Chapter 23

§ 95.Alterum illud, &c. This takesus back to the earliest forms of the Roman Satura. Alongside of the Fescennine verses (Hor. Epist. ii. 139, sq.), which had originated in the rustic raillery and coarse mirth of vintage and harvest homes, there grew up a sort of dramatic medley or farce, probably containing an element of dialogue, to give opportunity for the sportive exchange of repartees, and soon coming to have a regular musical accompaniment and corresponding gestures. These ‘Saturae’ differed from the Fescennine verses in having more of a set form and not being extemporised; while, again, they were distinct from the developed drama in having no connected plot. They seem from the first to have contained a dramatic element, consisting as they did of comic songs or stories recited with gesticulation and flute accompaniment. In addition to the censorious freedom which they derived from the Fescennine verses, the Saturae received an impulse from the mimetic dances that had been imported from Etruria. They had been acted on the stage for more than a century before Livius Andronicus gave his first dramatic representation (B.C.240), and after the development of the regular drama they passed into a distinct form of literature, which retained to some extent its dramatic cast, but was not intended now for public representation. In the hands of Ennius the Satura became a medley of metrical pieces—a metrical miscellany—in which the poet gave utterance, not without the element of dialogue, to his views on things in general, in a tone that began to be more serious than would have suited the stage and the theatre-going public, who were now to look to Latin Comedy for undiluted amusement. With Lucilius, Satire passed from miscellaneous metrical composition to that aggressive and censorious criticism of persons, manners, literature, and politics, which the word has ever since been employed to denote. It was a form of literary activity that would seem to have been called for by the social and political conditions of Roman life in the latter part of the second century.—The transition is indicated in the following passage from Diomedes, Art. Gram. iii. p. 485 K Satira dicitur carmen apud Romanos nunc quidem maledicum et ad carpenda hominum vitia archaeae comoediae charactere compositum, quale scripseruntLuciliuset Horatius et Persius; at olim carmen quod ex variis poematibus constabat satira vocabatur, quale scripserunt Pacuvius et Ennius.etiam prius, i.e. even before thesaturaof Lucilius: cp. olim carmen quod, &c. in the passage just quoted. Thesaturaof Varro (like that of Menippus, whom he imitated), besides being composed in all sorts of metres, admitted prose also: hence ‘non sola carminum varietate mixtum’ (for the implied antithesis cp.7 §19in prosa ... in carmine). It was also, in respect of material, a sort ofpot-pourrior ‘hodge-podge’: cp. multis rebus refertum, Diomedes, l.c. SeeCrit. Notes.condidit: see§56. There is no need for Jahn’s conj.condivit. The word means ‘wrote,’ ‘composed’ (not ‘founded,’ as Mayor in his analysis): cp. iii. 1, 19 primus condidit aliqua (in arte rhetorica) M. Cato: xii. II, 23 Cato ... idem historiae conditor.Terentius Varro, M.(B.C.116-27). Of his many works (said to number about 600) we have only three books of the De Re Rustica, parts of the De Lingua Latina (in 25 books), and fragments of the Menippean Satires. For the last v. esp. Mommsen, iv. pt. 2, p. 594. A good account of Varro’s life and writings is given in Cruttwell’s Rom. Lit. pp. 141-156. In regard to the Saturae, v. esp. pp. 144-145: ‘There was one class of semi-poetical composition which Varro made peculiarly his own, the Satura Menippea, a medley of prose and verse, treating of all kinds of subjects just as they came to hand in the plebeian style, often with much grossness, but with sparkling point. Of these Saturae he wrote no less than 150 books, of which fragments have been preserved amounting to near 600 lines. Menippus of Gadara, the originator of this style of composition, lived about 280B.C.; he interspersed jocular and commonplace topics with moral maxims and philosophical doctrines, and may have added contemporary pictures, though this is uncertain. Varro followed him; we find him in theAcademicae Quaestionesof Cicero (i. 2, 8) saying that he adopted this method in the hope of enticing the unlearned to read something that might profit them. In thesesaturaetopics werehandled with the greatest freedom. They were not satires in the modern sense. They are rather to be considered as lineal descendants of the oldsaturaewhich existed before (cp. etiam prius) any regular literature.’Romanorum eruditissimus: cp. Cicero ad Att. xiii. 18 where, with some pique, he writes homoπολυγραφώτατοςnunquam me lacessivit (by dedicating a work to him): August. C. D. vi. 2 homo omnium facile acutissimus et sine ulla dubitatione doctissimus. Dion. Hal. ii. 21ἀνὴρ ... πολυπειρότατος: and Plut. Rom. 12ἄνδρα Ῥωμαίων ἐν ἱστορίᾳ βιβλιακώτατον.omnis antiquitatis. He wrote Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum, in forty-one books. Cp. Cic. Brut. 15, 60 diligentissimus investigator antiquitatis. For his general activity v. Acad. Post. i. 3, 9 nos in nostra urbe peregrinantes ... tui libri quasi domum reduxerunt ... tu aetatem patriae, tu descriptiones temporum, tu sacrorum iura, tu sacerdotum, tu domesticam, tu bellicam disciplinam, tu sedem regionum, locorum, tu omnium divinarum humanarumque rerum nomina, genera, officia, causas aperuisti plurimumque idem poetis nostris omninoque latinis et litteris luminis et verbis attulisti, atque ipse varium et elegans omni fere numero poema fecisti philosophiamque multis locis inchoasti, ad inpellendum satis, ad edocendum parum. Cp. Phil. ii. 41, 105, where distinct reference is made (as Halm points out) to treatises de Iure Civili, in fifteen books: de Vita Populi Romani, in four books: Annales in three books: Antiquitates in forty-one books: de Fama Philosophiae: and nine books Disciplinarum: Quint. xii. 11, 24, Quam multa, paene omnia, tradidit Varro.—For this use ofantiquitascp. Tac. Ann. ii. 59 cognoscendae antiquitatis: and other exx. in Nettleship’s Lat. Lex. s.v. 3.scientiae ... eloquentiae: cp. August. C. D. vi. 2 M. Varro ... tametsi minus est suavis eloquio, doctrina tamen atque sententiis ita refertus est ut in omni eruditione ... studiosum rerum tantum iste doceat quantum studiosum verborum Cicero delectat. For the datives cp.§27,§63,§71: conferre withinc. acc. occurs7 §26, q.v.I:96Iambus non sane a Romanis celebratus est ut proprium opus,sed aliisquibusdam interpositus; cuius acerbitas inCatullo,Bibaculo,Horatio, quamquam illi epodos intervenit, reperietur. At lyricorum idemHoratiusfere solus legi dignus; nam et insurgit aliquando et plenus est iucunditatis et gratiae et varius figuris et verbis felicissime audax. Si quem adicere velis, is eritCaesius Bassus, quem nuper vidimus; sed eum longe praecedunt ingenia viventium.§ 96.Iambus= carmina iambica: cp.