History of Roman Literature from its Earliest Period to the Augustan Volume I Part 3

There have also been three lines preserved by Festus, which are translated from the 8th Book, expressing the effects produced on the mind by a sea-storm-

-- "Namque nilum pejus Macerat hemonem quamde mare saevom: vires quoi Sunt magnae, topper confringent importunae undae(126)."

From the aera in which the dramatic productions of Livius appeared, theatrical representations formed the object of a peculiar art. The more regular drama, founded on that of Magna Graecia, or Sicily, being divided into tragedy and comedy, became, in a great measure, the province of professional players or authors, while the Roman youths of distinction continued to amuse themselves with the _Fabulae Atellanae_, and _Exodia_, a species of satirical medley, derived from the ancient Etruscans, or from the Osci, the nature and progress of which I shall hereafter have occasion more particularly to examine.

CNEIUS NaeVIUS,

A native of Campania, was the first imitator of the regular dramatic works which had been produced by Livius Andronicus. He served in the first Punic war, and his earliest plays were represented at Rome in the year 519(127).

The names of his tragedies, from which as few fragments remain as from those of Livius, are still preserved:-_Alcestis_, (from which there is yet extant a description of old age in rugged and barbarous verse)-_Danae_, _Dulorestes_, _Hesiona_, _Hector_, _Iphigenia_, _Lycurgus_, _Phnissae_, _Protesilaus_, and _Telephus_. All these were translated, or closely imitated from the works of Euripides, Anaxandrides, and other Greek dramatists. Cicero commends a pa.s.sage in the _Hector_, one of the above-mentioned tragedies(128), where the hero of the piece, delighted with the praises which he had received from his father Priam, exclaims-

"-- Laetus sum Laudari me abs te, pater, laudato viro(129)."

Naevius, however, was accounted a better comic than tragic poet. Cicero has given us some specimens of his jests, with which that celebrated wit and orator appears to have been greatly amused; but they consist rather in unexpected turns of expression, or a play of words, than in genuine humour. One of these, recorded in the second Book _De Oratore_, has found its way into our jest-books; and though one of the best in Cicero, it is one of the worst of Joe Miller. It is the saying of a knavish servant, "that nothing was shut up from him in his master's house".-"Solum esse, cui domi nihil sit nec obsignatum, nec occlusum: Quod idem," adds Cicero, "in bono servo dici solet, sed hoc iisdem etiam verbis."

Unfortunately for Naevius, he did not always confine himself in his comedies to such inoffensive jests. The dramas of Magna Graecia and Sicily, especially those of Epicharmus, were the prototypes of the older Greek comedy; and accordingly the most ancient Latin plays, particularly those of Naevius, which were formed on the same school, though there be no evidence that they ridiculed political events, partook of the personal satire and invective which pervaded the productions of Aristophanes. If, as is related, the comedies of Naevius were directed against the vices and corporal defects of the Consuls and Senators of Rome, he must have been the most original of the Latin comic poets, and infinitely more so than Plautus or Terence; since although he may have parodied or copied the dramatic fables of the ancient Greek or Sicilian comedies, the spirit and colouring of the particular scenes must have been his own. The elder Scipio was one of the chief objects of his satiric representations, and the poetic severity with which Aristophanes persecuted Socrates or Euripides, was hardly more indecent and misdirected than the sarcasms of Naevius against the greatest captain, the most accomplished scholar, and the most virtuous citizen of his age. Some lines are still extant, in which he lampooned Scipio on account of a youthful amour, in which he had been detected by his father-

"Etiam qui res magnas manu saepe gessit gloriose, Cujus facta viva nunc vigent, qui apud gentes solus Praestat, eum suus pater, c.u.m pallio uno, ab amica abduxit."

The conqueror of Hannibal treated these libels with the same indifference with which Caesar afterwards regarded the lines of Catullus. Naevius, however, did not long escape with impunity. Rome was a very different sort of republic from Athens: It was rather an aristocracy than a democracy, and its patricians were not always disposed to tolerate the taunts and insults which the chiefs of the Greek democracy were obliged to endure.

