His own taste, and the
taste, we may hope, of his readers, demanded that the
base level of sensuality should sometimes be left for a
higher flight of fancy.
taste, we may hope, of his readers, demanded that the
base level of sensuality should sometimes be left for a
higher flight of fancy.
Ovid - 1865 - Ovid by Alfred Church
* And we find Ovid remonstrating with
Corinna on her folly in producing in the same way
the same disfigurement:--
"No weeds destroyed them with their fatal juice,
Nor canst thou witches' magic charms accuse,
Nor rival's love, nor dire enchantments blame,
Nor envy's blasting tongue, nor fever's flame;
The mischief by thy own fair hands was wrought,
Nor dost thou suffer for another's fault.
How oft I bade thee, but in vain, beware
The venomed essence that destroyed thy hair!
Now with new arts thou shalt thy friends amuse,
And curls, of German captives borrowed, use.
Drusus to Eome their vanquished nation sends,
And the fair slave to thee her tresses lends. "--D.
But there is a good deal to be said on the other side.
* She sought, it would seem, to change the dark tresses
which nature had given her into the blond locks which
southern nations so admire, injured them in the effort, and
had to replace them by purchase. The vagaries of fashion
continually repeat themselves.
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? THE LOVE-POEMS. 29
The testimony of Sidonius Apollinaris, after an interval
of nearly five centuries, is worth very little. "We ^,7'
have no hint of any contemporary authorities on which * ?
he founded it; and tradition, when it has to pass through
so many generations--generations, too, that suffered so
much disturbance and change--stands for next to no-
thing. If some passages, again, favour the notion that
Corinna was Julia, there are others which tell against it.
Ovid could never have ventured to use--would not even
have dreamt of expressing in words--to Agrippa or
Tiberius, the insolent threats which he vents against the
husband of Corinna. Nor is it possible to imagine that
Julia, however profligate, could ever have been even
tempted to the avarice with which Ovid reproaches his
mistress, when he remonstrates against the preference
that she had shown for some wealthy soldier just re-
turned from the wars. Then, again, the poems were
read in public;--an absolutely impossible audacity, if
there had been the faintest suspicion that they referred
to so exalted a personage as the emperor's daughter.
The writer of the verse himself tells us that it was not f f
known who was the theme of his song, and he speaks J /
of some woman who was going about boasting that'/
she was Ovid's Corinna.
Of the subject-matter of ' The Loves' there is little to J
be said. The passion which inspires the verse is coarser/
and more brutal than that of his rival poets, even when
this shows itself in its worst phases. It has nothing
of the fervour of Propertius, the tenderness of Tibullus.
It does not spring from any depth of feeling It is real,i
but its reality is of the basest, most literal sort. That
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? 30 OVID.
he describes an actual amour is only too manifest, but
that this was in any true sense of the words "an
affair of the heart " may well be doubted. But then,
again, he shows an incomparable skill in expression;
he invests even the lowest things with a certain grace.
His wit and fancy "sparkle on the stye. " If he lets
us get away for a moment from the mire--if, with the
delicate fancy that never fails him, he tells us some
legend that "boys and virgins" need not blush to read
--he is charming. There never was a more subtle and
ingenious master of ^language, and it is a grievous pity
that he should so often have used it so ill. Our speci-
men of his 'Loves' must be taken from the episodes
rather than from the ordinary course of the poems.
The following, however, will not offend. The poet re-
nounces the vain struggle which he has been waging
against love:--
"I yield, great Love! my former crimes forgive,
Forget my rebel thoughts, and let me live:
No need of force: I willingly obey,
And now, unarmed, shall prove no glorious prey.
So take thy mother's doves, thy myrtle crown,
And for thy chariot Mars will lend his own;
There shalt thou sit in thy triumphal pride,
And whilst glad shouts resound on every side.
Thy gentle hands thy mother's doves shall guide.
And then, to make thy glorious pomp and state, }
A train of sighing j'ouths and maids shall wait, >
Yet none complain of an unhappy fate. )
Then Modesty, with veils thrown o'er her face,
Now doubly blushing at her own disgrace;
Then sober thoughts, and whatsoe'er disdains
Love's power, shall feel his power, and wear his chains.
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? THE LOVE-POEMS. 31
Then all shall fear, all bow, yet all rejoice--
'Io triumphe ! ' is the public voice.
Thy constant guards, soft fancy, hope, and fear,
Anger, and soft caresses shall be there:
By these strong guards are gods and men o'erthrown,
These conquer for thee, Love, and these alone:
Thy mother, from the sky, thy pomp shall grace,
And scatter sweetest roses in thy face.
Then glorious Love shall ride, profusely dressed
With all the richest jewels of the East,
Rich gems thy quiver, and thy wheels infold,
And hide the poorness of the baser gold. "--D.
In the following the poet claims a purity and fidelity
for his affection with which it is impossible to credit
him:--
"Take, dear, a servant bound for ever; take
A heart whose troth no falsehood e'er shall break.
'Tis true but simple knightly birth is mine;
I claim no splendid names to grace my line;
My fields no countless tribe of oxen ploughs,
And scant the means a frugal home allows.
Now Phoebus aid me, and the Muses nine--
Bacchus, and Love, sweet Lord, who makes me thine,
Faith unsurpassed, and life exempt from blame,
And simple Modesty, and blushing Shame;
No trifler I; my heart no rivals share:
Thee will I make, be sure, my lifelong care;
With thee will spend what years the Fates shall give,
And when thou first shalt suffer, cease to live. "
Another little poem has been elegantly paraphrased and
adapted to modern manners by Mr A. A. Brodribb. *
* Lays from Latin Lyrics. By F. W. Hummel and A. A.
Brodribb. Longmans: 1876.
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? 32 0 viD.
It will remind the reader of a pretty passage in Mr
Tennyson's "Miller's Daughter:"--
The Ring.
"Sign of my too presumptuous flame,
To fairest Celia haste, nor linger,
And may she gladly breathe my name,
And gaily put thee on her finger!
Suit her as I myself, that she
May fondle thee with murmured blessing;
Caressed by Celia! Who could be
Unenvious of such sweet caressing i
Had I Medea's magic art,
Or Proteus' power of transformation,
Then would I blithely play thy part,
The happiest trinket in creation!