§9,§59.celebratus est: cp. ix. 2, 92 celebrata apud Graecos schemata: i. 9, 6 narratiunculas a poetis celebratas. Cp. frequentare.ut proprium opus, i.e. as a separate form of composition, such as it was in the hands of Archilochus, Hipponax, and Simonides.aliis quibusdam(sc. carminibus)interpositus. Hild takes this as referring both to the alternation of the iambic with other metres and the substitution of other feet for the iambus itself (as commonly in Horace). It is probable that it only includes the former, being repeated, as regards Horace, in the words quamquam illi epodos intervenit.’ See Crit. Notes.Catullo. Cp. Fragm. i. At non effugies meos iambos. The most famous examples of hisacerbitasare the lampoons on Julius Caesar, especially that contained in the twenty-ninth poem (where see Munro for an appreciation of the meaning of ancient defamation and invective). Here Catullus appears as the genuine successor of the early Greek iambic writers. (Cp. the more offensive hendecasyllabics of lvii.) These are the two poems which Suetonius (Caesar 73) regarded as having attached an ‘everlasting stigma’ to the name of Caesar: cp. liii. ad fin. Irascere iterum meis iambis Immerentibus unice imperator. Sellar’s Roman Poets, p. 431 sq.Bibaculo. M. Furius Bibaculus (b. at CremonaB.C.99), like Catullus, the author of lampoons directed especially against the monarchists: Tac. Ann. iv. 34 carmina Bibaculi et Catulli referta contumeliis Caesarum leguntur: sed ipse divus Iulius, ipse divus Augustus et tulere ista et reliquere. Some apply to him the words of Horace, Satires ii. 5, 40, sq. seu pingui tentus omaso Furius hibernas cana nive conspuet Alpes (where the scholiast credits him with having written an account of the Gallic War): also i. 10, 36 TurgidusAlpinus iugulat dum Memnona,—the nickname Alpinus having been given to him on account of this ludicrous description of Jupiter sputtering snow over the Alps: v. Quint. viii. 6, 17, where the original line is quoted as an instance of a forced metaphor. The reference in i. 10, 36 is however doubtful; and Bernhardy (R. L. p. 566) supposes that in both passages some unknown poet is meant, whose name may have been Furius Alpinus. See Teuffel, R. L. i. 313.illi, sc. iambo = iambicis versibus.epodos:ὁ ἐπῳδός, sc.στίχος= a shorter (iambic) verse, alternating with a longer. Epodi dicuntur versus quolibet modo scripti et sequentes clausulas habentes particularum quales sunt epodi Horatii: in quibus singulis versibus singulae clausulae adiciuntur.... Dicti autem epodiσυνεκδοχικῶςa partibus versuum, quae legitimis et integris versibusἐπᾴδονται, i.e. accinuntur: Diomedes. Though the term epode includes all kinds of metre (except elegiac) in which a long and a short line are combined, it is used especially of the alternation of the iambic trimeter and dimeter (Hor. Epod. 1-10). Horace himself (who has only one poem—Epod. 17—in iambic trimeter by itself) includes all his Epodes under the head of iambi: Epod. 14, 7: Ep. i. 19, 23-25 Parios ego primus iambos ostendi Latio numeros animosque secutus Archilochi: cp. Car. i. 16, 3, and esp. 23-25 me quoque pectoris Tentavit in dulci iuventa Fervor et in celeres iambos Misit furentem. In Ep. ii. 2, 59 he divides his poetry intocarmina—Odes:iambi—Epodes: and ‘Bionei sermones’—Satires. Of course it was not Horace who introduced the epode into the Archilochean iambics: the form was invented and used by Archilochus himself. See Bernhardy, p. 601.legi dignus: a poetical constr., which passed into the prose of the Silver Age: cp. Plin. Paneg. vii. 4 dignus alter eligi alter eligere. SeeCrit. Notes.varius figuris: cp.§68sententiis densus.verbis felicissime audax: cp. Hor. A. P. 46 sq.: In verbis etiam tenuis cautusque serendis, hoc amet, hoc spernat promissi carminis auctor. Dixeris egregie notum si callida verbum Reddiderit iunctura novum,—where Orelli gives, as instances ofcallida iuncturain Horace himself, the well-known phrases ‘splendide mendax,’ ‘insanientis sapientiae consultus,’ ‘animae magnae prodigus.’ Cp. Petron. Sat. 118 Horatii curiosa felicitas. Ovid pronounces his eulogy in Trist. iv. 10, 49 Tenuit nostras numerosus Horatius aures, Dum ferit Ausonia carmina culta lyra.Caesius Bassus: mentioned by Ovid in the lines immediately preceding the passage just quoted, ll. 47-8: Ponticus Heroo, Bassus quoque clarus Iambo, Dulcia convictus membra fuere mei. He was the friend of Persius, who addresses his sixth Satire to him: and at the request of Cornutus he edited the whole six, after they had been prepared for publication by the latter. He is said to have perished in the eruption of Vesuvius (A.D.79), which was fatal also to the elder Pliny. He is probably the Bassus who wrote a treatise on metres, which still exists in an interpolated epitome: Keil. Gram. Lat. vi. 305 sq.—Forvidimus, ‘amisimus’ and ‘perdidimus’ have been needlessly suggested.ingenia viventium: cp. sunt clari hodieque§94above. It is only in favour of Domitian§91that Quint. breaks his rule not to mention living writers. Hild suspects Quint. of a little ‘log-rolling’ in these compliments.I:97Tragoediae scriptores veterumAttiusatquePacuviusclarissimigravitate sententiarum, verborum pondere, auctoritate personarum.Ceterum nitor et summa in excolendis operibus manus magis videri potest temporibus quam ipsis defuisse; virium tamen Attio plus tribuitur, Pacuvium videri doctiorem qui esse docti adfectant volunt.§ 97.Tragoediae scriptores. Quint. did not consider it necessary for his purpose to take any account of the first beginnings of tragedy, otherwise he would have mentioned Livius Andronicus (284-204), Naevius (235), and Ennius himself, who was probably almost as great in tragedy as in narrative poetry. It wasEnnius who first impressed on Roman tragedy the deeply moral and highly didactic character which it bore down to the age of Cicero. He made it his endeavour to hold up patterns of heroic virtue to his audience and to inspire them with right ideas of life. Even his adaptations from the Greek (nearly half of the extant names of his tragedies suggest subjects taken from the Trojan cycle) are fired with the truly national spirit which he succeeded in handing on to his successors, Attius and Pacuvius. Ennius also wrote somepraetextatae(i.e. national tragedies on historic subjects of poetic interest, e.g. the Rape of the Sabine Women); and in view of this fact it may appear strange that his example was not more widely followed, so that these national dramas should have outlived the hackneyed subjects drawn from Greek legend. The reason probably is that there was too much party life in Rome to make the dramatic treatment of the national history equally acceptable to all. Few incidents could have been dramatised that would not have excited various feelings in the hearts of an audience, say, in the times of the Gracchi. Under the Empire the free treatment of the national history for dramatic purposes was positively discouraged, and under the Republic the Senate had exercised almost as severe a political censorship as the Emperor did in later times.From many points of view it might have been expected that tragedy would have found a congenial home at Rome. There was much in the national character, history, and institutions that was favourable to its growth. The speculative element and