Naevius had said in one of his verses, that the patrician family of the Metelli had frequently obtained the Consuls.h.i.+p before the age permitted by law, and he insinuated that they had been promoted to this dignity, not in consequence of their virtues, but the cruelty of the Roman fate:

"Fato Metelli Romae fiunt Consules."

With the a.s.sistance of the other patricians, the Metelli retorted his sarcasms in a Saturnian stanza, not unlike the measure of some of our old ballads, in which they threatened to play the devil with their witty persecutor-

"Et Naevio Poetae, c.u.m saepe laederentur, Dabunt malum Metelli, Dabunt malum Metelli, Dabunt malum Metelli."

The Metelli, however, did not confine their vengeance to this ingenious and spirited satire, in the composition of which, it may be presumed that the whole Roman Senate was engaged. On account of the unceasing abuse and reproaches which he had uttered against them, and other chief men of the city, he was thrown into prison, where he wrote his comedies, the _Hariolus_ and _Leontes_. These plays being in some measure intended as a recantation of his former invectives, he was liberated by the tribunes of the people.(130) He soon, however, relapsed into his former courses, and continued to persecute the n.o.bility in his dramas and satires with such implacable dislike, that he was at length driven from Rome by their influence, and having retired to Utica(131), he died there, in the year 550, according to Cicero(132); but Varro fixes his death somewhat later.

Before leaving Rome, he had composed the following epitaph on himself, which Gellius remarks is full of Campanian arrogance; though the import of it, he adds, might be allowed to be true, had it been written by another(133);

"Mortales immortales flere si foret fas, Flerent divae Camnae Naevium poetam; Itaque postquam est Orcino traditus thesauro, Oblitei sunt Romae loquier Latina lingua(134)."

Besides his comedies and the above epitaph, Naevius was also author of the Cyprian Iliad, a translation from a Greek poem, called the _Cyprian Epic_.

Aristotle, in the 23d chapter of his Poetics, mentions the original work, (ta ??p??a,) which, he says, had furnished many subjects for the drama.

Some writers, particularly Pindar, have attributed this Greek poem to Homer; and there was long an idle story current, that he had given it as a portion to his daughter a.r.s.ephone. Herodotus, in his second Book, concludes, after some critical discussion, that it was not written by Homer, but that it was doubtless the work of a contemporary poet, or one who lived shortly after him. Heyne thinks it most probable, that it was by a poet called Stasinus, a native of the island of Cyprus, and that it received its name from the country of its author(135). Whoever may have written this Cyprian Epic, it contained twelve books, and was probably a work of amorous and romantic fiction. It commenced with the nuptials of Thetis and Peleus-it related the contention of the three G.o.ddesses on Mount Ida-the fables concerning Palamedes-the story of the daughters of Anius-and the love adventures of the Phrygian fair during the early period of the siege of Troy-and it terminated with the council of the G.o.ds, at which it was resolved that Achilles should be withdrawn from the war, by sowing dissension between him and Atrides(136).

A metrical chronicle, which chiefly related the events of the first Punic war, was another, and probably the last work of Naevius, since Cicero says, that in writing it he filled up the leisure of his latter days with wonderful complacency and satisfaction(137). It was originally undivided; but, after his death, was separated into seven books(138).-Although the first Punic war was the princ.i.p.al subject, as appears from its announcement,

"Qui terrai Latiai hemones tuserunt Vires fraudesque Poinicas fabor;"

yet it also afforded a rapid sketch of the preceding incidents of Roman history. It commenced with the flight of aeneas from Carthage, in a s.h.i.+p built by Mercury(139); and the early wars of the Romans were detailed in the first and second books. To judge by the fragments which remain, the whole work appears to have been full of mythological machinery. Macrobius informs us, that some lines of this production described the Romans tost by a tempest, and represented Venus complaining of the hards.h.i.+ps which they suffered to Jupiter, who consoles her by a prospect of their future glory-a pa.s.sage which probably suggested those verses in the first book of the aeneid, where Venus, in like manner, complains to Jupiter of the danger experienced by her son in a storm, and the G.o.d consoles her by a.s.surances of his ultimate prosperity(140). Cicero mentions, that Ennius, too, though he cla.s.ses Naevius among the fauns and rustic bards, had borrowed, or, if he refused to acknowledge his obligations, had pilfered, many ornaments from his predecessor(141). In the same pa.s.sage, Cicero, while he admits that Ennius was the more elegant and correct writer, bears testimony to the merit of the older bard, and declares, that the Punic war of this antiquated poet afforded him a pleasure as exquisite as the finest statue that was ever formed by Myron. To judge, however, from the lines which remain, though in general too much broken to enable us even to divine their meaning, the style of Naevius in this work was more rugged and remote from modern Latin than that of his own plays and satires, or the dramas of Livius Andronicus.

