History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Volume I Part 19

-- "Cujus non audeo dicere nomen?

Quid refert dictis ignoscat Mutius, an non?"

It is chiefly to such support that the unbridled license of the old Roman satirists may be ascribed-

-- "Unde illa priorum Scribendi quodcunque animo flagrante liberet Simplicitas(418)." --

The harsh and uncultivated spirit of the ancient Romans also naturally led to this species of severe and personal castigation; and it was not to be expected that in that age they should have drawn their pictures with the delicacy and generality which Horace has given to Offellus.

Lucilius, however, did not confine himself to invectives on vicious mortals. In the first book of his satires, he appears to have declared war on the false G.o.ds of Olympus, whose plurality he denied, and ridiculed the simplicity of the people, who bestowed on an infinity of G.o.ds the venerable name of father, which should be reserved for one. Near the commencement of this book he represents an a.s.sembly of the G.o.ds deliberating on human affairs:

"Consilium summis hominum de rebus habebant."

And, in particular, discussing what punishment ought to be inflicted on Rutilius Lupus, a considerable man in the Roman state, but noted for his wickedness and impiety, and so powerful that it is declared-

"Si conjuret, populus vix totus satis est."

Jupiter expresses his regret that he had not been present at a former council of the G.o.ds, called to deliberate on this topic-

"Vellem concilio vestrum, quod dicitis, olim, Caelicolae; vellem, inquam, adfuissem priore Concilio." --

Jupiter having concluded, the subject is taken up by another of the G.o.ds, who, as Lactantius informs us, was Neptune(419); but being puzzled with its intricacy, this divinity declares it could not be explained, were Carneades himself (the most clear and eloquent of philosophers) to be sent up to them from Orcus:

"Nec si Carneadem ipsum ad nos Orcus remittat."

The only result of the solemn deliberations of this a.s.sembly is a decree, that each G.o.d should receive from mortals the t.i.tle of father-

"Ut nemo sit nostrum, quin pater optumus divum; Ut Neptunus pater, Liber, Saturnu' pater, Mars, Janu' Quirinu' pater, nomen dicatur ad unum."

The third book contains an account of the inconveniences and amus.e.m.e.nts of a journey, performed by Lucilius, along the rich coast of Campania, to Capua and Naples, and thence all the way to Rhegium and the Straits of Messina. He appears particularly to have described a combat of gladiators, and the manifold distresses he experienced from the badness of the roads-

"Praeterea omne iter hoc est labosum atque lutosum."

Horace, in the fifth satire of his first book, has, in imitation of Lucilius, comically described a journey from Rome to Brundusium, and like him has introduced a gladiatorial combat. The fourth satire of Lucilius stigmatizes the luxury and vices of the rich, and has been imitated by Persius in his third book. Aulus Gellius informs us, that in part of his fifth satire he exposed, with great wit and power of ridicule, those literary affectations of using such words in one sentence as terminate with a similar jingle, or consist of an equal number of syllables. He has shown how childish such affectations are, in that pa.s.sage wherein he complains to a friend that he had neglected to visit him while sick. In the ninth satire he ridicules the blunders in orthography, committed by the transcribers of MSS., and gives rules for greater accuracy. Of the tenth book little remains; but it is said to have been the perusal of it which first inflamed Persius with the rage of writing satires. The eleventh seems to have consisted chiefly of personal invectives against Quintus Opimius, Lucius Cotta, and others of his contemporaries, whose vices, or rivals.h.i.+p with his patron Scipio, exposed them to his enmity and vengeance. The sixteenth was ent.i.tled _Collyra_, having been chiefly devoted to the celebration of the praises of Collyra, the poet's mistress(420). Of many of the other books, as the 12th, 13th, 18th, 21st, and four following, so small fragments remain, that it is impossible to conjecture the subject; for although we may see the scope of insulated lines, their matter may have been some incidental ill.u.s.tration, and not the princ.i.p.al subject of the satire. Even in those books, of which there are a greater number of fragments extant, they are so disjoined that it is as difficult to put them legibly together as the scattered leaves of the Sibyl; and the labour of Douza, who has been the most successful in arranging the broken lines, so as to make a connected sense, is by many considered as but a conjectural and philological sport. Those few pa.s.sages, however, which are in any degree entire, show great force of satire; as for example, the following account of the life led by the Romans:-

"Nunc vero a mane ad noctem, festo atque profesto, Totus item pariterque dies, populusque patresque Jactare indu foro se omnes, decedere nusquam, Uni se atque eidem studio omnes dedere et arti; Verba dare ut caute possint, pugnare dolose, Blanditia certare, bonum simulare virum se, Insidias facere, ut si hostes sint omnibus omnes."

The verses in which our poet bitterly ridicules the superst.i.tion of those who adored idols, and mistook them for true G.o.ds, are written in something of the same spirit-

"Terricolas Lamias, Fauni quas, Pompiliique Inst.i.tuere Numae, tremit has, his omnia ponit: Ut pueri infantes credunt signa omnia ahena Vivere, et esse homines; et sic isti omnia ficta Vera putant: credunt signis cor inesse ahenis- Pergula pictorum, veri nihil, omnia ficta(421)."

On this pa.s.sage Lactantius remarks, that such superst.i.tious fools are much more absurd than the children to whom the satirist compares them, as the latter only mistake statues for men, the former for G.o.ds. There are two lines in the 26th book, which every nation should remember in the hour of disaster-

"Ut populus Roma.n.u.s victus vi, et superatus praeliis Saepe est multis; bello vero nunquam, in quo sunt omnia(422)."

