LITERATURE 



2S5 



LATIN LITERATURE Continued 



The first name in Latin, commonly called 

 Roman, literature is that of Livius Anoronicus, 

 date about 240 B. C. Some germs of poetry 

 may be found in the traditional songs belonging 

 to a more ancient time, but these had little 

 influence on real literature. The Roman mind 

 turned to practical living and study of science 

 and law. In other nations the first literature 

 has been put in the form of poetry, among the 

 Romans the first literary effort was history. 

 These original historical documents were a 

 simple record of facts with no touch of opinions 

 or sentiments. 



The greatest change in the intellectual con- 

 dition of the Romans came through influence 

 of the Greek captives, who were employed to 

 teach their own language, which soon became 

 a part of the education of a Roman noble. In 

 the year following the First Punic War (241 

 B. C.), Livius Andronicus, one of the Greek 

 slaves, substituted a drama in place of the med- 

 ley of songs used in public amusements or games. 

 He made the first Latin translation of Greek 

 in these plays, which he, himself, wrote and 

 acted. His words became text-books in Roman 

 schools and were used until the time of Virgil. 

 His immediate successor, Naevius, also adapted 

 plays from the Greek, but the tastes of his au- 

 dience and the condition of the. language, de- 

 veloped through business and action, made 

 comedy his choice. After him, Plautus and 

 Terence were the two great comic poets of Rome. 



Ennius (239-169 B. C.) is known as the 

 "father of Latin song," and he gave a new di- 

 rection to Roman literature, closely following 

 Greek models and, turning from the common- 

 place to the heroic, he borrowed greatly from 

 Homer. His Annals, a poetical history of Rome, 

 was for two centuries the national poem. En- 

 nius was the inventor of the name, satire, but 

 the sharp, fierce satires of Lucilius, written at 

 this time against the vices and follies of the 

 Romans, were more noted, and fragments of 

 them still exist. Not one of these poets was 

 born in Rome. 



The name of Cato belongs partly t<> this same 

 generation, and he represent. .! the pure. natm> 



it; prose belonged far more to th. 

 of Home than poetry. Cato heads the 

 Roman historians whose works belong to litera- 

 ture, his greatest work. "Orijrfnss," was a his- 

 tory of alfltaly from earl:- 



Ehlttica was A OOmmonpUofl l>"..k <>n agriculture 

 ami domestic economy, written in rude and 

 unpolished style, but clear in statement and 



striking in illustration. He filled many high 

 offices, was known as an able pleader, and was 

 the first to publish his speeches, and ninety of 

 these orations have come down to this day. 



The chief representatives of the next age are 

 Cicero, Cffisar, Sallust, Lucretius, and Catullus, 

 and these names still rank among classical 

 writers. Cicero gave a fixed character to the 

 Latin language and through him oratory at 

 Rome took on a new form ; he was both orator 

 and critic. To him philosophy also owes much, 

 especially the philosophy adapted to practical 

 application, ana in his letters he pictures Roman 

 life of his day and with it Roman history. The 

 most important work of Caesar is his commen- 

 taries, sketches made in the midst of action. 

 The histories of Sallust are of more value in an 

 artistic way than as trustworthy narrative, but 

 they rank high as political studies. 



An entirely new spirit entered into the litera- 

 ture of Rome during the time known as the 

 Augustan Age (42 B. C. to 17 A. D.), arising 

 from the new political life of the nation. The 

 earliest and greatest poet of this age was Virgil, 

 who idealizes national glory in his JSneid, and 

 the simple, hardy life of Italy in his " Bucolics " 

 and "Georgics. Horace, the second poet of 

 his time, shows the ways of living and of think- 

 ing in his "Epistles," ' r Epodes, M :m.i "Satires." 

 The great historical work of Livy is. h<> 

 the most systematic record of the national life. 

 Phsedrus, in his fables, gave lessons suggested 

 by those times, but with his observations he 

 had little imagination. 



In the century following the Augustan age 

 the antagonisms between the goA-emme: 

 the makers of literature gave rise to the satires 

 of Juvenal and the >omler history of Tacitus. 

 In this time we also find Quintilian. the great 

 teacher of rhetoric. Seneca, the author o! 

 tises on ethics, and IMiny. the elder, with his 

 wonderful natural history. The doctrines of 

 the stoics suited the stern Romans, and Seneca 

 studied the Stoic philosophy, hut his t- 



rather than explanations 



of principles. To tins age. .luvenal. the Satirist, 

 and with the-e names th,. term classical, 

 signifying pure literature. is lost. The Romans 

 began again to write in < ireek. and to thin Greek 

 influence was soon added that of fmvimi nation*. 

 Roman literature, as one of the great literatures 



of the world, ended. 



The Latin Lather* of the Church followed 

 the philosophy of Plato, adapting it to ('hri*- 

 tianity. Among these were Tertullian, St. 



