of authorship be assumed as correct, it is probable that +the eclogues are the later production. To place one's patron among the +_dramatis personae_ of an eclogue argues a nearer intimacy than the +writing of a formal panegyric. That the poet is more at home as a +panegyrist than as a writer of idylls does not affect the question. In +such an age such a result was to be expected. + + +III + +THE ILIAS LATINA + +Latin poetry may almost be said to have begun with Livius Andronicus' +translation of the _Odyssey_ into the rude Saturnian metre. This +translation had great vogue as a school book. But the _Iliad_ remained +untranslated, and it was only natural that later authors should try +their hand upon it. Translations were produced in Republican times by +Cn. Matius[393] and Ninnius Crassus,[394] but neither work attained to +any popularity. + +With the growth of the knowledge of Greek and its increasing use as a +medium of instruction in the schools on the one hand, and the appearance +of Vergil and the rise of the Aeneas saga on the other, the demand for a +translation of the _Iliad_ naturally became less. The Silver Age arrived +with the problem unsolved. It was a period when writers abounded who +would have been better employed on translation than on any attempt at +original work. Further, in spite of the general knowledge of Greek, a +translation of Homer would have its value in the schools both as a +handbook for the subject-matter and as a 'crib '. + +Three works of the kind seem to have been produced between the reigns of +Tiberius and Nero. + +Attius Labeo[395] translated not only the _Iliad_ but also the _Odyssey_ +into hexameters. But it was a poor performance. It was a baldly literal +translation, paying small attention to the meaning of the original.[396] +Persius pours scorn upon it, and one verse has survived to confirm our +worst suspicions[397]-- + + crudum manduces Priamum Priamique pisinnos. + +Polybius, the well-known freedman of Claudius, also produced a work, +which is praised by Seneca as having introduced Homer and Vergil to a +yet larger public than they already enjoyed, and as preserving the charm +of the original in an altered form.[398] As Polybius had dealt with +Vergil as well as Homer, it may be conjectured that the work praised by +Seneca was a prose paraphrase. Lastly, there is the _Ilias Latina_, +which has been preserved to the present day. It is written in graceful +hexameter verse, and is an abridgement rather than a translation. It +consists of 1,070 lines, of which the first five books in fact claim a +little more than half. The author wearied of his task and finished off +the remaining nineteen books in summary fashion. While the twenty-second +occupies as much as sixty lines, the abridgements of the thirteenth and +seventeenth are reduced to a meagre seven and three lines respectively. + +That such work is of small importance is obvious. It must have been +useless from its birth save as a handbook for the schools, and even for +this purpose its value must have been greatly impaired by its lack of +proportion. Its survival can only be accounted for on the assumption +that it was written and employed as a textbook. In fact, during the +Middle Ages, when the original was a sealed book, there is definite +evidence that it was so used.[399] The work is trivial, but might well +have been worse. The language is clear and often vigorous, and there is +an easy grace about the verse which shows that the author was a man of +culture, knowing his Vergil well and his Ovid better. The date cannot be +proved with certainty, but there can be no doubt that it was written +before the death of Nero. + +The lines (899), + + quem (Aenean) nisi servasset magnarum rector aquarum + ut profugus laetis Troiam repararet in arvis, + augustumque genus claris submitteret astris, + non carae gentis nobis mansisset origo, + + Unless the ruler of the mighty deep had preserved Aeneas to + found in exile a new Troy in happier fields, and beget a line + of princes to shine among the stars, the stock of the race we + love would not have endured to bless us. + +can only have been written under the Julian Dynasty. + +The work is clearly post-Ovidian and must therefore be attributed to the +principates of Tiberius, Gaius, Claudius, or Nero. Further evidence of +date is entirely wanting. No meaning can be attached to the heading +Pindarus found in certain MSS.[400] There is, however, an interesting +though scarcely more fruitful problem presented by the possible +existence of two acrostics in the course of the poem.[401] The initial +letters of the first nine lines spell the name 'Italices', while the +last eight lines yield the word 'scqipsit'. Baehrens, by a not very +probable alteration in the eighth line, procures the name 'Italicus', +while a slighter and more natural change yields 'scripsit' at the +close.[402] Further, a late MS. gives Bebius Italicus as the name of the +author.[403] On these grounds the poem has been attributed to Silius +Italicus. But Martial makes no reference to the existence of this work +in any of his references to Silius, and indeed suggests that Silius only +took to writing poetry after his withdrawal from public life.[404] This +would make the poem post-Neronian, which, as we have seen, is most +improbable. Further, the style of the verse is very different from that +of the _Punica_. When, over and above these considerations, it is +remembered that the acrostics can only be produced by emendation of the +text, the critic has no course open to him but to abandon the +attribution to Silius and to give up the problem of the acrostics as an +unprofitable curiosity of literature. + + +IV + +LOST MINOR POETS + +In addition to the poets of whom we have already treated as writing +under the Julian Dynasty there must have been many others of whom chance +or their own insignificance has deprived us. But few names have +survived,[405] and only two of these lost poets merit mention here, the +erotic poet Lentulus Gaetulicus and the lyric writer Caesius Bassus. + +Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus was consul in 26 A.D.,[406] and for +ten years was legatus in Upper Germany, where his combination of +firmness and clemency won him great popularity.[407] He conspired +against Caligula while holding this command, and was put to death.[408] +Pliny the younger speaks of him as the writer of sportive and lascivious +erotic verse, and Martial writes of him in very similar terms.[409] His +mistress was named Caesennia, and was herself a poetess.[410] It is +possible that the poems in the Greek Anthology under the title [Greek: +Gaitoulikou][411] may be from his pen, but the only fragment of his +Latin poems which survives is from a work in hexameters, and describes +the geographical situation of Britain.[412] + +More important is the lyric poet Caesius Bassus,[413] whose loss is the +more to be regretted because of the very scanty remains of Roman lyric +verse that have survived to modern times. Statius attempted with but +indifferent success to imitate the Sapphics and Alcaics of Horace, while +the plays of Seneca provide a considerable quantity of lyric choruses of +varying degrees of merit. But of lyric writers pure and simple there is +scarcely a trace. That they existed we know from Quintilian. If we may +trust him, certain of his contemporaries[414] attained to considerable +distinction in this branch of poetry--that is to say, they surpassed all +Roman lyric poets subsequent to Horace. But when all is said, it is +scarcely possible to go beyond Quintilian's emphatic statement, that of +Roman lyricists Horace alone repays reading. If any other name deserves +mention it is that of Caesius Bassus, but he is inferior to Quintilian's +own contemporaries. Caesius Bassus is best known to us as the editor of +the satires of Persius. The sixth satire is actually addressed to him: + + admovit iam bruma foco te, Basse, Sabino? + iamne lyra et tetrico vivunt tibi pectine chordae? + mire opifex numeris veterum primordia vocum + atque marem strepitum fidis intendisse Latinae, + mox iuvenes agitare iocos et pollice honesto + egregius lusisse senex.[415] + + Has winter made you move yet to your Sabine fireside, dear + Bassus? Are your lyre and its strings and the austere quill + that runs over them yet in force? Marvellous artist as you + are at setting to music the primitive antiquities of our + language, the manly utterance of the Latian harp, and then + showing yourself excellent in your old age at wakening young + loves and frolicking over the chords with a virtuous touch. + CONINGTON. + +The only information yielded by this passage is that Bassus had a +Sabine villa, that he was already advanced in years, that he affected +'the simple and manly versification of antiquity', and that he dealt +also with erotic themes. But few other facts are known to us. He wrote +a treatise on metre--a portion of which has been preserved to the +present day,[416] and he perished at his Campanian villa in 79 A.D., +during the great eruption of Vesuvius.[417] The fragments of verse +enshrined in his metrical treatise suggest that he wrote in a large +variety of metres,[418] but they may be no more than examples invented +solely to illustrate metres unfamiliar in Latin. The one quotation that +is explicitly made from his lyrical poems is, curiously enough, a +hexameter line. As to his literary merits or defects, it is now +impossible even to guess. + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +THE EMPERORS FROM VESPASIAN TO TRAJAN AND MINOR POETS + + +I + +THE EMPERORS AND POETS WHOSE WORKS ARE LOST + +After the death of Nero and the close of the Civil War a happier era, +both for literature and the world at large, was inaugurated by the +accession of Vespasian in 69 A.D. A man of low birth and of little +culture, he yet had a true appreciation of art and literature. Of his +own writing we know nothing save that he left behind him memoirs.[419] +But we have abundant evidence that he showed himself a liberal patron of +the arts. He gave rich rewards to poets and sculptors,[420] effected all +that was possible to repair the great loss of works of art occasioned by +the burning of the Capitol,[421] and did what he could for the stage, +perhaps even attempting to revive the legitimate drama.[422] Above all, +he set aside a large sum annually for the support of Greek and Latin +professors of rhetoric,[423] the first instance in the history of Rome +of State endowment of education. Against this we must set his expulsion +from Italy of philosophers and astrologers, an intemperate and +presumably ineffective act, prompted by reasons of State and probably +without any appreciable influence on literature.[424] His sons, however, +had received all the advantages of the highest education. Of Titus' +(79-81 A.D.) achievements in literature we have no information save that +he aspired to be both orator and poet. The language used in praise of +his efforts by Pliny the elder, our one authority on this point, is so +extravagant as to be virtually meaningless.[425] Of the literary +exploits of his brother Domitian (81-96 A.D.) there is more to be said. +It pleased him to lay claim to distinction both in prose and verse.[426] +His only prose work of which any record remains was a treatise on the +care of the hair;[427] his own baldness rankled in his mind and turned +the _calvus Nero_ of Juvenal into a hair specialist. As to his poems it +is almost doubtful if he ever wrote any. He professed an enthusiasm for +poetry, an art which, according to Suetonius, he had neglected in his +youth and despised when he came to the throne. But Quintilian, Valerius +Flaccus, and Martial[428] all load him with praise of various degrees of +fulsomeness, though, reading between the lines of Quintilian, it is easy +to see that Domitian's output must have been exceedingly small. The +evidence of these three authors goes to show that he had contemplated, +perhaps even begun, an epic on the achievements of his brother Titus in +the Judaic War. Whether these _caelestia carmina belli_, as Martial +calls them, ever existed, save in the imagination of courtiers and +servile poets, there is nothing to show. If they did exist there seems +no reason to regret their loss. + +Domitian's chief service to literature, if indeed it was a true service, +was the establishment of the Agon Capitolinus in 86, a quinquennial +festival at which prizes were awarded not only for athletics and +chariot-racing, but for declamations in verse and prose,[429] and the +institution of a similar, though annual, contest at his own palace on +the Alban Mount, which took place as often as the great festival of +Minerva, known as the Quinquatria, came round.[430] But his interest in +literature was only superficial; he had no originality and read nothing +save the memoirs and edicts of Tiberius.[431] His capricious cruelty +extended itself to artists and authors;[432] twice (in 89 and 93 A.D.), +following his father's example, he banished philosophers and astrologers +from Rome;[433] the crime of having written laudatory biographies of the +Stoics Thrasea and Helvidius Priscus brought Arulenus Rusticus and +Herennius Senecio to their deaths.[434] But Domitian's tyranny had +little effect on _belles-lettres_, however adverse it may have been to +free-spoken philosophy, rhetoric, or history. Valerius Flaccus, Silius, +Statius, and Martial, all wrote during his reign, and the works of the +last-named poet and Quintilian give ample evidence of widespread +literary activity. The minor poet replenished the earth, and the prizes +for literature awarded at the Agon Capitolinus and the festival of the +Alban Mount must have been a real stimulus to writing, even though the +type of literature produced by such a stimulus may have been scarcely +worth producing. The worst feature of the poetry of the time is the +almost incredibly fulsome flattery to which the tyranny of Domitian gave +rise. As a compensation we have in the two succeeding reigns the biting +satire of Juvenal and Tacitus, rendered all the keener by its long +suppression under the last of the Flavian dynasty. + +But, however impossible it may have been to write really effective +satire during the Flavian dynasty, of poets there was no lack. It was, +moreover, under the Flavians that there sprang up that reaction towards +a saner style to which we have already referred as finding its +expression in the Ciceronianism of Quintilian, and to a lesser degree in +the Vergilianism of Valerius, Statius, and Silius. Of lesser luminaries +there were enough and to spare. Serranus and Saleius Bassus are both +warmly commended by Quintilian for their achievements in Epic. The +former died young, before his powers had ripened to maturity, but showed +great soundness of style and high promise.[435] Of Saleius +Quintilian[436] says, 'He had a vigorous and poetic genius, but it was +not mellowed by age.' That is to say, he died young, like Serranus. In +the _Dialogus_ of Tacitus he is spoken of as the best of men and the +most finished of poets. He won Vespasian's favour and received a gift +from him of five hundred thousand sesterces. His poems brought him no +material profit; both Tacitus and Juvenal emphasize this point: + + contentus fama iaceat Lucanus in hortis + marmoreis; at Serrano tenuique Saleio + gloria quantalibet quid erit, si gloria tantum est.[437] + +Statius' father, a distinguished teacher of rhetoric at Naples, had +written a poem on the burning of the Capitol in 69 A.D., and was only +prevented by death[438] from singing the great eruption of Vesuvius. +Arruntius Stella of Patavium,[439] the friend of Statius and Martial, +wrote elegies to his wife Violentilla. Turnus,[440] like Juvenal the son +of a freedman, attained considerable success as a satirist, while the +two distinguished soldiers, Verginius Rufus[441] and Vestricius +Spurinna,[442] wrote light erotic verse and lyrics respectively. In +addition to these there are a whole host of minor poets mentioned by +Statius and Martial. In fact the writing of verse was the most +fashionable occupation for the leisure time of a cultivated gentleman. + +With Nerva and Trajan the happiest epoch of the principate set in. Nerva +(96-98 A.D.) sprung from a line of distinguished jurists, was celebrated +by Martial as the Tibullus of his time,[443] and is praised by the +younger Pliny for the excellence of his light verses.[444] Trajan, his +successor (98-117 A.D.), though a man of war, rather than a man of +letters, wrote a history of the Dacian wars,[445] and possessed--as his +letters to Pliny testify--a remarkable power of expressing himself +tersely and clearly. He was, like Vespasian, a generous patron to +rhetoric and education,[446] and the founder of the important library +known as the _Bibliotheca Ulpia_.[447] But the great service which he +and his predecessor rendered to literature was, as Pliny and Tacitus +bear eloquent witness, the gift of freedom. This did more for prose than +for poetry, save for one important fact--it was the means of enriching +the world with the satires of Juvenal. If the quantity of the literature +surviving from the principates of Nerva and Trajan is small, its quality +is unmistakable. Pliny the younger, Tacitus, and Juvenal form a trio +whose equal is to be found at no other period of the post-Augustan +principate, while the letters of Pliny give proof of the existence of a +highly cultivated society devoted to literature of all kinds. Poets were +numerous even if they were not good. Few names, however, survive, and +those have but the slightest interest for us. It will suffice to mention +three of them: Passennus Paulus, Sentius Augurinus, and the younger +Pliny. With the dramatic poets, Pomponius Bassulus and Vergilius +Romanus, we have already dealt.[448] Pliny shall speak for himself and +his friends. + +'Passennus Paulus,' he writes,[449] 'a distinguished Roman knight of +great learning, is a writer of elegies. This runs in the family; for he +is a fellow townsman of Propertius and indeed counts him among his +ancestors.' In a later letter[450] he speaks with solicitude of his +failing health, and goes on to describe the characteristics of his work. +'In his verse he imitates the ancients, paraphrases them, and reproduces +them, above all Propertius, from whom he traces his descent. He is a +worthy scion of the house, and closely resembles his great ancestor in +that sphere in which he of old excelled. If you read his elegies you +will find them highly polished, possessed of great sensuous charm, and +quite obviously written in the house of Propertius. He has lately +betaken himself to lyric verse, and imitates Horace with the same skill +with which he has imitated Propertius. Indeed, if kinship counts for +anything in the world of letters, you would deem him Horace's kinsman as +well.' Pliny concludes with a warm tribute to Passennus' character. The +picture is a pleasant one, but it is startling and significant to find +Pliny awarding such praise to one who was frankly imitative, if he was +not actually a plagiarist.[451] + +Pliny is not less complimentary to Sentius Augurinus. 'I have been +listening,' he writes,[452] 'to a recitation given by Sentius Augurinus. +It gave me the greatest pleasure, and filled me with the utmost +admiration for his talent. He calls his verses "trifles" (_poematia_). +Much is written with great delicacy, much with great elevation of style; +many of the poems show great charm, many great tenderness; not a few are +honey-sweet, not a few bitter and mordant. It is some time since +anything so perfect has been produced.' The next clause, however, +betrays the reason, in part at any rate, for Pliny's admiration. In the +course of his recitation he had produced a small hendecasyllabic poem in +praise of Pliny's own verses. Pliny proceeds to quote it with every +expression of gratification and approval. It is certainly neatly turned +and well expressed, but it is such as any cultivated gentleman who had +read his Catullus and Martial might produce, and can hardly have been of +interest to any one save Augurinus and Pliny. Pliny was, in fact, with +all his admirable gifts, one of the principal and most amiable members +of a highly cultivated mutual admiration society. He was a poet himself, +though only a few lines of the poems praised by Augurinus have survived +to undergo the judgement of a more critical age. Pliny has, however, +given an interesting little sketch of his poetical career in the fourth +letter of the seventh book. 'I have always had a taste for poetry,' he +tells his friend Pontius; 'nay, I was only fourteen when I composed a +tragedy in Greek. What was it like? you ask. I know not; it was called a +tragedy. Later, when returning from my military service, I was +weather-bound in the island of Icaria, and wrote elegiac poems in Latin +about that island and the sea, which bears the same name. I have +occasionally attempted heroic hexameters, but it is only quite recently +that I have taken to writing hendecasyllables. You shall hear of their +origin and of the occasion which gave them birth. Some writings of +Asinius Gallus were being read aloud to me in my Laurentine villa; in +these works he was comparing his father with Cicero; we came upon an +epigram of Cicero dedicated to his freedman Tiro. Shortly after, about +noon--for it was summer--I retired to take my siesta, and finding that I +could not sleep, I began to reflect how the very greatest orators have +taken delight in composing this style of verse, and have hoped to win +fame thereby. I set my mind to it, and, quite contrary to my +expectations after so long desuetude, produced in an extremely short +space of time the following verses on that very subject which had +provoked me to write.' + +Thirteen hexameter verses follow of a mildly erotic character. They are +not peculiarly edifying, and are certainly very far from being poetry. +He continues: + +'I then turned my attention to expressing the same thoughts in elegiac +verse; I rattled these off at equal speed, and wrote some additional +lines, being beguiled into doing so by the fluency with which I wrote +the metre. On my return to Rome I read the verses to my friends. They +approved. Then in my leisure moments, especially when travelling, I +attempted other metres. Finally, I resolved to follow the example of +many other writers and compose a whole separate volume in the +hendecasyllabic metre; nor do I regret having done so. For the book is +read, copied, and even sung; even Greeks chant my verses to the sound of +the _cithara_ or the lyre; their passion for the book has taught them to +use the Latin tongue.' It was this volume of hendecasyllables about +which Pliny displays such naïve enthusiasm that led Augurinus to compare +Pliny to Calvus and Catullus. Pliny's success had come to him +comparatively late in life; but it emboldened him to the composition of +another volume of poems[453] in various metres, which he read to his +friends. He cites one specimen in elegiacs[454] which awakens no desire +for more, for it is fully as prosy as the hexameters to which we have +already referred. Of the hendecasyllables nothing survives, but Pliny +tells us something as to their themes and the manner of their +composition.[455] 'I amuse myself by writing them in my leisure moments +at the bath or in my carriage. I jest in them and make merry, I play the +lover, I weep, I make lamentation, I vent my anger, or describe +something or other now in a pedestrian, now in a loftier vein.' As this +little catalogue would suggest, these poems were not always too +respectable. The good Pliny, like Martial, thinks it necessary to +apologize[456] for his freedom in conforming to the fashionable licence +of his age by protesting that his muse may be wanton, but his life is +chaste. We can readily believe him, for he was a man of kindly heart and +high ideals, whose simple vanity cannot obscure his amiability. But it +is difficult to believe that the loss of his poetry is in any way a +serious loss to the world.[457] We have given Pliny the poet more space +than is his due; our excuse must be the interest of his engaging +self-revelations. + +In spite of Pliny's enthusiasm for his poet friends, there is no reason +to suppose that the reign of Trajan saw the production of any poetry, +save that of Juvenal, which even approached the first rank. With the +accession of Hadrian we enter on a fresh era, characterized by the rise +of a new prose style and the almost entire disappearance of poetry. Rome +had produced her last great poet. The _Pervigilium Veneris_ and a few +slight but beautiful fragments of Tiberianus are all that illumine the +darkness till we come upon the interesting but uninspired elegiacs of +Rutilius Namatianus, the curiously uneven and slipshod poetry of +Ausonius, and the graceful, but cold and lifeless perfection of the +heroic hexameters of Claudian. + + +II + +SULPICIA + +Poetesses were not rare at Rome during the first century of our era; the +_scribendi cacoethes_ extended to the fair sex sufficiently, at any +rate, to evoke caustic comment both from Martial[458] and Juvenal.[459] +By a curious coincidence, the only poetesses of whose work we have any +record are both named Sulpicia. The elder Sulpicia belongs to an earlier +age; she formed one of the Augustan literary circle of which her uncle +Messala was the patron, and left a small collection of elegiac poems +addressed to her lover, and preserved in the same volume as the +posthumous poems of Tibullus, to whose authorship they were for long +attributed.[460] + +The younger Sulpicia was a contemporary of the poet Martial, and, like +her predecessor, wrote erotic verse. Frank and outspoken as was the +earlier poetess, in this respect at least her namesake far surpassed +her. For the younger Sulpicia's plain-speaking, if we may judge from +the comments of ancient writers[461] and the one brief fragment of her +love-poems that has survived,[462] was of a very different character +and must at least have bordered on the obscene. But her work attracted +attention; her fame is associated with her love for Calenus, a love +that was long[463] and passionate. She continued to be read even in the +days of Ausonius and Sidonius Apollinaris. Martial compares her with +Sappho, and her songs of love seem to have rung true, even though their +frankness may have been of a kind generally associated with passions of +a looser character.[464] If, as a literal interpretation of +Martial[465] would lead us to infer, Calenus was her husband, the poems +of Sulpicia confront us with a spectacle unique in ancient +literature--a wife writing love-poems to her husband. Her language came +from the heart, not from book-learning; she was a poetess such as +Martial delighted to honour. + + omnes Sulpiciam legant puellae, + uni quae cupiunt viro placere; + omnes Sulpiciam legant mariti, + uni qui cupiunt placere nuptae. + non haec Colchidos adserit furorem, + diri prandia nec refert Thyestae; + Scyllam, Byblida nec fuisse credit: + sed castos docet et probos amores, + lusus delicias facetiasque. + cuius carmina qui bene aestimarit, + nullam dixerit esse nequiorem, + nullam dixerit esse sanctiorem[466]. + + Read your Sulpicia, maidens all, + Whose husband shall your sole love be; + Read your Sulpicia, husbands all, + Whose wife shall reign, and none but she. + No theme for her Medea's fire, + Nor orgy of Thyestes dire; + Scylla and Byblis she'd deny, + Of love she sang and purity, + Of dalliance and frolic gay; + Who should have well appraised her lay + Had said none were more chaste than she, + Yet fuller none of amorous glee. + A. E. STREET. + +Although the thought of what _procacitas_[467] may have meant in a lady +of Domitian's reign raises something of a shudder, and although it is to +be feared that Martial, when he goes on to say (loc. cit.) + + tales Egeriae iocos fuisse + udo crediderim Numae sub antro, + + Such sport I ween Egeria gave + To Numa in his spring-drenched cave. + A. E. STREET. + +had that in his mind which would have scandalized the pious lawgiver of +Rome, we may yet regret the loss of poems which, if Martial's language +is not merely the language of flattery, may have breathed a fresher and +freer spirit than is often to be found in the poets of the age. Catullus +and Sappho would seem to have been Sulpicia's models, but her poems have +left so little trace behind them that it is impossible to speak with +certainty. As to their metre we are equally ill-informed. The fragment +of two lines quoted above is in iambic _senarii_. If we may believe the +evidence[468] of a satirical hexameter poem attributed to Sulpicia, she +also wrote in hendecasyllables and scazons. The genuineness of this poem +is, however, open to serious doubt. It consists of seventy hexameters +denouncing the expulsion of the philosophers by Domitian, and is known +by the title of _Sulpiciae satira_.[469] That it purports to be by the +poetess beloved of Calenus is clear from an allusion to their +passion.[470] Serious doubts have, however, been cast upon its +genuineness. It is urged that the work is ill-composed, insipid, and +tasteless, and that it contains not a few marked peculiarities in +diction and metre, together with more than one historical inaccuracy. +The inference suggested is that the poem is not by Sulpicia, but at +least two centuries later in date. It may readily be admitted that the +poem is almost entirely devoid of any real merit, that its diction is +obscure and slovenly, its metre lame and unimpressive. But the critics +of the poem are guilty of great exaggeration.[471] Many of its worst +defects are undoubtedly due to the exceedingly corrupt state of the +text; further, it is hard to see what interest a satire directed against +Domitian would possess centuries after his death, nor is it easy to +imagine what motive could have led the supposed forger to attribute his +work to Sulpicia. The balance of probability inclines, though very +slightly, in favour of the view that the work is genuine. This is +unfortunate; for the perusal of this curious satire on the hypothesis of +its genuineness appreciably lessens our regret for the loss of +Sulpicia's love poetry and arouses serious suspicion as to the veracity +of Martial. It must, however, in justice be remembered that it does not +follow that Sulpicia was necessarily a failure as a lyric writer because +she had not the peculiar gift necessary for satire. The absence of the +training of the rhetorical schools from a woman's education might well +account for such a failure. At the worst, Sulpicia stands as an +interesting example of the type of womanhood at which Juvenal levelled +some of his wildest and most ill-balanced invective. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +VALERIUS FLACCUS + +The political tendency towards retrenchment and reform that marks the +reign of Vespasian finds its literary parallel in a reaction against the +rhetoric of display that culminated in Seneca and Lucan. This movement +is most strongly marked in the prose of Quintilian and the _Dialogus_ of +Tacitus, but finds a faint echo in the world of poets as well. The three +epic poets of the period--Valerius Flaccus, Statius, and Silius +Italicus--though they, too, have suffered much from their rhetorical +training, are all clear followers of Vergil. They, like their +predecessors, find it hard to say things naturally, but they do not to +the same extent go out of their way with the deliberate intention of +saying things unnaturally.[472] We may condemn them as phrase-makers, +though many a modern poet of greater reputation is equally open to the +charge. But their phrase-making has not the flamboyant quality of the +Neronian age. If it is no less wearisome, it is certainly less +offensive. They do not lack invention; their mere technical skill is +remarkable; they fail because they lack the supreme gifts of insight and +imagination. + +Valerius Flaccus chose a wiser course than Lucan and Silius Italicus. He +turned not to history, but to legend, for his theme; and the story of +the Argonauts, on which his choice lighted, possessed one inestimable +advantage. Well-worn and hackneyed as it was, it possessed the secret of +eternal youth. 'Age could not wither it nor custom stale its infinite +variety.' The poorest of imitative poetasters could never have made it +wholly dull, and Valerius Flaccus was more than a mere poetaster. + +Of his life and position little is known. His name is given by the MSS. +as Gaius Valerius Flaccus Setinus Balbus.[473] The name Setinus suggests +that he may have been a native of Setia. As there were three Setias, one +in Italy and two in Spain, this clue gives us small help. It has been +suggested[474] that the peculiarities of his diction are due to his +being of Spanish origin. But we have no evidence as to the nature of +Spanish Latin, while the authors of known Spanish birth, who found fame +in the Silver Age--Seneca, Lucan, Martial, Quintilian, Columella--show +no traces of their provenance. No more helpful is the view that he is +one Flaccus of Patavium, the poet-friend to whom two of Martial's +epigrams are addressed.[475] For Martial's acquaintance was poor and is +exhorted to abandon poetry as unlucrative, whereas Valerius Flaccus had +some social standing and, not improbably, some wealth. From the opening +of the _Argonautica_ we learn that he held the post of _quindecimvir +sacris faciundis_.[476] But there our knowledge of the poet ends, save +for one solitary allusion in Quintilian, the sole reference to Valerius +in any ancient writer. In his survey of Latin literature[477] he says +_multum in Valerio Flacco nuper amisimus_. The work of Quintilian having +been published between the years 93 and 95 A.D., the death of Valerius +Flaccus may be placed about 90 A.D. + +The poem seems to have been commenced shortly after the capture of +Jerusalem in 70 A.D. At the opening of the first book[478] Valerius +addresses Vespasian in the conventional language of courtly flattery +with appropriate reference to his voyages in northern seas during his +service in Britain, a reference doubly suitable in a poem which is +largely nautical and geographical. He excuses himself from taking the +obvious subject of the Jewish war on the ground that that theme is +reserved for the inspired pen of Domitian. It is for him to describe +Titus, his brother, dark with the dust of war, launching the fires of +doom and dealing destruction from tower to tower along the ramparts of +Jerusalem.[479] The progress of the work was slow. By the time the third +book is reached we find references to the eruption of Vesuvius that +buried Pompeii and Herculaneum in 79 A.D.,[480] while in the two +concluding books there seem to be allusions to Roman campaigns in the +Danube lands, perhaps those undertaken by Domitian in 89 A.D.[481] At +line 468 of the eighth book the poem breaks off suddenly. It is possible +that this is due to the ravages of time or to the circumstances of the +copyist of our archetype, but consideration of internal evidence points +strongly to the conclusion that Valerius died with his work uncompleted. + +Not only do the words of Quintilian (l.c.) suggest a poet who left a +great work unfinished, but the poem itself is full of harshnesses and +inconsistencies of a kind which so slow and careful a craftsman would +assuredly have removed had the poem been completed and received its +final revision.[482] These blemishes leave us little room for doubt. The +poem that has come down to us is a fragment lacking the _limae labor_. +Like the _Thebais_ of Statius and the _Aeneid_ itself, the work was +probably planned to fill twelve books. The poem breaks off with the +marriage of Medea and Jason on the Isle of Peuce at the mouth of the +Danube, where they are overtaken by Medea's brother Absyrtus, who has +come in anger to reclaim his sister and take vengeance on the stranger +who has beguiled her. It is clear that the Argonauts[483] were, as in +Apollonius Rhodius, to escape up the Danube and reach another sea. In +Apollonius they descended from the head waters of the Danube by some +mythical river to the Adriatic; it is in the Adriatic that Absyrtus is +encountered and slain; it is in Phaeacia that Jason and Medea are +married. In Valerius both these incidents take place in the Isle of +Peuce, at the Danube's mouth. The inference is that Valerius +contemplated a different scheme for his conclusion. It has been pointed +out[484] that a mere 'reproduction of Apollonius' episodes could not +have occupied four books'; and it is suggested that Valerius definitely +brought his heroes into relation to the various Italian places[485] +connected with the Argonautic legend, while he may even, as a compliment +to Vespasian,[486] have brought them back 'by way of the North Sea past +Britain and Gaul'. This ingenious conjectural reconstruction has some +probability, slight as is the evidence on which it rests. Valerius was +almost bound to give his epic a Roman tinge. More convincing, however, +is the suggestion of the same critic[487] that the poem was designed to +exceed the scope of the epic of Apollonius and to have included the +death of Pelias, the malignant and usurping uncle, who, to get rid of +Jason, compels him to the search of the golden fleece. To the +retribution that came upon him there are two clear references[488] and +only the design to describe it could justify the introduction of the +suicide of Jason's parents at the outset of the first book, a suicide to +which they are driven to avoid death at the hands of Pelias. + +The scope of the unwritten books is, however, of little importance in +comparison with the execution of the existing portion of the poem. The +Argonaut Saga has its weaknesses as a theme for epic. It is too +episodic, it lacks unity and proportion. Save for the struggle in +Colchis and the loves of Jason and Medea, there is little deep human +interest. These defects, however, find their compensation in the +variety and brilliance of colour, and, in a word, the romance that is +inseparable from the story. The scene is ever changing, each day brings +a new marvel, a new terror. Picturesqueness atones for lack of epic +grandeur. For that reason the theme was well suited to the Silver Age, +when picturesqueness and rich invention of detail predominated at the +expense of poetic dignity and kindling imagination. In many ways +Valerius does justice to his subject, in spite of the initial +difficulty with which he was confronted. Apollonius Rhodius had made +the story his own; Varro of Atax had translated Apollonius: both in its +Greek and Latin forms the story was familiar to Roman readers. It was +hard to be original. + +Much as Valerius owes to his greater predecessor, he yet succeeds in +showing no little originality in his portrayal of character and +incident, and in a few cases in his treatment of plot.[489] In one +particular indeed he has markedly improved on his model; he has made +Jason, the hero of his epic, a real hero; conventional he may be, but he +still is a leader of men. In Apollonius, on the other hand, he plays a +curiously inconspicuous part; he is, in fact, the weakest feature of the +poem; he is in despair from the outset, and at no point shows genuine +heroic qualities; he is at best a peerless wooer and no more. Here, +however, he is exalted by the two great battles of Cyzicus and Colchis; +it is in part his prowess in the latter battle that wins Medea's heart. +In this connexion we may also notice a marked divergence from Apollonius +as regards the plot. Aeetes has promised Jason the fleece if he will aid +him against his brother Perses, who is in revolt against him with a host +of Scythians at his back. Jason aids him, does prodigies of valour, and +wins a glorious victory. Aeetes refuses the reward. This act of +treachery justifies Jason in having recourse to Medea's magic arts and +in employing her to avenge him on her father. In Apollonius we find a +very different story. The sons of Phrixus, who, to escape the wrath of +Aeetes, have thrown in their lot with the Argonauts, urge Jason to +approach Medea; they themselves work upon the feelings of their mother, +Chalciope, till she seeks her sister Medea--already in love with Jason +and only too ready to be persuaded--and induces her to save her nephews, +whose fate is bound up with that of the strangers. This incident is +wholly absent from Valerius Flaccus, with the result that the loves of +Jason and Medea assume a somewhat different character. Jason's conduct +becomes more natural and dignified. Medea, on the other hand, is shown +in a less favourable light. In the Greek poet she has for excuse the +desire to save her sister from the loss of her sons, which gives her +half a right to love Jason. In the Latin epic she is without excuse, +unless, indeed, the hackneyed supernatural machinery,[490] put in motion +to win her for Jason, can be called an excuse. This crude employment of +the supernatural leaves Valerius small room for the subtle psychological +analysis wherein the Greek excels, and this, coupled with the love of +the Silver Age for art magic, tends to make Medea--as in Seneca--a +sorceress first, a woman after. In Apollonius she is barbaric, +unsophisticated, a child of nature; in Valerius she is a figure of the +stage, not without beauty and pathos, but essentially melodramatic. + +But Apollonius had concentrated all his powers upon Medea, and dwarfs +all his other characters, Jason not excepted. It is Medea alone that +holds our interests. The little company of heroes embarked on unsailed +seas and beset with strange peril are scarcely more than a string of +names, that drop in and out, as though the work were a ship's log rather +than an epic. In Valerius, though he attempts no detailed portraiture, +they are men who can at least fight and die. He has, in a word, a better +general conception as to how the story should be told; he is less +perfunctory, and strives to fill in his canvas more evenly, whereas +Apollonius, although by no means concise, leaves much of his canvas +covered by sketches of the slightest and most insignificant character. +In the Greek poem, though half the work is consumed in describing the +voyage to Colchis, the first two books contain scarcely anything of real +poetic interest, if we except the story of Phineus and the Harpies, a +few splendid similes, and two or three descriptive passages, as brief as +they are brilliant. In Valerius, on the contrary, there is abundance of +stirring scenes and rich descriptive passages before the Argonauts reach +their goal. His superiority is particularly noticeable at the outset of +the poem. Apollonius plunges _in medias res_ and fails to give an +adequate account of the preliminaries of the expedition. He has no +better method of introducing us to his heroes than by giving us a dreary +catalogue of their names. Valerius, too, has his catalogue, but later; +we are not choked with indigestible and unpalatable fare at the very +opening of the feast. And though both authors take five hundred lines to +get their heroes under way, Valerius tells us far more and in far better +language; Apollonius does not find his stride till the second book, and +forgets that it is necessary to interest the reader in his characters +from the very beginning. + +But though in these respects Valerius has improved on his predecessor, +and though his work lacks the arid wastes of his model, he is yet an +author of an inferior class, and comes ill out of the comparison. For he +has little of the rich, almost oriental, colouring of Apollonius at his +best, lacks his fire and passion, and fails to cast the same glamour of +romance about his subject. While the Dido and Aeneas of Vergil are in +some respects but a pale reflection of the Medea and Jason of +Apollonius, the loves of Jason and Medea in Valerius are fainter still. +His heroine is not the tragic figure that stands out in lines of fire +from the pages of Apollonius. His lovers' speeches have a certain beauty +and tenderness of their own, but they lack the haunting melody and the +resistless passion that make the Rhodian's lines immortal. And while to +a great extent he lacks the peculiar merits of the Greek,[491] he +possesses his most serious blemish, the blemish that is so salient a +characteristic of both Alexandrian and Silver Latin literature, the +passion for obscure learning. A good example is the huge, though most +ingenious, catalogue of the tribes of Scythia at the opening of the +sixth book, with its detailed inventory of strange names and customs, +and its minute descriptions of barbaric armour. His love of learning +lands him, moreover, in strange anachronisms. We are told that the +Colchians are descended from Sesostris;[492] the town of Arsinoe is +spoken of as already in existence; Egypt is already connected with the +house of Lagus.[493] + +In addition, Valerius possesses many of the faults from which Apollonius +is free, but with which the post-Augustan age abounds. The dangerous +influence of Seneca has, it is true, decayed; we are no longer flooded +with epigram or declamatory rhetoric. Rhetoric there is, and rhetoric +that is not always effective;[494] but it is rather a perversion of the +rhetoric of Vergil than the descendant of the brilliant rant of Lucan +and Seneca. From the gross lack of taste and humour that characterizes +so many of his contemporaries he is comparatively free, though his +description of the historic 'crab' caught by Hercules reaches the utmost +limit of absurdity: + + laetus et ipse + Alcides: Quisnam hos vocat in certamina fluctus? + dixit, et, intortis adsurgens arduus undis, + percussit subito deceptum fragmine pectus, + atque in terga ruens Talaum fortemque Eribotem + et longe tantae securum Amphiona molis + obruit, inque tuo posuit caput, Iphite, transtro. (iii. 474-80.) + + Alcides gladdened in his heart and cried: 'Who challenges these + waves to combat?' and as he rose against those buffeting waves, + sudden with broken oar he smote his baffled breast, and, falling + headlong back, o'erthrows Talaus and brave Eribotes and far-off + Amphion, that never feared so vast a bulk should fall on him, and + laid his head against thy thwart, O Iphitus. + +This unheroic episode is a relic of the comic traditions associated +with Hercules, traditions which obtrude themselves from time to time in +serious and even tragic surroundings.[495] Apollonius describes the +same incident[496] with the quiet humour that so strangely tinges the +works of the pedants of Alexandria. Valerius, on the other hand, has +lost touch with the broad comedy of these traditions, and his attempt +to be humorous only succeeds in making him ridiculous.[497] + +His worst fault, however, lies in his obscurity and preciosity of +diction. The error lies not so much in veiling simple facts under an +epigram, as in a vain attempt to imitate the 'golden phrases' of Vergil. +The strange conglomeration of words with which Valerius so often vexes +his readers resembles the 'chosen coin of fancy' only as the formless +designs of the coinage of Cunobelin resemble the exquisite staters of +Macedon from which they trace their descent. It requires more than a +casual glance to tell that (i. 411) + + it quem fama genus non est decepta Lyaei + Phlias inmissus patrios de vertice crines + +means that Phlias was 'truly reported the son of Bacchus with streaming +locks like to his sire's'; or that (vi. 553) + + Argus utrumque ab equis ingenti porrigit arvo + +signifies no more than that the victims of Argus covered a large space +of ground when they fell.[498] How miserable is such a phrase compared +with the [Greek: keito megas megal_osti] of Homer! And though there is +less serious obscurity, nothing can be more awkward than the not +infrequent inversion of the natural order of words that we find in +phrases such as _nec pereat quo scire malo_ (vii. 7).[499] + +Of mere preciosity and phrase-making without any special obscurity +examples abound.