Oh! on her bosom I would fall,
Her finger guiding all too lightly;
Or else be magically small,
Fearing to be discarded nightly.
And I her ruby lips would kiss
(What mortal's fortune could be better ? )
As oft allowed to seal my bliss
As she desires to seal a letter.
Now go, these are delusions bright
Of idle Fancy's idlest scheming;
Tell her to read the token right--
Tell her how sweet is true love's dreaming. "
But the chief ornaments of the book are two elegies,
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? THE LOVE-POEMS. 33
properly so called,--one of a sportive, the other of
a serious character. Catullus, a predecessor in the
poetic art, of whom Ovid speaks with respect, had
lamented, in an exquisite little poem which must
always remain a model for such compositions, the
death of the sparrow which Lesbia, his lady-love,
"loved more than her own eyes. " In a poem which,
though not so graceful as that of the older writer, and
scarcely even pretending to pathos, has many merits,
Ovid commemorates the death of his own Corinna's
parrot:--
"Our parrot, sent from India's farthest shore,
Our parrot, prince of mimics, is no more.
Throng to his burial, pious tribes of air,
With rigid claw your tender faces tear!
Your ruffled plumes, like mourners' tresses, rend,
And all your notes, like funeral trumpets, blend!
Mourn all that cleave the liquid skies, but chief
Beloved turtle, lead the general grief,
Through long harmonious days the parrot's friend,
In mutual faith still loyal to the end!
What boots that faith? those splendid hues and strange?
That voice so skilled its various notes to change?
What to have won my gentle lady's grace?
Thou diest, hapless glory of thy race.
Eed joined with saffron in thy beak was seen,
And green thy wings beyond the emerald's sheen;
Nor ever lived on earth a wiser bird,
With lisping voice to answer all he heard.
'Twas envy slew thee; all averse to strife,
One love of chatter filled thy peaceful life:
For ever satisfied with scantiest fare,
Small time for food that busy tongue could spare.
A. C. S. S. , vol. ii. o
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? 34 o viD.
Walnuts and sleep-producing poppies gave
Thy simple diet, and thy drink the wave.
Long lives the hovering vulture, long the kite
Pursues through air the circles of his flight;
Many the years the noisy jackdaws know,
Prophets of rainfall; and the boding crow
Waits, still unscathed by armed Minerva's hate,
Three ages three times told, a tardy fate.
But he, our prattler from earth's farthest shore,
Our human tongue's sweet image, is no more.
Thus still the ravening fates our best devour,
And spare the mean till life's extremest hour.
Why tell the prayers my lady prayed in vain,
Borne by the stormy south wind o'er the main?
The seventh dawn had come, the last for_thee,
With empty distaff stood the fatal Three.
Yet still from failing throat thy accents rung,
Farewell, Corinna! cried thy dying tongue.
There stands a grove with dark-green ilex crowned )
Beneath the Elysian hill, and all around \
With turf undying shines the verdant ground. f
There dwells, if true the tale, the pious race--
All evil birds are banished from the place;
There harmless swans unbounded pasture find;
There dwells the phcenix, single of his kind;
The peacock spreads his splendid plumes in air,
The kissing doves sit close, an amorous pair;
There in their woodland home a guest allowed,
Our parrot charms the pious listening crowd.
Beneath a mound, of justly measured size,
Small tombstone, briefest epitaph, he lies,
'His mistress' darling'--that this stone may show--
The prince of feathered speakers lies below. "
The other elegy has for its subject the death of the
poet Tibullus:--
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? THE LOVE-POEMS. 35
"If bright Aurora mourned for Memnon's fate,
Or the fair Thetis wept Achilles slain,
And the sad sorrows that on mortals wait
Can ever move celestial hearts with pain--
Come, doleful Elegy! too just a name!
Unbind thy tresses fair, in loose attire,
For>>he, thy bard, the herald of thy fame,
Tibullus, burns on the funereal pyre.
Ah, lifeless corse! Lo! Venus' boy draws near
With upturned quiver and with shattered bow,
His torch extinguished, see him toward the bier
With drooping wings disconsolately go.
He smites his heaving breast with cruel blow,
Those straggling locks, his neck all streaming round,
Receive the tears that fastly trickling flow,
While sobs convulsive from his lips resound.
In guise like this, lulus, when of yore
His dear jEneas died, he sorrowing went;
Now Venus wails as when the raging boar
The tender thigh of her Adonis rent.
We bards are named the gods' peculiar care;
Nay, some declare that poets are divine;
Yet forward death no holy thing can spare,
'Eound all his dismal arms he dares entwine.
Did Orpheus' mother aid, or Linus' sire?
That one subdued fierce lions by his song
Availed not; and, they say, with plaintive lyre
The god mourned Linus, woods and glades among.
Mseonides, from whose perennial lay
Flow the rich fonts of the Pierian wave
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? 36 0 riD.
To wet the lips of bards, one dismal day
Sent down to Orcus and the gloomy grave--
Him, too, Averans holds in drear employ;
Only his songs escape the greedy pile;
His work remains--the mighty wars of Troy,
And the slow web, nnwove by nightly guile.
Live a pure life ;--yet death remains thy doom:
Be pious;--ere from sacred shrines you rise,
Death drags you heedless to the hollow tomb!
Confide in song--lo! there Tibullus lies.
Scarce of so great a soul, thus lowly laid,
Enough remains to fill this little urn;
O holy bard! were not the flames afraid
That hallowed corse thus ruthlessly to burn?
These might devour the heavenly halls that shine
With gold--they dare a villany so deep:
She turned who holds the Erycinian shrine,
And there are some who say she turned to weep.
Yet did the base soil of a stranger land
Not hold him nameless; as the spirit fled
His mother closed his eyes with gentle hand,
And paid the last sad tribute to the dead.
Here, with thy wretched mother's woe to wait,
Thy sister came with loose dishevelled hair;
Nemesis kisses thee, and thy earlier mate--
They watched the pyre when all had left it bare.
Departing, Delia faltered,'Thou wert true,
The Fates were cheerful then, when I was thine:
The other,' Say, what hast thou here to do i'
Dying, he clasped his failing hand in mine.
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? THE LOVE-POEMS. 37
Ah, yet, if any part of us remains
But name and shadow, Albius is not dead;
And thou, Catullus, in Elysian plains,
With Calvus see the ivy crown his head.
