136 GREEK LANGUAGE 



est eruditissima Graecorum natio (de Oral. 2, 18). Augustine (Civ. 

 Dei, 2, 14) speaks of the lascivia Graecorum in the same breath with 

 which he brands their levitas. The accusation of luxury is brought 

 against them by Trebellius Pollio (xxx tyr. 16, 1), and by Paulus 

 (Festus, p. 215). Greek arts of flattery are reprehended in the Graeca 

 adulatio of Tacitus (Ann. 6, 18) and the Graecia blanda of Ennodius 

 (344, 18); their vainglory prompts the remark of Pliny (N. H. 

 3, 42), Grai, genus in gloriam suam effusissimum; and that of the 

 scholiast on Juvenal 3, 121, Graeci enim soli volunt maioribus amici 

 esse. The "dregs of Achaea" disgust Juvenal because of the effront- 

 ery of Greek versatility. But it is above all the mala fides that 

 stamps the Hellene. Graecia mendax is echoed again and again. 

 Greek calliditas is emphasized by Livy and Silius Italicus. St. 

 Jerome, Epist. 38, 5, says outright: impostor et Graecus est. In 

 the famous passage in the oration pro Flacco, 9, Cicero has given, 

 together with his verdict on Greek superiority, his condemnation 

 of the vital defect in Greek character: hoc dico de toto genere 

 Graecorum: tribuo illis litteras, do multarum artium disciplinam, 

 non adimo sermonis leporem, ingeniorum acumen, dicendi copiam 

 . . . testimoniorum religionem et fidem nunquam ista natio coluit. 

 Even where it Was not a question of a superiority of the national 

 sense of public honor, the Greek failed to satisfy the Roman censor: 

 the exquisite aroma of his mythology, which the Latins assimilated 

 only in its crude externalities, was the basis for the criticism of 

 Claudius Marius Victor, Aleth. 3, 194, mendax Graecia . . . veris 

 falsa insinuare laborat, and of a writer in the Myihogr. Vat. 3, 9, 12: 

 pulchre mendax Graecia. 



To the Roman, then, the Greek was keen-witted, eloquent, refined 

 in speech and generally in manners, but marked by levity, bad faith, 

 untruthfulness, vainglory, and the arts of insinuation. The national 

 ideal of the Romans their gravitas, continentia, and animi mag- 

 nitude (Cic. Tusc. 1,1,2) was the antithesis of the Hellenic ideal. 

 Deeds rather than words marked the vir fortis atque strenuus; 

 and Sallust voices an essential part of Roman character in saying 

 (Cat. 8, 5): optimus quisque facere quam dicere malebat; whereas 

 the greatest of the statesmen of Greece was A.eyv TC *<u Trpao-o-civ 

 ovi/aTon-a-ros (Thuc. 1, 139). The modern estimate of the essential 

 qualities of the Greek mind and character does not deny the justice 

 of the Roman verdict. Indeed the Roman arraignment of the de- 

 fects of the Greeks is not so severe as that which Polybius, no mere 

 courtier of success, levels against his own countrymen (cf. 6, 56, 13; 

 37, 9; 38, 5). But in their analysis the moderns penetrate deeper 

 into the springs of intellect, feeling, and will; and they select as the 

 best field for the evaluation of Hellenic genius that period when 

 the vital qualities of the race had met with no impairment through 



