CORNELIUS NEPOS.

(1) LIFE.

The praenomen of Cornelius Nepos is unknown. In Pliny, N.H. iii. 127, he is called 'Padi adcola,' and in Pliny, Ep. iv. 28, 1 (to Vibius Severus), he is mentioned as a townsman of T. Catius, 'Imagines municipum tuorum, Cornelii Nepotis et T. Cati.' Now T. Catius was an Insubrian (Cic. ad Fam. xv. 16, 1), and as the only Insubrian town on the Padus was Ticinum, Nepos was probably born there.

There is no direct evidence as to the date of his birth but we may infer from the following facts that he was born not long before B.C. 100.

1. Jerome puts his literary activity under B.C. 40 = yr. Abr. 1977, 'Cornelius Nepos scriptor historicus clarus habetur.'

2. A son of his died B.C. 44 while a boy, and unknown to Cicero.

Cic. ad Att. xvi. 14, 4, 'Male narras de Nepotis filio: valde mehercule moveor et moleste fero; nescieram omnino esse istum puerum.'

3. The respect with which he looks up to Atticus, who was born B.C. 109.

4. A fragment of his Exempla quoted by Pliny, N.H. ix. 136, regarding the changes of fashion in purple robes: 'Nepos Cornelius, qui divi Augusti principatu obiit, "Me," inquit, "iuvene violacea purpura vigebat, ... nec multo post rubra Tarentina. Huic successit dibapha Tyria... Hac P. Lentulus Spinther aedilis curulis (B.C. 63) primus in praetexta usus improbabatur. Qua purpura quis non iam," inquit, "triclinaria facit?"'

Nepos held no public office, but confined himself to literature, in which he was associated with Atticus. Their intimacy must have begun after B.C. 65, when Atticus returned to Rome from Athens, where he had lived more than twenty years.

Pliny, Ep. v. 3, 6, 'P. Vergilius, Cornelius Nepos ... Non quidem hi senatores.'

Nep. Att. 13, 7, 'Atque hoc non auditum, sed cognitum praedicamus: saepe enim propter familiaritatem domesticis rebus interfuimus.'

Nepos knew Cicero, doubtless, through Atticus, but there is no evidence that they were intimate, except Gell. xv. 28, 1, who is probably mistaken, 'Cornelius Nepos ... M. Ciceronis ut qui maxime amicus familiaris fuit.' A fragment of a letter from Cicero to Nepos is quoted by Sueton. Iul. 55; from Nepos to Cicero by Lactant. inst. div. iii. 15, 10; and Fronto (p. 20, ed. Naber) speaks of a collection of Cicero's works revised by Nepos and Atticus.

Nepos was on intimate terms with Catullus, whom, as coming from Verona, he may have known in early life. Catullus, who is mentioned by Nepos (Att. 12, 4), dedicated a collection of poems to him (Catull. 1). Nepos was alive in B.C. 29, in which, or the following year, he completed the life of Atticus.

As regards Nepos' character and views, Pliny, Ep. v. 3, 6, attributes to him sanctitas morum. The words of Cicero, ad Att. xvi. 5, 5, imply only a playful compliment, 'Et ais, "met' amymona." Tu vero amymon, ille [Nepos] quidem ambrotos.'

Nepos' slight regard for philosophy is shown by a letter to Cicero quoted by Lactant. inst. div. iii. 15, 10, 'Tantum abest, ut ego magistram esse putem vitae philosophiam beataeque vitae perfectricem, ut nullis magis existimem opus esse magistris vivendi quam plerisque, qui in ea disputanda versantur.'

Cf. also Cic. ad Att. xvi. 5, 5, 'Nepotis epistulam exspecto. Cupidus ille meorum? qui ea, quibus maxime gaurio, legenda non putet.'

Philosophy, according to Nepos, ought to be practical.

Nep. Att. 17, 3, 'Nam principum philosophorum ita percepta habuit praecepta, ut his ad vitam agendam, non ad ostentationem uteretur.'

Nepos, as is shown by his works, supported government by the Senate.

(2) WORKS.

1. Erotic poems; mentioned by Pliny, Ep. v. 3, 6.

2. Chronica, in three books, embracing universal history. Catull. 1,

'Quoi dono lepidum novom libellum arida modo pumice expolitum? Corneli, tibi; namque tu solebas meas esse aliquid putare nugas iam tum, cum ausus es unus Italorum omne aevom tribus explicare chartis, doctis, Iuppiter, et laboriosis.'

It is clear, from the above, that Nepos had mentioned Catullus in the work. That the mythical period was treated of is shown by Ausonius, Ep. 16, 'Apologos Titiani et Nepotis chronica quasi alios apologos (nam et ipsa instar sunt fabularum) ... misi ... ad institutionem tuorum.'

From Catullus we may possibly infer that the Chronica were written before B.C. 63[31]; unus Italorum would imply that they were written before the similar works of Varro and Atticus.

3. Exempla, in at least five Books, treating of the history of Roman manners.

Gell. vi. 18, 11, 'Cornelius Nepos in libro exemplorum quinto.'

4. Life of the elder Cato.

Nep. Cat. 3, 5, 'Huius de vita et moribus plura in eo libro persecuti sumus, quem separatim de eo fecimus rogatu T. Pomponii Attici. Quare studiosos Catonis ad illud volumen delegamus.'

5. Life of Cicero, written after his death (B.C. 43). Gell. xv. 28, 2, 'in primo librorum, quos de vita illius composuit.'

6. A geographical work, referred to by Pliny, N.H. v. 4, etc. All the above works are lost.

7. De Viris Illustribus, his last work, was dedicated to Atticus (praef. i); an addition to the life of Atticus was made after his death.

Att. 19, 1, 'Hactenus Attico vivo edita a nobis sunt. Nunc, quoniam fortuna nos superstites ei esse voluit, reliqua persequemur.'

From Att. 12, 1-2, we may conclude that the publication took place between B.C. 35 and 33. The addition to the life of Atticus was written at some time between B.C. 31 and 27, as in Att. 19, 2, Octavian is called imperator, but not Augustus, a title which he received in the last-mentioned year.

The work contained at least sixteen Books: cf. Charis. G.L. i. 141 (ed. Keil), 'Cornelius Nepos illustrium virorum libro xvi.'; and was divided into sections of two Books each, the first on distinguished foreigners, the second on distinguished Romans of the same class. We possess the book de excellentibus ducibus exterarum gentium; from de historicis Latinis the lives of Cato the Censor and Atticus, and fragments of the letters of Cornelia, mother of the Gracci. There are also mentioned the books de regibus (Nep. de reg. 1, 1; 3, 5); de excellentibus ducibus Romanorum (Nep. Hann. 13, 4); de historicis Graecis (Nep. Dion, 3, 2); de poetis (Sueton. p. 31 R.); de grammaticis (Sueton. p. 103 R.). The work probably dealt also with iurisconsulti, oratores, and philosophi. The book is biographical rather than historical, and is designed to compare foreigners with Romans, and to please, as well as instruct, those ignorant of Greek culture.

Pel. 1, 1, 'Vereor ... ne non vitam eius enarrare, sed historiam videar scribere.'

Hann. 13, 4, 'Tempus est ... Romanorum explicare imperatores, quo facilius collatis utrorumque factis, qui viri praeferendi sint, possit iudicari.'

Pel. 1, 1, 'Medebor cum satietati tum ignorantiae lectorum.'

Praef. 2, 'Hi erunt fere, qui expertes litterarum Graecarum,' etc.

Besides tradition and his own recollection, Nepos mentions the following sources: Thucydides (Them. 1, 4, etc.); Xenophon (Ag. 1, 1); Plato's Symposium (Alc. 2, 2); Theopompus (Alc. 11, 1); Dinon (Con. 5, 4); Timaeus (Alc. 11, 1); Silenus, Sosilus, Polybius, Sulpicius Blitho, Atticus (Hann. 13, 1 and 3); the writings of Hannibal (Hann. 13, 2); Speeches and Origines of Cato (Cat. 3, 2); Cicero's works, especially Epp. ad Att. (Att. 16, 3). The book contains lives of twenty Greek generals from the Persian wars to the time of Alexander's successors; a short article on Persian and Macedonian kings who were also generals; and the lives of Hamilcar and Hannibal, Cato and Atticus. The work possesses little independent value, and the following are the chief faults:

1. There are many mistakes in history and geography.

2. The biographies, and the events recorded in them, are badly arranged; eulogy is employed indiscriminately, and petty anecdotes are too frequent.

3. Important names, as Cimon and Lysander, are dismissed too briefly; others, as Atticus and Datames, are treated too fully. Many are left out altogether, as some of the leaders in the Peloponnesian war.

4. Important authorities are not used: so Herodotus, for Miltiades, Themistocles, and Pausanias. No use is made of the Hellenica of Xenophon.

For views on Nepos, cf. Gell. xv. 28, 1, 'Cornelius Nepos rerum memoriae non indiligens.'

Pliny, N.H. v. 4, 'Portentosa Graeciae mendacia ... quaeque alia Cornelius Nepos avidissime credidit.'

Nepos is not mentioned by Quintilian in his list of Roman historians.

In the MSS. only the Atticus and the Cato are ascribed to Nepos, the rest being entitled Liber Aemilii Probi de excellentibus ducibus exterarum gentium. It has been suggested that this arose from a misapprehension of em(endavi) Probus. There is an epigram by this Probus in the MSS., referring to poems of his and standing after the Life of Hannibal, which informs us that he was a contemporary of Theodosius (probably Theodosius I., A.D. 379-395). That the work cannot be by him is shown by the political references, which suit only the beginning of the empire, by the mention of Atticus in the preface, and by the correspondence in style between the book and the lives of Atticus and Cato, admittedly the work of Nepos; also by the fact that L. Ampelius, who probably wrote before the time of Diocletian, used the work in his Liber Memorialis.



LUCRETIUS.

Our information about Lucretius' life is very scanty. Jerome yr. Abr. 1922 = B.C. 95, 'T. Lucretius poeta nascitur, qui postea amatorio poculo in furorem versus, cum aliquot libros per intervalla insaniae conscripsisset, quos postea Cicero emendavit, propria se manu interfecit anno aetatis xliiii.' (B.C. 52 or 51).

Donatus, vit. Verg. 2, 'Initia aetatis Cremonae egit [Vergilius] usque ad virilem togam, quam xv. anno natali suo accepit isdem illis consulibus iterum duobus quibus erat natus, evenitque ut eo ipso die Lucretius poeta decederet' (October 15).

Teuffel thinks xliiii. is wrong, and would read xlii., thus giving the dates as B.C. 96-55, as he thinks that Jerome has fixed the date of birth one year too late. Munro (vol. ii. p. 1) accepts xliiii., but thinks that Jerome (as elsewhere) is a few years wrong in the date of Lucretius' birth, and gives the dates as B.C. 99-55. It is impossible to decide as to the date of birth, but most authorities agree on B.C. 55 as the date of death, a view which is supported by the only contemporary reference to the poet: Cic. ad Q.F. ii. 11, 4 (written in February, B.C. 54), 'Lucreti poemata, ut scribis, ita sunt: multis luminibus ingeni, multae tamen artis; sed cum veneris. Virum te putabo, si Sallusti Empedoclea legeris, hominem non putabo.'

The above extract is given in the reading of the MSS. Some editors read non before multis, others non before multae, but it is best to follow the MSS. (with Tyrrell), translating "But when you come (we shall talk about it). I shall consider you a hero, if you read Sallust's Empedoclea; I shall not consider you a human being."

As regards Lucretius' madness, there is no absolute impossibility in the story. Munro (vol. ii. pp. 2, 3) accepts Jerome's account of Cicero's editorship; others, less probably, believe that Q. Cicero was editor. The first view is rendered probable by the high opinion Lucretius had of Cicero, as seen from the frequency with which he imitates his Aratea (Munro on Lucr. v. 619), and from the knowledge Cicero shows of Lucretius' work, as in Tusc. i. 48.