the deep spiritual interest which pervades Greek tragedy must no doubt have been absent; though Schlegel thought that the place of Nemesis could naturally have been taken by the idea of Religio, in so far as it comprehended the subordination of the individual to the State, and his supreme self-surrender. But tragedy flourished at Rome only during a comparatively short period: the populace probably failed to rise to the demands made on them by its lofty and serious purpose. Their tastes became more and more estranged from it, as gladiatorial and spectacular shows grew in favour; and appreciation of the drama came to be the proof of the culture of a small and exclusive class. But the popularity which it enjoyed for a time must have been due to the fact that, though the subjects were generally adapted from the Greek, Roman tragedy came to have a character of its own. It appealed to the ethical and political sympathies of the audience, and satisfied that taste for rhetoric which led afterwards to the development of Latin oratory. There may have been about it no subtle analysis of character, no lofty delineation of the action and passion of men entangled in the meshes of a destiny which they could neither understand nor unravel; but it seems to have embodied all the manly feeling and moral dignity of which the nation was capable. By its vigorous rhetoric it may be said at least to have helped to develop the language for use in those departments in which it achieved so great success, i.e. oratory, history, and philosophical composition. And when under the Empire literature had become altogether divorced from practical life, the composition of tragedies was still a favourite practice with many (e.g. Seneca) who recognised in that pursuit an appropriate sphere for the rhetorical style which was then so much in vogue.Attius L., (170-about 90B.C.) should have come after Pacuvius, as being fifteen years younger. He produced his first play in conjunction with Pacuvius, cir. 140. We have the titles of about fifty of his dramas, and the fragments extant contain some 700 verses. He seems to have had pretty much the same qualities as Ennius and Pacuvius, manly seriousness of style combined with fervour of spirit. Cicero, who is said to have conversed with him in his boyhood, and others, bear witness to his oratorical force, his gravity, and passionate energy: pro Plancio, §59 gravis et ingeniosus poeta: pro Sest. §120 summus poeta: Ovid, Am. i. 15, 19 animosi Attius oris: Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 55-6 Ambigitur quotiens uter utro sit prior, aufert Pacuvius docti famam senis, Accius alti. Sellar’s Rom. Poets, pp. 146-7. Quintilian gives a shrewd answer of his (v. 13, 43): aiunt Attium interrogatum cur causas non ageret, cum apud eum in tragoediis tanta vis esset optime respondendi, hanc reddidisse rationem: quod illic ea dicerentur quae ipse vellet, in foro dicturi adversarii essent quae minime vellet.Pacuvius, M.(220-132), the son of Ennius’s sister. Of provincial birth (his birth-place was Brundisium), he couldnot, according to Cicero, boast the pure Latinity which was the pride of Naevius and Plautus: Brut. §258 Caecilium et Pacuvium male locutos videmus. But in Orat. §36 an imaginary opinion is given as follows:—omnes apud hunc ornati elaboratique versus, multa apud alterum (Ennium) neglegentius. Martial (xi. 90), addressing a wrong-headed admirer of the old poets, jeers at him for delighting in archaisms,—Attonitusque legis terrai frugiferai Attius et quidquid Pacuviusque vomunt. We have about 400 lines extant, which are discussed in Sellar’s Roman Poets, and also by Ribbeck (Römische Tragödie, pp. 216-339). The epithetdoctus, in the use of which Horace and Quintilian agree, probably refers to his wide acquaintance with Greek literature: see below.clarissimi: seeCrit. Notes.nitor: v. on§79: and cp.§§33,83,98,113:§124cultus ac nitor.summa manus: Cic. Brut. §126 manus extrema (the ‘finishing touch’) non accessit operibus eius: Cp. i. pr. §4 quasi perfectis omni alio genere doctrinae summam inde eloquentiae manum imponerent. See on§21.magis ... temporibus: but see Cicero, Brut. l.c. Aetatis illius ista fuit laus, tamquam innocentiae, sic latine loquendi ... omnes tum fere ... recte loquebantur.virium Attio: cp. Ovid’s ‘animosi oris,’ quoted above: Vell. Paterc. ii. §9 adeo quidem ut in illis limae in hoc paene plus videatur fuisse sanguinis. Persius is less complimentary, Brisaei ... venosus liber Acci (1, 76), the ‘shrivelled volume of the old Bacchanal Accius.’—Quintilian is here only recording current literary opinion: but such references as those at i. 5, 67: 7, 14: 8, 11: v. 10, 84: 13, 43 go far to prove independent knowledge.doctiorem: cp. Horace’s ‘docti famam senis,’ quoted above.esse docti adfectant: for the constr. cp.§72meruit credi secundus: Introd.p. lvi. Cp. Hor. Sat. i. 9, 7 noris nos, inquit, docti sumus, where Professor Wilkins remarks: “The epithet ofdoctuswas especially assumed by those who were versed in Greek literature and mythology, especially the products of the Alexandrine school.” It aptly characterises the artificial tendencies of the literature of the Empire.Iam—a formula of transition. Kr.3suggests Nam: see on§12.I:98IamVariThyestes cuilibet Graecarum comparari potest.OvidiMedea videtur mihi ostendere quantum ille vir praestare potuerit si ingenio suo imperare quam indulgeremaluisset. Eorum quos viderim longe princepsPomponius Secundus, quem senes quidem parum tragicum putabant, eruditione ac nitore praestare confitebantur.§ 98.L. Varius Rufus(64B.C.-9A.D.), the friend of Vergil and Horace (Hor. Sat. i. 5, 40: 6, 55), enjoyed a high reputation as an epic poet before he took up tragedy. Macrobius (vi. 1, 39 sq.: i. 2, 19 sq.) gives twelve hexameters of his from an epic poem on Caesar’s death: hence Hor. Sat. i. 10, 51 forte epos acer ut nemo Varius ducit. From a Panegyricus Augusti Horace is said to have borrowed the verses which occur Ep. i. 16, 27-29. Cp. the ode addressed to Agrippa (i. 6) Scriberis Vario ... Maeonii carminis alite. He is mentioned as an epic poet together with Vergil, Ep. ii. 1, 147: A. P. 55. His tragedy Thyestes was performed at the games after the battle of Actium (B.C.29). Cp. Tac. Dial. 12 Nec ullus Asinii aut Messallae liber tam illustris est quam Medea Ovidii aut Varii Thyestes: Philargyr. on Verg. Ecl. viii. 10 Varium cuius exstat Thyestes tragoedia, omnibus tragicis praeferenda. A quotation from it is given iii. 8, 45. He edited the Aeneid after Vergil’s death, along with Plotius and Tucca: probably prefixing the biographical sketch from which Quintilian quotesx. 3, 8.Graecarum, sc. fabularum.Medea: a quotation from it is given viii. 5, 6 servare potui: perdere an possim rogas?quantum potuerit ... si maluisset: cp.§62. The use of the perf. subj. in such a sentence corresponds to the use of the pf. ind. inoratio rectawith verbs implying possibility, duty, right, &c., as if to express the idea more unconditionally: e.g. deleri totus exercitus potuit si fugientes persecuti victores essent (Livy xxxii. 