BOOK II. HE poetry to which we now come is separated by a very brief interval from that contained in the previous hook. The Eclogues begun in the year 42 B.C., or two years after the death of Caesar, were completed and published probably in 37 B.C. But the advance that dates from the first appearance of Virgil is truly marvellous. In the first place, far greater care began to be bestowed upon mere metrical structure. Compare the hexameter of the writers of the former period with the same metre as treated by the master-hand of Virgil. We may admit that Lucretius has a dignity of his own, and frequently displays a quite peculiar power of depicting a scene by a single word. We may concede to Catullus a strong and powerful volume of expression. Still, in the former we feel the want of greater variety and more artistic structure, while, in the latter, we fail at times to detect sufficient fluency and harmony. His lines taken singly are full of sweetness; but they are seldom linked together, and are, therefore, apt to become monotonous. Again, the Elegiac metre, which in Catullus luxuriates in unmeasured periods, now began to be restrained within far stricter limitations. Elision no longer is met with in the middle of the pentameter, and the trisyllabic endings admitted by Tibullus and Propertius are of extremely rare occurrence in Ovid. The capabilities of Elegiac verse were largely developed by Propertius, as seen in his studied use of words of four or five syllables at the close of the pentameter, and also in the force and grandeur with which many of his distichs conclude. He loves to expand and draw out a sentiment by varying the mode of expression, an artifice exemplified in the opening of the last elegy of the Fifth Book. But it is to Tibullus that Quintilian * gives the palm of Elegy, and few readers of him can fail to be struck with his use of forcible antithesis, and with the extreme neatness with which he balances the component parts of his couplets one against each other. In the next place, various styles began to be further developed or adopted from Greece during this period. The perfecting of the Roman Epic; the recasting and polishing of Satire, as well as the introduction of almost all the Lyric metres, by Horace, date from the same epoch. To Ovid again is due the credit of originality (though a similar work had been contemplated by Propertius) for the idea underlying his Fasti;' the investigating, systematizing, and expounding in lively and ingenious numbers the successive stages of the Roman year. After the final inauguration of peace, through the influence of Maecenas, Messala, and Augustus himself, poetry held out more and more attractions to men of talent, as literary pursuits in general were more and more welcomed after the long distraction of war. What further contributed to the same end was the practice of recitations, introduced or revived by C. Asinius Pollio, who himself at once orator, historian, and dramatist, founded the first public library at Rome. The original idea underlying this custom was that there should be an opportunity of testing public opinion. To some extent, therefore, it supplied the place of the modern review. After some years the fashion of reciting became corrupted, and its abuse is more than once ridiculed by Horace. Of several of the Augustan writers, nothing beyond their names has come down to us. Valgius, Varius, Gallus, and Albinovanus were all celebrated in their time. Of the lost works of this period there are two which we Instit. Orat. x. 1. 93. + See Dissen. de Poesi Tibulli. See Ars Poet. 299. Ep. 1. i. 108 sq. should very gladly possess -the Thyestes of Varius and the Medea of Ovid. Both of them are spoken of in high terms by Quintilian, and these two plays would have been the more acceptable in consequence of the paucity of Latin writers of Tragedy. From a variety of reasons, the Drama could never adapt itself to the genius of the Roman people. The permanent influence exercised by the conquest of numerous foreign races upon the language and literature of Rome is a point which cannot be entirely passed over, though the subject is far too wide to be treated adequately within the present limits. While we grant that the Romans were thus led to follow more carefully the Greek models, and had, therefore, a higher standard of excellence constantly before their eyes; on the other hand, too great deference was occasionally paid to Greece. The keenness of native talent could not but be dulled by the brightness of the older poets. Much that was indigenous could not but die out, while much that was foreign took its place. Instances of this latter admixture occur in the 'Fasti' of Ovid, and his 'Heroides 'seem to have been composed in imitation of the Greek Parthenius. Still, the national character is abundantly reflected in the poets of this age. The warlike spirit of the race is clearly read in the many metaphors * derived from the camp. The idea of Rome, as the destined ruler of the world, appears * E.g. 