The History of Roman Literature Part 41

BOOK I.

CHAPTER I.

[1] _E.g._ Finns, Lapps, or other Turanian tribes.

[2] The Latin agrees with the Celtic in the retention of the dat. plur. in _bus_ (Celt, _ib_), _Rigaib = regibus_; and the pa.s.s. in _r_, _Berthar = fertur_.

[3] Cf. Plaut. Cure. 150, _Lydi_ (v. 1, ludii) _barbari_. So _Vos, Tusci ac barbari_, Tib. Gracch. apud Cic. de Div. ii. 4. Compare Virgil's _Pinguis Tyrrhenus_.

[4] It is probable that Sp. Carvilius merely popularised the use of this letter, and perhaps gave it its place in the alphabet as seventh letter.

[5] Inst. Or. 1, 7, 14.

[6] In Cicero's time the semi-vowel _j_ in the middle of words was often denoted by _ii_; and the long vowel _i_ represented by the prolongation of the letter above and sometimes below the line.

[7] 1, 4, 7.

[8] This subject is well ill.u.s.trated in the introduction to Ma.s.son's ed.

of Todd's Milton.

[9] The reader should consult the introduction to Notes I. in Munro's Lucretius.

[10] Var. L. L. v. 85.

[11] Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 86.

[12] _E.g. edepol, ecastor_.

[13] Prob. an old optative, afterwards used as a fut.

[14] Cf. _dic. fer_.

[15] L. L. vii. 26, 27.

[16] Oscan _estud_. This is one of several points in which the oldest Latin approximates to the other Italian dialects, from which it gradually became more divergent. Cf. _paricidas_ (Law of Numa) nom. sing. with Osc.

_Maras_.

[17] Pol. iii. 22. Polybius lived in the time of the younger Scipio; but the antiquity of this treaty has recently been impugned.

[18] Inst. Or. i. 7, 12.

[19] Or, accentuating differently, "quoius forma virtutei | parisuma fuit." We notice the strange quant.i.ty Lucius, which recalls the Homeric _uperopliae_.

[20] From Thompson's _Essay on the Sources and Formation of the Latin Language; Hist. Of Roman Literature; Encyclopaedia Metropolitana_.

CHAPTER II.

[1] The Ludi Romani, as they were afterwards called.

[2] Satura.

[3] The early laws were called "carmina," a term applied to any set form of words, Liv. i. 25, _Lex horrendi carminis_. The theory that all laws were in the Saturnian rhythm is not by any means probable.

[4] The pa.s.sages on which this theory was founded are chiefly the following:--"_Cic. Brut._ xix. utinam extarent illa carmina, quae multis saeculis ante suam aetatem in epulis esse cant.i.tata a singulis convivis de clarorum virorum laudibus in Originibus seriptum reliquit Cato." _Cf.

Tusc._ i. 2, 3, and iv. 2, s.f. Varro, as quoted by Non, says: "In conviviis pueri modesti ut cantarent carmina antiqua, in quibus laudes erant maiorum, et a.s.sa voce et c.u.m tibicine." Horace alludes to the custom, _Od._ iv. 15, 27, _sqq._

[5] Poeticae arti honos uon erat: si qui in ea re studebat, aut sese ad convivia adplicabat, gra.s.sator vocabatur.--_Cato ap. Aul Gell. N.A._ xi.

2, 5.

[6] In his epitaph.

[7] See Mommsen Hist. i. p. 240.

[8] It is a term of contempt in Ennius, "_quos olim Fauni vatesque canebant."

[9] Virg. Ecl. ix. 34.

[10] Fest. p. 333a, M.

[11] Ep. ii. 1, 162.

[12] It has been argued from a pa.s.sage in Livy (ix. 36), "_Habeo auctores vulgo tum Romanos pueros, sicut nunc Graecis, ita Etruscis literis erudiri solitos_," that literature at Rome must be dated from the final conquest of Etruria (294 B.C.); but the Romans had long before this date been familiar with Etruscan literature, such as it was. We have no ground for supposing that they borrowed anything except the art of divination, and similar studies. Neither history nor dramatic poetry was cultivated by the Etruscans.

[13] Others, again, explain _fascinum_ as = _phallos_, and regard the songs as connected with the wors.h.i.+p of the reproductive power in nature.

This seems alien from the Italian system of wors.h.i.+p, though likely enough to have existed in Etruria. If it ever had this character, it must have lost it before its introduction into Rome.

[14] Ep. ii. 1, 139, _sqq._

[15] vii. 2.

[16] Macr. S. ii. 4, 21.

[17] C. lii.

[18] C. lxi.

[19] _Loc. cit._

[20] Juv. viii. 191.

[21] Some have imagined that, as _Saturnia tellus_ is used for Italy, so _Saturnius numerus_ may simply mean the native or Italian rhythm. Bentley (Ep. Phal. xi.) shows that it is known to the Greeks.

[22] The name _prochaios_, "the running metre," sufficiently indicates its applicability to early recitations, in which the rapidity of the singer's movements was essential to the desired effect.

[23] Attilius Fortunatia.n.u.s, _De Doctr. Metr._ xxvi. Spengel (quoted Teuff. Rom. Lit. -- 53, 3) a.s.sumes the following laws of Saturnian metre:-- "(1) The Saturnian line is asynartetic; (2) in no line is it possible to omit more than one _thesis_, and then only the last but one, generally in the second half of the line; (3) the caesura must never be neglected, and falls after the fourth _thesis_ or the third _arsis_ (this rule, however, is by no means universally observed); (4) hiatus is often permitted; (5) the _arsis_ may be solved, and the _thesis_ replaced by pyrrhics or long syllables."

[24] The reader will find this question discussed in Wagner's _Aulularia_; where references are given to the original German authorities.