12), So Ventum erat eo ut si hostem similem antiquis Macedonum regibus habuisset consul magna clades accipi potuerit (Livy xliv. 4). Roby, 1568.ingenio imperare: cp. nimium amator ingenii sui§88.quos viderim,§118. The subj. seems to be used here on the analogy of thequiof restriction and limitation (Roby 1692): omnium quidem oratorum, quos quidem ego cognoverim, acutissimum iudico Q. Sertorium Brut. §48: cp.§65. The indic. is also used: in iis etiam quos ipsi vidimus xii. 10, 11.Pomponius Secundusunderwent an imprisonment of several years’ duration on account of his friendship with Aelius Gallus, son of Sejanus: Tac. Ann. v. 8 multa morum elegantia et ingenio illustri: ibid. xi. 13: xii. 28, where we are told that he obtained a triumph under Claudius,—modica pars famae eius apud postero, in quis carminum gloria praecellit: Dial. xiii, ne nostris quidem temporibus Secundus Pomponius Afro Domitio vel dignitate vitae vel perpetuitate famae cesserit. One of his plays was called ‘Aeneas.’ He died 60A.D.parum tragicum: contrast Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 166 Nam spirat tragicum satis et feliciter audet. SeeCrit. Notes.I:99In comoedia maxime claudicamus. Licet Varro Musas, Aeli Stilonis sententia,Plautino dicat sermone locuturas fuisse, si Latine loqui vellent, licetCaeciliumveteres laudibus ferant, licetTerentiscripta ad Scipionem Africanum referantur (quae tamen sunt in hocgenere elegantissima, et plus adhuc habitura gratiae si intra versus trimetros stetissent),§ 99.maxime claudicamus. No doubt this dictum must be taken as implying that ‘the educated taste of Romans under the Empire did not find much that was congenial in the works of Plautus, Caecilius, or Terence’ (Sellar, R. P. p. 154). But Quintilian must also have been biassed by a comparison with Greek Comedy, of the superiority of which we can have only an imperfect appreciation, owing to the scantiness of the survivals; while in depreciating Roman Comedy, as compared with Tragedy, he also had the advantage over us of a full acquaintance with the whole range of the latter. Moreover, it was Satire, not Comedy, that represented at Rome much of the spirit of the old Comedy of Athens. Horace, too, is more severe on Plautus than on Ennius and the tragic poets (Ep. ii. 1, 170: A. P. 270 sq.). Again, in Quintilian’s day the Mimus had so completely re-asserted its position that the production of comedies seems to have almost entirely ceased. “Comedy was not congenial to the educated or the uneducated taste of Romans in the last years of the Republic, and in the early Empire. But, on the other hand, the popularity enjoyed by the old comedy between the time of Naevius and of Terence, and even down to the earlier half of the Ciceronian age, when some of the great parts in Plautus continued to be performed by the ‘accomplished Roscius,’ and the admiration expressed for its authors by grammarians and critics, from Aelius Stilo down to Varro and Cicero, shows its adaptation to an earlier and not less vigorous, if less refined stage of intellectual development; while the actual survival of many Roman comedies can only be accounted for by a more real adaptation to human nature, both in style and substance, than was attained by Roman tragedy in its straining after a higher ideal of sentiment and expression.” Sellar, Roman Poets l.c.Musas. To this Muretus added ‘Ne illae saepe, si Plautino more loquerentur, meretricio magis quam virginali more loquerentur.’ For the epigram cp. Plato on AristophanesΑἱ χάριτες τέμενός τι λαβεῖν ὅπερ οὐχὶ πεσεῖται Διζόμεναι ψυχὴν εὗρον Ἀριστοφάνους.Aeli Stilonis, the first Roman philologist (144-70B.C.). His name was L. Aelius Praeconinus: he received the additional cognomen Stilo on the ground of his literary eminence. Suet, de Gramm. 2 Aelius cognomine duplici fuit; nam et Praeconinus, quod pater eius praeconium fecerat, vocabatur, et Stilo, quod orationes nobilissimo cuique scribere solebat. Cp. Cic. Brut. §205 scribebat tamen orationes quas alii dicerent: and above, fuit is omnino vir egregius et eques Romanus cum primis honestus idemque eruditissimus et Graecis litteris et Latinis, antiquitatisque nostrae et in inventis rebus et in actis scriptorumque veterum litterate peritus. Quam scientiam Varro noster acceptam ab illo auctamque per sese ... pluribus et illustrioribus litteris explicavit. Varro ap. Gell. N. A. i. 18, 2 L. Aelius noster, litteris ornatissimus memoria nostra: and L. L. vii. 2 homo in primis in litteris latinis exercitatus. Varro was his pupil; and we are told by Gellius (iii. 3, 1) that both master and pupil made lists of the plays of Plautus, Varro distinguishing his classes according to his personal feeling and judgment as to whether a play was worthy of Plautus or not. Cicero tellsus (l.c.) that in his youth he was a very diligent student under Aelius; and as Lucilius addressed some of his satires to him he may be looked on as a bond of connection between the two epochs.sententia: abl. by itself, after the analogy ofmea,tua,sententia. Varro took the criticism from his master.vellent: the possibility is looked upon as still present.Plautino sermone. Plautus (254-184) fills a very distinct place in the development of Latin comedy. He engrafted the festive traditions of the Italian farce on the literary form which he borrowed from Greece, producing a picture of Roman life and manners which secured for his dramas a degree of popularity that caused them to be represented almost uninterruptedly down even to the fourth century of our era. Modern comedy is under deep obligations to him if only for his spirit of unrestrained fun. See Bernhardy, p. 452 sq.: Teuffel §§84-88: Cruttwell’s Rom. Lit. pp. 43-48: and Sellar’s Roman Poets, p. 189 sq.Caecilius, Statius(219-166), an Insubrian Gaul by birth, and contemporary with Ennius. Fragments of his plays are preserved by Gellius, who tells us (xv. 24) that Volcatius Sedigitus (a critic who probably belonged to the earlier part of the first century,—Ritschl, Parerga, p. 240 sq.) placed him at the head of all the Roman comic poets: Caecilio palmam statuo dandam comico, Plautus secundus facile exsuperat ceteros. The three next are Naevius, Licinius, and Atilius; Terence comes only sixth on the list. Cicero inclines to the same verdict: de Opt. Gen. Orat. §1 itaque licet dicere et Ennium summum epicum poetam, si cui ita videtur: et Pacuvium tragicum: et Caecilium fortasse comicum. But elsewhere he censures his provincial style: Brutus, §258 Caecilium et Pacuvium male locutos videmus: ad. Att. vii. 3, 10 malus enim auctor Latinitatis est. For other quotations v. de Orat. ii §40: Lael. 99: de Sen. 96: de Fin. i. 4. Nonius (p. 374) quotes Varro as saying In argumentis Caecilius poscit palmam, in ethesi Terentius, in sermonibus Plautus. Horace’s criticism (Ep. ii. 1, 57) is still more familiar: Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro, Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi, Vincere Caecilius gravitate, Terentius arte. BygravitasHorace probably means the sententious maxims for which he was distinguished (Sellar, p. 202). See Mommsen, ii. 441. Caecilius imitated Menander mainly, to whom Gellius compares him (ii. 23), while admitting the superiority of his Greek model. He