, refers to the not$ either by itself x or in
addition
to matter in the text.
The history of Rome; tr. with the sanction of the ... v.5. Mommsen, Theodor, 1817-1903
This easily explained.
Gaius Gracchus had addressed the burgesses; now men addressed the populace; and as
508
RELIGION, CULTURE, book V
of the mind from which it springs, among the permanent treasures of the national literature. Thus in Rome the records of orations of a political tenor delivered before the burgesses or the jurymen had for long played a great part in public life ; and not only so, but the speeches of Gaius Gracchus in particular were justly reckoned among
Decline of the classical Roman writings. But in this epoch a singular
power
is
(p.
chap. XII LITERATURE, AND ART
303
the audience, so was the speech. No wonder that the reputable political author shunned a dress which implied that he had directed his words to the crowd assembled in the market-place of the capital.
While the composition of orations thus declined from Rise of » its former literary and political value in the same way as 0f plead- all branches of literature which were the natural growth of '"S3-
the national life, there began at the same time a singular, non-political, literature of pleadings. Hitherto the Romans
had known nothing of the idea that the address of an advocate as such was destined not only for the judges and
the parties, but also for the literary edification of contem
poraries and posterity ; no advocate had written down and
his pleadings, unless they were possibly at the
same time political orations and in so far were fitted to be circulated as party writings, and this had not occurred very frequently. Even Quintus Hortensius (640-704), the 114-60. most celebrated Roman advocate in the first years of this
period, published but few speeches and these apparently
only such as were wholly or half political. It was his successor in the leadership of the Roman bar, Marcus
Tullius Cicero (648-711) who was from the outset quite
as much author as forensic orator; he published his pleadings regularly, even when they were not at all or but remotely connected with politics. This was a token, not / of progress, but of an unnatural and degenerate state of I things. Even in Athens the appearance of non-political pleadings among the forms of literature was a sign of debility ; and it was doubly so in Rome, which did not like Athens by a sort of necessity produce this malformation
from the exaggerated pursuit of rhetoric, but borrowed it
from abroad arbitrarily and in antagonism to the better traditions of the nation. Yet this new species of literature
came rapidly into vogue, partly because it had various
points of contact and coincidence with the earlier authorship
published
Cicero. 106-48.
Hit
of political orations, partly because the unpoetic, dog matical, rhetorizing temperament of the Romans offered a favourable soil for the new seed, as indeed at the present day the speeches of advocates and even a sort of literature of law-proceedings are of some importance in Italy.
Thus oratorical authorship emancipated from politics was naturalized in the Roman literary world by Cicero We have already had occasion several times to mention this many-sided man. As a statesman without
idea, or purpose, he figured successively as democrat, as aristocrat, and as a tool of the monarchs, and was never more than a short-sighted egotist. Where he exhibited the semblance of action, the questions to which his action applied had, as a rule, just reached their solution ; thus he came forward in the trial of Verres against the senatorial courts when they were already set aside ; thus he was silent at the discussion on the Gabinian, and acted as a champion of the Manilian, law; thus he thundered against Catilina
when his departure was already settled, and so forth. He was valiant in opposition to sham attacks, and he knocked down many walls of pasteboard with a loud din ; no serious matter was ever, either in good or evil, decided by him, and the execution of the Catilinarians in particular was far more due to his acquiescence than to his instigation. In a liter ary point of view we have already noticed that he was the creator of the modern Latin prose (p. 456) ; his importance rests on his mastery of style, and it is only as a stylist that he shows confidence in himself. In the character of an author, on the other hand, he stands quite as low as in that of a statesman. He essayed the most varied tasks,
sang the great deeds of Marius and his own petty achieve ments in endless hexameters, beat Demosthenes off the field with his speeches, and Plato with his philosophic dialogues; and time alone was wanting for him to vanquish also Thucydides. He was in fact so thoroughly a dabbler,
S<>4
RELIGION, CULTURE, book v
insight,
chap. XII LITERATURE, AND ART
505
that it was pretty much a matter of indifference to what work he applied his hand. By nature a journalist in the worst sense of that term — abounding, as he himself says, in words, poor beyond all conception in ideas —there was no department in which he could not with the help of a few books have rapidly got up by translation or compilation a readable essay. His correspondence mirrors most faithfully his character. People are in the habit of calling it interest ing and clever ; and it is so, as long as it reflects the urban or villa life of the world of quality ; but where the writer is thrown on his own resources, as in exile, in Cilicia, and after the battle of Pharsalus, it is stale and empty as was ever the soul of a feuilletonist banished from his familiar circles. It is scarcely needful to add that such a states man and such a litt'erateur could not, as a man, exhibit aught else than a thinly varnished superficiality and heart- lessness. Must we still describe the orator ? The great author is also a great man ; and in the great orator more especially conviction or passion flows forth with a clearer and more impetuous stream from the depths of the breast than in the scantily-gifted many who merely count and are nothing. Cicero had no conviction and no passion ; he was nothing but an advocate, and not a good one. He under stood how to set forth his narrative of the case with piquancy of anecdote, to excite, if not the feeling, at any rate the sentimentality of his hearers, and to enliven the dry business of legal pleading by cleverness or witticisms mostly of a personal sort ; his better orations, though they are far from coming up to the free gracefulness and the sure point of the most excellent compositions of this sort, for instance the Memoirs of Beaumarchais, yet form easy and agreeable reading. But while the very advantages just indicated will appear to the serious judge as advantages of very dubious value, the absolute want of political discern ment in the orations on constitutional questions and of
Mfo- ianism.
juristic deduction in the forensic addresses, the egotism forgetful of its duty and constantly losing sight of the cause while thinking of the advocate, the dreadful barrenness of thought in the Ciceronian orations must revolt every reader of feeling and judgment
If there is anything wonderful in the case, it is in truth nQt ^e orations, but the admiration which they excited. As to Cicero every unbiassed person will soon make up his mind : Ciceronianism is a problem, which in fact cannot be properly solved, but can only be resolved into that greater mystery of human nature — language and the effect of language on the mind. Inasmuch as the noble Latin language, just before it perished as a national idiom, was once more as it were comprehensively grasped by that dexterous stylist and deposited in his copious
something of the power which language exercises, and of the piety which it awakens, was transferred to the unworthy vessel. The Romans possessed no great Latin prose- writer ; for Caesar was, like Napoleon, only incidentally an author. Was it to be wondered at that, in the absence of such an one, they should at least honour the genius of the language in the great stylist ? and that, like Cicero himself, Cicero's readers also should accustom themselves to ask not what, but how he had written ? Custom and the school master then completed what the power of language had begun.
Cicero's contemporaries however were, as may readily be conceived, far less involved in this strange idolatry than many of their successors. The Ciceronian manner ruled no doubt throughout a generation the Roman advocate-world, just as the far worse manner of Hortensius had done ; but the most considerable men, such as Caesar, kept themselves always aloof from and among the younger generation there arose in all men of fresh and living talent the most
Opposition niamsm.
506
RELIGION, CULTURE, book v
decided opposition
to that hybrid and feeble rhetoric.
writings,
it,
chap, XII LITERATURE, AND ART
507
They found Cicero's language deficient in precision and chasteness, his jests deficient in liveliness, his arrangement deficient in clearness and articulate division, and above all his whole eloquence wanting in the fire which makes the orator. Instead of the Rhodian eclectics men began to recur to the genuine Attic orators, especially to Lysias and Demosthenes, and sought to naturalize a more vigorous and masculine eloquence in Rome. Representatives of this tendency were, the solemn but stiff Marcus Junius Brutus
Undeniably there was more taste cind more spirit in this younger oratorical literature than in the Hortensian and Ciceronian put together ; but we are not able to judge how far, amidst the storms of the revolution which rapidly swept away the whole of this richly-gifted group with the single exception of Pollio, those better germs attained
Calvus .
86-42. 82-48. 49. 82-48.
76-4 a. d.
(669-712);
the two political partisans Marcus Caelius Rufus (672-706; p. 317) and Gaius Scribonius Curio (t 705; p. 183, 233) — both as orators full of spirit and life; Calvus well known also as a poet (672 — 706), the literary coryphaeus of this younger group of orators ; and the earnest and conscientious Gaius Asinius Pollio (678-
757).
The time allotted to them was but too brief. The new monarchy began by making war on freedom of
speech, and soon wholly suppressed the political oration. Thenceforth the subordinate species of the pure advocate- pleading was doubtless still retained in literature ; but the higher art and literature of oratory, which thoroughly depend on political excitement, perished with the latter of necessity and for ever.
development
Lastly there sprang up in the aesthetic literature of this The period the artistic treatment of subjects of professional ? ^ficIa' science in the form of the stylistic dialogue, which had been applied to very extensively in use among the Greeks and had been ^i^j already employed also in isolated cases among the Romans icience*
(iv. 251).