'Signa movet,' of a bull, Georg. iii. 236. Tum demum novet arma leo,' Aen. xii. 6. Bella cupit... mox ruit in turmas,' of a tigress, Stat. Theb. ii. 130. Corvorum exercitus,' Georg. i. 382. 'Phorcique exercitus omnis,' Aen. v. 824. Ad philosophos me revocas, qui in aciem non saepe prodeunt,' Cic. Tusc. II. xxv. 60. 'Cane Musa receptus,' Ov. Trist. IV. ix. 31. 'A quibus (sc. molestiis) cecinit receptui,' Cic. Tusc. III. xv. 33. Perdidit arma, locum virtutis deseruit,' Hor. Ep. 1. xvi. 67. 'Iacto qui semine comminus, arva Insequitur,' Georg. i. 104. Cf. Aen. i. 188-193. Comminus obtruncat ferro (sc. cervos),' Georg. iii. 374. 'Viso leo comminus hoste,' Lucan. i. 206. Nil cupientium Nudus castra peto,' Hor. Od. in. xvi. 22. In Epicuri castra nos coniecimus,' Cic. ad Div. Ix. 20. Castra togae,' Ov. Rem. Amor. 152. Transtulit castra,' Martial. v. to have sunk deeply into the literature of the time. Throughout the Aeneid, and specially in the latter books, Virgil invests with a kind of sanctity the legendary beginnings of Rome. The path marked out for her- regere imperio populos,'-the line of future heroes detailed by Anchises in the Sixth Book; the ceremonial used in proclaiming war, traced back to the earliest times; and the famous deeds engraved upon the shield of Aeneas, all illustrate this patriotic sentiment. Of the two, perhaps, finest similes in the whole range of Latin poetry,* one is derived from the arrangement of a Roman legion, the other is a glorification of Rome as the mother of a long line of illustrious men. Nor were the other poets less fond than Virgil of dwelling upon the same high argument. We cannot better conclude the introduction to this period than in the following words of the late Professor Conington : "If the Augustan age is, as it is allowed to be by common consent, the epoch of the perfection of art as applied to Latin poetry, that perfection is centred in Virgil and Horace. Ovid, the third great representative poet of his time, sufficiently indicates that even then a decline had begun; and Tibullus and Propertius, though free from his faults, are scarcely of sufficient eminence to be regarded as masters in the school of style. But Virgil and Horace, like Sophocles among Greek poets, constitute the type by which we estimate the poetical art of their nation, the mean which everything else either exceeds or falls short of. It is not that we consciously fix upon any qualities in them which attract our 14. Marte nostro,' Cic. Off. iii. 7, et saepe. Cornua commovere disputationis tuae,' Cic. De Div. 11. x. * Georg. ii. 279, p. 83, Ut saepe, etc. + Aen. vi. 785, Qualis Berecyntia mater, p. 118. Cf. too Georg. iii. 346. Non secus ac patriis acer Romanus in armis,' etc. p. 90, 1. 1. Cf. Horace, Od. III. 3, IV. 2, 4, 3. Carm. Seculare; Prop. v. 6 (p. 202). 71. LXII. admiration, but rather perhaps on the contrary, that there seems to be nothing prominent about them; the various requisites of excellence are harmoniously blended, without exaggeration, and the mind receives that satisfaction which refuses to be asked how it came to pass. Their style is sufficiently characteristic not to repel imitation, though with many of its most successful imitators the process is doubtless mainly intuitive: yet, on the other hand, it is not so peculiar as to render imitation an act of ridiculous presumption. Less frequently pictorial than that which preceded it-the style of Lucretius and Catullus—it is at the same time more artistic single sentences are not devoted to the uniform development of a particular effect, but a series of impressions is produced by appeals made apparently without any principle of sequence, to the different elements of the mind, sense, fancy, feeling, or memory, and the task of reducing them to harmony is left to the reader's sympathizing instinct. It is a power which appears to deal with language not by violence, but by persuasion, not straining or torturing it to bring out the required utterance, but yielding to it, and, as it were, following its humours. Language is not yet studied for its own sake; that feature belongs to the postAugustan time of the decline of poetry; but it has risen from subordination into equality, and the step to despotic supremacy is but a short one.' Age, see Dunlop, History On the poetry of the Augustan of Roman Literature, vol. III. Keble, Prael. Acad. xxxvi.-xl. Conington's Virgil, vol. I. ii. Cruttwell's Latin Literature, Part 11. ch. i.—iv. Sellar, Roman Poets of the Augustan Age, Virgil. L. 4. Cymaei, i.e. foretold by the Sibyl of Cumae. L. 6. Virgo, Astraea, who quitted earth in the iron age. L. 10. Apollo. The great year was, according to the Sibylline oracles, one of ten cycles, the last one being that of the sun-god Apollo. |