The poet's full name is given in the MSS. as T. Lucretius Carus.

This is all the direct evidence regarding Lucretius' life.[32] The de rerum natura is addressed to C. Memmius.[33] From Cic. ad Fam. xiii. 1 (where Cicero tells us he employed his good offices with Memmius on behalf of Patro for the preservation of the gardens of Epicurus), it appears that he was not an Epicurean. Memmius is the only contemporary mentioned by Lucretius; i. 24,

'Te sociam studeo scribendis versibus esse quos ego de rerum natura pangere conor Memmiadae nostro, quem tu, dea, tempore in omni omnibus ornatum voluisti excellere rebus.'

Many, arguing from the fact that Carus is not known elsewhere as a cognomen of the gens Lucretia, think that the poet was a freedman or a freedman's son, but from the tone of equality in which he addresses Memmius, it is more probable that he was a patrician; cf. i. 140,

'Sed tua me virtus tamen et sperata voluptas suavis amicitiae quemvis sufferre laborem suadet.'

Several personal characteristics may be inferred from the poem:

1. His earnestness and sincerity; iii. 28,

'His ibi me rebus quaedam divina voluptas percipit atque horror,' etc.

Cf. the importance he attaches to his subject, i. 926,

'Avia Pieridum peragro loca nullius ante trita solo.'

2. His admiration for the great men of the past. Cf. iii. 1024-52, where Ancus, the Scipios, Homer, Democritus, and Epicurus are praised; the introductions to Books i., iii., v., vi., on Epicurus; i. 716-33 on Empedocles; i. 117-9 on Ennius.

3. His powers of observation and love of nature. Cf. i. 716-25; ii. 29 sqq., 40 sqq.; 323-32; iv. 572 sqq.

4. His experience of women. Book iv. 1037-the end.

5. His wide reading. The poem shows knowledge of Epicurus, Empedocles, Democritus, Anaxagoras, Heraclitus, Plato, the Stoic writers, Thucydides, Hippocrates, Homer, Euripides. Among Latin writers Ennius, Naevius, Pacuvius, Lucilius, and Accius are all imitated.

There is a reference to contemporary history in i. 41-3,

'Nam neque nos agere hoc patriai tempore iniquo possumus aequo animo nec Memmi clara propago talibus in rebus communi desse saluti.'

Munro thinks that these lines were written B.C. 59, when Memmius was praetor designatus, in fierce opposition to Caesar, and on the side of the Senate. If this is so, the poem was probably written between B.C. 60 and 55. The lines on ambition and its attendant evils (as iii. 931 sqq., v. 1117-35, etc.) may have been written with a special view to the facts of Memmius' life. Lucretius may refer to his recollection of the civil wars in v. 999,

'At non multa virum sub signis milia ducta una dies dabat exitio.'

In ii. 40 sqq. there is perhaps a reference to Caesar's army in the Campus Martius at the beginning of B.C. 58.

The de rerum natura is an exposition of Epicureanism, especially on its physical side; i. 54,

'Nam tibi de summa caeli ratione deumque disserere incipiam et rerum primordia pandam,' etc.

The title is taken from Epicurus' peri physeos, which Lucretius followed closely, as is evident from the account of the Epicurean philosophy in Diogenes Laertius, x., and from the fragments of Epicurean writers discovered at Herculaneum in 1752. He probably used as his model Empedocles' poem peri physeos.

The object of the poem is to deliver men from the fear of death and of the gods; iii. 37,

'Et metus ille foras praeceps Acheruntis agendus';

i. 62-101; cf. l. 101,

'Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.'

Note that the invocation to Venus at the beginning of the poem is not inconsistent, but is an address to the universal principle of generation; cf. i. 21,

'Quae quoniam rerum naturam sola gubernas.'

The scope of the Books is as follows: Books i. and ii. state the physical theories of Democritus and Epicurus. Book i. states the Atomic Theory of Democritus, held by Epicurus, that the world consists of atoms and void. The theories of Heraclitus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, etc. are refuted; i. 740,

'Principiis tamen in rerum fecere ruinas et graviter magni magno cecidere ibi casu.'

Book ii. treats of the combinations of atoms, and the principle of the swerve introduced to explain free-will. The varieties of atoms are shown to be limited. In Book iii. the nature of the mind and life is shown to be material. Religio and the fear of death (cf. ll. 978 sqq.) are attacked principally in this Book; iii. 830,

'Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum, quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur.'

Book iv. treats of the theory of simulacra or images, of the senses, and particularly of love. Book v. treats of the formation of the earth and the heavenly bodies, the origin of life, and the progress of civilization. It is shown that nothing has been created, and that everything must perish. Book vi. treats of abnormal phenomena, such as thunder and lightning, tempests, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc. The plague at Athens is described (from Thucydides). Books v. and vi. are unfinished.

Ethical views are given only by the way, the poem being primarily on physics. Pleasure is the end of action: ii. 172, 'dux vitae dia voluptas.' This pleasure is the absence of disturbance (ataraxia), hence all passion (as of love, iv. 1121-40) is deprecated; ii. 14,

'O miseras hominum mentes, o pectora caeca! qualibus in tenebris vitae quantisque periclis degitur hoc aevi quodcumque est! nonne videre nil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi utqui corpore seiunctus dolor absit, mente fruatur iucundo sensu cura semota metuque?'

Lucretius, as Epicurus, is often weak in physics. Cf. v. 564 sqq., of the sun's size,

'Nec nimio solis maior rota nec minor ardor esse potest, nostris quam sensibus esse videtur.'

In i. 1052 sqq. he states well the theory of the antipodes but his dependence on Epicurus will not allow him to accept it. Reasons are sometimes given for a thing that never existed, as in iv. 710-21 for the fear that a lion has for a cock. Some passages come near the results of modern science, cf. v. 837 sqq. on extinct species; v. 855 sqq. on the struggle for existence; v. 610-3, on the invisible rays of the sun.

The references to Lucretius by name are few.

Nep. Att. 12, 4, 'L. Iulium Calidum, quem post Lucreti Catullique mortem multo elegantissimum poetam nostram tulisse aetatem vere videor posse contendere.'

Ovid, Am. i. 15, 23,

'Carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti, exitio terras cum dabit una dies.'

Trist. ii. 425,

'Explicat ut causas rapidi Lucretius ignis.'

Stat. Silv. ii. 7, 76,

'docti furor arduus Lucreti.'

Quint. x. 1, 87, 'Macer et Lucretius legendi quidem, sed non ut phrasin, id est, corpus eloquentiae faciant; elegantes in sua quisque materia, sed alter humilis alter difficilis.'

Cf. Tac. Dial. 23.

His influence on Virgil is seen passim. Cf. Gell. i. 21, 7, 'Non verba sola sed versus prope totos et locos quoque Lucreti plurimos sectatum esse Vergilium videmus.'

Verg. Georg. ii. 490 sqq. and Ecl. 6, 31 sqq. refer to Lucretius. Georg. ii. 490,

'Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas atque metus omnes et inexorabile fatum subiecit pedibus strepitumque Acherontis avari.'

Horace has also imitated him in several places: so Sat. i. 3, 99-110 (on primitive man) = Lucr. v. 1028 sqq.; Sat. i. 5, 101 sqq. = Lucr. v. 82 sqq. Most of the poets after him, particularly Manilius, came under his influence.



SALLUST.

(1) LIFE.

C. Sallustius Crispus was born B.C. 86 at Amiternum, in the country of the Sabines, and died B.C. 35.

Jerome yr. Abr. 1931 = B.C. 86, 'Sallustius Crispus, scriptor historicus, in Sabinis Amiterni nascitur.' Ibid. 1982 = B.C. 35, 'Sallustius diem obiit, quadriennio ante Actiacum bellum.'

Sallust was of plebeian family, as is seen from the fact that he was afterwards tribunus plebis. According to the Pseud.-Cic. in Sallustium declamatio, 13-14, he led an evil life in youth, and brought his father with sorrow to the grave.

Cf. par. 14, 'Cuiquam dubium potest esse, quin mori coegerit eum [patrem]?'

There is a story that Milo punished him for an amour with his wife.

Gell. xvii. 18, 'M. Varro ... in libro quem scripsit "Pius aut de pace," C. Sallustium scriptorem seriae illius et severae orationis, in cuius historia notiones censorias fieri atque exerceri videmus, in adulterio deprehensum ab Annio Milone loris bene caesum dicit et, cum dedisset pecuniam, dimissum.'

The story is corroborated by Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 15; by Macrob. iii. 13, 9, 'alienae luxuriae obiurgator et censor,' and others; and Sallust himself appears to admit that there was something wrong; Cat. 4, 'a quo incepto studioque me ambitio mala detinuerat.'[34]

Sallust speaks of the political offices he filled, and of the class of men who were unsuccessful candidates about the same time—a supposed reference to M. Cato's candidature for the praetorship, B.C. 55.

Iug. 4, 'Qui si reputaverint, et quibus ego temporibus magistratus adeptus sim et quales viri idem adsequi nequiverint,' etc.

After being quaestor (Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 15), he was, in B.C. 52, tribunus plebis, when he and other two tribunes opposed Cicero in his defence of Milo.

Ascon. in Cic. pro Mil. p. 33 (Kiessl. and Schoell), 'C. Sallustius et T. Munatius Plancus tr. pleb. inimicissimas contiones de Milone habebant.'

In B.C. 50, Sallust was legatus pro quaestore to Bibulus in Syria, according to Mommsen (Hermes, i. 171), who thinks that the Sallust to whom Cicero writes ad Fam. ii. 17 is the historian. In the same year he was expelled from the Senate by the censors, Appius Claudius and L. Piso.

Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 16, 'neque post illum delectum senatus vidimus te.'

In B.C. 49, Caesar reappointed him quaestor, and he resumed his place in the Senate.

Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 17, 'in senatum post quaesturam est reductus.'

In B.C. 48, he commanded a legion in Illyria without distinction (Orosius vi, 15, 8), and next year he was Caesar's agent with the insurgent legions in Campania (Appian, B.C. ii. 92). In B.C. 46 he was praetor, and as such commanded successfully an expedition to seize the enemy's stores in Cercina.

Bell. Afr. 8, 'Item C. Sallustium Crispum praetorem ad Cercinam insulam versus, quam adversarii tenebant, cum parte navium ire iubet.' (See also c. 34.)

At the end of the year he was appointed proconsul of Numidia.

Ibid. 97, 'Ibi Sallustio pro consule cum imperio relicto ipse Zama egressus Uticam se recepit.'

As proconsul, he plundered the province, and bought, probably with the spoils, the horti Sallustiani, which afterwards belonged to the Roman emperors (see Tac. Ann. xiii. 47; Hist. iii. 82).

Pseud.-Cic. in Sall. 19, 'Nonne ita provinciam vastavit, ut nihil neque passi sint neque exspectaverint gravius in bello socii nostri, quam experti sint in pace hoc Africam interiorem obtinente?'

Sallust is said to have married Terentia, whom Cicero had divorced (Jerome adv. Iov. 1). Probably he had no son, as he adopted a grandson of his sister.

Tac. Ann. iii. 30, 'Crispum equestri ortum loco C. Sallustius, rerum Romanarum florentissimus auctor, sororis nepotem in nomen adscivit.'

After Caesar's death, Sallust retired from public life, and, having no taste for sport or agriculture, spent his leisure in writing history.

Cat. 4, 'Ubi ... mihi reliquam aetatem a re publica procul habendam decrevi, non fuit consilium socordia atque desidia bonum otium conterere, neque vero agrum colundo aut venando servilibus officiis intentum aetatem agere; sed ... statui res gestas populi Romani carptim, ut quaeque memoria digna videbantur, perscribere.'

Sallust, as above stated, died B.C. 35.

(2) WORKS.