Cicero especially made various attempts at pre-
508
RELIGION, CULTURE, book *
Cicero's senting rhetorical and philosophical subjects in this form and *"*'' making the professional manual a suitable book for reading. SS. His chief writings are the De Oratore (written in 699), to which the history of Roman eloquence (the dialogue Brutus,
«6. written in 708) and other minor rhetorical essays were added by way of supplement ; and the treatise De Republic^
64. (written in 700), with which the treatise De Legibus (written 62 1 in 702 ? ) after the model of Plato is brought into connec tion. They are no great works of art, but undoubtedly
they are the works in which the excellences of the author are most, and his defects least, conspicuous. The rhetorical writings are far from coming up to the didactic chasteness of form and precision of thought of the Rhetoric dedicated to Herennius, but they contain instead a store of practical forensic experience and forensic anecdotes of all sorts
and tastefully set forth, and in fact solve the
easily
problem
ment. The treatise De RepublicA carries out, in a singular mongrel compound of history and philosophy, the leading idea that the existing constitution of Rome is substantially the ideal state-organization sought for by the philosophers ; an idea indeed just as unphilosophical as unhistorical, and besides not even peculiar to the author, but which, as may readily be conceived, became and remained popular. The scientific groundwork of these rhetorical and political writings of Cicero belongs of course entirely to the Greeks, and many of the details also, such as the grand concluding effect in the treatise De Republic^, the Dream of Scipio, are directly borrowed from them ; yet they possess comparative origin ality, inasmuch as the elaboration shows throughout Roman local colouring, and the proud consciousness of political life, which the Roman was certainly entitled to feel as compared with the Greeks, makes the author even confront his Greek instructors with a certain independence. The form of
Cicero's dialogue
is doubtless neither the genuine inter
of combining didactic instruction with amuse
chap, xil LITERATURE, AND ART
S°9
rogative dialectics of the best Greek artificial dialogue nor the genuine conversational tone of Diderot or Lessing ; but the great groups of advocates gathering around Crassus and Antonius and of the older and younger statesmen of the Scipionic circle furnish a lively and effective framework, fitting channels for the introduction of historical references and anecdotes, and convenient resting-points for the scien tific discussion. The style is quite as elaborate and
as in the best-written orations, and so far more pleasing than these, since the author does not often in this field make a vain attempt at pathos.
While these rhetorical and political writings of Cicero
with a philosophic colouring are not devoid of merit, the compiler on the other hand completely failed, when in the involuntary leisure of the last years of his life (709-710) 45-44. he applied himself to philosophy proper, and with equal peevishness and precipitation composed in a couple of I months a philosophical library. The receipt was
simple. In rude imitation of the popular writings of Aristotle, in which the form of dialogue was employed chiefly for the setting forth and criticising of the different
older systems, Cicero stitched together the Epicurean,
Stoic, and Syncretist writings handling the same problem,
as they came or were given to his hand, into a so-called dialogue. And all that he did on his own part was, to supply an introduction prefixed to the new book from the ample collection of prefaces for future works which he had beside him ; to impart a certain popular character, inasmuch
as he interwove Roman examples and references, and sometimes digressed to subjects irrelevant but more familiar to the writer and the reader, such as the treatment of the deportment of the orator in the De Officii s ; and to exhibit that sort of bungling, which a man of letters, who has not attained to philosophic thinking or even to philosophic knowledge and who works rapidly and boldly, shows in the
polished
\
very
Profes sional sciences. Latin philology. Vain*.
reproduction of dialectic trains of thought. In this way no doubt a multitude of thick tomes might very quickly come into existence—"They are copies," wrote the author himself to a friend who wondered at his fertility; "they give me little trouble, for I supply only the words and these I have in abundance. " Against this nothing further could be said ; but any one who seeks classical productions in works so written can only be advised to study in literary matters a becoming silence.
Of the sciences only a single one manifested vigorous life, that of Latin philology. The scheme of linguistic and antiquarian research within the domain of the Latin race, planned by Silo, was carried out especially by his disciple Varro on the grandest scale. There appeared
hensive elaborations of the whole stores of the language, more especially the extensive grammatical commentaries of Figulus and the great work of Varro De Lingua Latino. ; monographs on grammar and the history of the language, such as Varro's writings on the usage of the Latin language, on synonyms, on the age of the letters, on the origin of the Latin tongue ; scholia on the older literature, especially on Plautus; works of literary history, biographies of poets, investigations into the earlier drama, into the scenic division of the comedies of Plautus, and into their genuineness. Latin archaeology, which embraced the whole older history and the ritual law apart from practical jurisprudence, was
5io
RELIGION, CULTURE, BOOK T
in Varro's "Antiquities of Things Human and Divine," which was and for all times remained the fundamental treatise on the subject (published between
comprehended
67. 46. 687 and 709). The first portion, "Of Things Human," described the primeval age of Rome, the divisions of city and country, the sciences of the years, months, and days, Iasdy, the public transactions at home and in war ; in the second half, "Of Things Divine," the state -theology, the nature and significance of the colleges of experts, of the
compre
chap, xil LITERATURE, AND ART
511
holy places, of the religious festivals, of sacrificial and votive gifts, and lastly of the gods themselves were summarily unfolded. Moreover, besides a number of monographs — e. g. on the descent of the Roman people, on the Roman gentes descended from Troy, on the tribes— there was added, as a larger and more independent supplement, the treatise " Of the Life of the Roman People " —a remarkable attempt at a history of Roman manners, which sketched a picture of the state of domestic life, finance, and culture in the regal, the early republican, the Hannibalic, and the most recent period. These labours of Varro were based on an empiric knowledge of the Roman world and its adjacent Hellenic domain more various and greater in its kind than any other Roman either before or after him possessed —a knowledge to which living observation and the study of literature alike contributed. The eulogy of his contemporaries was well deserved, that Varro had enabled his countrymen —strangers in their own world —to know their position in their native land, and had taught the Romans who and where they
were. But criticism and system will be sought for in vain. His Greek information seems to have come from somewhat confused sources, and there are traces that even in the Roman field the writer was not free from the influence of the historical romance of his time. The matter is doubtless inserted in a convenient and symmetrical frame work, but not classified or treated methodically ; and with all his efforts to bring tradition and personal observation into harmony, the scientific labours of Varro are not to be acquitted of a certain implicit faith in tradition or of an unpractical scholasticism. 1 The connection with Greek
1 A remarkable example is the general exposition regarding cattle in the treatise on Husbandry (ii. 1 ) with the nine times nine subdivisions of the doctrine of cattle-rearing, with the "incredible but true " fact that the mares at Olisipo (Lisbon) become pregnant by the wind, and generally
The other
nonai ■deuces.
Alongside of this extraordinary stir in the field of philo- logy the small amount of activity in the other sciences surprising. What appeared of importance in philosophy — such as Lucretius' representation of the Epicurean system in the poetical child- dress of the pre-Socratic philosophy, and the better writings of Cicero —produced its effect and found its audience not through its philosophic contents, but in spite of such contents solely through its aesthetic form; the numerous translations of Epicurean writings and the Pythagorean works, such as Varro's great treatise
with its singular mixture of philosophical, historical, and agricultural notices.
Thus Varro derives facert from fades, because he who makes any thing gives to an appearance, volpes, the fox, after Stilo from volart fediius as the flying - footed Gaius Trebatius, a philosophical jurist of this age, derives sacellum from sacra cetta, Figulus frater from fere alter and so forth. This practice, which appears not merely in isolated instances but as main element of the philological literature of this age, presents a
very great resemblance to the mode in which till recently comparative philology was prosecuted, before insight into the organism of language pot stop to the occupation of the empirics.
'
512
RELIGION, CULTURE, book v
philology consists in the imitation of its defects more than of its excellences ; for instance, the basing of etymologies on mere similarity of sound both in Varro himself and in the other philologues of this epoch runs into pure guess work and often into downright absurdity. 1 In its empiric confidence and copiousness as well as in its empiric in adequacy and want of method the Varronian vividly re minds us of the English national philology, and just like the latter, finds its centre in the study of the older drama. We have already observed that the monarchical literature developed the rules of language in contradistinction to this linguistic empiricism 457). It in high degree signi ficant that there stands at the head of the modern gram marians no less man than Caesar himself, who in his
68. 60. treatise on Analogy (given forth between 696 and 704) first undertook to bring free language under the power of law.
a
a
1
;
(p.
it
is
a
is a
chap, xil LITERATURE, AND ART
513
on the Elements of Numbers and the still more copious one of Figulus concerning the Gods, had beyond doubt neither scientific nor formal value.