[500] Pelion sinks below the horizon (ii. 6)-- + + iamque fretis summas aequatum Pelion ornos. + +A fight at close quarters receives the following curious description +(ii. 524)-- + + iam brevis et telo volucri non utilis aer. + +A spear flying through the air and missing its mark is a _volnus raptum +per auras_ (iii. 196). More startling than these is the picture of a +charge of trousered barbarians (vi. 702)-- + + improba barbaricae procurrunt tegmina plantae. + +One more peculiarity remains to be noticed. Here and there in the +_Argonautica_ we meet with a strange brevity and compression resulting +not from the desire to produce phrases of curious and original texture, +but rather from a praiseworthy though misdirected endeavour to be +concise. The most remarkable example is found in the first book, where +Mopsus, the official prophet of the expedition, falls into a trance and +beholds a vision of the future (211): + + heu quaenam aspicio! nostris modo concitus ausis + aequoreos vocat ecce deos Neptunus et ingens + concilium. fremere et legem defendere cuncti + hortantur. sic amplexu, sic pectora fratris, + Iuno, tene; tuque o puppem ne desere, Pallas: + nunc patrui nunc flecte minas. cessere ratemque + accepere mari. per quot discrimina rerum + expedior! subita cur pulcher harundine crines + velat Hylas? unde urna umeris niueosque per artus + caeruleae vestes? unde haec tibi volnera, Pollux? + quantus io tumidis taurorum e naribus ignis! + tollunt se galeae sulcisque ex omnibus hastae + et iam iamque umeri. quem circum vellera Martem + aspicio? quaenam aligeris secat anguibus auras + caede madens? quos ense ferit? miser eripe parvos, + Aesonide. cerno et thalamos ardere iugales. + + Alas! what do I see! Even now, stirred by our daring, lo! + Neptune calls the gods to a vast conclave. They murmur, and + one and all urge him to defend his rights. Hold as thou + holdest now, Juno, hold thy brother in thine embrace: and + thou, Pallas, forsake not our ship: now, even now, appease + thy brother's threats. They have yielded: they give Argo + entrance to the sea. Through what perils am I whirled along! + Why does fair Hylas veil his locks with a sudden crown of + reeds? Whence comes the pitcher on his shoulder and the azure + raiment on his limbs of snow? Whence, Pollux, come these + wounds of thine? Ah! what a flame streams from the widespread + nostrils of the bulls. Helmets and spears rise from every + furrow, and now see! shoulders too! What warfare for the fleece + do I see? Who is it cleaves the air with winged snakes, reeking + with slaughter? Whom smites she with the sword? Ah! son of + Aeson, hapless man, save thy little ones. I see, too, the + bridal chamber all aflame. + +These lines form a kind of abridgement or _précis_ of the whole +_Argonautica_, or even more, for we can hardly believe that the scheme +of it included the murder of Medea's children and her vengeance on the +house of Creon[501]. They are also far too obscure to be interesting to +any save a highly-trained literary audience, while their extreme +compression could only be justified by their having been primarily +designed for recitation in a dramatic and realistic manner with +suitable pauses between the different visions.[502] A yet worse and +less excusable example of this peculiar brevity is the jerky and +prosaic enumeration of Medea's achievements in the black art +(vi. 442)-- + + mutat agros fluviumque vias; suus alligat ingens + cuncta sopor, recoquit fessos aetate parentes, + datque alias sine lege colus. + + She changes crops of fields and course of rivers. [At her + bidding] deep clinging slumber binds all things; fathers + outworn with age she seethes to youth again, and to others + she gives new span of life against fate's ordinance. + +The attempt to be concise and full[503] at one and the same time fails, +and fails inevitably. + +But for all these faults Valerius Flaccus offends less than any of the +Silver Latin writers of epic. He rants less and he exaggerates less; +above all, he has much genuine poetic merit. He has been strangely +neglected, both in ancient[504] and modern times, and unduly depreciated +in the latter. There has been a tendency to rank him with Silius +Italicus, whereas it would be truer criticism to place him close to +Statius, and not far below Lucan. He is more uneven than the former, has +a far less certain touch, and infinitely less command of his instrument. +He has less mastery of words, but a more kindling and penetrating +imagination. His outlines are less clear, but more suggestive. He has +less rhetoric; beneath an often obscure diction he reveals a greater +simplicity and directness of thought, and he has been infinitely more +happy in his theme. Only the greatest of poets could achieve a genuine +success with the Theban legend, only the worst of poets could reduce the +voyage of the Argonauts to real dullness. On the other hand, in an age +of _belles-lettres_ such as the Silver Age, and by the majority of +scholars, whose very calling leads them to set a perhaps abnormally high +value on technical skill, Statius is almost certain to be preferred to +Valerius. About the relative position of Lucan there is no doubt. He is +incomparably the superior of Valerius, both in genius and intellect. But +Valerius never sins against taste and reason to the same extent, and +though he has less fire, possesses a finer ear for music and rhythm, and +more poetic feeling as distinct from rhetoric. Vergil was his master; it +has been said with a little exaggeration that Valerius stands in the +same relation to Vergil as Persius to Horace. This statement conveys but +a half-truth. Valerius is as superior to Persius in technique as he is +inferior in moral force and intellectual power. He is, however, full of +echoes from Vergil,[505] and if his verse has neither the 'ocean roll' +of the greater poets, nor the same tenderness, he yet has something of +the true Vergilian glamour. But he has weakened his hexameter by +succumbing to the powerful influence of Ovid. His verse is polished and +neat to the verge of weakness. Like Ovid, he shows a preference for the +dactyl over the spondee, shrinks from elision, and does not understand +how to vary his pauses.[506] Too many lines close with a full-stop or +colon, and where the line is broken, the same pause often recurs again +and again with wearisome monotony. In this respect Valerius, though +never monotonously ponderous like Lucan, compares ill with Statius. As a +compensation, his individual lines have a force and beauty that is +comparatively rare in the _Thebais_. The poet who could describe a +sea-cave thus (iv. 179)-- + + non quae dona die, non quae trahat aetheris ignem; + infelix domus et sonitu tremibunda profundi, + + That receiveth never daylight's gifts nor the light of the + heavenly fires, the home of gloom all a-tremble with the + sound of the deep. + +is not to be despised as a master of metre. And whether for +picturesqueness of expression or for beauty of sound, lines such as +(iii. 596) + + rursus Hylan et rursus Hylan per longa reclamat + avia; responsant silvae et vaga certat imago, + + 'Hylas', and again 'Hylas', he calls through the long wilderness; + the woods reply, and wandering echo mocks his voice. + +or (i. 291) + + quis tibi, Phrixe, dolor, rapido cum concitus aestu + respiceres miserae clamantia virginis ora + extremasque manus sparsosque per aequora crines! + + Phrixus, what grief was thine when, swept along by the swirling + tide, thou lookedst back on the hapless maiden's face as she + cried for thine aid, her sinking hands, her hair streaming o'er + the deep. + +are not easily surpassed outside the pages of Vergil. But it is above +all on his descriptive power that his claim to consideration rests.[507] +For it is there that he finds play for his most remarkable gifts, his +power of suggestion of mystery, and his keen sense of colour. These +gifts find their most striking manifestation in his description of the +Argonauts' first night upon the waters. They + + were the first that ever burst + Into that silent sea. + +All is strange to them. Each sight and sound has its element of terror: + + auxerat hora metus, iam se vertentis Olympi + ut faciem raptosque simul montesque locosque + ex oculis circumque graves videre tenebras. + ipsa quies rerum mundique silentia terrent + astraque et effusis stellatus crinibus aether. + ac velut ignota captus regione viarum + noctivagum qui carpit iter non aure quiescit, + non oculis, noctisque metus niger auget utrimque + campus et occurrens umbris maioribus arbor, + haud aliter trepidare viri (ii. 38). + + The dark hour deepened their fears when they saw heaven's vault + wheel round, and the peaks and fields of earth snatched from + their view, and all about them the horror of darkness. The very + stillness of things and the deep silence of the world affright + them, the stars and heaven begemmed with streaming locks of gold. + And as one benighted in a strange place 'mid paths unknown pursues + his devious journey through the night and finds rest neither for + eye nor ear, but all about him the blackness of the plain, and + the trees that throng upon him seen greater through the gloom, + deepen his terror of the dark--even so the heroes trembled. + +There are few more vivid pictures in Latin poetry than that of the +benighted wanderer lost on some wide plain studded with clumps of trees +that seem to throng upon him in the gloom, seen greater through the +darkness. Not less imaginative, though less clear cut and precise, is +his picture of the underworld in the third book: + + est procul ad Stygiae devexa silentia noctis + Cimmerium domus et superis incognita tellus, + caeruleo tenebrosa situ, quo flammea numquam + Sol iuga sidereos nec mittit Iuppiter annos. + stant tacitae frondes inmotaque silva comanti + horret Averna iugo; specus umbrarumque meatus + subter et Oceani praeceps fragor arvaque nigro + vasta metu et subitae post longa silentia voces (iii. 398). + + Far hence by the deep sunken silence of the Stygian night lies + the Cimmerians' home, a land unknown to denizens of upper air, + all dark with gloomy squalor. Thither the sun hath never driven + his flaming car nor Jupiter sent forth his starry seasons. Silent + are the leaves of its groves, and all along its leafy hill + bristles unmoved Avernus' wood: thereunder are caverns, and the + shades go to and fro; there Ocean plunges roaring to its fall, + there are plains with dark fear desolate, and after long silences + sudden voices thunder out. + +It is a more theatrical underworld than that of Vergil, and the picture +is not clearly conceived, but its very vagueness is impressive. The poet +gives us, as it were, the scene for the enactment of some dim dream of +terror. He is equally at home in describing the happy calm of Elysium. +Though the picture lacks originality, it has no lack of beauty: + + hic geminae infernum portae, quarum altera dura + semper lege patens populos regesque receptat; + ast aliam temptare nefas et tendere contra; + rara et sponte patet, siquando pectore ductor + volnera nota gerens, galeis praefixa rotisque + cui domus aut studium mortales pellere curas, + culta fides, longe metus atque ignota cupido; + seu venit in vittis castaque in veste sacerdos. + quos omnes lenis plantis et lampada quassans + progenies Atlantis agit. lucet via late + igne dei, donec silvas et amoena piorum + deveniant camposque, ubi sol totumque per annum + durat aprica dies thiasique chorique virorum + carminaque et quorum populis iam nulla cupido (i. 833). + + Here lie the twin gates of Hell, whereof the one is ever open + by stern fate's decree, and through it march the peoples and + princes of the world. But the other may none essay nor beat + against its bars. Barely it opens and untouched by hand, if e'er + a chieftain comes with glorious wounds upon his breast, whose + halls were decked with helm and chariots, or who strove to cast + out the woes of mankind, who honoured truth and bade farewell to + fear and knew no base ambition. Then, too, it opens when some + priest comes wearing sacred wreath and spotless robe. All such + the child of Atlas leads along with gentle tread and waving torch. + Far shines the road with the fire of the god until they come to + the groves and plains, the pleasant mansions of the blest, where + the sun ceases not, nor the warm daylight all the year long, nor + dancing companies of heroes, nor song, nor all the innocent joys + that the peoples of the earth desire no more. + +Many lines might be quoted that startle us with their unforeseen +vividness or some unexpected blaze of colour; when the fleece of gold is +taken from the tree where it had long since shone like a beacon through +the dark, the tree sinks back into the melancholy night, + + tristesque super coiere tenebrae (viii. 120). + +At their bridal on the desolate Isle of Peuce under the shadow of +approaching peril, Jason and Medea gleam star-like amid the company of +heroes (viii. 257): + + ipsi inter medios rosea radiante iuventa + altius inque sui sternuntur velleris auro. + + Themselves in their comrades' midst, bright with the rosy + glow of youth, above them all, lie on the fleece of gold + that they had made their own. + +This characteristic is most evident in the similes over which Valerius, +like other poets of the age, would seem to have expended particular +labour. He scatters them over his pages with too prodigal a hand, and +they suffer at times from over-elaboration and ingenuity.[508] Desire +for originality has led him to such startling comparisons as that +between a warrior drawn from his horse and a bird snared by the limed +twig of the fowler,[509] surely as inappropriate a simile as was ever +framed. More distressing still is the maudlin pathos of the simile which +likens Medea to a dog on the verge of madness.[510] But such gross +aberrations are rare; against them may be set some of the freshest and +most beautiful similes in the whole range of Latin poetry. The silence +that follows on the wailing of the women of Cyzicus is like the silence +of Egypt when the birds that wintered there have flown to more temperate +lands. 'And now they had paid due honour to their ashes; with weary +feet, wives with their babes wandered away and the waves had rest, the +waves long torn by their wakeful lamentation, even as when the birds in +mid-spring have returned to the north that is their home, and Memphis +and their yearly haunt by sunny Nile are dumb once more'-- + + qualiter Arctos + ad patrias avibus medio iam vere revectis + Memphis et aprici statio silet annua Nili (iii. 358). + +The beauty of Medea among her Scythian maidens is likened to that of +Proserpine leading her comrades over Hymettus' hill or wandering with +Pallas and Diana in the Sicilian mountains-- + + altior ac nulla comitum certante, prius quam + palluit et viso pulsus decor omnis Averno (v. 346). + + Taller than all her comrades and fairer than them all or + ever she turned pale, and at the sight of Hell all beauty + was banished from her face. + +The relief of the Argonauts, when at last they reach haven after their +fearful passage of the Symplegades, is like that of Theseus and +Hercules, when they have forced a way through the gates of hell to the +light of day once more.[511] Most remarkable of all is the strange +accumulation of similes that describe the meeting of Jason and Medea. +Medea is going through the silent night chanting a song of magic, +whereat all nature trembles. At last, when she has come 'to the shadowy +place of the triune goddess', Jason shines forth before her in the +gloom, 'as when in deepest night panic bursts on herd and herdsman, or +shades meet blind and voiceless in the deep of Chaos; even so, in the +darkness of the night and of the grove, the two met astonied, like +silent pines or motionless cypress, ere yet the whirling breath of the +south wind has caught and mingled their boughs'[512]-- + + obvius ut sera cum se sub nocte magistris + inpingit pecorique pavor, qualesve profundum + per chaos occurrunt caecae sine vocibus umbrae; + haut secus in mediis noctis nemorisque tenebris + inciderant ambo attoniti iuxtaque subibant, + abietibus tacitis aut immotis cyparissis + adsimiles, rapidus nondum quas miscuit Auster (vii. 400). + +These similes suffer from sheer accumulation.[513] Taken individually +they are worthy of many a greater poet. + +In his speeches Valerius is less successful, though rarely positively +bad. But with few exceptions they lack force and interest. At times, +however, his rhetoric is effective, as in the speech of Mopsus (iii. +377), where he sets forth the punishment of blood-guiltiness, or in the +fierce invective in which the Scythian, Gesander, taunts a Greek warrior +with the inferiority of the Greek race (vi. 323 sqq.). This latter +speech is closely modelled on Vergil (_A._ ix. 595 sqq.), and although +it is somewhat out of place in the midst of a battle, is not wholly +unworthy of its greater model. But it is to the speeches of Jason and +Medea that we naturally turn to form the estimate of the poet's mastery +of the language of passion. These speeches serve to show us how far he +falls below Vergil (_A._ iv) and Apollonius (bk. iii). They offer a +noble field for his powers, and it cannot be said that he rises to the +full height of the occasion. On the other hand, he does not actually +fail. There is a note of deep and moving appeal in all that Medea says +as she gradually yields to the power of her passion, and the thought of +her father and her home fades slowly from her mind. + + quid, precor, in nostras venisti, Thessale, terras? + unde mei spes ulla tibi? tantosque petisti + cur non ipse tua fretus virtute labores? + nempe, ego si patriis timuissem excedere tectis, + occideras; nempe hanc animam sors saeva manebat + funeris. en ubi Iuno, ubi nunc Tritonia virgo, + sola tibi quoniam tantis in casibus adsum + externae regina domus? miraris et ipse, + credo, nec agnoscunt hae nunc Aeetida silvae. + sed fatis sum victa tuis; cape munera supplex + nunc mea; teque iterum Pelias si perdere quaeret, + inque alios casus alias si mittet ad urbes, + heu formae ne crede tuae. + +'"Why,"' she cries (vii. 438), '"why, I beseech thee, Thessalian, camest +thou ever to this land of ours? Whence hadst thou any hope of me? And +why didst thou seek these toils with faith in aught save thine own +valour? Surely hadst thou perished, had I feared to leave my father's +halls--aye, and so surely had I shared thy cruel doom. Where now is thy +helper Juno, where now thy Tritonian maid, since I, the queen of an +alien house, have come to help thee in thy need? Aye, even thyself thou +marvellest, methinks, nor any more does this grove know me for Aeetes' +daughter. Nay, 'twas thy cruel fate overcame me; take now, poor +suppliant, these my gifts, and, if e'er again Pelias seek to destroy +thee and send thee forth to other cities, ah! put not too fond trust in +thy beauty!"' Yet again, before she puts the saving charms into his +hands, she appeals to him (452): + + si tamen aut superis aliquam spem ponis in istis, aut tua praesenti + virtus educere leto si te forte potest, etiam nunc deprecor, hospes, + me sine, et insontem misero dimitte parenti. dixerat; extemploque + (etenim matura ruebant sidera, et extremum se flexerat axe Booten) + cum gemitu et multo iuveni medicamina fletu non secus ac patriam + pariter famamque decusque obicit. ille manu subit, et vim conripit + omnem. inde ubi facta nocens, et non revocabilis umquam cessit ab + ore pudor, ... ... ... ... ... ... ... pandentes Minyas iam vela + videbat se sine. tum vero extremo percussa dolore adripit Aesoniden + dextra ac submissa profatur: sis memor, oro, mei, contra memor ipsa + manebo, crede, tui. quando hinc aberis, die quaeso, profundi quod + caeli spectabo latus? sed te quoque tangat cura mei quocumque loco, + quoscumque per annos; atque hunc te meminisse velis, et nostra + fateri munera; servatum pudeat nec virginis arte. hei mihi, cur + nulli stringunt tua lumina fletus? an me mox merita morituram + patris ab ira dissimulas? te regna tuae felicia gentis, te coniunx + natique manent; ego prodita obibo. + +'"If thou hast any hope of safety from these goddesses, that are thine +helpers, or if perchance thine own valour can snatch thee from the jaws +of death, even now, I pray thee, stranger, let me be, and send me back +guiltless to my unhappy sire." She spake, and straightway--for now the +stars outworn sank to their setting, and Bootes in the furthest height +of heaven had turned him towards his rest--straightway she gave the +charms to the young hero with wailing and with lamentation, as though +therewith she cast away her country and her own fair fame and honour.' +And then, 'when her guilt was accomplished and the blush of shame had +passed from her face for evermore,' she saw as in a vision (474) 'the +Minyae spreading their sails for flight without her. Then in truth +bitter anguish laid hold of her spirit, and she grasped the right hand +of the son of Aeson and humbly spake: "Remember me, I pray, for I, +believe me shall forget thee never. When thou art hence, where on all +the vault of heaven shall I bear to gaze? Ah! do thou too, where'er thou +art, through all the years ne'er let the thought of me slip from thy +heart. Remember how thou stood'st to-day, tell of the gifts I gave, and +feel no shame that thou wast saved by a maiden's guile. Alas! why stream +no tears from thine eyes? Knowest thou not that the death I have +deserved waits me at my father's hand? For thee there waits a happy +realm among thine own folk, for thee wife and child; but I must perish +deserted and betrayed."'[514] + +All this lacks the force and passion of the corresponding scene in +Apollonius. This Medea could never have cried, 'I am no Greek princess, +gentle-souled,'[515] nor have prayed that a voice from far away or a +warning bird might reach him in Iolcus on the day when he forgot her, or +that the stormwind might bear her with reproaches in her eyes to stand +by his hearth-stone and chide him for his forgetfulness and ingratitude. +The Medea of Apollonius has been softened and sentimentalized by the +Roman poet. Valerius knows no device to clothe her with power, save by +the narration of her magic arts (vii. 463-71; viii. 68-91). Yet she has +a charm of her own; and it needed true poetic feeling to draw even the +Medea of Valerius Flaccus. + +In no age would Valerius have been a great poet, but under happier +circumstances he would have produced work that would have ranked high +among literary epics. As it is, there is no immeasurable distance +between the _Argonautica_ and works such as the _Gerusalemme liberata_, +or much of _The Idylls of the King_. He is a genuine poet whose genius +was warped by the spirit of the age, stunted by the inherent +difficulties besetting the Roman writer of epic, overweighted by his +admiration of his two great predecessors, Ovid and Vergil. He is +obscure, he is full of echoes, he staggers beneath a burden of useless +learning, he overcrowds his canvas and strives in vain to put the breath +of life into bones long dry; in addition, his epic suffers from the lack +of the reviser's hand. And yet, in spite of all, his characters are +sometimes more than lay-figures, and his scenes more than mere +stage-painting. He has the divine fire, and it does not always burn dim. +Others have greater cunning of hand, greater force of intellect, and +have won a higher place in the hierarchy of poets. He--though, like +them, he lacks the 'fine madness that truly should possess a poet's +brain'--yet gives us much that they cannot give, and sees much that they +cannot see. With Quintilian, though with altered meaning, we too may say +_multum in Valerio Flacco amisimus_. + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +STATIUS + +Our information as to the life of P. Papinius Statius is drawn almost +exclusively from his minor poems entitled the _Silvae_. He was born at +Naples, his father was a native of Velia, came of good family,[516] and +by profession was poet and schoolmaster. The father's school was at +Naples,[517] and, if we may trust his son, was thronged with pupils from +the whole of Southern Italy.[518] He had been victorious in many poetic +contests both in Naples and in Greece.[519] He had written a poem on the +burning of the Capitol in 69 A.D., had planned another on the eruption +of Vesuvius in 79 A.D., but apparently died with the work +unfinished.[520] It was to his father that our poet attributed all his +success as a poet. It was to him he owed both education and inspiration, +as the _Epicedion in patrem_ bears pathetic witness (v. 3. 213): + + sed decus hoc quodcumque lyrae primusque dedisti + non volgare loqui et famam sperare sepulcro. + + Thou wert the first to give this glory, whate'er it be, + that my lyre hath won; thine was the gift of noble speech + and the hope that my tomb should be famous. + +The _Thebais_ was directly due to his prompting (loc. cit., 233): + + te nostra magistro + Thebais urgebat priscorum exordia vatum; + tu cantus stimulare meos, tu pandere facta + heroum bellique modos positusque locorum + monstrabas. + + At thy instruction my Thebais trod the steps of elder + bards; thou taughtest me to fire my song, thou taughtest + me to set forth the deeds of heroes and the ways of war + and the position of places. + +The poet-father lived long enough to witness his son well on the way to +established fame. He had won the prize for poetry awarded by his native +town, the crown fashioned of ears of corn, chief honour of the +Neapolitan Augustalia.[521] Early in the reign of Domitian he had +received a high price from the actor Paris for his libretto on the +subject of Agave,[522] and he had already won renown by his recitations +at Rome,[523] recitations in all probability of portions of the +_Thebais_[524] which he had commenced in 80 A.D.[525] But it was not +till after his father's death that he reached the height of his fame by +his victory in the annual contest instituted by Domitian at his Alban +palace,[526] and by the completion and final publication in 92 A.D. of +his masterpiece, the _Thebais_.[527] This poem was the outcome of twelve +years' patient labour, and it was on this that he based his claim to +immortality.[527] He had now made himself a secure position as the +foremost poet of his age. His failure to win the prize at the +quinquennial Agon Capitolinus in 94 A.D. caused him keen mortification, +but was in no way a set-back to his career.[528] By this time he had +already begun the publication of his _Silvae_. The first book was +published not earlier than 92 A.D.,[529] the second and third between +that date and 95 A.D. The fourth appeared in 95 A.D.,[530] the fifth is +unfinished. There is no allusion to any date later than 95 A.D., no +indication that the poet survived Domitian (d. 96 A.D.). These facts, +together with the fragmentary state of his ambitious _Achilleis_, begun +in 95 A.D.,[531] point to Statius having died in that year, or at least +early in 96 A.D. He left behind him, beside the works already mentioned, +a poem on the wars of Domitian in Germany,[532] and a letter to one +Maximus Vibius, which may have served as a preface to the +_Thebais_.[533] He had spent the greater portion of his life either at +Rome, Naples, or in the Alban villa given him by Domitian. In his latter +years he seems to have resided almost entirely at Rome, though he must +have paid not infrequent visits to the Bay of Naples.[534] But in 94 +A.D., whether through failing health or through chagrin at his defeat in +the Capitoline contest, he retired to his native town.[535] He had +married a widow named Claudia,[536] but the union was childless; towards +the end of his life he adopted the infant son of one of his slaves,[537] +and the child's premature death affected him as bitterly as though it +had been his own son that died. Of his age we know little; but in the +_Silvae_ there are allusions to the approach of old age and the decline +of his physical powers.[538] He can scarcely have been born later than +45 A.D., and may well have been born considerably earlier. His life, as +far as we can judge, was placid and uneventful. The position of his +father seems to have saved him from a miserable struggle for his +livelihood, such as vexed the soul of Martial.[539] There is nothing +venal about his verse. If his flattery of the emperor is fulsome almost +beyond belief, he hardly overstepped the limits of the path dictated by +policy and the custom of the age; his conduct argues weakness rather +than any deep moral taint. In his flattery towards his friends and +patrons his tone is, at its worst, rather that of a social inferior than +of a mere dependent.[540] And underlying all the preciosity and +exaggeration of his praises and his consolations, there is a genuine +warmth of affection that argues an amiable character. And this warmth of +feeling becomes unmistakable in the _epicedia_ on his father and his +adopted son, and again in the poem addressed to his wife. The feeling is +genuine, in spite of the suggestion of insincerity created by the +artificiality of his language. No less noteworthy is his enthusiasm for +the beauties of his birthplace, which shines clear through all the +obscure legends beneath which he buries his topography.[541] These +qualities, if any, must be set against his lack of intellectual power; +his mind is nimble and active, but never strong either in thought or +emotion: of sentiment he has abundance, of passion none. Considering the +corruption of the society of which he constituted himself the poet, and +of which there are not a few glimpses in the _Silvae_, despite the +tinselled veil that is thrown over it, the impression of Statius the man +is not unpleasing: it is not necessary to claim that it is inspiring. + +Of Statius the poet it is harder to form a clear judgement. His +masterpiece, the _Thebais_, from the day of its publication down to +comparatively recent times, possessed an immense reputation.[542] Dante +seems to regard him as second only to Vergil; and it was scarcely before +the nineteenth century that he was dethroned from his exalted position. +Before the verdict of so many ages one may well shrink from passing an +unfavourable criticism. That he had many of the qualifications of a +great poet is undeniable; his technical skill is extraordinary; his +variety of phrase is infinite; his colouring is often brilliant. And +even his positive faults, the faults of his age, the crowding of detail, +the rhetoric, the bombast, offend rather by their quantity than quality. +Alone of the epic[543] writers of his age he rarely raises a derisive +laugh from the irreverent modern. Again, his average level is high, +higher than that of any post-Ovidian poet. And yet that high level is +due to the fact that he rarely sinks rather than that he rises to +sublime heights. His brilliant metre, always vivacious and vigorous, +seldom gives us a line that haunts the memory; and therefore, though its +easy grace and facile charm may for a while attract us, we soon weary of +him. He lacks warmth of emotion and depth of colour. In this respect he +has been not inaptly compared to Ovid. Ovid said of Callimachus _quamvis +ingenio non valet, arte valet_.[544] Ovid's detractors apply the epigram +to Ovid himself. This is unjust, but so far as such a comprehensive +dictum can be true of any distinguished writer, it is true of Statius. + +Scarcely inferior to Ovid in readiness and fertility, he ranks far below +the earlier writer in all poetic essentials. Ovid's gifts are similar +but more natural; his vision is clearer, his imagination more +penetrating. 'The paces of Statius are those of the _manège_, not of +nature';[545] he loses himself in the trammels of his art. He lacks, as +a rule, the large imagination of the poet; and though his detail may +often please, the whole is tedious and disappointing. Merivale sums him +up admirably:[546] 'Statius is a miniature painter employed on the +production of a great historic picture: every part, every line, every +shade is touched and retouched; approach the canvas and examine it with +glasses, every thread and hair has evidently received the utmost care +and taken the last polish; but step backwards and embrace the whole +composition in one gaze, and the general effect is confused from want of +breadth and largeness of treatment.' + +He was further handicapped by his choice of a subject.[547] The Theban +legend is unsuitable for epic treatment for more reasons than one. In +the first place the story is unpleasant from beginning to end. Horror +accumulates on horror, crime on crime, and there are but three +characters which evoke our sympathy, Oedipus, Jocasta, and Antigone. +These characters play only subsidiary parts in the story of the +expedition of the Seven against Thebes, round which the Theban epic +turns. The central characters are almost of necessity the odious +brothers Eteocles and Polynices: Oedipus appears only to curse his sons. +Antigone and Jocasta come upon the scene only towards the close in a +brief and futile attempt to reconcile the brothers. The deeds and deaths +of the Argive chiefs may relieve the horror and at times excite our +sympathy, but we cannot get away from the fact that the story is +ultimately one of almost bestial fratricidal strife, darkened by the +awful shadow of the woes of the house of Labdacus. The old Greek epic +assigned great importance to the character of Amphiaraus[548] persuaded +by his false wife, Eriphyla, to go forth on the enterprise that should +be his doom; it has even been suggested that he formed the central +character of the poem. If this suggestion be true--and its truth is +exceedingly doubtful--we are confronted with what was in reality only a +false shift, the diversion of the interest from the main issues of the +story to a side issue. The _Iliad_ cannot be quoted in his defence; +there we have an episode of a ten years' siege, which in itself +possesses genuine unity and interest. But the Theban epic comprises the +whole story of the expedition of the seven chieftains, and it is idle to +make Amphiaraus the central figure. In any case the prominence given to +the fortunes of the house of Labdacus by the great Greek dramatists, and +the genius with which they brought out the genuinely dramatic issues of +the legend, had made it impossible for after-comers to take any save the +Labdacidae for the chief actors in their story. And so from Antimachus +onward Polynices and Eteocles are the tragic figures of the epic. + +To give unity to this story all our attention must be concentrated on +Thebes. The enlistment of Adrastus in the cause of Polynices must be +described, and following this the gathering of the hosts of Argos. But +when once the Argive demands are rejected by Thebes, the poet's chief +aim must be to get his army to Thebes with all speed, and set it in +battle array against the enemy. Once at Thebes, there is plenty of room +for tragic power and stirring narrative. First comes the ineffectual +attempt of Jocasta to reconcile her scarce human sons; then comes the +battle, with the gradual overthrow of the chieftains of Argos, the +turning of the scale of battle in favour of Thebes by the sacrifice of +Menoeceus, and last the crowning combat between the brothers. There, +from the artistic standpoint, the story finds its ending. It could +never have been other than forbidding, but it need not have lacked +power. Unfortunately, precedent did not allow the story to end there. +The Thebans forbid burial to the Argive dead; Antigone transgresses the +edict by burying her brother Polynices, and finds death the reward of +her piety; Theseus and the Athenians come to Adrastus' aid, defeat the +Thebans, and bury the Argive dead, while as a sop to Argive feeling +they are promised their revenge in after years, when the children of +the dead have grown to man's estate. If it were felt that the deadly +struggle between the two brothers closed the epic on a note of +unrelieved gloom and horror, there was perhaps something to be said for +introducing the story of Antigone's self-sacrifice, and closing on a +note of tragic beauty. Unhappily, the story of Antigone involved the +introduction of material sufficient for one, if not two fresh epics in +the legend of the Athenian War and the triumphant return of Argos to +the conflict. Antimachus[549] fell into the snare. His vast _Thebais_ +told the whole story from the arrival of Polynices at Argos to the +victory of the Epigoni. Nor was he content with this alone, but must +needs clog the action of his poem with long descriptions of the +gathering of the host at Argos, and of their adventures on the march to +Thebes. And so it came about that he consumed twenty-four books in +getting his heroes to Thebes! + +The precedent of Antimachus proved fatal to Statius. He did not, it is +true, run to such prolixity as his Greek predecessor; he eliminated the +legend of the Epigoni altogether, only alluding to it once in vague and +general terms; he succeeded in getting the story, down to the burial of +the Argive dead, within the compass of twelve books of not inordinate +length. But it is possible to be prolix without being an Antimachus, +and the prolixity of Statius is quite sufficient. The Argives do not +reach Thebes till half-way through the seventh book,[550] the brothers +do not meet till half-way through the eleventh book. The result is that +the compression of events in the last 300 lines of the eleventh book +and in the last book is almost grotesque; for these 1,100 lines contain +the death of Jocasta, the banishment of Oedipus, the flight of the +Argives, the prohibition to bury the Argive dead, the arrival of the +wives of the vanquished, the devotion of Antigone and Argia, the wife +of Polynices, their detection and sentencing to death, the arrival of +the Athenians under Theseus, the defeat and death of Creon, and the +burial of the fallen. The effect is disastrous. As we have seen, this +appendix to the main story of the feud between the brothers cannot form +a satisfactory conclusion to the story. Treated with the perfunctory +compression of Statius, it becomes flat and ineffective; even the +reader who finds Statius at his best attractive is tempted to throw +down the _Thebais_ in disgust. + +It is perhaps in his concluding scenes that we see Statius at his worst, +but his capacity for irrelevance and digression is an almost equally +serious defect. That he should use the conventional supernatural +machinery is natural and permissible, though tedious to the modern +reader, who finds it hard to sympathize with outworn literary +conventions. But there are few epics where divine intervention is +carried to a greater extent than in the _Thebais_.[551] And not content +with the intervention of the usual gods and furies, on two occasions +Statius brings down frigid abstractions from the skies in the shape of +Virtus[552] and Pietas.[553] Again, while auguries and prophecies play a +legitimate part in such a work, nothing can justify, and only the +passion of the Silver Age for the supernatural can explain, the +protraction of the scenes of augury at Thebes and Argos to 114 and 239 +lines respectively. Equally disproportionate are the catalogues of the +Argive and the Theban armies, making between them close on 400 +lines.[554] Nor is imitation of Vergil the slightest justification for +introducing a night-raid in which Hopleus and Dymas are but pale +reflections of Nisus and Euryalus,[555] for expending 921 lines over the +description of the funeral rites and games in honour of the infant +Opheltes,[556] or putting the irrelevant history of the heroism of +Coroebus in the mouth of Adrastus, merely that it may form a parallel to +the tale of Hercules and Cacus told by Evander.[557] Worst of all is the +enormous digression,[558] consuming no less than 481 lines, where +Hypsipyle narrates the story of the Lemnian massacre. And yet this is +hardly more than a digression in the midst of a digression. The Argive +army are marching on Thebes. Bacchus, desirous to save his native town, +causes a drought in the Peloponnese. The Argives, on the verge of death, +and maddened with thirst, come upon Hypsipyle, the nurse of Opheltes, +the son of Lycurgus, King of Nemea. Hypsipyle leaves her charge to show +them the stream of Langia, which alone has been unaffected by the +drought, and so saves the Argive host. She then at enormous length +narrates to Adrastus the story of her life, how she was daughter of +Thoas, King of Lemnos, and how, when the women of Lesbos slew their +mankind, she alone proved false to their hideous compact, and saved her +father. After describing the arrival of the Argonauts at Lemnos, and her +amour with Jason, to whom she bore two sons, she tells how she was +banished from Lesbos on the discovery that Thoas, her father, still +lived, how she was captured by pirates, and twenty long years since sold +into slavery to Lycurgus. This prodigious narration finished, it is +discovered that a serpent sacred to Jupiter has killed Opheltes. +Lycurgus, hearing the news, would have slain Hypsipyle, but she is +protected by the Argives whom she has saved. Then follows the burial of +Opheltes--henceforth known as Archemorus--and his funeral games. + +Now it is not improbable that the story of Opheltes and Hypsipyle +occurred in the old cyclic poem.[559] But that scarcely justifies +Statius in devoting the whole of the fifth and sixth books and some 200 +lines of the fourth to the description of an episode so alien to the +main interest of the poem. But if we cannot justify these copious +digressions and irrelevances we can explain them. The _Thebais_ was +written primarily for recitation; many of these episodes which are +hopelessly superfluous to the real story are admirably designed for the +purpose of recitation. The truth is that Statius had many qualifications +for the writing of _epyllia_, few for writing epic on a large scale. He +has therefore sacrificed the whole to its parts, and relies on +brilliance of description to catch the ear of an audience, rather than +on sustained epic dignity and ordered development of his story. But +although he cannot give real unity to his epic, he succeeds, by dint of +his astonishing fluency and his mastery over his instrument, in giving a +specious appearance of unity. The sutures of his story are well +disguised and his inconsistencies of no serious importance. He fails as +an epic writer, but he fails gracefully. + +It is, however, possible for an epic to be structurally ineffective and +yet possess high poetic merit. Statius' episodes do not cohere; how far +have they any splendour in their isolation? The answer to the question +must be on the whole unfavourable. The reasons for this are diverse. In +the first place the characters for the most part fail to live. Statius +can give us a vivid impression of the outward semblance of a man; we see +Parthenopaeus and Atys, we see Jocasta and Antigone, we see the struggle +of Eteocles and Polynices vividly enough. But we see them as strangers, +standing out, it is true, from the crowd in which they move, but still +wholly unknown to us. We cannot differentiate Polynices and Eteocles +save that the latter, from the very situation in which he finds himself, +is necessarily the more odious of the two; Polynices would have shown +himself the same, had the fall of the lot given him the first year of +kingship. Jocasta and Antigone, Creon and Menoeceus, Hypsipyle and +Lycurgus, play their parts correctly enough, but they do not live, nor +people our brain with moving images. We are told that they behaved in +such and such a way under such and such circumstances; we are told, and +admit, that such conduct implies certain moral qualities, but Statius +does not make us feel that his characters possess such qualities. The +reason for this lies partly in the fact that they all speak the same +brilliant rhetoric,[560] partly in the fact that Statius lacks the +direct sincerity of diction that is required for the expression of +strong and poignant emotion. Anger he can depict; anger suffers less +than other emotions from rhetoric. Hence it is that he has succeeded in +drawing the character of Tydeus, whose brutality is redeemed from +hideousness by the fact that it is based on the most splendid physical +courage, and fired by strong loyalty to his comrade and sometime foe +Polynices. His accents ring true. When he has gone to Thebes to plead +Polynices' cause, and his demands have been angrily refused by Eteocles, +who concludes by saying (ii. 449), + + nec ipsi, + si modo notus amor meritique est gratia, patres + reddere regna sinent, + + Nor will the fathers of the city, if they but know the love + I bear them or if they have aught of gratitude, allow me to + give back the kingship. + +Tydeus will hear no more, but breaks in with a cry of fury (ii. 452): + + 'reddes,' + ingeminat 'reddes; non si te ferreus agger + ambiat aut triplices alio tibi carmine muros + Amphion auditus agat, nil tela nec ignes + obstiterint, quin ausa luas nostrisque sub armis + captivo moribundus humum diademate pulses. + tu merito; ast horum miseret, quos sanguine viles + coniugibus natisque infanda ad proelia raptos + proicis excidio, bone rex. o quanta Cithaeron + funera sanguineusque vadis, Ismene, rotabis! + haec pietas, haec magna fides! nec crimina gentis + mira equidem duco: sic primus sanguinis auctor + incestique patrum thalami; sed fallit origo: + Oedipodis tu solus eras, haec praemia morum + ac sceleris, violente, feres! nos poscimus annum; + sed moror.' haec audax etiamnum in limine retro + vociferans iam tunc impulsa per agmina praeceps + evolat. + + 'Thou shalt give it back,' he cries, 'thou shalt give it back. + Though thou wert girdled with a wall of bronze, or Amphion's + voice be heard and with a new song raise triple bulwarks about + thee; fire and sword should not save thee from the doom of thy + daring, and, struck down by our swords, thy diadem should smite + the ground as thou fallest dying, our captive. Thus shouldst + _thou_ have thy desert; but _these_ I pity, whose blood thou + ratest lightly, and whom thou snatchest from their children and + their wives to give them over to death, thou virtuous king. What + vast slaughter, Cithaeron, and thou, Ismenus, shalt thou see + whirl down thy blood-stained shallows. This is thy piety, this + thy true faith! nor marvel I at the crimes of such a race: 'twas + for this that thou hadst such an author of thy being, for this + thy father's marriage-bed was stained with incest. But thou art + deceived as to thine own birth and thy brother's; thou alone + wast begotten of Oedipus, that shall be the reward for thy nature + and thy crime, fierce man. We ask but for a year! But I tarry over + long.' These words he shouted back at him while he still lingered + on the threshold; then headlong burst through the crowd of foemen + and sped away. + +As he is here, so is he always, unwavering in decision, prompt of speech +and of action. Caught in ambush, ill-armed and solitary, by the +treacherous Thebans, as he returns from his futile embassy, he never +hesitates; he seizes the one point of vantage, crushes his foes, and +when he speaks, speaks briefly and to the point. He spares the last of +his fifty assailants and sends him back to Thebes with a message of +defiance, brief, natural, and manly (ii. 697): + + quisquis es Aonidum, quem crastina munere nostro + manibus exemptum mediis Aurora videbit, + haec iubeo perferre duci: cinge aggere portas, + tela nova, fragiles aevo circum inspice muros, + praecipue stipare viros densasque memento + multiplicare acies! fumantem hunc aspice late + ense meo campum: tales in bella venimus. + + Whoe'er thou art of the Aonides, whom to-morrow's dawn shall + see saved from the world of the dead by my boon, I bid thee + bear this message to thy chief: 'Raise mounds about the gates, + forge new weapons, look to your walls that crumble with years, + and above all be mindful to marshal thick and multiply thine + hosts! Behold this plain smoking with the work of my sword. + Such men are we when we enter the field of battle.' + +On his return to Argos he bursts impetuously into the palace, crying +fiercely for war.[561] When Lycurgus would slay Hypsipyle for her +neglect of her nursling, he saves her.[562] She has preserved the Argive +army, and Tydeus, if he never forgives an enemy, never forgets a friend. +He alone defeats the entreaties of Jocasta[563] and launches the hosts +of Argos into battle; and when his own doom is come, he dies as he had +lived, _impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis_; he has no thought for +himself; he cares nought for due burial (viii. 736): + + non ossa precor referantur ut Argos + Aetolumve larem; nec enim mihi cura supremi + funeris: odi artus fragilemque hunc corporis usum, + desertorem animi. + + I ask not that my bones be borne home to Argos or Aetolia; + I care not for my last rites of funeral; I hate these limbs + and this frail tenement, my body, that fails my spirit in + its hour of need. + +His one thought is for vengeance on the dead body of the man who has +slain him[564] and for the victory of his comrades in arms. + +Only one other of the heroes has any real existence, the prophet +Amphiaraus. Statius does not give him the prominence that he held in the +original epic, and misses a noble opportunity by almost ignoring the +dramatic story of Eriphyla and the necklace that won her to persuade her +husband to go forth to certain death. But the heroic warrior priest of +Apollo, who knows his doom and yet faces it fearlessly, could not fail +to be a picturesque figure, and at least in the hour of his death +Statius has done him full justice. Apollo, disguised as a mortal, mounts +the chariot of Amphiaraus and drives him through the midst of the +battle, dealing destruction on this side and that (vii. 770): + + tandem se famulo summum confessus Apollo + 'utere luce tua longamque' ait, 'indue famam, + dum tibi me iunctum mors inrevocata veretur. + vincimur: immites scis nulla revolvere Parcas + stamina; vade, diu populis promissa voluptas + Elysiis, certe non perpessure Creontis + imperia aut vetito nudus iaciture sepulcro.' + ille refert contra, et paulum respirat ab armis: + 'olim te, Cirrhaee pater, peritura sedentem + ad iuga (quis tantus miseris honor?) axe trementi + sensimus; instantes quonam usque morabere manes? + audio iam rapidae cursum Stygis atraque Ditis + flumina tergeminosque mali custodis hiatus. + accipe commissum capiti decus, accipe laurus, + quas Erebo deferre nefas. nunc voce suprema, + si qua recessuro debetur gratia vati, + deceptum tibi, Phoebe, larem poenasque nefandae + coniugis et pulchrum nati commendo furorem.' + desiluit maerens lacrimasque avertit Apollo. + + At length Apollo revealed himself to his servant. 