The History of Roman Literature Part 20

qui_ (i. 17, 13), from the _Copa_. Again, _Sit licet et saxo patientior illa Sicano_ (i. 16, 29), from the _Cyclopia saxa_ of _Aeneid_, i. 201; _c.u.m tamen_ (i. 1, 8) with the indic. as twice in Virgil; _Umbria me genuit_ (i. 23, 9), perhaps from the _Mantua me genuit_ of Virgil's epitaph. These might easily be added to. Ovid in the _Metamorphoses_ has a vast number of imitations of which we select the most striking; _Plebs habitat diversa locis_ (i. 193); _Navigat, hic summa_, &c. (i. 296); cf.

_Naviget, haec summa est_, in the 4th Aeneid; _similisque roganti_ (iii.

240), _amarunt me quoque Nymphae_ (iii. 454); _Arma ma.n.u.sque meae, mea, nate, potentia, dixit_ (v. 365); _Heu quantum haec Niobe Niobe distabat ab illa_ (vi. 273); _leti discrimine parvo_ (vi. 426); _per nostri foedera lecti, perque deos supplex oro superosque neosque, Per si quid merui de te bene_ (vii. 852); _maiorque videri_ (ix. 269). These striking resemblances, which are selected from hundreds of others, show how carefully he had studied him. Of all other poets I have noticed but two or three imitations in him, _e.g. multi illum pueri, multae cupiere puellae_ (iii. 383), from Catullus; _et merito, quid enim...?_ (ix. 585) from Propertius (i. 17). Manilius also imitates Virgil's language, _e.g. acuit mortalia corda_ (i. 79), _Acherunta movere_ (i. 93), _molli cervice reflexus_ (i. 334), and his sentiments in _omnia conando docilis solertia vicit_ (i. 95), compared with _labor omnia vicit improbus: invictamque sub Hectore Troiam_ (i. 766), with _dec.u.mum quos distulit Hector in annum_ of the _Aeneid_; cf. also iv. 122, and _litora litoribus regnis contraria regna_ (iv. 814); cf. also iv. 28, 37.

NOTE II.--_On the shortening of final o in Latin poetry._

The fact that in Latin the accent was generally thrown back caused a strong tendency to shorten long final vowels. The one that resisted this tendency best was _o_, but this gradually became shortened as poetry advanced, and is one of the very few instances of a departure from the standard of quant.i.ty as determined by Ennius. There is one instance even in him: _Horrida Romuleum certamina pango duellum_. The words _ego_ and _modo_, which from their frequent use are often shortened in the comedians, are generally long in Ennius; Lucretius uses them as common, but retains _h.o.m.o_, which after him does not appear. Catullus has one short _o_, _Virro_ (89, 1), but this is a proper name. Virgil has _sci0_ (_Aen._ iii. 602), but _ego, h.o.m.o_, when in the arsis, are always elided, _e.g. Pulsus ego? aut; Graius h.o.m.o, infectos. Spondeo_ which used to be read (_Aen._ ix, 294), is now changed to _sponde_.

_Pollio_ is elided by Virgil, shortened by Horace (O. II. i. 14). He also has _mentio_ and _dixero_ in the _Satires_ (I. iv. 93, 104). A line by Maecenas, quoted in Suetonius, has _diligo_. Ovid has _cito, puto_ (_Am._ iii. vii. 2), but only in such short words; in nouns, _Naso_ often, _origo, virgo_, once each. Tibullus and Propertius are stricter in this respect, though Propertius has _findo_ (iii. or iv. 8 or 9, 35); Manilius has _leo, Virgo_ (i. 266), Lucan _Virgo_ (ii. 329), _pulmo_ (iii. 644), and a few others. Gratius first gives the imperative _reponito_ (_Cyn._ 56); Calpurnius, in the the time of Nero, the false quant.i.ties _quando ambo_, the latter (ix. 17) perhaps in a spurious eclogue; so _expecto_. In Statius no new licenses appear. Juvenal, however, gives _vigilando_ (iii.

