14 



ROME (ROMAN LITERATURE). 



tanrc. Wo likewise find, in tlie derivation o 

 many words, as well as in the syntax of this Ian 

 Uge, frequent traces of Greek origin ; and, indeed 

 the oldest Roman authors (for example, Plautus 

 Terenee, Lucretius, and even Catullus), make usi 

 of many Greek idioms. The Romanic language: 

 (see Romanic') are formed, for the most part, from 

 the dialect of the country and the provinces. 



ROMAN LITERATURE. The history of Ro- 

 man literature is generally divided into four 

 periods: 1. From the earliest times till Cicero; 2 

 till the death of Augustus, usually called the 

 golden age, to which, however, some earlier writers 

 are considered to belong; 3. till the death o: 

 Trajan, called the silver age; 4. till the subjuga- 

 t'on of Rome by the Goths, called the brazen age. 

 Poetry, in this language, as in all others, pre- 

 ceded prose ; but Roman prose was not of native 

 growth ; it was an exotic, to which Greek models 

 first gave birth, and which rhetoric and the schools 

 afterwards improved (see Rhetoricians') ; for native 

 poetry in Rome was blighted in the bud by Grecian 

 influence. To this belonged the Saturnian songs. 

 Among the first essays in poetry were the Atellana 

 Fabulae, and the succeeding attempts were likewise, 

 with few exceptions, dramatic. Livius Andronicus, 

 a Greek captive of Tarentum, first gave the Odys- 

 sey to the Romans, about 500 years after the foun- 

 dation of the city, and made them acquainted with 

 the dramatical riches of the Greeks by means of 

 Latin translation?, or imitations of Greek tragedies 

 and comedies. He was followed by Naevius, who 

 wrote a historical poem on the first Punic war, the 

 two tragic writers Pacuvius and Attius, and by 

 Ennius, the first epic poet, and the founder of 

 Roman poetry, whom Cicero and Virgil esteemed 

 very highly. Ennius introduced the Greek hexa- 

 meters, and wrote the Roman annals, in eighteen 

 books, &c. Contemporary with him was Plautus, 

 of whose pieces twenty-one are now extant. His 

 power was greatest in low comedy; he possessed 

 humour, wit, and a genuine comic language. Next 

 followed Cfficilius, of whose works we are acquainted 

 with the titles and fragments of forty-five pieces, 

 and Terence, a successful imitator of Menander and 

 others, who was distinguished by the truth and 

 delicacy of his dialogue, his finished style, and the 

 regular disposition of his Greek character pieces. 

 These three comic writers took the new comedy of 

 the Greeks as their model (Comesdia palliata). On 

 the other hand, Afranius, with a few others, 

 introduced Roman manners upon the stage (Comee- 

 dia togata~). Soon after him, Lucilius discovered a 

 talent for satire, of which he was the father among 

 the Romans. The Romans, after this period, had 

 no distinguished dramatic writers; their pieces 

 were mostly translations or imitations of Grecian 

 works. Of the mimee (comic monodramas) of 

 Laberius and Syrus, we know too little to assign 

 them a definite place; but they are celebrated. 

 The later tragic writers, likewise, of the Augustan 

 age, Asinius Pollio, Varius with his Thyestes, and 

 Ovid with his Medea, are praised; but it is easy to 

 imagine the causes which must have contributed to 

 prevent tragedy from flourishing on the Roman 

 fctage. We need only to remember the kings led 

 in triumph, and left to perish in prison, the gladia- 

 torial games, and the combats of wild beasts. 

 Among a people who took delight in such scenes, 

 we could not expect to find a relish for the tamer 

 excitement and moral influence of tragic spectacles. 

 The only specimen of the tragic poetry of a later 



;i"-r which is preserved to us, is the ten tragedies 

 under the name of Anmeus Seneca, but which 

 are, not without reason, ascribed to several au- 

 thors. They are rude declamations, without 

 nature or truth, which originated from the schools 

 of the rhetoricians; and their bombast could 

 please only the most uncultivated minds. Lu- 

 cretius, who took a new path among the earlier 

 poets of Rome, wrote a philosophical poem, in i\ 

 books, concerning the nature of things, after the 

 system of Epicurus, which he adorned with a 

 true poetic colouring. He took a different course 

 from many scientific poets among the Greek - 

 is an animated delineator of nature, full of strength 

 and originality, but not without hardness and ob- 

 scurity. Catullus was distinguished in a different, 

 department in lyric poetry, in elegy, and in epi- 

 grams. He had much real wit and delicacy of 

 feeling, but, like most of the amorous and satirical 

 poets of the ancients, paid too little regard to 

 decency of expression, which is easily explained 

 by the relative condition of the two sexes at that 

 time. Much purer and more graceful are the 

 works of Tibullus, to whom we may, with Quincti- 

 lian, adjudge the first rank among elegiac poets. 



With the age of Augustus, and the loss of 

 liberty, a new spirit appeared in Roman literature. 

 Augustus himself and Maecenas were the patrons 

 of poetic talent. The first of the poets thus 

 patronised is Virgil, who, in his .^Eneid, represents 

 the landing of ^Eneas and the foundation of his 

 dominion in Latium. Although the poet himself 

 directed this work to be destroyed, on account of 

 its imperfect state, it is a noble monument of his 

 wish to create for his contemporaries a new Iliad ; 

 and, though he has fallen short of his model, he 

 cannot be denied the praise of patriotic feeling, 

 refined taste, and highly poetical language. More 

 perfect, of its kind, is his poem on agriculture 

 'Georgica), which, in the form of a didactic poem, 

 and in a highly finished style, exhibits his views 

 and reelings respecting rural life. His earlier 

 Eclogues, or pastorals, manifest the same love for 

 nature and a country life. If we recognise in 

 Virgil the first epic and didactic poet of the 

 Romans, Horace is the favourite of the lyric muse, 

 md the priest of the muses, although one cannot 

 udge with certainty concerning his originality, 

 after the loss of his Grecian models ; yet his odes 

 .re often founded upon national subjects, and then 

 le discovers strong feelings, expressed in a manner 

 )ecoming a Roman. Many of his odes are patrio- 

 ic, and others breathe a most charming grace. 

 Phis poet is also eminent in satire, a species of 

 ivriting original with the Romans, and which ap- 

 jears to have had a decisive influence on the char- 

 icter of their literature. In most of his cpodes 

 nd epistles, he touches, with a playful ease and 

 great versatility, upon the ridiculous rather than 

 he criminal, although the latter was not alto- 

 Aether excluded from his satire. In the Augustan 

 ge, Propertius and Ovid are among the elegiac 

 oets whom we still possess. In Propertius a 

 ertain dignity appears in the midst of his habitual 

 ensuality, although he was often forced in his 

 houghts and expressions. The most fruitful 

 oetic talent, and the greatest ease of versifica- 

 ion, cannot be denied to Ovid; he only indulged 

 oo much in his fertility of invention, and v. ;:s 

 ften unmanly in his elegiac complaints. The 

 most characteristic of his poems are the Fasti, or 

 fie poetical description of the Roman festivals* 