Even the professional sciences were but feebly cultivated. Varro's Books on Husbandry written in the form of dialogue are no doubt more methodical than those of his predecessors Cato and Saserna—on which accordingly he drops many a side glance of censure—but have on the whole proceeded more from the study than, like those earlier works, from living experience. Of the juristic labours of Varro and of Servius Sulpicius Rufus (consul in 703) hardly aught more SI can be said, than that they contributed to the dialectic and philosophical embellishment of Roman jurisprudence. And there is nothing farther here to be mentioned, except perhaps the three books of Gaius Matius on cooking, pickling, and making preserves —so far as we know, the earliest Roman cookery-book, and, as the work of a man of rank, certainly a phenomenon deserving of notice. That mathematics and physics were stimulated by the increased Hellenistic and utilitarian tendencies of the monarchy, is apparent from their growing importance in the instruction
of youth (p. 449) and from various practical applications ; under which, besides the reform of the calendar (p. 438), may perhaps be included the appearance of wall-maps at this period, the technical improvements in shipbuilding and
in musical instruments, designs and buildings like the aviary specified by Varro, the bridge of piles over the Rhine executed by the engineers of Caesar, and even two semi circular stages of boards arranged for
together, and employed first separately as two theatres and then jointly as an amphitheatre. The public exhibition of foreign natural curiosities at the popular festivals was not unusual ; and the descriptions of remarkable animals, which Caesar has embodied in the reports of his campaigns, show that, had an Aristotle appeared, he would have again found
vol. v 166
being pushed
Art.
his patron-prince. But such literary performances as are mentioned in this department are essentially associated with Neopythagoreanism, such as the comparison of Greek and Barbarian, i. e. Egyptian, celestial observations by Figulus, and his writings concerning animals, winds, and generative organs. After Greek physical research generally had swerved from the Aristotelian effort to find amidst individual facts the law, and had more and more passed into an empiric and mostly uncritical observation of the external and surprising in nature, natural science when coming forward as a mystical philosophy of nature, instead of en lightening and stimulating, could only still more stupefy and paralyze ; and in presence of such a method it was better to rest satisfied with the platitude which Cicero delivers as Socratic wisdom, that the investigation of nature either seeks after things which nobody can know, or after such things as nobody needs to know.
Ifj in fine, we cast a glance at art, we discover here the
same unpleasing phenomena which pervade the whole
Arts of design.
SM
RELIGION, CULTURE, book v
Architect- mental life of this period. Building on the part of the
"**
state was virtually brought to a total stand amidst the scarcity of money that marked the last age of the republic We have already spoken of the luxury in building of the Roman grandees ; the architects learned in consequence of this to be lavish of marble—the coloured sorts such as the
Numidian (Giallo antico) and others came into vogue at this time, and the marble-quarries of Luna
were now employed for the first time — and began to inlay the floors of the rooms with mosaic work, to panel the walls with slabs of marble, or to paint the com partments in imitation of marble — the first steps towards the subsequent fresco-painting. But art was not a gainer by this lavish magnificence.
In the arts of design connoisseurship and collecting were aiways on the increase. It was a mere affectation of
yellow
(Carrara)
chap, xii LITERATURE, AND ART
515
Catonian simplicity, when an advocate spoke before the jurymen of the works of art " of a certain Praxiteles " ; every one travelled and inspected, and the trade of the art- ciceroni, or, as they were then called, the exegetae, was none of the worst Ancient works of art were formally hunted after — statues and pictures less, it is true, than, in accordance with the rude character of Roman luxury, artistically wrought furniture and ornaments of all sorts for the room and the table. As early as that age the old Greek tombs of Capua and Corinth were ransacked for the sake of the bronze and earthenware vessels which had been placed in the tomb along with the dead. For a small statuette of bronze 40,000 sesterces (^400) were paid, and 200,000 (^2000) for a pair of costly carpets; a well- wrought bronze cooking machine came to cost more than an estate. In this barbaric hunting after art the rich amateur was, as might be expected, frequently cheated by those who supplied him ; but the economic ruin of Asia Minor in particular so exceedingly rich in artistic products brought many really ancient and rare ornaments and works of art into the market, and from Athens,
Syracuse, Cyzicus, Pergamus, Chios, Samos, and other ancient seats of art, everything that was for sale and very much that was not
migrated to the palaces and villas of the Roman grandees. We have already mentioned what treasures of art were to be found within the house of Lucullus, who indeed was accused, perhaps not unjustly, of having gratified his interest in the fine arts at the expense of his duties as a general. The amateurs of art crowded thither as they crowd at present to the Villa Borghese, and complained even then of such treasures being confined to the palaces and country-houses of the men of quality, where they could be seen only with difficulty and after special permission from the possessor. The public buildings on the other hand were far from filled in like proportion with famous
516
RELIGION, CULTURE, book t
works of Greek masters, and in many cases there still stood in the temples of the capital nothing but the old images of the gods carved in wood. As to the exercise of art there is virtually nothing to report ; there is hardly mentioned by name from this period any Roman sculptor or painter except a certain Arellius, whose pictures rapidly went off not on account of their artistic value, but because the cunning reprobate furnished in his pictures of the goddesses faithful portraits of his mistresses for the time being.
The importance of music and dancing increased in public
Dancing
*" m c- as in domestic life. We have already set forth how theatri
cal music and the dancing-piece attained to an independent standing in the development of the stage at this period
472); we may add that now in Rome itself representa tions were very frequently given by Greek musicians, dancers, and declaimers on the public stage—such as were usual in Asia Minor and generally in the whole Hellenic and Hel- lenizing world. 1 To these fell to be added the musicians
Such "Greek entertainments" were very frequent not merely in the Greek cities of Italy, especially in Naples (Cic pro Arch. 10 Plut. Brut, 21), but even now also in Rome (iv. 192 Cic. Ad Fain. vii. i, Ad Att. xvi. Suetoru Caes. 39 Plut. Brut. 21). When the well- known epitaph of Licinia Eucharis fourteen years of age, which probably belongs to the end of this period, makes this " girl well instructed and taught in all arts by the Muses themselves" shine as a dancer in the private exhibitions of noble houses and appear first in public on the Greek stage (modo noiilium ludot dtcoravi choro, it Graeca in scaena prima
populo apparui), this doubtless can only mean that she was the first girl that appeared on the public Greek stage in Rome as generally indeed was not till this epoch that women began to come forward publicly in Rome (p. 469).
These "Greek entertainments" in Rome seem not to have been properly scenic, but rather to have belonged to the category of composite exhibitions —primarily musical and declamatory —such as were not of rare occurrence in subsequent times also in Greece (Welcker, Gritch. Trag. p. 1277). This view supported by the prominence of flute-playing in Polybius (xxx. 13) and of dancing in the account of Suetonius regarding the armed dances from Asia Minor performed at Caesar's games and in the epitaph of Eucharis the description also of the citharoedus (Ad Her. iv. 47, 60 comp. Vitruv. v. must have been derived from such "Greek entertainments. " The combinations of these representations in Rome with Greek athletic combats significant (Polyb. c. Liv. xxxix.
Dramatic recitations were by no means excluded from these mixed
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;
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5, ;
;
;
is
;
, it 3;
5,
1 ;
;
1
(p.
chaf. xii LITERATURE, AND ART
517
and dancing-girls who exhibited their arts to order at table and elsewhere, and the special choirs of stringed and wind instruments and singers which were no longer rare in noble houses. But that even the world of quality itself played and sang with diligence, is shown by the very adoption of music into the cycle of the generally recognized subjects of instruction 449) as to dancing, was, to say nothing of women, made matter of reproach even against consulars that they exhibited themselves in dancing performances amidst small circle.
Towards the end of this period, however, there appears Incipient with the commencement of the monarchy the beginning of 0f ^J100
better time also in art. We have already mentioned the monarchy, mighty stimulus which building in the capital received, and
building throughout the empire was destined to receive,
through Caesar. Even in the cutting of the dies of the
coins there appears about 700 remarkable change; the M. stamping, hitherto for the most part rude and negligent, thenceforward managed with more delicacy and care.