But the most celebrated and longest pa.s.sage we now have from Lucilius, is his definition of _Virtus_-

"Virtus, Albine, est, pretium persolvere verum, Queis in versamur, queis vivimus rebus, potesse: Virtus est homini, scire id quod quaeque habeat res; Virtus, scire homini r.e.c.t.u.m, utile, quid sit honestum, Quae bona, quae mala item, quid inutile, turpe, inhonestum; Virtus, quaerendae rei finem scire modumque: Virtus, divitiis precium persolvere posse: Virtus, id dare quod re ipsa debetur honori; Hostem esse atque inimic.u.m hominum morumque malorum, Contra, defensorem hominum morumque bonorum, Magnificare hos, his bene velle, his vivere amic.u.m: Commoda praeterea patriae sibi prima putare, Deinde parentum, tertia jam postremaque nostra(423)."

Lactantius has cavilled at the different heads of this definition(424), and perhaps some of them are more applicable to what we call wisdom, than to our term virtue, which, as is well known, does not precisely correspond to the Latin _Virtus_.

If we possessed a larger portion of the writings of Lucilius, I have no doubt it would be found that subsequent Latin poets, particularly the satirists, have not only copied various pa.s.sages, but adopted the plan and subjects of many of his satires. It has already been mentioned, that Horace's journey to Brundusium is imitated from that of Lucilius to Capua.

His severity recommended him to Persius and Juvenal, who both mention him with respect. Persius, indeed, professes to follow him, but Juvenal seems a closer imitator of his manner. The jingle in the two following lines, from an uncertain book of Lucilius-

"Ut me scire volo mihi conscius sum, ne d.a.m.num faciam. Scire hoc se nescit, nisi alios id scire scierit,"

seems to have suggested Persius' line-

"Scire tuum nihil, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter."

The verses, "Cujus non audeo dicere nomen," &c. quoted above, are copied by Juvenal in his first satire, but with evident allusion to the works of his predecessor. A line in the first book-

"Quis leget haec? min' tu istud ais? nemo, Hercule, nemo,"

has been imitated by Persius in the very commencement of his satires-

"O curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane!

Quis leget haec? min' tu istud ais? nemo, Hercule, nemo."

Virgil's phrase, so often quoted, "Non omnia possumus omnes," is in the fifth book of Lucilius-

"Major erat natu; non omnia possumus omnes."

Were the whole works of Lucilius extant, many more such imitations might be discovered and pointed out. It is not on this account, however, that their loss is chiefly to be deplored. Had they remained entire, they would have been highly serviceable to philological learning. They would have informed us also of many incidents of Roman history, and would have presented us with the most complete draught of ancient Roman manners, and genuine Roman originals, which were painted from life, and at length became the model of the inimitable satires of imperial Rome.

Besides satirizing the wicked, under which category he probably cla.s.sed all his enemies, Lucilius also employed his pen in praise of the brave and virtuous. He wrote, as we learn from Horace, a panegyric on Scipio Africa.n.u.s, but whether the elder or younger is not certain:-

"Attamen et justum poteras et scribere fortem Scipiadam, ut sapiens Lucilius(425)."

Lucilius was also author of a comedy ent.i.tled _Nummularia_, of which only one line remains; but we are informed by Porphyrion, the scholiast on Horace, that the plot turned on Pythias, a female slave, tricking her master, Simo, out of a sum of money, with which to portion his daughter.

Lucilius was followed in his satiric career by Saevius Nicanor, the grammarian, who was the freedman of one Marcius, as we learn from the only line of his poetry which is extant, and which has been preserved by Suetonius, or whoever was the author of the work _De Ill.u.s.tribus Grammaticis_:-

"Saevius Nicanor Marci libertus negabit."

Publius Terentius Varro, sirnamed Atacinus, from the place of his birth, also attempted the Lucilian satire, but with no great success as we learn from Horace:-

"Hoc erat, experto frustra Varrone Atacino."

He was more fortunate, it is said, in his geographical poems, and in that _De Bello Sequanico_(426).

We may range among the satires of this period, the _Dirae_ of the grammarian, Valerius Cato, who, being despoiled of his patrimony, especially his favourite villa at Tusculum, during the civil wars of Marius and Sylla, in order to make way for the soldiery, avenged himself, by writing poetical imprecations on his lost property. This poem is sometimes inscribed _Dirae in Battarum_, which is inaccurate, as it gives an idea that Battarus is the name of the person who had got possession of the villa, and on whom the imprecations were uttered. There is not, however, a word of execration against any of those who had obtained his lands, except in so far as he curses the lands themselves, praying that they may become barren-that they may be inundated with rain-blasted with pestiferous breezes, and, in short, laid waste by every species of agricultural calamity. Joseph Scaliger thinks that Battarus was a river, and Nic. Heinsius that it was a hill. It seems evident enough from the poem itself, that Battarus was some well known satiric or invective bard, whom the author invokes, in order to excite himself to reiterated imprecations(427):-

"Rursus et hoc iterum repetamus, Battare, carmen."

The concluding part of the _Dirae_, as edited by Wernsdorff(428), is a lamentation for the loss of a mistress, called Lydia, of whom the unfortunate poet had likewise been deprived. This, however, has been regarded by others as a separate poem from the _Dirae_. Cato was also author of a poem called _Diana_, and a prose work ent.i.tled _Indignatio_, in which he related the history of his misfortunes. He lived to an advanced age, but was oppressed by extreme poverty, and afflicted with a painful disease, as seems to be implied in the lines of his friend Furius Bibaculus, preserved in the treatise _De Ill.u.s.tribus Grammaticis_:-

"Quem tres calculi, et selibra farris, Racemi duo, tegula sub una, Ad summam prope nutriunt senectam(429)."