Thou, Gallus, prodigal of life and Wood,
If false the charge of amity betrayed,
And aught remains across the Stygian flood,
Shalt meet him yonder with thy happy shade.
Refined Tibullus! thou art joined to those \
Living in calm communion with the blest; \
In peaceful urn thy quiet bones repose--
May earth lie lightly where thy ashes rest! "
(r ?
Of the 'Art of Love' the less, perhaps, that is said
the better. The poet himself warns respectable per-
sons to have nothing to do with his pages, and the
'warning is amply justified by their contents. It has,
however, some of the brilliant episodes which Ovid
introduces with such effect.
His own taste, and the
taste, we may hope, of his readers, demanded that the
base level of sensuality should sometimes be left for a
higher flight of fancy. The description of Ariadne in
yaxos is as brilliant as Titian! s. pjcture; equally vivid
is the story of the flight of Dsedalus and his son Icarus
on the wings which the matchless craftsman had made,
aiuTdTth'e fate which followed the over-daring flight of
the youth through regions too near to the sun. Then,-
agairi, we find ever and anon pictures of Eoman man-
ners which may amuse without offence. Among such
are Ovid's instructions to his fair readers how they
may most becomingly take their part in the games of
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? 38 OVID.
chance and skill which were popular in the polite
circles of Eome. Among these games he mentions
the cubical dice, called tesserm, resembling our own
in shape, and similarly marked. Three of these were
used together; and it was customary to throw them
from cups of a conical shape. The luckiest throw was
"treble sixes," and was honoured by the name of
Aphrodite or Venus. The worst was "treble aces :"
this was stigmatised as " the dog. " There were other
dice made out of the knuckle-bones of animals. They
were called tali. (Our own popular name for them is
"dibs. ") These were used either in the same way as
the cubical dice, though they were not numbered in
the same way, or in a game of manual skill which still
survives among us, where the player throws them
and catches them again, or performs other feats of
dexterity with them. Besides these there was the
game of the "Eobbers" (Ludus Latrunculorum),
played with pieces made of glass or ivory, which has
been compared with chess, but was probably not so
complicated, and more nearly resembling our games
of "Fox and Geese" and "Military Tactics. " The
game of the "Fifteen Lines" must have been very
like our " Backgammon," as the moves of the men were
determined by previous throws of dice. Ovid, after
recommending his readers to practise a graceful play-
ing at the games, wisely warns them that it is still
more important that they should learn to keep their
temper. The suitor he advises to allow his fair an-
tagonist to win, a counsel doubtless often followed by
those who have never had the advantage--or, we should
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? THE LOVE-POEMS. S9
rather say, the disadvantage--of studying Ovid's pre-
cepts. Equally familiar will be the device of a present
of fruit brought by a slave-boy in a rustic basket,
which the lover will declare has been conveyed from
a country garden, though he will probably have bought
it in the neighbouring street. A certain sagacity must
be allowed to the counsel that the lover, when his lady
is sick, must not take upon himself the odious office of
forbidding her a favourite dish; and will, if possible,
hand over to a rival the office, equally odious, of ad-
ministering a nauseous. medicine. The recommenda-
tion not to be too particular in inquiring about age is
equally sagacious. It is curious to observe that Lord
Byron's expressed aversion to seeing women eat was
not unknown to the Eoman youth. Ovid, who, to do
him justice, never praises wine, hints that drinking
was not equally distasteful.
The 'Eemedies ofr Lovef may be dismissed with
a still briefer notice. Like the 'Art of Love,' it
is relieved by some beautiful digressions. "When it
keeps close to its subject, it is, to say the least, not
edifying. The "Eemedies," indeed, are for the most
part as bad as the disease, though we must except that
most respectable maxim that "idleness is the parent
of love," with the poet's practical application of it.
One specimen of these two books shall suffice. It is
of the episodical kind, -- a brilliant panegyric oa
the young Csesar, Caius, son of Augustus's daughter
Julia, who was then preparing to take the command
of an expedition against the Parthians. Gross as is
the flattery, it is perhaps less offensive than usual.
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? 40 0 V1D.
The young Caius died before his abilities could be
proved; but the precocious genius of the family was
a fact. Caius was then of the very same age at which
his grandfather had first commanded an army.
"Once more our Prince prepares to make us glad,
And the remaining East to Eome will add.
Rejoice, ye Eoman soldiers, in your urn; \
Your ensigns from the Parthians shall return; /
And the slain Crassi shall no longer mourn! ;
A youth is sent those trophies to demand,
And bears his father's thunder in his hand:
Doubt not th' imperial boy in wars unseen;
In childhood all of Csesar's race are men. >>
Celestial seeds shoot out before their day,
Prevent their years, and brook no dull delay.
Thus infant Hercules the snakes did press,
And in his cradle did his sire confess.
Bacchus, a boy, yet like a hero fought,
And early spoils from conquered India brought.
Thus you your father's troops shall lead to fight,
And thus shall vanquish in your father's sight.
These rudiments you to your lineage owe;
Born to increase your titles as you grow.
Brethren you lead, avenge your brethren slain;
You have a father, and his right maintain.
Armed by your country's parent and your own,
Redeem your country and restore his throne. "--D.
The date of the poem is fixed by this passage for the
year B. C. 1, as that of the 'Eemedies of Love' is
eettled for a. d. 1 by an allusion to the actual war in
Parthia, which was at its height in that year, and was
finished by a peace in the year following.
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? CHAPTEE III.
DOMESTIC LIFE--BANISHMENT.