We have reached the end of the Roman republic. We Conclusion, have seen rule for five hundred years Italy and in the
countries on the Mediterranean we have seen brought
to ruin in politics and morals, religion and literature, not
through outward violence but through inward decay, and thereby making room for the new monarchy of Caesar. There was in the world, as Caesar found much of the
entertainments, since among the players whom Lucius Anicius caused to appear in 587 in Rome, tragedians are expressly mentioned there was 187. however no exhibition of plays in the strict sense, but either whole dramas,
or perhaps still more frequently pieces taken from them, were declaimed
or sung to the flute by single artists. This must accordingly have been
done also in Rome but to all appearance for the Roman public the main matter in these Greek games was the music and dancing, and the text probably had little more significance for them than the texts of the Italian
opera for the Londoners and Parisians of the present day. Those composite entertainments with their confused medley were far better suited for the
Yoman public, and especially for exhibitions in private houses, than proper scenic performances in the Greek language the view that the latter also took place in Rome cannot be refuted, but can as little be proved.
;
it
;
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in it
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is
;
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a
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a
;
518
RELIGION, CULTURE, LITERATURE, ART book v
noble heritage of past centuries and an infinite abundance of pomp and glory, but little spirit, still less taste, and least of all true delight in life. It was indeed an old world ; and even the richly-gifted patriotism of Caesar could not make it young again. The dawn does not return till after the night has fully set in and run its course. But yet with him there came to the sorely harassed peoples on the Mediterranean a tolerable evening after the sultry noon ; and when at length after a long historical night the new day dawned once more for the peoples, and fresh nations in free self-movement commenced their race towards new and higher goals, there were found among them not a few, in which the seed sown by Caesar had sprung up, and which owed, as they still owe, to him their national individuality.
INDEX
t1n thii Index the names of persons are given under the gentile nomtn\ nod an arranged in the alphabetic order of the f. raenomina, and, under this, in the chrono -logical order of holding the consulate or other official position. Thus Ciceru will /be found under M. Tullius Cicero, and Caesar under C Julius Caesar. The letter
in 1oa,/C, denotes that the subject is continued in the following page ; the letter ml, as in 1oa «.
, refers to the not$ either by itself x or in addition to matter in the text. )
Abbreviations, Roman, i. 879 Abdera, ii. 503 ; it. 44
Abella burnt, it.
Abgarus, Arab prince, it. 422. Allied
with the Parthians against Crassus, v.
153. '54, 155
Aborigines, ii. 1o6 ; iii 187
Abrupolis, ii. 493, 496
Abruzzi, i. 5, 6, 147, 434 ; iii. 501, 508 Abydus, ii. 406, 417, 418, 447, 461 Academy, the Newer, iv. 107-200 Acarnania and the Acarnaniana, ii. 216,
2i7. 318, 397, 403, 418, 421, 420, 432, 435, 438i 457. 47*. 5Mi 517
Acca Larentia, i. 209
L. Accius, tragic poet, iv. 222, 22^
Acco, Carnutic knight, beheaded, v. 74 Accusers, professional, iv. 104
Acerrae, it. 304. Victory over the
Italians, iii. 510, 515; iv. 66
Achaeans, ii. 215, 217, 318, 405, 421, 423,
Achaia, province of, iii. 270-272 Achill2s, general of Ptolemaeus Diooy
t. 271, 276
Achilles, ancestor of Pyrrhus, ii. j Achradina, ii 311. /C
Achulla, iii 244. Exempt from
iii. 259
C Aciiius, chronicler, iv. 248
M". Acilius Glabrio [consul, 563], ii. 457.
Attempts to rectify the calendar, iii. 194 M\ Acilius Glabrio [consul, 687], iv. 349/!
383, 395/
Acrae, Syracusan, ii. 804
Acta diutna, iv. 279 «.
Actus, i. 265
Adctnsi velmti, i. iiy
Adherbal, iii. 369-392
Adiabene, Iv. 315, 343
Adoption, i. 73
Adramytium, ii. 462 ; iii. 260. /C ; Iv. 46 Adriatic Sea, origin of the name, i. 418
63
158
Achaeans on the Caucasus, iv. 416 Achaean colonies in Italy and Sicily, i.
165/C Their distinctive character, 170^ League of the cities, i. 170-173 ; recon structed against the Lucanians, i. 454. Agricultural towns, i. 173. Coins, i. 171. Alphabet, i. 173/ Decay, i. 172
Achaeus, Syrian satrap, ii. 444
Achaeus, general of the slaves in first
Sicilian war, iii. 310
flii. ts with them, v. 52, 54
Aeacidea, father of Pyrrhus, ii 6
Aeacus, ancestor of Pyrrhus, ii j
Aeca, ii. 280
Aeclanum, town of the Hirptul, tU. 90%
523
Aedicula, i. 8*5
Atdiles Cerialest v. 946, 374
Aedilee curuZft, their Institution, I. 383.
Original functions : market-supervision and police, and celebration of the city
/,
25a
427, 430, 435. 437. 439. 45*. 476-480, 497. Adrogatio, i. 95
498/, 517/: i". 234. A 2fi1; ,v- 35. Adsidui, i. 115
War against them, iii. 264-270. Achaean Adsignatia virttMMm, L 840 m.
league dissolved, iii. 271. Province of Aduatuca, v. 73
Achaia, iii. 270-272. Taxation of, iv. Adoatuci, origin of, iii. 445 ; t. 39. Ccav
520
HISTORY OF ROME
fest1val, i. 383 ; 97 iii. 41. Plebe1ans 11i, 379. Sent as envoy to Jugurtha, iii. eligible, 383. Police duties in Rome, 392. Commander in Jugurthine war, ii. 84. Jurisdiction, ii. 66 iv, 128. In iii- 393 J- Against the Taurisci, iii. cluded among curole magistracies, iii. 428. Tried for extort1on, iii. 482. At
6,7
AedUes piebit, founded on model of the
quaestors, 354 n. Original functions
charge of the archives, 349, 354 «•
snpport of the tribunes in their judicial
functions, 351 decrees of the senate Q. Aemilius Papus [consul, 476], ii. 30 deposited in their charge, 369. Juris- Aenaria, 175, 178 iii. 541. Syracusan, diction, iv. 127 416. Withdrawn by Sulla from
AediUs the Municipia, founded on the Neapolis, iv. 107
model of the curule aedileship in Rome, Aeneas in Homer, 1i. 108. Legend of
-. 45-
Aegates Insulae, Phoen1cian,
ii. 143.
Aeneas in Italy, ii. 108-111. Invented by Stesichorus, 1o8. First occurs in the current form with Timaeus, ii. 110. In the Roman chroniclers, iv. 249
Battle at the, ii. 195
Acgina, 308; 319, 402, 417, 423, 437,
treatise ("Tripartita"), iii. 195 Aepulo, ii. 37a
L. Aelius Praeconinus Stilo, ofLanuvium, Aequi, settlements of, 444 n. Their
478. Beetle-stone found there, 307
Aegium, iii. 267
Sex. Aelius Paetus [consul, 556], his legal Aeolus, 117
ii. 107
Aemilius Lepidus, a Sullan, iv. 90
Aemilius Macer, poet, v. 480
L. Aemilius Papus [consul, 529], ii. ? ? . »
L. Aemilius Paullus [consul, 538], ii. aao, Aerarium, 137. After the abolition of
[consul, 677J, iv. 269
M. Aemilius Lepidus [consul, 567, 579],
ii. 416, 418
M. Aemilius Lepidus Porcina (consul,
617}, defeated by the Vaccaei, iii. 229.
Orator, vs. 215
M. Aemilius Lepidus [consul, 676], his
Remained faithful to the Romans in the Social war, iii. 502-509. Conquered, iii. 510 and held by the Samnites, iii. 524. Conquered by Sulla (1% «*• 91 «. and laid desolate, iv. 108
Aesis, iv. 85. Boundary of Italy, ii. 990; iv. 122 ft.
party-position, iv. vZof. Preparations Aesopus, actor, v. 384
for civil war, iv. 287-290. Insurrection, Aestimatio, derived from ass, 25» iv. 290 Defeat and death, iv. 291 Aes uxarium, 66
M. Aemilius Lepidus, Caesar's city- Aethalia, occupied by the Hellenes, 178, prefect, v. a18 416. Wrested from them by the Etrus
If. Aemilius Scaun1s [consul, 639 censor, cans, 181. Iron of, 182
645], leader of the aristocracy, iii. 376, Aetna, ii. 169
393/. 475t 4*4. 503- His character, Aetolians, 169 «. it 215, 217, 397.
titude to the proposals of Drusus, ni. 483. His roads, bridges, and drainage, iv. 167, 170
M. Aemilius Scaurus, adjutant of Pom. peius, Iv. 429. /:, 430
Aenus, ii. 417, 465, 486, 510
teacher of Roman literature, iv. 216, 252 Aemilii, clan-village, 45.