'Use,' he + said, 'the light of life that is left thee and win an age of + fame while thy doom still unrepealed shrinks back in awe of me. + The foemen conquer: thou knowest the cruel fates never unravel + the threads they weave: go forward, thou, the promised darling + of the peoples of Elysium; for surely thou shalt ne'er endure + the tyranny of Creon, or lie naked, denied a grave.' He answered, + pausing awhile from the fray: 'Long since, lord of Cirrha, the + trembling axle told me that 'twas thou sat'st by my doomed steeds. + Why honourest thou a wretched mortal thus? How long wilt thou + delay the advancing dead? Even now I hear the course of headlong + Styx, and the dark streams of death, and the triple barking of + the accursed guard of hell. Take now thine honours bound about my + brow, take now the laurel crown I may not bear down unto Erebus: + now with my last utterance, if aught of thanks thou owest thy + seer that now must pass away, to thee I trust my wronged hearth, + the doom of my accursed wife, and the noble madness of my son + (Alcmaeon).' Apollo leapt from the car in grief and strove to + hide his tears. + +An earthquake shakes the plain; the warriors shrink from +battle in terror at the thunder from under-ground; when +(816)-- + + ecce alte praeceps humus ore profundo + dissilit, inque vicem timuerunt sidera et umbrae. + illum ingens haurit specus et transire parantes + mergit equos; non arma manu, non frena remisit: + sicut erat, rectos defert in Tartara currus + respexitque cadens caelum campumque coire + ingemuit, donec levior distantia rursus + miscuit arva tremor lucemque exclusit Averno. + + Lo! the earth gaped sheer and deep with vast abyss, and the stars + of heaven and the shades of the dead trembled with one accord: a + vast chasm drew him down and swallowed his steeds as they made + ready to leap the gulf: he loosed not the grip on rein or spear, + but, as he was, carried his car steadfast to Tartarus, and, as he + fell, gazed up to heaven and groaned to see the plain close above + him, till a lighter shock once more united the gaping fields and + shut out the light from hell. + +Here we see Statius at his highest level, whether in point of metre, +diction, or poetic imagination. + +Of the other characters there is little to be said. For all the wealth +of detail that Statius has lavished on them, they are featureless. +Adrastus is a colourless and respectable old king, strongly reminiscent +of Latinus. Capaneus and Hippomedon are terrific warriors of gigantic +stature and truculent speech, but they are wholly uninteresting. Argia +and Jocasta are too rhetorical, Antigone too slight a figure to be +really pathetic; Oedipus can do little save curse, which he does with +some rhetorical vigour; but the gift of cursing hardly makes a +character. Parthenopaeus, however, is a pathetic figure; he is an +Arcadian, the son of Atalanta, a mere boy whom a romantic ambition has +hurried into war ere his years were ripe for it. His dying speech is +touching, though it errs on the side of triviality and mere prettiness +(ix. 877): + + at puer infusus sociis in devia campi + tollitur (heu simplex aetas!) moriensque iacentem + flebat equum; cecidit laxata casside vultus, + aegraque per trepidos exspirat gratia visus, + * * * * * + ibat purpureus niveo de pectore sanguis. + tandem haec singultu verba incidente profatur: + 'labimur, i, miseram, Dorceu, solare parentem. + illa quidem, si vera ferunt praesagia curae, + aut somno iam triste nefas aut omine vidit. + tu tamen arte pia trepidam suspende diuque + decipito; neu tu subitus neve arma tenenti + veneris, et tandem, cum iam cogere fateri, + dic: "Merui, genetrix, poenas invita capesse; + arma puer rapui, nec te retinente quievi, + nec tibi sollicitae tandem inter bella peperci. + vive igitur potiusque animis irascere nostris, + et iam pone metus. frustra de colle Lycaei + anxia prospectas, si quis per nubila longe + aut sonus aut nostro sublatus ab agmine pulvis: + frigidus et nuda iaceo tellure, nec usquam + tu prope, quae vultus efflantiaque ora teneres. + hunc tamen, orba parens, crinem"--dextraque secandum + praebuit--"hunc toto capies pro corpore crinem, + comere quem frustra me dedignante solebas. + huic dabis exsequias, atque inter iusta memento, + ne quis inexpertis hebetet mea tela lacertis + dilectosque canes ullis agat amplius antris. + haec autem primis arma infelicia castris + ure, vel ingratae crimen suspende Dianae."' + + + But the boy fell into his comrades' arms and they bore him + to a place apart. Alas for his tender years! As he died, he + wept for his fallen horse: his face drooped as they unbound + his helmet, and a fading grace passed faintly o'er his + quivering visage.... + + The purple blood flowed from his breast of snow. At length he + spake these words through sobs that checked his utterance: 'My + life is falling from me; go, Dorceus, comfort my unhappy mother: + she indeed, if care and sorrow can give foreknowledge, has seen + my woeful fate in dreams or through some omen; yet do thou with + loving art keep her terrors in suspense and long hold back the + truth; and come not upon her suddenly, nor when she hath a weapon + in her hands; but when at last the truth must out, say: "Mother, + I deserved my doom; I am punished, though my punishment break thy + heart. I rushed to arms too young, and abode not at home when + thou wouldst restrain me: nor had I any pity for thine anguish in + the day of battle. Live on then, and keep thine anger for my + headstrong courage and fear no more for me. In vain thou gazest + from the Lycaean height, if any sound perchance may be borne from + far to thine ear through the clouds, or thine eye have sight of + the dust raised by our homeward march. I lie cold upon the bare + earth, and thou art nowhere nigh to hold my head as my lips + breathe farewell. Yet, childless mother, take this lock of hair"-- + and in his right hand he stretched it out to be cut away--"take + this poor lock in place of my whole body, this lock of that hair + which thou didst tire in my despite. To it shalt thou give due + burial and remember this also as my due; let no man blunt my + spears with unskilful cast, nor any more drive the hounds I loved + through any caverned glen. But this mine armour, whose first + battle hath brought disaster, burn thou, or hang it to be a + reproach to Dian's ingratitude."' + +When we have said that Parthenopaeus is almost too young to have been +accepted as a leader, or have performed the feats of war assigned to +him, we have said all that can be said against this beautiful speech. +Parthenopaeus is for the _Thebais_ what Camilla is for the _Aeneid_, +though he presents at times hints both of Pallas and Euryalus. But he +is little more than a child, and fails to carry the conviction or +awaken the deep emotion excited by the Amazon of Vergil.[565] + +Statius then, with a few striking exceptions, fails in his portrayal +of life and character. On the whole--one says it with reluctance in +view of his brilliant variety, his boundless invention, his wealth of +imagery--the same is true of his descriptions. The picture is too +crowded; he has not the unerring eye for the relevant or salient +points of a scene. Skilful and faithful touches abound, but, as in the +case of certain pre-Raphaelite pictures, extreme attention to detail +causes him to miss the full scenic effect. He is not sufficiently the +impressionist; he cannot suggest--a point in which he presents a strong +contrast to Valerius Flaccus. And too many of his incidents, in spite +of ingenious variation of detail, are but echoes of Vergil. The +foot-race and the archery contest at the funeral games of Archemorus, +together with the episode of Dymas and Hopleus,[566] to which we have +already referred, are perhaps the most marked examples of this +unfortunate characteristic. We are continually saying to ourselves as +we read the _Thebais_, 'All this has been before!' We weary at times +of the echoes of Homer in Vergil, and the combats that stirred us in +the _Iliad_ make us drowsy in the _Aeneid_. Homer knew what fighting +was from personal experience, or at least from being in touch with +warriors who had killed their man. Vergil had come no nearer these +things than 'in the pages of a book '. Statius is yet one remove +further from the truth than Vergil. He is tied hand and foot by his +intimate acquaintance with previous poetic literature. If he is less +the victim of the schools of rhetoric than many post-Augustan writers, +he is more than most the victim of the poetic training of the schools. +But with all these faults there are passages which surprise us by their +effectiveness. It would be hard to imagine anything more vigorous and +exciting than the fight of Tydeus ambushed by his fifty foes. The +opening passage is splendidly successful in creating the requisite +atmosphere (ii. 527): + + coeperat umenti Phoebum subtexere palla + Nox et caeruleam terris infuderat umbram. + ille propinquabat silvis et ab aggere celso + scuta virum galeasque videt rutilare comantes, + qua laxant rami nemus adversaque sub umbra + flammeus aeratis lunae tremor errat in armis. + obstipuit visis, ibat tamen, horrida tantum + spicula et inclusum capulo tenus admovet ensem. + ac prior unde, viri, quidve occultatis in armis?' + non humili terrore rogat. nec reddita contra + vox, fidamque negant suspecta silentia pacem. + + Night began to shroud Phoebus with her humid pall and shed + her blue darkness o'er the earth. He drew nigh the forest, + and from a high knoll espied the gleam of warriors' shields + and plumed helmets, where the boughs of the wood left a space, + and in the shadow before him the quivering fire of the moonbeam + played o'er their brazen armour. Dumbstruck at what he saw, he + yet pursued his way, only he made ready for the fight his + bristling javelins and the sword sheathed to its hilt. He was + the first to speak: 'Whence come ye?' he asked, in fear, yet + haughty still. 'And why hide ye thus armoured for the fray?' + There came no answer, and their ominous silence told him no + peace nor loyalty was there. + +The fight that follows, though it occupies more than 160 lines, is +intensely rapid and vigorous; indeed it is the one genuinely exciting +combat in Latin epic, and forms a refreshing contrast to the +pseudo-Homeric or pseudo-Vergilian combats before the walls of Thebes. +In no other portion of the _Thebais_ does Statius attain to such +success, with the exception of the passage already quoted descriptive of +the death of Amphiaraus. But there are other passages of sustained +merit, such as the vigorous description of the struggle of Hippomedon +with the waters of Ismenus and Asopus.[5671] While it is not +particularly interesting to those acquainted with the corresponding +passage in the _Iliad_, it would be unjust to deny the gifts of vigour +and invention to the Latin poet's imitation. + +It is, however, rather in smaller and more minute pictures that Statius +as a rule excels. The picture of the baby Opheltes left by his nurse is +pretty enough (iv. 787): + + at puer in gremio vernae telluris et alto + gramine nunc faciles sternit procursibus herbas + in vultum nitens, caram modo lactis egeno + nutricem plangore ciens iterumque renidens + et teneris meditans verba inluctantia labris + miratur nemorum strepitus aut obvia carpit + aut patulo trahit ore diem nemorisque malorum + inscius et vitae multum securus inerrat. + + But the child, lying face downward in the bosom of the vernal + earth, now as he crawls in the deep herbage lays low the + yielding grass; now cries for his loved nurse athirst for milk, + and then, all smiles again, with infant lips frames words in + stumbling speech, marvels at the sounds of the woods, gathers + what lies before him, or open-mouthed drinks in the day; and + knowing naught of the dangers of the woods, with ne'er a care + in life, roams here and there. + +Fine, too, in a different way is the sinister picture of Eteocles left +sole king in Thebes (i. 165): + + quis tunc tibi, saeve, + quis fuit ille dies, vacua cum solus in aula + respiceres ius omne tuum cunctosque minores + et nusquam par stare caput? + + Ah! what a day was that for thee, fierce heart, when, sitting + alone amid thy courtiers, thy brother gone from thee, thou + sawest thyself enthroned above all men, with all things in thy + power, without a peer. + +Less poetical, but scarcely less effective, is the description of the +compact between the brothers (i. 138): + + alterni placuit sub legibus anni + exsilio mutare ducem. sic iure maligno + fortunam transire iubent, ut sceptra tenentem + foedere praecipiti semper novus angeret heres. + haec inter fratres pietas erat, haec mora pugnae + sola nec in regem perduratura secundum. + + It was resolved that in alternate years the king should quit + his throne for exile. Thus with baneful ordinance they bade + fortune pass from one to the other, that he who held the + sceptre on these brief terms should ever be vexed by the + thought of his successor's coming. Such was the brothers' + love, such the sole bond that kept them from conflict, a bond + that should not last till the kingship changed. + +But far beyond all other portraits in Statius is the description of +Jocasta as she approaches the Argive camp on her mission of +reconciliation (vii. 474): + + ecce truces oculos sordentibus obsita canis + exsangues Iocasta genas et bracchia planctu + nigra ferens ramumque oleae cum velleris atri + nexibus, Eumenidum velut antiquissima, portis + egreditur magna cum maiestate malorum. + + Lo! Jocasta, her white hair streaming unkempt over her wild + eyes, her cheeks all pale, her arms bruised by the beating + of her anguished hands, bearing an olive-branch hung with + black wool, came forth from the gates in semblance like to + the eldest of the Eumenides, in all the majesty of her many + sorrows. + +In this last line we have one of the very few lines in Statius that +attain to real grandeur. In the lack of such lines, and in the lack of +real breadth of treatment lies Statius' chief defect as a narrator. All +that dexterity can do he does; but he lacks the supreme gifts, the +selective eye and the penetrating imagination of the great poet. + +Of his actual diction and ornament little need be said. Without being +precisely straightforward, he is not, as a rule, obscure. But his +language gradually produces a feeling of oppression. He can be read in +short passages without this feeling; the moment, however, the reader +takes his verse in considerable quantities, the continued, though only +slight, over-elaboration of the work produces a feeling of strain. +Throughout there runs a vein of artificiality which ultimately gives the +impression of insincerity. He can turn out phrases of the utmost nicety. +Nothing can be more neatly turned than the description of the feelings +of Antigone and Ismene on the outbreak of the war (viii. 614): + + nutat utroque timor, quemnam hoc certamine victum, + quem vicisse velint: tacite praeponderat exsul; + + Their fears incline this way and that: whom would they have the + conqueror in the strife, whom the vanquished? All unconfessed + the exile has their prayers. + +or than the line describing the parting of the Lemnian women from the +Argonauts, their second husbands (v. 478): + + heu iterum gemitus, iterumque novissima nox est. + + Alas! once more the hour of lamentation is near, once more is + come the last night of wedded sleep. + +But this neatness often degenerates into preciosity, _bellator campus_ +means a field suitable for battle (viii. 377). Nisus, the king of +Megara, with the talismanic purple lock, becomes a _senex purpureus_ (i. +334); an embrace is described by the words _alterna pectora mutant_ (v. +722); a woman nearing her time is one _iustos cuius pulsantia menses +vota tument_ (v. 115). We have already noted a similar tendency in +Valerius Flaccus; such phrase-making is not a badge of any one poet, it +is a sign of the times. In the case of Statius there is perhaps less +obscurity and less positive extravagance than in any of his +contemporaries, but whether as regards description or phrase-making, +there is always a suspicion of his work being pitched--if the phrase is +permissible--a tone too high. This is, perhaps, particularly noticeable +in his similes. They are very numerous, and he has obviously expended +great trouble over them. But, with very few exceptions, they are +failures. The cause lies mainly in their lack of variety. There are, for +instance, no less than sixteen similes drawn from bulls, twelve from +lions, six from tigers.[568] None of these similes show any close +observance of nature, and in any case the poetic interest of bulls, +lions, and tigers is far from inexhaustible. It is less reprehensible +that twenty similes should be drawn from storms, which have a more +cogent interest and greater picturesque value. But even here Statius has +overshot the mark. This lack of variety testifies to a real dearth of +poetic imagination, and this failing is noticeable also in the +execution. There is rarely a simile containing anything that awakens +either imagination, emotion, or thought. Still, to give Statius his due, +there _are_ exceptions, such as the simile comparing Parthenopaeus, seen +in all his beauty among his comrades, to the reflections of the evening +star outshining the reflections of the lesser stars in the waveless sea +(vi. 578): + + sic ubi tranquillo perlucent sidera ponto + vibraturque fretis caeli stellantis imago, + omnia clara nitent, sed clarior omnia supra + Hesperus exsertat radios, quantusque per altum + aethera, caeruleis tantus monstratur in undis. + + So when the stars are glassed in the tranquil deep and the + reflection of the starry sky quivers in the waves, all the + stars shine clear, but clearer than all doth Hesperus send + forth his rays; and as he gleams in the high heavens, even + so bright do the blue waters show him forth. + +The comparison is. a little strained and far-fetched. The reflection of +stars in the sea is not quite so noticeable or impressive as Statius +would have us believe. But there is real beauty both in the conception +and the execution of the simile. Of more indisputable excellence is the +comparison in the eleventh book (443), where Adrastus, flying from +Thebes in humiliation and defeat, is likened to Pluto, when he first +entered on his kingdom of the underworld, his lordship over the +strengthless dead-- + + qualis + demissus curru laevae post praemia sortis + umbrarum custos mundique novissimus heres + palluit, amisso veniens in Tartara caelo. + + Even as the warden of the shades, the third heir of the world, + when he entered on the realm that the unkind lot had given him, + leapt from his car and turned pale, for heaven was lost and he + was at the gate of hell. + +The picture is Miltonic, and Pluto is for a brief moment almost an +anticipation of the Satan of _Paradise Lost_. + +The metre, like that of Valerius Flaccus, draws its primary +inspiration from Vergil, but has been strongly influenced by the +_Metamorphoses_ of Ovid. There are fewer elisions in Statius than in +Vergil, and more dactyls.[569] He is, however, less dactylic than +Valerius Flaccus and Ovid. In his management of pauses he is far more +successful than any epic writer, with the exception of Vergil. As a +result, he is far less monotonous than Ovid, Lucan, or Valerius. The +one criticism that can be levelled against him is that his verse, +while possessing rapidity and vigour, is not sufficiently adapted to +the varying emotions that his story demands, and that it shows a +consequent lack of nobility and stateliness. For the _Silvae_ his +metre is admirably adapted. It is light and almost sprightly, and the +poet can let himself go. He was not blind to the requirements of the +epic metre even if he did not satisfy them, and in his lighter verse +there is a notable increase of fluency and ease. + +The _Thebais_ is a work whose value it is difficult to estimate. Its +undeniable merits are never quite such that we can accord it +whole-hearted praise; its cleverness commands our wonder, while its +defects are not such as to justify a sweeping condemnation. But it must +be remembered that epic must be very good if it is to avoid failure, and +it is probable that there are few works on which such skill and labour +have been expended without any proportionate success. An attempt has +been made in the preceding pages to indicate the main reasons for the +failure of the _Thebais_. One more reason may perhaps be added here. +Over and above the poet's lack of originality and the highest poetic +imagination, over and above his distracting echoes and his +artificiality, there is a lack of moral fire and insight about the poem. +Statius gives us but a surface view of life. He had never plumbed the +depths of human passion nor realized anything of the mystery of the +world. His reader never derives from him the consciousness, that he so +often derives from Vergil, of a 'deep beyond the deep, and a height +beyond the height'. He has neither the virtues of the mystic nor of the +realist. Ultimately, life is for him a pageant with intervals for +sentimental threnodies and rhetorical declamation. + +The same qualities characterize the _Achilleis_ and still more the +_Silvae_. The _Achilleis_ was to have comprised the whole life of +Achilles. Only the first book and 167 lines of the second were composed. +They tell how Thetis endeavoured to withhold Achilles from the Trojan +War by disguising him as a girl and sending him to Scyros, how he became +the lover of Deidamia, the king's daughter, was discovered by the wiles +of Ulysses, and set forth on the expedition to Troy. The fragment is not +unpleasant reading, but contains little that is noteworthy.[570] The +style is simpler, less precious, and less rhetorical than that of the +_Thebais_. But it lacks the vigour as well as many of the faults of the +earlier poem. There is nothing to make us regret that the poet died +before its completion; there is something to be thankful for in the fact +that he did not live to challenge direct comparison with Homer. + +The _Silvae_, on the other hand, is a work of considerable interest. +The meaning of the word _silva_, in the literary sense, is 'raw +material' or 'rough draft'. It then came to be used to mean a work +composed at high speed on the spur of the moment, differing in fact but +little from an improvisation.[571] That these poems correspond to this +definition will be seen from Statius' preface to book i: 'hos libellos, +qui mihi subito calore et quadam festinandi voluptate fluxerunt.... +Nullum ex illis biduo longius tractum, quaedam et in singulis diebus +effusa.' There are thirty-two poems in all, divided into five books. +The fifth is incomplete; and, if we may judge from the unfinished state +of its preface, was published after the author's death. The poems are +extremely varied in subject, and to a lesser degree in metre, +hendecasyllables, alcaics, and sapphics being found as well as +hexameters. They comprise poems in praise of the appearance and the +achievements of Domitian,[572] consolations to friends and patrons for +the loss of relatives or favourite slaves,[573] lamentations of the +poet or his friends for the death of dear ones,[574] letters on various +subjects,[575] thanksgivings for the safety of friends,[576] and +farewells to them on their departure,[577] descriptions of villas and +the like built by his acquaintances,[578] an epithalamium,[579] an ode +commemorating the birthday of Lucan,[580] the description of a +statuette of Hercules,[581] poems on the deaths of a parrot and a +lion,[582] and a remarkable invocation to Sleep.[583] One and all, +these poems show abnormal cleverness. These slighter subjects were far +better suited to the poet's powers. His miniature painting was in +place, his sprightly and dexterous handling of the hexameter and the +hendecasyllable could be more profitably employed. Yet here, too, his +artificiality is a serious blemish, his lamentations for the loss of +the _pueri delicati_ of friends do not, and can hardly be expected to, +ring true, and the same blemish affects even the poems where he laments +his own loss. Further, the poems addressed to Domitian are fulsome to +the verge of nausea;[584] the beauty of the emperor is such that all +the great artists of the past would have vied with one another in +depicting his features; his eyes are like stars; his equestrian statue +is so glorious that at night (i. 1. 95) + + cum superis terrena placent, tua turba relicto + labetur caelo miscebitque oscula iuxta. + ibit in amplexus natus fraterque paterque + et soror: una locum cervix dabit omnibus astris. + + When heaven takes its joy of earth, thy kin shall leave + heaven and glide down to earth and kiss thee face to face. + Thy son and sister, thy brother and thy sire, shall come to + thy embrace; and about thy sole neck shall all the stars of + heaven find a place. + +The poem on the emperor's sexless favourite, Earinus, can scarcely be +quoted here. Without being definitely coarse, it succeeds in being one +of the most disgusting productions in the whole range of literature. +The emperor who can accept flattery of such a kind has certainly +qualified for assassination. The lighter poems are almost distressingly +trivial, and it is but a poor excuse to plead that such triviality was +imposed by the artificial social life of the day and the jealous +tyranny of Domitian. Moreover, the tendency to preciosity, which was +kept in check in the _Thebais_ by the requirements of epic, here has +full play. The death of a boy in his fifteenth year is described as +follows (ii. 6, 70): + + vitae modo cardine adultae + nectere temptabat iuvenum pulcherrimus ille + cum tribus Eleis unam trieterida lustris. + + Come now to the turning-point where boyhood becomes manhood, + he, the fairest of youths, was on the point of linking three + olympiads (twelve years) with a space of three years. + +Writers of elegiac verse are addressed as (i. 2. 250) + + 'qui nobile gressu + extremo fraudatis opus'. + + Ye that cheat the noble march of your verse of its last stride. + +A new dawn is expressed by an astounding periphrasis (iv. 6. 15): + + ab Elysiis prospexit sedibus alter + Castor et hesternas risit Tithonia mensas. + + Castor in turn looked forth from the halls of Elysium and + Tithonus' bride made merry over yesterday's feasts. [Castor + and Pollux lived on alternate days.] + +There is, in fact, no limit in these poems to Statius' luxuriance in +far-fetched and often obscure mythological allusions. In spite, however, +of such cardinal defects as these, the _Silvae_ present a brilliant +though superficial picture of the cultured society of the day and +contain much that is pretty, and something that is poetic.[585] Take, +for instance, the poem in which the poet writes to console Atedius +Melior for the death of his favourite Glaucias, a _puer delicatus_. The +work is hopelessly clever and hopelessly insincere. Statius exaggerates +at once the charms of the dead boy and the grief of Atedius and himself. +But at the conclusion he works up an old commonplace into a very pretty +piece of verse. He has been describing the reception of Glaucias in the +underworld (ii. 1. 208): + + hic finis rapto! quin tu iam vulnera sedas + et tollis mersum luctu caput? omnia functa + aut moritura vides: obeunt noctesque diesque + astraque, nee solidis prodest sua machina terris. + nam populos, mortale genus, plebisque caducae + quis fleat interitus? hos bella, hos aequora poscunt; + his amor exitio, furor his et saeva cupido, + ut sileam morbos; hos ora rigentia Brumae, + illos implacido letalis Sirius igni, + hos manet imbrifero pallens Autumnus hiatu. + quicquid init ortus, finem timet. ibimus omnes, + ibimus: immensis urnam quatit Aeacus ulnis. + ast hic quem gemimus, felix hominesque deosque + et dubios casus et caecae lubrica vitae + effugit, immunis fatis. non ille rogavit, + non timuit meruitve mori: nos anxia plebes, + nos miseri, quibus unde dies suprema, quis aevi + exitus incertum, quibus instet fulmen ab astris, + quae nubes fatale sonet. + + Such is the rest thy lost darling has won. Come, soothe thine + anguish and lift up thy head that droops with woe. Thou seest + all things dead or soon to die. Day and night and stars all + pass away, nor shall its massive fabric save the world from + destruction. As for the tribes of earth, this mortal race, and + the death of multitudes all doomed to pass away, why bewail them? + Some war, some ocean, demands for its prey: some die of love, + others of madness, others of fierce desire, to say naught of + pestilence: some winter's freezing breath, others the baleful + Sirius' cruel fire, others again pale autumn, gaping with rainy + maw, awaits for doom: all that hath birth must tremble before + death: we all must go, must go: Aeacus shakes the urn of fate in + his vast arms. But this child, whom we bewail, is happy, and has + escaped the power of men and gods, the strokes of chance, and the + slippery paths of our dark life: fate cannot touch him: he did not + ask, nor fear, nor deserve to die. But we poor anxious rabble, we + miserable men, know not whence our last day shall come, what shall + be the end of life, for whom the thunderbolt shall bring death from + the starry sky, nor what cloud shall roar forth our doom. + +There is nothing great about such work, but it is a neat and elegant +treatment of a familiar theme, while the phrase _non ille rogavit, non +timuit meruitve mori_ has a pathos worthy of a better cause.[586] Far +more suited, however, to the genius of Statius, with its lack of +inspiration, its marvellous polish, and its love of minutiae, are the +descriptions of villas, temples, baths, and works of art in which he so +frequently indulges. The poem on the statuette of Hercules (ii. 6) is a +wonder of cunning craftsmanship, the poems on the baths of Etruscus, +the villa of Vopiscus at Tibur, and of Pollius at Surrentum, for all +their exaggeration and affectation, reveal a genuine love for the +beauties of art and nature. It is true that he shows a preference for +nature trimmed by the hand of man, but his pleasure is genuine and its +expression often delicate. Who would not delight to live in a house +such as Pollius had built at Sorrento (ii. 2. 45)?-- + + haec domus ortus + aspicit et Phoebi tenerum iubar; illa cadentem + detinet exactamque negat dimittere lucem, + cum iam fessa dies et in aequora montis opaci + umbra cadit vitreoque natant praetoria ponto. + haec pelagi clamore fremunt, haec tecta sonoros + ignorant fluctus terraeque silentia malunt. + * * * * * + quid mille revolvam + culmina visendique vices? sua cuique voluptas + atque omni proprium thalamo mare, transque iacentem + Nerea diversis servit sua terra fenestris. + + One chamber looks to the east and the young beam of Phoebus; + one stays him as he falls and will not part with the expiring + light, when the day is outworn and the shadow of the dark mount + falls athwart the deep, and the great castle swims reflected in + the glassy sea. These chambers are full of the sound of ocean, + those know not the roaring waves, but rather love the silence of + the land.... Why should I recount thy thousand roofs and every + varied view? Each has a joy that is its own: each chamber has + its own sea, and each several window its own tract of land seen + across the sea beneath. + +We cannot, perhaps, share his enthusiasm in the minute description that +follows of the coloured marbles used in the decoration of the house, and +his panegyric of Pollius leaves us cold, but we quit the poem with a +pleasant impression of the Bay of Naples and of the poet who loved it so +well. It recalls in its way the charming, if over-elaborate and +exaggerated, landscapes of the younger Pliny in his letters on the +source of the Clitumnus and on his Tuscan and Laurentine villas.[587] +But it is in two poems of a very different kind that the _Silvae_ reach +their high-water mark. The _Genethliacon_ _Lucani_, despite its +artificial form and the literary conventions with which it is +overloaded, reveals a genuine enthusiasm for the dead poet, and is +couched in language of the utmost grace and verse of extraordinary +melody; the hendecasyllables of Statius lack the poignant vigour of the +Catullan hendecasyllables, but they have a music of their own which is +scarcely less remarkable.[588] The lament of Calliope for her lost +nursling will hold its own with anything of a similar kind produced by +the Silver Age (ii 7. 88): + + 'o saevae nimium gravesque Parcae! + o numquam data longa fata summis! + cur plus, ardua, casibus patetis? + cur saeva vice magna non senescunt? + sic natum Nasamonii Tonantis + post ortus obitusque fulminatos + angusto Babylon premit sepulcro. + sic fixum Paridis manu trementis + Peliden Thetis horruit cadentem. + sic ripis ego murmurantis Hebri + non mutum caput Orpheos sequebar + sic et tu (rabidi nefas tyranni!) + iussus praecipitem subire Lethen, + dum pugnas canis arduaque voce + das solatia grandibus sepulcris, + (o dirum scelus! o scelus!) tacebis.' + sic fata est leviterque decidentes + abrasit lacrimas nitente plectro. + + 'Ah! fates severe and all too cruel! O life that for our + noblest ne'er is long! Why are earth's loftiest most prone to + fall? Why by hard fate do her great ones ne'er grow old? Even + so the Nasamonian Thunderer's son like lightning rose, like + lightning passed away, and now is laid in a narrow tomb at + Babylon. So Thetis shuddered, when the son of Peleus fell + transfixed by Paris' coward hand. So I, too, by the banks of + murmuring Hebrus followed the head of Orpheus that could not + cease from song. So now must thou--out on the mad tyrant's + crime!--go down untimely to the wave of Lethe, and while thou + singest of war and with lofty strain givest comfort to the + sepulchres of the mighty,--O infamy, O monstrous infamy!--art + doomed to sudden silence.' So spake she, and with gleaming + quill wiped away the tears that gently fell. + +But more beautiful as pure poetry, and indeed unique in Latin, is the +well-known invocation to Sleep (v. 4): + + crimine quo merui iuvenis,[589] placidissime divum, + quove errore miser, donis ut solus egerem, + Somne, tuis? tacet omne pecus volucresque feraeque + et simulant fessos curvata cacumina somnos, + nec trucibus fluviis idem sonus; occidit horror + aequoris, et terris maria acclinata quiescunt. + septima iam rediens Phoebe mihi respicit aegras + stare genas; totidem Oetaeae Paphiaeque revisunt + lampades et totiens nostros Tithonia questus + praeterit et gelido spargit miserata flagello. + unde ego sufficiam? non si mihi lumina mille + quae sacer alterna tantum statione tenebat + Argus et haud umquam vigilabat corpore toto. + at nunc heus! aliquis longa sub nocte puellae + bracchia nexa tenens ultro te, Somne, repellit: + inde veni! nec te totas infundere pennas + luminibus compello meis (hoc turba precetur + laetior): extremo me tange cacumine virgae + (sufficit) aut leviter suspenso poplite transi. + + By what crime, O Sleep, most gentle of gods, or by what error, + have I, that am young, deserved--woe's me!--that I alone should + lack thy blessing? All cattle and birds and beasts of the wild + lie silent; the curved mountain ridges seem as though they slept + the sleep of weariness, and wild torrents have hushed their + roaring. The waves of the deep have fallen and the seas, reclined + on earth's bosom, take their rest. Yet now Phoebe returning gazes + for the seventh time on my sleepless weary eyes. For the seventh + time the lamps of Oeta and Paphos (i.e. Hesperus and Venus) revisit + me, for the seventh time Tithonus' bride sweeps over my complaint + and all her pity is to touch me with her frosty scourge. How may I + find strength to endure? I needs must faint, even had I the + thousand eyes which divine Argos kept fixed upon his prey in + shifting relays (so only could he wake, nor watched he ever with + all his body). But now--woe's me!--another, his arms locked about + his love, spurneth thee from him all the long night. Leave him, O + Sleep, for me. I bid thee not sweep upon my eyes with all the force + of thy fanning pinions. That is the prayer of happier souls than I. + Touch me only with the tip of thy wand--that shall suffice--or + lightly pass over my head with hovering feet. + +Here Statius far surpasses himself. Had all else that he wrote been +merely mediocre, this one short poem would have given him a claim on the +grateful memory of posterity. The note it strikes is one that has never +been heard before in Latin poetry and is never heard again. We have +wavered before as to Statius' title to the name of true poet; this +should turn the balance in his favour. Great he is not for a moment to +be called; Lucan, with all his faults, stands high above him; Valerius +Flaccus, aided largely by his happier choice of subject, is in some +respects his superior; but for finish, dexterity, and fluency, Statius +is unique among the post-Augustans. Just as an actor who has acquired a +perfect mastery of all the tricks and technique of the stage may +sometimes cheat us into believing him to be a great actor, though in +reality neither intellect, presence, nor voice qualify him for such high +praise, so it is with Statius. His facility and cunning workmanship hold +us amazed, and at times the reader is on the verge of yielding up his +saner judgement before such charm. But the revulsion of feeling comes +inevitably. Statius had not learned the art of concealing his art. The +unreality of his work soon makes itself felt, and his skill becomes in +time little better than a weariness and a mockery. + + + +CHAPTER X + + +SILIUS ITALICUS + +Titus Catius Silius Italicus[590] is best known to us as the author of +the longest and worst of surviving Roman epics. But by a strange irony +of fate we have a fuller knowledge of his life and character than is +granted us in the case of any other poet of the Silver Age, with the +exception of Seneca and Persius. His social position, his personal +character, his cultured and artistic tastes, rather than any merit +possessed by his verse, have won him a place in the picture-gallery of +Pliny the younger.[591] We would gladly sacrifice the whole of the +'obituary notice' transmitted to us by the kindly garrulity of Pliny, +for a few more glimpses into the life of Juvenal, or even of Valerius +Flaccus, but the picture is interesting and even attractive, and awakens +feelings of a less unfriendly nature than are usually entertained for +the plodding poetaster who had the misfortune to write the seventeen +books of _Punica_. + +Silius was born in the year 25 or 26 A.D.[592]; of his family and place +of birth we know nothing.[593] He first appears in the unpleasing guise +of a 'delator' in the reign of Nero, in the last year of whose +principate he filled the position of consul (68 A.D.). + +In the 'year of the four emperors' (69 A.D.) he is found as the friend +and counsellor of Vitellius;[594] his conduct, we are told, was wise and +courteous. He subsequently won renown by his admirable administration of +the province of Asia, and then retired from the public gaze to the +seclusion of a life of study.[595] The amiability and virtue which +marked the leisure of his later years wiped out the dark stain that had +besmirched his youth. 'Men hastened to salute him and to do him honour. +When not engaged in writing, he would pass the day in learned converse +with the friends and acquaintances--no mere fortune-hunters--who +continually thronged the chambers where he would lie for long hours upon +his couch. His verses, which he would sometimes submit to the judgement +of the critics by giving recitations, show diligence rather than genius. +The increasing infirmities of age led him to forsake Rome for Campania; +not even the accession of a new princeps induced him to quit his +retirement. It is not less creditable to Caesar to have permitted than +to Silius to have ventured on such a freedom. He was a connoisseur even +to the verge of extravagance. He had several country houses in the same +district, and often abandoned those which he already possessed, if some +new house chanced to catch his fancy. He had a large library, and a fine +collection of portraits and statues, and was an enthusiastic admirer of +works of art which he was not fortunate enough to possess. He kept +Vergil's birthday with greater care than his own, especially when he was +at Naples, where he would visit the poet's tomb with all the veneration +due to the temple of a god.' He died[596] in his Neapolitan villa of +self-chosen starvation. His health had failed him. He was afflicted by +an incurable tumour, and ran to meet death with a fortitude that nothing +could shake. 'His life was happy and prosperous to his last hour; his +one sorrow was the death of his younger son; the elder (and better) of +his sons, who survives him, has had a distinguished career, and has even +reached the consulate.' From Epictetus[597] we gather, what we might +infer from the manner of his death, that he was a Stoic. From +Martial,[598] who addresses him in the interested language of flattery +as the leading orator of his day, and as the maker of immortal verse, we +learn that he was the proud possessor of the Tusculan villa of Cicero, +and that he actually owned the tomb of the poet whom he loved so well. + +Silius' life is more interesting than his verse. Like Lucan, he elected +to write historical epic, and in his choice of a subject was undoubtedly +wiser than his younger contemporary. For instead of selecting a period +so dangerously recent as the civil strife in which the republic +perished, he went back to the Second Punic War, to a time sufficiently +remote to permit of greater freedom of treatment and to enable him to +avoid the peril of unduly republican ecstasies. In making this choice he +was in all probability influenced by his reverence for Vergil. He, too, +would sing of Rome's rise to greatness, would write a truly national +epic on the great theme which Vergil so inimitably foreshadowed in the +dying words of the Carthaginian queen, would link the most stirring +years of Rome's history with the past, just as Vergil had linked the +epic of Rome's founder to the greatness of the years that were to come. +Ennius had been before him, but he might well aspire to remodel and +develop the rude annalistic work of the earlier poet.[599] The brilliant +history of Livy, with its vivid battle-scenes and its sonorous speeches, +was a quarry that might provide him with the richest material. +Unhappily, less wise than Lucan, he made the fatal mistake of adopting +the principles set forth by Eumolpus, the dissolute poet in the novel of +Petronius.[600] + +The intrusion of the mythological method into historical epic is +disastrous. It is barely tolerable in the pseudo-historical epic of +Tasso. In the military narrative of Silius it is monstrous and +insufferable. His reverence for Vergil led him to control, or attempt to +control, every action of the war by divine intervention. + +Juno reappears in her old rôle as the implacable enemy of Rome. It is +she that kindles Hannibal's hatred for Rome, causes the outbreak of the +war,[601] and, disguised as the lake-god Trasimenus, spurs him on to +Rome.[602] It is at her instigation that Anna Perenna kindles him to +fresh effort by the news that Fabius Cunctator is no longer in command +against him,[603] that Somnus moderates his designs after Cannae.[604] +It is Juno that conceals the Carthaginian forces in a cloud at +Cannae,[605] and that rescues Hannibal from the fury of Scipio at +Zama.[606] Against Juno is arrayed Venus, the protector of the sons of +Aeneas. She persuades her husband Vulcan to dry up the Trebia, whose +flood threatens the Romans with yet greater disaster than they have +already suffered,[607] she unnerves and demoralizes the Punic army by +the luxury of Capua.[608] Minerva and Mars play minor parts, the former +favouring Carthage, the latter Rome.[609] Nothing is gained by this +dreary and superannuated mechanism, while the poem is yet further +hampered by the other encumbrances of epic commonplace. + +The _Thebais_ of Statius is full of episodes that only find a place +because Vergil had borrowed similar episodes from Homer. But the +_Thebais_ is a professedly mythological epic, and Statius commands a +light touch and brilliant colours. The reader merely groans when the +heavy-handed Silius introduces his wondrously engraven shield,[610] his +funeral games,[611] his Amazon,[612] his dismal catalogues,[613] his +Nekuia.[614] In the latter episode, he even introduces the Vergilian +Sibyl of Cumae; it is a redeeming feature that Scipio does not make a +'personally conducted tour' through the nether world; such a direct +challenge to the Sixth Aeneid was perhaps impossible for so true a lover +of Vergil as Silius. The Homeric method of necromancy is wisely +preferred, and the Sibyl reveals the past and future of Rome as the +spirits pass before them. But there are no illuminating flashes of +imagination; the best feature of the episode is an uninspired and frigid +appropriateness. Nothing serves better than the failure of Silius to +show at once the daring and the genius of Vergil, when he ransacked the +wealth of Homer and + + from a greater Greek + Borrowed as beautifully as the moon + The fire o' the sun. + +Apart from these unintelligent plagiarisms and vexatious absurdities, +the actual form and composition of the work show some skill. The poet +passes from scene to scene, from battle to battle, with ease and +assurance in the earlier books. It is only with the widening of the +area of conflict that the work loses its connexion. The earlier and +less important exploits of the elder Scipios were wisely dismissed in +a few words.