The History of Roman Literature Part 39

29. "Latin literature lacks originality." How far is this criticism sound?

30. Examine the influence of the Alexandrine poets upon the literature of the later Republic, and of the Augustan Age.

31. What is the value of Horace as a literary critic?

32. Give a brief sketch of the various Roman writers on agriculture.

33. It has been remarked, that while every great Roman author expresses a hope of literary immortality, few, if any, of the great Greek authors mention it. How far is this difference suggestive of their respective national characters, and of radically distinct conceptions of art?

34 What instances do we find in Latin literature of the novel or romance?

When and where did this style of composition first become common?

35. Trace accurately the rhythmical progress of the Latin hexameter, and indicate the princ.i.p.al differences between the rhythm of Lucretius, Virgil, and Horace's epistles.

36. Distinguish between the development and the corruption of a language.

Ill.u.s.trate from Latin literature.

37. "_Virgilius amantissimus vetustatis._" Examine in all its bearings the antiquarian enthusiasm of Virgil.

38. "_Verum orthographia quoque consuetudini servit, ideoque saepe mutata est_" (Quintil.). What _principles_ of spelling (if any), appear to be adopted by the best modern editors?

39. Show that the letter _v_, in Latin, had sometimes the sound of _w_, sometimes that of _b_; that the sounds _o u_, _e i_, _i u_, _e q_, were frequently interchanged respectively.

40. Examine the traces of a satiric tendency in Roman literature, independent of professed satire.

41. How far did the Augustan poets consciously modify the Greek metres they adopted?

42. Is it a sound criticism to call the Romans a nation of grammarians?

Give a short account of the labours of any two of the great Roman grammarians, and estimate their value.

43. Cicero (_De Leg._ i. 2, 5) says: "_Abest historia a literis nostris._"

Quintilian (x. i. 101) says: "_Historia non cesserit Graecis._" Criticise these statements.

44. "_O dimidiate Menander._" By whom said? Of whom said? Criticise.

45. Examine and cla.s.sify the various uses of the participles in Virgil.

46. What are the chief peculiarities of the style of Tacitus?

47. "Roman history ended where it had begun, in biography." (Merivale).

Account for the predominance of biography in Latin literature.

48. The Greek schools of rhetoric in the Roman period. Examine their influence on the literature of Rome, and on the intellectual progress of the Roman world.

49. In what sense can Ennius rightly be called the father of Latin literature?

50. Can the same rules of quant.i.ty be applied to the Latin comedians as to the cla.s.sical poets?

51. Mention any differences in syntax between Plautus and the Augustan writers.

62. Examine the chief defects of ancient criticism.

53. The value of Cicero's letters from a historical and from a literary point of view.

54. What evidence with regard to Latin p.r.o.nunciation can be gathered from the writings of Plautus and Terence?

55. Examine the nature of the chief problems involved in the settlement of the text of Lucretius.

56. Compare the Homeric characters as they appear in Virgil with their originals in the Iliad and Odyssey, and with the same as treated by the Greek tragedians.

57. How far is it true that Latin is deficient in abstract terms? What new coinages were made by Cicero?

58. Contrast Latin with Greek (ill.u.s.trating by any a.n.a.logies that may occur to you in modern languages) as regards facility of composition. Did Latin vary in this respect at different periods?

59. What are the main differences in Latin between the language and constructions of poetry and those of prose?

60. The use of _tmesis, asyndeton, anacoluthon, aposiopesis, hyperbaton, hyperbole, litotes_, in Latin oratory and poetry.

61. What traces, are there of systematic division according to a number of lines in the poems of Catullus or any other Latin poet with whom you are familiar? (See Ellis's _Catullus_).

62. Trace the history of the _Atellanae_, and account for their being superseded by the Mime.

63. Examine the influence of the other Italian nationalities on Roman literature.

64. Which of the great periods of Greek literature had the most direct or lasting influence upon that of Rome?

65. What has been the influence of Cicero on modern literature (1) as a philosophical and moral teacher; (2) as a stylist?

66. Give some account of the Ciceronianists.

67. What influence did the study of Virgil exercise (1) on later Latin literature; (2) on the Middle Ages; (3) on the poetry of the eighteenth century?

68. Who have been the most successful modern writers of Latin elegiac verse?

69. Distinguish accurately between _oratory_ and _rhetoric_. Discuss their relative predominance in Roman literature, and compare the latter in this respect with the literatures of England and France.

70. Give a succinct a.n.a.lysis of any speech of Cicero with which you are familiar, and show the principles involved in its construction.

71. Discuss the position and influence of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophies in the last age of the Republic.

72. State what plan and principle Livy lays down for himself in his _History_. Discuss and ill.u.s.trate his merits as a historian, showing how far he performs what he promises.

73. Give the political theory of Cicero as stated in his _De Republica_ and _De Legibus_, and contrast it with either that of Plato, Aristotle, Machiavel, or Sir Thomas More.

74. a.n.a.lyse the main argument of the _De Natura Deorum_. Has this treatise a permanent philosophical value?

75. How far did the greatest writers of the Empire understand the conditions under which they lived, and the various forces that acted around them?

76. Examine the importance of the tragedies ascribed to Seneca in the history of European literature. To whom else have they been ascribed?