THE CHARACTER OF THE FLAVIAN 

 LITERATURE, 69-117 A. D. 1 



By Fred B. R. Hellems 



Mais parmi cette multitude de mediocres ecrits, mal devenu necessaire dans une 

 ville immense, opulente, et oisive, il se trouve de temps en temps d'excellents ou- 

 vrages, ou d'histoire, ou de reflexions, ou de cette litterature legere qui delasse toutes 

 sortes d'esprits. — Voltaire, Siecle de Louis Quatorze. 



The words of the illustrious Frenchman describing the literature of 

 his own time, which corresponds in so many ways to the one under 

 discussion, may be adopted with little modification as a general charac- 

 terization of the writings of the Flavian period; but we should avoid a 

 probable predisposition to lay undue stress on the innumerable mediocre 

 productions and to slight the excellent. Coming naturally into com- 

 parison with the Augustan era, the Flavian period has inevitably suf- 

 fered at the hands of the literary critic. The outburst of the former 

 age came when the Tiber town, grown great, was flushed with the idea 

 of victorious peace and established moderate government: it was the 

 triumphal hymn of the eternal city. The productions of the latter 

 came when peace had degenerated into idleness, and constitutional 

 rule had sunk to a despotism which might be beneficent but had often 

 been found most malignant; the literature was in its worst phases the 

 gaiety song of the myopic hedonist, in its best, the protest of the seer. 

 About the literature of a time of national exultation there is something 

 of grace and polish, of joy and hope, of breadth and even of height, 

 that appeals to the cultured reader or the literary critic. The writings 

 of the Augustan age, appearing when the nation was jubilant, when 

 letters were the immediate protegees of the ruling power and when the 

 emperor aimed at a revival of the declining religion, breathe sub- 

 mission and orthodoxy; whereas the greater writings of our period 

 breathe dejection, opposition and scepticism. But after all there may 

 be about the literature of such a time of national depression something 



1 Strictly, of course, the Flavian dynasty ends in 96; but there is no interruption in the history of the lit 

 ature with the death of Domitian, and any treatment of the period must include the reigns of Nerva and Trajan. 



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