is said neither to have amused his audience, like Plautus, by confounding Greek and Roman terms, manners, and customs, &c., nor like Terence, on the other hand, to have carefully excised everything that did not accord with Roman usage. He is said also to have recognised the division of tastes and interests that was now springing up at Rome, and to have begun to address only the higher classes, to whom Plautus had appealed along with ‘the gallery.’laudibus ferant, for the Ciceronianefferant: Tac. Ann. ii. 13. Cp. Introd.p. l.Terentii scripta ... elegantissima. The gap between the classes at Rome, alluded to above, had widened in the interval that separates Plautus from Terence (cir. 194-159B.C.). The educated class was growing more refined and fastidious under the leavening influence of Greek culture, while the uneducated section of the people was gradually becoming coarser and more debased. A leading member of the Scipionic circle, he may be said to have begun the movement by which the creations of the genius of Rome became more perfect as works of art addressed to a smaller circle of men of rank and education, but lost also something of directness of purpose as having less bearing on the passions and interests of the time. The growing appreciation of Greek literature had produced a sense of dissatisfaction with the uncouth efforts of a previous age; and elegance of style, the cultivation of refinement and taste in thought and language, were the objects now aimed at. There is distinctly less of the drollery of the tavern about Terence than about Plautus. The ‘art’ with which Horace credits him (v. above) is seen in the careful finish of his style. Cp. Caesar’s lines, quoted by Sueton. Vit. Terent., in which he calls himpuri sermonis amator, anddimidiate Menander. See Sellar, p. 208 sq.: Mommsen, vol. iii. p. 449 sq.ad Scipionem Africanum. Cp. Sueton. Vit. Ter. (Roth. p. 293) non obscura famaest adiutum Terentium in scriptis a Laelio et Scipione, eamque ipse auxit nunquam nisi leviter refutare conatus, ut in prologo Adelphorum: Nam quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles Hunc adiutare adsidueque una scribere, &c. The rumour may have arisen from the fact of his Carthaginian origin, which renders all the more remarkable the success with which he cultivated a refined and elegant style.plus adhuc= etiam plus: see on§71.habitura. For this use of the fut. part, in a conditional sentence cp. xi. 1, 74 detracturus alioqui plurimum auctoritatis sibi si eum se esse qui temere nocentes reos susciperet fateretur. So too§119below (without asiclause): pronuntiatio vel scaenis suffectura.intra versus trimetros. This is a curious criticism, but it can be paralleled from Priscian, de Metris Terentii: quosdam vel abnegare esse in Terentii comoediis metra, vel ea quasi arcana quaedam et ab omnibus doctis semota sibi solis esse cognita confirmare. The vagaries of comic prosody were certainly not appreciated by ancient critics: they could not excuse what to them seemed carelessness and undue freedom from constraint: cp. Cicero, Orat. §184 at comicorum senarii propter similitudinem sermonis sic saepe sunt abiecti ut nonnunquam vix in eis numerus et versus intellegi possit. Quintilian and others would no doubt have preferred a stricter imitation of Menander’s versification. Horace himself took the same point of view in writing about Plautus, Ep. ii. 1, 272 si modo ego et vos ... legitimumque sonum digitis callemus et aure. Cp. Bernhardy, 325 n. and 350 n.I:100vix levem consequimur umbram: adeo ut mihi sermo ipse Romanus non recipere videatur illam solis concessam Atticis venerem, cum eam ne Graeci quidem in alio genere linguaesuaeobtinuerint. Togatis excellitAfranius: utinam non inquinasset argumenta puerorum foedis amoribus mores suos fassus.§ 100.vix levem ... umbram: a proverbial expression, from the same disparaging point of view asclaudicamus, above.alio genere linguae suae, i.e. another dialect. The charm referred to is the peculiar property of Attic writers generally,—not the comic poets alone. Latin is too formal and rhetorical to fall into the simple naturalness and directness of Attic Greek. ForsuaeseeCrit. Notes.Togatis, sc. fabulis. TheComoediae Togatae(though founded on Greek models) aspired to be thoroughly national in dress, manners, and tone: quae scriptae sunt secundum ritus et habitum togatorum, i.e. Romanorum (Diom. iii. p. 489). On the other hand, in thePalliataeof Plautus, Caecilius and Terence (so called frompallium, the Greek actor’s cloak, xi. 3, 143), all the surroundings are meant to be Greek, though much of the fun of the Plautine comedy is the result of the inconsistencies that sprang from the introduction into Greek circumstances of Roman names, scenes, manners, and characters.Afranius, fl. cir. 150B.C.He was the chief writer oftogatae, and began to aim at getting rid altogether of Greek surroundings: and so comedy, descending into the low humours of Italian country life, and specially the debaucheries of the Italian towns, rapidly degenerated into farce. He borrowed freely from Menander: dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro, Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 57,—‘Menander’s speeches came very well from the characters of Afranius.’ Cic. de Fin. i. 3, 7. But he did not confine his attentions to Menander only: Macrob. Sat. vi. 1, 4 Afranius togatarum scriptor ... non inverecunde respondens arguentibus quod plura sumpsisset a Menandro, ‘Fateor,’ inquit, ‘sumpsi non ab illo modo sed ut quisque habuit conveniret quod mihi, quodque me non melius facere credidi, etiam a Latino.’ Cicero, Brut. §167 L. Afranius poeta, homo perargutus, in fabulis quidem etiam, ut scitis, disertus.utinam non, i. 2, 6: ix. 3, 1: more usuallyutinam ne: Cic. ad Fam. 5, 17 illud utinam ne vere scriberem: Catull. 64, 171. Krüger (3rd ed.) cites however Cic. ad Att. xi. 9, 3 haec ad te die natali meo scripsi: quo utinam susceptus non essem aut ne quid ex eadem matre postea natum esset.foedis amoribus: cp. Auson. Epigr.71 vitiosa libido ... quam toga facundi scenis agitavit Afrani.I:101At non historia cesserit Graecis. Nec opponere ThucydidiSallustiumverear, nec indignetur sibi Herodotus aequariTitum Livium, cum in narrando mirae iucunditatis clarissimique candoris, tum in contionibus supra quam enarrari potest eloquentem:ita quae dicuntur omnia cum rebus, tum personis accommodata sunt: adfectus quidem praecipueque eos qui sunt dulciores, ut parcissime dicam, nemo historicorum commendavit magis.§ 101.cesserit. So§85auspicatissimum dederit exordium: cp. cesserimus§86. There is no need for Halm’s suggestionin historia cesserimus: or Spalding’scesserimwithhistoriain abl. Cp. Cicero, de Legg. i. 2, 5 ut in hoc etiam genere Graeciae nihil cedamus, and the whole passage.Sallustium. This is a bold statement. Sallust evidently accepted Thucydides as his literary model, imitating his style, and following him in his speeches and the general arrangement of his work. (Capes’ Sallust: Introd. p. 13 sq.). Brevity (cp. illa Sallustiana brevitas§32) is a conspicuous feature in both: but the brevity of Thucydides is greatly the result of inability to keep pace with the rush of thought, whereas that of Sallust is often laboured and artificial, and is attained by conscious processes of excision and compression. Cp. iv. 2, 45 vitanda est etiam illa Sallustiana (quamquam in ipso virtutis obtinet locum) brevitas et abruptum sermonis genus: Seneca, Ep. 114, 17 Sallustio vigente amputatae sententiae et verba ante exspectatum cadentia et obscura brevitas fuere pro cultu: Aul. Gell. iii. 1, 6 Sallustium subtilissimum brevitatis artificem. His Grecisms are referred to by Quint. ix. 3, 17 ex Graeco vero translata vel Sallustii plurima. According to Suetonius (Gramm. 