Rome as literary centre 305 



hirelings on such arbitrary principles, he would be acting within his 

 rights. I do not infer that such conduct was likely in ordinary life, or 

 even that a concrete case of its occurrence had ever been known. I 

 cannot believe that in a country where debts 1 and usury are referred 

 to as matters of course, and where masters entrusted money 2 to their 

 slaves for purposes of trade, where sales of land 3 were an ordinary 

 business transaction, a sane individualistic capitalist would act as the 

 man in this parable. Those who think differently must clear up their 

 own difficulties. I would add that this parable, the details of which 

 seem to me non-realistic, only occurs in one of the Gospels. Is it pos- 

 sible that it is based on some current Oriental story ? 



XLII. MARTIAL AND JUVENAL. 



Among the witnesses, other than technical writers, from whom we 

 get evidence as to the conditions of agriculture under the Empire, are 

 two poets, Martial and Juvenal. The latter, a native of Aquinum in 

 the old Volscian part of Latium, never shook off the influence of his 

 connexion with rural Italy. The former, a native of Bilbilis in Spain, 

 was one of the gifted provincials who came to Rome as the literary 

 centre of the world. He spent more than thirty years there, and made 

 an unrivalled name as a writer of epigrams, but his heart was in Spain. 

 The attitude of these two men towards the facts of their time is very 

 different, and the difference affects the value of their evidence. In the 

 satires of Juvenal indignant rhetoric takes up a high moral position, 

 and declaims fiercely against abominations. Now this attitude is beset 

 with temptations to overstate an evil rather than weaken effect. More- 

 over, in imperial Rome it was necessary to be very careful: not only 

 were personal references dangerous, but it was above all things neces- 

 sary to avoid provoking the Emperor. Yet even Emperors could (and 

 did) view attacks upon their predecessors with indifference or approval: 

 while vicious contemporaries were not likely to put on the cap if their 

 deceased counterparts were assailed. So the satirist, confining his 

 strictures mainly to the past, is not often a contemporary witness of 

 the first order. It is fortunate that his references to rustic conditions 

 are not much affected by this limitation : but they mostly refer to the 

 past. Martial on the contrary is a mere man of his time. His business is 

 not to censure, still less to reform, but to find themes for light verse 

 such as will hit the taste of average Roman readers. He soon dis- 

 covered that scandal was the one staple topic of interest, and exploited 

 : it as a source of 'copy' down to the foulest dregs. Most of the charac- 



1 Matt 6 12, Luk 7 41, 16 5. 2 Matt 25 14-30, Luk 19 12-26. 



3 Acts i 18, 4 34-7- 

 H. A. 20 



