The History of Roman Literature Part 57

[42] G. ii. 486. The literary reminiscences with which Virgil a.s.sociated the most common realities have often been noted. Cranes are for him _Strymonian_ because Homer so describes them. Dogs are _Amyclean_, because the _Laco_ was a breed celebrated in Greek poetry. Italian warriors bend _Cretan_ bows, &c.

[43] _c.u.m canerem reges et praelia Cynthius aurem Vellit, et admomuit Pastorem t.i.tyre, pingues Pascere oportet oves, deductum dicere carmen._ (E. vi. 3).

[44] _En erit unquam Ille dies tua c.u.m liceat mihi dicere facta._ (E.

viii. 7).

[45] _Mox tamen ardentes accingar dicere pugnas Caesaris_, &c. (G. iii.

46). The Caesar is of course Augustus.

[46] This eagerness to have their exploits celebrated, though common to all men, is, in its extreme development, peculiarly Roman. Witness the importunity of Cicero to his friends, his epic on himself; and the ill- concealed vanity of Augustus. We know not to how many poets he applied to undertake a task which, after all, was never performed (except partially by Varius).

[47] Except perhaps by Plato, who, with Sophocles, is the Greek writer that most resembles Virgil.

[48] Virgil, like Milton, possesses the power of calling out beautiful a.s.sociations from proper names. The lists of sounding names in the seventh and tenth Aeneids are striking instances of this faculty.

[49] It is true this law is represented as divine, not human; but the principle is the same.

[50] Niebuhr, Lecture, 106.

[51] For example, Sall.u.s.t at the commencement of his _Catiline_ regards it as authoritative.

[52] Cf. Geor. ii. 140-176. Aen. i. 283-5; vi. 847-853; also ii. 291, 2; 432-4; vi. 837; xi. 281-292.

[53] _Loc. cit._

[54] Observe the care with which he has recorded the history and origin of the Greek colonies in Italy. He seems to claim a right in them.

[55] This word, as Mr. Nettles.h.i.+p has shown in his Introduction to the Study of Virgil, is used only of Turnus.

[56] xi. 336, _sqq_. But the character bears no resemblance to Cicero's.

[57] There are no doubt constant _rapports_ between Augustus and Aeneas, between the unwillingness of Turnus to give up Lavinia, and that of Antony to give up Cleopatra, &c. But it is a childish criticism which founds a theory upon these.

[58] _ton katholon estin_, Arist. De Poet.

[59] "Urbis...o...b..s."

[60] _Suggestions Introductory to the Study of the Aeneid_.

[61] The Greek heroic epithets _dios, kalos, agathos_, &c. primarily significant of personal beauty, were transferred to the moral sphere. The epithet _pius_ is altogether moral and religious, and has no physical basis.

[62] _Pater ipse colendi; haud facilem esse viam voluit_, and often. The name of Jupiter is in that poem reserved for the physical manifestations of the great Power.

[63] The questions suggested by Venus's speech to Jupiter (Aen. 1, 229, _sqq._) as compared with that of Jupiter himself (Aen. x. 104), are too large to be discussed here. But the student is recommended to study them carefully.

[64] Like Dante, he was held to be _Theologus nullius dogmatis expers_.

See Boissier, _Religion des Romains_, vol. i ch. iii. p. 260.

[65] Aen. xii. 882.

[66] Ib. xii. 192.

[67] See Macr. Sat. i. 24, 11.

[68] Boissier, from whom this is taken, adduces other instances. I quote an interesting note of his (Rel. Rom. p. 261): "_Cependant, quelques difficiles trouvaient que Virgile s'etait quelquefois trompe. On lui reprochait d'avoir fait immoler par Enee un taureau a Jupiter quand il s'arrete dans la Thrace et y fonde une ville, et selon Ateius Capito et Labeon, les lumieres du droit pontifical, c'etait presqu'un sacrilege.

Voila donc, dit-on, votre pontife qui ignore ce que savent meme les sacristains! Mais on peut repondre que precis.e.m.e.nt le sacrifice en question n'est pas acceptable des dieux, et qu'ils forcent bientot enee par de presages redoutables, a s'eloigner de ce pays. Ainsi en supposant que la science pontificale d'Enee soit en defaut, la reputation de Virgile reste sans tache._"

[69] Aen. x. 288.

[70] "_Fierement dessine._" The expression is Chateaubriand's.

[71] xii. 468.

[72] The reader is referred to a book by M. de Bury, "_Les femmes du temps d'Auguste_," where there are vivid sketches of Cleopatra, Livia, and Julia.

[73] Aen. i. 402; ii. 589.

[74] A list of pa.s.sages imitated from Latin poets is given in Macrob. Sat.

vi., which should be read.

[75] Such as _Latium_ from _latere_, (Aen. viii. 322), and others, some of which may be from Varro or other philologians.

[76] A few instances are, the origin of _Ara Maxima_ (viii. 270), the custom of veiled sacrifices (iii. 405), the _Troia sacra_ (v. 600), &c.

[77] The pledging of Aeneas by Dido (i. 729), the G.o.d Fortunus (v. 241).

[78] _E.g._ the allusion to the legendary origin of his narrative by the preface _Dicitur, fertur_ (iv. 205; ix. 600).

[79] _E.g. olli, limus, porgite, pictai_, &c.: _mentem aminumque, teque ... tuo c.u.m flumine sancto;_ again, _calido sanguine, geminas acies_, and a thousand others. His alliteration and a.s.sonance have been noticed in a former appendix.

CHAPTER III.

[1] In the consuls.h.i.+p of L. Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus. "_O nate mec.u.m consule Manlio_," Od. III. xxi. 1; Epod xiii. 6.

[2] _Libertino patre natum_, Sat. I. vi. 46.

[3] _Natus dum ingenuus, ib._ v. 8.

[4] Sat. I. vi. 86.

[5] _Me fabulosae Vulture in Apulo_, &c.; Od. iii. 4, 9.

[6] Ep. II. i. 71.

[7] S. I. vi. 8.

[8] Juv. vii. 218.