1. De Catilinae Coniuratione (so Cat. 4). The book is called bellum Catilinae by Quint. iii. 8, 9, and in some MSS.; in MSS. also bellum Catilinarium. The work was written after Caesar's death (Cat. 53-4). It is, as Mommsen (R.H. iv. 184, note) states, a political pamphlet in the interests of the democratic party (on which the monarchy was based), and tries to clear Caesar from the charge of being implicated in the Catilinarian conspiracy, and collaterally performing the same service for C. Antonius, the uncle of the triumvir.

Cf. Cat. 49, 'Sed isdem temporibus Q. Catulus et C. Piso neque pretio neque gratia Ciceronem inpellere potuere, uti per Allobroges aut alium indicem C. Caesar falso nominaretur. Nam uterque cum illo gravis inimicitias exercebant ... Sed ubi consulem ad tantum facinus inpellere nequeunt,' etc. (Cf. also Caesar's speech in Cat. 51.)

Cat. 59, 'At ex altera parte C. Antonius pedibus aeger, quod proelio adesse nequibat, M. Petreio legato exercitum permittit.' Dion Cassius, xxxvii. 39, on the other hand, says that this was a pretence, Antonius being unwilling to fight against his old confederate.

2. Bellum Iugurthinum. (So in MSS. and Quint. iii. 8, 9.)

Iug. 5, 'Bellum scripturus sum, quod populus Romanus cum Iugurtha rege Numidarum gessit, primum quia magnum et atrox variaque victoria fuit, dehinc quia tunc primum superbiae nobilitatis obviam itum est.'

The object of the book is to give a picture of the low state of the oligarchical government (cf. Iug. 8, 'Romae omnia venalia esse'), and to glorify Marius, the chief of the democratic party.

Of his sources, Sallust mentions Sisenna (Iug. 95) for information about Sulla, and native authorities for African ethnography.

Iug. 17, 'Sed qui mortales initio Africam habuerint, quique postea adcesserint, aut quo modo inter se permixti sint ... uti ex libris Punicis, qui regis Hiempsalis dicebantur, interpretatum nobis est ... dicam.'

Sallust probably also used the memoirs of Scaurus, Sulla, and Catulus.

3. Historiae.—This work dealt with the events from B.C. 78 to 67. Cf. Ausonius, p. 264 (ed. Peiper),

'Ab Lepido et Catulo iam res et tempora Romae orsus his senos seriem conecto per annos.'

There is no reference in the fragments to any event after B.C. 67. The book took up the history where Sisenna had left off, B.C. 78. Cf. i. frag. 1 (ed. Maurenbrecher), 'Res populi Romani M. Lepido Q. Catulo coss. ac deinde militiae et domi gestas composui.'

Four speeches and two letters from the Histories have been preserved in a collection of Sallustian speeches and letters made for rhetorical purposes, probably in the second century A.D. Besides these there are considerable fragments, chiefly from Books ii. and iii. We may conclude from Iug. 95, 'neque enim alio loco de Sullae rebus dicturi sumus,' that the career of Sulla was not treated of in the Histories. He is, however, repeatedly mentioned.

Two works are falsely attributed to Sallust:

1. Oratio invectiva in Tullium, composed, along with an Oratio invectiva in Sallustium falsely ascribed to Cicero, by the same ancient rhetorician. The Or. in Tull. is quoted by Quintilian, if the MSS. are right, e.g. iv. 1, 68.

2. An oration and an epistle ad Caesarem senem de re publica, both probably belonging to the imperial period.

Sallust as a historian.—1. He departed from the annalistic arrangement, and took a broader view of his subject, endeavouring to connect events together, and to trace the motives of actions.

2. He shows a want of precision in his facts. Instead of giving dates, he often says vaguely interea; isdem temporibus; dum haec aguntur. One year in the Jugurthine war is left unaccounted for, and Marius is represented as consul in B.C. 105. So in geography and ethnography (as in the Iugurtha) he is not to be trusted. In Iug. 21 he forgets that Cirta is fifty miles from the sea, and that city is besieged in the usual way, though surrounded on three sides by gorges.

He prides himself on his impartiality.

Cat. 4, 'Mihi a spe, metu, partibus rei publicae animus liber erat.' So Hist. i. fr. 6.

His leaning to the popular party, however, has been shown above.

3. His speeches do not always suit the speaker or his audience, and are not historical. Thus the speech of Catiline (Cat. 20) does not suit his audience and is not authentic, and that of Marius (Iug. 85) is too learned for the speaker.

4. His prefaces have little to do with what follows. Cf. Quint. iii. 8, 9, 'C. Sallustius in bello Iugurthino et Catilinae nihil ad historiam pertinentibus principiis orsus est.'

5. He is too fond of hackneyed moral maxims and trite sayings. Thus:

Cat. i, 'Sed nostra omnis vis in animo et corpore sita est,' etc.

Iug. 2, 'Nam uti genus hominum compositum ex corpore et anima est, ita res cunctae studiaque omnia nostra corporis alia, alia animi naturam secuntur.'

His tone is that of a severe moralist.

Cat. 3, 'Sed ego adulescentulus initio sicuti plerique studio ad rem publicam latus sum, ibique mihi multa advorsa fuere. Nam pro pudore, pro abstinentia, pro virtute audacia, largitio, avaritia vigebant,' etc.

As this moralizing did not fit in with the facts of his life he was censured for it, as shown above.

Sallust's authorities and models.—Besides the authorities mentioned above, he used a breviarium rerum omnium Romanarum prepared for him by the grammarian Ateius (Sueton. Gramm. 10). He is said to have borrowed phrases from Cato.

Quint. viii. 3, 29, 'Nec minus noto Sallustius epigrammate incessitur:

"Et verba antiqui multum furate Catonis, Crispe, Iugurthinae conditor historiae."'

The similarity of Sallust's style to that of Thucydides, whom he tried to emulate, was remarked by the ancients.

Quint. ix. 3, 17, 'Ex Graeco vero translata vel Sallustii plurima, quale est "volgus amat fieri"' [Iug. 34, a poor instance, and wrongly quoted]. Cf. Cat. 6, 'magisque dandis quam accipiundis beneficiis amicitias parabant,' and Thuc. ii. 40, 4, ou gar paschontes eu alla drontes ktometha tous philous: Iug. 73, 'in maius celebrare,' and Thuc. i. 10, 3, epi to meizon kosmesai.

Sallust's popularity is shown by the numerous references to him, particularly in Quintilian. Cf. Quint. x. 1, 101, 'At non historia cesserit Graecis, nec opponere Thucydidi Sallustium verear'; par. 102, 'immortalem illam Sallustii velocitatem.' Cf. also Martial, xiv. 191, 'primus Romana Crispus in historia.' Tacitus is the most important writer influenced by Sallust. For imitations cf. Tac. Agr. 37, where part of the description of a battle is modelled on Iug. 101. Cf. also Cat. 43, 'facto non consulto in tali periculo opus esse,' and Tac. Hist. i. 62, 'ubi facto magis quam consulto opus esset.'



CATULLUS.

The poet's full name, C.[35] Valerius Catullus, is got from Jerome and other authorities quoted below, as also his birthplace, Verona, to which Catullus himself refers (c. 67, 34, 'Veronae meae'; 68, 27; 100, 2). The dates of his birth and death are uncertain. Jerome gives them as B.C. 87-58.

Yr. Abr. 1930 = B.C. 87, 'Gaius Valerius Catullus scriptor lyricus Veronae nascitur.'

Yr. Abr. 1959 = B.C. 58, 'Catullus xxx. aetatis anno Romae moritur.' His early death is referred to by Ovid, Am. iii. 9, 61,

'Obvius huic [Tibullo] venias hedera iuvenilia cinctus tempora, cum Calvo, docte Catulle, tuo';

but it is quite certain that the year of his death given by Jerome as B.C. 58 is wrong. In c. 113, 2, the second consulship of Pompeius in B.C. 55 is referred to, and cc. 11 and 29 were written after Caesar's expedition to Britain in B.C. 55. C. 52 used to be taken as referring to B.C. 47, from l. 3, 'per consulatum perierat Vatinius,' but, as shown below, was written in B.C. 55 or 54. As no clear reference is found to any event after B.C. 54 (a highly important time, which would have been likely to produce some sarcastic poetry from Catullus), it is best to accept the view that Catullus lived from 87 to 54 or 53 B.C. B. Schmidt (ed. mai. 1887, prolegomena), on the other hand, fixes the dates as 82-52 B.C. (accepting Jerome's account of Catullus' age), and attributes c. 38 (to Cornificius) to the latter year.

Catullus' family was wealthy and of good position, as is seen from his having estates at Sirmio (c. 31) and Tibur (c. 44), and from the fact that his father was a friend of Julius Caesar.

Sueton. Iul. 73, 'Hospitioque patris eius [Catulli], sicut consueverat, uti perseveravit.'

Catullus went to Rome early, and there, as Schmidt thinks, was taught by the grammarian Valerius Cato, to whom c. 56 is probably addressed. From c. 68, 34-5, we see that he was settled at Rome.

'Romae vivimus: illa domus, illa mihi sedes, illic mea carpitur aetas.'

Catullus wrote love-poetry soon after taking the toga virilis; c. 68, 15,

'Tempore quo primum vestis mihi tradita purast, iucundum cum aetas florida ver ageret, multa satis lusi.'

Catullus' love for Lesbia is the outstanding fact of his life. Her real name was Clodia, the sister of P. Clodius, nicknamed for her immorality 'quadrantaria.'

Apuleius, Apol. 10, 'Accusent C. Catullum quod Lesbiam pro Clodia nominarit.'

Ovid, Trist. ii. 427,

'Sic sua lascivo cantata est saepe Catullo femina, cui falsum Lesbia nomen erat.'

The name Lesbia (which scans like Clodia) may be got from Sappho, the Lesbian poetess, on whom c. 51 (probably the first addressed to Clodia) is modelled. The facts known about Clodia all fit in with what Catullus tells us of Lesbia. For Lesbia's beauty, cf. cc. 43 and 86; Clodia was called boopis from her large and lustrous eyes (Cic. ad Att. ii. 9, 1; 12, 2, etc.). For her relations with her husband, cf. Cic. ad Att. ii. 1, 5 (written B.C. 60), 'Est enim seditiosa: cum viro bellum gerit.' A hint of the real name is got from c. 79, where the Lesbius mentioned is Clodius, just as Lesbia is Clodia,

'Lesbius est pulcer: quid ni? quem Lesbia malit quam te cum tota gente, Catulle, tua.'

It is probable that the acquaintance began in B.C. 61. In B.C. 62 Clodia was the wife of Q. Caecilius Metellus Celer (Cic. ad Fam. v. 2, 6), and in that year Metellus was governor of Gallia Cisalpina. Now from c. 83 it is evident that Lesbia's husband was in Rome when she began to be annoyed by Catullus' attentions. We may conclude from c. 30 that P. Alfenus Varus introduced Catullus to Lesbia. In that poem Catullus blames Varus for leading him on and then leaving him in the lurch. M'. Allius is next mentioned (c. 68) as a friend in whose house Catullus met Lesbia; and cc. 2, 3, 5, and 7 probably belong to this fortunate period of the poet's love. C. 8 speaks of Lesbia's leaving him (cf. c. 92), probably on account of her husband's suspicions. Cf. c. 5, 1,

'Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus, rumoresque senum severiorum omnes unius aestimemus assis.'

C. 107 speaks of an unexpected reconciliation (celebrated in c. 36). C. 107, 5,

'Restituis cupido atque insperanti, ipsa refers te nobis. O lucem candidiore nota!'

When Catullus, on account of his brother's death, left Rome for Verona, he already knew that Lesbia had other lovers (c. 68, ll. 27 sqq., 135 sqq.). There are many poems against his rivals: c. 82, against Quintius; c. 40, against Ravidus; cc. 74, 80, 88-91, 116, against Gellius; c. 77, against Rufus, who is attacked also in cc. 59 and 69 (this is M. Caelius Rufus, the orator, who intrigued with Clodia: Cic. pro Cael. 17, etc.); c. 79, against Lesbius (see above). After Catullus returned to Rome, he found that he had lost Lesbia's affections. C. 70 was then written,

'Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle quam mihi, non si se Iuppiter ipse petat. Dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti, in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.'