About Ovid's private life between his twentieth and
fiftieth years there is little to be recorded. Two mar-
riages have already been spoken of. He had pro-
bably reached middle life when he married for the
third time. The probability, indeed, consists in the
difficulty we have in believing that the husband of a
wife whom he really respected and loved should have
published so disreputable a book as the 'Art of Love,'
for even to the lax judgment of Soman society it
seemed disreputable. A feeling, perhaps a hint from
high quarters, that he had gone too far -- a con-
sciousness, we may hope, that he was capable of better
things--had made him turn to work of a more elevated
kind. A good marriage may have been part of his
plan for restoring himself to a reputable place in
society. It is even possible to imagine that a genuine
and worthy affection may have been one of the causes
that operated in bringing about a change. A much
earlier date, indeed, must be fixed, if we suppose that
the daughter of whom Ovid speaks in the brief sketch
of his life was a child of this marriage. This daughter
/
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? 42 OVID.
had been twice married at the time of his banishment,
when he was in his fifty-second year, and had borne a
child to each husband. Eoman women married early,
and changed their husbands quickly; but, in any case,
it is not likely that the young lady could have been
less than twenty. It seems, however, more probable
that she was the offspring of the second marriage. In
the many affectionate letters which Ovid addressed to
his wife after his banishment, no mention is made of
a child and grandchildren in whom both had a com-
mon interest. It is impossible to suppose that a
husband who anxiously appeals to every motive in a
wife which could help to keep their mutual affection
unimpaired by absence, should have neglected to make
use of what was obviously the most powerful of all.
There is, it is true, a letter addressed to one Perilla,
written by Ovid in exile. Dr Dyer, the learned
author of the article "Ovidius" in the 'Dictionary of
Biography and Mythology,' takes it for granted that
this Perilla was Ovid's daughter by his third wife.
The letter does not bear out the supposition. It will
be found described in its place. Meanwhile it is
sufficient to say, that while the writer enlarges on the
fact that he had instructed Perilla in the art of poetry,
he does not say a word which indicates a closer rela-
tionship than that of master and pupil. Had the
poetess been his daughter, we may say with confidence
that Ovid would have expressed in at least a dozen
ways that he was the source at once of her life and of
her song. The poet's wife was a lady of good position
at Borne. In early years she had been what may be
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? DOMESTIC LIFE--BANISHMENT. 43
\
called a lady-in-waiting to the aunt of Augustus, and
at the same time an intimate friend of Marcia, a
lady belonging to that branch of the Maician house
which bore the surname of Philippus. On Marcia's
marriage with Fabius Maximus, representative of the
great patrician- family of the Fabii, one of the few
ancient houses which had survived to the days of the
empire, this friend accompanied her to her new home.
From there Ovid married her. The union lasted till \
his death, with much mutual affection. "When it has
been added that Ovid's town mansion was close to the
Capitol, and that he had a suburban residence, where
he amused himself with the pleasures of gardening,
nothing remains to be told about this portion of his
life.
Some time after his third marriage, and not long
before the great catastrophe which we are about to
relate, Ovid's father died. He had completed his
ninetieth year. His mother died shortly afterwards.
"All! happy they and timely passed away
Ere on their offspring came that fatal day!
Ah! happy I amidst my grief to know
That they are all unconscious of my woe! "
It is the catastrophe which he here mentions that has |
now to be discussed. The cause of the banishment
of Ovid, like the personality of the Man in the Iron
Mask and the authorship of 'Junius,' is one of the
unsolved problems of history. The facts absolutely
known are very soon related. Ovid was in his fifty-J
second year. His fame as a poet was at its height. /
f
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? 44 0 VID.
Any scandal that may have arisen from some of his
publications had gradually passed away. Suddenly
there fell on him "a bolt from the blue. " A rescript
in the emperor's hand was delivered to him, ordering
him to leave Home within a certain time, and to
repair to Tomi, a desolate settlement on the western
shore of the Black Sea, near the very outskirts of
the empire. ISo decree of the senate had been passed
to authorise the infliction of the banishment. It was
simply an act of arbitrary power on the part of the
emperor. The cause alleged was the publication of
works corrupting to public morals, and the 'Art of
Love ' was specified. The punishment was not of the
severest kind. The place of exile, hateful as it was
to the banished man, was at least preferable to that
which many offenders had to endure--some desolate
rock in the iEgean, where the victim was kept from
starvation only by the charity of his friends. Ovid
was also permitted to retain and enjoy his property.
That the cause alleged was not the actual cause
of the banishment may be considered certain. It
/ is sufficient to say that the guilty work had been
I published at least ten years before. The offence was
such as to afford a pretext of the barest kind to an
absolute ruler who felt the force of public opinion
just enough to make him shrink from a wholly arbi-
trary act, but was not careful to make any complete
justification. But it did not, we may be sure, wholly
sway his mind. We know, indeed, that there was
another cause. To such a cause Ovid frequently al-
ludes. And it is in this lies the mystery of the event.
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? DOMESTIC LIFE--BANISHMENT. 45
At the same time, we must not suppose that thei
alleged motive had not some real influence on the
emperor's action. His own life had not been by any I
means free from reproach. Even if we discredit much
of what that great scandalmonger, Suetonius, tells us
about him, there remains enough to convict him of
shameful disregard of morality. But he was now an
old man. And he had had some of those tremendous
lessons which teach even the most profligate, if the
light of intelligence be not wholly quenched in them,
that moral laws cannot be disregarded with impunity.
Men in their own lives quite Tegardless of purity feel
a genuine shock of disgust and horror when they find
unchastity in the women of their own family. And
Augustus had felt the unutterable shame of discover-
ing that his own daughter was the most profligate
woman in Eome. Nor was he, we may believe, with-
out some genuine feeling of concern for the future of
his country. The establishment of absolute power
may have been a necessity for the State,--all writers
seem to agree in saying so. It had certainly aggran-
dised himself. But he could not fail to perceive, and
to perceive more and more clearly as he came nearer
to the end of his long reign, that it was ruining the
old Eoman character, the traditionary virtues of his
country. An aristocracy, whose vast wealth furnished
them with all the means of procuring enjoyment, but
who were shut out from anything like the career of
public life, would inevitably become corrupt. Augustus
was not a man who would deny himself in order to set
a practical example to others; but he was a man cap-
<
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? 46 0 VID-
able of doing everything, short of such self-denial, to
stop the evil of which, both from public and private
causes, he was so acutely conscious. He had recourse
to severe legislation against immorality. The more
he saw, as he must have seen, how ineffectual was this
method of reforming society, the greater must have
been his disgust with other agencies which he sup-
'posed to be at work. Ovid's poems may well have
i been a symptom rather than a cause of general iromor-
I ality; but it was quite possible that Augustus, his own
habits and tastes changed by advancing years, may
have sincerely regarded them as the author of mischief,
and deserving, accordingly, of the severest punishment
.