10 extr.) Ateius exhorted Asinius Pollio (ut) vitet maxime obscuritatem Sallustii et audaciam in translationibus. For the high esteem in which he was held in antiquity cp. Velleius ii. 36, 2 aemulum Thucydidi Sallustium: Tacitus, Ann. iii. 30 rerum Romanarum florentissimus auctor: Martial xiv. 191 primus Romana Crispus in historia. See Teuffel §§203-205. In modern times Milton exalted him above Tacitus, saying of the latter that ‘his highest praise consists in his having imitated Sallust with all his might.’ On the other hand Scaliger spoke of Sallust’s style as ‘anxium atque insiticium dicendi genus.’Titum Livium. Quintilian’s estimate of Livy is very happily expressed so far as it goes. He ignores of course the defects which are obvious to modern students of Livy,—his want of that historic sense which shows itself in ability to trace the gradual development of institutions and to take a philosophic view of general political and social conditions, his indifference to the scrupulous collation and weighing of evidence, and his neglect of chronological and geographical precision. Munro in his ‘Criticisms and Elucidations of Catullus’ speaks of Livy’s style as the greatest prose style that has ever been written in any age or language, and certainly it has all the beauties which Quintilian mentions here: besides, the happy adaptation of the language to the ever-varying phases of the subject is one of its greatest charms. Teuffel, §251 sq. The best proof of Livy’s popularity in ancient times may be found in the story of the man from Gades, Pliny, Ep. ii. 3, 8 Nunquamne legisti Gaditanum quendam Titi Livi nomine gloriaque commotum ad visendum eum ab ultimo terrarum orbe venisse statimque ut viderat abisse?narrando ... contionibus. This antithesis is common in Dionysius:διηγήσεσιν ... δημηγορίαις(ad Pomp. p. 776 R, Us. pp. 58-9)τὸ διηγηματικὸν μέρος ... τὸ δημηγορικόν(Iud. de Thucyd.) p. 952 R.candoris, ‘transparency’: ii. 5, 19 candidissimum quemque et maxime expositum velim, ut Livium a pueris magis quam Sallustium: etsi hic historiae maior est auctor, ad quem tamen intellegendum iam profectu opus sit: §32 lactea ubertas. Cp. dulcis et candidus et fusus Herodotus§73, where see note:§113nitidus et candidus.—In a different sense, Seneca, Suas. vi. 22, ut est natura candidissimus omnium magnorum ingeniorum aestimator T. Livius.contionibus. The speeches are introduced in order to give a portrait of some one (xlv. 25, 3), or to indicate motives (viii. 7: iii. 47, 5). Though they make no claim to historical truth (in hanc sententiam locutum accipio iii. 67, 1), they generally give a trustworthy picture of the circumstances and character of the speaker: cp. e.g. vii. 34. In some instances we can see how Livy rhetoricallyenlarges on the brief hints of a predecessor: cp. Polyb. iii. 64 with Liv. xxi. 40 sq. Teuffel §252, 12.supra quam: cp. Sall. Cat. 5, 3 supra quam cuiquam credibile est: Iug. 24, 5: Cicero, Orator §139 saepe supra feret quam fieri posset (cp. de Nat. Deor. ii. §136). Quintilian hasinenarrabilisxi. 3, 177, which occurs also in Livy xliv. 5, 1: xli. 15, 2.eloquentem: viii. 1, 3 Tito Livio, mirae facundiae viro: Tac. Agr. 10 Livius veterum Fabius Rusticus recentium eloquentissimi auctores: Ann. iv. 34 T. Livius eloquentiae ac fidei praeclarus in primis: Seneca, de Ira i. 20, 6 apud disertissimum virum Livium.adfectus:§48adfectus quidem, vel illos mites vel hos concitatos: ‘the softer passions.’parcissime: cp. below,4 §4qui parcissime: xi. 1, 66: 3, 100.commendavit magis: ‘has set in a fairer light,’ ‘represented more perfectly’ (‘hat angemessen und eindringlich dargestellt.’—Bonnell-Meister). Spalding felt a difficulty about this word, but rightly suggested that it means ‘approbavit suis lectoribus,’—a meaning to whichut parcissime dicamis quite appropriate. The nearest parallel is iv. 1, 13 Nam tum dignitas eius (litigatoris) adlegatur, tum commendatur infirmitas (‘set in astronglight,’ ‘made much of’),—where too the verb is used absolutely, without a dative. The usual construction is found v. 11, 38 misericordiam commendabo iudici. In the sense of ‘set off’ (ornare), without a dat., we have quae memoria complecteretur actio commendaret viii. Prooem. 6: quaedam ... virtus haec sola commendat ix. 4, 13: hoc oratio recta, illud figura declinata commendatx. 5, 8.—For the readingcommodavitseeCrit. Notes.I:102Ideoque immortalem Sallusti velocitatem diversis virtutibus consecutus est. Nam mihi egregie dixisse videturServilius Nonianus, pares eos magis quam similes; qui et ipse anobis auditus est clarus vi ingenii et sententiis creber, sed minus pressus quam historiae auctoritas postulat.

§ 95.Alterum illud, &c. This takesus back to the earliest forms of the Roman Satura. Alongside of the Fescennine verses (Hor. Epist. ii. 139, sq.), which had originated in the rustic raillery and coarse mirth of vintage and harvest homes, there grew up a sort of dramatic medley or farce, probably containing an element of dialogue, to give opportunity for the sportive exchange of repartees, and soon coming to have a regular musical accompaniment and corresponding gestures. These ‘Saturae’ differed from the Fescennine verses in having more of a set form and not being extemporised; while, again, they were distinct from the developed drama in having no connected plot. They seem from the first to have contained a dramatic element, consisting as they did of comic songs or stories recited with gesticulation and flute accompaniment. In addition to the censorious freedom which they derived from the Fescennine verses, the Saturae received an impulse from the mimetic dances that had been imported from Etruria. They had been acted on the stage for more than a century before Livius Andronicus gave his first dramatic representation (B.C.240), and after the development of the regular drama they passed into a distinct form of literature, which retained to some extent its dramatic cast, but was not intended now for public representation. In the hands of Ennius the Satura became a medley of metrical pieces—a metrical miscellany—in which the poet gave utterance, not without the element of dialogue, to his views on things in general, in a tone that began to be more serious than would have suited the stage and the theatre-going public, who were now to look to Latin Comedy for undiluted amusement. With Lucilius, Satire passed from miscellaneous metrical composition to that aggressive and censorious criticism of persons, manners, literature, and politics, which the word has ever since been employed to denote. It was a form of literary activity that would seem to have been called for by the social and political conditions of Roman life in the latter part of the second century.