The whole, too, is written in the rough, unmodulated, Saturnian verse-a sort of irregular iambics, said to have been originally employed by Faunus and the prophets, who delivered their oracles in this measure. To such rude and unpolished verses Ennius alludes in a fragment of his Annals, while explaining his reasons for not treating of the first Punic war-

-- "Scripsere alii rem Versibus, quos olim Fauni, vatesque canebant; c.u.m neque Musarum scopulos quisquam superarat, Nec dicti studiosus erat."

As this was the most ancient species of measure employed in Roman poetry, as it was universally used before the melody of Greek verse was poured on the Roman ear, and as, from ancient practice, the same strain continued to be repeated till the age of Ennius, by whom the heroic measure was introduced, it would not be suitable to omit some notice of its origin and structure in an account of Roman literature and poetry.

Several writers have supposed that the Saturnian measure was borrowed by the Romans from the Greeks(142), having been used by Euripides, and particularly by Archilochus; but others have believed that it was an invention of the ancient Italians(143). It was first employed in the Carmen Saliare, songs of triumph, supplications to the G.o.ds, or monumental inscriptions, and was afterwards, as we have seen, adopted in the works of Livius Andronicus and Naevius. In consequence of the fragments which remain of the Saturnian verses being so short and corrupted, it is extremely difficult to fix their regular measure, or reduce them to one standard of versification. Herman seems to consider a Saturnian line as having regularly consisted of two iambuses, an amphibrachys, and three trochaes-

? _ | ? _ | ? _ ? | _ ? | _ ? | _ ?

A dactyl, however, was occasionally admitted into the place of the first or second trochae, and a spondee was not unfrequently introduced indiscriminately. It also appears that a Saturnian line was sometimes divided into two-the first line consisting of the two iambuses and amphibrachys, and the second of the trochaes, whence the Saturnian verse has been sometimes called iambic, and at others trochaic.

The Hexameter verse, which had been invented by the Greeks, was first introduced into Latium, or at least, was first employed in a work of any extent, by

ENNIUS,

-- "Qui primus amno Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam, Per gentes Italas hominum quae clara clueret."

This poet, who has generally received the glorious appellation of the Father of Roman Song, was a native of Rudiae, a town in Calabria, and lived from the year of Rome 515 to 585(144). In his early youth he went to Sardinia; and, if Silius Italicus may be believed, he served in the Calabrian levies, which, in the year 538, followed t.i.tus Manlius to the war which he waged in that island against the favourers of the Carthaginian cause(145). After the termination of the campaign, he continued to live for twelve years in Sardinia(146). He was at length brought to Rome by Cato, the Censor, who, in 550, visited Sardinia, on returning as quaestor from Africa(147). At Rome he fixed his residence on the Aventine hill, where he lived in a very frugal manner, having only a single servant maid as an attendant(148). He instructed, however, the Patrician youth in Greek, and acquired the friends.h.i.+p of many of the most ill.u.s.trious men in the state. Being distinguished (like aeschylus, the great father of Grecian tragedy) in arms as well as letters, he followed M. Fulvius n.o.bilior during his expedition to aetolia in 564(149); and in 569 he obtained the freedom of the city, through the favour of Quintus Fulvius n.o.bilior, the son of his former patron, Marcus(150). He was also protected by the elder Scipio Africa.n.u.s, whom he is said to have accompanied in all his campaigns:

"Haerebat doctus lateri, castrisque solebat Omnibus in medias Ennius ire tubas(151)."