[615] The poet avoided the mistake of undue scrupulosity +in respect of chronology and makes no attempt to pose as a scientific +military historian. But it is a serious defect that he should fail to +show the significance of the successful 'peninsular campaign' of the +younger Scipio. Here, as in the descriptions of the siege of Syracuse, +the reader is haunted by the feeling that these great events are +regarded as merely episodic. Even the thrilling march of Hasdrubal, +ending in the dramatic catastrophe of the Metaurus, is hardly given +its full weight. There is more true historical and dramatic +appreciation in Horace's + + Karthagini iam non ego nuntios + mittam superbos: occidit, occidit + spes omnis et fortuna nostri + nominis Hasdrubale interempto + +than in all the ill-proportioned verbiage of Silius. The task of setting +forth the course of a conflict that flamed all over the Western +Mediterranean world was not easy, and Silius' failure was +proportionately great. Nay--if it be not merely the hallucination of a +weary reader--he seems to have tired of his task. The first twelve books +take us no further than Hannibal's appearance before the walls of Rome, +and the war is summarily brought to a close in the last five books, +although these, it should be noted, are by no means free from irrelevant +matter. The last three books above all are jejune and perfunctory, and +it has been suggested that they lack the final revision that the rest of +the work had received. Be this as it may, the result of the inadequate +treatment of the close of the war is that the reader lays down the poem +with no feeling of the greatness of Rome's triumph. + +Yet even with these faults of composition, a genuine poet might have +wrought a great work from the rough ore of history. The scene is +thronged with figures as remarkable and inspiring as history affords. +There is the fierce irresistible Hannibal, the sagacious Fabius, the +elder Scipios, tragic victims of disaster, the younger Scipio, glorious +with the light of victory as the clouds of defeat are rolled away, +Hasdrubal hurled to ruin at the supreme crisis of the war, Marcellus the +victorious, beleaguered[616] and beleaguerer, the ill-starred Paulus, +the Senate of Rome that thanked the fugitive Varro because he had not +despaired of the republic,[617] and above all the gigantic figure of +Rome herself, unshaken, indomitable, triumphant. These are no dry bones +that the breath of the poet alone should make them live. They breathe +immortal in the prose of Livy, in the verse of Silius they are vain +'shadows of men foredone'. The Hannibal of Silius is not the dazzling +villain of Livy, the incarnation of military daring and 'Punic faith'. +Mistaken patriotism does not lead Silius to blacken the character of +Rome's great antagonist; he strives to do him justice; he is as true a +patriot, as chivalrous[618] a warrior, as any of the Roman leaders. But +he does not live; he is merely the stock warrior of epic, and his +exploits fail to compel belief. + +Fabius, the least romantic, though not the least interesting figure in +the war, stands forth more clearly. The prosaic Silius is naturally most +successful with his most prosaic hero. The younger Scipio is the +embodiment of _pietas_, an historical Aeneas, without his prototype's +most distressing weaknesses, but with all his dullness, and lacking the +halo of legend and the splendour of the founder of the race to glorify +him. Paulus has the merit of true courage, and his consciousness of his +colleague's folly invests him with a certain pathos. He makes the best +death of any Silian warrior, and deserves the eulogy passed on him by +Hannibal. The rest are lay-figures, with even less individuality and +life. Silius failed to depict character. He fails, too, to show any true +sense of the political greatness of Rome. The genius of Rome and the +genius of Carthage are never confronted or contrasted; the greatness of +Rome in defeat, the scenes of Rome agonizing in the grip of unexpected +disaster, are never brought home to the reader with the least degree of +vividness. The great battles are described at tedious length[619] and +rendered ridiculous by the lavish introduction of Homeric single +combats. If Silius is rarely bombastic or rendered absurd by the +grossness of his exaggeration, he yet fails to see what Lucan saw +plainly--that for the author of a military historical epic, it is the +issues of the war, big with the fate of generations to come, the temper +of the combatants, the character of the chief actors, that are the +really interesting elements. Almost alone of Silver Latin poets he shows +no real gifts of rhetoric and epigram, no virtuosity of diction, no +brilliance of description. We lack the declamation of Lucan, the +apostrophes on the issues of the war, the vivid character-sketches of +the generals, the political enthusiasm, the thunder of the oratory of +general and statesman. The battle-speeches of Livy, whose glow and +vigour half atone for their theatricality, have been made use of by +Silius, but find only a feeble echo in his lifeless verse. Nothing +stands out sharply defined; the epic lacks impetus and has no salient +points; outlines are blurred in an unpoetic haze. The history of Tacitus +has been described as history 'seen by lightning flashes'. Such should +be the history of historical epic. In its stead Silius presents us with +a confused welter of archaistic battle, learned allusion, and epic +commonplace. + +'Aequalis liber est, Cretice, qui malus est,' cries Martial[620] to a +friend. The epigram would apply to the __Punica_. There is scarcely a +passage in the whole work that reveals genuine poetic imagination. +Silius is free from many of the faults of his contemporaries, the faults +that spring from aspirations towards originality. He is content to be an +imitator. In his style, as in his composition, Vergil is an obsession. +But the echoes are muffled or unmusical. Gifted with ease and fluency +and--for his age--comparative lucidity of diction, Silius has no true +ear for music, nor true eye for beauty. His verse moves naturally but +heavily. He is the most spondaic poet[621] of his age, and the spondaic +rhythm is not alleviated by artistic variety of pause or judicious use +of elision. Lucan is heavy, but he hits hard and is weighty in the best +sense. Silius rolls on lumbering and unperturbed, never rising or +falling. He has all the faults of Ovid, and, in spite of his laboured +imitation, none of the merits of Vergil. Nothing can kindle him. The +most heroic and the most tragic of all the stories of the struggle for +the empire of the western world is that of Regulus, the famous captive +of Carthage in the first Punic War.[622] The episode is skilfully and +naturally introduced. The story is told by an aged veteran of the first +Punic War to a descendant of Regulus, who has fled wounded from the rout +of Trasimene. Silius succeeds in making one of the noblest stories in +history lifeless and dull. The narration opens with the description of a +melodramatic struggle between Regulus and a monstrous serpent in Africa, +scarcely an harmonious prelude for the simple and solemn climax of the +hero's life, his return to his home to fix 'the Senate's wavering will', +his departure unmoved to Carthaginian captivity, with the certainty of +death and torture before him. Silius treats this tragic episode simply +and severely; there is nothing to offend the taste, but there is equally +nothing to move the heart; the description is merely dull; it lacks the +fire of life and the finer imagination. Here, again, we turn for relief +to Horace with his brief but incomparable + + atqui sciebat quae sibi barbarus + tortor pararet, non aliter tamen + dimovit obstantes propinquos + et populum reditus morantem + quam si clientum longa negotia + diiudicata lite relinqueret, + tendens Venefranos in agros + aut Lacedaemonium Tarentum (iii. 5. 49). + +Take the corresponding passage in Silius. Regulus concludes his speech +to the Senate as follows (vi. 485): + + exposcunt Libyes nobisque dedere + haec referenda, pari libeat si pendere bellum + foedere et ex aequo geminas conscribere leges. + sed mihi sit Stygios ante intravisse penates + talia quam videam ferientes pacta Latinos, + haec fatus Tyriae sese iam reddidit irae, + nec monitus spernente graves fidosque senatu + Poenorum dimissa cohors. quae maesta repulsa + ac minitans capto patrias properabat ad oras. + prosequitur volgus, patres, ac planctibus ingens + personat et luctu campus. revocare libebat + interdum et iusto raptum retinere dolore. + + 'The Libyans ask whether you will cease from war on equal + terms and draw up a treaty wherein each side keeps its own. + They bid me bring back your reply. But may I sooner enter the + gates of hell than see the Latins make such a compact!' He + spake, and yielded himself back once more to the mercies of + the Tyrian's hate: the Senate spurned not his words of weight, + his loyal warning. The Punic embassy was dismissed. Cast down + at their rebuff, and threatening their captive, they hastened + homeward to their native shores. The people, the fathers, follow + them: the whole vast plain resounds with weeping and beating of + breasts, and ever and again they strove to recall the hero and + with just grief to retain him as he was snatched away from them. + +Criticism is needless. One passage is in the grand style, the other is +not; one is mere verse-making, the other the purest poetry. Silius has +nothing of _curiosa felicitas_ or even of the more common gift of vague +sensuous charm. Even on such hackneyed themes as the choice of Hercules, +with Scipio playing the part of Hercules, he fails to rise to the +conventional prettiness of which even a Calpurnius Siculus would have +been capable. Virtue and pleasure are rendered equally unattractive, and +we pity Scipio for having to make the choice. With the other poets of +the age it is easy to select passages to illustrate their characteristic +merits and defects. But from the dull monotony of Silius it is hard to +choose. He does not read well even in selections. Apart from the general +absurdity of the conception of the poem he is rarely grotesque. His +taste is chastened by his love of Vergil, and the absence of genuine +rhetorical power saves him from dangerous exuberance. The tricks of +rhetoric are there, but the edge of his wit is dull, and he has no speed +nor energy. For similar reasons he never attains sublimity. There are +faint traces of the _Romana gravitas_ in lines such as + + iamque tibi veniet tempus quo maxima rerum + nobilior sit Roma mails (iii. 584). + + And the time shall come when Rome, the greatest thing in + all the world, shall be yet more ennobled by her woes. + +The idea that the trials of Rome shall be as a 'refiner's fire' has a +certain grandeur, but the expression of the idea is commonplace. The +same is true of the elaboration of the Vergilian _parcere subiectis_, +where the poet describes Marcellus' clemency to the vanquished +Syracusans, and makes brief allusion to the unhappy death of Archimedes +(xiv. 673): + + sic parcere victis + pro praeda fuit et sese contenta nec ullo + sanguine pollutis plausit Victoria pennis. + tu quoque ductoris lacrimas, memorande, tulisti, + defensor patriae, meditantem in pulvere formas + nec turbatum animi tanta feriente ruina. + + So mercy toward the conquered took the place of rapine, + and Victory was content with herself and clapped her wings + unstained by any blood. Thou, too, immortal sage, defender + of thy country, didst win the meed of the conqueror's tears, + thou whom ruin smote down, all unmoved, as thou broodedst + o'er figures traced in the dust. + +To find Silius at his best--not a very exalted best--we must turn to the +passage where he depicts the feelings of Hannibal on finding the body of +Paulus on the field of Cannae (x. 513): + + quae postquam aspexit, geminatus gaudia ductor + Sidonius 'Fuge, Varro,' inquit 'fuge, Varro, superstes, + dum iaceat Paulus. patribus Fabioque sedenti + et populo consul totas edissere Cannas. + concedam hanc iterum, si lucis tanta cupido est, + concedam tibi, Varro, fugam. at, cui fortia et hoste + me digna haud parvo caluerunt corda vigore, + funere supremo et tumuli decoretur honore. + quantus, Paule, iaces! qui tot mihi milibus unus + maior laetitiae causa est. cum fata vocabunt, + tale precor nobis salva Karthagine letum.' + * * * * * + 'i decus Ausoniae, quo fas est ire superbas (572) + virtute et factis animas. tibi gloria leto + iam parta insigni. nostros Fortuna labores + versat adhuc casusque iubet nescire futuros.' + haec Libys, atque repens crepitantibus undique flammis + aetherias anima exultans evasit in auras. + + When this he saw, the Sidonian chief was filled with double + joy and cried, 'Fly, Varro, fly and survive defeat; enough that + Paulus lieth low! Go, consul, tell all the tale of Cannae to the + fathers, to laggard Fabius, to the people. If so thou long'st to + live, I will grant thee, Varro, to flee once more as thou fleest + to-day. But let him, whose heart was bold and worthy to be my foe, + and all aflame with mighty valour, be honoured with the last rites + of burial and all the honour of the tomb. How great, Paulus, art + thou in the death! Thy fall alone gives greater cause for joy than + the fall of so many thousands. Such, when the fates shall summon me, + such I pray be my fate, so Carthage stand unshaken.' ... 'Go, + Ausonia's glory, where the souls of those whom valour and noble + deeds make proud may go. _Thou_ hast won great glory by thy death. + For _us_, Fortune still tosses us to and fro in weltering labour + and forbids us to see what chance the future hath in store.' So + spake the Libyan, and straightway from the crackling flame the + exulting spirit soared skyward through the air. + +The picture of the soul of Paulus soaring heavenward from the funeral +pyre, exultant at the honour paid him by his great foe, is the nearest +approach to pure poetic imagination in the whole weary length of the +_Punica_.[623] But the pedestrian muse of Silius is more at home in the +ingenious description of the manoeuvres and counter-manoeuvres of Fabius +and Hannibal in the seventh book; the similes with which the passage +closes are hackneyed, but their application is both new and clever: + +(vii. 91) + iam Fabius tacito procedens agmine et arte + bellandi lento similis, praecluserat omnes + fortunaeque hostique vias. discedere signis + haud licitum summumquc decus, quo tollis ad astra + imperil, Romane, caput, parere docebat + * * * * * +(123) + cassarum sedet irarum spectator et alti + celsus colle iugi domat exultantia corda + infractasque minas dilato Marte fatigat + sollers cunctandi Fabius, ceu nocte sub atra + munitis pastor stabulis per ovilia clausum + impavidus somni servat pecus: effera saevit + atque impasta truces ululatus turba luporum + exercet morsuque quatit restantia claustra. + inritus incepti movet inde atque Apula tardo + arva Libys passu legit ac nunc valle residit + conditus occulta, si praecipitare sequentem + atque inopinata detur circumdare fraude; + nunc nocturna parat caecae celantibus umbris + furta viae retroque abitum fictosque timores + adsimulat, tum castra citus deserta relicta + ostentat praeda atque invitat prodigus hostem: + qualis Maeonia passim Maeandrus in ora, + cum sibi gurgitibus flexis revolutus oberrat. + nulla vacant incepta dolis: simul omnia versat + miscetque exacuens varia ad conamina mentem, + sicut aquae splendor radiatus lampade solis + dissultat per tecta vaga sub imagine vibrans + luminis et tremula laquearia verberat umbra. + + Now Fabius advanced, leading his host in silence and--such was + his cunning--like to a laggard in war; so closed he all the + paths whereby fortune or the foe might fall on him. No soldier + might quit the standards, and he taught that the height of glory, + even that glory, Roman, that raises thine imperial head to the + stars, was obedience.... Fabius sits high on the mountain slopes + watching the foeman's rage and tames his impetuous ardour, humbles + his threats, and, with skilful delay, postpones the day of battle + and wears out his patience: as when through the darkness of the + night a shepherd, fearless and sleepless in his well-guarded byre, + keeps his flock penned within the fold: without, the wolf-pack, + fierce and famished, howls fiercely, and with its teeth shakes the + gates that bar its entrance. Baffled in his enterprise, the Libyan + departs thence and slowly marches across the Apulian fields and + pitches his camp deep in a hidden vale, if perchance he may hurl + the Roman to ruin as he follows in his track and surround him by + hidden guile. Now he prepares a midnight ambush in some dark pass + beneath the shelter of the gloom, and falsely feigns retreat and + fear; then, swiftly leaving his camp and booty, he displays them to + the foe, and lavishly invites a raid. Even as on Maeonian shores + Maeander with winding channel turns upon himself and wanders far + and wide, now here, now there. Naught he attempts, but has some + guile in it. He weighs every scheme, sharpens his mind for divers + exploits, and blends contrivance with contrivance, even as the + gleam of water lit by the sun's torch dances through a house + quivering, and the reflected beam goes wandering and lashes the + roof with tremulous reflection. + +There is in this passage nothing approaching real excellence, but its +dexterity may reasonably command some respect. It is dexterity of which +Silius has little to show. He is well-read in history and its bastard +sister mythology. At his best he can string together his incidents with +some skill, and he makes use of his learning in the accepted fashion of +his day.[624] The poem is deluged with proper names and learned +aetiology, though he has no conception of that magical use of proper +names and legendary allusions which is the secret of the masters of +literary epic.[625] + +But the absence of any true poetic genius makes him the most tedious of +Latin authors, and his unenviable reputation is well deserved. For the +poetry of the struggle with Carthage for the + + plumed troops and the big wars + That make ambition virtue, + +for 'all quality, pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war', we +must go to the inspired prose of Livy. + +And yet it is well that the _Punica_ should have been preserved. It is +well to know that as France has its _Henriade_ and England its _Madoc_, +so Rome had its _Punica_. It is our one direct glimpse into the work of +that cultured society, devastated by the 'scribendi caccethes', as +Juvenal puts it, or, from the point of view of the facile Pliny, adorned +by the number of its poets.[626] The _Punica_ have won an immortality +far other than that prophesied for them by Martial,[627] but they show +us the work of a cultured Roman gentleman of his day, who, if he had +small capacity, had a high enthusiasm for letters, who had diligence if +he had not genius, and was possessed by a love for the supreme poet in +whose steps he followed, a passion so sincere that it may win from his +scanty readers at least a partial forgiveness for the inadequacy of his +imitation and for the suffering inflicted on all those who have essayed +the dreary adventure of reading the seventeen books that bear his name. + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +MARTIAL + +Marcus Valerius Martialis, like Quintilian, Seneca, and Lucan, was a +Spaniard by birth, and, unlike those writers, never became thoroughly +reconciled to life at Rome. He was born at Bilbilis,[628] a small town +of Hispania Tarraconensis. The exact year of his birth is uncertain; but +as the tenth book of his epigrams, written between 95 and 98 A. D., +contains a reference (24) to his fifty-seventh birthday, he must have +been born between 38 and 41 A. D. His birthday was the 1st of March, a +fact to which he owes his name Martialis.[629] Of the position of his +parents, Valerius Fronto and Flaccilla,[630] we have no evidence. That +they were not wealthy is clear from the circumstances of their son. But +they were able to give him a regular literary education,[631] although, +unlike his fellow-countrymen whom we have mentioned above, he was +educated in his native province. But the life of a provincial did not +satisfy him. Conscious, perhaps, of his literary gifts, he went, in 64 +A.D.,[632] like so many a young provincial, to make his fortune at Rome. +There he attached himself as client to the powerful Spanish family of +the Senecas, and found a friendly reception also in the house of +Calpurnius Piso.[633] But fortune was against him; as he was +congratulating himself on his good luck in starting life at Rome under +such favourable auspices, the Pisonian conspiracy (65 A.D.) failed, and +his patrons fell before the wrath of Nero.[634] His career must be +commenced anew. Of his life from this point to the reign of Domitian we +know little. But this much is certain, that he endured all the +indignities and hardships of a client's life,[635] and that he chose +this degrading career in preference to the active career of the Roman +bar. He had no taste for oratory, and rejected the advice of his friend +Gaius[636] and his distinguished compatriot Quintilian to seek a +livelihood as an advocate or as a politician. 'That is not life!' he +replies to Quintilian: + + vivere quod propero pauper nec inutilis annis, + da veniam: properat vivere nemo satis. + differat hoc patrios optat qui vincere census + atriaque immodicis artat imaginibus (ii. 90. 3). + +His ideals and ambitions were low, and his choice had, as we shall see, +a degrading effect upon his poetry. He chose rather to live on such +modest fortune as he may have possessed, on the client's dole, and such +gifts as his complimentary epigrams may have won from his patrons. These +gifts must have been in many cases of a trifling description,[637] but +they may occasionally have been on a more generous scale. At any rate, +by the year 94 A. D., we find him the possessor of a little farm at +Nomentum,[638] and a house on the Quirinal.[639] Although he must +presumably have written a considerable quantity of verse in his earlier +years, it is not till 80 A. D. that he makes an appearance on the stage +of literature. In that year the Flavian amphitheatre was consecrated by +the Emperor Titus, and Martial celebrated the fact by the publication of +his first book, the _Spectaculorum Liber_. It is of small literary +value, but it was his first step on the ladder of fame. Titus conferred +on him the _ius trium liberorum_, although he seems not to have entered +on the enjoyment of this privilege till the reign of Domitian.[640] He +thus first came in touch with the imperial circle. From this time +forward we get a continual stream of verse in fulsome praise of Domitian +and his freedman. But his flattery met with small reward. There are many +poems belauding the princeps, but few that thank him. The most that he +acquired by his flattery was the honorary military tribunate and his +elevation to the equestrian order.[641] Of material profit he got +little,[642] save such as his improved social position may have +conferred on him indirectly. + +Four years after the publication of the _Spectaculorum Liber_ (i.e. +later in 84 and 85)[643] he published two books, the thirteenth and +fourteenth, composed of neat but trifling poems on the presents (Xenia +and Apophoreta) which it was customary to give at the feast of the +Saturnalia. From this point his output was continuous and steady, as the +following table will show:[644] + +I, II. 85 or early in 86. + III. 87 or early in 88. + IV. December (Saturnalia) 88. + V. Autumn, 89. + VI. Summer or Autumn, 90. + VII. December, 92. + VIII. 93. + IX. Summer, 94. + X. 1. December, 95. + X. 2. 98. + XI. 97. + XII. Late in 101. + +His life during this period was uneventful. He lived expensively and +continually complains of lack of funds and of the miseries of a client's +life. Once only (about 88) the discomfort of his existence seems to have +induced him to abandon Rome. He took up his residence at Forum Cornelii, +the modern Imola, but soon returned to Rome.[645] It was not till 98 +that he decided to leave the capital for good and to return to his +Spanish home. A new princeps was on the throne. Martial had associated +his work too closely with Domitian and his court to feel at his ease +with Nerva. He sent the new emperor a selection from his tenth and +eleventh books, which we may, perhaps, conjecture to have been +expurgated. He denounced the dead Domitian in a brilliant epigram which +may have formed part of that selection, but which has only been +preserved to us by the scholiast on Juvenal (iv. 38): + + Flavia gens, quantum tibi tertius abstulit heres! + paene fuit tanti non habuisse duos. + + How much thy third has wronged thee, Flavian race! + 'Twere better ne'er to have bred the other brace. ANON. + +But he felt that times were changed and that there was no place now for +his peculiar talent for flattery (x. 72. 8): + + non est hic dominus sed imperator, + sed iustissimus omnium senator, + per quem de Stygia domo reducta est + siccis rustica Veritas capillis. + hoc sub principe, si sapis, caveto + verbis, Roma, prioribus loquaris. + + an emperor + Is ours, no master as of yore, + Himself the Senate's very crown + Of justice, who has called from down + In her deep Stygian duress + The hoyden Truth, with tangled tress. + Be wise, Rome, see you shape anew + Your tongue; your prince would have it true. + A. E. STREET. + +Let flattery fly to Parthia. Rome is no place for her (ib. 4). Martial +had made his name: he was read far and wide throughout the Empire.[646] +He could afford to retire from the city that had given him much fame and +much pleasure, but had balanced its gifts by a thousand vexations and +indignities. Pliny assisted him with journey-money, and after a +thirty-four years' sojourn in Italy he returned to Bilbilis to live a +life of _dolce far niente_. The kindness of a wealthy friend, a Spanish +lady named Marcella,[647] gave him an estate on which he lived in +comfort, if not in affluence. He published but one book in Spain, the +twelfth, written, he says in the preface, in a very few days. He lived +in peace and happiness, though at times he sighed for the welcome of the +public for whom he had catered so long,[648] and chafed under the lack +of sympathy and culture among his Spanish neighbours.[649] He died in +104. 'Martial is dead,' says Pliny, 'and I am grieved to hear it. He was +a man of genius, with a shrewd and vigorous wit. His verses are full of +point and sting, and as frank as they are witty. I provided him with +money for his journey when he left Rome; I owed it to my friendship for +him, and to the verses which he wrote in my honour'--then follows Mart. +x. 20--'Was I not right to speed him on his way, and am I not justified +in mourning his death, seeing that he wrote thus concerning me? He gave +me what he could, he would have given more had he been able. And yet +what greater gift can one man give another than by handing down his name +and fame to all eternity. I hear you say that Martial's verses will not +live to all eternity? You may be right; at any rate, he hoped for their +immortality when he wrote them' (Plin. _Ep._ iii. 21). + +Of Martial's character we shall have occasion to speak later. There +is nothing in the slight, but generous, tribute of Pliny that has to +be unsaid. + +Of the circles in which he moved his epigrams give us a brilliant +picture; of his exact relations with the persons whom he addresses it is +hard to speak with certainty. Many distinguished figures of the day +appear as the objects of his flattery. There are Spaniards, Quintilian, +Lucinianus Maternus and Canius Rufus, all distinguished men of letters, +the poets Silius Italicus, Stertinius Avitus, Arruntius Stella, the +younger Pliny, the orator Aquilius Regulus, Lentulus Sura, the friend of +Trajan, the rich knights, Atedius Melior, and Claudius Etruscus, the +soldier Norbanus, and many others. With Juvenal also he seems to have +enjoyed a certain intimacy. Statius he never mentions, although he must +have moved in the same circles.[650] His intimates--as might be +expected--are for the most part, as far as we can guess, of lower rank. +There are the centurions Varus and Pudens, Terentius Priscus his +compatriot, Decianus the Stoic from the Spanish town of Emerita, the +self-sacrificing Quintus Ovidius, Martial's neighbour at Nomentum and a +fellow-client of Seneca, and, above all, Julius Martialis. His enemies +and envious rivals are attacked and bespattered with filth in many an +epigram, but Martial, true to his promise in the preface to his first +book, conceals their true names from us. + +Of his _vie intime_ he tells us little. As far as we may judge, he was +unmarried. It is true that several of his epigrams purport to be +addressed to his wife. But two facts show clearly that this lady is +wholly imaginary. Even Martial could not have spoken of his wife in such +disgusting language as, for instance, he uses in xi. 104, while in +another poem (ii. 92) he clearly expresses his intention not to marry: + + natorum mihi ius trium roganti + Musarum pretium dedit mearum + solus qui poterat. valebis, uxor, + non debet domini perire munus. + +The honorary _ius trium liberorum_ had given him, he says, all that +marriage could have brought him. He has no intention of making the +emperor's generosity superfluous by taking a wife. He preferred the +untrammelled life of a bachelor. So only could he enjoy the pleasures +which for him meant 'life '. He is neither an impressive nor a very +interesting figure. He has many qualities that repel, even if we do not +take him too seriously; and though he may have been a pleasant and in +many respects most amiable companion, he has few characteristics that +arrest our attention or compel our respect. More will be said of his +virtues and his vices in the pages that follow. It is the artist rather +than the man that wakens our interest. + +In Martial we have a poet who devoted himself to the one class of poetry +which, apart from satire, the conditions of the Silver Age were +qualified to produce in any real excellence--the epigram. In a period +when rhetorical smartness and point were the predominant features of +literature, the epigram was almost certain to flourish. But Roman poets +in general, and Martial in particular, gave a character to the epigram +which has clung to it ever since, and has actually changed the +significance of the word itself. + +In the best days of the Greek epigram the prime consideration was not +that a poem should be pointed, but that it should be what is summed up +in the untranslatable French epithet _lapidaire_; that is to say, it +should possess the conciseness, finish, and relevance required for an +inscription on a monument. Its range was wide; it might express the +lover's passion, the mourner's grief, the artist's skill, the cynic's +laughter, the satirist's scorn. It was all poetry in miniature. Point is +not wanting, but its chief characteristics are delicacy and charm. 'No +good epigram sacrifices its finer poetical substance to the desire of +making a point, and none of the best depend on having a point at +all.'[651] Transplanted to the soil of Italy the epigram changes. The +less poetic Roman, with his coarse tastes, his brutality, his tendency +to satire, his appreciation of the incisive, wrought it to his own use. +In his hands it loses most of its sensuous and lyrical elements and +makes up for the loss by the cultivation of point. Above all, it becomes +the instrument of satire, stinging like a wasp where the satirist pure +and simple uses the deadlier weapons of the bludgeon and the rapier. + +The epigram must have been exceedingly plentiful from the very dawn of +the movement which was to make Rome a city of _belles-lettres_. It is +the plaything of the dilettante _littérateur_, so plentiful under the +empire.[652] Apart from the work of Martial, curiously few epigrams have +come down to us; nevertheless, in the vast majority of the very limited +number we possess the same Roman characteristics may be traced. In the +non-lyrical epigrams of Catullus, in the shorter poems of the _Appendix +Vergiliana_, there is the same vigour, the same coarse humour, the same +pungency that find their best expression in Martial. Even in the +epigrams attributed to Seneca in the _Anthologia Latina_ [653] something +of this may be observed, though for the most part they lack the personal +note and leave the impression of mere juggling with words. It is in this +last respect, the attention to point, that they show most affinity with +Martial. Only the epigrams in the same collection attributed to +Petronius[654] seem to preserve something of the Greek spirit of beauty +untainted by the hard, unlovely, incisive spirit of Rome. + +Martial was destined to fix the type of the epigram for the future. For +pure poetry he had small gifts. He was endowed with a warm heart, a real +love for simplicity of life and for the beauties of nature. But he had +no lyrical enthusiasm, and was incapable of genuine passion. He entered +heartwhole on all his amatory adventures, and left them with +indifference. Even the cynical profligacy of Ovid shows more capacity +for true love. At their best Martial's erotic epigrams attain to a +certain shallow prettiness,[655] for the most part they do not rise +above the pornographic. And even though he shows a real capacity for +friendship, he also reveals an infinite capacity for cringing or +impudent vulgarity in his relations with those who were merely patrons +or acquaintances. His needy circumstances led him, as we shall see, to +continual expressions of a peevish mendicancy, while the artificiality +and pettiness of the life in which he moved induced an excessive +triviality and narrowness of outlook. + +He makes no great struggle after originality. The slightness of his +themes and of his _genre_ relieved him of that necessity. Some of his +prettiest poems are mere variations on some of the most famous lyrics +of Catullus.[656] He pilfers whole lines from Ovid.[657] Phrase after +phrase suggests something that has gone before. But his plagiarism is +effected with such perfect frankness and such perfect art, that it +might well be pardoned, even if Martial had greater claims to be taken +seriously. As it is, his freedom in borrowing need scarcely be taken +into account in the consideration of our verdict. At the worst his +crime is no more than petty larceny. With all his faults, he has gifts +such as few poets have possessed, a perfect facility and a perfect +finish. Alone of poets of the period he rarely gives the impression of +labouring a point. Compared with Martial, Seneca and Lucan, Statius and +Juvenal are, at their worst, stylistic acrobats. But Martial, however +silly or offensive, however complicated or prosaic his theme, handles +his material with supreme ease. His points may often not be worth +making; they could not be better made. Moreover, he has a perfect ear; +his music may be trivial, but within its narrow limits it is +faultless.[658] He knows what is required of him and he knows his own +powers. He knows that his range is limited, that his sphere is +comparatively humble, but he is proud to excel in it. He has the +artist's self-respect without his vanity. + +His themes are manifold. He might have said, with even greater truth +than Juvenal, 'quidquid agunt homines, nostri est farrago libelli.' He +does not go beneath the surface, but almost every aspect of the +kaleidoscopic world of Rome receives his attention at one time or +another. His attitude is, on the whole, satirical, though his satire is +not inspired by deep or sincere indignation. He is too easy in his +morals and too good-humoured by temperament. He is often insulting, but +there is scarcely a line that breathes fierce resentment, while his +almost unparalleled obscenity precludes the intrusion of any genuine +earnestness of moral scorn in a very large number of his satiric +epigrams. On these points he shall speak for himself; he makes no +exacting claims. + +'I hope,' he says in the preface to his first book, 'that I have +exercised such restraint in my writings that no one who is possessed of +the least self-respect may have cause to complain of them. My jests are +never outrageous, even when directed against persons of the meanest +consideration. My practice in this respect is very different from that +of early writers, who abused persons without veiling their invective +under a pseudonym. Nay more, their victims were men of the highest +renown. My _jeux d'esprit_ have no _arrières-pensées_, and I hope that +no one will put an evil interpretation on them, nor rewrite my epigrams +by infusing his own malignance into his reading of them. It is a +scandalous injustice to exercise such ingenuity on what another has +written. I would offer some excuse for the freedom and frankness of my +language--which is, after all, the language of epigram--if I were +setting any new precedent. But all epigrammatists, Catullus, Marsus, +Pedo, Gaetulicus, have availed themselves of this licence of speech. +But if any one wishes to acquire notoriety by prudish severity, and +refuses to permit me to write after the good Roman fashion in so much +as a single page of my work, he may stop short at the preface, or even +at the title. Epigrams are written for such persons as derive pleasure +from the games at the Feast of Flowers. Cato should not enter my +theatre, but if he does enter it, let him be content to look on at the +sport which I provide. I think I shall be justified in closing my +preface with an epigram + + TO CATO + + Once more the merry feast of Flora's come, + With wanton jest to split the sides of Rome; + Yet come you, prince of prudes, to view the show. + Why come you? merely to be shocked and go?' + +He reasserts the kindliness of his heart and the excellence of his +intentions elsewhere: + + hunc servare modum nostri novere libelli; + parcere personis, dicere de vitiis (x. 33). + + For in my verses 'tis my constant care + To lash the vices, but the persons spare. + HAY. + +Malignant critics _had_ exercised their ingenuity in the manner which he +deprecated.[659] Worse still, libellous verse had been falsely +circulated as his: + + quid prodest, cupiant cum quidam nostra videri + si qua Lycambeo sanguine tela madent, + vipereumque vomant nostro sub nomine virus + qui Phoebi radios ferre diemque negant? (vii. 12. 5). + + But what does't avail, + If in bloodfetching lines others do rail, + And vomit viperous poison in my name, + Such as the sun themselves to own do shame? + ANON., 1695. + +In this respect his defence of himself is just. When he writes in a vein +of invective his victim is never mentioned by name. And we cannot assert +in any given case that his pseudonyms mask a real person. He may do no +more than satirize a vice embodied and typified in an imaginary +personality. + +He is equally concerned to defend himself against the obvious charges of +prurience and immorality: + + innocuos censura potest permittere lusus: + lasciva eat nobis pagina, vita proba[660] (i. 4. 7). + + Let not these harmless sports your censure taste! + My lines are wanton, but my life is chaste. + ANON., seventeenth century. + +This is no real defence, and even though we need not take Martial at his +word, when he accuses himself of the foulest vices, there is not the +slightest reason to suppose that chastity was one of his virtues. In +Juvenal's case we have reason to believe that, whatever his weaknesses, +he was a man of genuinely high ideals. Martial at his best shows himself +a man capable of fine feeling, but he gives no evidence of moral +earnestness or strength of character. On the other hand, to give him his +due, we must remember the standard of his age. Although he is lavish +with the vilest obscenities, and has no scruples about accusing +acquaintances of every variety of unnatural vice, it must be pointed out +that such accusations were regarded at Rome as mere matter for laughter. +The traditions of the old _Fescennina locutio_ survived, and with the +decay of private morality its obscenity increased. Caesar's veterans +could sing ribald verses unrebuked at their general's triumph, verses +unquotably obscene and casting the foulest aspersions on the character +of one whom they worshipped almost as a god. Caesar could invite +Catullus to dine in spite of the fact that such accusations formed the +matter of his lampoons. Catullus could insert similar charges against +the bridegroom for whom he was writing an _epithalamium_. The writing of +Priapeia was regarded as a reputable diversion. Martial's defence of his +obscenities is therefore in all probability sincere, and may have +approved itself to many reputable persons of his day. It was a defence +that had already been made in very similar language by Ovid and +Catullus,[661] and Martial was not the last to make it. But the fact +that Martial felt it necessary to defend himself shows that a body of +public opinion--even if not large or representative--did exist which +refused to condone this fashionable lubricity. Extenuating circumstances +may be urged in Martial's defence, but even to have conformed to the +standard of his day is sufficient condemnation; and it is hard to resist +the suspicion that he fell below it. His obscenities, though couched in +the most easy and pointed language, have rarely even the grace--if grace +it be--of wit; they are puerile in conception and infinitely disgusting. + +It is pleasant to turn to the better side of Martial's character. No +writer has ever given more charming expression to his affection for his +friends. It is for Decianus and Julius Martialis that he keeps the +warmest place in his heart. In poems like the following there is no +doubting the sincerity of his feeling or questioning the perfection of +its expression: + + si quis erit raros inter numerandus amicos, + quales prisca fides famaque novit anus, + si quis Cecropiae madidus Latiaeque Minervae + artibus et vera simplicitate bonus, + si quis erit recti custos, mirator honesti, + et nihil arcano qui roget ore deos, + si quis erit magnae subnixus robore mentis: + dispeream si non hic Decianus erit (i. 39). + + Is there a man whose friendship rare + With antique friendship may compare; + In learning steeped, both old and new, + Yet unpedantic, simple, true; + Whose soul, ingenuous and upright, + Ne'er formed a wish that shunned the light, + Whose sense is sound? If such there be, + My Decianus, thou art he. + PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH + +Even more charming, if less intense, is the exhortation to Julius +Martialis to live while he may, ere the long night come that knows +no waking: + + o mihi post nullos, Iuli, memorande sodales, + si quid longa fides canaque iura valent, + bis iam paene tibi consul tricensimus instat, + et numerat paucos vix tua vita dies. + non bene distuleris videas quae posse negari, + et solum hoc ducas, quod fuit, esse tuum. + exspectant curaeque catenatique labores: + gaudia non remanent, sed fugitiva volant. + haec utraque manu complexuque adsere toto: + saepe fluunt imo sic quoque lapsa sinu. + non est, crede mihi, sapientis dicere 'vivam '. + sera nimis vita est crastina: vive hodie (i. 15). + + Friend of my heart--and none of all the band + Has to that name older or better right: + Julius, thy sixtieth winter is at hand, + Far-spent is now life's day and near the night. + Delay not what thou would'st recall too late; + That which is past, that only call thine own: + Cares without end and tribulations wait, + Joy tarrieth not, but scarcely come, is flown. + Then grasp it quickly firmly to thy heart,-- + Though firmly grasped, too oft it slips away;-- + To talk of living is not wisdom's part: + To-morrow is too late: live thou to-day! + PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH + +Best of all is the retrospect of the long friendship which has united +him to Julius. It is as frank as it is touching: + + triginta mihi quattuorque messes + tecum, si memini, fuere, Iuli. + quarum dulcia mixta sunt amaris + sed iucunda tamen fuere plura; + et si calculus omnis huc et illuc + diversus bicolorque digeratur, + vincet candida turba nigriorem. + si vitare voles acerba quaedam + et tristes animi cavere morsus, + nulli te facias nimis sodalem: + gaudebis minus et minus dolebis (xii. 34).[662] + + My friend, since thou and I first met, + This is the thirty-fourth December; + Some things there are we'd fain forget, + More that 'tis pleasant to remember. + Let for each pain a black ball stand, + For every pleasure past a white one, + And thou wilt find, when all are scanned, + The major part will be the bright one. + He who would heartache never know, + He who serene composure treasures, + Must friendship's chequered bliss forego; + Who has no pain hath fewer pleasures. + PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH + +He does not pour the treasure of his heart at his friend's feet, as +Persius does in his burning tribute to Cornutus. He has no treasure of +great price to pour. But it is only natural that in the poems addressed +to his friends we should find the statement of his ideals of life: + + vitam quae faciunt beatiorem, + iucundissime Martialis, haec sunt: + res non parta labore sed relicta; + non ingratus ager, focus perennis; + lis numquam, toga rara, mens quieta; + vires ingenuae, salubre corpus; + prudens simplicitas, pares amici, + convictus facilis, sine arte mensa; + nox non ebria sed soluta curis. + non tristis torus et tamen pudicus; + somnus qui faciat breves tenebras: + quod sis esse velis nihilque malis; + summum nec metuas diem nee optes (x. 47). + + What makes a happy life, dear friend, + If thou would'st briefly learn, attend-- + An income left, not earned by toil; + Some acres of a kindly soil; + The pot unfailing on the fire; + No lawsuits; seldom town attire; + Health; strength with grace; a peaceful mind; + Shrewdness with honesty combined; + Plain living; equal friends and free; + Evenings of temperate gaiety: + A wife discreet, yet blythe and bright; + Sound slumber, that lends wings to night. + With all thy heart embrace thy lot, + Wish not for death and fear it not. + PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH. + + +This exquisite echo of the Horatian 'beatus ille qui procul negotiis' +sets forth no very lofty ideal. It is frankly, though restrainedly, +hedonistic. But it depicts a life that is full of charm and free from +evil. Martial, in his heart of hearts, hates the Rome that he depicts +so vividly. Rome with its noise, its expense, its bustling snobbery, +its triviality, and its vice, where he and his friend Julius waste +their days: + + nunc vivit necuter sibi, bonosque + soles effugere atque abire sentit, + qui nobis pereunt et imputantur (v. 20. 11). + + Dead to our better selves we see + The golden hours take flight, + Still scored against us as they flee. + Then haste to live aright. + PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH + +He longs to escape from the world of the professional lounger and the +parasite to an ampler air, where he can breathe freely and find rest. He +is no philosopher, but it is at times a relief to get away from the +rarified atmosphere and the sense of strain that permeates so much of +the aspirations towards virtue in this strange age of contradictions. + +Martial at last found the ease and quiet that his soul desired in his +Spanish home: + + hic pigri colimus labore dulci + Boterdum Plateamque (Celtiberis + haec sunt nomina crassiora terris): + ingenti fruor inproboque somno + quem nec tertia saepe rumpit hora, + et totum mihi nunc repono quidquid + ter denos vigilaveram per annos. + ignota est toga, sed datur petenti + rupta proxima vestis a cathedra. + surgentem focus excipit superba + vicini strue cultus iliceti, + * * * * * + sic me vivere, sic iuvat perire. (xii. 18. 10). + + Busy but pleas'd and idly taking pains, + Here Lewes Downs I till and Ringmer plains, + Names that to each South Saxon well are known, + Though they sound harsh to powdered beaux in town. + None can enjoy a sounder sleep than mine; + I often do not wake till after nine; + And midnight hours with interest repay + For years in town diversions thrown away. + Stranger to finery, myself I dress + In the first coat from an old broken press. + My fire, as soon as I am up, I see + Bright with the ruins of some neighbouring tree. + * * * * * + Such is my life, a life of liberty; + So would I wish to live and so to die. + HAY. + +Martial has a genuine love for the country. Born at a time when detailed +descriptions of the charms of scenery had become fashionable, and the +cultivated landscape at least found many painters, he succeeds far +better than any of his contemporaries in conveying to the reader his +sense of the beauties which his eyes beheld. That sense is limited, but +exquisite. It does not go deep; there is nothing of the almost mystical +background that Vergil at times suggests; there is nothing of the +feeling of the open air and the wild life that is sometimes wafted to us +in the sensuous verse of Theocritus. But Martial sees what he sees +clearly, and he describes it perfectly. Compare his work with the +affected prettiness of Pliny's description of the source of the +Clitumnus or with the more sensuous, but over-elaborate, craftsmanship +of Statius in the _Silvae_. Martial is incomparably their superior. He +speaks a more human language, and has a far clearer vision. Both Statius +and Martial described villas by the sea. We have already mentioned +Statius' description of the villa of Pollius at Sorrento; Martial shall +speak in his turn: + + o temperatae dulce Formiae litus, + vos, cum severi fugit oppidum Martis + et inquietas fessus exuit curas, + Apollinaris omnibus locis praefert. + * * * * * + hic summa leni stringitur Thetis vento: + nec languet aequor, viva sed quies ponti + pictam phaselon adiuvante fert aura, + sicut puellae lion amantis aestatem + mota salubre purpura venit frigus. + nec saeta longo quaerit in mari praedam, + sed a cubili lectuloque iactatam + spectatus alte lineam trahit piscis. + * * * * * + frui sed istis quando, Roma, permittis? + quot Formianos imputat dies annus + negotiosis rebus urbis haerenti? + o ianitores vilicique felices! + dominis parantur ista, serviunt vobis[663] (x. 30). + + O strand of Formiae, sweet with genial air, + Who art Apollinaris' chosen home + When, taking flight from his task-mistress Rome, + The tired man doffs his load of troubling care. + * * * * * + Here the sea's bosom quivers in the wind; + 'Tis no dead calm, but sweet serenity, + Which bears the painted boat before the breeze, + As though some maid at pains the heat to ban, + Should waft a genial zephyr with her fan. + No fisher needs to buffet the high seas, + But whiles from bed or couch his line he casts, + May see his captive in the toils below. + * * * * * + But, niggard Rome, thou giv'st how grudgingly! + What the year's tale of days at Formiae + For him who tied by work in town must stay? + Stewards and lacqueys, happy your employ, + Your lords prepare enjoyment, you enjoy. + A. E. STREET. + +These are surely the most beautiful _scazons_[664] in the Latin tongue; +the metre limps no more; a master-hand has wrought it to exquisite +melody; the quiet undulation of the sea, the yacht's easy gliding over +its surface, live before us in its music. Even more delicate is the +homelier description of the gardens of Julius Martialis on the slopes of +the Janiculum. It is animated by the sincerity that never fails Martial +when he writes to his friend: + + Iuli iugera pauca Martialis + hortis Hesperidum beatiora + longo Ianiculi iugo recumbunt: + lati collibus imminent recessus + et planus modico tumore vertex + caelo perfruitur sereniore + et curvas nebula tegente valles + solus luce nitet peculiari: + puris leniter admoventur astris + celsae culmina delicata villae. + hinc septem dominos videre montes + et totam licet aestimare Romam, + Albanos quoque Tusculosque colles + et quodcumque iacet sub urbe frigus (iv. 64). + + Martial's few acres, e'en more blest + Than those famed gardens of the West, + Lie on Janiculum's long crest; + Above the slopes wide reaches hang recessed. + The level, gently swelling crown + Breathes air from purer heavens blown; + When mists the hollow valleys drown + 'Tis radiant with a light that's all its own. + The clear stars almost seem to lie + On the wrought roof that's built so high; + The seven hills stand in majesty, + And Rome is summed in one wide sweep of eye. + Tusculan, Alban hills unfold, + Each nook which holds its store of cold. + A. E. STREET. + +Such a picture is unsurpassed in any language.