The words of this poem show that it must have been written after the death of Clodia's husband Metellus, which took place in B.C. 59, and it was probably written soon after that event, when Catullus had returned to Rome from Verona.

Nos. 72, 85, and especially 58, show increasing bitterness, and must, with the possible exception of 58, be assigned to the years B.C. 59 or 58. In c. 76 he prays for power to give Lesbia up; cf. ll. 23-6,

'Non iam illud quaero, contra ut me diligat illa, aut, quod non potis est, esse pudica velit: ipse valere opto et taetrum hunc deponere morbum. O di, reddite mi hoc pro pietate mea.'

It is probable that the separation between the lovers occurred not later than B.C. 58; otherwise Catullus would not have left for Bithynia in the next year. In c. 11, the last poem that refers to Lesbia, which, from the reference to Britain in l. 12, cannot have been written before B.C. 55, we see that Catullus is cured of his passion; cf. ll. 21-4,

'Nec meum respectet, ut ante, amorem, qui illius culpa cecidit velut prati ultimi flos, praetereunte postquam tactus aratro est.'

In the spring of B.C. 57 Catullus went to Bithynia on the staff of the propraetor C. Memmius (cc. 10 and 28). From c. 10, 29, 'meus sodalis Cinna est Gaius,' we see that C. Helvius Cinna accompanied him. In c. 46, 9 he speaks of the pleasant meetings of the staff, 'O dulces comitum valete coetus.' C. 46 shows that Catullus left Bithynia in the spring of the following year: ll. 1-4,

'Iam ver egelidos refert tepores ... Linquantur Phrygii, Catulle, campi.'

The dirge in c. 101 shows that Catullus, on his way to Italy, visited his brother's tomb in the Troad, and paid the last rites to it. C. 4, written soon after his return to Sirmio, tells us how he made his way home again. About the same time was composed the address to Sirmio in c. 31; c. 10 proves that he soon went back to Rome.

The poems against Caesar's party belong to the years B.C. 55 and 54. In cc. 41 and 43 Catullus calls a Transpadane girl 'decoctoris amica Formiani,' the reference being to Mamurra, 'the bankrupt from Formiae,' who had been Caesar's praefectus fabrum in Gaul, and who may have been a successful rival of Catullus in love. C. 29, written probably in B.C. 54, attacked Mamurra, and also his patrons, Caesar and Pompey. From l. 24, 'socer generque, perdidistis omnia,' it is clear that the poem was written before Julia's death in September, B.C. 54; and from ll. 11-12,

'eone nomine, imperator unice, fuisti in ultima occidentis insula,'

that it was written after Caesar's first expedition to Britain in B.C. 55. The poem is referred to by Sueton. Iul. 73, 'Valerium Catullum, a quo sibi versiculis de Mamurra perpetua stigmata imposita non dissimulaverat, satis facientem eadem die adhibuit cenae hospitioque patris eius sicut consueverat uti perseveravit.'

C. 52 (against Vatinius) was written B.C. 55 or 54. It used to be assigned to B.C. 47, when Vatinius was consul, but l. 3, 'per consulatum perierat Vatinius' means 'Vatinius perjures himself by his hope of the consulship' (his name stood on the list agreed on at Luca, which is mentioned by Cic. ad Att. iv. 8b, 2); and l. 2, 'Sella in curuli struma Nonius sedet,' cannot refer to B.C. 47, as the only ordinary curule magistrates in that year were P. Vatinius and Q. Fufius Calenus. Among other poems against personal enemies are c. 98, against Vettius, and c. 108, against Cominius, both of them informers; and c. 84, against Arrius, who aspirated his words wrongly, and who, from l. 7, 'hoc misso in Syriam,' is supposed to have gone out to Syria as legatus to Crassus in B.C. 55. C. 49 is an attack on Cicero:

'Disertissime Romuli nepotum, quot sunt quotque fuere, Marce Tulli, quotque post aliis erunt in annis, gratias tibi maximas Catullus agit, pessimus omnium poeta, tanto pessimus omnium poeta quanto tu optimus omnium patronus.'

The sting lies in the double entendre in the last two lines, which really mean 'so much the worst poet of all poets, as you are the best advocate of all clients, good and bad.' So Cicero is called in a good sense omnium patronus by Caecina in Cic. ad Fam. vi. 7, 4. The poem has special reference to B.C. 54, when Cicero defended Vatinius (whom he had reviled two years before in the speech Pro Sestio), when prosecuted by Catullus' friend, Calvus (cf. c. 14, 1-3); and thanks Cicero ironically for some criticism he had passed on his poems. Catullus attacks several contemporary poets; so in c. 22, Suffenus, who in c. 14 is coupled with Caesius and Aquinus; Volusius in cc. 36 and 95; cf. 36, 1, 'Annales Volusi, cacata charta.'[36]

Among Catullus' friends were Veranius and Fabullus (cc. 9, 28, etc.); P. Alfenus Varus of Cremona (cc. 10, 22, 30), consul B.C. 39, and a famous iurisconsultus. C. 61 celebrates the marriage of L. Manlius Torquatus (who was praetor B.C. 49) and Vinia Aurunculeia. Several poems are addressed to brother poets; c. 35 is to Caecilius of Novum Comum; c. 38 to Cornificius, a writer of slight love poems (Ovid, Trist. ii. 436) who died B.C. 41; c. 95 is on Cinna's Zmyrna; cc. 14, 50, and 96 are addressed to C. Licinius Calvus; c. 56 to Valerius Cato (see above); c. 65 to Hortensius Ortalus, who asked Catullus to translate Callimachus; c. 1, and possibly c. 102, to Cornelius Nepos.

Catullus' longer poems.—These, unlike the shorter personal poems, are mostly due to Alexandrian influence, to which Catullus may have been introduced by his teacher, Valerius Cato. To these poems Catullus owes his title doctus (Tibull. iii. 6, 41; Martial, i. 62, 1, etc.). They include: c. 66, 'coma Berenices,' from Callimachus; cf. c. 65, ll. 15-6,

'Sed tamen in tantis maeroribus, Ortale, mitto haec expressa tibi carmina Battiadae';

c. 68 to Allius, also Alexandrian; c. 64, the 'Nuptials of Peleus and Thetis,' l. 30 of which,

'Oceanusque, mari totum qui amplectitur orbem,'

is from Euphorion, fr. 158 (Meineke), Okeanos, to pasa perirrytos endedetai chthon; c. 63, the 'Attis' in Galliambic metre; c. 62, a translation of a Sapphic epithalamium. C. 51, and possibly some parts of c. 61, are from Sappho. Catullus was the first Roman to use the Sapphic measure (in cc. 11 and 51).

Publication of the Poems.—From the arrangement of the poems, which accords neither with chronology nor with subjects, and from the large number of lines extant (2286), which does not suit libellus (c. i. 1), it is highly probable that they were not left by Catullus as we find them. C. 2, beginning 'Passer, deliciae meae puellae,' was the first of a series of short poems. Cf. Martial, iv. 14, 13,

'Sic forsan tener ausus est Catullus magno mittere passerem Maroni';[37]

the book being named from its first word, like Arma virumque of the Aeneid. C. 1 (to Cornelius Nepos) is the first of another series of short pieces (cf. the epithet nugae in l. 4). Catullus doubtless published his larger pieces together. The traditional arrangement, due to a later hand, is as follows: (1) The lyric poems in various metres; (2) the larger poems and the elegies; (3) the shorter poems written in elegiacs. Catullus began to be popular as soon as his works were published; cf. Nep. Att. 12, 4 (quoted p. 124). He is imitated in the Priapea, in Ovid, in Ausonius, in the Ciris, in Martial, etc. C. 4 is closely parodied in Verg. Catal. 8.



CONTEMPORARY POETS:

(a) Ticidas wrote the Hymenaeus and love-poems on Perilla. For the latter cf. Ovid, Trist. ii. 433-4 and 437-8 (read by Riese immediately after),

'Quid referam Ticidae, quid Memmi carmen, apud quos rebus adest nomen nominibusque pudor, et quorum libris modo dissimulata Perillae nomine nunc legitur dicta, Metelle, tuo?'

(b) C. Helvius Cinna was intimate with Catullus, who refers to him in c. 10 as being along with him in Bithynia in B.C. 57. See p. 136. From the reference to Gallia Cisalpina in Cinna, frag. I (Baehrens), we might conclude that he was a countryman of Catullus,

'At nunc me Cenumana per salicta bigis raeda rapit citata nanis.'

In Sueton. Iul. 52, Cinna is spoken of as a partisan of Caesar: 'Helvius Cinna tribunus plebis,' etc.; and he is probably identical with the person mentioned ibid. 85, as put to death in mistake for a man of the same name shortly after the murder of Caesar: 'Plebs statim a funere ad domum Bruti et Cassii cum facibus tetendit, atque aegre repulsa, obvium sibi Helvium Cinnam per errorem nominis, quasi Cornelius is esset, quem graviter pridie contionatum de Caesare requirebat, occidit caputque eius praefixum hastae circumtulit.'

Cf. especially Plutarch, Brut. 20, en de tis Kinnas, poietikos aner, ouden tes aitias metechon, alla kai philos Kaisaros gegonos, etc.[38]

Weichert (Poet. Lat. Rell. p. 157) thinks that Plutarch has confused the tr. pleb. with the poet, and that Virgil's words (below) imply that Helvius Cinna was alive when the Eclogue was written (B.C. 41-39). The latest authorities, however, identify the two persons. Verg. Ecl. 9, 35,

'Nam neque adhuc Vario videor nec dicere Cinna digna, sed argutos inter strepere anser[39] olores.'

Cinna's works were:

1. Zmyrna, on the incestuous love of Myrrha for Cinyras. Cinna spent nine years on this poem, which was very obscure. Catull. 95,

'Zmyrna mei Cinnae nonam post denique messem quam coeptast nonamque edita post hiemem.'

Philargyrius ad Verg. Ecl. 9, 35, 'Fuit autem liber obscurus adeo ut et nonnulli eius aetatis grammatici in eum scripserint magnamque ex eius enarratione sint gloriam consecuti.'

2. Propempticon Pollionis, written on the occasion of Asinius Pollio's visit to Greece.

3. Epigrams and Love Poems.—For the latter cf. Ovid, Trist. ii. 435 (on the erotic poets),

'Cinna quoque his comes est, Cinnaque procacior Anser, et leve Cornifici parque Catonis opus.'

(c) C. Licinius Macer Calvus was the son of the annalist C. Licinius Macer, and was born 28th May, B.C. 82.

Cic. ad Q.F. ii. 4, 1, 'Macer Licinius.'

Valer. Max. ix. 12, 7, 'C. Licinius Macer, Calvi pater.'

Pliny, N.H. vii. 165, 'C. Mario Cn. Carbone iii. coss. a. d. v. Kal. Iun. M. Caelius Rufus et C. Licinius Calvus eadem die geniti sunt.'

Calvus probably died B.C. 47. Cf. Cic. ad Fam. xv. 21, 4, written to C. Trebonius towards the end of that year. The letter refers to correspondence with Calvus, and criticizes his oratory.

See also Cic. Brut. 279 and 283-4; and, for his relations with Cicero, Tac. Dial. 18. Calvus vied with Cicero for the first place in the forum. His best known speeches were in Vatinium, whom he prosecuted at least three times (B.C. 58-54).

Seneca, Controv. vii. 4, 6-8, 'Calvus, qui diu cum Cicerone iniquissimam litem de principatu eloquentiae habuit, usque eo violentus actor et concitatus fuit, ut in media eius actione surgeret Vatinius reus et exclamaret: Rogo vos, iudices, num si iste disertus est, ideo me damnari oportet? Idem postea cum videret a clientibus Catonis, rei sui, Pollionem Asinium circumventum in foro caedi, imponi se supra cippum iussit; erat enim parvolus statura, propter quod etiam Catullus in hendecasyllabis (c. 53) vocat illum "salaputtium disertum." ... Solebat praeterea excedere subsellia sua et impetu latus usque in adversariorum partem transcurrere. Et carmina quoque eius, quamvis iocosa sint, plena sunt ingentis animi ... Compositio quoque eius in actionibus ad exemplum Demosthenis riget: nihil in illa placidum, nihil lene est, omnia excitata et fluctuantia.'