—The transition is indicated in the following passage from Diomedes, Art. Gram. iii. p. 485 K Satira dicitur carmen apud Romanos nunc quidem maledicum et ad carpenda hominum vitia archaeae comoediae charactere compositum, quale scripseruntLuciliuset Horatius et Persius; at olim carmen quod ex variis poematibus constabat satira vocabatur, quale scripserunt Pacuvius et Ennius.etiam prius, i.e. even before thesaturaof Lucilius: cp. olim carmen quod, &c. in the passage just quoted. Thesaturaof Varro (like that of Menippus, whom he imitated), besides being composed in all sorts of metres, admitted prose also: hence ‘non sola carminum varietate mixtum’ (for the implied antithesis cp.7 §19in prosa ... in carmine). It was also, in respect of material, a sort ofpot-pourrior ‘hodge-podge’: cp. multis rebus refertum, Diomedes, l.c. SeeCrit. Notes.condidit: see§56. There is no need for Jahn’s conj.condivit. The word means ‘wrote,’ ‘composed’ (not ‘founded,’ as Mayor in his analysis): cp. iii. 1, 19 primus condidit aliqua (in arte rhetorica) M. Cato: xii. II, 23 Cato ... idem historiae conditor.Terentius Varro, M.(B.C.116-27). Of his many works (said to number about 600) we have only three books of the De Re Rustica, parts of the De Lingua Latina (in 25 books), and fragments of the Menippean Satires. For the last v. esp. Mommsen, iv. pt. 2, p. 594. A good account of Varro’s life and writings is given in Cruttwell’s Rom. Lit. pp. 141-156. In regard to the Saturae, v. esp. pp. 144-145: ‘There was one class of semi-poetical composition which Varro made peculiarly his own, the Satura Menippea, a medley of prose and verse, treating of all kinds of subjects just as they came to hand in the plebeian style, often with much grossness, but with sparkling point. Of these Saturae he wrote no less than 150 books, of which fragments have been preserved amounting to near 600 lines. Menippus of Gadara, the originator of this style of composition, lived about 280B.C.; he interspersed jocular and commonplace topics with moral maxims and philosophical doctrines, and may have added contemporary pictures, though this is uncertain. Varro followed him; we find him in theAcademicae Quaestionesof Cicero (i. 2, 8) saying that he adopted this method in the hope of enticing the unlearned to read something that might profit them. In thesesaturaetopics werehandled with the greatest freedom. They were not satires in the modern sense. They are rather to be considered as lineal descendants of the oldsaturaewhich existed before (cp. etiam prius) any regular literature.’Romanorum eruditissimus: cp. Cicero ad Att. xiii. 18 where, with some pique, he writes homoπολυγραφώτατοςnunquam me lacessivit (by dedicating a work to him): August. C. D. vi. 2 homo omnium facile acutissimus et sine ulla dubitatione doctissimus. Dion. Hal. ii. 21ἀνὴρ ... πολυπειρότατος: and Plut. Rom. 12ἄνδρα Ῥωμαίων ἐν ἱστορίᾳ βιβλιακώτατον.omnis antiquitatis. He wrote Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum, in forty-one books. Cp. Cic. Brut. 15, 60 diligentissimus investigator antiquitatis. For his general activity v. Acad. Post. i. 3, 9 nos in nostra urbe peregrinantes ... tui libri quasi domum reduxerunt ... tu aetatem patriae, tu descriptiones temporum, tu sacrorum iura, tu sacerdotum, tu domesticam, tu bellicam disciplinam, tu sedem regionum, locorum, tu omnium divinarum humanarumque rerum nomina, genera, officia, causas aperuisti plurimumque idem poetis nostris omninoque latinis et litteris luminis et verbis attulisti, atque ipse varium et elegans omni fere numero poema fecisti philosophiamque multis locis inchoasti, ad inpellendum satis, ad edocendum parum. Cp. Phil. ii. 41, 105, where distinct reference is made (as Halm points out) to treatises de Iure Civili, in fifteen books: de Vita Populi Romani, in four books: Annales in three books: Antiquitates in forty-one books: de Fama Philosophiae: and nine books Disciplinarum: Quint. xii. 11, 24, Quam multa, paene omnia, tradidit Varro.—For this use ofantiquitascp. Tac. Ann. ii. 59 cognoscendae antiquitatis: and other exx. in Nettleship’s Lat. Lex. s.v. 3.scientiae ... eloquentiae: cp. August. C. D. vi. 2 M. Varro ... tametsi minus est suavis eloquio, doctrina tamen atque sententiis ita refertus est ut in omni eruditione ... studiosum rerum tantum iste doceat quantum studiosum verborum Cicero delectat. For the datives cp.§27,§63,§71: conferre withinc. acc. occurs7 §26, q.v.I:96Iambus non sane a Romanis celebratus est ut proprium opus,sed aliisquibusdam interpositus; cuius acerbitas inCatullo,Bibaculo,Horatio, quamquam illi epodos intervenit, reperietur. At lyricorum idemHoratiusfere solus legi dignus; nam et insurgit aliquando et plenus est iucunditatis et gratiae et varius figuris et verbis felicissime audax. Si quem adicere velis, is eritCaesius Bassus, quem nuper vidimus; sed eum longe praecedunt ingenia viventium.§ 96.Iambus= carmina iambica: cp.§9,§59.celebratus est: cp. ix. 2, 92 celebrata apud Graecos schemata: i. 9, 6 narratiunculas a poetis celebratas. Cp. frequentare.ut proprium opus, i.e. as a separate form of composition, such as it was in the hands of Archilochus, Hipponax, and Simonides.aliis quibusdam(sc. carminibus)interpositus. Hild takes this as referring both to the alternation of the iambic with other metres and the substitution of other feet for the iambus itself (as commonly in Horace). It is probable that it only includes the former, being repeated, as regards Horace, in the words quamquam illi epodos intervenit.’ See Crit. Notes.Catullo. Cp. Fragm. i. At non effugies meos iambos. The most famous examples of hisacerbitasare the lampoons on Julius Caesar, especially that contained in the twenty-ninth poem (where see Munro for an appreciation of the meaning of ancient defamation and invective). Here Catullus appears as the genuine successor of the early Greek iambic writers. (Cp. the more offensive hendecasyllabics of lvii.) These are the two poems which Suetonius (Caesar 73) regarded as having attached an ‘everlasting stigma’ to the name of Caesar: cp. liii. ad fin. Irascere iterum meis iambis Immerentibus unice imperator. Sellar’s Roman Poets, p. 431 sq.Bibaculo. M. Furius Bibaculus (b. at CremonaB.C.99), like Catullus, the author of lampoons directed especially against the monarchists: Tac. Ann. iv. 34 carmina Bibaculi et Catulli referta contumeliis Caesarum leguntur: sed ipse divus Iulius, ipse divus Augustus et tulere ista et reliquere. Some apply to him the words of Horace, Satires ii. 5, 40, sq. seu pingui tentus omaso Furius hibernas cana nive conspuet Alpes (where the scholiast credits him with having written an account of the Gallic War): also i. 10, 36 TurgidusAlpinus iugulat dum Memnona,—the nickname Alpinus having been given to him on account of this ludicrous description of Jupiter sputtering snow over the Alps: v. Quint. viii. 6, 17, where the original line is quoted as an instance of a forced metaphor. The reference in i. 10, 36 is however doubtful; and Bernhardy (R. L. p. 566) supposes that in both passages some unknown poet is meant, whose name may have been Furius Alpinus. See Teuffel, R. L. i. 313.illi, sc. iambo = iambicis versibus.epodos:ὁ ἐπῳδός, sc.