[665] Statius, with all +his brilliance, never came near such perfect success; he lacks +sincerity; he can juggle with words against any one, but he never +learned their truest and noblest use. + +There are many other themes beside landscape painting in which the +_Silvae_ of Statius challenge comparison with the epigrams of Martial. +Both use the same servile flattery to the emperor, both celebrate the +same patrons,[666] both console their noble friends for the loss of +relatives, or favourite slaves; both write _propemptica_. Even in the +most trivial of these poems, those addressed to the emperor, Statius is +easily surpassed by his humbler rival. His inferiority lies largely in +the fact that he is more ambitious. He wrote on a larger scale. When the +infinitely trivial is a theme for verse, the epigrammatist has the +advantage of the author of the more lengthy _Silvae_. Perfect neatness +vanquishes dexterous elaboration. Moreover, if taste can be said to +enter into such poems at all, Martial errs less grossly. Even +Domitian--one might conjecture--may have felt that Statius' flattery was +'laid on with a trowel'. Martial may have used the same instrument, but +had the art to conceal it.[667] There are even occasions where his +flattery ceases to revolt the reader, and where we forget the object of +the flattery. In a poem describing the suicide of a certain Festus he +succeeds in combining the dignity of a funeral _laudatio_ with the +subtlest and most graceful flattery of the princeps: + + indignas premeret pestis cum tabida fauces, + inque suos voltus serperet atra lues, + siccis ipse genis flentes hortatus amicos + decrevit Stygios Festus adire lacus. + nec tamen obscuro pia polluit ora veneno + aut torsit lenta tristia fata fame, + sanctam Romana vitam sed morte peregit + dimisitque animam nobiliore via. + hanc mortem fatis magni praeferre Catonis + fama potest; huius Caesar amicus erat (i. 78). + + When the dire quinsy choked his guiltless breath, + And o'er his face the blackening venom stole, + Festus disdained to wait a lingering death, + Cheered his sad friends and freed his dauntless soul. + No meagre famine's slowly-wasting force, + Nor hemlock's gradual chillness he endured, + But like a Roman chose the nobler course, + And by one blow his liberty secured. + His death was nobler far than Cato's end, + For Caesar to the last was Festus' friend. + HODGSON (slightly altered). + +The unctuous dexterity of Statius never achieved such a master-stroke. + +So, too, in laments for the dead, the superior brevity and simplicity of +Martial bear the palm away. Both poets bewailed the death of Glaucias, +the child favourite of Atedius Melior. Statius has already been quoted +in this connexion; Martial's poems on the subject,[668] though not quite +among his best, yet ring truer than the verse of Statius. And Martial's +epitaphs and epicedia at their best have in their slight way an almost +unique charm. We must go to the best work of the Greek Anthology to +surpass the epitaph on Erotion (v. 34): + + hanc tibi, Fronto pater, genetrix Flaccilla, puellam + oscula commendo deliciasque meas, + parvola ne nigras horrescat Erotion umbras + oraque Tartarei prodigiosa canis. + inpletura fuit sextae modo frigora brumae, + vixisset totidem ni minus illa dies. + inter tam veteres ludat lasciva patronos + et nomen blaeso garriat ore meum. + mollia non rigidus caespes tegat ossa nec illi, + terra, gravis fueris: non fuit illa tibi. + + Fronto, and you, Flaccilla, to you, my father and mother, + Here I commend this child, once my delight and my pet, + So may the darkling shades and deep-mouthed baying of hellhound + Touch not with horror of dread little Erotion dear. + Now was her sixth year ending, and melting the snows of the winter, + Only a brief six days lacked to the tale of the years. + Young, amid dull old age, let her wanton and frolic and gambol, + Babble of me that was, tenderly lisping my name. + Soft were her tiny bones, then soft be the sod that enshrouds her, + Gentle thy touch, mother Earth, gently she rested on thee! + A. E. STREET. + +Another poem on a like theme shows a different and more fantastic, but +scarcely less pleasing vein (v. 37): + + puella senibus dulcior mihi cycnis, + agna Galaesi mollior Phalantini, + concha Lucrini delicatior stagni, + cui nec lapillos praeferas Erythraeos + nec modo politum pecudis Indicae dentem + nivesque primas liliumque non tactum; + quae crine vicit Baetici gregis vellus + Rhenique nodos aureamque nitellam; + fragravit ore quod rosarium Paesti, + quod Atticarum prima mella cerarum, + quod sucinorum rapta de manu gleba; + cui conparatus indecens erat pavo, + inamabilis sciurus et frequens phoenix, + adhuc recenti tepet Erotion busto, + quam pessimorum lex amara fatorum + sexta peregit hieme, nec tamen tota, + nostros amores gaudiumque lususque. + + Little maiden sweeter far to me + Than the swans are with their vaunted snows, + Maid more tender than the lambkins be + Where Galaesus by Phalantus flows; + Daintier than the daintiest shells that lie + By the ripples of the Lucrine wave; + Choicer than new-polished ivory + That the herds in Indian jungles gave; + Choicer than Erythrae's marbles white, + Snows new-fallen, lilies yet unsoiled: + Softer were your tresses and more bright + Than the locks by German maidens coiled: + Than the finest fleeces Baetis shows, + Than the dormouse with her golden hue: + Lips more fragrant than the Paestan rose, + Than the Attic bees' first honey-dew, + Or an amber ball, new-pressed and warm; + Paled the peacock's sheen in your compare; + E'en the winsome squirrel lost his charm, + And the Phoenix seemed no longer rare. + Scarce Erotion's ashes yet are cold; + Greedily grim fate ordained to smite + E'er her sixth brief winter had grown old-- + Little love, my bliss, my heart's delight. + A.D. INNES. + +Through all the playful affectations of the lines we get the portrait of +a fairy-like child, light-footed as the squirrel, golden-haired and fair +as ivory or lilies.[669] Martial was a child-lover before he was a man +of letters. + +Beautiful as these little poems are, there is in Martial little trace of +feeling for the sorrows of humanity in general. He can feel for his +intimate friends, and his tears are ready to flow for his patron's +sorrows. But the general impression given by his poetry is that of a +certain hardness and lack of feeling, of a limited sympathy, and an +unemotional temperament. It is a relief to come upon a poem such as that +in which he describes a father's poignant anguish for the loss of his +son (ix. 74): + + effigiem tantum pueri pictura Camoni + servat, et infantis parva figura manet. + florentes nulla signavit imagine voltus, + dum timet ora pius muta videre pater. + + Here as in happy infancy he smiled + Behold Camonus--painted as a child; + For on his face as seen in manhood's days + His sorrowing father would not dare to gaze. + W. S. B. + +or to find a sudden outbreak of sympathy with the sorrows of the slave +(iii. 21): + + proscriptum famulus servavit fronte notata, + non fuit haec domini vita sed invidia.[670] + + When scarred with cruel brand, the slave + Snatched from the murderer's hand + His proscript lord, not life he gave + His tyrant, but the brand. + PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH. + +Of the _gravitas_ or dignity of character specially associated with Rome +he shows equally few traces. His outlook on life is not sufficiently +serious, he shows little interest in Rome of the past, and has nothing +of the retrospective note so prominent in Lucan, Juvenal, or Tacitus; he +lives in and for the present. He writes, it is true, of the famous +suicide of Arria and Caecina Paetus,[671] of the death of Portia the +wife of Brutus,[672] of the bravery of Mucius Scaevola.[673] But in none +of these poems does he give us of his best. They lack, if not sincerity, +at least enthusiasm; emotion is sacrificed to point. He is out of +sympathy with Stoicism, and the suicide doctrinaire does not interest +him. 'Live while you may' is his motto, 'and make the best of +circumstances.' It is possible to live a reasonably virtuous life +without going to the lengths of Thrasea: + + quod magni Thraseae consummatique Catonis + dogmata sic sequeris salvus ut esse velis, + pectore nec nudo strictos incurris in enses, + quod fecisse velim te, Deciane, facis. + nolo virum facili redimit qui sanguine famam; + hunc volo, laudari qui sine morte potest (i. 8). + + That you, like Thrasea or Cato, great, + Pursue their maxims, but decline their fate; + Nor rashly point the dagger to your heart; + More to my wish you act a Roman's part. + I like not him who fame by death retrieves, + Give me the man who merits praise and lives. + HAY. + +The sentiment is full of common sense, but it is undeniably unheroic. +Martial is not quixotic, and refuses to treat life more seriously than +is necessary. Our complaint against him is that he scarcely takes it +seriously enough. It would be unjust to demand a deep fund of +earnestness from a professed epigrammatist dowered with a gift of humour +and a turn for satire. But it is doing Martial no injustice to style him +the laureate of triviality. For his satire is neither genial nor +earnest. His kindly temper led him to avoid direct personalities, but +his invective is directed against vice, not primarily because it is +wicked, but rather because it is grotesque or not _comme il faut_. His +humour, too, though often sparkling enough, is more often strained and +most often filthy. Many of his epigrams were not worth writing, by +whatever standard they be judged.[674] The point is hard to illustrate, +since a large proportion of his inferior work is fatuously obscene. But +the following may be taken at random from two books: + + Eutrapelus tonsor dum circuit ora Luperci + expingitque genas, altera barba subit (vii. 83). + + Eutrapelus the barber works so slow, + That while he shaves, the beard anew does grow. + ANON., 1695. + + invitas ad aprum, ponis mihi, Gallice, porcum. + hybrida sum, si das, Gallice, verba mihi (viii. 22). + + You invite me to partake of a wild boar, you set before me + a home-grown pig. I'm half-boar, half-pig, if you can cheat + me thus. + + pars maxillarum tonsa est tibi, pars tibi rasa est, + pars volsa est. unum quis putet esse caput? (viii. 47). + + Part of your jaws is shaven, part clipped, part has the hair + pulled out. Who'd think you'd only one head? + + tres habuit dentes, pariter quos expuit omnes, + ad tumulum Picens dum sedet ipse suum; + collegitque sinu fragmenta novissima laxi + oris et adgesta contumulavit humo. + ossa licet quondam defuncti non legat heres: + hoc sibi iam Picens praestitit officium (viii. 57). + + Picens had three teeth, which he spat out altogether while he + was sitting at the spot he had chosen for his tomb. He gathered + in his robe the last fragments of his loose jaw and interred + them in a heap of earth. His heir need not gather his bones when + he is dead, Picens has performed that office for himself. + + summa Palatini poteras aequare Colossi, + si fieres brevior, Claudia, sesquipede (viii. 60). + + Had you been eighteen inches shorter, Claudia, you would have + been as tall as the Colossus on the Palatine. + +Without wishing to break a butterfly on the wheel, we may well quote +against Martial the remark made in a different context to a +worthless poet: + + tanti non erat esse te disertum (xii. 43). + + 'Twas scarce worth while to be thus eloquent. + +There is much also which, without being precisely pointless or silly, is +too petty and mean to be tolerable to modern taste. Most noticeable in +this respect are the epigrams in which Martial solicits the liberality +of his patrons. The amazing relations existing at this period between +patron and client had worked a painful revolution in the manners and +tone of society, a revolution which meant scarcely less than the +pauperization of the middle class. The old sacred and almost feudal tie +uniting client and patron had long since disappeared, and had been +replaced by relations of a professional and commercial character. Wealth +was concentrated in comparatively few hands, and with the decrease of +the number of the patrons the throng of clients proportionately +increased. The crowd of clients bustling to the early morning +_salutatio_ of the patronus, and struggling with one another for the +_sportula_ is familiar to us in the pages of Juvenal and receives fresh +and equally vivid illustration from Martial. The worst results of these +unnatural relations were a general loss of independence of character and +a lamentable growth of bad manners and cynical snobbery. The patron, +owing to the increasingly heavy demands upon his purse, naturally tended +to become close-fisted and stingy, the needy client too often was +grasping and discontented. The patron, if he asked his client to dine, +would regale him with food and drink of a coarser and inferior quality +to that with which he himself was served.[675] The client, on the other +hand, could not be trusted to behave himself; he would steal the table +fittings, make outrageous demands on his patron, and employ every act of +servile and cringing flattery to improve his position.[676] The poor +poet was in a sense doubly dependent. He would stand in the ordinary +relation of _cliens_ to a _patronus_, and would be dependent also for +his livelihood on the generosity of his literary patrons. For, in spite +of the comparative facilities for the publication and circulation of +books, he could make little by the public sale of his works, and living +at Rome was abnormally expensive. The worst feature of all was that such +a life of servile dependence was not clearly felt to be degrading. It +was disliked for its hardship, annoyance, and monotony, but the client +too often seems to have regarded it as beneath his dignity to attempt to +escape from it by industry and manly independence. + +As a result of these conditions, we find the pages of Martial full of +allusions to the miserable life of the client. His skill does not fail +him, but the theme is ugly and the historical interest necessarily +predominates over the literary, though the reader's patience is at times +rewarded with shrewd observations on human nature, as, for instance, the +bitter expression of the truth that 'To him that hath shall be given'-- + + semper pauper eris, si pauper es, Aemiliane; + dantur opes nullis nunc nisi divitibus (v. 81); + + Poor once and poor for ever, Nat, I fear, + None but the rich get place and pension here. + N.B. HALHEAD. + +or the even more incisive + + pauper videri Cinna vult: et est pauper (viii. 19). + +But we soon weary of the continual reference to dinners and parasites, +to the snobbery and indifference of the rich, to the tricks of toadyism +on the part of needy client or legacy hunter. It is a mean world, and +the wit and raillery of Martial cannot make it palatable. Without a +moral background, such as is provided by the indignation of Juvenal, +the picture soon palls, and the reader sickens. Most unpleasing of all +are the epigrams where Martial himself speaks as client in a language +of mingled impertinence and servility. His flattery of the emperor we +may pass by. It was no doubt interested, but it was universal, and +Martial's flattery is more dexterous without being either more or less +offensive than that of his contemporaries. His relations towards less +exalted patrons cannot be thus easily condoned. He feels no shame in +begging, nor in abusing those who will not give or whose gifts are not +sufficient for his needs. His purse is empty; he must sell the gifts +that Regulus has given him. Will Regulus buy? + + aera domi non sunt, superest hoc, Regule, solum + ut tua vendamus munera: numquid emis? (vii. 16). + + I have no money, Regulus, at home. Only one thing is left + to do--sell the gifts you gave me. Will you buy? + +Stella has given him some tiles to roof his house; he would like a +cloak as well: + + cum pluvias madidumque Iovem perferre negaret + et rudis hibernis villa nataret aquis, + plurima, quae posset subitos effundere nimbos, + muneribus venit tegula missa tuis. + horridus ecce sonat Boreae stridore December: + Stella, tegis villam, non tegis agricolam (vii. 36).[677] + + When my crased house heaven's showers could not sustain, + But flooded with vast deluges of rain, + Thou shingles, Stella, seasonably didst send, + Which from the impetuous storms did me defend: + Now fierce loud-sounding Boreas rocks doth cleave, + Dost clothe the farm, and farmer naked leave? + ANON., 1695. + +This is not the way a gentleman thanks a friend, nor can modern taste +appreciate at its antique value abuse such as-- + + primum est ut praestes, si quid te, Cinna, rogabo; + illud deinde sequens ut cito, Cinna, neges. + diligo praestantem; non odi, Cinna, negantem: + sed tu nec praestas nec cito, Cinna, negas (vii. 43). + + The kindest thing of all is to comply: + The next kind thing is quickly to deny. + I love performance nor denial hate: + Your 'Shall I, shall I?' is the cursed state. + +The poet's poverty is no real excuse for this petulant mendicancy.[678] +He had refused to adopt a profession,[679] though professional +employment would assuredly have left him time for writing, and no one +would have complained if his output had been somewhat smaller. Instead, +he chose a life which involved moving in society, and was necessarily +expensive. We can hardly attribute his choice merely to the love of his +art. If he must beg, he might have done so with better taste and some +show of finer feeling. Macaulay's criticism is just: 'I can make large +allowance for the difference of manners; but it can never have been +_comme il faut_ in any age or nation for a man of note--an accomplished +man--a man living with the great--to be constantly asking for money, +clothes, and dainties, and to pursue with volleys of abuse those who +would give him nothing.' + +In spite, however, of the obscenity, meanness, and exaggerated +triviality of much of his work, there have been few poets who could +turn a prettier compliment, make a neater jest, or enshrine the trivial +in a more exquisite setting. Take the beautifully finished poem to +Flaccus in the eighth book (56), wherein Martial complains that times +have altered since Vergil's day. 'Now there are no patrons and +consequently no poets'-- + + ergo ego Vergilius, si munera Maecenatis + des mihi? Vergilius non ero, Marsus ero. + + Shall I then be a Vergil, if you give me such gifts as + Maecenas gave? No, I shall not be a Vergil, but a Marsus. + +Here, at least, Martial shows that he could complain of his poverty with +decency, and speak of himself and his work with becoming modesty. Or +take a poem of a different type, an indirect plea for the recall of an +exile (viii. 32): + + aera per tacitum delapsa sedentis in ipsos + fluxit Aratullae blanda columba sinus, + luserat hoc casus, nisi inobservata maneret + permissaque sibi nollet abire fuga. + si meliora piae fas est sperare sorori + et dominum mundi flectere vota valent, + haec a Sardois tibi forsitan exulis oris, + fratre reversuro, nuntia venit avis. + + A gentle dove glided down through the silent air and + settled even in Aratulla's bosom as she was sitting. + This might have seemed but the sport of chance had it + not rested there, though undetained, and refused to part + even when flight was free. If it is granted to the loving + sister to hope for better things, and if prayers can move + the lord of the world, this bird perchance has come to + thee from Sardinia's shore of exile to announce the speedy + return of thy brother. + +Nothing could be more conventional, nothing more perfect in form, more +full of music, more delicate in expression. The same felicity is shown +in his epigrams on curiosities of art or nature, a fashionable and, it +must be confessed, an easy theme.[680] Fish carved by Phidias' hand, a +lizard cast by Mentor, a fly enclosed in amber, are all given +immortality: + + artis Phidiacae toreuma clarum + pisces aspicis: adde aquam, natabunt (iii. 35). + + These fishes Phidias wrought: with life by him + They are endowed: add water and they swim. + PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH. + + inserta phialae Mentoris manu ducta + lacerta vivit et timetur argentum (iii. 41). + + That lizard on the goblet makes thee start. + Fear not: it lives only by Mentor's art. + PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH. + + et latet et lucet Phaethontide condita gutta, + ut videatur apis nectare clusa suo. + dignum tantorum pretium tulit illa laborum: + credibile est ipsam sic voluisse mori (iv. 32). + + Here shines a bee closed in an amber tomb, + As if interred in her own honey-comb. + A fit reward fate to her labours gave; + No other death would she have wished to have. + MAY. + +Always at home in describing the trifling amenities of life, he is at +his best equally successful in dealing with its trifling follies. An +acquaintance has given his cook the absurd name of Mistyllos in allusion +to the Homeric phrase [Greek: mistyllon t' ora talla]. Martial's comment +is inimitable: + + si tibi Mistyllos cocus, Aemiliane, vocatur, + dicatur quare non Taratalla mihi? (i. 50). + +He complains of the wine given him at a dinner-party with a finished +whimsicality: + + potavi modo consulare vinum. + quaeris quam vetus atque liberale? + Prisco consule conditum: sed ipse + qui ponebat erat, Severe, consul (vii. 79). + + I have just drunk some consular wine. How old, you ask, and + how generous? It was bottled in Priscus' consulship: and he + who set it before me was the consul himself. + +Polycharmus has returned Caietanus his IOU's. 'Little good will that do +you, and Caietanus will not even be grateful': + + quod Caietano reddis, Polycharme, tabellas, + milia te centum num tribuisse putas? + 'debuit haec' inquis. tibi habe, Polycharme, tabellas + et Caietano milia crede duo (viii. 37). + + In giving back Caietanus his IOU's, Polycharmus, do you think + you are giving him 100,000 sesterces? 'He owed me that sum,' + you say. Keep the IOU's and lend him two thousand more! + +Chloe, the murderess of her seven husbands, erects monuments to their +memory, and inscribes _fecit Chloe_ on the tombstones: + + inscripsit tumulis septem scelerata virorum + 'se fecisse' Chloe. quid pote simplicius? (ix. 15). + + On her seven husbands' tombs she doth impress + 'This Chloe did.' What more can she confess? + WRIGHT. + +Vacerra admires the old poets only. What shall Martial do? + + miraris veteres, Vacerra, solos + nec laudas nisi mortuos poetas. + ignoscas petimus, Vacerra: tanti + non est, ut placeam tibi, perire (viii. 69). + + Vacerra lauds no living poet's lays, + But for departed genius keeps his praise. + I, alas, live, nor deem it worth my while + To die that I may win Vacerra's smile. + PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH. + +All this is very slight, _merae nugae_; but even if the humour be not of +the first water, it will compare well with the humour of epigrams of any +age. Martial knows he is not a great poet.[681] He knows, too, that his +work is uneven: + + iactat inaequalem Matho me fecisse libellum: + si verum est, laudat carmina nostra Matho. + aequales scribit libros Calvinus et Vmber: + aequalis liber est, Cretice, qui malus est (vii. 90). + + Matho makes game of my unequal verse; + If it's unequal it might well be worse. + Calvinus, Umber, write on one dead level, + The book that's got no up and down's the devil! + +If there are thirty good epigrams in a book, he is satisfied (vii. 81). +His defence hardly answers the question, 'Why publish so many?' but +should at least mollify our judgement. Few poets read better in +selections than Martial, and of few poets does selection give so +inadequate an idea. For few poets of his undoubted genius have left such +a large bulk of work which, in spite of its formal perfection, is +morally repulsive or, from the purely literary standpoint, +uninteresting. But he is an important figure in the history of +literature, for he is the father of the modern epigram. Alone of Silver +Latin poets is he a perfect stylist. He has the gift of _felicitas_ to +the full, but it is not _curiosa_. Inferior to Horace in all other +points, he has greater spontaneity. And he is free from the faults of +his age. He is no _virtuoso_, eaten up with self-conscious vanity; he +attempts no impossible feats of language; he is clear, and uses his +mythological and geographical knowledge neatly and picturesquely; but he +makes no display of obscure learning. 'I would please schoolmasters,' he +says, 'but not _qua_ schoolmasters' (x. 21. 5). So, too, he complains of +his own education: + + at me litterulas stulti docuere parentes: + quid cum grammaticis rhetoribusque mihi? (ix. 73. 7). + + My learning only proves my father fool! + Why would he send me to a grammar school? + HAY. + +As a result, perhaps, of this lack of sympathy with the education of his +day, we find that, while he knows and admires the great poets of the +past, and can flatter the rich poetasters of the present, his bent is +curiously unliterary. He gives us practically no literary criticism. It +is with the surface qualities of life that he is concerned, with its +pleasures and its follies, guilty or innocent. He has a marvellously +quick and clear power of observation, and of vivid presentation. He is +in this sense above all others the poet of his age. He either does not +see or chooses to ignore many of the best and most interesting features +of his time, but the picture which he presents, for all its +incompleteness, is wider and more varied than any other. We both hate +him and read him for the sake of the world he depicts. 'Ugliness is +always bad art, and Martial often failed as a poet from his choice of +subject.'[682] There are comparatively few of his poems which we read +for their own sake. Remarkable as these few poems are, the main +attraction of Martial is to be found not in his wit or finish, so much +as in the vividness with which he has portrayed the life of the +brilliant yet corrupt society in which his lot was cast. It lives before +us in all its splendour and in all its squalor. The court, with its +atmosphere of grovelling flattery, its gross vices veiled and tricked +out in the garb of respectability; the wealthy official class, with +their villas, their favourites, their circle of dependants, men of +culture, wit, and urbanity, through all which runs, strangely +intermingled, a vein of extreme coarseness, vulgarity, and meanness; the +lounger and the reciter, the diner-out and the legacy-hunter; the +clients struggling to win their patrons' favour and to rise in the +social scale, enduring the hardships and discomfort of a sordid life +unillumined by lofty ideals or strength of will, a life that under cold +northern skies would have been intolerable; the freedman and the slave, +with all the riff-raff that support a parasitic existence on the vices +of the upper classes; the noise and bustle of Rome, its sleepless +nights, its cheerless tenements, its noisy streets, loud with the sound +of traffic or of revelry; the shows in the theatre, the races in the +circus, the interchange of presents at the Saturnalia; the pleasant life +in the country villa, the simplicity of rural Italy, the sights and +sounds of the park and the farm-yard; and dimly seen beyond all, the +provinces, a great ocean which absorbs from time to time the rulers of +Rome and the leaders of society, and from which come faint and confused +echoes of frontier wars; all are there. It is a great pageant lacking +order and coherence, a scene that shifts continually, but never lacks +brilliance of detail and sharply defined presentment. Martial was the +child of the age; it gave him his strength and his weakness. If we hate +him or despise him, it is because he is the faithful representative of +the life of his times; his gifts we cannot question. He practised a form +of poetry that at its best is not exalted, and must, even more than +other branches of art, be conditioned by social circumstance. Within its +limited sphere Martial stands, not faultless, but yet supreme. + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +JUVENAL + +Our knowledge of the life of the most famous of Roman satirists is +strangely unsatisfactory. Many so-called lives of Juvenal have come down +to us, but they are confused, contradictory, inadequate, and +unreliable.[683] His own work and allusions in other writers help us but +little in our attempt to reconstruct the story of the poet's life. + +Only by investigating the dates within which the satires seem to fall is +it possible to arrive at some idea of the dates within which falls the +life of their author. The satires were published in five books at +different times. The first book (1-5), which is full of allusions to the +tyranny of Domitian, cannot have been published before 100 A.D., since +the first satire contains an allusion to the condemnation of Marius +Priscus,[684] which took place in that year. The fifth book (13-16) +must, from references in the thirteenth and fifteenth[685] satires to +the year 127, have been published not much later than that date. The +publication of the satires falls, therefore, between 100 and 130. + +With these data it is possible to approach the question of the dates of +Juvenal's birth and death. The main facts to guide us are the statements +of the best of the biographies that he did not begin to write satire +till on the confines of middle age, that even then he delayed to +publish, and that he died at the age of eighty.[686] The inference is +that he was born between 50 and 60 A. D., and died between 130 and 140 +A. D.[687] + +As to the facts of his life we are on little firmer ground. But +concerning his name and birthplace there is practical certainty. +Decimus Junius Juvenalis[688] was born at Aquinum,[689] a town of +Latium, and is said to have been the son or adopted son of a rich +freedman. His education was of the usual character, literary and +rhetorical, and was presumably carried out at Rome.[690] He acquired +thus early in youth a taste for rhetoric that never left him. For he is +said to have practised declamation up till middle age, not with a view +to obtaining a position as professor of rhetoric or as advocate, but +from sheer love of the art.[691] It is probable that he combined his +passion for rhetoric with service as an officer in the army. Not only +does he show considerable intimacy in his satires with a soldier's +life,[692] but interesting external evidence is afforded by an +inscription discovered near Aquinum. It runs: + + C_ERE_RI. SACRVM + D. _IV_NIVS. IVVENALIS +_TRIB_. COH. _I_. DELMATARVM +II. _VIR_. QVINQ. FLAMEN + DIVI. VESPASIANI + VOVIT. DEDICAV_ITQ_VE +SVA PEC.[693] + +If this inscription refers, as well it may, to the poet, it will follow +that he served as tribune of the first Dalmatian cohort, probably in +Britain,[694] held high municipal office in his native town, and was +priest of the deified Vespasian. But the _praenomen_ is wanting in the +original, and the inscription may have been erected not by the satirist +but by one of his kinsfolk. That he spent the greater portion of his +life at Rome is evident from his satires. Of his friends we know little. +Umbricius, Persicus, Catullus, and Calvinus[695] are mere names. Of +Quintilian[696] he speaks with great respect, and may perhaps have +studied under him; of Statius he writes with enthusiasm, but there is no +evidence that he had done more than be present at that poet's +recitations.[697] Martial, however, was a personal friend, and writes +affectionately of him and to him in three of his epigrams.[698] Unlike +Martial, whose life was a continual struggle against poverty, Juvenal, +though he had clearly endured some of the discomforts and degradations +involved by a client's attendance on his rich _patronus_, was a man of +some means, possessing an estate at Aquinum,[699] a country house at +Tibur,[700] and a house at Rome.[701] At what date precisely he began to +write is uncertain. We are told that his first effort was a brief poem +attacking the actor Paris, which he afterwards embodied in the seventh +satire. But it was long before he ventured to read his satires even to +his intimate friends.[702] This suggests that portions, at any rate, of +the satires of the first book were composed during the reign of +Domitian.[703] Juvenal had certainly every reason for concealing their +existence till after the tyrant's death. The first satire was probably +written later to form a preface to the other four, and the whole book +may have been published in 101. It is noteworthy, however, that Martial, +writing to him in that year, mentions merely his gifts as a declaimer, +and seems not to know him as a satirist. The second book, containing +only the sixth satire, was probably published about 116, since it +contains allusions to earthquakes in Asia and to a comet boding ill to +Parthia and Armenia (l. 407-12). Such a comet was visible in Rome in +the autumn of 115, on the eve of Trajan's campaign against Parthia, +while in December an earthquake did great damage to the town of Antioch. +The third book (7-9) opens with an elaborate compliment to Hadrian as +the patron of literature at Rome. As Hadrian succeeded to the principate +in 117 and left Rome for a tour of the provinces in 121, this book must +fall somewhere between our dates. The fourth book (10-12) contains no +indication as to its date, but must lie between the publication of the +third book and of the fifth (after 127). Beyond these facts it is hardly +possible to go in our reconstruction of the poet's life. As far as may +be judged it was an uneventful career save for one great calamity. The +ancient biographies assert that Juvenal's denunciation of actors +embodied in the seventh satire offended an actor who was the favourite +of the princeps. They are supported by Apollinaris Sidonius,[704] who +speaks of Juvenal as the 'exile-victim of an actor's anger', and by +Johannes Malala.[705] The latter writer, with certain of the ancient +biographies, identifies the actor with Paris, the favourite of Domitian; +others, again, say that the poet was banished by Nero[706]--a manifestly +absurd statement--others by Trajan,[707] while our best authority +asserts that he was eighty years old when banished, and that he died of +grief and mortification.[708] The place of exile is variously given. +Most of the biographies place it in Egypt, the best of them asserting +that he was given a military command in that province.[709] Others +mention Britain,[710] others the Pentapolis of Libya.[711] Amid such +discrepancies it is impossible to give any certain answer. But it is +certain that the actor who caused Juvenal's banishment was not Paris, +who was put to death by Domitian as early as 83, and almost equally +certain that Domitian is guiltless of the poet's exile. It is, however, +possible that he was banished by Trajan or Hadrian, though it would +surprise us to find Trajan, for all the debauchery of his private life, +so far under the influence of an actor[712] as to sacrifice a Roman +citizen to his displeasure; while as regards Hadrian it is noteworthy +that the very satire said to have offended the _pantomimus_ contains an +eloquent panegyric of that emperor. Further, it is hard to believe the +story that Juvenal was banished to Egypt at the advanced age of eighty +under the pretext of a military command. The problem is insoluble.[713] +The most that can be said is that the persistence of the tradition gives +it some claim to credibility, though the details handed down to us are +wholly untrustworthy, and probably little better than clumsy inferences +from passages in the satires. + +The scope of Juvenal's work and the motives that spur him are set forth +in the first satire. He is weary of the deluge of trivial and mechanical +verse poured out by the myriad poetasters of the day: + + Still shall I hear and never quit the score, + Stunned with hoarse Codrus' Theseid, o'er and o'er? + Shall this man's elegies and t'other's play + Unpunished murder a long summer's day? + ... since the world with writing is possest, + I'll versify in spite; and do my best + To make as much waste-paper as the rest.[714] + +He will write in a different vein from his rivals. Satire shall be his +theme. In such an age, when virtue is praised and vice practised, the +age of the libertine, the _parvenu_, the forger, the murderer, it is +hard not to write satire. 'Facit indignatio versum!'[715] he cries. 'All +the daily life of Rome shall be my theme': + + quidquid agunt homines votum timor ira voluptas + gaudia discursus nostri est farrago libelli.[716] + + What human kind desires and what they shun, + Rage, passion, pleasure, impotence of will, + Shall this satirical collection fill. + DRYDEN. + +Never was vice so rampant; luxury has become monstrous; the rich lord +lives in pampered and selfish ease, while those poor mortals, his +clients, jostle together to receive the paltry dole of the _sportula_; +that is all the help they will get from their patron: + + No age can go beyond us; future times + Can add no further to the present crimes. + Our sons but the same things can wish and do; + Vice is at stand and at the highest flow. + Thou, Satire, spread thy sails, take all the winds that blow.[717] + +And yet the satirist must be cautious; the days are past when a Lucilius +could lash Rome at his will: + + When Lucilius brandishes his pen + And flashes in the face of guilty men, + A cold sweat stands in drops on every part, + And rage succeeds to tears, revenge to smart. + Muse, be advised; 'tis past considering time, + When entered once the dangerous lists of rhyme; + Since none the living villains dare implead, + Arraign them in the persons of the dead.[718] + +No better preface has ever been written; it gives a perfect summary of +the motives, the objects, and the methods of the poet's work in language +which for vigour and brilliance he never surpassed. The closing lines +show us his literary parentage. It is Lucilius who inspires him; it is +the fierce invective of the father of Roman satire that appeals to him. +Lucilius had scourged Rome, when the inroads of Hellenism and oriental +luxury, the fruits of foreign conquest, were beginning to make +themselves felt. To Juvenal it falls to denounce the triumph of these +corroding influences. He has nothing of the almost pathetic philosophic +detachment of Persius, nor of the easy-going compromise of Horace. He +does not palter with problems of right and wrong, nor hesitate over his +moral judgements; casuistry is wholly alien to his temper. It is +indignation makes the verse, and from this fact, together with his +rhetorical training, his chief merits and his chief failings spring. He +introduces no novelty into satire save the almost unvarying bitterness +and ferocity of his tone. Like Horace and Persius, he employs the +dactylic hexameter to the exclusion of other metres, while, owing in the +main to his taste for declamation, he is far more sparing in the use of +the dialogue-form than either of his predecessors. + +Before further discussing his general characteristics, it is necessary +to take a brief survey of the remaining satires. The second and ninth +are savage and, as was almost inevitable, obscene denunciations of +unnatural vice. In the third, the most orderly in arrangement and the +most brilliant in execution of all his satires, he describes all the +dangers and horrors of life at Rome. Umbricius, a friend of the poet, is +leaving the city. It is no place for a man of honour; it has become a +city for Greeks; the worthless and astute _Graeculus_ is everywhere +predominant, and, stained though he be with a thousand vices, has +outwitted the native-born, and, by the arts of the panderer and the +flatterer, has made himself their master. The poor are treated like +slaves. Houses fall, or are burned with fire. Sleep is impossible, so +loud with traffic are the streets. By day it is scarcely safe to walk +abroad for fear of being crushed by one of the great drays that throng +the city; by night there are the lesser perils of slops and broken +crockery cast from the windows, the greater perils of roisterers and +thieves. Rome is no place for Umbricius. He must go. + +The fourth satire opens with a violent attack on the _parvenu_ +Egyptian Crispinus, so powerful at the court of Domitian, and goes on +by a somewhat clumsy transition to tell the story of the huge turbot +caught near Ancona and presented to the emperor. So large was it that +a cabinet council must needs be called to decide what should be done +with it. This affords excuse for an inimitable picture of Domitian's +servile councillors. At last it is decided that the turbot is to be +served whole and a special dish to be constructed for it. 'Ah! why,' +the poet concludes, 'did not Domitian devote himself entirely to such +trifles as these?' + +In the fifth satire Juvenal returns to the subject of the hardships +and insults which the poor client must endure. He pictures the host +sitting in state with the best of everything set before him and served +in the choicest manner, while the unhappy client must be content with +food and drink of the coarsest kind. Virro, the rich man, does this +not because he is parsimonious, but because the humiliation of his +client amuses his perverted mind. But the satirist does not spare the +client, whose servile complaisance leads him to put up with such +treatment. 'Be a man!' he cries, 'and sooner beg on the streets than +degrade yourself thus.' + +The sixth satire, the longest of the collection, is a savage +denunciation of the vices of womankind. The various types of female +degradation are revealed to our gaze with merciless and often revolting +portrayal. The unchastity of woman is the main theme, but ranked with +the adulteress and the wanton are the murderess of husband or of child, +the torturer of the slave, the client of the fortune-teller or the +astrologer, and even the more harmless female athlete and blue-stocking. +For vigour and skill the satire ranks among Juvenal's best, but it is +marred by wanton grossness and at times almost absurd exaggeration. + +The seventh satire deals with the difficulties besetting a literary +career. It opens with a dexterous compliment to Hadrian; the poet +qualifies his complaints by saying that they apply only to the past. +The accession of Hadrian has swept all the storm-clouds from the +author's sky. But in the unhappy days but lately passed away, the +poet's lot was most miserable. His work brings him no livelihood; his +patron's liberality goes but a little way. The historian is in no less +parlous plight. The advocate makes some show of wealth, but it is, as a +rule, the merest show; only the man already wealthy succeeds at the +bar; many a struggling lawyer goes bankrupt in the struggle to +advertise himself and push his way. The teacher of rhetoric and the +school-master receive but a miserable fee, yet they have all the +drudgery of discipline and all the responsibility of moulding the +characters of the young placed upon their shoulders. They are expected +to be omniscient, and yet they starve. + +The eighth satire treats the familiar theme that without virtue birth is +of small account. Many examples of the degeneracy of the aristocracy are +given, some trivial, some grave, but above all the satirist denounces +the cruelty and oppression of nobly-born provincial governors. He +concludes in his noblest vein in praise of the great plebeians of the +past, Cicero, Marius, the Decii, and Servius Tullius. It is in deeds, +not in titles, that true nobility lies. Better be the son of Thersites +and possess the valour of Achilles, than live the life of a Thersites +and boast Achilles for your sire. + +The eighth satire may be regarded as the presage of a distinct change of +type. Instead of the vivid pictures of Roman life and the almost +dramatic representation of vice personified, Juvenal seems to turn for +inspiration to the scholastic declamation which had fascinated his +youth. Moral problems are treated in a more abstract way, and the old +fierce onset of indignation, though it has by no means disappeared, +seems to have lost something of its former violence. There are also +traces of declining powers, a greater tendency to digression, a lack of +concentration and vigour, and even of dexterity of language. But the +change is due in all probability not merely to advance in years nor to +the calming and mellowing influence of old age, but also to a change +that was gradually passing over the Roman world. The material for savage +satire was appreciably less. Evil in its worst forms had triumphed under +Domitian. With Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian virtue began slowly and +uncertainly to reclaim part of her lost dominions. + +The fourth book opens with the famous tenth satire on the vanity of +human wishes. What should man pray for? The theme is hackneyed and the +treatment shows no special originality. But the thought is elevated, the +rhetoric superb, and the verse has a resounding tread such as is only +found in Persius and Juvenal among the later poets of Rome. 'What shall +man pray for?' Power? Think of Sejanus, Pompey, Demosthenes, Cicero! To +each one greatness brought his doom. Think of Hannibal and Alexander, +how they, and with them all their high schemings, came to die; Long +life? What? Should we pray to outlive our bodily powers, to bewail the +death of our nearest and dearest, to fall from the high place where once +we stood? Beauty? Beauty is beset by a thousand perils in these vile +days, and rarely do beauty and chastity go hand in hand. Rather than +pray for boons like these, 'entrust thy fortune to the gods above,' or, +if pray thou must, + + stand confined + To health of body and content of mind; + A soul that can securely death defy, + And count it nature's privilege to die; + Serene and manly, hardened to sustain + The load of life and exercised in pain: + Guiltless of hate and proof against desire, + That all things weighs and nothing can admire; + That dares prefer the toils of Hercules, + To dalliance, banquet, and ignoble ease. + The path to peace is virtue; what I show, + Thyself may freely on thyself bestow; + Fortune was never worshipped by the wise, + But, set aloft by fools, usurps the skies.