232), an improper quant.i.ty repeated by Seneca (_Tro._ 264) _vincendo_, Nemesia.n.u.s (viii. 53) _mulcendo_, (ix. 80), _laudano_. Juvenal gives also _sumito, octo, ergo_. The dat. and abl. sing. are the only terminations that were not affected. We see the gradual deterioration of quant.i.ty, and are not surprised that even before the time of Claudian a strict knowledge of it was confined to the most learned poets.

NOTE III.--_On parallelism in Virgil's poetry._

There is a very frequent feature in Virgil's poetry which we may compare to the parallelism well known as the chief characteristic of Hebrew verse.

In that language the poet takes a thought and either repeats it, or varies it, or explains it, or gives its ant.i.thesis in a corresponding clause, as evenly as may be balancing the first. As examples we may take--

(1) A mere iteration:

"Why do the nations so furiously rage together?

And why do the people imagine a vain thing?"

(2) Contrast:

"A wise son maketh a glad father: But a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother."

This somewhat rude idea of ornament is drawn no doubt from the simplest attempts to speak with pa.s.sion or emphasis, which naturally turned to _iteration_ or _repet.i.tion_ as the obvious means of gaining the effect.

Roman poetry, as we have already said, rests upon a primitive and rude basis, the Greek methods of composition being applied to an art arrested before its growth was complete. The fondness for repet.i.tion is very prominent. Phrases like _somno gravidi vinoque sepulti; indu foro lato, sanctoque senatu_, occur commonly in Ennius; and the trick of composition of which they are the simplest instances, is perpetuated throughout Roman poetry. It is in reality rather rhetorical than poetical, and abounds in Cicero. It scarcely occurs in Greek poetry, but is very common in Virgil, _e.g. _:

"Ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo, Et cantare pares, et respondere parati."

Similar to this is the introduction of corresponding clauses by the same initial word, _e.g. ille_ (_Ecl._ i. 17):

"Namque erit _ille_ mihi semper deus: _illius_ aram Saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus.

_Ille_ meas errare boves..."

Instances of this construction will occur to every reader. Frequently the first half of the hexameter expresses a thought obscurely which is expressed clearly in the latter half, or _vice versa, e.g._ (G. iv. 103):

"At quum incerta volant, caeloque examina ludunt."

Again (_Aen._ iv. 368):

"Nam quid dissimulo, aut quae me ad maiora reservo?"

at times this parallelism is very useful as helping us to find out the poet's meaning, _e.g._ (_Aen._ ii. 121):

"Cui fata parent, quem poseat Apollo."

Here interpretations vary between _fata_, n. to _parent_, and acc. after it. But the parallelism decides at once in favour of the former "for whom the fates are making preparations; whom Apollo demands." To take another instance (_Aen_. i. 395):

"Nunc terras ordine longo Aut capere, aut captas, iam despectare videntur."

This pa.s.sage is explained by its parallelism with another a little further on (v. 400):

"Puppesque tuae plebesque tuorum Aut portum tenet aut pleno subit ostia velo."

Here the word _capere_ is fixed to mean "settling on the ground" by the words _portum tenet_. Once more in _Aen_. xii. 725:

"Quem d.a.m.net labor, aut quo vergat pondere letum,"

the difficulty is solved both by the iteration in the line itself, by which _d.a.m.net labor = vergat letum_; and also by its close parallelism with another (v. 717), which is meant to ill.u.s.trate it:

"Mussantque iuvencae Quis nemori imperitet quem tota armenta sequantur."

This feature in Virgil's verse, which might be ill.u.s.trated at far greater length, reappears under another form in the Ovidian elegiac. There the pentameter answers to the second half of Virgil's hexameter verse, and rings the changes on the line that has preceded in a very similar way. A literature which loves the balanced clauses of rhetoric will be sure to have something a.n.a.logous. Our own heroic couplet is a case in point. So perhaps is the invention of rhyme which tends to confine the thought within the oscillating limits of a refrain, and that of the stanza, which shows the same process in a much higher stage of complexity.

