﻿THE AGE OF PETRONIUS ARBITER. 99 



latter lived a short time only after the former 1 This view of the siibject is not a little 

 strengthened by the consideration that the tyrannical character of the successors of 

 Augustus, Avhich rendered it prudent to avoid attracting the notice, jealousy, and sus- 

 picion of the ruler in any way, whether by birth, moral excellence, or wealth, would 

 j)revent men from making the amount of their property known. 



23. C. 73. 3 : " Et coepit Menecratis cantica lacerarc." It is natural that those Avho 

 discover everywhere allusions to 'Nevo should at once think of Menecrates, the lyre- 

 player, who was extravagantly honored and rewarded by that emperor. Cf Sueton. 

 Ner. 30 : " Menecraten citharoedum et Spiculum mirmillonem triumphalium virorum 

 patrimoniis aedibusque donavit." W. S. Teuffel (in Pauly's Encyclop. IV. p. 1744) 

 seems to be of this opinion. The fact should not be overlooked that the Menecrates 

 of Nero is mentioned as a citharoedus (lyre-player) only, not as a poet. The two 

 arts may frequently, especially in the earlier times, have been united in the same per- 

 son, but not necessarily ; one might furnish the poem, the other the music. But not 

 only was it not indispensable, according to custom, for the player to compose his own 

 poem, or for the poet to accompany his poem with his own music ; it is highly proba- 

 ble, from reason and from the course which modern music has pursued, that, in propor- 

 tion as musical instruments improved and the skill of performers increased, music 

 unaccompanied by words was more cultivated. That music without words was prac- 

 tised at as early a time as the age of Plato, is raised beyond a doubt by the passage 

 {TjQ^^. 2, p. 669) : 'Pvdfiov jxev kui a-y^rifiara fieXov^ ■^apl^, Xoyov; yfrtXovi eh fMerpa Ti.6evT€(;, 

 fie\o<! B av Kai pvOfiov avev pij/xarap -^InXji KaOapiaet, re Kat, avXrjaei Trpoa-^pu/ievoc. I allude 

 to the gradual development of instrumental music, as distinct from vocal, which is 

 noticed at so early a period, simply for the piu'pose of showing that, in the nature of 

 things, the art of lyric poetry should be cultivated by one who was no musician, and 

 that the songs of a lyric poet should be sung, if not set to music, by one who possessed 

 a good voice and skill on the lyre, but was no poet. The favorite lyre-player of Nero, 

 Menecrates, may have been a poet, and composed his own songs, so that they Avere 

 afterwards sung by others, but the above passage in Suetonius, the only one, as far as 

 I know, which mentions him, says nothing about it. Besides, the -name Menecrates 

 was not uncommon. It is not impossible, therefore, that, in the time of Nero, or before 

 or after him, there may have been a poet Menecrates, of whom no notice has reached 

 us, as well as a lyre-player, of whom so meagre a one has been preserved. Or some 

 one of those whom we know from other sources may have been the one whose " cantica" 

 are here mentioned. Menecrates of Ephesus, a grammarian, and the teacher of Aratus, 

 was also a poet. Menecrates of Smyrna was a poet, of whom two epigrams are pre- 