To arrive, however, at the truth, we must examine
closely another side of the emperor's life. His home
was divided between two conflicting interests--the
interest of his own descendants and the interest of the
step-children whom his wife Livia had brought into
his family.
Corinna on her folly in producing in the same way
the same disfigurement:--
"No weeds destroyed them with their fatal juice,
Nor canst thou witches' magic charms accuse,
Nor rival's love, nor dire enchantments blame,
Nor envy's blasting tongue, nor fever's flame;
The mischief by thy own fair hands was wrought,
Nor dost thou suffer for another's fault.
How oft I bade thee, but in vain, beware
The venomed essence that destroyed thy hair!
Now with new arts thou shalt thy friends amuse,
And curls, of German captives borrowed, use.
Drusus to Eome their vanquished nation sends,
And the fair slave to thee her tresses lends. "--D.
But there is a good deal to be said on the other side.
* She sought, it would seem, to change the dark tresses
which nature had given her into the blond locks which
southern nations so admire, injured them in the effort, and
had to replace them by purchase. The vagaries of fashion
continually repeat themselves.
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? THE LOVE-POEMS. 29
The testimony of Sidonius Apollinaris, after an interval
of nearly five centuries, is worth very little. "We ^,7'
have no hint of any contemporary authorities on which * ?
he founded it; and tradition, when it has to pass through
so many generations--generations, too, that suffered so
much disturbance and change--stands for next to no-
thing. If some passages, again, favour the notion that
Corinna was Julia, there are others which tell against it.
Ovid could never have ventured to use--would not even
have dreamt of expressing in words--to Agrippa or
Tiberius, the insolent threats which he vents against the
husband of Corinna. Nor is it possible to imagine that
Julia, however profligate, could ever have been even
tempted to the avarice with which Ovid reproaches his
mistress, when he remonstrates against the preference
that she had shown for some wealthy soldier just re-
turned from the wars. Then, again, the poems were
read in public;--an absolutely impossible audacity, if
there had been the faintest suspicion that they referred
to so exalted a personage as the emperor's daughter.
The writer of the verse himself tells us that it was not f f
known who was the theme of his song, and he speaks J /
of some woman who was going about boasting that'/
she was Ovid's Corinna.
Of the subject-matter of ' The Loves' there is little to J
be said. The passion which inspires the verse is coarser/
and more brutal than that of his rival poets, even when
this shows itself in its worst phases. It has nothing
of the fervour of Propertius, the tenderness of Tibullus.
It does not spring from any depth of feeling It is real,i
but its reality is of the basest, most literal sort. That
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? 30 OVID.
he describes an actual amour is only too manifest, but
that this was in any true sense of the words "an
affair of the heart " may well be doubted. But then,
again, he shows an incomparable skill in expression;
he invests even the lowest things with a certain grace.
His wit and fancy "sparkle on the stye. " If he lets
us get away for a moment from the mire--if, with the
delicate fancy that never fails him, he tells us some
legend that "boys and virgins" need not blush to read
--he is charming. There never was a more subtle and
ingenious master of ^language, and it is a grievous pity
that he should so often have used it so ill. Our speci-
men of his 'Loves' must be taken from the episodes
rather than from the ordinary course of the poems.
The following, however, will not offend. The poet re-
nounces the vain struggle which he has been waging
against love:--
"I yield, great Love! my former crimes forgive,
Forget my rebel thoughts, and let me live:
No need of force: I willingly obey,
And now, unarmed, shall prove no glorious prey.
So take thy mother's doves, thy myrtle crown,
And for thy chariot Mars will lend his own;
There shalt thou sit in thy triumphal pride,
And whilst glad shouts resound on every side.
Thy gentle hands thy mother's doves shall guide.
And then, to make thy glorious pomp and state, }
A train of sighing j'ouths and maids shall wait, >
Yet none complain of an unhappy fate. )
Then Modesty, with veils thrown o'er her face,
Now doubly blushing at her own disgrace;
Then sober thoughts, and whatsoe'er disdains
Love's power, shall feel his power, and wear his chains.
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? THE LOVE-POEMS. 31
Then all shall fear, all bow, yet all rejoice--
'Io triumphe ! ' is the public voice.
Thy constant guards, soft fancy, hope, and fear,
Anger, and soft caresses shall be there:
By these strong guards are gods and men o'erthrown,
These conquer for thee, Love, and these alone:
Thy mother, from the sky, thy pomp shall grace,
And scatter sweetest roses in thy face.
Then glorious Love shall ride, profusely dressed
With all the richest jewels of the East,
Rich gems thy quiver, and thy wheels infold,
And hide the poorness of the baser gold. "--D.
In the following the poet claims a purity and fidelity
for his affection with which it is impossible to credit
him:--
"Take, dear, a servant bound for ever; take
A heart whose troth no falsehood e'er shall break.
'Tis true but simple knightly birth is mine;
I claim no splendid names to grace my line;
My fields no countless tribe of oxen ploughs,
And scant the means a frugal home allows.
Now Phoebus aid me, and the Muses nine--
Bacchus, and Love, sweet Lord, who makes me thine,
Faith unsurpassed, and life exempt from blame,
And simple Modesty, and blushing Shame;
No trifler I; my heart no rivals share:
Thee will I make, be sure, my lifelong care;
With thee will spend what years the Fates shall give,
And when thou first shalt suffer, cease to live. "
Another little poem has been elegantly paraphrased and
adapted to modern manners by Mr A. A. Brodribb. *
* Lays from Latin Lyrics. By F. W. Hummel and A. A.
Brodribb. Longmans: 1876.
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? 32 0 viD.
It will remind the reader of a pretty passage in Mr
Tennyson's "Miller's Daughter:"--
The Ring.
"Sign of my too presumptuous flame,
To fairest Celia haste, nor linger,
And may she gladly breathe my name,
And gaily put thee on her finger!
Suit her as I myself, that she
May fondle thee with murmured blessing;
Caressed by Celia! Who could be
Unenvious of such sweet caressing i
Had I Medea's magic art,
Or Proteus' power of transformation,
Then would I blithely play thy part,
The happiest trinket in creation!
Oh! on her bosom I would fall,
Her finger guiding all too lightly;
Or else be magically small,
Fearing to be discarded nightly.