508
RELIGION, CULTURE, book V
of the mind from which it springs, among the permanent treasures of the national literature. Thus in Rome the records of orations of a political tenor delivered before the burgesses or the jurymen had for long played a great part in public life ; and not only so, but the speeches of Gaius Gracchus in particular were justly reckoned among
Decline of the classical Roman writings. But in this epoch a singular
power
is
(p.
chap. XII LITERATURE, AND ART
303
the audience, so was the speech. No wonder that the reputable political author shunned a dress which implied that he had directed his words to the crowd assembled in the market-place of the capital.
While the composition of orations thus declined from Rise of » its former literary and political value in the same way as 0f plead- all branches of literature which were the natural growth of '"S3-
the national life, there began at the same time a singular, non-political, literature of pleadings. Hitherto the Romans
had known nothing of the idea that the address of an advocate as such was destined not only for the judges and
the parties, but also for the literary edification of contem
poraries and posterity ; no advocate had written down and
his pleadings, unless they were possibly at the
same time political orations and in so far were fitted to be circulated as party writings, and this had not occurred very frequently. Even Quintus Hortensius (640-704), the 114-60. most celebrated Roman advocate in the first years of this
period, published but few speeches and these apparently
only such as were wholly or half political. It was his successor in the leadership of the Roman bar, Marcus
Tullius Cicero (648-711) who was from the outset quite
as much author as forensic orator; he published his pleadings regularly, even when they were not at all or but remotely connected with politics. This was a token, not / of progress, but of an unnatural and degenerate state of I things. Even in Athens the appearance of non-political pleadings among the forms of literature was a sign of debility ; and it was doubly so in Rome, which did not like Athens by a sort of necessity produce this malformation
from the exaggerated pursuit of rhetoric, but borrowed it
from abroad arbitrarily and in antagonism to the better traditions of the nation. Yet this new species of literature
came rapidly into vogue, partly because it had various
points of contact and coincidence with the earlier authorship
published
Cicero. 106-48.
Hit
of political orations, partly because the unpoetic, dog matical, rhetorizing temperament of the Romans offered a favourable soil for the new seed, as indeed at the present day the speeches of advocates and even a sort of literature of law-proceedings are of some importance in Italy.
Thus oratorical authorship emancipated from politics was naturalized in the Roman literary world by Cicero We have already had occasion several times to mention this many-sided man. As a statesman without
idea, or purpose, he figured successively as democrat, as aristocrat, and as a tool of the monarchs, and was never more than a short-sighted egotist. Where he exhibited the semblance of action, the questions to which his action applied had, as a rule, just reached their solution ; thus he came forward in the trial of Verres against the senatorial courts when they were already set aside ; thus he was silent at the discussion on the Gabinian, and acted as a champion of the Manilian, law; thus he thundered against Catilina
when his departure was already settled, and so forth. He was valiant in opposition to sham attacks, and he knocked down many walls of pasteboard with a loud din ; no serious matter was ever, either in good or evil, decided by him, and the execution of the Catilinarians in particular was far more due to his acquiescence than to his instigation. In a liter ary point of view we have already noticed that he was the creator of the modern Latin prose (p. 456) ; his importance rests on his mastery of style, and it is only as a stylist that he shows confidence in himself. In the character of an author, on the other hand, he stands quite as low as in that of a statesman. He essayed the most varied tasks,
sang the great deeds of Marius and his own petty achieve ments in endless hexameters, beat Demosthenes off the field with his speeches, and Plato with his philosophic dialogues; and time alone was wanting for him to vanquish also Thucydides. He was in fact so thoroughly a dabbler,
S<>4
RELIGION, CULTURE, book v
insight,
chap. XII LITERATURE, AND ART
505
that it was pretty much a matter of indifference to what work he applied his hand. By nature a journalist in the worst sense of that term — abounding, as he himself says, in words, poor beyond all conception in ideas —there was no department in which he could not with the help of a few books have rapidly got up by translation or compilation a readable essay. His correspondence mirrors most faithfully his character. People are in the habit of calling it interest ing and clever ; and it is so, as long as it reflects the urban or villa life of the world of quality ; but where the writer is thrown on his own resources, as in exile, in Cilicia, and after the battle of Pharsalus, it is stale and empty as was ever the soul of a feuilletonist banished from his familiar circles. It is scarcely needful to add that such a states man and such a litt'erateur could not, as a man, exhibit aught else than a thinly varnished superficiality and heart- lessness. Must we still describe the orator ? The great author is also a great man ; and in the great orator more especially conviction or passion flows forth with a clearer and more impetuous stream from the depths of the breast than in the scantily-gifted many who merely count and are nothing. Cicero had no conviction and no passion ; he was nothing but an advocate, and not a good one. He under stood how to set forth his narrative of the case with piquancy of anecdote, to excite, if not the feeling, at any rate the sentimentality of his hearers, and to enliven the dry business of legal pleading by cleverness or witticisms mostly of a personal sort ; his better orations, though they are far from coming up to the free gracefulness and the sure point of the most excellent compositions of this sort, for instance the Memoirs of Beaumarchais, yet form easy and agreeable reading. But while the very advantages just indicated will appear to the serious judge as advantages of very dubious value, the absolute want of political discern ment in the orations on constitutional questions and of
Mfo- ianism.
juristic deduction in the forensic addresses, the egotism forgetful of its duty and constantly losing sight of the cause while thinking of the advocate, the dreadful barrenness of thought in the Ciceronian orations must revolt every reader of feeling and judgment
If there is anything wonderful in the case, it is in truth nQt ^e orations, but the admiration which they excited. As to Cicero every unbiassed person will soon make up his mind : Ciceronianism is a problem, which in fact cannot be properly solved, but can only be resolved into that greater mystery of human nature — language and the effect of language on the mind. Inasmuch as the noble Latin language, just before it perished as a national idiom, was once more as it were comprehensively grasped by that dexterous stylist and deposited in his copious
something of the power which language exercises, and of the piety which it awakens, was transferred to the unworthy vessel. The Romans possessed no great Latin prose- writer ; for Caesar was, like Napoleon, only incidentally an author. Was it to be wondered at that, in the absence of such an one, they should at least honour the genius of the language in the great stylist ? and that, like Cicero himself, Cicero's readers also should accustom themselves to ask not what, but how he had written ? Custom and the school master then completed what the power of language had begun.
Cicero's contemporaries however were, as may readily be conceived, far less involved in this strange idolatry than many of their successors. The Ciceronian manner ruled no doubt throughout a generation the Roman advocate-world, just as the far worse manner of Hortensius had done ; but the most considerable men, such as Caesar, kept themselves always aloof from and among the younger generation there arose in all men of fresh and living talent the most
Opposition niamsm.
506
RELIGION, CULTURE, book v
decided opposition
to that hybrid and feeble rhetoric.
writings,
it,
chap, XII LITERATURE, AND ART
507
They found Cicero's language deficient in precision and chasteness, his jests deficient in liveliness, his arrangement deficient in clearness and articulate division, and above all his whole eloquence wanting in the fire which makes the orator. Instead of the Rhodian eclectics men began to recur to the genuine Attic orators, especially to Lysias and Demosthenes, and sought to naturalize a more vigorous and masculine eloquence in Rome. Representatives of this tendency were, the solemn but stiff Marcus Junius Brutus
Undeniably there was more taste cind more spirit in this younger oratorical literature than in the Hortensian and Ciceronian put together ; but we are not able to judge how far, amidst the storms of the revolution which rapidly swept away the whole of this richly-gifted group with the single exception of Pollio, those better germs attained
Calvus .
86-42. 82-48. 49. 82-48.
76-4 a. d.
(669-712);
the two political partisans Marcus Caelius Rufus (672-706; p. 317) and Gaius Scribonius Curio (t 705; p. 183, 233) — both as orators full of spirit and life; Calvus well known also as a poet (672 — 706), the literary coryphaeus of this younger group of orators ; and the earnest and conscientious Gaius Asinius Pollio (678-
757).
The time allotted to them was but too brief. The new monarchy began by making war on freedom of
speech, and soon wholly suppressed the political oration. Thenceforth the subordinate species of the pure advocate- pleading was doubtless still retained in literature ; but the higher art and literature of oratory, which thoroughly depend on political excitement, perished with the latter of necessity and for ever.
development
Lastly there sprang up in the aesthetic literature of this The period the artistic treatment of subjects of professional ? ^ficIa' science in the form of the stylistic dialogue, which had been applied to very extensively in use among the Greeks and had been ^i^j already employed also in isolated cases among the Romans icience*
(iv. 251).
