﻿114 THE AGE OF PETRONIVS ARBITER, 



know from undoubted authority, from Horace and Juvenal * how much time and labor 

 were bestowed, in and out of the schools of the grammarians and rhetoricians, by per- 

 sons of all ages, uj^on poetic as well as oratorical compositions, either for the modest 

 purpose of self-improvement, or because they supposed themselves to be capable of 

 charming a larger circle by their talent. It is natiu-al, and can be illustrated by the 

 history of poetry of almost all nations, that certain classes of subjects, as well as cer- 

 tain modes of treating them, pre\ailed at certain times. We have several proofs that, 

 soon after the commencement of the imperial period, not only the historical epos in 

 general (which, by the way, was not an invention of the Eomans, but originated with 

 the Alexandrine school, and was thence transplanted to Rome) was cultivated with 

 much zeal; but more especially subjects belonging to Roman history, and among them 

 the aU-important subject of the CiAal Wars, were chosen with marked preference. 

 While we have thus, among the poets of this period, C. Valerius Flaccus, the author of 

 the Argonautica, and P. Papinius Statius, the author of the Thebais, we have also the 

 Puuica of C. SUius Italicus, and, besides the sketch of Eumolpus, the Pharsalia of 

 Lucan. From the few works still remaining, we may infer how prolific the muse of 

 the schools was in poems on national subjects, and more especially on the Civil War. 

 It is this class of poets whose productions and defects Eumolpus criticises, and not 

 those of an individual poet. I am convinced that we misapprehend the object of our 

 author in this as in almost every other instance, if we look for individual originals of 

 his representations. Single features may be recognized in individuals, but the whole is 

 the production of the author, who, gathering his materials wherever he finds them, with 

 a tact and penetration which a consummate knowledge of human nature alone can give, 

 forms of them creations which bear the stamp of truth and reality, but are not portraits 

 of individuals. 



* Horat. Serm. 1. 10. 36 : 



" Turgklus Alpinus jugulat dum Meijinona, dumque 

 Defingit Rheni luteum caput, haec ego ludo, 

 Quae nee in aede sonent certantia judice Tarpa, 

 Nee redeant iterum atque iterum spectanda theatris." 



Juven. Sat. 1. 1 ; 



" Semper ego auditor tantum ? nunquamne reponam 

 Vexatus toties rauci Theseide Codri ? 

 Impune ergo mihi cantaverit ille togatas. 

 Hie elegos ? impune diem consumpserit ingens 

 Telephus aut summi plena jam margine libri 

 Scriptus et in tergo necdum finitus Orestes .' " 