And I her ruby lips would kiss
(What mortal's fortune could be better ? )
As oft allowed to seal my bliss
As she desires to seal a letter.
Now go, these are delusions bright
Of idle Fancy's idlest scheming;
Tell her to read the token right--
Tell her how sweet is true love's dreaming. "
But the chief ornaments of the book are two elegies,
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? THE LOVE-POEMS. 33
properly so called,--one of a sportive, the other of
a serious character. Catullus, a predecessor in the
poetic art, of whom Ovid speaks with respect, had
lamented, in an exquisite little poem which must
always remain a model for such compositions, the
death of the sparrow which Lesbia, his lady-love,
"loved more than her own eyes. " In a poem which,
though not so graceful as that of the older writer, and
scarcely even pretending to pathos, has many merits,
Ovid commemorates the death of his own Corinna's
parrot:--
"Our parrot, sent from India's farthest shore,
Our parrot, prince of mimics, is no more.
Throng to his burial, pious tribes of air,
With rigid claw your tender faces tear!
Your ruffled plumes, like mourners' tresses, rend,
And all your notes, like funeral trumpets, blend!
Mourn all that cleave the liquid skies, but chief
Beloved turtle, lead the general grief,
Through long harmonious days the parrot's friend,
In mutual faith still loyal to the end!
What boots that faith? those splendid hues and strange?
That voice so skilled its various notes to change?
What to have won my gentle lady's grace?
Thou diest, hapless glory of thy race.
Eed joined with saffron in thy beak was seen,
And green thy wings beyond the emerald's sheen;
Nor ever lived on earth a wiser bird,
With lisping voice to answer all he heard.
'Twas envy slew thee; all averse to strife,
One love of chatter filled thy peaceful life:
For ever satisfied with scantiest fare,
Small time for food that busy tongue could spare.
A. C. S. S. , vol. ii. o
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? 34 o viD.
Walnuts and sleep-producing poppies gave
Thy simple diet, and thy drink the wave.
Long lives the hovering vulture, long the kite
Pursues through air the circles of his flight;
Many the years the noisy jackdaws know,
Prophets of rainfall; and the boding crow
Waits, still unscathed by armed Minerva's hate,
Three ages three times told, a tardy fate.
But he, our prattler from earth's farthest shore,
Our human tongue's sweet image, is no more.
Thus still the ravening fates our best devour,
And spare the mean till life's extremest hour.
Why tell the prayers my lady prayed in vain,
Borne by the stormy south wind o'er the main?
The seventh dawn had come, the last for_thee,
With empty distaff stood the fatal Three.
Yet still from failing throat thy accents rung,
Farewell, Corinna! cried thy dying tongue.
There stands a grove with dark-green ilex crowned )
Beneath the Elysian hill, and all around \
With turf undying shines the verdant ground. f
There dwells, if true the tale, the pious race--
All evil birds are banished from the place;
There harmless swans unbounded pasture find;
There dwells the phcenix, single of his kind;
The peacock spreads his splendid plumes in air,
The kissing doves sit close, an amorous pair;
There in their woodland home a guest allowed,
Our parrot charms the pious listening crowd.
Beneath a mound, of justly measured size,
Small tombstone, briefest epitaph, he lies,
'His mistress' darling'--that this stone may show--
The prince of feathered speakers lies below. "
The other elegy has for its subject the death of the
poet Tibullus:--
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? THE LOVE-POEMS. 35
"If bright Aurora mourned for Memnon's fate,
Or the fair Thetis wept Achilles slain,
And the sad sorrows that on mortals wait
Can ever move celestial hearts with pain--
Come, doleful Elegy! too just a name!
Unbind thy tresses fair, in loose attire,
For>>he, thy bard, the herald of thy fame,
Tibullus, burns on the funereal pyre.
Ah, lifeless corse! Lo! Venus' boy draws near
With upturned quiver and with shattered bow,
His torch extinguished, see him toward the bier
With drooping wings disconsolately go.
He smites his heaving breast with cruel blow,
Those straggling locks, his neck all streaming round,
Receive the tears that fastly trickling flow,
While sobs convulsive from his lips resound.
In guise like this, lulus, when of yore
His dear jEneas died, he sorrowing went;
Now Venus wails as when the raging boar
The tender thigh of her Adonis rent.
We bards are named the gods' peculiar care;
Nay, some declare that poets are divine;
Yet forward death no holy thing can spare,
'Eound all his dismal arms he dares entwine.
Did Orpheus' mother aid, or Linus' sire?
That one subdued fierce lions by his song
Availed not; and, they say, with plaintive lyre
The god mourned Linus, woods and glades among.
Mseonides, from whose perennial lay
Flow the rich fonts of the Pierian wave
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? 36 0 riD.
To wet the lips of bards, one dismal day
Sent down to Orcus and the gloomy grave--
Him, too, Averans holds in drear employ;
Only his songs escape the greedy pile;
His work remains--the mighty wars of Troy,
And the slow web, nnwove by nightly guile.
Live a pure life ;--yet death remains thy doom:
Be pious;--ere from sacred shrines you rise,
Death drags you heedless to the hollow tomb!
Confide in song--lo! there Tibullus lies.
Scarce of so great a soul, thus lowly laid,
Enough remains to fill this little urn;
O holy bard! were not the flames afraid
That hallowed corse thus ruthlessly to burn?
These might devour the heavenly halls that shine
With gold--they dare a villany so deep:
She turned who holds the Erycinian shrine,
And there are some who say she turned to weep.
Yet did the base soil of a stranger land
Not hold him nameless; as the spirit fled
His mother closed his eyes with gentle hand,
And paid the last sad tribute to the dead.
Here, with thy wretched mother's woe to wait,
Thy sister came with loose dishevelled hair;
Nemesis kisses thee, and thy earlier mate--
They watched the pyre when all had left it bare.
Departing, Delia faltered,'Thou wert true,
The Fates were cheerful then, when I was thine:
The other,' Say, what hast thou here to do i'
Dying, he clasped his failing hand in mine.
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? THE LOVE-POEMS. 37
Ah, yet, if any part of us remains
But name and shadow, Albius is not dead;
And thou, Catullus, in Elysian plains,
With Calvus see the ivy crown his head.
Thou, Gallus, prodigal of life and Wood,
If false the charge of amity betrayed,
And aught remains across the Stygian flood,
Shalt meet him yonder with thy happy shade.