Catullus also refers to Calvus in c. 14, and in c. 96, where he speaks of the 'mors immatura Quintiliae,' probably Calvus' wife.

Of the poems about nineteen lines are extant. They included: (1) ludicra (in hendecasyllables); (2) epithalamia; (3) Io; (4) ad uxorem; (5) epigrammata. For the last cf. Sueton. Iul. 73, 'C. Calvo post famosa epigrammata de reconciliatione per amicos agenti ultro ac prior scripsit.' (6) 'Calvi de aquae frigidae usu,' which forms the title of Martial xiv. 196, may have been a didactic poem. Other references to Calvus' poetry are: Ovid, Trist. ii. 431,

'Par fuit exigui similisque licentia Calvi, detexit variis qui sua furta modis';

Propert. iii. 34, 89,

'Haec etiam docti confessast pagina Calvi cum caneret miserae funera Quintiliae';

Hor. Sat. i. 10, 16,

'Illi, scripta quibus comoedia prisca viris est, hoc stabant, hoc sunt imitandi: quos neque pulcher Hermogenes umquam legit, neque simius iste nil praeter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum.'

(d) P. Terentius Varro Atacinus was born B.C. 82 in Gallia Narbonensis near Atax (a river, not a town, as Jerome states).

Jerome yr. Abr. 1935 = B.C. 82, 'P. Terentius Varro vico Atace in provincia Narbonensi nascitur; qui postea xxxv. annum agens Graecas litteras cum summo studio didicit.'

Porphyr. ad Hor. Sat. i. 10, 46, 'Terentius Varro Narbonensis, qui Atacinus ab Atace fluvio dictus est.'

Varro must have died before B.C. 35, when Horace, speaking of satire, wrote, Sat. i. 10, 46,

'Hoc erat, experto frustra Varrone Atacino atque quibusdam aliis melius quod scribere possem.'

Varro's works were:

1. Bellum Sequanicum, probably an epic on Caesar's war with Ariovistus in B.C. 58.

2. Saturae, mentioned only in the above passage of Horace.

3. Argonautae, a translation from Apollonius Rhodius in four Books. Probus ad Verg. Georg. ii. 126, 'Varro qui quattuor libros de Argonautis edidit.'

Cf. Sen. Controv. vii. 1, 27, 'Illos optimos versus Varronis (= Apoll. iii. 749-50),

"Desierant latrare canes urbesque silebant; omnia noctis erant placida composta quiete."

Solebat Ovidius de his versibus dicere, potuisse fieri longe meliores, si secundi versus ultima pars abscideretur et sic desineret "omnia noctis erant."'[40]

Cf. also Quint. x. 1, 87; Ovid, Am. i. 15, 21; Stat. Silv. ii. 7, 77.

4. Chorographia, a geographical work, as the fragments show.

5. Ephemeris.—Serv. ad Verg. Georg. i. 375, 'Hic locus omnis de Varrone est; nam et Varro et Vergilius Aratum secuti sunt.'

6. Elegies.—One line is given by Baehrens. Cf. Propert. iii. 34, 85,

'Haec quoque perfecto ludebat Iasone Varro, Varro Leucadiae maxima flamma suae.'

(e) Publilius Syrus was a manumitted slave, a native of Syria, probably of Antioch.

Jerome yr. Abr. 1974 = B.C. 43, 'Publilius mimographus natione Syrus Romae scaenam tenet.'

Pliny, N.H. xxxv. 199, 'Est et vilissima [creta] qua circum praeducere ad victoriae notam pedesque venalium trans maria advectorum denotare instituerunt maiores talemque Publilium Antiochium (MSS. lochium) mimicae scaenae conditorem et astrologiae consobrinum eius Manilium Antiochum, item grammaticae Staberium Erotem eadem nave advectos videre proavi.'

An account of Publilius' manumission, and his contest with Laberius in B.C. 45, is given by Macrob. Saturn. ii. 7, 4-8, and is quoted under 'Laberius,' p. 97.

Publilius' works were:

1. Mimi.—Two titles are quoted.

2. Sententiae.—Six hundred and ninety-seven lines from his mimes (unconnected and alphabetically arranged) are preserved from different sources. Most are iambic senarii, some trochaic septenarii.

Macrob. Saturn. ii. 7, 10, 'Publili sententiae feruntur lepidae et ad communem usum adcommodatissimae.'

Cicero heard his and Laberius' plays in B.C. 46. See ad Fam. xii. 18, 2, quoted under 'Laberius,' p. 99.

Sen. de tranquill. 11, 8, 'Publilius, tragicis comicisque vehementior ingeniis, quotiens mimicas ineptias et verba ad summam caveam spectantia reliquit, inter multa alia cothurno, non tantum sipario fortiora, et hoc ait,

"Cuivis potest accidere quod cuiquam potest."'

The lines are, like the above, proverbs of worldly wisdom, and seem to have been used in schools.

Jerome Ep. ad Laetam, 107, 'Legi quondam in scholis puer,

"Aegre reprendas quod sinas consuescere."'



Footnotes to Chapter II

[25] Q. Hortensius Hortalus (B.C. 114-50), Cicero's rival as an orator, and author of Annales (Vell. ii. 16, 3), a Rhetoric (Quint. ii. 1, 11), and love poems (Ovid Tr. ii. 441).

[26] According to ad Att. ii. 1, 3 (if genuine), Cicero intended to publish speeches 9-11 in a collection of 'orationes consulares' ('Hoc totum soma curabo ut habeas').

[27] R.H. iv. 311 (note).

[28] Q. Asconius Pedianus (A.D. 3-88), probably a native of Padua, author of a commentary on Cicero's speeches. The extant part is on Pro Cornelio de maiestate, In toga candida, In Pisonem, Pro Scauro, and Pro Milone. The commentary on the Verrines and Divinatio, which deals almost exclusively with the language, is spurious: the true Asconius confines himself to the subject-matter.

[29] The Epicurean philosophy was expounded in the writings of C. Amafinius, Rabirius, and T. Catius, whose opinions and literary style were alike distasteful to Cicero (Ac. i. 5; ad. Fam. xv. 19, 2).

[30] F. Ritschl, Opuscula, iii., p. 525.

[31] L. Schwabe, Quaest. Catull., p. 296. B. Schmidt, however (ed. of Catullus, p. 57), thinks that the Chronica are not referred to here.

[32] A life of Lucretius has been recently discovered by J. Masson (Journal of Philology, xxiii. 46), which was written by Girolamo Borgia in 1502. It gives B.C. 95-51 as the poet's dates. Several new points were supposed to lend it a claim to authority, such as the statement that he was 'matre natus diu sterili.' This, however, has been shown to rest on a wrong reading of Q. Serenus Sammonicus' Liber Medicinalis, xxxii., in a passage dealing with the barrenness of women, 'hoc poterit magni quartus [liber] monstrare Lucreti,' where partus, the reading of the oldest edition, was used. This, and other considerations, show that the vita does not rest on any ancient sources, beyond those which are still extant.

[33] Memmius wrote love poems (Ovid, Tr. ii. 433).

[34] Some ascribe these stories to Lenaeus, a freedman of Pompey, Sueton. Gramm. 15.

[35] Only inferior MSS. give Q., and the reading in c. 67, 12, 'verum istud populi, fabula, Quinte, facit,' is not to be accepted.

[36] Some critics, without sufficient proof, identify Volusius with the inferior poet Tanusius Geminus.

[37] Martial, of course, has here forgotten his dates.

[38] The incident has been borrowed from Plutarch by Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act iii. Scene 3.

[39] See p. 184.

[40] This appears to us to be an indirect proof that the half lines in Virgil are often complete as they stand.



CHAPTER III

THE AUGUSTAN AGE.



VIRGIL.

(1) LIFE.

Our chief authority for the life of Virgil, apart from his own writings and those of his contemporaries, is Donatus, whose work is probably based on Suetonius' De Poetis. Donatus' work, though not free from romance, is much more valuable than the Life by Probus[41] or the metrical account given by Phocas.[42] Some important details are given in the Life wrongly attributed to Servius, and in an account preserved in a Berne MS. of the tenth century.

The poet's name is correctly given as P. Vergilius Maro in all the Lives. The balance of authority is decidedly in favour of the spelling 'Vergilius'; it is always so written in the early MSS. and in inscriptions of the Republic and of the early centuries A.D. The traditional form in modern literature, 'Virgil,' is here retained.

Virgil was born 15th October, B.C. 70, at Andes (identified traditionally with Pietole)[43] near Mantua. Donatus, vit. Verg., 'Natus est Cn. Pompeio Magno et M. Licinio Crasso primum coss. iduum Octobrium die, in pago qui Andes dicitur et abest a Mantua non procul.'

He was of humble extraction, his father being originally either a potter or a day-labourer.

Probus, vit. Verg., 'Matre Magia Polla, patre rustico.'

Donatus, 'Parentibus modicis fuit ac praecipue patre, quem quidam opificem figulum, plures Magi cuiusdam viatoris initio mercennarium mox ob industriam generum tradiderunt egregieque substantiae silvis coemendis et apibus curandis auxisse reculam.' (Cf. Virgil's treatment of bees in Georgic iv.)

His early years were spent at Cremona, whence in B.C. 55 he went to Mediolanum and then to Rome for his higher education. He studied philosophy, medicine, mathematics, and rhetoric; but his shyness prevented his being a success at the bar, where, we are told, he appeared only once.

Donatus, 'Initia aetatis Cremonae egit usque ad virilem togam, quam xv. anno natali suo accepit isdem illis consulibus iterum duobus quibus erat natus, evenitque ut eo ipso die Lucretius poeta decederet. De Cremona Mediolanum et inde paulo post transiit in urbem ... Inter cetera studia medicinae quoque ac maxime mathematicae[44] operam dedit. Egit et causam apud iudices unam omnino nec amplius quam semel; nam et in sermone tardissimum ac paene indocto similem fuisse Melissus [a freedman of Maecenas] tradidit.'

The Berne MS. above referred to says: 'Ut primum se contulit Romam, studuit apud Epidium oratorem cum Caesare Augusto.'[45] For his studies under the Epicurean Siron cf. Catal. 7, 8,

'Nos ad beatos vela mittimus portus, magni petentes docta dicta Sironis, vitamque ab omni vindicabimus cura.'

Cf. also Ecl. 6, 31-40, where a brief sketch is given of the Epicurean theory of creation.

For a few years we hear nothing of his life, but we may suppose that he continued his studies in literature and philosophy, probably at his farm, if we can draw any inference from the language of Ecl. 1, especially l. 19 sqq. So far as is known, he took no part in the civil wars. In B.C. 41, when lands were assigned to the troops of Antonius, Virgil was dispossessed of his property. On the recommendation of Asinius Pollio, who was legatus of Gallia Transpadana, he went to Rome and obtained from Octavian the restitution of his land. The poet expresses his gratitude in Ecl. 1, 42,

'Hic illum vidi iuvenem, Meliboee, quotannis bis senos cui nostra dies altaria fumant. Hic mihi responsum primus dedit ille petenti: "Pascite ut ante boves, pueri, submittite tauros."'

Cf. also ll. 70-3.

Donatus, 'Ad bucolica transiit maxime ut Asinium Pollionem, Alphenum Varum, et Cornelium Gallum celebraret, quia in distributione agrorum qui post Philippensem victoriam[46] veteranis triumvirorum iussu trans Padum dividebantur, indemnem se praestitissent.'