[719] + +In the eleventh satire we drop from these splendid heights of rhetoric; +to a declamatory invitation to dinner, which affords occasion for a +denunciation of the extravagant indulgence in the pleasures of the table +and for the praise of the good old days when Romans clave to the simple +life. The dinner to which Juvenal invites his friend will be of simple +fare simply served-- + + You'll have no scandal when you dine. + But honest talk and wholesome wine. + +And instead of lewd dance and song, a slave shall read aloud Homer and +Homer's one rival, Vergil. + +The twelfth satire opens with a thanksgiving for the escape of a friend, +Catullus, from a great storm at sea, and ends with a denunciation of +legacy hunters, the connecting link between these somewhat remote themes +being that Juvenal, at any rate, is disinterested in his joy at his +friend's escape. + +The thirteenth and fourteenth satires deal with more abstract themes, +the pangs of the guilty conscience and the importance of parental +example. In the first, Juvenal consoles his friend, Calvinus, who has +been defrauded of a sum of money. The loss, he says, is small, and, +after all, honesty is rare nowadays. Men have so little care for the +gods that they shrink from no perjury. Besides, what is such loss +compared with the many worse crimes that darken life. Why thirst for +revenge? It is the doctrine of the common herd. Philosophy teaches +otherwise. The torment of conscience will be a worse penalty than any +you can inflict, and at last justice will claim its own. In the next +satire, to emphasize the value of parental example, the poet illustrates +his point from the vice of avarice, and finally, forgetting his original +theme, lashes the avaricious man in words such as would never suggest +that the question of parental example had been raised at all. It is +noteworthy that throughout these two satires the poet draws his +illustrations from the themes of the schools rather than from the scenes +of contemporary life. + +In the fifteenth satire, however, he returns to depict and discuss +actual occurrences, but in how altered and strange a manner. His theme +is a case of cannibalism in Egypt,[720] the result of a collision +between religious fanatics of neighbouring townships. The aged poet +spurs himself into one last fury against the hated Oriental, regardless +of the fact that the denunciation of cannibalism to a civilized audience +must necessarily be insipid. Last comes a fragment expatiating bitterly +on the shameful advantages of a military career. The unhappy civilian +assaulted by a soldier cannot get redress, for the case must be heard in +camp before a bench of soldiers. The soldier, on the other hand, can get +summary settlement of all his disputes, and alone of Romans is exempt +from the _patria potestas_, can control his earnings and bequeath them +to whom he will. At this point the satire breaks off abruptly, and we +have no means of judging the extent of the loss. It is a striking +reversion to his earlier manner. Once more the satire takes the form of +a series of sketches from actual life. + +Both of these satires, notably the fifteenth, show a marked falling off +alike in style and matter. Both, in fact, have been branded as spurious, +the latter from times as early as those of the scholia. But there is no +real ground for such a suspicion. Both satires have all the +characteristics of Juvenal, excepting only the vigour and brilliance of +his earlier days. No poet's powers are proof against the advance of old +age, and there is no vein of poetry more exhausting or more easily +exhausted than satire. And, as has already been remarked, there are +signs of a falling away before these satires are reached. Even the +famous tenth satire, for all its indisputable greatness, does not demand +or reveal, such special gifts of style and observation as the first and +third. It is less in touch with actual life: it is a theme from the +schools, and the illustrations, effective as they are, are as trite as +the theme itself. Were it his only work, the tenth satire would give +Juvenal high rank among Roman poets: it will always, thanks to the +brilliance of its rhetoric and the wide applicability of its moral, be +his most popular work: it is not his highest achievement. + +It will have been obvious from this brief survey that the themes chosen +by Juvenal are for the most part of a commonplace nature. It could +hardly be otherwise. Satire, to be effective, must choose obvious +themes. But in some respects the treatment of them is surprisingly +commonplace. There is little freshness or originality about Juvenal's +way of thinking. His morality is neither satisfying nor profound. His +ideal is the old narrow Roman republican ideal of a chaste, vigorous, +and unluxurious life, wherein publicity is for man alone, while woman is +confined to the cares of the family and the household; the ideal of a +society wholly Italian and free-born, untainted by the importations of +Greece and Asia; of a state stern and exclusive, though just and +merciful, sparing the subject and beating down the proud. The nobility +of this ideal is not to be denied, but it is inadequate because it is +wholly unpractical. There is no denying that the emancipation of women +had led to gross evils, some of them imperilling the very existence of +the State; nor can it be doubted that much of the Greek influence had +been wholly for the bad, and that in many cases the introduction of the +cults of the East served merely to cloak debauchery. The rich freedman, +also, for whom Juvenal reserves his bitterest shafts, was often of +vicious and degraded character and had risen to power by repulsive +means. But there is another side to the picture, the existence of which +Juvenal sometimes, by his vehemence, seems to deny. The freedman class +supplied some of the most valuable of civil servants, and many must have +been worthy of their emancipation and of their rise to power.[721] There +was a higher Hellenism, which Juvenal ignored. The intellectual +movements of the Empire still found their chief source in Greece, and +the great Sophistic movement was already setting in, as a result of +which Greek literature was to revive and the Greek language to supersede +the Latin as the chief vehicle of literary expression even at Rome +itself. The greater freedom accorded to women had its compensations; in +spite of Juvenal, woman does not become worse or less attractive because +she is cultured and well educated, and if there was much dissipation and +debauchery in the high society of his day, even high society contained +many noble women of fine intellect and pure character. The spread of +Roman citizenship and the breaking down of the old exclusive tradition +were potent factors for good in the history of civilization. It may be +urged in Juvenal's defence that satire must necessarily deal with the +darker side of life, that his silence as to the better and more hopeful +elements in society does not mean that he ignored them, and that it is +absurd to attack a satirist because he is not a scientific social +historian. All this is true; but it is possible to have plenty of +material for the bitterest satire and to indict gross and rampant vice +without leaving the impression that the life of the day has no redeeming +elements, without generalizing extravagantly from the vices of one +section of society, even though that section be large and influential. +The weakness of Juvenal is that he is too retrospective, both in his +praise and in his blame. He dare not satirize the living, but will +attack the dead. But it would be wrong to assume that in the dead he +always attacks types of the living. There is always the impression that +he is in reality attacking the first century rather than the second, the +reigns of Nero and Domitian rather than the society governed by Trajan +and Hadrian. He had lived through a night of terror and would not +recognize the signs of a new dawn. Directing his attention too +exclusively on Rome itself and on the past, he forgets the larger world +and the future hope. It is to the impossible Rome of the past that he +turns his eyes for inspiration. Hence comes his hatred, often merely +racial, for Greek and Asiatic importations,[722] hence his dislike and +contempt for the new woman. Moreover, he had lived on the fringe of high +society and not in it; he had drunk in the bitterness of the client's +life, and had lived in the enveloping atmosphere of scandal that always +surrounds society for those who are excluded from it. A man of an acrid +and jealous temperament, easily angered and not readily appeased, he +yields too lightly and indiscriminately to that indignation, which, he +tells us, is the fountain-head of all he writes. Satire should be +something more than a wild torrent sweeping away obstacles great and +small with one equal violence; it should have its laughing shallows and +its placid deeps. But Juvenal's laughter rings harsh and wild, and +wounds as deeply as his invective; he drives continually before the +fierce gale of his spirit, and there are no calm havens where he may +rest and contemplate the ideal that so much denunciation implies. He +knows no gradations: all failings suffer beneath the same remorseless +lash. The consul Lateranus has a taste for driving: bad taste, perhaps, +yet hardly criminal. But Juvenal thunders at him as though he were +guilty of high treason (viii. 146): + + praeter maiorum cineres atque ossa volucri + carpento rapitur pinguis Lateranus, et ipse, + ipse rotam adstringit sufflamine mulio consul, + nocte quidem, sed Luna videt, sed sidera testes + intendunt oculos. finitum tempus honoris + cum fuerit, clara Lateranus luce flagellum + sumet et occursum numquam trepidabit amici + iam senis. + + See! by his great progenitor's remains + Fat Lateranus sweeps, with loosened reins. + Good Consul! he no pride of office feels, + But stoops, himself, to clog his headlong wheels. + 'But this is all by night,' the hero cries, + Yet the moon sees! yet the stars stretch their eyes + Pull on your shame!--A few short moments wait, + And Damasippus quits the pomp of state: + Then, proud the experienced driver to display, + He mounts the chariot in the face of day, + Whirls, with bold front, his grave associate by, + And jerks his whip, to catch the senior's eye. + GIFFORD. + +Elsewhere (i. 55-62) the 'horsy' youth is spoken of as worse than the +husband who connives at his wife's dishonour and pockets the reward of +her shame. Among the monstrous women of the sixth satire we come with a +shock of surprise upon the learned lady (434): + + illa tamen gravior, quae cum discumbere coepit + laudat Vergilium, periturae ignoscit Elissae, + committit vates et comparat, inde Maronem + atque alia parte in trutina suspendit Homerum. + + But of all plagues the greatest is untold; + The book-learned wife, in Greek and Latin bold; + The critic dame, who at her table sits, + Homer and Virgil quotes and weighs their wits, + And pities Dido's agonizing fits. + DRYDEN. + +She figures strangely among the poisoners and adulteresses. Juvenal is +misogynist by temperament as well as by conviction. Nero is a matricide +like Orestes, but-- + + in scaena numquam cantavit Orestes, + Troica non scripsit. quid enim Verginius armis + debuit ulcisci magis aut cum Vindice Galba, + quod Nero tam saeva crudaque tyrannide fecit? (viii. 220). + + Besides, Orestes in his wildest mood + Sung on no public stage, no Troics wrote.-- + This topped his frantic crimes! This roused mankind! + For what could Galba, what Virginius find, + In the dire annals of that bloody reign, + Which called for vengeance in a louder strain? + GIFFORD. + +It is almost a crime to be a foreigner. The Greek is a liar, a base +flatterer, a monster of lust, a traitor, a murderer.[723] The Jew is the +sordid victim of a narrow and degrading superstition.[724] The Oriental +is the defilement of Rome; worst of all are the Egyptians;[725] they +even eat each other. The freedman, the _nouveau riche_, the +_parvenu_[726] are hated with all a Roman's hatred. The old patriotism +of the city state is not yet merged in the wider imperialism. It is +bitter to hear one of alien blood say 'Civis Romanus sum'. + +This strange violence and lack of proportion are due in part to the +poet's rhetorical training, which had warped still further a naturally +biased temperament. He had been taught and loved to use the language of +hyperbole. And he had lived through the principate of Domitian; it was +that above all else which made him cry _difficile est saturam non +scribere_. To this same tendency to exaggeration may be in part +attributed the extreme grossness of so much of his work. It is true that +vices flaunted themselves before his eyes that it would be hard to +satirize without indecency. There is excuse to some extent for the +second, sixth, and ninth satires. But even there Juvenal oversteps the +mark and is often guilty of coarseness for coarseness' sake. It is easy +to plead the custom of the age,[727] but it is doubtful whether such +pleading affords any real palliation for a writer who sets out to be a +moralist. It is easy in an access of admiration to say that Juvenal is +never prurient: but it is hard to be genuinely convinced that such a +statement is true, or that Juvenal's coarseness is never more than mere +plain speaking.[728] + +For not a few readers, this tenseness of language, this violence of +judgement, and this occasional unclean handling of the unclean, make +Juvenal an exhausting and a depressing poet to read in any large +quantity at a time. Worse still, they lead the reader at times to +harbour doubts as to the genuineness of Juvenal's indignation. Such +doubts are not in reality justifiable. Juvenal sometimes goads himself +into inappropriate frenzies and sometimes betrays a suspiciously close +acquaintance with the most disgusting details of the worst vices of the +age. But though he had something of the unreality of the rhetorician, +and though his character may, perhaps, not have been free from serious +blemish, he is never a hypocrite; nor, though he paints exclusively the +darkest side of society, is there the least reason to accuse him of +culpable misrepresentation of actual facts. He has selected the +material most suited to his peculiar genius: we may complain of his +principle of selection, and of his tendency to generalize. There our +criticism must end. + +These defects are largely the defects of his qualities and may be +readily forgiven. We have Pliny the younger and the inscriptions to +modify his sombre picture. When all is said, Juvenal had a matchless +field for satire and matchless gifts, against which his defects will not +weigh in the balance for a moment. His unrivalled capacity for +declamation, for mordant epigram and scathing wit, more than compensate +for his often ill-balanced ferocity; the extraordinary vividness of his +pictures of the life of Rome makes up for lack of perspective and +proportion, the richness and variety of his imagination for its too +frequent superficiality, the vigour and trenchancy of his blows for the +absence of the rapier thrust, the fervour of his teaching for its lack +of breadth and depth. These qualities make him the greatest of the +satirists of Rome, if not of the world. + +It is, perhaps, his vividness that makes the most immediate impression. +It would be hard to find in any literature a writer with such a power to +make the scenes described live before his readers. The salient features +of a scene or character are seized at once.[729] There is no irrelevant +detail; the picture may be crowded, but it is never obscure; if there is +a fault it is that the colouring is sometimes too crude and glaring to +please. But before such word-painting as the description of Domitian's +privy council criticism is dumb: + + nec melior vultu quamvis ignobilis ibat + Rubrius, offensae veteris reus atque tacendae. + * * * * * + Montani quoque venter adest abdomine tardus, + et matutino sudans Crispinua amomo + quantum vix redolent duo funera, saevior illo + Pompeius tenui iugulos aperire susurro, + et qui vulturibus servabat viscera Dacis + Fuscus marmorea meditatus proelia villa, + et cum mortifero prudens Veiento Catullo, + qui numquam visae flagrabat amore puellae, + grande et conspicuum nostro quoque tempore monstrum, + caecus adulator, dirusque a ponte satelles + dignus Aricinos qui mendicaret ad axes + blandaque devexae iactaret basia raedae (iv. 104). + + Rubrius, though not, like these, of noble race, + Followed with equal terror in his face; + * * * * * + Montanus' belly next, and next appeared + The legs on which that monstrous pile was reared. + Crispinus followed, daubed with more perfume, + Thus early! than two funerals consume. + Then bloodier Pompey, practised to betray, + And hesitate the noblest lives away. + Then Fuscus, who in studious pomp at home, + Planned future triumphs for the arms of Rome. + Blind to the event! those arms a different fate, + Inglorious wounds and Dacian vultures wait. + Last, sly Veiento with Catullus came, + Deadly Catullus, who at beauty's name + Took fire, although unseen: a wretch, whose crimes + Struck with amaze even those prodigious times. + A base, blind parasite, a murderous lord, + From the bridge-end raised to the council-board, + Yet fitter still to dog the traveller's heels, + And whine for alms to the descending wheels. + GIFFORD. + +Figure after figure they live before us, till the procession culminates +with the crowning horror of the blind delator, L. Valerius Catullus +Messalinus. Equally vivid is Juvenal's description of places. There is +the rude theatre of the country town with its white-robed audience _en +négligé_:-- + + ipsa dierum + festorum herboso colitur si quando theatro + maiestas tandemque redit ad pulpita notum + exodium, cum personae pallentis hiatum + in gremio matris formidat rusticus infans, + aequales habitus illic similesque videbis + orchestram et populum, clari velamen honoris + sufficiunt tunicae summis aedilibus albae (iii. 172). + + Some distant parts of Italy are known, + Where none but only dead men wear a gown, + On theatres of turf, in homely state, + Old plays they act, old feasts they celebrate; + * * * * * + The mimic yearly gives the same delights; + And in the mother's arms the clownish infant frights. + Their habits (undistinguished by degrees) + Are plain alike; the same simplicity + Both on the stage and in the pit you see. + In his white cloak the magistrate appears; + The country bumpkin the same livery wears. + DRYDEN. + +There is the poor gentleman's garret high on the topmost story of some +tottering _insula_, close beneath the tiles, where the doves nest: + + lectus erat Codro Procula minor, urceoli sex + ornamentum abaci nec non et parvulus infra + cantharus, et recubans sub eodem marmore Chiro + iamque vetus graecos servabat cista libellos, + et divina opici rodebant carmina mures (iii. 203). + + Codrus had but one bed, so short to boot, + That his short wife's short legs go dangling out + His cupboard's head six earthen pitchers graced, + Beneath them was his trusty tankard placed; + And to support this noble plate, there lay + A bending Chiron cast from honest clay; + His few Greek books a rotten chest contained, + Whose covers much of mouldiness complained; + Where mice and rats devoured poetic bread, + And on heroic verse luxuriously were fed. + DRYDEN. + +There is the hurrying throng of the streets of Rome with all its dangers +and discomforts: + + nobis properantibus opstat + unda prior, magno populus premit agmine lumbos + qui sequitur; ferit hic cubito, ferit assere duro + alter, at hic tignum capiti incutit, ille metretam. + pinguia crura luto, planta mox undique magna + calcor et in digito clavus mihi militis haeret. + nonne vides quanto celebretur sportula fumo? + centum convivae, sequitur sua quemque culina. + Corbulo vix ferret tot vasa ingentia, tot res + inpositas capiti, quas recto vertice portat + servulus infelix et cursu ventilat ignem. + scinduntur tunicae sartae modo, longa coruscat + serraco veniente abies, atque altera pinum + plaustra vehunt, nutant alte populoque minantur (iii. 243). + + The press before him stops the client's pace; + The crowd that follows crush his panting sides, + And trip his heels; he walks not but he rides. + One elbows him, one jostles in the shoal, + A rafter breaks his head or chairman's pole; + Stockinged with loads of fat town dirt he goes, + And some rogue-soldier with his hob-nailed shoes + Indents his legs behind in bloody rows. + See, with what smoke our doles we celebrate! + A hundred guests invited walk in state; + A hundred hungry slaves with their Dutch-kitchens wait: + Huge pans the wretches on their heads must bear, + Which scarce gigantic Corbulo could rear; + Yet they must walk upright beneath the load, + Nay run, and running blow the sparkling flames abroad, + Their coats from botching newly brought are torn. + Unwieldy timber-trees in waggons borne, + Stretched at their length, beyond their carriage lie, + That nod and threaten ruin from on high. + DRYDEN. + +Even in the later satires, where with the advance of age this pictorial +gift begins to fail him and he tends to rely rather on brilliant +rhetorical treatment of philosophical commonplaces, there are still +flashes of the old power. The well-known description of the fall of +Sejanus in the tenth satire is in his best manner, while even the +humbler picture of the rustic family of primitive Rome in the fourteenth +satire shows the same firmness of touch, the same eye for vivid and +direct representation: + + saturabat glaebula talis + patrem ipsum turbamque casae, qua feta iacebat + uxor et infantes ludebant quattuor, unus + vernula, tres domini, sed magnis fratribus horum + a scrobe vel sulco redeuntibus altera cena + amplior et grandes fumabant pultibus ollae (166). + + For then the little glebe, improved with care, + Largely supplied with vegetable fare, + The good old man, the wife in childbed laid, + And four hale boys, that round the cottage played, + Three free-born, one a slave: while, on the board, + Huge porringers, with wholesome pottage stored, + Smoked for their elder brothers, who were now, + Hungry and tired, expected from the plough. + GIFFORD. + +His handling of the essential weapons of satire, scathing epigram, +and impetuous rhetoric, contribute equally to his success. He has +the capacity of branding a character with eternal shame in a few +terse trenchant lines. Who can forget the Greek adventurer of the +third satire?-- + + grammaticus rhetor geometres pictor aliptes + augur schoenobates medicus magus, omnia novit + Graeculus esuriens; in caelum miseris, ibit (iii. 76); + + A cook, a conjurer, a rhetorician, + A painter, pedant, a geometrician, + A dancer on the ropes and a physician; + All things the hungry Greek exactly knows, + And bid him go to heaven, to heaven he goes. + DRYDEN. + +or the summary of Domitian's reign with which he dates the story of the +gigantic turbot?-- + + cum iam semianimum laceraret Flavius orbem + ultimus et calvo serviret Roma Neroni (iv. 37); + + When the last Flavius, drunk with fury, tore + The prostrate world, which bled at every pore, + And Rome beheld, in body as in mind, + A bald-pate Nero rise to curse mankind. + GIFFORD. + +or the curse upon the legacy-hunter Pacuvius?-- + + vivat Pacuvius quaeso vel Nestora totum, + possideat quantum rapuit Nero, montibus aurum + exaequet, nec amet quemquam nec ametur ab ullo (xii. 128). + + Health to the man! and may he thus get more + Than Nero plundered! pile his shining store + High, mountain high: in years a Nestor prove, + And, loving none, ne'er know another's love! + GIFFORD. + +Not less mordant in a different way is the savage and sceptical +melancholy of the conclusion of the second satire, where he contrasts +the degenerate Roman, tainted by the foulest lusts, with the noble +Romans of the past, and even with the barbarians, newly conquered, on +the confines of empire (149): + + esse aliquos manes et subterranea regna + et contum et Stygio ranas in gurgite nigras + atque una transire vadum tot milia cumba + nec pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum aere lavantur. + sed tu vera puta: Curius quid sentit et ambo + Scipiadae, quid Fabricius manesque Camilli, + quid Cremerae legio et Cannis consumpta iuventus, + tot bellorum animae, quotiens hinc talis ad illos + umbra venit? cuperent lustrari, si qua darentur + sulpura cum taedis et si foret umida laurus. + illic heu miseri traducimur. arma quidem ultra + litora Iuvernae promovimus et modo captas + Orcadas ac minima contentos nocte Britannos, + sed quae nunc populi fiunt victoris in urbe, + non faciuut illi quos vicimus. + + That angry Justice formed a dreadful hell, + That ghosts in subterranean regions dwell, + That hateful Styx his sable current rolls, + And Charon ferries o'er unbodied souls, + Are now as tales or idle fables prized; + By children questioned and by men despised. + Yet these, do thou believe. What thoughts, declare, + Ye Scipios, once the thunderbolts of war! + Fabricius, Curius, great Camillus' ghost! + Ye valiant Fabii, in yourselves an host! + Ye dauntless youths at fatal Cannae slain! + Spirits of many a brave and bloody plain! + What thoughts are yours, whene'er with feet unblest, + An unbelieving shade invades your rest? + Ye fly, to expiate the blasting view; + Fling on the pine-tree torch the sulphur blue, + And from the dripping bay dash round the lustral dew. + And yet--to these abodes we all must come, + Believe, or not, these are our final home; + Though now Ierne tremble at our sway, + And Britain, boastful of her length of day; + Though the blue Orcades receive our chain, + And isles that slumber in the frozen main. + But why of conquest boast? the conquered climes + Are free, O Rome, from thy detested crimes. + GIFFORD. + +In the same bitter spirit, Umbricius is made to cry: + + quid Romae faciam? mentiri nescio; librum, + si malus est, nequeo laudare et poscere; motus + astrorum ignoro; funus promittere patris + nec volo nec possum; ranarum viscera numquam + inspexi; ferre ad nuptam quae mittit adulter, + quae mandat, norunt alii; me nemo ministro + fur erit, atque ideo nulli comes exeo tamquam + mancus et extinctae, corpus non utile, dextrae (iii. 41). + + What's Rome to me, what business have I there? + I who can neither lie nor falsely swear? + Nor praise my patron's undeserving rhymes, + Nor yet comply with him nor with his times? + Unskilled in schemes by planets to foreshow, + Like canting rascals, how the wars will go; + I neither will nor can prognosticate + To the young gaping heir his father's fate; + Nor in the entrails of a toad have pried, + Nor carried bawdy presents to a bride: + For want of these town-virtues, thus alone + I go conducted on my way by none; + Like a dead member from the body rent, + Maimed and unuseful to the government. + DRYDEN. + +This bitterness Juvenal seasons at times with saturnine jests of a type +that is all his own. Virro gives rancid oil to his poor guests as +dressing to their salad: + + illud enim vestris datur alveolis quod + canna Micipsarum prora subvexit acuta, + propter quod Romae cum Boccare nemo lavatur, + quod tutos etiam facit a serpentibus atris (v. 88). + + Such oil to you is thrown, + Such rancid grease, as Afric sends to town; + So strong that when her factors seek the bath, + All wind and all avoid the noisome path. + GIFFORD. + +When the blind _delator_, Catullus Messalinus, is summoned to give his +advice concerning the gigantic turbot: + + nemo magis rhombum stupuit; nam plurima dixit + in laevom conversus, at illi dextra iacebat + belua. sic pugnas Cilicis laudabat et ictus + et pegma et pueros inde ad velaria raptos (iv. 119). + + None dwelt so largely on the turbot's size, + Or raised with such applause his wondering eyes; + But to the left (O treacherous want of sight) + He poured his praise;--the fish was on the right. + Thus would he at the fencer's matches sit, + And shout with rapture at some fancied hit; + And thus applaud the stage machinery, where + The youths were rapt aloft and lost in air. + GIFFORD. + +Grimmest of all is the jest on the mushrooms set before Virro: + + vilibus ancipites fungi ponentur amicis, + boletus domino, sed quales Claudius edit + ante illum uxoris, post quem nihil amplius edit (v. 146). + + You champ on spongy toadstools, hateful treat! + Fearful of poisons in each bit you eat: + He feasts secure on mushrooms, fine as those + Which Claudius for his special eating chose, + Till one more fine, provided by his wife, + Finished at once his feasting and his life! + GIFFORD. + +But Juvenal is not always bitter, nor always angry. His indignation is +never absent, but takes at times a graver and a nobler tone. At times he +preaches virtue directly, instead of doing so indirectly through the +denunciation of vice. He has no new secret of morality to reveal, no +fresh lights to throw upon problems of conduct; his advice is obvious +and straightforward; neither in form nor matter is there anything +paradoxical. He was no student of philosophy,[730] though naturally +familiar with the more important philosophic creeds and disposed by +temperament to fall in with the views of the stern Stoic school. The +conclusion of the tenth satire quoted above owes much to the Stoics. +'Leave the ordering of your fortunes to the powers above. Man is dearer +to them than to himself. The wise man is free from all desire, all anger +and all fear of death.'[731] 'Revenge is an unworthy and degrading +passion.'[732] 'Fate[733] and the revolution[734] of the stars in heaven +rule all with unchanging law.' All these maxims have their counterpart +in the Stoic creed. But there is no need of the philosophy of the +schools to guide man to the paths of virtue. + + numquam aliud natura, aliud sapientia dicit (xiv. 321). + + Nature and wisdom never are at strife. + GIFFORD. + +Philosophy has its value, but the good man is no less good for not being +a philosopher: + + magna quidem, sacris quae dat praecepta libellis, + victrix fortunae sapientia, ducimus autem + hos quoque felices, qui ferre incommoda vitae + nec iactare iugum vita didicere magistra (xiii. 19). + + Wisdom, I know, contains a sovereign charm, + To vanquish fortune or at least disarm: + Blest they who walk in her unerring rule! + Nor those unblest who, tutored in life's school, + Have learned of old experience to submit, + And lightly bear the yoke they cannot quit. + GIFFORD. + +He agrees with the Stoics just because their practical teaching +harmonizes so entirely with the old _virtus Romana_, that is his ideal. + +No more profound are his religious views: he hates the alien cults that +work as insidious poison in the life of Rome; he rejects the picturesque +legends of the afterworld, bred of the fertile imagination of the +Greeks. But he is no unbeliever: + + separat hoc nos + a grege mutorum, atque ideo venerabile soli + sortiti ingenium divinorumque capaces + atque exercendis pariendisque artibus apti + sensum a caelesti demissum traximus arce, + cuius egent prona et terram spectantia. mundi + principio indulsit communis conditor illis + tantum animas, nobis animum quoque, mutuus ut nos + adfectus petere auxilium et praestare iuberet (xv. 142). + + This marks our birth + The great distinction from the beasts of earth! + And therefore--gifted with superior powers + And capable of things divine--'tis ours + To learn and practise every useful art; + And from high heaven deduce that better part, + That moral sense, denied to creatures prone + And downward bent, and found with man alone!-- + For He, who gave this vast machine to roll, + Breathed life in them, in us a reasoning soul: + That kindred feelings might our state improve, + And mutual wants conduct to mutual love. + GIFFORD. + +God is over all and guides and guards the world, and has ordained +torment of conscience and slow retribution for sin.[735] Yet Juvenal +does not definitely reject the gods of his native land; nor do these +exalted beliefs cause him to refuse sacrifice to Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, +and his household gods.[736] It is the creed, not of a theologian, but +of a man with high ideals, a staunch patriotism, and a deep reverence +for the past. + +But this lack of profundity and philosophical training does not, as may +be inferred from passages already quoted, prevent him from being +intensely effective as a moral teacher. His platitudes are none the +worse for not having a Stoic label and all the better for their +simplicity and directness of expression. They do not reveal the hunger +and thirst after righteousness that breathe from the lines of Persius, +but they have at least an equal appeal to the plain man, and they are +matchlessly expressed. His pleading against revenging the wrong done, if +not on the very highest moral plane, possesses a grave dignity and +beauty that brings it straight home to the heart: + + at vindicta bonum vita iucundius ipsa. + nempe hoc indocti, quorum praecordia nullis + interdum aut levibus videas flagrantia causis. + * * * * * + Chrysippus non dicet idem nec mite Thaletis + ingenium dulcique senex vicinus Hymetto, + qui partem acceptae saeva inter vincla cicutae + accusatori nollet dare. plurima felix + paulatim vitia atque errores exuit omnes, + prima docet rectum sapientia. quippe minuti + semper et infirmi est animi exiguique voluptas + ultio. continuo sic collige, quod vindicta + nemo magis gaudet quam femina. cur tamen hos tu + evasisse putes, quos diri conscia facti + mens habet attonitos et surdo verbere caedit + occultum quatiente animo tortore flagellum? + poena autem vehemens ac multo saevior illis + quas et Caedicius gravis invenit et Rhadamanthus, + nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem (xiii. 180). + + 'Revenge,' they say, and I believe their words, + 'A pleasure sweeter far than life affords.' + Who say? The fools, whose passions prone to ire + At slightest causes or at none take fire. + ... ... ... Chrysippus said not so; + Nor Thales, to our frailties clement still; + Nor that old man, by sweet Hymettus' hill, + Who drank the poison with unruffled soul, + And, dying, from his foes withheld the bowl. + Divine philosophy! by whose pure light + We first distinguish, then pursue the right, + Thy power the breast from every error frees + And weeds out every error by degrees:-- + Illumined by thy beam, revenge we find + The abject pleasure of an abject mind, + And hence so dear to poor, weak womankind. + But why are those, Calvinus, thought to 'scape + Unpunished, whom in every fearful shape + Guilt still alarms, and conscience ne'er asleep + Wounds with incessant strokes 'not loud but deep', + While the vexed mind, her own tormentor, plies + A scorpion scourge, unmarked by human eyes? + Trust me, no tortures which the poets feign, + Can match the fierce, the unutterable pain + He feels, who night and day, devoid of rest, + Carries his own accuser in his breast. + GIFFORD. + +The same characteristics mark his praise of nobility of character as +opposed to nobility of birth: + + tota licet veteres exornent undique cerae + atria, nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus. + Paulus vel Cossus vel Drusus moribus esto, + hos ante effigies maiorum pone tuorum, + praecedant ipsas illi te consule virgas. + prima mihi debes anima bona. sanctus haberi + iustitiaeque tenax factis dictisque mereris? + adgnosco procerem; salve Gaetulice, seu tu + Silanus, quocumque alio de sanguine, rarus + civis et egregius patriae contingis ovanti (viii. 19). + + Fond man, though all the heroes of your line + Bedeck your halls, and round your galleries shine + In proud display: yet take this truth from me, + 'Virtue alone is true nobility.' + Set Cossus, Drusus, Paulus, then, in view, + The bright example of their lives pursue; + Let these precede the statues of your race, + And these, when consul, of your rods take place, + O give me inborn worth! Dare to be just, + Firm to your word and faithful to your trust. + Then praises hear, at least deserve to hear, + I grant your claim and recognize the peer. + Hail from whatever stock you draw your birth, + The son of Cossus or the son of Earth, + All hail! in you exulting Rome espies + Her guardian power, her great Palladium rise. + GIFFORD. + +This is rhetoric, but rhetoric of the noblest kind. Of pure poetry +there is naturally but little in Juvenal. Neither his temperament nor +his subject would admit it. He had too keen an eye for the hideous and +the grotesque, too strong a passion for the declamatory style. Hence it +is rather his brilliant sketches of a vicious society, his fiery +outbursts of rhetoric, his striking _sententiae_ that primarily impress +the reader: + + expende Hannibalem: quot libras in duce summo + invenies? (x. 147). + + Great Hannibal within the balance lay, + And count how many pounds his ashes weigh. + DRYDEN. + + finem animae quae res humanas miscuit olim, + non gladii, non saxa dabunt nec tela, sed ille + Cannarum vindex et tanti sanguinis ultor + anulus. i demens et saevas curre per Alpes, + ut pueris placeas et declamatio fias (x. 163). + + What wondrous sort of death has heaven designed + For so untamed, so turbulent a mind? + Nor swords at hand, nor hissing darts afar, + Are doomed to avenge the tedious bloody war; + But poison drawn through a ring's hollow plate, + Must finish him--a sucking infant's fate. + Go, climb the rugged Alps, ambitious fool, + To please the boys, and be a theme at school. + DRYDEN. + + nemo repente fuit turpissimus (ii. 83). + + For none become at once completely vile. + GIFFORD. + + summum crede nefas animam praeferre pudori + et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas (viii. 83). + si natura negat, facit indignatio versum (i. 79). + + Think it a crime no tears can e'er efface, + To purchase safety with compliance base, + At honour's cost a feverish span extend, + And sacrifice for life, life's only end! + GIFFORD. + +It is lines such as these that first rise to the mind at the mention of +Juvenal. But he was no mere declaimer. Here and there we may find +phrases of the purest poetry and of the most perfect form. Far above all +others come the wonderful lines of the ninth satire: + + festinat enim decurrere velox + flosculus angustae miseraeque brevissima vitae + portio; dum bibimus, dum serta unguenta puellas + poscimus, obrepit non intellecta senectus (ix. 126). + + For youth, too transient flower! of life's short day + The shortest part, but blossoms--to decay. + Lo! while we give the unregarded hour + To revelry and joy in Pleasure's bower, + While now for rosy wreaths our brow to twine, + While now for nymphs we call, and now for wine, + The noiseless foot of time steals swiftly by, + And, ere we dream of manhood, age is nigh! + GIFFORD. + +Of a very different character, but of a beauty that is nothing less +than startling in its sombre surroundings, is the blessing that he +invokes on the good men of old who 'enthroned the teacher in the +revered parent's place'. + + di maiorum umbris tenuem et sine pondere terram + spirantesque crocos et in urna perpetuum ver, + qui praeceptorem sancti voluere parentis + esse loco (vii. 207). + + Shades of our sires! O sacred be your rest, + And lightly lie the turf upon your breast! + Flowers round your urns breathe sweets beyond compare, + And spring eternal shed its influence there! + You honoured tutors, now a slighted race, + And gave them all a parent's power and place. + GIFFORD. + +The sensuous appeal of the 'fragrant crocus and the spring that dies not +in the urn of death' is unique in Juvenal. This slender stream of +definitely poetic imagination reveals itself suddenly and unexpectedly +in strange forms and circumstances. At the close of the passage in the +third satire describing the perils of the Roman streets, Juvenal +imagines the death of some householder in a street accident. All is +bustle and business at home in expectation of his return: + + domus interea secura patellas + iam lavat et bucca foculum excitat et sonat unctis + striglibus et pleno componit lintea guto. + haec inter pueros varie properantur, at ille + iam sedet in ripa taetrumque novicius horret + porthmea nec sperat caenosi gurgitis alnum + infelix nec habet quem porrigat ore trientem (iii. 261). + + Meantime, unknowing of their fellow's fate, + The servants wash the platter, scour the plate, + Then blow the fire with puffing cheeks, and lay + The rubbers and the bathing-sheets display, + And oil them first, each handy in his way. + But he for whom this busy care they take, + Poor ghost! is wandering by the Stygian lake; + Affrighted by the ferryman's grim face, + New to the horrors of the fearful place, + His passage begs, with unregarded prayer, + And wants two farthings to discharge his fare. + DRYDEN. + +Out of the grotesque there gradually looms the horror of death and the +friendless ghost sitting lost and homeless by the Stygian waters. + +That there is small scope in his work for such distinctively poetic +imagination is not Juvenal's fault, nor can we complain of its absence. +But in technical accomplishment he shows himself a writer of the first +rank. His treatment of the hexameter exactly suits his declamatory type +of satire. The conversational verse of Horace, with its easy-going +rambling gait, was unsuitable for the thunders of Juvenal's rhetoric. +Something more massive in structure, more vigorous in movement, was +needed as the vehicle of so much rhetoric and invective. The delicate +tripping hexameter of contemporary epic was equally unsuitable. + +Unlike the majority of post-Augustan poets, Juvenal is almost untouched +by the Ovidian influence. As far as his metre has any ancestry, it is +descended from the Vergilian hexameter, though with the licence of +satire it claims greater liberty in its treatment of pauses and of +elision. The post-Augustan poet with whom in this respect Juvenal has +greatest affinity is Persius. For vigour and variety he far surpasses +all other poets of the age; while even Persius, although at his best and +in his more declamatory passages he is at least Juvenal's equal, does +not maintain the same level of excellence, and his more frequent +employment of the traditional dialogue of satire gives him fewer +opportunities for striking metrical effect. + +As regards his diction Juvenal is equally remarkable. He has suffered +little from the schools of rhetoric and has gained much. He is pointed +and clear, without being either obscure[737] or mechanical. There is no +vain striving after antithesis and no epigram for epigram's sake. +Grotesque he is not seldom, but the grotesqueness is deliberate and +effective, and no mere affectation. + +His one serious weakness is his lack of constructive power and his +incapacity to preserve due proportion between the parts of his satires. +The most glaring instances of this failing are to be found in the +fourth, twelfth, and fourteenth satires, but except the third there is +hardly a satire that can be regarded as wholly successful in point of +construction. This defect, it may be admitted, is less serious in satire +than in almost any other branch of literature. Such discursiveness was +justified by the tradition and by the inherent nature of satire. But +Juvenal offends in this respect beyond due reason, and only his +extraordinary merits in other directions save him from the penalties of +this failing. + +Juvenal is the last of the poets of the Silver Age, and the only one of +them to whom the epithet 'great' can reasonably be applied. He is no +faultless writer, but he has genius and power, and has risen superior to +the besetting sins of the age. He is a rhetorician, it is true, but he +chose a form of literature where his rhetoric could have legitimate +play. But he is no plagiarist or imitator; though, as in any other poet, +we may find in him many traces and even echoes of his predecessors, he +is in the best sense original. He is never a mere juggler in words and +phrases, he is a true artist. Form and matter are indissolubly welded +and interfused one with another. And this is because, unlike other +writers of the age, he has something to say. He is poet by inspiration, +not by profession. His excessive pessimism, his tendency to bias and +exaggeration, cannot on the worst estimate obscure his merits either as +artist or moralist. His picture of society has large elements of truth, +and we can no more blame him for his tendency to caricature than we can +blame Hogarth. Satire, especially the satire of declamatory invective, +must be one-sided, and the satirist must select the features of life +which he desires to denounce. And if this leads us at times into +unpleasant places and among unpleasant people unpleasantly described, +that does not justify us in denouncing the satirist. It must be +remembered that the true satirist is not likely to be a man of perfect +character. He must have seen much and experienced much; if his character +has in the process become not merely unduly embittered, but perhaps +somewhat smirched, these failings may be redeemed by other qualities. +And in the case of Juvenal they are so redeemed. + +He has not the lucid judgement of Horace nor the pure fervour of +Persius. He is more positive than the former, more negative than the +latter. But he has lived in a sense in which Persius never had, and +possesses the gift of direct and lucid expression; therefore, when he +strikes, he strikes home. He cannot, like Horace, 'play about the hearts +of men,' he will have nothing of compromise, he cannot and will not +adapt himself to his environment. The doctrine of [Greek: m_eden agan], +the _aurea mediocritas_, have no attractions for him. Hence his ideal is +often unpractical; 'the times were out of joint,' and Juvenal was not +precisely the man to 'set them right'. But at least he sets forth an +ideal, that any honest man must admit to be noble. It is precisely +because he is no casuist, because he hits hard and unsparingly, and is +translucently honest, and because his weapon is the most fervid and +trenchant rhetoric, that Juvenal is the most quoted and one of the most +popular of Latin poets. He has contributed little to the thought of the +world, but he has taught men to hate iniquity. He does not rise to the +height of such an immortal saying as + + virtutem videant intabescantque relicta; + +he is no philosopher, and his ideals have neither the exaltation nor the +stimulating power of the Stoic ideal. But he unveils vice and folly, so +that men may fly from their utter hideousness, in such burning words as +it has fallen to few poets to utter. He is 'dowered with the hate of +hate, the scorn of scorn'; had he possessed also the 'love of love', he +might have reached greater heights of pure poetry, but he would not have +been Juvenal, and the world would have been the loser. + + + +INDEX OF NAMES + + +Abascantus 205 _n_, 299 _n_. +Accius 12, 71, 89. +Aeschylus 207 _n_, 212 _n_, 216 _n_. +Aetna 140-6, 156. +Afranius 12, 25. +Agrippina 25, 74, 76. +Antimachus 207 _n_, 209, 210. +Antistius Sosianus 163 _n_, 164. +Apollonius Rhodius 182 sqq. +Aquilius Regulus 256. +Arria 81, 275. +Arrius Antoninus 173 _n_. +Arulenus Rustieus 168. +Asellius Sabinus 3. +Asinius Pollio 18. +Atedius Melior 205 _n_, 230, 256, 272. +Attalus 32. +Attius Labeo 160. +Ausonius 174, 175. + +Bassus, Caesius 80-2, 163-5. +Bassus, Saleius 19, 168, 169. +Bathyllus 27. + +Caecilius 12. +Caesar, C. Julius 103 sqq., 263. +Caesennia 163. +Calenus 175. +Caligula 4, 5, 31, 163. +Callimachus 207. +Calpurnius Piso 35, 99, 152, 156-9, 251. +Calpurnius Siculus 137, 150-9, 245. +Calpurnius Statura 80. +Calvinus 289. +Carinas Secundus 4. +Cassius Rufus 256. +Cato 37, 38, 58, 101, 103 sqq., 262. +Catullus, C. Valerius 2, 123 _n_, 176, 260, 261, 263. +Catullus (writer of mimes) 24. +Catullus (friend of Juvenal) 289, 297. +Cicero 58, 172, 238. +Claudia 204. +Claudianus 174. +Claudius 5, 25, 32, 36, 63. +Claudius Agathurnus 80. +Claudius Augustalis 146. +Claudius Etruscus 205 _n_, 231, 256, 299 _n_. +Clutorius Priscus 3. +Codrus 291. +Columella 137, 146-9, 180. +Cornelius Severus 144. +Cornutus 6, 79-82, 94, 95, 97, 267. +Cremutius Cordus 2, 101. +Crispinus (1) 205 _n_. +---- (2) 294. +Curiatius Maternus 30. + +Decianus 257, 264. +Demosthenes 128. +Domitianus 19, 21, 25, 168, 176, 181, 203, 204, 228, + 229, 252, 271, 287, 293, 296, 303, 305. + +Earinus 229. +Einsiedeln Fragments 151, 156, 157. +Ennius 12, 23. +Epictetus 70, 238. +Erotion 272. +Euphorion 3. +Euripides 45, 46, 74, 127, 207 _n_, 212 _n_, 216 _n_. + +Faustus 30. +Flaccilla 251, 272. +Flaccus (father of Persius) 79. +Flaccus of Patavium 180, 281. +Fronto (rhetorician) 35. +Fronto (father of Martial) 251, 272. +Fulgentius 134, 135. +Fulvia Sisennia 79. + +Gaetulicus 163, 259, 261. +Galba 25. +Gallio L. Iunius 31. +Glaucias 230, 272. + +Hadrianus 290, 291, 294, 296. +Hecato 43 _n_. +Helvidius Priscus 168. +Herennius Senecio 168. +Hesiod 12. +Homer 4, 12, 160, 161, 188, 221, 227. +Horatius 10-12, 71, 83, 84, 89, 91, 92, 123 _n_, 171, 191, 241, 244, + 284, 293, 317, 320. +Hyperides 128. + +Ilias Latina 22, 160-3. +Italicus, Babius 163. +Iulius Martialis 257, 264, 265, 270. +Iuvenalis 21, 22, 91, 92,121,168,169, 170, 174, 236, 245, 256, 260, + 261, 263, 275, 278, 279, 287-320. + +Labienus 4. +Latro 15 _n_. +Lentulus Sura 256. +Livilla 32, 33. +Livius Andronicus 160. +Livius, T. 4, 239, 242, 245. +Lucanus 7, 8, 20-2, 28, 31, 80, 94, 97-124, 132, 179, 180, 187, 192, + 221 _n_, 226, 229, 233, 235, 238, 239, 243, 244. 