288 CALLOGRAPHY. 



jans, are attributed to Seneca, the philosopher. The comedies of 

 Plautus, among which are Amphitryon, and the Boastful Soldier, 

 and those of Terence, more refined, of which the Andria is deemed 

 the best, were long popular in Rome, till superseded by gladiatorial 

 and other shows. Some fragments of comedies by Caecilius are also 

 preserved, and possess some merit. 



Into the wide field of Romance, the Romans seem scarcely to 

 have entered. The Metamorphosis, or Golden Ass, of Apuleius, 

 analogous to the Milesian Tales, describes a youth named Lucius, as 

 being changed into an ass, to punish his vices and presumption, but 

 restored again by resorting to the mysteries of Isis. The Satyricon, 

 of Petronius Arbiter, describes the love adventures of Encolpius, a 

 young freedman ; and thus portrays the character of the times ; being 

 at the same time a satire and romance. Of Roman fables, the 

 principal are those of Phaedrus, partly translated from ^Esop, but 

 containing many new ones written in the same style and spirit. Avi- 

 anus also wrote fables in verse, and Titianus in prose. The epistles, 

 or letters, of Roman writers, are numerous. The most valuable, are 

 those of Cicero ; many of which are letters of business, addressed 

 to the great men of that age ; and with them are preserved several 

 letters of Julius Caesar, and others. Pliny the younger, left many 

 letters, of value ; some of which are descriptive ; others, like those 

 of Seneca, are moral or philosophical. We have also letters of 

 minor interest by Fronto, Symmachus, Sidonius, and others. 



Roman oratory, as well as poetry, seems to have been first care- 

 fully cultivated in imitation of the Greeks; to whose manner, Cato, 

 himself an orator, was strongly opposed. Antony, the grandfather 

 of Mark Antony, was surnamed the Orator, from his eloquence ; and 

 Crassus, died of a fever, from the excitement of delivering a powerful 

 oration before the senate. Their orations, like those of the celebrated 

 Hortensius, the early rival of Cicero, are now lost. Cicero, has ever 

 been regarded as the first of Roman orators ; ranking with the Gre- 

 cian Demosthenes. His most celebrated orations are those against 

 Mark Antony, called Philippics ; those against Verres ; those against 

 Cataline ; and those in opposition to the Agrarian law ; all of which 

 fortunately have been preserved. Next to these, in interest, should 

 be mentioned the Panegyric, so called, of Pliny, the younger ; in 

 praise of the emperor Trajan. His other orations are lost. Seneca 

 and Quintilian should be mentioned rather as rhetoricians than ora- 

 tors ; and the last remains of Roman oratory, the panegyrics of the 

 later emperors, are valuable only as auxiliaries to history, in illustrat- 

 ing the decline of the empire. 



CHAPTER II. 



ORIENTAL CALLOGRAPHY. 



IN the branch of Oriental Callography, we include the poetry and 

 romance of the oriental or eastern nations, both ancient and modern. 