Refined Tibullus! thou art joined to those \
Living in calm communion with the blest; \
In peaceful urn thy quiet bones repose--
May earth lie lightly where thy ashes rest! "
(r ?
Of the 'Art of Love' the less, perhaps, that is said
the better. The poet himself warns respectable per-
sons to have nothing to do with his pages, and the
'warning is amply justified by their contents. It has,
however, some of the brilliant episodes which Ovid
introduces with such effect.
His own taste, and the
taste, we may hope, of his readers, demanded that the
base level of sensuality should sometimes be left for a
higher flight of fancy. The description of Ariadne in
yaxos is as brilliant as Titian! s. pjcture; equally vivid
is the story of the flight of Dsedalus and his son Icarus
on the wings which the matchless craftsman had made,
aiuTdTth'e fate which followed the over-daring flight of
the youth through regions too near to the sun. Then,-
agairi, we find ever and anon pictures of Eoman man-
ners which may amuse without offence. Among such
are Ovid's instructions to his fair readers how they
may most becomingly take their part in the games of
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? 38 OVID.
chance and skill which were popular in the polite
circles of Eome. Among these games he mentions
the cubical dice, called tesserm, resembling our own
in shape, and similarly marked. Three of these were
used together; and it was customary to throw them
from cups of a conical shape. The luckiest throw was
"treble sixes," and was honoured by the name of
Aphrodite or Venus. The worst was "treble aces :"
this was stigmatised as " the dog. " There were other
dice made out of the knuckle-bones of animals. They
were called tali. (Our own popular name for them is
"dibs. ") These were used either in the same way as
the cubical dice, though they were not numbered in
the same way, or in a game of manual skill which still
survives among us, where the player throws them
and catches them again, or performs other feats of
dexterity with them. Besides these there was the
game of the "Eobbers" (Ludus Latrunculorum),
played with pieces made of glass or ivory, which has
been compared with chess, but was probably not so
complicated, and more nearly resembling our games
of "Fox and Geese" and "Military Tactics. " The
game of the "Fifteen Lines" must have been very
like our " Backgammon," as the moves of the men were
determined by previous throws of dice. Ovid, after
recommending his readers to practise a graceful play-
ing at the games, wisely warns them that it is still
more important that they should learn to keep their
temper. The suitor he advises to allow his fair an-
tagonist to win, a counsel doubtless often followed by
those who have never had the advantage--or, we should
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? THE LOVE-POEMS. S9
rather say, the disadvantage--of studying Ovid's pre-
cepts. Equally familiar will be the device of a present
of fruit brought by a slave-boy in a rustic basket,
which the lover will declare has been conveyed from
a country garden, though he will probably have bought
it in the neighbouring street. A certain sagacity must
be allowed to the counsel that the lover, when his lady
is sick, must not take upon himself the odious office of
forbidding her a favourite dish; and will, if possible,
hand over to a rival the office, equally odious, of ad-
ministering a nauseous. medicine. The recommenda-
tion not to be too particular in inquiring about age is
equally sagacious. It is curious to observe that Lord
Byron's expressed aversion to seeing women eat was
not unknown to the Eoman youth. Ovid, who, to do
him justice, never praises wine, hints that drinking
was not equally distasteful.
The 'Eemedies ofr Lovef may be dismissed with
a still briefer notice. Like the 'Art of Love,' it
is relieved by some beautiful digressions. "When it
keeps close to its subject, it is, to say the least, not
edifying. The "Eemedies," indeed, are for the most
part as bad as the disease, though we must except that
most respectable maxim that "idleness is the parent
of love," with the poet's practical application of it.
One specimen of these two books shall suffice. It is
of the episodical kind, -- a brilliant panegyric oa
the young Csesar, Caius, son of Augustus's daughter
Julia, who was then preparing to take the command
of an expedition against the Parthians. Gross as is
the flattery, it is perhaps less offensive than usual.
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? 40 0 V1D.
The young Caius died before his abilities could be
proved; but the precocious genius of the family was
a fact. Caius was then of the very same age at which
his grandfather had first commanded an army.
"Once more our Prince prepares to make us glad,
And the remaining East to Eome will add.
Rejoice, ye Eoman soldiers, in your urn; \
Your ensigns from the Parthians shall return; /
And the slain Crassi shall no longer mourn! ;
A youth is sent those trophies to demand,
And bears his father's thunder in his hand:
Doubt not th' imperial boy in wars unseen;
In childhood all of Csesar's race are men. >>
Celestial seeds shoot out before their day,
Prevent their years, and brook no dull delay.
Thus infant Hercules the snakes did press,
And in his cradle did his sire confess.
Bacchus, a boy, yet like a hero fought,
And early spoils from conquered India brought.
Thus you your father's troops shall lead to fight,
And thus shall vanquish in your father's sight.
These rudiments you to your lineage owe;
Born to increase your titles as you grow.
Brethren you lead, avenge your brethren slain;
You have a father, and his right maintain.
Armed by your country's parent and your own,
Redeem your country and restore his throne. "--D.
The date of the poem is fixed by this passage for the
year B. C. 1, as that of the 'Eemedies of Love' is
eettled for a. d. 1 by an allusion to the actual war in
Parthia, which was at its height in that year, and was
finished by a peace in the year following.
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? CHAPTEE III.
DOMESTIC LIFE--BANISHMENT.
About Ovid's private life between his twentieth and
fiftieth years there is little to be recorded. Two mar-
riages have already been spoken of. He had pro-
bably reached middle life when he married for the
third time. The probability, indeed, consists in the
difficulty we have in believing that the husband of a
wife whom he really respected and loved should have
published so disreputable a book as the 'Art of Love,'
for even to the lax judgment of Soman society it
seemed disreputable. A feeling, perhaps a hint from
high quarters, that he had gone too far -- a con-
sciousness, we may hope, that he was capable of better
things--had made him turn to work of a more elevated
kind. A good marriage may have been part of his
plan for restoring himself to a reputable place in
society. It is even possible to imagine that a genuine
and worthy affection may have been one of the causes
that operated in bringing about a change. A much
earlier date, indeed, must be fixed, if we suppose that
the daughter of whom Ovid speaks in the brief sketch
of his life was a child of this marriage. This daughter
/
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? 42 OVID.
had been twice married at the time of his banishment,
when he was in his fifty-second year, and had borne a
child to each husband. Eoman women married early,
and changed their husbands quickly; but, in any case,
it is not likely that the young lady could have been
less than twenty. It seems, however, more probable
that she was the offspring of the second marriage. In
the many affectionate letters which Ovid addressed to
his wife after his banishment, no mention is made of
a child and grandchildren in whom both had a com-
mon interest. It is impossible to suppose that a
husband who anxiously appeals to every motive in a
wife which could help to keep their mutual affection
unimpaired by absence, should have neglected to make
use of what was obviously the most powerful of all.