251, 260, 275. +Lucian 27. +Lucilius Iunior 144, 163 _n_. +Lucilius (satirist) 10, 83, 89, 293. +Lucinianus Maternus 256. +Lucretius 123 _n_, 140, 143. +Lynceus 207 _n_. + +Macrinus 80, 82. +Marcella 255. +Marius Priscus 287. +Marsus, Domitius 259, 261, 281. +Martialis 8 _n_, 134, 139, 163, 167, 169, 173-6, + 180, 204, 238, 243, 250, 251-86, 289. +Matius, Cn. 160. +Maximus Vibius 204, 205. +Mela, M. Annaeus 31, 36, 97. +Meliboeus 152, 156-9. +Memor, Scaevus 30. +Menander 12. +Messala, Vipstanus 16, 126. +Montanus, Curtius 163 _n_. +Mummius 24 _n_. +Musonius Rufus 8. + +Naevius 12. +Nero 6-8, 19, 20, 28, 33, 41, 43, 74-6, 89 _n_, 97, 98, 101, 102, 119, + 125-7, 131 _n_, 132, 144, 151, 236, 251, 290, 291, 302. +Nerva 21, 169, 170, 255, 296. +Ninnius Crassus 160. +Norbanus 256. +Novatus, M. Annaeus 31, 30. +Novius Vindex 205 _n_. + +Octavia 40, 41, 74-8. +Ovidius 11, 12, 17 _n_, 29, 46, 71, 112, 123 _n_, 143, 144, 161, 192, + 207, 221 _n_, 226, 259, 260, 263. + +Paccius 30. +Pacuvius 12, 23, 71, 89. +Paris, 28, 203, 291. +Parthenius 8. +Passennus Paulus Propertius Blaesus 170, 171. +Passienus, Crispus 36. +Patronius Aristocrates 80. +Pedo, Albinovanus 259 _n_, 261. +Persicus 289. +Persius 20-2, 79-96, 160, 164, 191, 236, 267, 293, 318, 319. +Pervigilium Veneris 174. +Petronius Arbiter 16 _n_, 20, 103, 125-39, 239, 259. +Phaedrus 3. +Pindar 127. +Piso, _see_ Calpurnius. +Pisonem, Panegyricus in 156-9. +Plato 127. +Plautus 12, 23. +Plinius (the younger) 20, 25, 163, 170-3, 232, 236, 245, 255, 268, 305. +Plotius Grypus 205 _n_. +Plutarch 94. +Polla, Argentaria 100, 205 _n_. +Pollius 231, 268. +Polybius 4, 32, 161. +Pompeius 37, 101, 102 sqq. +Pomponius Bassulus 25, 170. +Pomponius Secundus 29. +Ponticus 207 _n_. +Probus 79. +Propertius 139, 170, 171. +Pudens (friend of Martial) 257 +Pudens L. Valerius (boy-poet) 14 _n_. +Pylades (1) 27. +---- (2) 291. + +Quintilianus 12, 16, 20, 25, 29, 35, 116, 164, 167-9, 179, 180, 251, + 252, 256. +Quintus Ovidius 257. + +Remmius Palaemon 17 _n_, 79. +Rhianus 3. +Rubrenus Lappa 30. +Rutilius Gallicus 205 _n_. +Rutilius Namatianus 174. + +Sappho 176. +Scaurus, Mamercus 2. +Seneca (the elder) 15, 31, 97. +Seneca (the younger) 4, 5, 20, 31-78, 93, 94, 97, 115, 124, 132, + 134, 144, 145, 161, 164, 179, 180, 185-7, 207 _n_, 221 _n_, 236, + 251, 259, 260. +Sentius Augurinus 170, 171. +Serranus 168, 169. +Servilius Nonianus 80. +Severus, Cassius 4. +Silius Italicus 20, 102, 123_n_, 145, 156, 163, 168, 179, 191, + 236-50, 256. +Silvinus 146. +Sophocles 47 _n_, 127, 207 _n_, 216 _n_. +Sotion 32. +Statius (the elder) 169, 202, 203. +Statius (the younger) 8 _n_, 20, 22, 28, 100, 123 _n_, 164, 167-9, + 179, 191, 192, 202-35, 240, 260, 268, 270-2. +Stella, Arruntius 169, 205 _n,_ 256, 280. +Stertinius Avitus 256. +Sulpicia (the elder) 174. +Sulpicia (the younger) 174-8. +Sulpicius Maximus 14 _n._ + +Tacitus 20, 21, 121, 125, 127, 168, 169, 170, 179, 243, 275. +Terentius 23. +Theocritus 150, 268. +Thrasea 34, 80, 168. +Thucydides 128. +Tiberianus 174. +Tiberius 2-4, 25, 102. +Tibullus 174. +Titus 167, 181, 252. +Traianus 21, 127, 169, 170, 256, 290, 291, 296. +Triarius 15 _n._ +Turnus 30, 169. + +Umbricius 289, 293, 294. + +Vacca 97. +Vagellius 163 _n._ +Valerius Flaccus 20, 123 _n,_ 167, 168, 179-201, 212 _n,_ 220, 226, + 235, 236. +Varius 29. +Varro (Atacinus) 183. +Varro (Reatinus) 127. +Varus 257. +Vergilius Maro 4, 11, 12, 17 _n,_ 20, 101, 102, 115, 123 _n,_ 130, + 143, 144, 146, 147, 149, 150, 151, 153, 161, 179, 186, 187, 191, + 193, 194, 198, 207 _n,_ 210, 211, 220 _n,_ 221, 226, 227, 237, + 238-40, 243-5, 281. +Vergilius Romanus 25, 170. +Verginius Flavus 7. +Verginius Rufus 169. +Vespasianus 144, 166, 169, 170, 180. +Vestricius Spurinna 169. +Vopiscus 231. + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +1. See Teuffel and Schwabe, § 272. + +2. Cf. Tac. _Ann_. i. 1. Velleius Paterculus is a good example of +the servile historian. For an example of servile oratory of. Tac. +_Ann_. xvi. 28. + +3. Suet, _Tib_. 21. + +4. Dion. 1 vii. 22; Tac. _Ann_. vi. 39; iv. 31. + +5. Tac. _Ann_. iv. 34. + +6. Dion. lviii. 24 [Greek: math_on oun touto ho Tiberios, eph' eaut_oi +tote to epos eir_esthai eph_e, Atreus dia t_en miaiphonian einai +prospoi_esamenos.] Tac. _Ann_. vi. 29. + +7. 'Pulsi tum Italia histriones,' Tac. _Ann_. iv. 14. + +8. III Prol. 38 sqq., Epil. 29 sqq. + +9. Suet. _Tib_. 42. + +10. Tac. _Ann_. iii. 49; Dion. lvii. 20. + +11. Suet. _Tib_. 70 + +12. Suet. _Tib_. 71 + +13. Suet. _Tib_. 61 + +14. Suidas, s.v. [Greek: Kaisar Tiberios]. + +15. Suet. _Tib_. 70. + +16. Suet. _Tib. 70._ + +17. Suet. _Cal. 53._ + +18. Suet. _Cal. 53._ + +19. Suet. _Cal. 16._ + +20. Dion. _lix. 20._ + +21. Suet. _Cal. 27._ + +22. Dion. _lix. 19._ + +23. Suet. _Cal._ 34 'nullius ingenii minimaeque doctrinae'. + +24. Suet. _Cal. 20._ + +25. For his writings generally of. Suet. _Claud. 41, 42._ + +26. Tac. _Ann. xiii. 43._ + +27. Suet. _Claud. 33._ + +28. For his writings generally of. Suet. _Claud. 41, 42._ + +29. Suet _Claud. 11._ + +30. Suet. _Claud. 41. This is borne out by the fragments of the speech +delivered at Lyons on the Gallic franchise. _C.I. L. 13, 1668._ + +31. Suet. _Claud. 28._ + +32. Sc. in the _Apocolocyntosis_. + +33. Suet. _Ner. 52._ + +34. Suet. _Ner. 49_ 'qualis artifex pereo!' + +35. Suet. _Ner. 52_; Tac. _Ann. xiii. 3._ + +36. Tac. _Ann. xiv. 16._ + +37. Suet. _Domit. 1_; Tac. _Ann. xv. 49_; Suet. _Ner. 24._ + +38. Mart, ix. 26. 9; Plin. _N. H. xxxvii. 50._ + +39. Persius is sometimes said to quote from the Bacchae. Cf. Schol. +Pers. _Sat. i. 93-5, 99-102_. But see ch. in, p. 89. + +40. Juv. viii. 221; Serv. Verg. _Georg. iii. 36, Aen. v. 370._ + +41. Dion. lxii. 29. + +42. Dion. lxii. 18; Suet. _Ner. 38_; Tac. _Ann. xv. 39_. For fragments +of his work see Baehrens, _Poet. Rom. Fragm., p. 368._ + +43. Suet, Ner. 10, 21. + +44. Philostr. _vit. Apoll_. iv. 39 [Greek: ad_on ta tou Ner_onos mel_e +... ep_ege mel_e ta men ex Oresteias, ta d' ex Antigon_es, ta d' +opothenoun t_on prag_odoumen_on aut_o kai _odas ekampten oposas Ner_on +elugize te kai kak_os estrephen]. + +45. Suet. _vita Lucani_; see chapter on Lucan, p. 97. + +46. See chapter on Lucan, p. 98. + +47. Suet. _Luc_.; Tac. _Ann_. xv. 49. + +48. Suet. _Ner_. 39. + +49. It may be urged that the damage lies not in the loss of poetry +suppressed by the Emperor, but in the generation of a type of court +poetry, examples of which survive in their most repulsive form in the +_Silvae_ of Statius and the epigrams of Martial. The objection has its +element of truth, but only affects a very small and comparatively +unimportant portion of the poetry of the age. + +50. See Tacitus, _Dial._ 28 sqq. on the moral training of a young Roman +of his day. Also Juv. xiv. + +51. After the death of the great Augustan authors Alexandrian erudition +becomes yet more rampant. It was a great assistance to men of +second-rate poetical talent. + +52. Quint, i. 1. 12. + +53. Quint, i. 8. 3; Plin. _Ep._ ii. 14. + +54. Quint, i. 9. 2; Cic. _Ep. ad Fam._ vi. 18. 5; Quint. i. 8. 6; Stat. +_Silv._ ii. 1. 114; Ov. _Tr._ ii. 369. + +55. Cp. Wilkins, _Rom. Education_, p. 60. + +56. Op. Juv. vii. 231-6; Suet. _Tib._ 70. The result of this type of +instruction is visible throughout the poets of the age, whereas Vergil +and the best of the Greek Alexandrians had a true appreciation of the +sensuous charm of proper names and legendary allusions, as in our +literature had Marlowe, Milton, Keats, and Tennyson. Cp. Milton, +_Paradise Lost_, Bk. 1: + + What resounds + In fable or romance of Uther's son + Begirt with British and Armoric knights; + And all who since, baptised or infidel, + Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban, + Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond, + Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore, + When Charlemain with all his peerage fell + By Fontarabia. + +Or compare Tennyson's use of the names of Arthur's battles, 'Agned +Cathregonion' and the 'waste sand-shore of Trath Treroit.' + +57. Wilkins, _Roman Education_, p. 72. + +58. See Wilkins, op. cit, p. 74. + +59. Wilkins, _Roman Education_, p. 75. + +60. The most striking instances of this precocity are Q. Sulpicius +Maximus, who at the age of twelve and a half won the prize for Greek +verse at the Agon Capitolinus A.D. 94 (cp. Kaibel, _Epigr_. Gr. 618), +and L. Valerius L. F. Pudens, aged thirteen, who won the prize for Latin +verse in A.D. 106. Cp. _C.I.L._ ix. 286. + +61. For the importance attached to imitation sec Quint, x. 2. + +62. The Greek rhetoricians of this period lay great stress on the +importance of avoiding declamatory rhetoric. They belong to the Attic +revival. But the Attic revival never really 'caught on' at Rome; by the +time of Quintilian the mischief was done. + +63. Sen. _Suas_. 3. + +64. Ib. 7. + +65. Ib. 2. I subjoin the text of the last. The author is Triarius.' 'Non +pudet Laconas ne pugna quidem hostium, sed fabula vinci? Magnum est +alumnum virtutis nasci et Laconem: ad certam victoriam omnes +remansissent: ad certam mortem tantum Lacones. Non est Sparta lapidibus +circumdata: ibi muros habet ubi viros. Melius revocabimus fugientes +trecenos quam sequemur. Sed montes perforat, maria contegit. Nunquam +solido stetit superba felicitas et ingentium imperiorum magna fastigia +oblivione fragilitatis humanae conlapsa sunt. Scias licet non ad finem +pervenisse quae ad invidiam porducta sunt. Maria terrasque, rerum +naturam statione immutavit sua: moriamur trecenti, ut hic primum +invenerit quod mutare non posset. Si tam demens placiturum consilium +erat, cur non potius in turba fuginius?' + +66. Latro is the author of the following treatment of the theme. 'Hoc +exspectastis ut capite demisso verecundia se ipsa antequam impelleretur +deiceret? id enim decrat ut modestior in saxo esset quam in sacrario +fuerat. Constitit et circumlatis in frequentiam oculis sanctissimum +numen, quasi parum violasset inter altaria, coepit in ipso quo +vindicabatur violare supplicio: hoc alterum damnatae incestum fuit, +damnata est quia incesta erat, deiceta est quia damnata erat, repetenda +est quia et incesta et damnata et deiceta est, dubitari potest quin +usque eo deicienda sit, donec efficiatur propter quod deiecta est? +patrocinium suum vocat pereundi infelicitatem. Quid tibi, importuna +mulier, precor nisi ut ne vis quidem deiceta pereas? "Invocavi," +inquit, "deos", statuta in illo saxo deos nominasti, et miraris si te +iterum deici volunt? si nihil aliud, loco incestarum stetisti.' Sen. +_Cont_. i. 3. + +67. e.g. Sen. _Cont_. i. 7 'Liberi parentes alant aut vinciant: quidam +alterum fratrem tyrannum occidit, alterum in adulterio deprehensum +deprecante patre interfecit. A piratis captas scripsit patri de +redemptione. Pater piratis epistolam scripsit, si praecidissent manus, +duplam se daturum. Piratae illum dimiserunt: patrem egentem non alit.' + +68. For a brilliant description of the evils of the Roman system of +education see Tac. _Dial_. 30-5. See also p. 127 for the very similar +criticism of Petronius. + +69. ce. 28-30. Cp. also Quint, i. 2 1-8. + +70. The schoolmaster was not infrequently, it is to be feared, of +doubtful character. Cp. the case of the famous rhetorician Remmius +Palaemon. Cp. also Quint, i. 3. 13. + +71. c. 35. + +72. Tac. _Dial_. 26. + +73. The influence of rhetoric was of course large in the Augustan age. +Vergil and still more Ovid testify to this fact. But the tone of +rhetoric was saner in the days of Vergil. Ovid, himself no +inconsiderable influence on the poetry of the Silver Age, begins to show +the effects of the new and meretricious type of rhetoric that flourished +under the anti-Ciceronian reaction, when the healthy influence of the +great orators of a saner age began to give way before the inroads of the +brilliant but insincere epigrammatic style. This latter style was +fostered largely by the importance assigned to the _controversia_ and +_suasoria_ as opposed to the more realistic methods of oratorical +training during the last century of the republic. + +74. See Mayor on Juv. iii. 9. + +75. Cp. Juv. i. 1 sqq., iii. 9. For the enormous part played in social +life by recitations cp. Plin. _Ep_. i. 13, ii. 19, iv. 5, 27, v. 12, vi. +2, 17, 21, viii. 21. + +76. Cp. especially the speeches of Lucan. + +77. For some very just criticism on this head cp. Quint, viii. 5. 25 +sqq. + +78. For amusing instances of rudeness on the part of members of the +audience ep. Sen. _Ep._ cxxii. 11; Plin. _Ep._ vi. 15. + +79. Petr. 83, 88-91, 115. Mart. iii. 44. 10 'et stanti legis et legis +cacanti. | in thermas fugio: sonas ad aurem. | piscinam peto: non licet +natare. | ad cenam propero: tenes euntem. | ad cenam venio: fugas +sedentem. | lassus dormio: suscitas iacentem.' Cp. also 3, 50 and +passim. Plin. _Ep._ vi. 13; Juv. i. 1-21; iii. 6-9; vii. 39 sqq. + +80. Plin. _Ep._ viii. 12. + +81. Suet. _Dom._ 4. + +82. Tac. _Dial_. 35 + +83. See ch. v. + +84. There had always, it may be noted, existed an archaistic section of +literary society. Seneca (_Ep._ cxiv. 13), Persius (i. 76), and Tacitus +(_Dial._ 23) decide the imitators of the early poets of the republic. +But virtually no trace of pronounced imitation of this kind is to be +observed in the poetry that has survived. Novelty and what passed for +originality were naturally more popular than the resuscitation of the +dead or dying past. + +85. Boissier, _L'Opposition sous les Césars_, p. 238. + +86. Macrobius (_Sat._ 10. 3) speaks of a revival of the Atellan by a +certain Mummius, but gives no indication of the date. + +87. Juv. viii. 185. + +888. Suet. _Calig._ 57; Joseph. _Ant._ xix. 1. 13; Juv. viii. 187. + +89. Mart. _de Spect._ 7. + +90. Plutarch, _de Sollert. Anim._ xix. 9. + +91. Suet. _Tib_. 45. + +92. ib. _Ner_. 39. + +93. Ib. _Galb_. 13. + +94. Ib. _Dom_. 10. + +95. Ib. _Calig_. 27; _Nero_, I. c.; Tac. _Ann_. iv. 14. + +96. _C. I. L_. ix. 1165. + +97. _Ep_. vi. 21. + +98. Suet. _Ner_. II. + +999. Quint, xi. 3. 178. + +100. Juv. iii. 93. + +101. x. 1, 99. + +102. Lucian, _de Salt_. 27. + +103. Suet. _Ner_. 24. + +104. Lucian, _de Salt_. 79. + +105. Suet. _ap. Hieronym_. (Roth, p. 301, 25). + +106. Plut. _Qu. Conv_. vii. 8. 3; Sen. _Contr_. 3. praef. 10. + +107. Lucian, op. cit., 37-61. + +108. Plut, _Qu. Conv_. iv. 15. 17; Libanius (Reiske) iii, p. 381. + +109. Lucian, op. cit., 69 sqq. + +110. e.g. Pasiphae, Cinyras and Myrrha, Jupiter and Leda. Lucian, 1. c.; +Joseph. _Ant. Iud_. xix. 1. 13; Juv. vi. 63-6. + +111. For the effect of such dancing cp. the interesting stories told by +Lucian, op. cit., 63-6. Cp. also Liban., in, p. 373. For the importance +attached to gesture in ancient times see Quint. xi. 3. 87 sqq. + +112. Story of Turnus; Suet, _Ner_. 54. Dido; Macrob. Sat. v. 17. 15. + +113. See p. 100. + +114. Juv. vii. 92. + +115. For the general history of the pantomimus see Friedländer, +_Sittengeschicht,_ II. in. 3, and Lucian, _de Saltatione_. + +116. Dion. liv. 17; Tac. _Ann_. i. 54 and 77; Dion. lvii. 14. + +117. Suet. _Ner_. 46. + +118. There is no clear proof of the performance on the Roman stage of +any tragedy in the strict sense of the word during the Silver Age. The +words used e.g. in Dio Chrys. (19, p. 261: 23, p. 396), Lucian +(_Nigrin_. 8), Libanius (iii, p. 265, Reiske) may refer merely to the +performance of isolated scenes. See note on Vespasian's attitude to the +theatre, p. 166. + +119. Pliny the elder wrote his life. Plin. _Ep_. iii. 5. Cp. also Tac. +_Ann_. v. 8; xii. 28; Plin. _N.H_. xiii. 83. + +120. Ribbeck, _Trag. Rom. Fr_. p. 268, fr. 1; p. 331 (ed. 3). + +121. _Ann_. xi. 13. + +122. Charis, _Gr. Lat_. i. p. 125, 23; p. 137, 23. + +123. Tac. _Dial_. II. + +124. Ib. 2, 3. + +125. Ib. 3. + +126. Ib. 3. + +127. Ib. II. + +128. Juv. vii. 12. + +129. Juv. vii. 12. + +130. Ib. vii. 72. + +131. He flourished in reign of Domitian. Schol. Vall. luv. i. 20; Mart. +xi. 9 and 10; Donat. _Gramm. Lat_. iv. p. 537, 17; Apollin. Sid. ix. 266. + +132. In the fragment preserved by Donatus (Ribbeck, _Trag. Rom. Fr_. p. +269) the chorus address Hecuba under the name Cisseis. 'Fulgentius +expos. serm. antiq. 25 (p. 119, 5, Helm) says _Memos_ (Schopen emends +to _Memor_) _in tragoedia Herculis ait: ferte suppetias optimi +comites_.' + +133. xi. 2. 8. + +134. Mart. _i._ 61, 7; _Poet. Lat. Min._ iv. p. 62, 19, Bachrens. + +135. Tac. _Ann._ xv. 73; xvi. 17. + +136. Tac. _Ann._ xv. 73; xvi. 17. + +137. Sen. _ad Helv. de Cons._ xix. 2. + +138. Sen. _ad Helv._ 1. c.; _Ep._ lxxviii. 1. Dion. Cass. lix. 19. + +139. 5 Dion. Cass. 1. c. + +140. Suet. _Calig._ 53. See ch. i. p. 4. + +141. _Ep._ cviii. 17 sqq.; Hioronym. _ad ann._ 2029. That he knew and +never lost his respect for the teaching of Pythagoras is shown by the +frequency with which he quotes him in the letters. + +142. _Ep._ cviii. 3 sqq. + +143. Cp. the speech of Suillius, Tac. _Ann._ xiii. 42; Dion. +Cass. lxi. 10. + +144. _ad Helv. de Cons._ 6 sqq. + +145. _ad Polyb. de Cons._ + +146. The _Apocolocyntosis_--almost undoubtedly by Seneca--hardly falls +within the scope of this work. Such intrinsic importance as it possesses +is due to the prose portions. In point of form it is an example of the +_Menippean Satire_, that strange medley of prose and verse. The verse +portions form but a small proportion of the whole and are insipid and +lacking in interest. + +147. He was forbidden by Agrippina to give definite philosophical +instruction. Cp. Suet. _Nero_, 52. + +148. Cp. _ad Ner. de Clem._ ii. 2; Henderson, _Life of Nero_, +Notes, p. 459. + +149. For what may be regarded as an academic _apologia pro vita sua_, +cp. _Ep._ 5; 17: 20; _de Ira_, in. 33; _de Const. Sap._ 1-4, 10-13; _de +Vit. Beat._ 17-28, &c. + +150. Dion. Cass. lxi. 4. 5. + +151. Tac. _Ann_. xvi. 28. + +152. This is Dion's view, lxi. 10. For an ingenious view of Seneca's +character see Ball, _Satire of Sen. on apotheosis of Claudius_, p. +34. 'It may be that Seneca cared less for the realization of high +ideals in life than for the formulation of the ideals as such. +Sincerity and hypocrisy are terms much less worth controversy in some +minds than others.' + +153. Tac. _Ann._ xv. 61-4. + +154. Quint, x. 1. 125-9. + +155. Fronto, p. 155, N. + +156. Quint, x. 1. 129. Over and above his writings on moral philosophy +we possess seven books _ad Lucilium naturalium quaestionum._ + +157. _Patruos duos_ more naturally, however, refers to Gallio and Mela, +in which case Marcus is the son of Seneca himself. + +158. Cp. _P.L.M._ iv. 15, 8; Plin. _N.H._ xvi. 242. + +159. For these cp. _Ep._ xiv. 13; ib. civ. 29. + +160. e.g. 7l 'de Atho monte', 57 'de Graeciae ruina', 50 'de bono +quietae vitae', 47, 48 'morte omnes aequari', 25 'de spe'. + +161. There is, in fact, direct evidence that he wrote such verses. Plin. +_Ep._ v. 3. 5. + +162. Cp. p. 263. + +163. Cp. the not dissimilar situation in Sen. _Oed_. (936), where +Oedipus meditates in very similar style, as to how he may expiate his +guilt. The couplet _vivere si poteris_, &c., is nothing if not Senecan. + +164. Quint, viii. 3. 31 ('memini iuvenis admodum inter Pomponium ac +Senecam etiam praefationibus esse tractatum, an "gradus eliminet" in +tragoedia dici oportuisset') shows Seneca as critic of dramatic diction; +there is no evidence to show what these _praefationes_ were, but they +_may_ have been prefaces to tragedies. The _Medea_ (453) is cited by +Quintilian ix. 2. 8. For later quotations from the tragedies, cp. +Diomedes, _gr. Lat_. i. p. 511, 23; Terentianus Maurus, ibid. vi. p. +404, 2672; Probus, ibid. iv. p. 229, 22, p. 246, 19; Priscian, ibid. ii. +p. 253, 7 and 9; Tertullian, _de An_. 42, _de Resurr_. 1; Lactantius, +_Schol. Stat. Theb_. iv. 530. + +165. Cp. also the iambic translation of Cleanthes, _Ep_. cvii. 11:-- + + duc, o parens celsique dominator poli, + quocunque placuit: nulla parendi mora est. + adsum impiger. fac nolle, comitabor gemens + malusque patiar, facere quod licuit bono. + ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt. + +166. Some of the more remarkable parallels have been collected by Nisard +(_Études sur les poètes latins de la décadence_, i. 68-91), e.g. _Med_. +163 'qui nil potest sperare, desperet nihil'. _Ep_. v. 7 'desines +timere, si sperare desieris'. _Oed_. 705 'qui sceptra duro saevus +imperio regit, timet timentes: metus in auctorem redit'. _Ep_. cv. 4 +'qui timetur, timet: nemo potuit terribilis esse secure'. de Ira_, ii. +11 'quid quod semper in auctores redundat timor, nec quisquam metuitur +ipse securus?'-_Oed_. 980 sqq.; _de Prov_. v. 6 sqq.; _Phoen_. 146, 53; +_Ep_. xii. 10; _de Prov_. vi. 7; _Herc. F_. 463, 464; _Ep_. xcii. 14. + +167. The arguments against the Senecan authorship are of little weight. +It has been urged (a) that the MSS. assign the author a _praenomen_ +Marcus. No Marcus Seneca is known, though Marcus was the _praenomen_ of +both Gallio and Mela, and of Lucan. Mistakes of this kind are, however, +by no means rare (cp. the 'Sextus Aurelius Propertius Nauta' of many +MSS. of that poet: both 'Aurelius' and 'Nauta' are errors), (b) Sidonius +Apollinaris (ix. 229) mentions three Senecas, philosopher, tragedian, +and epic writer (i.e. Lucan). But Sidonius lived in the fifth century +A.D., and may easily have made a mistake. Such a mistake actually occurs +(S. A. xxiii. 165) where he seems to assert that Argentaria Polla, +Lucan's faithful widow, subsequently married Statius. The mistake as +regards Seneca is probably due to a misinterpretation of Martial i. 61 +'duosque Senecas unicumque Lucanum facunda loquitur Corduba'. Not being +acquainted with the works of the elder Seneca the rhetorician, Sidonius +invented a new author, Seneca the tragedian. + +168. See ch. on Octavia, p.78. + +169. Leo, _Sen. tragoed._ i. 89-134. + +170. It is not even necessary to suppose with Leo that these were the +earliest of the plays and that these metrical experiments were youthful +indiscretions which failed and were not repeated. Leo, i. p. 133. + +171. For a detailed treatment see Leo, i. p. 48. Melzer, _de H. Oetaeo +Annaeano_, Chemnitz, 1890; _Classical Review_, 1905, p. 40, Summers. + +172. See p. 39 on relation of epigrams to dramas. + +173. _Ann_. xiv. 52. + +174. See also note on p. 42 for Leo's ingenious, but inconclusive theory +for the dates of the _Agamemnon_ and _Oedipus_. + +175. There is but one passage that can be held to afford the slightest +evidence for a later date, _Med_. 163 'qui nil potest sperare, desperet +nihil' seems to be an echo of _Ep_. v. 7 'sed ut huius quoque diei +lucellum tecum communicem, apud Hecatonem nostrum inveni ... "desines", +inquit, "timere, si sperare desieris".' This aphorism is quoted as newly +found. The letters were written 62-5 A.D. This passage would therefore +suggest a very late date for the _Medea_. But Seneca had probably been +long familiar with the works of Hecato, and the epigram is not of such +profundity that it might not have occurred to Seneca independently. + +176. For comparative analyses of Seneca's tragedies and the +corresponding Greek dramas see Miller's _Translation of the Tragedies of +Seneca_, p. 455. + +177. The _Phaedra_ of Seneca is interesting as being modelled on the +lost _Hippolytus Veiled_ of Euripides. Phaedra herself declares her +passion to Hippolytus, with her own lips reveals to Theseus the +pretended outrage to her honour, and slays herself only on hearing of +the death of Hippolytus. Cp. Leo, _Sen. Trag_. i. 173. The _Phoenissae_ +presents a curious problem. It is far shorter than any of the other +plays and has no chorus. It falls into two parts with little connexion. +I. (_a_) 1-319. Oedipus and Antigone are on their way to Cithaeron. +Oedipus meditates suicide and is dissuaded by Antigone. (_b_) 320-62. An +embassy from Thebes arrives begging Oedipus to return and stop the +threatened war between his sons. He refuses, and declares the intention +of hiding near the field of battle and listening joyfully to the +conflict between his unnatural sons. II. The remaining portion, on the +other hand, seems to imply that Oedipus is still in Thebes (553, 623), +and represents a scene between Jocasta and her sons. It lacks a +conclusion. These two different scenes can hardly have belonged to one +and the same play. They may be fragments of two separate plays, an +_Oedipus Coloneus_ and a _Phoenissae_, or may equally well be two +isolated scenes written for declamation without ever having been +intended for embodiment in two completed dramas. Cp. Ribbeck, _Gesch. +Röm. Dichtung_, iii. 70. + +178. _Sen. Trag._ i. 161. + +179. Leo, op. cit., i. 166 sqq. + +180. 530-658. The _Oedipus_ is based on the _O. Rex_ of Sophocles, but +is much compressed, and the beautiful proportions of the Greek are lost. +In Seneca out of a total of 1,060 lines 330 are occupied by the lyric +measures of the chorus, 230 by descriptions of omens and necromancy. + +181. It is also to be noted that the nurse does not make use of this +device till after Hippolytus has left the stage, although to be really +effective her words should have been uttered while Hippolytus held +Phaedra by the hair. The explanation is, I think, that the play was +written for recitation, not for acting. Had the play been acted, the +nurse's call for help and her accusation of Hippolytus could have been +brought in while Hippolytus was struggling with Phaedra. But being +written for recitation by a single person there was not room for the +speech at the really critical moment, and therefore it was inserted +afterwards--too late. See p. 73. + +182. Similarly, Medea, being a sorceress, must be represented engaged in +the practice of her art. Hence lurid descriptions of serpents, dark +invocations, &c. (670-842). + +183. Seneca never knows when to stop. Undue length characterizes +declamations and lyrics alike. + +184. As a whole the _Troades_ fails, although, the play being +necessarily episodic, the deficiencies of plot are less remarkable. But +compared with the exquisite _Troades_ of Euripides it is at once +exaggerated and insipid. + +185. Cp. Apul. _Met_. x. 3, where a step-mother in similar circumstances +defends her passion with the words, 'illius (sc. patris) enim +recognoscens imaginem in tua facie merito te diligo.' + +186. This speech is closely imitated by Racine in his _Phèdre_. + +187. 2: Cp. esp. 995-1006: the _agnosco fratrem_ of Thyestes is perhaps +the most monstrous stroke of rhetoric in all Seneca. Better, but equally +revolting, are ll. 1096-1112 from the same play. + +188. For other examples of dialogue cp. esp. _Medea_, 159-76, 490-529 +(perhaps the most effective dialogue in Seneca), _Thyestes_, 205-20; H. +F. 422-38. for which see p. 62. + +189. _Pro M_. 61 'Fuit enim quidam summo ingenio vir, Zeno, cuius +inventorum aemuli Stoici nominantur: huius sententia et praecepta +huiusmodi: sapientem gratia nunquam moveri, nunquam cuiusquam delicto +ignoscere; neminem misericordem esse nisi stultum et levem: viri non +esse neque exorari neque placari: solos sapientes esse, si +distortissimi sint, formosos, si mendicissimi, divites, si servitutem +serviant reges.' &c. He goes on to put a number of cases where the +Stoic rules break down. + +190. Cp. Eurip. _Andr_. 453 sqq. + +191. For still greater exaggeration cp. _Phoen_. 151 sqq,; _Oed_. 1020 +sqq. + +192. Cp. Sen. _Contr_. ii. 5; ix. 4. + +193. Cp. Sen. _de Proc_. iv. 6 'calamitas virtutis occasio est'. + +194. Cp. Sen. _Ep_. xcii. 30, 31 'magnus erat labor ire in caelum'. + +195. Cp. Sen. _Ep_. xcii. 16 sqq. + +196. _Ep_. cviii. 24. + +197. Cp. _Macbeth_ ii. 2. 36, Macbeth does murder sleep, &c. For other +Shakespearian parallels, cp. _Macbeth_, Canst thou not minister to a +mind diseased? _H.F._ 1261 'nemo pollute queat | animo mederi.' +_Macbeth_, I have lived long enough.... And that which should accompany +old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look +to have. _H.F._ 1258 'Cur animam in ista luce detincam amplius | +morerque nihil est; cuncta iam amisi bona, | mentem, arma, famam, +coniugem, natos, manus.' J. Phil. vi. 70. Cunliffe, _Influence of Seneca +on Elizabethan Tragedy_. + +198. An exception might be made in favour of the beautiful simile +describing Polyxena about to die, notable as giving one of the very few +allusions to the beauty of sunset to be found in ancient literature +(_Troad_. 1137): + + ipsa deiectos gerit + vultus pudore, sed tamen fulgent genae + magisque solito splendet extremus decor, + ut esse Phoebi dulcius lumen solet + iamiam cadentis, astra cum repetunt vices + premiturque dubius nocte vicina dies. + +Fine, too, are the lines describing the blind Oedipus (_Oed_. 971): + + attollit caput + cavisque lustrans orbibus caeli plagas + noctem experitur. + +199. pp. 52 sqq., 59. + +200. Cp. Eur. _H.F._ 438 sqq. + +201. For further examples cp. _H.F._ 5-18, _Troades_ 215-19. + +202. This terse stabbing rhetoric is characteristic of Stoicism; the +same short, jerky sentences reappear in Epictetus. Seneca is doubtless +influenced by the declamatory rhetoric of schools as well, but his +philosophical training probably did much to form his style. + +203. Exceptions are so few as to be negligible. The effect of this rule +is aggravated by the fact that in nine cases out of ten the accent of +the word and the metrical ictus 'clash', this result being obtained 'by +most violent elisions, such as rarely or never occur in the other feet +of the verse'. Munro, J. Phil. 6, 75. + +204. The older and more rugged iambic survives in the fables of +Phaedrus, written at no distant date from these plays, if not actually +contemporary. + +205. Cp. Leo, op. cit. i. 166, 174. + +206. See p. 29. + +207. These horrors go beyond the crucifixion scene in the Laureolus (see +p. 24), and the tradition of genuine tragedy was all against such +presentation. As far as the grotesqueness and bombast of the plays go, +the age of Nero might have tolerated them. We must remember that +seventeenth-century England enjoyed the brilliant bombast of Dryden +(e.g. in _Aurungzebe_) and that the eighteenth delighted in the crude +absurdities of such plays as _George Barnwell_. + +208. Cp. also _Phaedra_ 707, where Hippolytus' words, 'en impudicum +crine contorto caput | laeva reflexi,' can only be justified as inserted +to explain to the hearers what they could not see. See also p. 48, note. + +209. They have been influenced by the pantomimus and the dramatic +recitation so fashionable in their day, inasmuch as they lack connexion, +and, though containing effective episodes, are of far too loose a +texture to be effective drama. + +210. See R. Fischer, _Die Kunstentwicklung der englischen Tragödie_; J. +W. Cunliffe, _Influence of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy_; J. E. Manly, +_Introductory Essay_ to Miller's _Translation of the Tragedies of +Seneca_. The Senecan drama finds its best modern development in the +tragedies of Alfieri. Infinitely superior in every respect as are the +plays of the modern dramatist, he yet reveals in a modified form not a +few of Seneca's faults. There is often a tendency to bombast, an +exaggeration of character, a hardness of outline, that irresistibly +recall the Latin poet. + +211. The debt is as good as acknowledged, ll. 58 sqq. + +212. ll. 310 sqq. + +213. l. 915. + +214. There is no direct evidence of the sex of the chorus in the +_Octavia_. In Greek drama they would almost certainly have been women. + +215. The diction is wholly un-Senecan. There is no straining after +epigram; the dialogue, though not lacking point (e.g. the four lines +185-8, or 451-60), does not bristle with it, and is far less rhetorical +and more natural. The chorus confines itself to anapaests, is simpler +and far more relevant. The all-pervading Stoicism is the one point they +have in common. + +216. The imitation of Lucan in 70, 71 'magni resto nominis umbra,' is +also strong evidence against the Senecan authorship. + +217. _Probus, vita_. 'A. Persius Flaccus natus est pridie non. Dec. +Fabio Persico, L. Vitellio coss.' Hieronym. ad ann. 2050=34 A.D. +'Persius Flaccus Satiricus Volaterris nascitur.' Where not +otherwise stated the facts of Persius' life are drawn from the +biography of Probus. + +218. Quint, vii. 4, 40; Tac. _Ann_. xv. 71. + +219. Suet. _de Gramm_. 23. + +220. Bassus was many years his senior--addressed as _senex_ in Sat. vi. +6, written late in 61 or early in 62 A.D.--and perished in the eruption +of Vesuvius, 79 A. D. Cp. Schol. _ad Pers_. vi. 1. + +221. Lucan was five years his junior. Cp. p. 97. + +222. Cp. Tac. _Ann_. xiv. 19; _Dial_. 23; Quint. x. 1. 102. + +223. This friendship lasted ten years, presumably the last ten of +Persius' life; cp. _Prob. vit_. + +The second satire is addressed to Plotius Macrinus, who, according to +the scholiast, was a learned man, who 'loved Persius as his son, having +studied with him in the house of Servilius Nonianus.' + +224. See O. Jahn's ed., p. 240. + +225. _Prob. vit_.'decessit VIII Kal. Dec. P. Mario, Afinio Gallio coss.' +Hieronym. ad ann. 2078--62 A.D. 'Persius moritur anno aetatis XXVIII.' + +226. _Prob. vit_. + +227. Such at least is a plausible inference. Probus tells us that he +used to travel abroad with Thrasea. It is a natural conjecture that +these _hodoeporica_ were in the style of Horace's journey to Brundisium. + +228. Cp. Mart. i. 13; Plin. _Ep_. iii. 16. She was the mother of the +wife of Thrasea. + +229. This may mean that the last satire was actually incomplete, but +that the omission of a few lines at the end gave it an appearance of +completion; or that a few lines intended for the opening of a seventh +satire were omitted. + +230. So Probus. Cp. also Quint. x. 1. 94 'multum et verae gloriae +quamvis uno libro meruit.' Mart. iv. 29. 7. + +231. Hieronym. _in apol. contra Rufin._ i. 16 'puto quod puer legeris +... commentarios ... aliorum in alios, Plautum videlicet, Lucretium, +Flaccum, Persium atque Lucanum.' The high moral tone of the work, +coupled perhaps with the smallness of its bulk, is in the main +responsible for its survival. Scholia from different sources have come +down to us under the title of _Cornuti commentum_. Whether such a person +as the commentator Cornutus existed or not is uncertain. The name may +have been attached to the scholia merely to give them a spurious +importance as though possessing the imprimatur of the friend and teacher +of the poet. + +232. The choliambi are placed after the satires by two of the three +best MSS., but before them by the scholia and inferior MSS. It is +of little importance which we follow. But it seems probable that +Probus (see below) regarded the choliambi as a prologue. Such at +least is my interpretation of _sibi primo_ (i.e. in the prologue) +_mox omnibus detrectaturus._ The lines have rather more force if read +first and not last. + +233. _Prob. vit._ 'sed mox ut a schola magistrisque devertit, lecto +Lucili libro decimo vehementer saturas componere studuit; cuius libri +principium imitatus est, sibi primo, mox omnibus detrectaturus, cum +tanta recentium poetarum et oratorum insectatione,' &c. This can only +refer to the prologue and the first satire, and seems to point to its +having been the first to be composed. According to the scholiast the +opening line is taken from the first satire of Lucilius. + +234. Porphyr. _ad Hor. Sat._ i. 10. 53 'facit autem Lucilius hoc cum +alias tum vel maxime in tertio libro, ... et nono et decimo. + +235. Cp. Nettleship's note ad loc., and Petron. 4. + +236. e.g. Dama, Davus, Natta, Nerius, Craterus, Pedius, Bestius. + +237. Instances might be almost indefinitely multiplied. The whole of +Pers. i, but more especially the conclusion, is strongly influenced +by Hor. _Sat._ i. 10. Cp. also Pers. ii. 12, Hor. _Sat._ ii. 5. 45; +Pers. iii. 66, Hor. _Ep._ i. 18. 96; Pers. v. 10, Hor. _Sat._ i. 4. +19, &c., &c. + +238. i. 92-102. According to the scholiast the last four lines-- + + torva Mimalloneis implerunt cornua bombis, + et raptum vitulo caput ablatura superbo + Bassaris et lyncem Maenas flexura corymbis + euhion ingeminat, reparabilis adsonat echo (i. 99)-- + +are by Nero. But it is incredible that Persius should have had such +audacity as openly to deride the all-powerful emperor. The same remark +applies to other passages where the scholiast and some modern critics +have seen satirical allusions to Nero (e.g. prologue and the whole of +Sat. iv). The only passage in which it is possible that there was a +covert allusion to Nero is i. 121, which, according to the scholiast, +originally ran _auriculas asini Mida rex habet_. Cornutus suppressed the +words _Mida rex_ and substituted _quis non_. For an ingenious defence of +the view that Persius hits directly at Nero see Pretor, _Class. Rev_., +vol. xxi, p. 72. + +239. i. 76 'Est nunc Brisaei quem venosus liber Acci, | sunt quos +Pacuviusque et verrucosa moretur | Antiopa, aerumnis cor +luctificabile fulta.' + +240. The description of the self-indulgent man who, feeling ill, +consults his doctor and then fails to follow his advice (iii. 88), is a +possible exception. It is noteworthy that in Sat. iv he addresses a +young aspirant to a political career as though free political action was +still possible at Rome. + +241. e.g. iv. 41. + +242. But see below, p. 91. + +243. Prob. vita Persii. + +244. Our chief authorities for Lucan's life are the 'lives' by Suetonius +(fragmentary) and by Vacca (a grammarian of the sixth century). + +245. Vacca. + +246. Tac. _Ann._ xvi. 17. + +247. Vacca. + +248. Vacca. + +249. The young Lucan is said to have formed a friendship with the +satirist at the school of Cornutus; Persius was some five years his +senior. _Vita Persii_ (p. 58, Bücheler). + +250. Suetonius and Vacca. The latter curiously treats this victory as +one of the causes of Nero's jealousy. Considering that the poem was a +panegyric of the emperor, and that it was Lucan's first step in the +imperial favour, the suggestion deserves small credit. + +251. Sueton. There is an unfortunate hiatus in the Life by Suetonius, +occurring just before the mention of the visit to Athens. As the text +stands it suggests that the visit to Athens occurred after the victory +at the Neronia. Otherwise it would seem more probable that Lucan went to +Athens somewhat earlier (e.g. 57 A.D.) to complete his education. + +252. Sueton., Vacca. + +253. Vacca; Tac. _Ann._ xv. 49; Dion. lxii. 29. + +254. Vacca. + +255. Suetonius. + +256. Suetonius. + +257. Sueton.; Tac. _Ann._ xv. 56. + +258. Vacca; Sueton.; Tac. _Ann._ xv. 70. Various passages in the +_Pharsalia_ have been suggested as suitable for Lucan's recitation at +his last gasp, iii. 638-41, vii. 608-15, ix. 811. + +259. Statius, in his _Genethliacon Lucani_ (_Silv._ ii. 7. 54), seems to +indicate the order of the poems: + + ac primum teneris adhuc in annis + ludes Hectora Thessalosque currus + et supplex Priami potentis aurum, + et sedes reserabis inferorum; + ingratus Nero duleibus theatris + et noster tibi proferetur Orpheus, + dices culminibus Remi vagantis + infandos domini nocentis ignes, + hinc castae titulum decusque Pollae + iucunda dabis adlocutione. + mox coepta generosior iuventa + albos ossibus Italis Philippos + et Pharsalica bella detonabis. + +Cp. also Vacca, 'extant eius complures et alii, ut Iliacon, Saturnalia, +Catachthonion, Silvarum x, tragoedia Medea imperfecta, salticae fabulae +xiv, et epigrammata (MSS. _appamata_ sive _ippamata_), prosae orationes +in Octavium Sagittam et pro eo, de incendio Urbis, epistularum ex +Campania, non fastidiendi quidem omnes, tales tamen ut belli civili +videantur accessio.' + +260. Vacca. + +261. See chapter on Statius. + +262. See chapter on Drama. + +263. Cp. Mart., bks. xiii and xiv. + +264. There are two fragments from the _Iliacon_, two from the _Orpheus_, +one from the _Catachthonion_, two from the _Epigrammata_, together with +a few scanty references in ancient commentators and grammarians: see +Postgate, _Corp. Poet. Lat._ + +265. Vacca, 'ediderat ... tres libros, quales videmus.' + +266. Sueton. 'civile bellum ... recitavit ut praefatione quadem aetatem +et initia sua comparans ausus sit dicere, "quantum mihi restat ad +Culicem".' Cp. also Stat, _Silv._ ii. 7. 73:-- + + haec (Pharsalia) primo iuvenis canes sub aevo + ante annos Culicis Maroniani. + +Vergil was twenty-six when he composed the _Culex_. Cp. Ribbeck, _App. +Verg._ p. 19. + +267. Vacca, 'reliqui septem belli civilis libri locum calumniantibus +tanquam mendosi non darent; qui tametsi sub vero crimine non egent +patrocinio: in iisdem dici, quod in Ovidii libris praescribitur, potest: +emendaturus, si licuisset, erat.' + +268. See p. 4. + +269. Boissier, _L'Opposition sous les Césars (p. 279), sees some +significance in the fact that the list of Nero's ancestors always stops +at Augustus. But there was no reason why the list should go further than +the founder of the principate. It is noteworthy that Lucan's uncle +Seneca wrote a number of epigrams in praise of the Pompeii and Cato. The +famous lines, + + quis iustius induit arma + scire nefas: magno se iudice quisque tuetur, + victrix causa deis placuit, sed victa Catoni (i. 126), + +are supremely diplomatic. Without sacrificing his principles, Lucan +avoids giving a shadow of offence to his emperor. + +270. See p. 116. + +271. Petron., loc. cit. + +272. v. 207, vii. 451, 596, 782, x. 339-42, 431. + +273. i. 143-57. + +274. ii. 657 nil actum credens cum quid superesset agendum. + +275. v. 317 meruitque timeri non metuens. + +276. See Shelley, _Prometheus Unbound_, Preface. + +277. vii. 45-150. + +278. vii. 342. + +279. vii. 647-727. + +280. Cp. the epigrams attributed to Seneca, _P. L. M._ iv, _Anth. +Lat._ 7, 8, 9. + +281. The one exception is Curio, sec iv. 799. + +282. i. 185: + + ut ventum est parvi Rubiconis ad undas, + ingens visa duci patriae trepidantis imago, + clara per obscuram voltu maestissima noctem + turrigero canos effundens vertice crines + caesarie lacera nudisque adstare lacertis + et gemitu permixta loqui: 'quo tenditis ultra? + quo fertis mea signa, viri? si iure venitis, + si cives, huc usque licet.' + +283. iii. 1: + + propulit ut classem velis cedentibus Auster + incumbens mediumque rates movere profundum, + omnis in Ionios spectabat navita fluctus; + solus ab Hesperia non flexit lumina terra + Magnus, dum patrios portus, dum litora numquam + ad visus reditura suos tectumque cacumen + nubibus et dubios cernit vanescere montes. + +284. v. 722-end. + +285. vii. 6-44. + +286. iii. 399-425. + +287. iii. 399. + +288. Cp. Seneca, _Oed._ 530 sqq. The description of a grove was part of +the poetic wardrobe. Cp. Pers. i. 70. + +289. See p. 103. + +290. iii. 509-762. For a still more grotesque fight, cp. vi. 169-262; +also ii. 211-20; iv. 794, 5. + +291. v. 610-53. Cp. also ix. 457-71. + +292. Sir E. Ridley's trans. + +293. Sir E. Ridley's trans. + +294. ix. 619-838. + +295. ix. 946, 7. + +296. For examples of erudition, cp. ix. loc. cit., where the origin of +serpents of Africa is given, involving the story of Perseus and Medea, +iv. 622 sqq. The arrival of Curio in Africa is signalized by a long +account of the slaying of Antaeus by Hercules. + +297. i. 523-end. + +298. ii. 67-220. + +299. ii. 392-438. Cp. the geography of Thessaly, coupled with a +description of its witches, vi. 333-506. + +300. v. 71-236. + +301. vi. 507-830. It is noteworthy, also, that incidents not necessarily +irrelevant in themselves are treated with a monstrous lack of +proportion, e.g. the siege of Massilia is not irrelevant; but it is +given 390 lines (iii. 372-762), and Lucan forgets to mention that Caesar +captured it. + +302. e.g. iv. 799-end, vii. 385-459, 586-96, 617-46, 847-72, viii. +542-60, 793-end. + +303. vii. 385-459. + +304. There is nothing in these last seven books that can be regarded as +in any way written to please Nero, save the description of the noble +death of Domitius Ahenobarbus, Nero's great-great-grandfather (vii. +597-616). On the contrary there are many passages which Lucan would +hardly have written while he was enjoying court favour: e.g. iv. 821-3, +v. 385-402, vi. 809, vii. 694-6, x. 25-8. + +305. See p. 98. + +306. e.g. the two speeches of Cato quoted above. + +307. He is, moreover, very careless in his repetition of the same word, +cp. i. 25, 27 urbibus, iii. 436, 441, 445 silva, &c.; cp. Haskins, ed. +lxxxi. (Heitland's introd.) + +308. He is far less dactylic than Ovid. For the relation between the +various writers of epic in respect of metre, see Drobisch, _Versuch üb. +die Formen des lat. Hex._ 140. The proportion of spondees in the first +four feet of hexameters of Roman writers is there given as follows: +Catullus 65.8%, Silius 60.6%, Ennius 59.5%, Lucretius 57.4%, Vergil 56%, +Horace 55%, Lucan 54.3%, Statius 49.7%, Valerius 46.2%, Ovid 45.2%. + +309. Tac. _Ann._ xvi. 18, 19 (Church and Brodribb's trans.). + +310. c. 118 sq. + +311. cc. 1-5. + +312. The first reference in literature to the _Satyricon_ is in +Macrobius, in _Somn. Scip._ i. 2, 8. + +313. cc. 1-5. + +314. MS. fortuna. + +315. MS. dent. + +316. c. 83 + +317. Cp. Juv. _Sat._ 7; Tac. _Dial._ 9. + +318. c. 89. It has been suggested that this poem is a parody of Nero's +_Troiae halosis_! But the poem shows _no_ signs of being a parody. It is +obviously written in all seriousness. + +319. MS. _minor_, I suggest _minans_ as a possible solution of the +difficulty. + +320. c. 93. + +321. Cp. also 128 and the spirited epic fragment burlesquely used in +108. + +322. See p. 36. + +323. Baehrens, _P. L. M._ iv. 74-89. + +324. Nos. 76 and 86. Cp. Fulg. _Mythol._ i. I, p. 31; Lactant. _ad Stat. +Theb._ iii. 661; Fulg. _Mythol._ iii. 9, p. 126. + +325. Baehrens, _P.L.M._ iv. 90-100. + +326. Poitiers, 1579 A.D. + +327. Fulg. _Mythol._ i. 12, p. 44. + +328. That the attribution to Petronius rests on the authority of the +lost MS. is a clear inference from Binet's words, cp. Baehrens, _P.L.M._ +iv. 101-8, 'sequebantur ista, sed sine Petronii titulo, at priores illi +duo Phalaecii vix alius fuerint quam Petronii.' + +329. Baehrens, _P.L.M._ iv. 101-8. + +330. See note 4. + +331. Petr. cc. 14, 83; Baehrens, _P.L.M._ iv. 120, 121. + +332. Cp. _Satyr_. 127, 131; _P.L.M._ iv. 75; _S._ 128; _P.L.M._ iv. 121; +_S._ 108; _P.L.M._ iv. 85; _S._ 79, iv. 101. + +333. _P.L.M._ iv. 75. + +334. _P.L.M._ iv. 81. + +335. The MS. is hopelessly corrupt at this point. I suggest _naidas +alterna manu_ as a possible correction of the MS. _Iliadas armatas +s. manus._ + +336. _P.L.M._ iv. 84. + +337. _P.L.M._ iv. 85. + +338. Ib. 76. + +339. Ib. 82. + +340. Ib. 78. + +341. _P. L. M._ iv. 99. Cp. also 92 and 107. + +342. 569 sqq. + +343. 17-22, 43 sqq. He falls into the same error himself (203). + +344. 76 sqq. + +345. 88 sqq. + +346. 220 sqq. + +347. 96 sqq. + +348. 178 sqq. + +349. 400 sqq. + +350. 333 sqq. + +351. 294. + +352. So Ellis (_Corp. Poet. Lat._, vol. ii. pref.); Baehrens, _P. L. M._ +ii. pp. 29 sqq. + +353. Serv. _ad Verg. Aen._ praef. Donatus, _vita Verg._, p. 58 R +('Scripsit etiam de qua ambigitur Aetnam'). + +354. Sen. _Nat. Quaest._ iii. 26. 5. He also wrote in verse on +philosophical subjects; cp. Sen. _Ep._ 24, 19-21. + +355. So Wernsdorf, von Jacob, Munro (edd.), Wagler _de Aetna quaest. +crit._, Berlin, 1884. + +356. Sen. _Nat. Quaest._ iv. 2. 2. + +357. Sen. _Ep._ 79. 5. + +358. So many Italian scholars of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, +among them Scaliger. + +359. Cornelius Severus wrote a poem on the Sicilian War of Octavian and +Sext. Pompeius; cp. Quint, x. l. 89. + +360. Cp. _Nat. Quaest._ iii. 16. 4, _Aetna_, 302 and 303. But this may +be due to the fact that both Seneca and the author of _Aetna_ get their +information from the same source, perhaps Posidonius; cp. Sudhaus, +introd. to his edition, p. 75. + +361. It is not improbable that in 293 sqq. the poet refers to the +mechanical Triton shown at the Naumachia on the Fucine Lake at a +festival given by Claudius in honour of Nero's adoption in 50 A. D. + +362. 425-34. + +363. Baehrens would put the lower limit at 63 A. D., the year in which +severe earthquakes first indicated the reviving activity of Phlegraean +fields. But earthquakes, though often caused by volcanic action, do not +necessarily produce volcanoes. + +364. viii. 16. 9; 10. 185. + +365. iii. 3. 3 'his certe temporibus Nomentana regio celeberrima fama +est illustris, et praecipue quam possidet Seneca, vir excellentis +ingenii atque doctrinae'. He is quoted by Pliny, not infrequently. +Columella was an old man when he wrote; cp. 12 ad fin. 'nec tamen canis +natura dedit cunctarum rerum prudentiam'. + +366. Cp. _C.I.L._ ix. 235 'L. Iunio L. F. Gal. Moderato Columellae Trib. +mil. leg. VI. Ferratae'. That this refers to the poet is borne out by +two facts. (1) Gades belonged to the Tribus Galeria. (2) At this date +the legio VI. Ferrata was stationed in Syria; cp. Col. ii. 10. 18 +'Ciliciae Syriaeque regionibus ipse vidi'. + +367. Cp. i. 1. 7. He speaks as a practical farmer; cp. ii. 8. 5; 9. 1; +10. 11; iii. 9. 2; 10. 8, &c. He writes primarily for Italy, not for +Spain; cp. iii. 8. 5. + +368. Cp. x. praef.: also ix. 16. 2, which tells us that Gallio, Seneca's +brother, had added his entreaties. + +369. xi. praef. + +370. He also wrote a treatise against astrologers (cp. xi. 1. 131) and a +treatise on religious ceremonies connected with agriculture (cp. ii. 21. +5). This latter work was perhaps never completed (cp. ii. 21. 6). In any +case both treatises were lost. There survives a book on arboriculture +which is not an isolated monograph, but portion of a larger work, at +least three books long, for it alludes to a 'primum volumen de cultu +agrorum' (ad init.). It probably consisted of four books, since +Cassiodorus (_div. lect_. 