Virgil was evicted a second time in the following year, after the Bellum Perusinum, by the troops of Octavian. Conflicting accounts are given by the Lives regarding the persons who seized his land.[47]

Servius, vit. Verg., 'Postea ortis bellis civilibus inter Antonium et Augustum, Augustus victor Cremonensium agros, quia pro Antonio senserant, dedit militibus suis. Qui cum non sufficerent, his addidit agros Mantuanos, sublatos non propter civium culpam, sed propter vicinitatem Cremonensium: unde ipse in Bucolicis (9, 28), "Mantua vae miserae nimium vicina Cremonae."'

Virgil and his household found refuge on an estate which had once belonged to his old master Siron: Catal. 10,

'Villula, quae Sironis eras, et pauper agelle ... Tu nunc eris illi [patri] Mantua quod fuerat quodque Cremona prius.'

Whether he recovered his old farm is uncertain: at all events he spent most of his time in the south of Italy. Besides a house in Rome, he seems to have had a country house near Nola, and we know that the Georgics (cf. iv. 563) were written at Naples.

Donatus, 'Habuit domum Romae Esquiliis iuxta hortos Maecenatis, quamquam secessu Campaniae Siciliaeque plurimum uteretur.'

Gell. vi. 20, 1, 'Scriptum in quodam commentario repperi ... Vergilium petivisse a Nolanis, aquam uti duceret in propinquum rus.'

He lived a retired life, seldom visiting Rome, and devoting most of his time to poetical composition, in which he was regular and painstaking.

Tac. Dial. 13, 'Securum et quietum Vergilii secessum, in quo tamen neque apud divum Augustum gratia caruit neque apud populum Romanum notitia: testes Augusti epistulae, testis ipse populus, qui auditis in theatro Vergilii versibus surrexit universus et forte praesentem spectantemque Vergilium veneratus est sic quasi Augustum.'

Quint. x. 3, 8, 'Vergilium paucissimos die composuisse versus auctor est Varius.'

Cf. his own expression, quoted by Gell. xvii. 10, 2, 'parere se versus more atque ritu ursino' (alluding to the notion that the bear licked its young into shape).

He was already an influential member of Maecenas' literary circle, to which, in B.C. 39, he introduced Horace. Cf. Hor. Sat. i. 6, 54,

'optimus olim Vergilius, post hunc Varius dixere quid essem.'

By Maecenas he was introduced to Augustus,[48] who treated him with liberality. Cf. Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 246,

'Munera quae multa dantis cum laude tulerunt dilecti tibi Vergilius Variusque poetae.'

He was on intimate terms with Horace, who addresses Od. i. 3 to him on the occasion of a proposed visit to Greece. Cf. ll. 5-8,

'Navis, quae tibi creditum debes Vergilium, finibus Atticis reddas incolumem, precor, et serves animae dimidium meae.'

In B.C. 37 he formed one of the party who travelled with Horace to Brundisium: Hor. Sat. i. 5, 40 (see under 'Horace,' p. 167).

For the rest of his life we hear little of Virgil in any public connexion. In B.C. 19 he started on a voyage to Greece and Asia, intending to spend three years on the revision of the Aeneid, but returned from Athens in bad health, and died at Brundisium on 21st September. His remains were buried near Naples. The epitaph quoted by Donatus is obviously not by Virgil: 'Anno aetatis lii. impositurus Aeneidi summam manum, statuit in Graeciam et in Asiam secedere triennioque continuo nihil amplius quam emendare, ut reliqua vita tantum philosophiae vacaret: sed cum ingressus iter Athenis occurrisset Augusto ab oriente Romam revertenti destinaretque non absistere atque etiam una redire, dum Megara vicinum oppidum ferventissimo sole cognoscit, languorem nactus est eumque non intermissa navigatione auxit, ita ut gravior aliquanto Brundisium appelleret, ubi diebus paucis obiit xi. Kal. Octobr. Cn. Sentio Q. Lucretio coss. (21st September, B.C. 19). Ossa eius Neapolim translata sunt tumuloque condita ... in quo distichon fecit tale:

"Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope: cecini pascua, rura, duces."'

His personal appearance and character are thus described by Donatus: 'Corpore et statura fuit grandis, aquilo colore, facie rusticana, valetudine varia: nam plerumque a stomacho et a faucibus ac dolore capitis laborabat, sanguinem etiam saepe reiecit.' (Cf. Hor. Sat. i. 5, 48,

'Lusum it Maecenas, dormitum ego Vergiliusque; namque pila lippis inimicum et ludere crudis.')

'Cibi vinique minimi, libidinis pronior ... cetera sane vita et ore et animo tam probum constat, ut Neapoli Parthenias volgo appellatus sit, ac si quando Romae, quo rarissime commeabat, viseretur in publico, sectantes demonstrantesque se suffugeret in proximum tectum.'

(2) WORKS.

MINOR POEMS.—According to Donatus, these were: 'In Balistam ... deinde Catalecton et Priapia et Epigrammata et Diras, item Cirim et Culicem, cum esset annorum xvi.' Servius omits the boyish production 'in Balistam,' and adds the 'Copa.' The 'Aetna,' mentioned with doubt by Donatus, is, of course, not by Virgil. (1) Catalecta.-This seems better than Catalecton; either would mean "a collection of poems." Some give Catalepton (= "trifles," like Aratus' work ta kata lepton). Ribbeck thinks Catalecta originally included the Priapea, Epigrammata, and Dirae, but came to be restricted to the fourteen short pieces given in our MSS. under that title. Some of these, e.g. No. 5, are spurious. Quint. viii. 3, 28 vouches for No. 2. Virgil's friends, Tucca and Varius, are addressed in 1 and 9, and 10 (on Siron's villa) refers to an event in Virgil's life. In the vein of Catullus are 3, 4, and 8, the last being an extremely close parody of Catullus, c. 4. (2) Priapea, three in number. (3) Dirae, spurious. (4) Ciris. The writer's reference to himself in l. 2, 'Irritaque expertum fallacis praemia volgi,' shows that Virgil is not the author. (5) Culex. That Virgil wrote a poem with this title is attested by Suetonius, Statius, and Martial; e.g. Mart. viii. 56, 19,

'Protinus Italiam concepit et arma virumque qui modo vix Culicem fleverat ore rudi.'

The poem in its present form is accepted by Ribbeck, but it does not correspond exactly to the account given by Donatus of the contents. (6) The Copa Ribbeck accepts as genuine, but other critics find in it characteristics rather of Ovid or of Propertius. (7) The Moretum, though found in MSS., is not mentioned by Donatus or Servius, a strong argument against its being genuine.

BUCOLICA.—These ten poems are called in the MSS. Eclogae ("selected pieces"), and were composed B.C. 43-39. Probus, 'Scripsit Bucolica annos natus xxviii., Theocritum secutus.'

Servius, 'Tunc ei proposuit Pollio ut carmen bucolicum scriberet, quod eum constat triennio[49] scripsisse et emendasse.'

They were doubtless published separately as they were written, and afterwards collected into a volume with Ecl. 1 (Tityrus) coming first. Cf. Georg. iv. 565,

'Carmina qui lusi pastorum, audaxque iuventa, Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi.'

The present order is certainly not the chronological order.

Ecl. 1 was written B.C. 41 as a thanksgiving to Augustus (see p. 150).

Ecl. 2 cannot be earlier than the end of 43 when Pollio was made governor of Gallia Transpadana, and possibly should not be put earlier than the summer of 42. The poem is written on his favourite slave Alexis (see Serv. ad loc.).

Ecl. 3 was probably written soon afterwards. Virgil refers in l. 84 to his intimacy with Pollio,

'Pollio amat nostram, quamvis est rustica, Musam.'

Ecl. 2 and 3 are earlier than 5. Cf. 5, 86-7,

'Haec nos "Formosum Corydon ardebat Alexim," haec eadem docuit "Cuium pecus? an Meliboei?"'

Ecl. 4. The date is clear from l. 3,

'Si canimus silvas, silvae sint consule dignae.'

It must have been written in 40, when Pollio was consul. This eclogue, which in the Middle Age was believed to be a prophecy of the Messiah's coming, cannot be satisfactorily explained as referring to Pollio's son Saloninus, or to the expected child of Augustus, Julia.

Ecl. 5. Spohn's view is highly probable, that it was written for the first celebration of Caesar's birthday in July, 42.

Ecl. 6, to Varus, probably written B.C. 40 from Siron's villa.

Ecl. 7 contains no allusion to contemporary events: the tone is purely pastoral.

Ecl. 8 was written while Pollio was on his way back to Rome from his victory over the Parthini in Illyricum, for his triumph in B.C. 39. Cf. ll. 6 and 12.

In Ecl. 9, written B.C. 40 at Siron's villa, the poet expresses his grief at the second expulsion from his farm.

Ecl. 10 entitled 'Gallus' was written B.C. 39. For details see under 'Gallus,' p. 182.[50]

Sources of the Eclogues.—Several of the Eclogues are modelled on Theocritus (cf. 'Sicelides Musae' 4, 1; 'Syracosius versus' 6, 1), e.g. Ecl. 8 on Theocr. 2 and 3; and close imitations are found throughout. The poet Euphorion of Chalcis (of third century B.C.) is alluded to in Ecl. 10, 50 in connection with Gallus. The names of the shepherds are mostly from Theocritus, as Tityrus, Mopsus, Damoetas. They are 'Arcades' (7, 4, etc.), but, like the scenery, exhibit traits both of Sicily and of North Italy. Thus the scenery never gives an accurate picture of any one locality: e.g. Ecl. 9, ll. 1-10, 26-7, 36, 59-60, present features of the district around Mantua, while in ll. 39-43 a Sicilian scene is introduced from Theocritus. The lofty mountains, e.g. 1, 84, are Sicilian, and so are many of the trees, as chestnut and pine, which are said not to be found near Mantua. For Mantuan scenery cf. e.g. 7, 12,

'Hic virides tenera praetexit harundine ripas Mincius.'

The GEORGICS were written from B.C. 37 to 30 at the suggestion of Maecenas. Cf. i. 1.

Serv. vit. Verg. 'Item proposuit Maecenas Georgica, quae scripsit emendavitque septem annis.'

The poem was finished by B.C. 29. Cf. Donatus, 'Georgica reverso post Actiacam victoriam Augusto atque Atellae ... commoranti per continuum quadriduum legit.' It was written at Naples. Cf. iv. 559,

'Haec super arvorum cultu pecorumque canebam ... Illo Vergilium me tempore dulcis alebat Parthenope, studiis florentem ignobilis oti.'

The concluding part of Book iv., originally a dirge on Cornelius Gallus, was afterwards altered for the myth of Aristaeus, to please Augustus.

Serv. ad Ecl. 10, 1, 'Fuit Cornelius Gallus amicus Vergilii, adeo ut quartus Georgicorum a medio usque ad finem eius laudes teneret, quas postea iubente Augusto in Aristaei fabulam commutavit.'

Sources of the Georgics.—Besides his own observation, Virgil used the following authorities:

1. Hesiod—mostly in Book i., e.g. ll. 276-286 (lucky and unlucky days). Cf. ii. 176,

'Ascraeumque cano Romana per oppida carmen.'

2. Books of the priests; e.g. i. 269 sqq. (what is lawful on holy days), i. 338 sqq. (Ambarvalia).

3. For agriculture and natural history—Greek writers like Aristotle, Theophrastus, Democritus, and Xenophon; and Latin writers like Cato and Varro.

4. Alexandrian writers for science and mythology; e.g. Eratosthenes for i. 233, 'quinque tenent caelum zonae,' etc.; i. 351-465, signs of weather, from the Diosemeia of Aratus; iii. 425 sqq., the Calabrian serpent, from the Theriaka of Nicander, whose writings were also used for the subject of bees in Book iv.