NOTE IV.--_On the Legends connected with Virgil_.

Side by side with the historical account of this poet is a mythical one which, even within the early post-cla.s.sical period, began to gain credence. The reasons of it are to be sought not so much in his poetical genius as in the almost ascetic purity of his life, which surrounded him with a halo of mysterious sanct.i.ty. Prodigies are said, in the lives that have come down to us, to have happened at his birth; his mother dreamt she gave birth to a laurel-branch, which grew apace until it filled the country. A poplar planted at his birth suddenly grew into a stately tree.

The infant never cried, and was noted for the preternatural sweetness of its temper. When at Naples he is said to have studied medicine, and cured Augustus's horses of a severe ailment. Augustus ordered him a daily allowance of bread, which was doubled on a second instance of his chirurgical knowledge, and trebled on his detecting the true ancestry of a rare Spanish hound! Credited with supernatural knowledge, though he never pretended to it, he was consulted privately by Augustus as to his own legitimacy. By the cautious dexterity of his answer, he so pleased the emperor that he at once recommended him to Pollio as a person to be well rewarded. The mixture of fable and history here is easily observed. The custom of making pilgrimages to his tomb, and in the case of Silius Italicus (and doubtless others too), of honouring it with sacrifices, seems to have produced the belief that he was a great magician. Even as early as Hadrian the _Sortes Virgilianae_ were consulted from an idea that there was a sanct.i.ty about the pages of his book; and, as is well known, this superst.i.tious custom was continued until comparatively modern times.

Meanwhile plays were represented from his works, and amid the general decay of all clear knowledge a confused idea sprung up that these stories were inspired by supernatural wisdom. The supposed connection of the fourth Eclogue with the _Sibylline Books_, and through them, with the sacred wisdom of the Hebrews, of course placed Virgil on a different level from other heathens. The old hymn, "Dies irae dies illa Solvet saeclum c.u.m favilla Teste David c.u.m Sibylla," shows that as early as the eighth century the Sibyl was well established as one of the prophetic witnesses; and the poet, from the indulgence of an obscure style, reaped the great reward of being regarded almost as a saint for several centuries of Christendom. Dante calls him _Virtu summa_, just as ages before Justinian had spoken of Homer as _pater omnis virtutis_. But before Dante's time the real Virgil had been completely lost in the ideal and mystic poet whose works were regarded as wholly allegorical.

The conception of Virgil as a magician as distinct from an inspired sage is no doubt a popular one independent of literature, and had originally a local origin near Naples where his tomb was. Foreign visitors disseminated the legend, adding striking features, which in time developed almost an entire literature.

In the _Otia Imperialia_ of Gervasius of Tilbury, we see this belief in formation; the main point in that work is that he is the protector of Naples, defending it by various contrivances from war or pestilence. He was familiarly spoken of among the Neapolitans as _Parthenias_, in allusion to his chast.i.ty. It was probably in the thirteenth century that the connection of Virgil with the Sibyl was first systematically taught, and the legends connected with him collected into one focus. They will be found treated fully in Professor Comparetti's work. We append here a very short pa.s.sage from the _Gesta Romanorum_ (p. 590), showing the necromantic character which surrounded him:--

"Refert Alexander Philosophus de natura rerum, quod Vergilius in civitate Romana n.o.bile construxit palatium, in cuius medio palatii stabat imago, quae Dea Romana vocabatur. Tenebat enim pomum aureum in manu sua. Per circulum palatii erant imagines cuiuslibet regionis, quae subiectae erant Romano imperio, et quaelibet imago campanam ligneam in manu sua habebat.

c.u.m vero aliqua regio nitebatur Romanis insidias aliquas imponere, statim imago eiusdem regionis campanam suam pulsavit, et miles exivit in equo aeneo in summitate predicti palatii, hastam vibravit, et predictam regionem inspexit. Et ab instanti Romani hoc videntes se armaverunt et predictam regionem expugnaverunt.