28) speaks of the sixteen books of Columella. + +371. siderei Maronis, 434. + +372. Cp. esp. 196 sqq. + +373. Cp. 130 sqq., 320 sqq., 344 sqq. + +374. 102 sqq. + +375. 45-94. + +376. 29-34. + +377. 196 sqq. + +378. Tac. _Ann._ xii. 58. + +379. M. Haupt, _Opusc._ i. 391; Lachm. _Comm. on Lucret._ 1855, p. 326 +Schenkl (ed. Calp. Sic., p. ix). + +380. Or _de laude Pisonis_. See Baehrens, _Poet. Lat. Min._ iii. 1. For +the question of authorship see p. 159. + +381. It was long believed that there were eleven, but the last four +eclogues of the collection are shown by their style to be of later date, +and there can be little doubt that the MSS. which attribute them to +Nemesianus of Carthage are right. We know of a Nemesianus who lived +about 290 A.D. and wrote a _Cynegetica_, a portion of which survives. +Comparison with these four eclogues shows a marked resemblance of style. + +382. Verg. _Ecl._ vii. 1: + + forte sub arguta consederat ilice Daphnis, + compulerantque greges Corydon et Thyrsis in unum, + Thyrsis oves, Corydon distentas lacte capellas, + ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo, + et cantare pares et respondere parati. + +Calp. ii. 1: + + intactam Crocalen puer Astacus et puer Idas, + Idas lanigeri dominus gregis, Astacus horti, + dilexere diu, formosus uterque nec impar + voce sonans. + +The conclusion is borrowed from Vergil, _Ecl._ iii. 108: + + non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites. + et vitula tu dignus et hic et quisquis amores + aut metuet dulces aut experietur amaros. + claudite iam rivos, pueri; sat prata biberunt. + +Calp. ii. 95-100: + + 'iam resonant frondes, iam cantibus obstrepit arbos: + i procul, o Doryla, rivumque reclude canali + et sine iam dudum sitientes irriget hortos' + vix ea finierant, senior cum talia Thyrsis, + 'este pares ...' + +383. Cp. also v. 50 sqq. + +384. See Baehrens, _Poet. Lat. Min._ vol. iii. p. 60. The first poem is +unfinished, the award of Midas being missing. + +385. Bücheler, _Rhein. Mus._ xxvi. p. 235. + +386. So Bücheler, loc. cit. _respexit_ is a mere conjecture: +_corrumpit_, the MS. reading, is meaningless, and no satisfactory +alternative has been suggested. The lines may merely refer to Apollo, +but _et me_ suggests strongly that Ladas retorts, 'I, too, have +Caesar's favour.' Cp. _L._ 37, where _hic vester Apollo est!_ clearly +refers to Nero. + +387. In a MS. at Lorsch, now lost; but used by Sechard for his edition +of Ovid, Basle, 1527. + +388. In Parisinus 7647 (Florileg.). Sec Baehrens, _P. L. M._ i. p. 222. + +389. Tac. _Ann._ xv. 48 'facundiam tuendis civibus exercebat, +largitionem adversum amicos et ignotis quoque comi sermone et +congressu.' + +390. Schol. Vall, _ad Iuv._ v. 109 'in latrunculorum lusu tam perfectus +et callidus, ut ad cum ludentem concurreretur.' + +391. Cp. ll. 190 sqq. + +392. Cp. ll. 190 sqq. + +393. Baehrens, _Fragm. Poet. Rom._ p. 281. + +394. Priscian, _Gr. Lat._ i. 478. + +395. Persius derides a certain Labeo (i. 4) and a writer named Attius +(i. 50) for his translation of _Iliad_. On this last passage the +scholiast says, 'Attius Labeo poeta indoctus fuit illorum temporum, qui +Iliadem Homeri foedissime composuit.' The names are found combined in an +inscription from Corinth, Joh. Schmidt, _Mitt. des deutsch. archäol. +Inst. in Athen_, vi (1882), p. 354. + +396. Schol. _ad Pers._ i. 4 (p. 248, Jahn). + +397. Schol. _ad Pers._ i. 4, ex cod. Io. Tillii Brionensis episc., cited +by El. Vinetus. + +398. Sen. _ad Polyb. de Cons._ viii. 2, and xi. 5. + +399. Vualtherus Spirensis Vs. 93. X cent. (ed. Harster, Munich, 1878, p. +22). Eberhard Bethunensis, _Labyr. Tract._ iii. 45. + +400. This apparent confusion between Homer and Pindar is first found in +Benzo, episc. Albensis (_Monum. Germ._ xi. 599) circa 1087. In Hugo +Trimbergensis (thirteenth century) Pindar is the translator: 'Homero, +quem Pindarus philosophus fertur transtulisse.' Cp. L. Müller, _Philol._ +xv, p. 475. So, too, in Cod. Vat. Reg. 1708 (thirteenth and fourteenth +centuries); in Vat. Pal. 1611 (end of fourteenth century), he is styled +Pandarus. See Baehrens, _P. L. M._ iii. 4. + +401. Seyffert, in Munk, _Geschichte der Röm. Litt._ ii, p. 242. +Bücheler, _Rhein. Mus._ 35 (1880), p. 391. + +402. Baehrens (_P. L. M._ iii) reads (7) _ut primum tulerant_ for _ex +quo pertulerant_. The corruption is unlikely, especially since the +corresponding line in the _Iliad_ (i. 6) begins [Greek: ex ou]. In line +1065, for _quam cernis paucis ... remis_, he reads _remis quam cernis +... paucis_, a distinct improvement. Some of those who retain MSS. in +(7) attempt to explain _Italice_ as a vocative or adverb. But _ex nihilo +nihil fit_. For a summary of these unprofitable and generally absurd +speculations, cp. Schanz, _Gesch. Röm. Lit._ § 394. + +403. Vindobon. 3509 (fifteenth or sixteenth centuries). + +404. Mart. vii. 63. + +405. Vagellius, Sen. _N.Q._ vi. 2. 9. Antistius Sosianus, Tac. _Ann._ +xiii. 28. C. Montanus, ib. xvi. 28. 29. Lucilius junior, see p. 144. + +406. Tac. _Ann._ iv. 46; _C.I.L._ ii. 2093. + +407. Dion. lix. 22; Tac. _Ann._ vi. 30. + +408. Dion. loc. cit.; Suet. _Claud._ 9. + +409. Plin _Ep._ v. 3. 5; Mart. i. praef. + +410. Ap. Sid. _Ep._ ii. 10. 6. + +411. v. 16; vi. 190, 331; vii. 71, 244, 245, 275, 354; xi. 409. + +412. Baehrens, _Poet. Rom. Fragm._ p. 361. + +413. Quint, x. 1.96 'at lyricorum Horatius fere solus legi dignus:... si +quem adicere velis, is erit Caesius Bassus, quem nuper vidimus; sed eum +longe praecedunt ingenia viventium'. + +414. e.g. perhaps Martial, Sulpicia, and some of Pliny's poet friends, +see pp. 170 sqq. + +415. See p. 80. + +416. See Teuffel and Schwabe, _Hist. Röm. Lit._ § 304; Schanz, _Gesch. +Röm. Lit._ 384 a. + +417. Schol. _Pers._ vi. 1. + +418. Ithyphallicum, Archebulium, Philicium, Paeonicum, Proceleusmaticum, +Molossicum. Baehrens, _Poet. Röm. Fragm._ p. 364. + +419. Ioseph. _vita_ 65. + +420. Suet. _Vesp._ 17, 18. + +421. Ib. 8. + +422. Ib. 19 'vetera quoque acroamata revocaverat'. + +423. Ib. 18. + +424. Dion. lxvi. 13, in 71 A.D. That this act was ineffectual is shown +by Domitian's action in 89-93 A.D. + +425. Plin. _N.H._ praef. 5 and 11. + +426. Suet. _Dom._ 2; Tac. _Hist._ iv. 86; Quint, x. 1. 91. + +427. Suet. _Dom._ 18. + +428. Quint. loc. cit.; Val. Fl. i. 12; Mart. v. 5. 7. + +429. Suet. _Dom._ 4. + +430. 6 Stat. _Silv._ iv. 2. 65, v. 3. 227. + +431. Suet. _Dom._ 20. This may have been creditable to him as ruler of +the empire, though Suetonius undoubtedly wishes us to regard Tiberius' +memoirs as a manual of tyranny. + +432. Suet. _Dom._ 10. + +433. Suet. loc. cit.; Hieronym. ad ann. 89 and 95 A.D. The latter date +is wrong: cp. Mommsen, _Hermes_, iii (1869), p. 84. + +434. Tac. _Agr._ 2. + +435. Quint. x. 1. 89. There is no clear indication of his date, but he +is coupled with Saleius Bassus by Juvenal (vii. 80), a fact which +suggests that he belonged to the Flavian period. + +436. x. 1. 90. + +437. Juv. vii. 79. + +438. Stat. _Silv._ v. 3. + +439. Stat. _Silv._ i. 2. 253; Mart. iv. 6. 4, i. 7, vii. 14. + +440. Schol. Vall, _ad Iuv._ i. 20; Mart. xi. 10; Rut. Nam. i. 603; +Schol. _Iuv._ i. 71. For his brother Scaevus Memor see p. 30. + +441. Plin. _Ep._ v. 3. 5, vi. 10. 4. + +442. Ib. iii. 1. 11, ii. 7. 1 + +443. Mart. viii. 70. 7. + +444. Plin. _Ep._ v. 3. 5. + +445. Priscian, _Gr. Lat._ ii, p. 205, 6. + +446. Plin. _Paneg._ 47; _Ep._ iii. 18. 5. + +447. Dion. lxviii. 16; Gellius xi. 17. 1. + +448. See p. 25. Other names are Octavius Rufus, Plin. _Ep._ i. 7; +Titinius Capito, _C. I. L._ 798, Plin. _Ep._ i. 17. 3; viii. 12. 4; +Caninius Rufus, Plin. _Ep._ viii. 4. 1; Calpurnius Piso, Plin. +_Ep._ v. 17. 1. + +449. _Ep._ vi. 15. + +450. _Ep._ ix. 22. + +451. Gaius Passennus Paulus Propertius Blaesus was his full title. He +derives his chief interest from the fact that the inscription at Assisi +which preserves his name is our most conclusive evidence for the +birthplace of Propertius. Haupt, opusc. i. p. 283, Leipz. (1875). + +452. _Ep._ iv. 27. + +453. viii. 21. 14. + +454. vii. 9. 10. + +455. iv. 14. 2. + +456. iv. 14. 4. + +457. He also translated the Greek epigrams of Arrius Antoninus. Cp. +_Ep._ iv. 3. 3, and xviii. 1. One of these translations is preserved. +Baehrens, _P.L.M._ iv. 112. + +458. ii. 90. 9. + +459. In the sixth Satire. + +460. See Schanz, _Gesch. Röm. Lit._ § 284. + +461. Apoll. Sid. ix. 261 'quod Sulpiciae iocos Thalia scripsit +blandiloquum suo Caleno'. Auson. _Cento. Nupt._, 4 'meminerint prurire +opusculum Sulpiciae, frontem caperare'. Fulgentius, _Mythol._ 1 (p. 4, +Helm.) 'Sulpicillae procacitas' + +462. Schol. Vall, _ad Iuv._ vi. 537, + + unde ait Sulpicia: + si me cadurcis dissolutis fasciis + nudam Caleno concubantem proferat. + +463. Mart. x. 38. 9: + + vixisti tribus, o Calene, lustris: + aetas haec tibi tota computatur + et solos numeras dies mariti. + +The first edition of Martial, Book x, was probably published in 95 A.D. +If Sulpicia married Calenus at the age of 18-25, her birth will +therefore fall between 55 and 62 A. D. + +464. Cp. Mart. x. 38. 4-8. + +465. Cp. Mart. x. 38. 9-11. It is, of course, possible that _mariti_ is +a euphemism. + +466. Mart. x. 35. 1. + +467. See Ap. Sid. loc. cit. + +468. Sulp. _Sat._, lines 4, 5. + +469. _Raph. Volaterr. comment. urban._ (fol. lvi. 1506 A.D.), 'hic (sc. +at Bobbio) anno 1493 huiuscemodi libri reperti sunt. Rutilius +Namatianus. Heroicum Sulpici carmen.' The first edition was published +in 1498, with the title _Sulpitiae carmina quae fuit Domitiani +temporibus: nuper a Georgio Merula Allexandrino, cum aliis opusculis +reperta. queritur de statu reipublicae et temporibus Domitiani_. The +MS. is now lost. + +470. Cp. line 62. Domitian's edict seems to have threatened the security +of Calenus. In the lines which follow, Domitian's death and overthrow +are foretold. The poem, therefore, if genuine, must have been published +soon after Domitian's assassination in 96, though it may have been +composed in part during his lifetime. + +471. The work is generally rejected as spurious. Bachrens (_P. L. M._ v. +p. 93, and _de Sulpiciae quae vocatur satira_, Jena, 1873) holds that +the work is contemporary with Ausonius. Boot (_de Sulpiciae quae fertur +satira_, Amsterdam, 1868) goes further, and regards the work as a +renaissance forgery. He is followed by Bücheler. But there is no reason +to doubt the existence of the Bobbian MS. The metrical difficulties can +be remedied by emendation _palare_ for _palari_ (43) is a solecism, but +many verbs are found in both active and deponent forms, and _palare_ may +be a slip, or even an invention by analogy. _captiva_ (52) does not = +the Italian _cattiva_ or the French _chétive_. The most that we can say +is that the work shows no resemblance to any extant contemporary +literature. That does not necessarily prove it to be of later date. The +problem cannot be answered with certainty. On the whole, to us the +difficulty of supposing it to be a late forgery seems greater than the +difficulty of supposing it to be by Sulpicia. + +472. An exception must be made of the _Silvae_ of Statius. + +473. Or Balbus Setinus. + +474. Schenkl, _Stud, zu V. F._ 272. + +475. Mart. i. 61 and 76. + +476. i. 5: + + Phoebe mone, si Cymaeae mihi conscia vatis + stat casta cortina domo. + +In _Cymaeae vatis_ there is an allusion to the custody of the +Sibylline books. + +477. x, 1. 90. + +478. i. 7-12. + +479. i. 13, 14: + + Solymo nigrantem pulvere fratrem + spargentemque faces et in omni turre furentem. + +Domitian pretended to be a poet and connoisseur of poetry. See p. 167. + +480. iii. 207: + + ut mugitor anhelat + Vesvius, attonitas acer cum suscitat urbes + +481. vii. 645; viii. 228. If these allusions be to events of 89 A. D. +they point to the view that the last two books were composed shortly +before the poet's death, and confirm the opinion that the _Argonautica_ +was never finished. + +482. A few instances will suffice. In iii. 302 Jason asserts that seers +had prophesied his father's death; this is nowhere else mentioned; on +the contrary, at the beginning of the second book, it is specially told +us that Juno concealed from Jason the fact of his father's death, while +in vii. 494 Jason speaks of him as still alive. In vii. 394 Venus is +represented as leaving Medea in terror at the sound of her magic chant, +while five lines later it is implied that she is still holding Medea's +hand. In viii. 24 Jason goes to the grove of Mars to meet Medea and to +steal the fleece of gold; but no arrangement to this effect has been +made between Jason and Medea at their previous meeting (vii. 516). +Instances might be multiplied. See Schenkl, op. cit. 12 sqq.; Summers' +_Study of Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus_, p. 2 sqq. The inconsistency +which makes the _Argo_ to be at once the first ship and to meet many +other ships by the way is perhaps the most glaring, but its +rectification would have involved very radical alterations. + +483. Cp. viii. 189: + + inde sequemur + ipsius amnis iter, donec nos flumine certo + perferat inque aliud reddat mare. + +484. Summers, op. cit. 6. + +485. e.g. Argous Portus, Cales, the portico of the Argonauts at Rome. + +486. i. 7-12. + +487. Summers, p. 7. + +488. i. 806; ii. 4. + +489. Valerius was no slavish imitator of Apollonius. Some of his +incidents are new, such, as the rescue of Hesione (ii. 450 sqq.). Many +of the incidents in Apollonius are omitted (e.g. Stymphalian birds, A.R. +ii. 1033, and the encounter with the sons of Phrixus, A.R. ii. 1093). +Other incidents receive a fresh turn. In both poets the Argonauts see +traces of the doom of Prometheus. But in A. he is still being devoured, +in V. he is being freed by Hercules amid an earthquake. Again V. often +expands or contracts an incident related by A. E.g. Contraction: The +launching of _Argo_, V.F. i. 184-91; A.R. i. 362-93. Expansion: The +story of Lemnos V. ii. 72-427; A. i. 591-884: here there is not much +difference in length, but V. tells us much more. The visit to Cyzicus, +V. iii. 1-361; A. i. 947-1064: note also that in V. the purification of +the Argonauts, 362-459, takes the place of the irrelevant founding of +the temple of Rhea on Dindymus, A. i. 1103 sqq. The debate as to whether +to abandon Hercules, who has gone in search of Hylas, V. iii. 598-714; +in A. the Argonauts sail without noticing the absence of Hercules and +Hylas, and the debate takes place at sea, A. i. 1273-1325. As a rule, +however, V. is longer than A., partly owing to longer descriptions, +partly owing to the greater complication of the plot at Colchis. On the +other hand, there is much imitation of A. Cp. V.F. i. 255; A.R. i. 553; +V.F. iii. 565-97; A. i. 1261-72; V.F. iv. 733; A. ii. 774; V.F. v. +73-100; A. ii. 911-929. + +490. In Apollonius the aid of Aphrodite and Eros is requisitioned to +make Medea fall in love with Jason, but there is no further conventional +supernatural interference. In Valerius, Juno (v. 350, vi. 456-660, vii. +153-90) kindles Medea's passion with Venus's aid. In vii, 190 sqq., +Venus goes in person. + +491. As evidence for Apollonius' superiority cp. V.F. v. 329 sqq.; A.R. +iii. 616 sq.; V.F. vii, 1-25; A.R. iii. 771 sq.; V.F v. 82-100; A.R. +ii. 911-21. + +492. v. 418. Cp. Apollon. iv. 272; Herod, ii. 103; Strab. xvi. 4. 4; +Plin. _N.H._ xxxiii, 52. + +493. vi. 118. Cp. also v. 423: + + Arsinoen illi tepidaeque requirunt + otia laeta Phari. + +494. Cp. vii. 35 sqq. + +495. As, for instance, in the _Alcestis_ of Euripides and Callimachus' +Hymn to Artemis. + +496. A.R. i. 1167 [Greek: d_e tot anochliz_on tetr_echotos oidmatos +olkous | messothen axen eretmon atar tryphos allo men autos | amph_o +chersin ech_on pese dochmios, allo de pontos | klyze palirrothioisi +pher_on. ana d' hezeto sig_e | paptain_on cheires gar a_etheon +_eremeousai]. + +497. Cp. also V.F. iv. 682-5; viii. 453-7. + +498. For obscurity cp. also iii. 133-7, 336-7; vii. 55. + +499. Valerius is fond of such inversions, especially in the case of +particles, pronouns, &c.; cp. v. 187 _iuxta_; ii. 150 _sed_; vi. 452 +_quippe_; vi. 543 _sed_. + +500. Cp. i. 436-8; ii. 90; iii. 434; vi. 183, 260-4. + +501. See p. 183. + +502. The passage may conceivably be only a rough draft, cp p. 197 note. + +503. Cp. also i. 130-48, 251-4. + +504. There is little evidence that he had any influence on posterity, +though there may be traces of such influence in Hyginus and the Orphic +Argonautica. Of contemporaries Statius and Silius seem to have read him +and at times to imitate him. See Summers, pp. 8, 9. Blass, however (_J. +f. Phil. und Päd._ 109, 471 sqq.), holds that Valerius imitates Statius. + +505. Cp. V. F. i. 833 sqq.; _Aen._ vi. 893, 660 sqq., 638 sqq.; V. F. i. +323; A. viii. 560 sqq.; V. F. vi. 331; A. ix. 595 sqq.; V. F. iii. 136; +A. xii. 300 sqq.; V. F. viii. 358; A. x. 305; V. F. vi. 374; A. xi. 803. +See Summers, pp. 30-3. His echoes from Vergil are perhaps more obvious +in some respects than similar echoes in Statius, owing to the fact that +he had a more Vergilian imagination than Statius, and lacked the extreme +dexterity of style to disguise his pilferings. But in his general +treatment of his theme he shows far greater originality; this is perhaps +due to the fact that the Argonaut saga is not capable of being +'Aeneidized' to the same extent as the Theban legend. But let Valerius +have his due. He is in the main unoriginal in diction, Statius in +composition. + +506. Cp. Summers, p. 49. See also note, p. 123. + +507. Cp. beside the passages quoted below iii. 558 sqq., 724, 5; iv. +16-50, 230, 1; v. 10-12; vii. 371-510, 610, 648-53. + +508. One is tempted at times to account for the profusion and lack of +spontaneity of similes in poets of this age by the supposition that they +kept commonplace books of similes and inserted them as they thought fit. + +509. vi. 260: + + qualem populeae fidentem nexibus umbrae + siquis avem summi deducat ab aere rami, + ante manu tacita cui plurima crevit harundo; + illa dolis viscoque super correpta sequaci + inplorat ramos atque inrita concitat alas. + +510. vii. 124: + + sic adsueta toris et mensae dulcis erili, + aegra nova iam peste canis rabieque futura, + ante fugam totos lustrat queribunda penates. + +511. iv. 699: + + discussa quales formidine Averni + Alcides Theseusque comes pallentia iungunt + oscula vix primas amplexi luminis oras. + +512. This simile is a free translation from Apollonius, iii. 966 +[Greek: t_o d' aneo kai anaudoi ephestasan all_eloisin, | h_e drusin +h_e makr_esin eeidomenoi elat_esin, | ai te parasson ek_eloi en +ourresin erriz_ontai,| n_enemiae meta d' autis upo mip_es anemoio | +kitumenai omad_esan apeiriton _os ara t_oge | mellon alis +phthenchasthai upo pnoi_esin Er_otos.] Valerius has compressed the last +three lines into _rapidus nondum quas miscuit Auster_. The effective +_miscuit_ conveys nearly as much as the longer and not less beautiful +version in the Greek. + +513. This accumulation is probably due to the lack of revision. +_obvius ... pavor_ fits the context ill and is curiously reminiscent +of I. 392 ('iam stabulis gregibusque pavor strepitusque sepulcris +inciderat'), while II. 400-2 would probably have been considerably +altered had the poem undergone its final correction. There are other +indications of the unfinished character of the work to be found in +this passage (p. 181, note). + +514. Cp. also viii. 10, where Medea bids farewell to her home. 'O my +father, would thou mightest give me now thy last embrace, as I fly to +exile, and mightest behold these my tears. Believe me, father, I love +not him I follow more than thee: would that the stormy deep might +whelm us both. And mayest thou long hold thy realm, grown old in +peace and safety, and mayest thou find thy children that remain more +dutiful than me.' + +515. Ap. Rh. iii. 1105 sqq.; cp. also Murray on Apollonius in his +_History of Greek Literature_, p. 382. + +516. _Silv._ v. 3. 116 sqq. + +517. Ib. 146 sqq. + +518. Ib. 163. + +519. Ib. 141. + +520. Ib. 195-208. This passage suggests that the elder Statius died soon +after 79 A.D. On the other hand, he probably lived some years longer as +the _Thebais_, inspired and directed by him, was not begun till 80 A.D. +He must, however, have died before 89 A.D., the earliest date assignable +to Statius' victory at the Alban contest. + +521. _Silv._ v. 3. 225. + +522. Juv. vii. 86. Paris had fallen from imperial favour by 83 A.D. Dio. +lxvii. 3. 1. + +523. _Silv._ v. 3. 215. + +524. Juv. vii. 82. + +525. _Silv._ v. 3. 227. The subject of his prize recitation was the +triumph of Domitian over the Germans and Dacians; i.e. after 89 A.D. + +526. Praef. _Silv._ i. 'pro Thebaide quamvis me reliquerit timeo.' The +first book of the _Silvae_ was published in 92 A.D. For the time taken +for its composition and the poet's anticipations of immortality see +_Th._ xii. 811 sqq. + +527. See previous note. + +528. _Silv._ iii. 5. 28, v. 3. 232. The Agon Capitolinus was instituted +in 86 A.D. The contests falling in Statius' lifetime are those of 86, +90, 94 A.D. As his failure is always mentioned after the Alban victory, +94 A.D. would seem the most probable date. + +529. Rutilius Gallicus had just died when the first book was published; +cp. Praef., bk. i. This took place in 92 A.D.; cp. _C.I.L._ v. 6988, +vi. 1984. 8. _Silv._ iv. 1 celebrates Domitian's seventeenth consulate +(95 A.D.). + +530. See previous note. + +531. Such at least is a legitimate inference from the fact that it is +not mentioned before the fourth and fifth books of the _Silvae_; cp. iv. +4. 94, iv. 7. 23, v. 2. 163. + +532. Written probably in 95 A.D. Statius promises such a work in +_Silv._ iv. 4. 95. Four lines are quoted from it in G. Valla's scholia +on Juv. iv. 94: + + lumina: Nestorei mitis prudentia Crispi + et Fabius Veiento (potentem signat utrumque + purpura, ter memores implerunt nomine fastos), + et prope Caesareae confinis Acilius aulae. + +533. Praef. _Silv._ iv 'Maximum Vibium et dignitatis et eloquentiae +nomine a nobis diligi satis eram testatus epistula quam ad illum de +editione Thebaidos meae publicavi.' + +534. Witness poems such as the Villa Surrentina Pollii. _Silv._ +ii. 2. 3, 1. + +535. _Silv._ iii. 5. 13. + +536. Praef. _Silv._ iii. and iii. 5. He was married soon after beginning +the _Thebais_, i.e. about 82 A.D. (cp. _S._ iii. 5. 35). Claudia had a +daughter by her first husband, iii. 5. 52-4. + +537. v. 5. 72-5. + +538. iii. 5. 13, iv. 4. 69, v. 2. 158. It is worth noting how late in +life all his best work was done, i.e. 80-95 A.D. + +539. The well-known passage of Juvenal, vii. 86 ('cum fregit subsellia +versu, esurit, intactam Paridi nisi vendit Agaven'), as has been pointed +out, is only Juvenal's exaggerated way of saying that the _Thebais_ +brought Statius no material gain. The family was not, however, rolling +in wealth; cp. v. 3. 116 sqq. + +540. His friendships do not throw much light on his life, though they +show that he moved in high circles. Rutilius Gallicus (i. 4) had had a +distinguished career and rose to be _praefectus urbis_; Claudius +Etruscus (i. 5), originally a slave from Smyrna, had risen to the +imperial post _a rationibus_; Abascantus (v. 1) held the office known as +_ab epistulis_; Plotius Grypus (iv. 9) came of senatorial family; +Crispinus (v. 2) was the son of Vettius Bolanus, Governor of Britain and +afterwards of Asia; Vibius Maximus (iv. 7) became praefect of Egypt +under Trajan; Polla Argentaria (ii. 7) was the widow of Lucan; Arruntius +Stella (i. 2) was a poet, and rose to the consulship. Most of these +persons must have been possessed of strong literary tastes. Some are +mentioned by Martial, e.g. Stella, Claudius Etruscus, Polla Argentaria. +Atedius Melior and Novius Vindex were also friends of the two poets. +Both must have moved in the same circles, yet neither ever mentions the +other. They were probably jealous of one another and on bad terms. + +541. e.g. ii. 2. Cp. also i. 3. 64-89. + +542. Dante regards him also as a Christian. This compliment was paid by +the Middle Ages to not a few of the great classical authors. It was not +even a fatal obstacle to have lived before the birth of Christ. Cicero, +for instance, was believed to have been a Christian. The description of +the Altar of Mercy at Athens (_Th._ xii. 493) has been regarded as a +special reason for the Christianizing of Statius: cp. Verrall, _Oxford +and Cambridge Review_, No. 1; Arturo Graf, _Roma nella memoria del medio +evo_, vol. ii, ch. 17. + +543. This statement does not, however, apply to the _Silvae_. + +544. Ov. _Am_. i. 15. 14. + +545. Merivale, _Rom. Emp_. viii. 80, 1. + +546. Merivale, _Rom. Emp_. viii. 80, 1. + +547. The sources for his story were the old Cyclic poem, the later epic +of Antimachus, the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, that +draw their plots from the Theban cycle of legend. The material thus +given him he worked over in the Vergilian manner, remoulding incidents +or introducing fresh episodes in such a fashion as to provide precise +parallels to many episodes in the _Aeneid_. He also drew certain hints +from the _Phoenissae_ and _Oedipus_ of Seneca: for details see Legras, +_Étude sur la Thébaide de Stace_, part i, ch. 2, part ii, chh. 1 and 2. +The subject had been treated also by one Ponticus, the friend of +Propertius (Prop. i. 7. 1, Ov. _Tr_. iv. 10. 47) and possibly by Lynceus +(Prop. ii. 34). + +548. Legras, _Les Légendes Théb._, ch. iii. 4. The [Greek: Amphiaraou +exelasis] mentioned by Suidas s.v. [Greek: Hom_eros] is sometimes +identified with the _Thebais_; but it is more probably merely the +title of a book of that epic. Still the fact that the [Greek: Amph. +exel.] is given such prominence by Suidas does lend some support to +the view that he was the chief character of the epic. He is certainly +the most tragic figure. + +549. Porphyr. ad Hor. _A.P._ 146. + +550. Vergil had given six books to the wanderings of Aeneas; Statius +must give six to the preparation and march of the Thebans! + +551. See Legras, op. cit., pp. 183 ff. + +552. x. 632. + +553. xi. 457. Cp. also the strange and stilted description of the cave +of sleep, x. 84, where Quies, Oblivio, Ignavia, Otium, Silentium, +Voluptas, and even Labor and Amor are to be found. But with the +exception of Amor these abstract personages are inventions of Statius. +Virtus and Pietas had temples at Rome. + +554. iv. 32-308; vii. 250-358. + +555. x. 262-448. + +556. vi. 1-921. Two other funerals are to be found, in. 114-217, +xii. 22-104. + +557. _Th._ i. 557 sqq.; Verg. _Aen._ viii. 190 sqq. + +558. v. 17-498: with this compare the version of the story given by +Valerius Maccus, ii. 78-305; except in point of brevity there is little +to choose between the two versions. But it is not a digression in +Valerius, and it is told at less inordinate length. The versions differ +much in detail, and Statius owes little or nothing to Valerius. + +559. Op. Legras, _Les légendes Thébaines_, ch. ii. 4, Welcker, _Ep. +Cycl._ ii. 350. The story was well known. Aeschylus probably treated it +in his [Greek: Nemea,] Euripides certainly in his [Greek: ypsipel_e]. +The legend gives the origin of the Nemean games. + +560. The speeches in the _Thebais_, though they lack variety, are +almost always exceedingly clever and quite repay reading; see esp. i. +642; iii. 59, 151, 348; iv. 318; vi. 138; vii. 497, 539; ix. 375; xi. +155, 677, 708. + +561. iii. 348. + +562. v. 660. + +563. vii. 538. + +564. viii. 751. Tydeus bites the severed head of Melanippus to the +brain, thereby losing the gift of immortality that Pallas was hastening +to bring him. The incident is revolting, but Statius has merely followed +the old legend recorded by Aesch. _Sept._ 587; Soph. _Fr._ 731; Eurip. +_Fr._ 357. + +565. Cp. in this context Atalanta's beautiful lament on his departure +for the war, iv. 318. + +566. Every book, however, abounds in echoes of Vergil, both in matter +and diction; e.g. _Aen._ vii. 475, Allecto precipitates the war by +making Ascanius kill a tame stag. _Theb._ vii. 562, an Erinnys brings +about the war by causing the death of two pet tigers sacred to Bacchus. +_Aen._ xi. 591, Diana orders one of her nymphs to kill the slayer of +Camilla. _Theb._ ix. 665, she tells Apollo that the slayer of +Parthenopaeus shall perish by her arrows, for which see _Th._ ix. 875. +Cp. also _Th._ ii. 205; _Aen._ iv. 173, 189; _Th._ ii. 162; _Aen._ xi. +581. The passage previously referred to concerning the exploits of Dymas +and Hopleus is especially noteworthy as openly challenging comparison +with Vergil; cp. x. 445. For verbal imitations cp. _Aen._ v. 726, 7; +_Th._ ii. 115; _Aen._ i. 106; _Th._ v. 366; _Aen._ vii. 397; _Th._ iv. +379, &c. It is no defence to urge that the ancients held different views +on plagiarism, that Vergil and Ovid pilfered from their predecessors. +For _they_ made their appropriations their own, and set the stamp of +their genius upon what they borrowed. And, further, the process of +borrowing cannot continue indefinitely. The cumulative effect of +progressive plagiarism is distressing. For Statius' imitation of other +Latin poets, notably Lucan, Seneca, and Ovid, see Legras, op. cit., i. +2. Such imitations, though not very rare, are of comparatively small +importance. + +567. ix. 315 sqq. + +568. Statius is imitating early Greek epic. That might excuse him if +these similes possessed either truth or beauty. + +569. See p.123, note. + +570. i. 841-85 gives a good idea of the _Achilleis_ at its best. The +passage describes the unmasking of the disguised Achilles. + +571. Quint, x. 3. 17. + +572. _Silv._ i. 1. 6; iii. 4; iv. 1. 2, 3. + +573. ii. 1. 6; iii. 3. + +574. v. 1. 3, 5. + +575. iii. 5; iv. 4. 5, 7; v. 2. + +576. i. 4. + +577. iii. 2. + +578. i. 3. 5; ii. 2; iii. 1. + +579. i. 2. + +580. ii. 7. + +581. iv. 6. + +582. ii. 4. 5. + +583. v. 4. + +584. Cp. also the extravagant dedication of the _Thebais_. + +585. It is hard to select from the _Silvae_. Beside, those poems from +which quotations are given, iii. 5, v. 3 and 5 are best worth reading. +But the average level is high. The Sapphic and Alcaic poems (iv. 5 and +7) and the hexameter poems in praise of Domitian (i. 1, iii. 4, iv. 1 +and 2) are the least worth reading. + +586. The poem on the death of his father (v. 3) shows genuine depth of +feeling, but its elaborate artificiality is somewhat distressing, +considering the theme. (The same is true to a less degree of v. 5.) V. 3 +must be, in portions at any rate, the earliest of the _Silvae_, for (l. +29) the poet states that his father has been dead but three months. But +it records (ll. 219-33) events which took place long after that time +(i.e. victory at Alba and failure at Agon Capitolinus). The poem must +have been rewritten in part, ll. 219-33 at least being later additions. +The inconsistency between these lines and line 29 is probably due to the +poet having died before revising bk. v for publication. + +587. viii. 8; ii. 17; v. 6. + +588. With Statius, as with Martial, the hendecasyllable always begins +with a spondee. The Alcaics of iv. 5 and Sapphics of iv. 7 call for no +special comment. They are closely modelled on Horace. The two poems fail +because they are prosy and uninteresting, not through any fault of the +metre, but it may be that Statius felt his powers hampered by an +unfamiliar metre. + +589. If _iuvenis_ be taken to refer to Statius, the poem must be an +early work or depict an imaginary situation. The alternative is to take +it as a vocative referring to Sleep. + +590. _C.I.L._ vi. 1984. 9, in the 'fasti sodalium Augustalium +Claudialium'. In MSS. Pliny and Tacitus, he is Silius Italicus, in +Martial simply Silius or Italicus. + +591. Plin. _Ep._ iii. 7. In the description of his life which follows, +Pliny is the authority, where not otherwise stated. + +592. Pliny writes in 101 A.D. to record Silius' death. Silius was over +seventy-five when he died. + +593. _Italicus_ might suggest that he came from the Spanish town of +_Italica_. But Martial, who addresses him in several epigrams of almost +servile flattery, would surely have claimed him as fellow-countryman had +this been the case. + +594. Pliny, loc. cit.; Tac. _Hist._ iii. 65. + +595. His poem was already planned in 88; cp. Mart. iv. 14 (published 88 +A.D.). Some of it was already written in 92; cp. _legis_, M. vii. 62 +(published 92 A.D.). But the allusion to Domitian, iii. 607, must have +been inserted after that date, while xiv. 686 points to the close of +Nerva's principate. Statius, _Silv._ iv. 7. 14 (published 95 A.D.) seems +to imitate Silius: + + Dalmatae montes ubi Dite viso + pallidus fossor redit erutoque + concolor auro. + +Sil. i. 233 'et redit infelix effosso concolor auro.' The last five +books, compressed and markedly inferior to i-xii, may have been left +unrevised. + +596. In 101 A.D. at the age of seventy-five. + +597. Epict. _diss._ iii. 8. 7. + +598. Mart. xi. 48: + + Silius haec magni celebrat monumenta Maronis, + iugera facundi qui Ciceronis habet. + heredem dominumque sui tumulive larisve + non alium mallet nec Maro nec Cicero. + +That it was the Tusculanum and not the Cumanum of Cicero that Silius +possessed is an inference from _C.I.L._ xix. 2653, found at Tusculum: +'D.M. Crescenti Silius Italicus Collegium salutarem.' + +599. Enn. _Ann._ vii, viii, ix. + +600. Sec p. 103. + +601. i. 55. + +602. iv. 727. + +603. viii. 28. + +604. x. 349. + +605. ix. 484. + +606. xvii. 523. + +607. iv. 675. + +608. xi. 387. + +609. ix. 439. + +610. ii. 395. + +611. xvi. 288. + +612. ii. 36. + +613. iii. 222 and viii. 356. + +614. xiii. 395. + +615. e.g. the Funeral Games, the choice of Scipio (xv. 20), the Nekuia. + +616. At Nola. + +617. Cp. x. 628 'quod ... Laomedontiadum non desperaverit urbi'. The +tasteless _Laomedontiadum_ as a learned equivalent for _Romanorum_ is +characteristic. Silius has the _Aeneid_ in his mind when he chooses this +word: his literary proclivities lead him astray; where he should be most +strong he is most feeble. + +618. _Vide infra_ for his treatment of Paulus' dead body after Cannae. + +619. Trebia, iv. 480-703; Trasimene, v. 1-678; Cannae, ix. l78-x. 578. + +620. Mart, vii. 90. + +621. See p. 123, note. + +622. Bk. vi. + +623. xii. 212-67, where the death of Cinyps clad in Paulus' armour is +described, are pretty enough, but too frankly an imitation of Vergil to +be worth quoting. The simile 247-50 is, however, new and quite +picturesque. + +624. Sights of Naples, xii. 85; Tides at Pillars of Hercules, iii. +46; Legend of Pan, xiii. 313; Sicily, xiv. 1-50; Fabii, vii. 20; +Anna Perenna, viii. 50; Bacchus at Falernum, vii. 102; Trasimenus, +v. ad init. + +625. See note on p. 13. + +626. Plin. _Ep._ i. 13. + +627. Mart. vii. 63. + +628. On the modern Cerro de Bambola near the Moorish town of El +Calatayud. + +629. Cp. ix. 52, x. 24, xii. 60. + +630. Cp. v. 34. + +631. ix. 73. 7. + +632. In x. 103. 7, written in 98 A. D., he tells us that it is +thirty-four years since he left Spain. + +633. iv. 40, xii. 36. + +634. He is found rendering poetic homage to Polla, the wife of Lucan, as +late as 96 A. D., x. 64, vii. 21-3. For his reverence for the memory of +Lucan, cp. i. 61. 7; vii. 21, 22; xiv. 194. + +635. Cp. his regrets for the ease of his earlier clienthood and the +generosity of the Senecas, xii. 36. + +636. ii. 30; cp. 1. 5: + + is mihi 'dives eris, si causas egeris' inquit. + quod peto da, Gai: non peto consilium. + +637. Vide his epigrams _passim_. + +638. xiii. 42, xiii. 119. Perhaps the gift of Seneca, cp. Friedländer on +Mart. i. 105. + +639. ix. 18, ix. 97. 7, x. 58. 9. + +640. Such is the most plausible interpretation of iii. 95. 5, ix. 97. 5: + + tribuit quod Caesar uterque + ius mihi natorum (uterque, i.e. Titus and Domitian). + +641. iii. 95, v. 13, ix. 49, xii. 26. + +642. iii. 95. 11, vi. 10. 1. + +643. xiii. 4 gives Domitian his title of Germanicus, assumed after +war with Chatti in 84; xiv. 34 alludes to peace; no allusion to +subsequent wars. + +644. I, II. Perhaps published together. This would account for length of +preface. II. Largely composed of poems referring to reigns of Vespasian +and Titus. Reference to Domitian's censorship shows that I was not +published before 85. There is no hint of outbreak of Dacian War, which +raged in 86. + +III. Since bk. IV contains allusion to outbreak of revolt of +Antonius Saturninus towards end of 88 (11) and is published at Rome, +whereas III was published at _Cornelii forum_ (1), III probably +appeared in 87 or 88. + +IV. Contains reference to birthday of Domitian, Oct. 24 (1. 7), and +seems then to allude to _ludi saeculares_ (Sept. 88). Reference to +snowfall at Rome (2 and 13) suggests winter. Perhaps therefore published +in _Saturnalia_ of 88. + +V. Domitian has returned to Italy (1) from Dacian War, but there is no +reference to his triumph (Oct. 1, 89 A. D.). Book therefore probably +published in early autumn of 89. + +VI. Domitian has held his triumph (4. 2 and 10. 7). Julia (13) is dead +(end of 89). Book probably published in 90, perhaps in summer. +Friedländer sees allusion to Agon Capitolinus (Summer, 90) in vi. 77. + +VII. 5-8 refer to Domitian's return from Sarmatic War. He has not yet +arrived. These epigrams are among last in book. He returned in January +93. His return was announced as imminent in Dec. 92. + +VIII. 21 describes Domitian's arrival; 26, 30, and others deal with +festivities in this connexion. 65 speaks of temple of Fortuna Redux and +triumphal arch built in Domitian's honour. They are mentioned as if +completed. 66 speaks of consulate of Silius Italicus' son beginning +Sept. 1, 93. + +IX. 84 is addressed to Appius Norbanus Maximus, who has been six years +absent from Rome. He went to Upper Germany to crush Antonius Saturninus +in 88. 35 refers to Agon Capitolinus in summer of 94. + +X. Two editions published. We possess later and larger. Cp. x. 2. 70. 1 +suggests a year's interval between IX and X. X, ed. 1 was therefore +perhaps published in Dec. 95. X, ed. 2 has references to accession of +Trajan, Jan. 25, 98 A. D. (6, 7 and 34). Martial's departure for Spain +is imminent. + +XI. 1 is addressed to Parthenius, executed in middle of 97 A. D. xii. 5 +refers to a selection made from X and XI, perhaps from presentation to +Nerva; cp. xii. 11. + +XII. In preface Martial apologizes for three years' silence (1. 9) from +publication of X. ed. 2. xii. 3. 10 refers to Stella's consulship, Oct. +101 or 102. Three years' interval points to 101. It was published late +in the year; cp. 1 and 62. Some epigrams in this book were written at +Rome. But M. says that it was written _paucissimis diebus_. This must +refer only to Spanish epigrams, or the book must have been enlarged +after M.'s death. + +For the whole question see Friedländer Introd., pp. 50 sqq. + +645. iii. 1 and 4. + +646. Cp. xi. 3. + +647. xii. 21, xii. 31. There is no reason to suppose with some critics +that she was his wife. + +648. xii. praef. 'civitatis aures quibus adsueveram quaero.' + +649. Ib. 'accedit his municipalium robigo dentium.' + +650. See p. 271. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this silence +was due to dislike or jealousy. + +651. Mackail, _Greek Anthol_., Introd., p. 5. + +652. Domitius Marsus was famous for his epigrams, as also Calvus, +Gaetulicus, Pedo, and others. + +653. See p. 36. + +654. See p. 134. + +655. The best of his erotic poems is the pretty vi. 34, but it is far +from original; cp. the last couplet: + + nolo quot (sc. basia) arguto dedit exorata Catullo + Lesbia; pauca cupit qui numerare potest. + +656. Cp. Cat. 5 and 7; Mart. vi. 34; Cat. 2 and 3; Mart. i. 7 and 109 +(it is noteworthy that this last poem has itself been exquisitely +imitated by du Bellay in his poem on his little dog Peloton). + +657. Cp. Ov. _Tr._ ii. 166; Mart. vi. 3. 4; Ov. _F._ iii. 192; Mart, vi. +16. 2; Ov. _A._ i. 1. 20; Mart. vi. 16. 4; Ov. _Tr._ i. 5. 1, iv. 13. 1; +Mart, i. 15. 1. His imitations of other poets are not nearly so marked. +There are a good many trifling echoes of Vergil, but little wholesale +borrowing. A very large proportion of the parallel passages cited by +Friedländer are unjust to Martial. No poet could be original judged by +such a test. + +658. There is little of any importance to be said about Martial's metre. +The metres most often employed are elegiac, hendecasyllabic, and the +scazon. In the elegiac he is, on the whole, Ovidian, though he is +naturally freer, especially in the matter of endings both of hexameter +and pentameter. He makes his points as well, but is less sustainedly +pointed. His verse, moreover, has greater variety and less formal +symmetry than that of Ovid. On the other hand his effects are less +sparkling, owing to his more sparing use of rhetoric. In the +hendecasyllabic he is smoother and more polished. It invariably opens +with a spondee. + +659. Cp. vii. 72. 12, x. 3. + +660. Cp. vii. 12. 9, iii. 99. 3. + +661. Catull. xvi. 5; Ov. _Tr._ ii. 354; Apul. _Apol._ 11; Auson. 28, +_cento nup._; Plin. _Ep._ vii. 8. + +662. We might also quote the beautiful + + extra fortunam est quidquid donatur amicis: + quas dederis solas semper habebis opes (v. 42). + + What thou hast given to friends, and that alone, + Defies misfortune, and is still thine own. + PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH. + +But the needy poet may have had some _arrière-pensée_. We do not know to +whom the poem is addressed. + +663. Cp. the description of the villa of Faustinus, iii. 58. + +664. Their only rival is the famous Sirmio poem of Catullus. + +665. Even Tennyson's remarkable poem addressed to F. D. Maurice fails to +reach greater perfection. + +666. e.g. Arruntius Stella and Atedius Melior. Cp. p. 205. + +667. Cp. the poems on the subject of Earinus, Mart. ix. 11, 12, 13, and +esp. 16; Stat. _Silv._ iii. 4. + +668. Mart. vi. 28 and 29. + +669. The remaining lines of the poem are tasteless and unworthy of the +portion quoted, and raise a doubt as to the poet's sincerity in the +particular case. But this does not affect his general sympathy for +childhood. + +670. 101 provides an instance of Martial's sympathy for his own slaves. +Cp. 1. 5:-- + + ne tamen ad Stygias famulus descenderet umbras, + ureret implicitum cum scelerata lues, + cavimus et domini ius omne remisimus aegro; + munere dignus erat convaluisse meo. + sensit deficiens mea praemia meque patronum + dixit ad infernas liber iturus aquas. + +671. i. 13. + +672. i. 42. + +673. i. 21. He is perhaps at his best on the death of Otho (vi. 32): + + cum dubitaret adhuc belli civilis Enyo + forsitan et posset vincere mollis Otho, + damnavit multo staturum sanguine Martem + et fodit certa pectora tota manu. + sit Cato, dum vivit, sane vel Caesare maior: + dum moritur, numquid maior Othone fuit? + + When doubtful was the chance of civil war, + And victory for Otho might declare; + That no more Roman blood for him might flow, + He gave his breast the great decisive blow. + Caesar's superior you may Cato call: + Was he so great as Otho in his fall? + HAY. + +674. It is to be noted that even in the most worthless of his epigrams +he never loses his sense of style. If childish epigrams are to be given +to the world, they cannot be better written. + +675. Cp. Juv. 5; Mart. iii. 60, vi. 11, x. 49; Plin. _Ep_. ii. 6. + +676. v. 18. 6. + +677. This is doubly offensive if addressed to the poor Cinna of +viii. 19. Cp. the similar vii. 53, or the yet more offensive viii. +33 and v. 36. + +678. More excusable are poems such as x. 57, where he attacks one Gaius, +an old friend (cp. ii. 30), for failing to fulfil his promise, or the +exceedingly pointed poem (iv. 40) where he reproaches Postumus, an old +friend, for forgetting him. Cp. also v. 52. + +679. See p. 252. + +680. Cp. the elaborate and long-winded poem of Statius on a +statuette of Hercules (_Silv._ iv. 6) with Martial on the same +subject, ix. 43 and 44. + +681. Cp. viii. 3 and 56. + +682. Bridge and Lake, Introd., _Select Epigrams of Martial_. + +683. The ancient biographies of the poet all descend from the same +source: their variations spring largely from questionable or absurd +interpretations of passages in the satires themselves. The best of them, +if not their actual source, is the life found at the end of the codex +Pithoeanus, the best of the MSS. of Juvenal. It was in all probability +written by the author of the scholia Pithoeana--to whom Valla, on the +authority of a MS. now lost, gave the name of Probus--and dates from the +fourth or fifth century. + +684. L. 41. Cp. Plin. _Ep._ ii. 11. + +685. xiii. 17 'sexaginta annos Fonteio consule natus'. xv. 27 'nuper +consule Iunco'. + +686. _Vita_ 1 (O. Jahn ed.): 1 a (Dürr, _Das Leben Juvenals_). A life +contained in Cod. Barberin. viii. 18 (fifteenth century), says _Iunius +Iuvenalis Aquinas Iunio Iuvenale patre, matre vero Septumuleia ex +Aquinati municipio, Claudio Nerone et L. Antistio consulibus_ (55 A. D.) +_natus est; sororem habuit Septumuleiam, quae Fuscino nupsit._ This may +be mere invention on the part of a humanist of the fifteenth century. +The life contains many improbabilities and the MS. is of suspiciously +late date. But see Dürr, p. 28. + +687. _Vitae_ 2 and 3 'oriundus temporis Neronis Claudii imperatoris'. +_Vit._ 4 'decessit sub Antonino Pio'. + +688. So Cod. Paris. 9345; Vossian. 18 and 64; Bodl. (Canon Lat. 41); +Schol. Pith, ad _vit._ 1. + +689. So all ancient biographies except 1. In _Sat._ iii, Umbricius, +addressing Juvenal, speaks of _tuum Aquinum_: cp. also the inscription +found near Aquinum and quoted later. + +690. This is only conjecture, but the son of a rich citizen of Aquinum +would naturally be sent to Rome for his education. For his rhetorical +education cp. i. 15-17. + +691. _Vita_ 1. + +692. Cp. especially the whole of xvi; also i. 58, ii. 165, iii. 132, +vii. 92, xiv. 193-7. + +693. _C.I.L._ x. 5382. + +694. _C.I.L._ vii, p. 85; Hübner, _Rhein. Mus._ xi (1857), p. 30; +_Hermes_, xvi (1881), p. 566. + +695. Satt. 3, 11, 12, 13. Trebius in 5 is perhaps an imaginary +character. + +696. vi. 75, 280, vii. 186. + +697. vii, 82. + +698. Mart. vii. 24, 91, xii. 18. + +699. vi. 57. + +700. xi. 65. + +701. xi. 190, xii. 87. + +702. _Vita_ 1. + +703. There are, however, allusions to Domitian as dead in ii. +29-33, iv. 153. + +704. Ap. Sid. ix. 269. + +705. Joh. Mal. _Chron._ x, p. 341, _Chilm._ + +706. _Vita_ 7. Schol. ad vii. 92. + +707. _Vita_ 6. + +708. _Vitae_ 1, 2, 4, 7. Perhaps an inference from _Sat._ xv. 45. + +709. See 708. + +710. _Vitae_ 5 and 6. If the inscription (see p. 288) refers to the +poet, this view has further support. + +711. Joh. Mal., loc. cit. + +712. Trajan had, however, a favourite in the _pantomimus_ Pylades. Dio. +Cass. Ixviii. 10. + +713. The simplest suggestion is that Juvenal was at some time banished, +that the reason for his banishment was forgotten and supplied by +conjecture. Cp. Friedländer's ed., p. 44. There is no real evidence to +prove that Juvenal was ever in Egypt or Britain. His topography in +_Sat._ xv is faulty, and allusion to the oysters of Richborough (_ostrea +Rutupina_, iv. 141) would be possible even in a poet who had never +visited Britain. + +714. i. 1-3, 17, 18 (Dryden's translation). + +715. i. 79. + +716. Ib. 85. + +717. Ib. 147-50. + +718. i. 165-71. + +719. x. 356-66 (Dryden's translation). + +720. There is nothing in this satire to suggest that Juvenal had or had +not visited Egypt. The legend of his banishment to Egypt may be true, +but it is quite as likely that this satire caused the scholiast to +localize his traditional exile in Egypt. The theme of cannibalism was +sometimes dealt with by the rhetoricians. Cp. Quintilian, _Decl._ 12. + +721. e.g. Claudius Etruscus, who held the imperial secretaryship of +finance under Nero and Vespasian, and Abascantus, the secretary _ab +epistulis_ to Domitian. Stat. _Silv._ iii. 3, v. 1. + +722. For a fine picture of the exclusive Roman spirit, cp. _Le +procurateur de Judée_, by Anatole France in _L'Étui de nacre_. + +723. iii. 60-125. + +724. xiv. 96 sqq. + +725. i. 130 sqq, and the whole of xv. Above all, he hates the Egyptian +Crispinus, cp. iv. 2. + +726. i. 102 sqq. + +727. For the tradition of coarseness see chapter on Martial, p. 263. + +728. It has been pointed out that the epigrams of Martial addressed to +Juvenal are disfigured by gross obscenities. It is, however, a little +unfair to make Juvenal responsible for his friend's observations. + +729. The sixth satire abounds throughout its great length with sketches +of the most appalling clearness and power, though they tend to crudeness +of colour and are few of them suitable for quotation. + +730. xiii. 120 sqq. + +731. x. 346 sqq. + +732. xiii. 180. + +733. ix. 32, xii. 63. + +734. vii. 194 sqq., ix. 33. + +735. xiii. 192-249. + +736. xii. 3-6, 89 sqq. + +737. Such obscurity as he presents is due almost entirely to the fact +that we have lost the key to his topical allusions. He has a strong +affection for ingenious periphrases (e.g. v. 139, vi. 159, x. 112, xii. +70), but they are as a rule effective and amusing. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Post-Augustan Poetry, by H.E. 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