5. Lucretius, to whom Virgil is chiefly indebted, ii. 475 sqq., especially 490 sqq., 'felix qui potuit,' etc., refers to Lucretius. The idea of Lucretius, cf. v. 206-217, that man has a perpetual struggle with nature, is reflected in Virgil, but modified by his acceptance of the argument from design. Cf. i. 99,

'Exercetque frequens tellurem atque imperat arvis,'

and the whole passage i. 118-159. Lucretian science is borrowed in passages like i. 89,

'Seu pluris calor ille vias et caeca relaxat spiramenta, novas veniat qua sucus in herbas';

l. 415-423 (of the habits of birds); iii. 242 sqq. (on the passion of love). Notice also, with Munro, Lucretian phrases like principio, quod superest, his animadversis, nunc age, praeterea, nonne vides, contemplator, genitalia semina.

Political purpose of the Georgics.—The political purpose of the Georgics is to help the policy of Augustus, which aimed at checking the depopulation of the country districts. Cf. i. 498-514, and especially ll. 506-7,

'Non ullus aratro dignus honos: squalent abductis arva colonis.'

The Emperor is introduced throughout as the object of veneration. Cf. i. 24-42.

Natural scenery.—Virgil dwells on Nature in her softer aspects. Cf. phrases like ii. 470, 'mollesque sub arbore somni,' and the passage ii. 458-540 in praise of a country life. For the praise of Italy see the beautiful passage ii. 136-176, where special districts are mentioned.

AENEID.—Even before the Eclogues were written, Virgil had meditated the composition of an epic, perhaps, as Servius suggests, on the kings of Alba. Cf. Ecl. 6, 3,

'Cum canerem reges et proelia, Cynthius aurem vellit et admonuit: "pastorem, Tityre, pingues pascere oportet oves, deductum dicere carmen."'

The idea of a poem in honour of Augustus was present to his mind when he wrote Georg. iii. 46,

'Mox tamen ardentes accingar dicere pugnas Caesaris.'

The Aeneid was commenced B.C. 29, and remained unfinished at Virgil's death.

Servius, vit. Verg., 'postea ab Augusto Aeneidem propositam scripsit annis undecim, sed nec emendavit nec edidit.'

His method of working at the poem is thus described by Donatus, 'Aeneida prosa prius oratione formatam digestamque in xii. libros particulatim componere instituit, prout liberet quidque et nihil in ordinem arripiens. Ut ne quid impetum moraretur, quaedam imperfecta transmisit, alia levissimis verbis veluti fulsit, quae per iocum pro tibicinibus interponi aiebat ad sustinendum opus donec solidae columnae advenirent.'

In what order the Books were written it is impossible to decide; but Book vi. was not read to Augustus till after the death of the young Marcellus, B.C. 23.

Donatus, 'Cui [Augusto] multo post perfectaque demum materia tres omnino libros recitavit, secundum quartum sextum, sed hunc notabili Octaviae adfectione, quae cum recitationi interesset ad illos de filio suo versus, "Tu Marcellus eris," defecisse fertur atque aegre focillata est.'

Virgil, writing to the emperor, insists on the magnitude of the task he had rashly undertaken.

Macrob. Saturn. i. 24, 11, 'Tanta incohata res est, ut paene vitio mentis tantum opus ingressus mihi videar, cum praesertim, ut scis, alia quoque studia ad id opus multoque potiora impertiar.'

Although in his will Virgil left instructions to Varius (and Tucca) to destroy all his unpublished manuscripts, Varius was expressly desired by Augustus to revise and publish the Aeneid.

Donatus, 'Egerat cum Vario, priusquam Italia decederet, ut si quid sibi accidisset Aeneida combureret; sed is facturum se pernegarat ... Edidit autem auctore Augusto Varius, sed summatim emendata, ut qui versus etiam imperfectos sicut erant reliquerit.'

This account is corroborated by Pliny the elder, N.H. vii. 114, Gellius, and Macrobius.

The rules laid down to the editors by the Emperor were, according to Servius, 'ut superflua demerent, nihil adderent tamen.'

It seems probable that the Aeneid was published B.C. 17, for it is in the Carmen Saeculare of that year that Horace first alludes to the story of Aeneas (cf. l. 50, 'clarus Anchisae Venerisque sanguis'), and in the fourth Book of the Odes (four years later) it is more than once introduced.

The choice of the subject was influenced (1) by the personal desire of the Emperor; (2) by the connexion of the Caesarian house with Venus, through Iulus;[51] cf. the invention of Atys (Aen. v. 568) by Virgil to please Augustus, whose mother was Atia; (3) by Virgil's design to write an epic on the greatness of Rome, in the manner of Homer.

The Aeneas Legend.—Stesichorus of Himera, among other writers, made Aeneas, a Homeric hero (cf. Il. xx. 307-8), settle in Italy; and Naevius is said to have adopted the legend in the form given by Timaeus, the Sicilian historian of the third century B.C. The legend probably arose from the worship of Aphrodite on the coasts of Italy, and was disseminated by the Greeks of Cumae to please the Romans. The connexion of Rome with Troy had been officially recognized for two hundred years (cf. Sueton. Claud. 25), and, though not a popular belief, had been accepted in literature from the time of Naevius.

Sources of the Aeneid.—1. Earlier Roman poets as Naevius, Ennius, Pacuvius, Accius, Lucilius, Hostius, Varro Atacinus, Lucretius. For details see under these names.

2. Cato's Origines and Varro's Antiquitates, for Italian legends and peoples.

3. Ius pontificium and ius augurale, as found in the books of sacred colleges (Macrob. i. 24, 16). Cf. the ritual meaning of porricio (v. 776), porrigo (viii. 274), the habit of praying with veiled head (iii. 405), prayer to Apollo of Soracte (xi. 785).

4. Greek sources: (a) particularly the Iliad and Odyssey, but also the Homeric Hymns and Cyclic Poems. Thus the games in Book v. = the games in honour of Patroclus in Il. xxiii.; the shield of Aeneas (viii. 626-731) = the shield of Achilles in Il. xviii.; (b) Apollonius Rhodius, for the passion of Dido = that of Medea; (c) Greek tragedies, e.g. the lost Laocoon of Sophocles for ii. 40 sqq.

Religion in the Aeneid.—1. The mythology is mainly from Homer. From Latin myths come Faunus, Saturnus, Janus, Picus. Euhemerism is shown by the last three being represented as originally kings of Rome.

2. The power of the gods is denoted by fatum or fata; cf. x. 112-3,

'rex Iuppiter omnibus idem: fata viam invenient.'

3. The description of the lower world in Book vi. is from the descent into Hades in Od. xi., but is modified by Pythagorean ideas (vi. 748-751, metempsychosis), Stoic ideas (vi. 724 sqq., pantheism, cf. Georg. iv. 219-227) and Platonic myths (e.g. in the Gorgias, Phaedo, and Republic), and rendered more definite by the introduction of heroes of the Republic. Note that Virgil emphasizes its mythical nature by dismissing Aeneas through the ivory gate (of false dreams).

4. Other beliefs: (a) The golden bough (vi. 203-9) compared to the mistletoe, the symbol of the lower world with many Indo-European peoples; (b) Divinities attached to special places, e.g. viii. 349-354 of the religio attaching to the Capitol, ii. 351-2 guardian deities: cf. Carmentis, pater Tiberinus, etc.; (c) Worship of the dead, and belief in their continued influence on human affairs, iii. 66-8, 301-5.

Political significance.—1. The pre-eminence of the Julian race and of Augustus himself. Cf. i. 286,

'Nascetur pulchra Troianus origine Caesar, imperium Oceano, famam qui terminet astris, Iulius, a magno demissum nomen Iulo.'

So vi. 789 sqq.

2. The idea of empire: cf. i. 33,

'Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem';

and of Rome as the conqueror and civilizer of the world: vi. 851,

'Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento: hae tibi erunt artes, pacisque imponere morem, parcere subiectis et debellare superbos.'

3. The unity of Italy with Rome is seen in Aeneas and Turnus, representing respectively the pietas and the martial courage of a past age. This is brought out also by the introduction of local names. Cf. vii. 682-5, 710-7, 797-802.

4. Virgil shows here and there contempt for pure democracy: vi. 815,

'iactantior Ancus nunc quoque iam nimium gaudens popularibus auris.'

Cf. also i. 148-9.

Authors influenced by Virgil.—Livy, Tacitus, Ovid, Tibullus, Propertius, Manilius, Lucan, Silius Italicus, Statius, Valerius Flaccus, Martial, Juvenal, the author of Aetna. See under each.



HORACE.

(1) LIFE.

Our chief source of information about Horace is his own works, and some important details are added in a life of him by Suetonius.

Horace's full name is Quintus (Sat. ii. 6, 37) Horatius (Od. iv. 6, 44) Flaccus (Sat. ii. 1, 18). He was born 8th December, B.C. 65, at Venusia in Apulia, on the frontier of Lucania.

Sueton. vit. Hor., 'Natus est vi. Id. Decembr. L. Cotta et L. Torquato coss.'

Ep. i. 20, 26-8,

'Forte meum siquis te percontabitur aevum, me quater undenos sciat inplevisse Decembris collegam Lepidum quo duxit Lollius anno.'

Sat. i. 1, 34,

'Lucanus an Appulus anceps: nam Venusinus arat finem sub utrumque colonus.'

There are a great many references to Apulia in Horace. So Od. iii. 4, 9 sqq.,

'Me fabulosae Volture in Appulo nutricis extra limina Pulliae' (his nurse's name), etc.

All Roman virtues are attributed to the Apulians, as in Od. i. 22, 13; iii. 5, 9; Epod. ii. 39-42.

Horace, though free-born (Sat. i. 6, 7) was the son of a freedman, who was by profession a collector of debts, or, according to others, a fishmonger. To this last story Horace probably refers with proud humility in Ep. ii. 2, 60,

'Bioneis sermonibus et sale nigro.'

Sueton. vit. Hor., 'Patre, ut ipse tradit, libertino et auctionum coactore, ut vero creditum est, salsamentario.'

Sat. i. 6, 6,

'Ut me libertino patre natum';

ibid. 85,

'Nec timuit, sibi ne vitio quis verteret olim, si praeco parvas aut, ut fuit ipse, coactor mercedes sequerer.'

Stories of his childhood are given, Od. iii. 4, 9 sqq.; Sat. i. 9, 29 sqq.; Sat. ii. 2, 112 sqq.

Horace speaks highly of his father, who took him from the village school to Rome for his education. After speaking of his own freedom from vice he says (Sat. i. 6, 71 sqq.),

'Causa fuit pater his, qui macro pauper agello noluit in Flavi ludum me mittere, ... sed puerum est ausus Romam portare docendum artis quas doceat quivis eques atque senator semet prognatos. Vestem servosque sequentis, in magno ut populo, si qui vidisset, avita ex re praeberi sumptus mihi crederet illos. Ipse mihi custos incorruptissimus omnis circum doctores aderat.'

He received instruction, both in Latin and Greek, from Orbilius,[52] a teacher of conservative tendencies. Ep. ii. 1, 69,

'Non equidem insector delendave carmina Livi esse reor, memini quae plagosum mihi parvo Orbilium dictare.'

Ep. ii. 2, 41,

'Romae nutriri mihi contigit atque doceri iratus Graiis quantum nocuisset Achilles.'

His education was continued at Athens. Ep. ii. 2, 43,

'Adiecere bonae paulo plus artis Athenae, scilicet ut vellem curvo dignoscere rectum atque inter silvas Academi quaerere verum.'

His studies were interrupted by the civil war; he joined Brutus (who came to Athens in August, B.C. 44), was by him appointed tribunus militum, and took part in the battle of Philippi, B.C. 42. Ep. ii. 2, 46,

'Dura sed emovere loco me tempora grato civilisque rudem belli tulit aestus in arma Caesaris Augusti non responsura lacertis.'

Od. ii. 7, 9,

'Philippos et celerem fugam sensi, relicta non bene parmula.'

In Sat. i. 7 Horace relates a scene at Clazomenae before Brutus and his staff; and in Ep. i. 11 he speaks, as if with personal knowledge, of places in Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean, which he probably visited then. He refers to the hardships of war in Od. ii. 6, 7; ii. 7, 1; iii. 4, 26.