Cicero especially made various attempts at pre-
508
RELIGION, CULTURE, book *
Cicero's senting rhetorical and philosophical subjects in this form and *"*'' making the professional manual a suitable book for reading. SS. His chief writings are the De Oratore (written in 699), to which the history of Roman eloquence (the dialogue Brutus,
«6. written in 708) and other minor rhetorical essays were added by way of supplement ; and the treatise De Republic^
64. (written in 700), with which the treatise De Legibus (written 62 1 in 702 ? ) after the model of Plato is brought into connec tion. They are no great works of art, but undoubtedly
they are the works in which the excellences of the author are most, and his defects least, conspicuous. The rhetorical writings are far from coming up to the didactic chasteness of form and precision of thought of the Rhetoric dedicated to Herennius, but they contain instead a store of practical forensic experience and forensic anecdotes of all sorts
and tastefully set forth, and in fact solve the
easily
problem
ment. The treatise De RepublicA carries out, in a singular mongrel compound of history and philosophy, the leading idea that the existing constitution of Rome is substantially the ideal state-organization sought for by the philosophers ; an idea indeed just as unphilosophical as unhistorical, and besides not even peculiar to the author, but which, as may readily be conceived, became and remained popular. The scientific groundwork of these rhetorical and political writings of Cicero belongs of course entirely to the Greeks, and many of the details also, such as the grand concluding effect in the treatise De Republic^, the Dream of Scipio, are directly borrowed from them ; yet they possess comparative origin ality, inasmuch as the elaboration shows throughout Roman local colouring, and the proud consciousness of political life, which the Roman was certainly entitled to feel as compared with the Greeks, makes the author even confront his Greek instructors with a certain independence. The form of
Cicero's dialogue
is doubtless neither the genuine inter
of combining didactic instruction with amuse
chap, xil LITERATURE, AND ART
S°9
rogative dialectics of the best Greek artificial dialogue nor the genuine conversational tone of Diderot or Lessing ; but the great groups of advocates gathering around Crassus and Antonius and of the older and younger statesmen of the Scipionic circle furnish a lively and effective framework, fitting channels for the introduction of historical references and anecdotes, and convenient resting-points for the scien tific discussion. The style is quite as elaborate and
as in the best-written orations, and so far more pleasing than these, since the author does not often in this field make a vain attempt at pathos.
While these rhetorical and political writings of Cicero
with a philosophic colouring are not devoid of merit, the compiler on the other hand completely failed, when in the involuntary leisure of the last years of his life (709-710) 45-44. he applied himself to philosophy proper, and with equal peevishness and precipitation composed in a couple of I months a philosophical library. The receipt was
simple. In rude imitation of the popular writings of Aristotle, in which the form of dialogue was employed chiefly for the setting forth and criticising of the different
older systems, Cicero stitched together the Epicurean,
Stoic, and Syncretist writings handling the same problem,
as they came or were given to his hand, into a so-called dialogue. And all that he did on his own part was, to supply an introduction prefixed to the new book from the ample collection of prefaces for future works which he had beside him ; to impart a certain popular character, inasmuch
as he interwove Roman examples and references, and sometimes digressed to subjects irrelevant but more familiar to the writer and the reader, such as the treatment of the deportment of the orator in the De Officii s ; and to exhibit that sort of bungling, which a man of letters, who has not attained to philosophic thinking or even to philosophic knowledge and who works rapidly and boldly, shows in the
polished
\
very
Profes sional sciences. Latin philology. Vain*.
reproduction of dialectic trains of thought. In this way no doubt a multitude of thick tomes might very quickly come into existence—"They are copies," wrote the author himself to a friend who wondered at his fertility; "they give me little trouble, for I supply only the words and these I have in abundance. " Against this nothing further could be said ; but any one who seeks classical productions in works so written can only be advised to study in literary matters a becoming silence.
Of the sciences only a single one manifested vigorous life, that of Latin philology. The scheme of linguistic and antiquarian research within the domain of the Latin race, planned by Silo, was carried out especially by his disciple Varro on the grandest scale. There appeared
hensive elaborations of the whole stores of the language, more especially the extensive grammatical commentaries of Figulus and the great work of Varro De Lingua Latino. ; monographs on grammar and the history of the language, such as Varro's writings on the usage of the Latin language, on synonyms, on the age of the letters, on the origin of the Latin tongue ; scholia on the older literature, especially on Plautus; works of literary history, biographies of poets, investigations into the earlier drama, into the scenic division of the comedies of Plautus, and into their genuineness. Latin archaeology, which embraced the whole older history and the ritual law apart from practical jurisprudence, was
5io
RELIGION, CULTURE, BOOK T
in Varro's "Antiquities of Things Human and Divine," which was and for all times remained the fundamental treatise on the subject (published between
comprehended
67. 46. 687 and 709). The first portion, "Of Things Human," described the primeval age of Rome, the divisions of city and country, the sciences of the years, months, and days, Iasdy, the public transactions at home and in war ; in the second half, "Of Things Divine," the state -theology, the nature and significance of the colleges of experts, of the
compre
chap, xil LITERATURE, AND ART
511
holy places, of the religious festivals, of sacrificial and votive gifts, and lastly of the gods themselves were summarily unfolded. Moreover, besides a number of monographs — e. g. on the descent of the Roman people, on the Roman gentes descended from Troy, on the tribes— there was added, as a larger and more independent supplement, the treatise " Of the Life of the Roman People " —a remarkable attempt at a history of Roman manners, which sketched a picture of the state of domestic life, finance, and culture in the regal, the early republican, the Hannibalic, and the most recent period. These labours of Varro were based on an empiric knowledge of the Roman world and its adjacent Hellenic domain more various and greater in its kind than any other Roman either before or after him possessed —a knowledge to which living observation and the study of literature alike contributed. The eulogy of his contemporaries was well deserved, that Varro had enabled his countrymen —strangers in their own world —to know their position in their native land, and had taught the Romans who and where they
were. But criticism and system will be sought for in vain. His Greek information seems to have come from somewhat confused sources, and there are traces that even in the Roman field the writer was not free from the influence of the historical romance of his time. The matter is doubtless inserted in a convenient and symmetrical frame work, but not classified or treated methodically ; and with all his efforts to bring tradition and personal observation into harmony, the scientific labours of Varro are not to be acquitted of a certain implicit faith in tradition or of an unpractical scholasticism. 1 The connection with Greek
1 A remarkable example is the general exposition regarding cattle in the treatise on Husbandry (ii. 1 ) with the nine times nine subdivisions of the doctrine of cattle-rearing, with the "incredible but true " fact that the mares at Olisipo (Lisbon) become pregnant by the wind, and generally
The other
nonai ■deuces.
Alongside of this extraordinary stir in the field of philo- logy the small amount of activity in the other sciences surprising. What appeared of importance in philosophy — such as Lucretius' representation of the Epicurean system in the poetical child- dress of the pre-Socratic philosophy, and the better writings of Cicero —produced its effect and found its audience not through its philosophic contents, but in spite of such contents solely through its aesthetic form; the numerous translations of Epicurean writings and the Pythagorean works, such as Varro's great treatise
with its singular mixture of philosophical, historical, and agricultural notices.
Thus Varro derives facert from fades, because he who makes any thing gives to an appearance, volpes, the fox, after Stilo from volart fediius as the flying - footed Gaius Trebatius, a philosophical jurist of this age, derives sacellum from sacra cetta, Figulus frater from fere alter and so forth. This practice, which appears not merely in isolated instances but as main element of the philological literature of this age, presents a
very great resemblance to the mode in which till recently comparative philology was prosecuted, before insight into the organism of language pot stop to the occupation of the empirics.
'
512
RELIGION, CULTURE, book v
philology consists in the imitation of its defects more than of its excellences ; for instance, the basing of etymologies on mere similarity of sound both in Varro himself and in the other philologues of this epoch runs into pure guess work and often into downright absurdity. 1 In its empiric confidence and copiousness as well as in its empiric in adequacy and want of method the Varronian vividly re minds us of the English national philology, and just like the latter, finds its centre in the study of the older drama. We have already observed that the monarchical literature developed the rules of language in contradistinction to this linguistic empiricism 457). It in high degree signi ficant that there stands at the head of the modern gram marians no less man than Caesar himself, who in his
68. 60. treatise on Analogy (given forth between 696 and 704) first undertook to bring free language under the power of law.
a
a
1
;
(p.
it
is
a
is a
chap, xil LITERATURE, AND ART
513
on the Elements of Numbers and the still more copious one of Figulus concerning the Gods, had beyond doubt neither scientific nor formal value.