It is difficult, however, to see in what expeditions he could have attended this renowned general. His Spanish and African wars were concluded before Ennius was brought from Sardinia to Rome; and the campaign against Antiochus was commenced and terminated while he was serving under Fulvius n.o.bilior in aetolia(152). In his old age he obtained the friends.h.i.+p of Scipio Nasica; and the degree of intimacy subsisting between them has been characterised by the well-known anecdote of their successively feigning to be from home(153). He is said to have been intemperate in drinking(154), which brought on the disease called _Morbus Articularis_, a disorder resembling the gout, of which he died at the age of seventy, just after he had exhibited his tragedy of Thyestes:

"Ennius ipse pater dum pocula siccat iniqua, Hoc vitio tales fertur meruisse dolores(155)."

The evils, however, of old age and indigence were supported by him, as we learn from Cicero, with such patience, and even cheerfulness, that one would almost have imagined he derived satisfaction from circ.u.mstances which are usually regarded, as being, of all others, the most dispiriting and oppressive(156). The honours due to his character and talents were, as is frequently the case, reserved till after his death, when a bust of him was placed in the family tomb of the Scipios(157), who, till the time of Sylla, continued the practice of burying, instead of burning, their dead.

In the days of Livy, the bust still remained near that sepulchre, beyond the _Porta Capena_, along with the statues of Africa.n.u.s and Scipio Asiaticus.(158) The tomb was discovered in 1780, on a farm situated between the Via Appia and Via Latina. The slabs, which have been since removed to the Vatican, bear several inscriptions, commemorating different persons of the Scipian family. Neither statues, nor any other memorial, then existed of Africa.n.u.s himself, or of Asiaticus(159); but a laurelled bust of Pepperino stone, which was found in this tomb, and which now stands on the Sarcophagus of Scipio Barbatus in the Vatican, is supposed to be that of Ennius(160). There is also still extant an epitaph on this poet, reported to have been written by himself(161), strongly characteristic of that overweening conceit and that high estimation of his own talents, which are said to have formed the chief blemish of his character:-

"Aspicite, O cives, senis Enni imaginis formam; Hic vestrum panxit maxuma facta patrum.

Nemo me lacrumis decoret, nec funera fletu Faxit-cur? volito vivus per ora virum(162)."

The lines formerly quoted(163), which were written by Naevius for his tomb-stone, express as high a sense of his own poetical merits as the above verses; but there is in them something plaintive and melancholy, quite different from the triumphant exultation in the epitaph of Ennius.

To judge by the fragments of his works which remain, Ennius greatly surpa.s.sed his predecessors, not only in poetical genius, but in the art of versification. By his time, indeed, the best models of Greek composition had begun to be studied at Rome. Ennius particularly professed to have imitated Homer, and tried to persuade his countrymen that the soul and genius of that great poet had revived in him, through the medium of a peac.o.c.k, according to the process of Pythagorean transmigration. It is to this fantastic genealogy that Persius has alluded in his 6th satire:-

"Cor jubet hoc Enni, postquam destertuit esse Maeonides Quintus, pavone ex Pythagoreo."

From the following lines of Lucretius it would appear, that Ennius somewhere in his works had feigned that the shade of Homer appeared to him, and explained to him the nature and laws of the universe:-

"Etsi praeterea tamen esse Acherusia Templa Ennius aeternis exponit versibus edens; Quo neque permanent animae, neque corpora nostra, Sed quaedam simulacra modis pallentia miris: Unde, sibi exortam, semper florentis Homeri Commemorat speciem, lacrumas effundere salsas Cp.i.s.se, et rerum naturam expandere dictis."

Accordingly, we find in the fragments of Ennius many imitations of the Iliad and Odyssey. It is, however, the Greek tragic writers whom Ennius has chiefly imitated; and indeed it appears from the fragments which remain, that all his plays were rather translations from the dramas of Sophocles and Euripides, on the same subjects which he has chosen, than original tragedies. They are founded on the old topics of Priam and Paris, Hector and Hecuba; and truly Ennius, as well as most other Latin tragedians, seems to have antic.i.p.ated Horace's maxim-

"Rectus Iliac.u.m carmen deducis in actus, Quamsi proferres ignota indictaque primus."