"Ista civitas est Corpus Humanum: quinque portae sunt quinque Sensus: Palatium est Anima rationalis, et aureum pomum Similitudo c.u.m Deo. Tria regna inimica sunt Caro, Mundus, Diabolus, et eius imago Cupiditas, Voluptas, Superbia."

The above is a good instance both of the supernatural powers attributed to the poet, and the supernatural interpretation put upon his supposed exercise of them. This curious mythology lasted throughout the fourteenth century, was vehemently opposed in the fifteenth by the partisans of enlightened learning, and had not quite died out by the middle of the sixteenth.

CHAPTER III.

HORACE (65-8 B.C.).

If Virgil is the most representative, Horace is the most original poet of Rome. This great and varied genius, whose exquisite taste and deep knowledge of the world have made him the chosen companion of many a great soldier and statesman, suggesting as he does reflections neither too ideal nor too exclusively literary for men of affairs, was born at or near Venusia, on the borders of Lucania and Apulia, December 8, 65 B.C. [1] His father was a freedman of the Horatia gens, [2] but set free before the poet's birth. [3] We infer that he was a tax-gatherer, or perhaps a collector of payments at auctions; for the word _coactor_, [4] which Horace uses, is of wide application. At any rate his means sufficed to purchase a small farm, where the poet pa.s.sed his childhood. Horace was able to look back to this time with fond and even proud reminiscences, for he relates how prodigies marked him even in infancy as a special favourite of the G.o.ds. [5] At the age of twelve he was brought by his father to Rome and placed under the care of the celebrated Orbilius Pupillus. [6] The poet's filial feeling has left us a beautiful testimony to his father's affectionate interest in his studies. The good man, proud of his son's talent, but fearing the corruptions of the city, accompanied him every day to school, and consigned him in person to his preceptor's charge, [7] a duty usually left to slaves called _paedagogi_, who appear to have borne no high character for honesty, [8] and at best did nothing to improve those of whom they had the care. From the shrewd counsels of his father, who taught by instances not by maxims, [9] and by his own strict example, Horace imbibed that habit of keen observation and that genial view of life which distinguish him above all other satirists. He also learnt the caution which enabled him to steer his course among rocks and shoals that would have wrecked a novice, and to a.s.sert his independence of action with success even against the emperor himself.

The life of Horace is so well known that it is needless to retrace it here. We shall do no more than summarise the few leading events in it, alluding more particularly to those only which affect his literary position. After completing his education so far in the capital, he went for a time, as was customary, to study philosophy at Athens. [10] While he was there the death of Caesar and the events which followed roused the fierce party spirit that had uneasily slumbered. Horace, then twenty-two years of age, was offered a command by Brutus on his way to Macedonia, which he accepted, [11] and apparently must have seen some hard service.

[12] He shared the defeat of the Republicans at Philippi, [13] and as the territory of Venusium, like that of Cremona, was selected to be parcelled out among the soldiery, Horace was deprived of his paternal estate, [14] a fact from which we learn incidentally that his father was now dead.

Thrown upon his own resources, he sought and obtained permission to come to Rome, where he obtained some small post as a notary [15] attached to the quaestors. Poverty drove him to verse-making, [16] but of what kind we do not certainly know. Probably epodes and satires were the first fruits of his pen, though some scholars ascribe certain of the _Odes_ (_e.g._ i.

14) to this period. About this time he made the acquaintance of Virgil, which ripened at least on Horace's part into warm affection. Virgil and Varius introduced him to Maecenas, [17] who received the bashful poet with distant hauteur, and did not again send for him until nine months had elapsed. Slow to make up his mind, but prompt to act when his decision was once taken, Maecenas then called for Horace, and in the poet's words bade him be reckoned among his friends; [18] and very shortly afterwards we find them travelling together to Brundisium on a footing of familiar intimacy (39 B.C.). This circ.u.mspection of Maecenas was only natural, for Horace was of a very different stamp from Varius and Virgil, who were warm admirers of Octavius. Horace, though at first a Platonist, [19] then an Epicurean, [20] then an Eclectic, was always somewhat of a "free lance."