There is, it is true, a letter addressed to one Perilla,
written by Ovid in exile. Dr Dyer, the learned
author of the article "Ovidius" in the 'Dictionary of
Biography and Mythology,' takes it for granted that
this Perilla was Ovid's daughter by his third wife.
The letter does not bear out the supposition. It will
be found described in its place. Meanwhile it is
sufficient to say, that while the writer enlarges on the
fact that he had instructed Perilla in the art of poetry,
he does not say a word which indicates a closer rela-
tionship than that of master and pupil. Had the
poetess been his daughter, we may say with confidence
that Ovid would have expressed in at least a dozen
ways that he was the source at once of her life and of
her song. The poet's wife was a lady of good position
at Borne. In early years she had been what may be
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? DOMESTIC LIFE--BANISHMENT. 43
\
called a lady-in-waiting to the aunt of Augustus, and
at the same time an intimate friend of Marcia, a
lady belonging to that branch of the Maician house
which bore the surname of Philippus. On Marcia's
marriage with Fabius Maximus, representative of the
great patrician- family of the Fabii, one of the few
ancient houses which had survived to the days of the
empire, this friend accompanied her to her new home.
From there Ovid married her. The union lasted till \
his death, with much mutual affection. "When it has
been added that Ovid's town mansion was close to the
Capitol, and that he had a suburban residence, where
he amused himself with the pleasures of gardening,
nothing remains to be told about this portion of his
life.
Some time after his third marriage, and not long
before the great catastrophe which we are about to
relate, Ovid's father died. He had completed his
ninetieth year. His mother died shortly afterwards.
"All! happy they and timely passed away
Ere on their offspring came that fatal day!
Ah! happy I amidst my grief to know
That they are all unconscious of my woe! "
It is the catastrophe which he here mentions that has |
now to be discussed. The cause of the banishment
of Ovid, like the personality of the Man in the Iron
Mask and the authorship of 'Junius,' is one of the
unsolved problems of history. The facts absolutely
known are very soon related. Ovid was in his fifty-J
second year. His fame as a poet was at its height. /
f
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? 44 0 VID.
Any scandal that may have arisen from some of his
publications had gradually passed away. Suddenly
there fell on him "a bolt from the blue. " A rescript
in the emperor's hand was delivered to him, ordering
him to leave Home within a certain time, and to
repair to Tomi, a desolate settlement on the western
shore of the Black Sea, near the very outskirts of
the empire. ISo decree of the senate had been passed
to authorise the infliction of the banishment. It was
simply an act of arbitrary power on the part of the
emperor. The cause alleged was the publication of
works corrupting to public morals, and the 'Art of
Love ' was specified. The punishment was not of the
severest kind. The place of exile, hateful as it was
to the banished man, was at least preferable to that
which many offenders had to endure--some desolate
rock in the iEgean, where the victim was kept from
starvation only by the charity of his friends. Ovid
was also permitted to retain and enjoy his property.
That the cause alleged was not the actual cause
of the banishment may be considered certain. It
/ is sufficient to say that the guilty work had been
I published at least ten years before. The offence was
such as to afford a pretext of the barest kind to an
absolute ruler who felt the force of public opinion
just enough to make him shrink from a wholly arbi-
trary act, but was not careful to make any complete
justification. But it did not, we may be sure, wholly
sway his mind. We know, indeed, that there was
another cause. To such a cause Ovid frequently al-
ludes. And it is in this lies the mystery of the event.
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? DOMESTIC LIFE--BANISHMENT. 45
At the same time, we must not suppose that thei
alleged motive had not some real influence on the
emperor's action. His own life had not been by any I
means free from reproach. Even if we discredit much
of what that great scandalmonger, Suetonius, tells us
about him, there remains enough to convict him of
shameful disregard of morality. But he was now an
old man. And he had had some of those tremendous
lessons which teach even the most profligate, if the
light of intelligence be not wholly quenched in them,
that moral laws cannot be disregarded with impunity.
Men in their own lives quite Tegardless of purity feel
a genuine shock of disgust and horror when they find
unchastity in the women of their own family. And
Augustus had felt the unutterable shame of discover-
ing that his own daughter was the most profligate
woman in Eome. Nor was he, we may believe, with-
out some genuine feeling of concern for the future of
his country. The establishment of absolute power
may have been a necessity for the State,--all writers
seem to agree in saying so. It had certainly aggran-
dised himself. But he could not fail to perceive, and
to perceive more and more clearly as he came nearer
to the end of his long reign, that it was ruining the
old Eoman character, the traditionary virtues of his
country. An aristocracy, whose vast wealth furnished
them with all the means of procuring enjoyment, but
who were shut out from anything like the career of
public life, would inevitably become corrupt. Augustus
was not a man who would deny himself in order to set
a practical example to others; but he was a man cap-
<
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? 46 0 VID-
able of doing everything, short of such self-denial, to
stop the evil of which, both from public and private
causes, he was so acutely conscious. He had recourse
to severe legislation against immorality. The more
he saw, as he must have seen, how ineffectual was this
method of reforming society, the greater must have
been his disgust with other agencies which he sup-
'posed to be at work. Ovid's poems may well have
i been a symptom rather than a cause of general iromor-
I ality; but it was quite possible that Augustus, his own
habits and tastes changed by advancing years, may
have sincerely regarded them as the author of mischief,
and deserving, accordingly, of the severest punishment
.
To arrive, however, at the truth, we must examine
closely another side of the emperor's life. His home
was divided between two conflicting interests--the
interest of his own descendants and the interest of the
step-children whom his wife Livia had brought into
his family.