Even the professional sciences were but feebly cultivated. Varro's Books on Husbandry written in the form of dialogue are no doubt more methodical than those of his predecessors Cato and Saserna—on which accordingly he drops many a side glance of censure—but have on the whole proceeded more from the study than, like those earlier works, from living experience. Of the juristic labours of Varro and of Servius Sulpicius Rufus (consul in 703) hardly aught more SI can be said, than that they contributed to the dialectic and philosophical embellishment of Roman jurisprudence. And there is nothing farther here to be mentioned, except perhaps the three books of Gaius Matius on cooking, pickling, and making preserves —so far as we know, the earliest Roman cookery-book, and, as the work of a man of rank, certainly a phenomenon deserving of notice. That mathematics and physics were stimulated by the increased Hellenistic and utilitarian tendencies of the monarchy, is apparent from their growing importance in the instruction
of youth (p. 449) and from various practical applications ; under which, besides the reform of the calendar (p. 438), may perhaps be included the appearance of wall-maps at this period, the technical improvements in shipbuilding and
in musical instruments, designs and buildings like the aviary specified by Varro, the bridge of piles over the Rhine executed by the engineers of Caesar, and even two semi circular stages of boards arranged for
together, and employed first separately as two theatres and then jointly as an amphitheatre. The public exhibition of foreign natural curiosities at the popular festivals was not unusual ; and the descriptions of remarkable animals, which Caesar has embodied in the reports of his campaigns, show that, had an Aristotle appeared, he would have again found
vol. v 166
being pushed
Art.
his patron-prince. But such literary performances as are mentioned in this department are essentially associated with Neopythagoreanism, such as the comparison of Greek and Barbarian, i. e. Egyptian, celestial observations by Figulus, and his writings concerning animals, winds, and generative organs. After Greek physical research generally had swerved from the Aristotelian effort to find amidst individual facts the law, and had more and more passed into an empiric and mostly uncritical observation of the external and surprising in nature, natural science when coming forward as a mystical philosophy of nature, instead of en lightening and stimulating, could only still more stupefy and paralyze ; and in presence of such a method it was better to rest satisfied with the platitude which Cicero delivers as Socratic wisdom, that the investigation of nature either seeks after things which nobody can know, or after such things as nobody needs to know.
Ifj in fine, we cast a glance at art, we discover here the
same unpleasing phenomena which pervade the whole
Arts of design.
SM
RELIGION, CULTURE, book v
Architect- mental life of this period. Building on the part of the
"**
state was virtually brought to a total stand amidst the scarcity of money that marked the last age of the republic We have already spoken of the luxury in building of the Roman grandees ; the architects learned in consequence of this to be lavish of marble—the coloured sorts such as the
Numidian (Giallo antico) and others came into vogue at this time, and the marble-quarries of Luna
were now employed for the first time — and began to inlay the floors of the rooms with mosaic work, to panel the walls with slabs of marble, or to paint the com partments in imitation of marble — the first steps towards the subsequent fresco-painting. But art was not a gainer by this lavish magnificence.
In the arts of design connoisseurship and collecting were aiways on the increase. It was a mere affectation of
yellow
(Carrara)
chap, xii LITERATURE, AND ART
515
Catonian simplicity, when an advocate spoke before the jurymen of the works of art " of a certain Praxiteles " ; every one travelled and inspected, and the trade of the art- ciceroni, or, as they were then called, the exegetae, was none of the worst Ancient works of art were formally hunted after — statues and pictures less, it is true, than, in accordance with the rude character of Roman luxury, artistically wrought furniture and ornaments of all sorts for the room and the table. As early as that age the old Greek tombs of Capua and Corinth were ransacked for the sake of the bronze and earthenware vessels which had been placed in the tomb along with the dead. For a small statuette of bronze 40,000 sesterces (^400) were paid, and 200,000 (^2000) for a pair of costly carpets; a well- wrought bronze cooking machine came to cost more than an estate. In this barbaric hunting after art the rich amateur was, as might be expected, frequently cheated by those who supplied him ; but the economic ruin of Asia Minor in particular so exceedingly rich in artistic products brought many really ancient and rare ornaments and works of art into the market, and from Athens,
Syracuse, Cyzicus, Pergamus, Chios, Samos, and other ancient seats of art, everything that was for sale and very much that was not
migrated to the palaces and villas of the Roman grandees. We have already mentioned what treasures of art were to be found within the house of Lucullus, who indeed was accused, perhaps not unjustly, of having gratified his interest in the fine arts at the expense of his duties as a general. The amateurs of art crowded thither as they crowd at present to the Villa Borghese, and complained even then of such treasures being confined to the palaces and country-houses of the men of quality, where they could be seen only with difficulty and after special permission from the possessor. The public buildings on the other hand were far from filled in like proportion with famous
516
RELIGION, CULTURE, book t
works of Greek masters, and in many cases there still stood in the temples of the capital nothing but the old images of the gods carved in wood. As to the exercise of art there is virtually nothing to report ; there is hardly mentioned by name from this period any Roman sculptor or painter except a certain Arellius, whose pictures rapidly went off not on account of their artistic value, but because the cunning reprobate furnished in his pictures of the goddesses faithful portraits of his mistresses for the time being.
The importance of music and dancing increased in public
Dancing
*" m c- as in domestic life. We have already set forth how theatri
cal music and the dancing-piece attained to an independent standing in the development of the stage at this period
472); we may add that now in Rome itself representa tions were very frequently given by Greek musicians, dancers, and declaimers on the public stage—such as were usual in Asia Minor and generally in the whole Hellenic and Hel- lenizing world. 1 To these fell to be added the musicians
Such "Greek entertainments" were very frequent not merely in the Greek cities of Italy, especially in Naples (Cic pro Arch. 10 Plut. Brut, 21), but even now also in Rome (iv. 192 Cic. Ad Fain. vii. i, Ad Att. xvi. Suetoru Caes. 39 Plut. Brut. 21). When the well- known epitaph of Licinia Eucharis fourteen years of age, which probably belongs to the end of this period, makes this " girl well instructed and taught in all arts by the Muses themselves" shine as a dancer in the private exhibitions of noble houses and appear first in public on the Greek stage (modo noiilium ludot dtcoravi choro, it Graeca in scaena prima
populo apparui), this doubtless can only mean that she was the first girl that appeared on the public Greek stage in Rome as generally indeed was not till this epoch that women began to come forward publicly in Rome (p. 469).
These "Greek entertainments" in Rome seem not to have been properly scenic, but rather to have belonged to the category of composite exhibitions —primarily musical and declamatory —such as were not of rare occurrence in subsequent times also in Greece (Welcker, Gritch. Trag. p. 1277). This view supported by the prominence of flute-playing in Polybius (xxx. 13) and of dancing in the account of Suetonius regarding the armed dances from Asia Minor performed at Caesar's games and in the epitaph of Eucharis the description also of the citharoedus (Ad Her. iv. 47, 60 comp. Vitruv. v. must have been derived from such "Greek entertainments. " The combinations of these representations in Rome with Greek athletic combats significant (Polyb. c. Liv. xxxix.
Dramatic recitations were by no means excluded from these mixed
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chaf. xii LITERATURE, AND ART
517
and dancing-girls who exhibited their arts to order at table and elsewhere, and the special choirs of stringed and wind instruments and singers which were no longer rare in noble houses. But that even the world of quality itself played and sang with diligence, is shown by the very adoption of music into the cycle of the generally recognized subjects of instruction 449) as to dancing, was, to say nothing of women, made matter of reproach even against consulars that they exhibited themselves in dancing performances amidst small circle.
Towards the end of this period, however, there appears Incipient with the commencement of the monarchy the beginning of 0f ^J100
better time also in art. We have already mentioned the monarchy, mighty stimulus which building in the capital received, and
building throughout the empire was destined to receive,
through Caesar. Even in the cutting of the dies of the
coins there appears about 700 remarkable change; the M. stamping, hitherto for the most part rude and negligent, thenceforward managed with more delicacy and care.