After the civil war his paternal property was confiscated, probably in B.C. 41, and his poverty compelled him to seek the post of a clerk in the quaestor's office, and, as he says, to write verses. (Some satires and epodes were then written.)

Sueton. vit. Hor., 'Victis partibus, venia inpetrata, scriptum quaestorium comparavit.'

Sat. ii. 6, 36,

'De re communi scribae magna atque nova te orabant hodie meminisses, Quinte, reverti.'

Ep. ii. 2, 49,

'Unde simul primum me dimisere Philippi, decisis humilem pennis inopemque paterni et laris et fundi paupertas inpulit, audax ut versus facerem.'

In the spring of B.C. 38 Horace was introduced to Maecenas[53] by Varius and Virgil, and became intimate with him in the winter of B.C. 38-7.

Sueton. vit. Hor., 'Primo Maecenati, mox Augusto insinuatus non mediocrem in amborum amicitia locum tenuit. Maecenas quanto opere eum dilexerit satis testatur illo epigrammate:

"Ni te visceribus meis, Horati, plus iam diligo, tu tuum sodalem Ninnio videas strigosiorem":

sed multo magis extremis iudiciis tali ad Augustum elogio: "Horati Flacci ut mei esto memor!"'

Sat. i. 6, 54,

'Optimus olim Vergilius, post hunc Varius dixere quid essem ... Abeo, et revocas nono post mense iubesque (l. 61) esse in amicorum numero.'

In Sat. ii. 6, 40-58 Horace describes how intimate he was socially with Maecenas, who, however, did not make him a confidant in political matters. The most noteworthy event of this period is described in Sat. i. 5, viz. Horace's journey to Brundisium in the train of Maecenas and Cocceius, who went to arrange some matters between Augustus and Antony. His companions were Virgil, Varius, Plotius, and the Greek rhetorician, Heliodorus. Plotius, Virgil, and Varius are thus referred to (Sat. i. 5, 41):

'Animae quales neque candidiores terra tulit neque quis me sit devinctior alter.'[54]

In B.C. 34 Maecenas gave Horace an estate in the country of the Sabines. The question of its position was settled last century by the abbe Capmartin de Chaupy. The only place that suits Horace's description is east of Tivoli, and in the neighbourhood of Vicovaro, which is the same as the Varia of Horace (Ep. i. 14, 3), the market-town of his tenants. Near it is the stream Licenza, the Digentia of Horace, on which stands Bardela (the Mandela of Hor.). Ep. i. 18, 104,

'Me quotiens reficit gelidus Digentia rivus, quem Mandela bibit, rugosus frigore pagus.'

The site of his villa may be pretty closely determined from Ep. i. 10, 49,

'Haec tibi dictabam post fanum putre Vacunae.'

Vacuna is a Sabine goddess, identified with Victoria: near the village an inscription has been found which was erected by Vespasian, 'Aedem Victoriae vetustate dilapsam sua impensa restituit,' and the natural inference is that this is the temple mentioned by Horace.[55] Horace stayed a great deal at his country-house, and his works contain many references to it.

Sueton. vit. Hor., 'Vixit plurimum in secessu ruris sui Sabini aut Tiburtini, domusque eius ostenditur circa Tiburni luculum.'

Sat. ii. 6, 16,

'Ubi me in mentis et in arcem ex urbe removi.'

Other references are Ep. i. 16, 1-14; Od. ii. 18, 14.

Augustus having tried unsuccessfully to induce Horace to become his secretary, was not offended at the poet's refusal, but continued to bestow his favour upon him.

Sueton. vit. Hor., 'Augustus epistularum quoque ei officium obtulit, ut hoc ad Maecenatem scripto significat: "Ante ipse sufficiebam scribendis epistulis amicorum, nunc occupatissimus et infirmus Horatium nostrum a te cupio abducere. Veniet ergo ab ista parasitica mensa ad hanc regiam et nos in epistulis scribendis adiuvabit." Ac ne recusanti quidem aut succensuit quicquam aut amicitiam suam ingerere desiit ... unaque et altera liberalitate locupletavit.'

Horace composed for Augustus the Carmen Saeculare; Od. iv. 4; iv. 14, celebrating the victories of Augustus' step-sons over the Rhaetians and the Vindelici; also Ep. ii. 1.

Sueton. vit. Hor., 'Scripta quidem eius usque adeo probavit mansuraque perpetuo opinatus est, ut non modo Saeculare carmen componendum iniunxerit sed et Vindelicam victoriam Tiberii Drusique privignorum suorum eumque coegerit propter hoc tribus carminum libris ex longo intervallo quartum addere; post sermones vero quosdam lectos nullam sui mentionem habitam ita sit questus: "Irasci me tibi scito, quod non in plerisque eius modi scriptis mecum potissimum loquaris; an vereris ne apud posteros infame tibi sit, quod videaris familiaris nobis esse?" expresseritque eclogam ad se, cuius initium est:

"Cum tot sustineas et tanta negotia solus,"' etc. (Ep. ii. 1).

Horace died 27th November, B.C. 8, and was buried near Maecenas. He appointed Augustus his heir.

Sueton. vit. Hor., 'Decessit v. Kal. Decembris C. Marcio Censorino et C. Asinio Gallo coss. lvii. aetatis anno, herede Augusto palam nuncupato; ... et conditus est extremis Esquiliis iuxta Maecenatis tumulum.'

In personal appearance Horace was 'brevis atque obesus,' according to Suetonius, who quotes a joke of Augustus on the subject: 'Vereri autem mihi videris ne maiores libelli tui sint, quam ipse es; sed tibi statura deest, corpusculum non deest.' Cf. Hor. Ep. i. 20, 24,

'Corporis exigui, praecanum, solibus aptum, irasci celerem, tamen ut placabilis essem';

Ep. i. 4, 15,

'Me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises, cum ridere voles, Epicuri de grege porcum.'

Cf. also Ep. i. 7, 25; Od. iii. 14, 25.

(2) WORKS.

Chronology of the Works.—(1) Satirae, in two Books (called Sermones in all the MSS.).

Book i. It is clear from Sat. ii. 6, 40 that Horace was introduced to Maecenas in the spring of B.C. 38. Now all the references to Maecenas, with the exception of the prologue in Sat. 1 (written last), are in the second half of the book, there being no mention of him in Sat. 2; 3; and 4. It is therefore probable that these three Satires were written when Horace knew Varius and Virgil, but not Maecenas, i.e. B.C. 40-38. Sat. 2 is probably the oldest we have, as is shown by other considerations, and by the number of archaisms it contains. Sat. 5 (on the journey to Brundisium) was written shortly after the spring of B.C. 37, when the events recorded took place. The date of the publication of the book cannot be exactly fixed, the only clue we have being the reference in Sat. i. 10, 86, to Bibulus, the political agent of Antony, whose presence in Rome B.C. 35 may be referred to. It cannot be proved that Sat. i. 1, 114 sqq., is imitated from Verg. Georg. i. 512 sqq., published B.C. 35.

Book ii. and the Epodes were published in B.C. 30 about the same time. We have references to Actium (B.C. 31), as in Sat. ii. 5, 63; and Sat. ii. 1 (written last) speaks of Augustus (ll. 11-15) as the hero in war, not yet the bringer of peace, and was probably therefore composed before the temple of Janus was shut in the beginning of B.C. 29.

(2) Epodon liber, B.C. 30, as above. Epod. 9 was written shortly after the battle of Actium, 2nd September, B.C. 31, before it was known whither Antony had fled.

(3) Carmina (Odes) Books i.-iii., published B.C. 23. In Od. i. 12, 45,

'Crescit occulto velut arbor aevo fama Marcellis,'

we have a reference to the marriage in B.C. 25 of Augustus' daughter, Julia, to his nephew, Marcellus. Marcellus died in the autumn of B.C. 23, and the lines must have been written before his death. Od. ii. 10 and iii. 19 contain references to Licinius Murena, brother of Terentia, Maecenas' wife. Murena was executed for his share in the conspiracy of Fannius Caepio in the end of B.C. 23, and it is improbable that Horace could have made these references after that event.[56]

(4) Epistles, Book i., published B.C. 20. The date is fixed by Ep. i. 20, 26-8, already quoted, p. 164.

The year referred to is B.C. 21, and the book was therefore composed in B.C. 20, before December of that year.

(5) Carmen Saeculare, composed for the Ludi Saeculares of B.C. 17 (see Sueton. quoted above). An inscription commemorating these games was discovered in 1890 on the left bank of the Tiber, and in it Horace is mentioned: 'Sacrificioque perfecto pueri xxvi. quibus denuntiatum erat patrimi et matrimi et puellae totidem carmen cecinerunt eodemque modo in Capitolio. Carmen composuit Q. Horatius Flaccus.'[57]

(6) Odes, Book iv., published B.C. 13. Od. 4 and 14 celebrate the campaign of Drusus and Tiberius in Rhaetia and Vindelicia B.C. 15. Od. 2 and 5 were written just before Augustus' return, B.C. 13, from Gaul, where he had been since B.C. 16.

(7) Epistles, Book ii. Ep. ii. 1, to Augustus, was written B.C. 14 in response (see the quotation from Suetonius above) to the emperor's request for a poem addressed to himself, after seeing that no mention was made of him in Ep. ii. 2 and the Epistula ad Pisones. These are the sermones quidam (both, like Ep. ii. 1, on literary criticism) referred to by Suetonius, and not Book i. of the Epistles, where Augustus is frequently mentioned. The date is fixed by l. 15, 'praesenti tibi maturos largimur honores,' etc., referring to the worship of the numen Augusti, which was legalized B.C. 14, and by the reference in ll. 252 sqq. to the victories of Drusus and Tiberius, and their celebration in Od. iv. 4; iv. 14. Ep. ii. 2 (to Iulius Florus) was written B.C. 18. Horace hints (l. 25, ll. 84-6) that he has not yet returned to lyric poetry; the epistle was therefore written before B.C. 17. The Epistula ad Pisones or De Arte Poetica was probably written B.C. 17 or 16 after the Carmen Saeculare, but before Horace had entered on the composition of the fourth Book of the Odes.

The Satires are called Sermones in all the MSS., but as Horace gave this name both to his Satires (Sat. i. 4, 42) and to his Epistles (Ep. ii. 1, 4; 250) it is convenient to call them Satirae, the name which Horace also gives them (Sat. ii. 1, 1; 6, 17), and which represent their intended scope. Horace's chief model is Lucilius, whom he wished to adapt to the Augustan age. Sat. i. 4, 56,

'his, ego quae nunc, olim quae scripsit Lucilius.'

So Sat. ii. 1, 28 and 74. Lucilius' influence is seen most in Sat. i. 2; 5; 7; 8; ii. 2; 3; 4; 8. Horace, after the reception Sat. i. 2 met with, did not, like Lucilius, attack individuals; nor did his position as a dependent (Sat. ii. 1, 60-79) allow him to do so. We find, therefore, no political satire in Horace, who confines himself to social and literary topics. He does not attack his contemporaries by name, but (a) takes some names from Lucilius, as Albucius (Sat. ii. 1, 48), Opimius (Sat. ii. 3, 142); (b) invents 'tell-tale-names,' as Pantolabus (Sat. i. 8, 11), Novius (Sat. i. 3, 21). In Sat. i. 4 and ii. 1 he defines the moral and social aim of his satire. In Sat. i. 4, 1-13 he criticizes Lucilius' style; this seems to have given offence, and in Sat. i. 10 he gives reasons for his former criticism. Horace's Epicureanism is more pronounced in Book i. than in Book ii. In Sat. i. 1 and i. 3 (cf. ll. 99-124) the influence of Lucretius is seen. In i. 3 he takes up an antagonistic position to Stoicism (cf. ll. 124-142). In ii. 3 he shows less hostility to Stoicism though he still criticizes it.[58] In Sat. ii. 7, where the slave Davus enunciates the Stoic doctrine, hoti monos ho sophos eleutheros, Davus' arguments from l. 75 onwards have been taken by Horace from Cic. Parad. 5.