We have reached the end of the Roman republic. We Conclusion, have seen rule for five hundred years Italy and in the
countries on the Mediterranean we have seen brought
to ruin in politics and morals, religion and literature, not
through outward violence but through inward decay, and thereby making room for the new monarchy of Caesar. There was in the world, as Caesar found much of the
entertainments, since among the players whom Lucius Anicius caused to appear in 587 in Rome, tragedians are expressly mentioned there was 187. however no exhibition of plays in the strict sense, but either whole dramas,
or perhaps still more frequently pieces taken from them, were declaimed
or sung to the flute by single artists. This must accordingly have been
done also in Rome but to all appearance for the Roman public the main matter in these Greek games was the music and dancing, and the text probably had little more significance for them than the texts of the Italian
opera for the Londoners and Parisians of the present day. Those composite entertainments with their confused medley were far better suited for the
Yoman public, and especially for exhibitions in private houses, than proper scenic performances in the Greek language the view that the latter also took place in Rome cannot be refuted, but can as little be proved.
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RELIGION, CULTURE, LITERATURE, ART book v
noble heritage of past centuries and an infinite abundance of pomp and glory, but little spirit, still less taste, and least of all true delight in life. It was indeed an old world ; and even the richly-gifted patriotism of Caesar could not make it young again. The dawn does not return till after the night has fully set in and run its course. But yet with him there came to the sorely harassed peoples on the Mediterranean a tolerable evening after the sultry noon ; and when at length after a long historical night the new day dawned once more for the peoples, and fresh nations in free self-movement commenced their race towards new and higher goals, there were found among them not a few, in which the seed sown by Caesar had sprung up, and which owed, as they still owe, to him their national individuality.
INDEX
t1n thii Index the names of persons are given under the gentile nomtn\ nod an arranged in the alphabetic order of the f. raenomina, and, under this, in the chrono -logical order of holding the consulate or other official position. Thus Ciceru will /be found under M. Tullius Cicero, and Caesar under C Julius Caesar. The letter
in 1oa,/C, denotes that the subject is continued in the following page ; the letter ml, as in 1oa «.
, refers to the not$ either by itself x or in addition to matter in the text. )
Abbreviations, Roman, i. 879 Abdera, ii. 503 ; it. 44
Abella burnt, it.
Abgarus, Arab prince, it. 422. Allied
with the Parthians against Crassus, v.
153. '54, 155
Aborigines, ii. 1o6 ; iii 187
Abrupolis, ii. 493, 496
Abruzzi, i. 5, 6, 147, 434 ; iii. 501, 508 Abydus, ii. 406, 417, 418, 447, 461 Academy, the Newer, iv. 107-200 Acarnania and the Acarnaniana, ii. 216,
2i7. 318, 397, 403, 418, 421, 420, 432, 435, 438i 457. 47*. 5Mi 517
Acca Larentia, i. 209
L. Accius, tragic poet, iv. 222, 22^
Acco, Carnutic knight, beheaded, v. 74 Accusers, professional, iv. 104
Acerrae, it. 304. Victory over the
Italians, iii. 510, 515; iv. 66
Achaeans, ii. 215, 217, 318, 405, 421, 423,
Achaia, province of, iii. 270-272 Achill2s, general of Ptolemaeus Diooy
t. 271, 276
Achilles, ancestor of Pyrrhus, ii. j Achradina, ii 311. /C
Achulla, iii 244. Exempt from
iii. 259
C Aciiius, chronicler, iv. 248
M". Acilius Glabrio [consul, 563], ii. 457.
Attempts to rectify the calendar, iii. 194 M\ Acilius Glabrio [consul, 687], iv. 349/!
383, 395/
Acrae, Syracusan, ii. 804
Acta diutna, iv. 279 «.
Actus, i. 265
Adctnsi velmti, i. iiy
Adherbal, iii. 369-392
Adiabene, Iv. 315, 343
Adoption, i. 73
Adramytium, ii. 462 ; iii. 260. /C ; Iv. 46 Adriatic Sea, origin of the name, i. 418
63
158
Achaeans on the Caucasus, iv. 416 Achaean colonies in Italy and Sicily, i.
165/C Their distinctive character, 170^ League of the cities, i. 170-173 ; recon structed against the Lucanians, i. 454. Agricultural towns, i. 173. Coins, i. 171. Alphabet, i. 173/ Decay, i. 172
Achaeus, Syrian satrap, ii. 444
Achaeus, general of the slaves in first
Sicilian war, iii. 310
flii. ts with them, v. 52, 54
Aeacidea, father of Pyrrhus, ii 6
Aeacus, ancestor of Pyrrhus, ii j
Aeca, ii. 280
Aeclanum, town of the Hirptul, tU. 90%
523
Aedicula, i. 8*5
Atdiles Cerialest v. 946, 374
Aedilee curuZft, their Institution, I. 383.
Original functions : market-supervision and police, and celebration of the city
/,
25a
427, 430, 435. 437. 439. 45*. 476-480, 497. Adrogatio, i. 95
498/, 517/: i". 234. A 2fi1; ,v- 35. Adsidui, i. 115
War against them, iii. 264-270. Achaean Adsignatia virttMMm, L 840 m.
league dissolved, iii. 271. Province of Aduatuca, v. 73
Achaia, iii. 270-272. Taxation of, iv. Adoatuci, origin of, iii. 445 ; t. 39. Ccav
520
HISTORY OF ROME
fest1val, i. 383 ; 97 iii. 41. Plebe1ans 11i, 379. Sent as envoy to Jugurtha, iii. eligible, 383. Police duties in Rome, 392. Commander in Jugurthine war, ii. 84. Jurisdiction, ii. 66 iv, 128. In iii- 393 J- Against the Taurisci, iii. cluded among curole magistracies, iii. 428. Tried for extort1on, iii. 482. At
6,7
AedUes piebit, founded on model of the
quaestors, 354 n. Original functions
charge of the archives, 349, 354 «•
snpport of the tribunes in their judicial
functions, 351 decrees of the senate Q. Aemilius Papus [consul, 476], ii. 30 deposited in their charge, 369. Juris- Aenaria, 175, 178 iii. 541. Syracusan, diction, iv. 127 416. Withdrawn by Sulla from
AediUs the Municipia, founded on the Neapolis, iv. 107
model of the curule aedileship in Rome, Aeneas in Homer, 1i. 108. Legend of
-. 45-
Aegates Insulae, Phoen1cian,
ii. 143.
Aeneas in Italy, ii. 108-111. Invented by Stesichorus, 1o8. First occurs in the current form with Timaeus, ii. 110. In the Roman chroniclers, iv. 249
Battle at the, ii. 195
Acgina, 308; 319, 402, 417, 423, 437,
treatise ("Tripartita"), iii. 195 Aepulo, ii. 37a
L. Aelius Praeconinus Stilo, ofLanuvium, Aequi, settlements of, 444 n. Their
478. Beetle-stone found there, 307
Aegium, iii. 267
Sex. Aelius Paetus [consul, 556], his legal Aeolus, 117
ii. 107
Aemilius Lepidus, a Sullan, iv. 90
Aemilius Macer, poet, v. 480
L. Aemilius Papus [consul, 529], ii. ? ? . »
L. Aemilius Paullus [consul, 538], ii. aao, Aerarium, 137. After the abolition of
[consul, 677J, iv. 269
M. Aemilius Lepidus [consul, 567, 579],
ii. 416, 418
M. Aemilius Lepidus Porcina (consul,
617}, defeated by the Vaccaei, iii. 229.
Orator, vs. 215
M. Aemilius Lepidus [consul, 676], his
Remained faithful to the Romans in the Social war, iii. 502-509. Conquered, iii. 510 and held by the Samnites, iii. 524. Conquered by Sulla (1% «*• 91 «. and laid desolate, iv. 108
Aesis, iv. 85. Boundary of Italy, ii. 990; iv. 122 ft.
party-position, iv. vZof. Preparations Aesopus, actor, v. 384
for civil war, iv. 287-290. Insurrection, Aestimatio, derived from ass, 25» iv. 290 Defeat and death, iv. 291 Aes uxarium, 66
M. Aemilius Lepidus, Caesar's city- Aethalia, occupied by the Hellenes, 178, prefect, v. a18 416. Wrested from them by the Etrus
If. Aemilius Scaun1s [consul, 639 censor, cans, 181. Iron of, 182
645], leader of the aristocracy, iii. 376, Aetna, ii. 169
393/. 475t 4*4. 503- His character, Aetolians, 169 «. it 215, 217, 397.
titude to the proposals of Drusus, ni. 483. His roads, bridges, and drainage, iv. 167, 170
M. Aemilius Scaurus, adjutant of Pom. peius, Iv. 429. /:, 430
Aenus, ii. 417, 465, 486, 510
teacher of Roman literature, iv. 216, 252 Aemilii, clan-village, 45.