στίχος= a shorter (iambic) verse, alternating with a longer. Epodi dicuntur versus quolibet modo scripti et sequentes clausulas habentes particularum quales sunt epodi Horatii: in quibus singulis versibus singulae clausulae adiciuntur.... Dicti autem epodiσυνεκδοχικῶςa partibus versuum, quae legitimis et integris versibusἐπᾴδονται, i.e. accinuntur: Diomedes. Though the term epode includes all kinds of metre (except elegiac) in which a long and a short line are combined, it is used especially of the alternation of the iambic trimeter and dimeter (Hor. Epod. 1-10). Horace himself (who has only one poem—Epod. 17—in iambic trimeter by itself) includes all his Epodes under the head of iambi: Epod. 14, 7: Ep. i. 19, 23-25 Parios ego primus iambos ostendi Latio numeros animosque secutus Archilochi: cp. Car. i. 16, 3, and esp. 23-25 me quoque pectoris Tentavit in dulci iuventa Fervor et in celeres iambos Misit furentem. In Ep. ii. 2, 59 he divides his poetry intocarmina—Odes:iambi—Epodes: and ‘Bionei sermones’—Satires. Of course it was not Horace who introduced the epode into the Archilochean iambics: the form was invented and used by Archilochus himself. See Bernhardy, p. 601.legi dignus: a poetical constr., which passed into the prose of the Silver Age: cp. Plin. Paneg. vii. 4 dignus alter eligi alter eligere. SeeCrit. Notes.varius figuris: cp.§68sententiis densus.verbis felicissime audax: cp. Hor. A. P. 46 sq.: In verbis etiam tenuis cautusque serendis, hoc amet, hoc spernat promissi carminis auctor. Dixeris egregie notum si callida verbum Reddiderit iunctura novum,—where Orelli gives, as instances ofcallida iuncturain Horace himself, the well-known phrases ‘splendide mendax,’ ‘insanientis sapientiae consultus,’ ‘animae magnae prodigus.’ Cp. Petron. Sat. 118 Horatii curiosa felicitas. Ovid pronounces his eulogy in Trist. iv. 10, 49 Tenuit nostras numerosus Horatius aures, Dum ferit Ausonia carmina culta lyra.Caesius Bassus: mentioned by Ovid in the lines immediately preceding the passage just quoted, ll. 47-8: Ponticus Heroo, Bassus quoque clarus Iambo, Dulcia convictus membra fuere mei. He was the friend of Persius, who addresses his sixth Satire to him: and at the request of Cornutus he edited the whole six, after they had been prepared for publication by the latter. He is said to have perished in the eruption of Vesuvius (A.D.79), which was fatal also to the elder Pliny. He is probably the Bassus who wrote a treatise on metres, which still exists in an interpolated epitome: Keil. Gram. Lat. vi. 305 sq.—Forvidimus, ‘amisimus’ and ‘perdidimus’ have been needlessly suggested.ingenia viventium: cp. sunt clari hodieque§94above. It is only in favour of Domitian§91that Quint. breaks his rule not to mention living writers. Hild suspects Quint. of a little ‘log-rolling’ in these compliments.I:97Tragoediae scriptores veterumAttiusatquePacuviusclarissimigravitate sententiarum, verborum pondere, auctoritate personarum.Ceterum nitor et summa in excolendis operibus manus magis videri potest temporibus quam ipsis defuisse; virium tamen Attio plus tribuitur, Pacuvium videri doctiorem qui esse docti adfectant volunt.§ 97.Tragoediae scriptores. Quint. did not consider it necessary for his purpose to take any account of the first beginnings of tragedy, otherwise he would have mentioned Livius Andronicus (284-204), Naevius (235), and Ennius himself, who was probably almost as great in tragedy as in narrative poetry. It wasEnnius who first impressed on Roman tragedy the deeply moral and highly didactic character which it bore down to the age of Cicero. He made it his endeavour to hold up patterns of heroic virtue to his audience and to inspire them with right ideas of life. Even his adaptations from the Greek (nearly half of the extant names of his tragedies suggest subjects taken from the Trojan cycle) are fired with the truly national spirit which he succeeded in handing on to his successors, Attius and Pacuvius. Ennius also wrote somepraetextatae(i.e. national tragedies on historic subjects of poetic interest, e.g. the Rape of the Sabine Women); and in view of this fact it may appear strange that his example was not more widely followed, so that these national dramas should have outlived the hackneyed subjects drawn from Greek legend. The reason probably is that there was too much party life in Rome to make the dramatic treatment of the national history equally acceptable to all. Few incidents could have been dramatised that would not have excited various feelings in the hearts of an audience, say, in the times of the Gracchi. Under the Empire the free treatment of the national history for dramatic purposes was positively discouraged, and under the Republic the Senate had exercised almost as severe a political censorship as the Emperor did in later times.From many points of view it might have been expected that tragedy would have found a congenial home at Rome. There was much in the national character, history, and institutions that was favourable to its growth. The speculative element and the deep spiritual interest which pervades Greek tragedy must no doubt have been absent; though Schlegel thought that the place of Nemesis could naturally have been taken by the idea of Religio, in so far as it comprehended the subordination of the individual to the State, and his supreme self-surrender. But tragedy flourished at Rome only during a comparatively short period: the populace probably failed to rise to the demands made on them by its lofty and serious purpose. Their tastes became more and more estranged from it, as gladiatorial and spectacular shows grew in favour; and appreciation of the drama came to be the proof of the culture of a small and exclusive class. But the popularity which it enjoyed for a time must have been due to the fact that, though the subjects were generally adapted from the Greek, Roman tragedy came to have a character of its own. It appealed to the ethical and political sympathies of the audience, and satisfied that taste for rhetoric which led afterwards to the development of Latin oratory. There may have been about it no subtle analysis of character, no lofty delineation of the action and passion of men entangled in the meshes of a destiny which they could neither understand nor unravel; but it seems to have embodied all the manly feeling and moral dignity of which the nation was capable. By its vigorous rhetoric it may be said at least to have helped to develop the language for use in those departments in which it achieved so great success, i.e. oratory, history, and philosophical composition. And when under the Empire literature had become altogether divorced from practical life, the composition of tragedies was still a favourite practice with many (e.g. Seneca) who recognised in that pursuit an appropriate sphere for the rhetorical style which was then so much in vogue.Attius L., (170-about 90B.C.) should have come after Pacuvius, as being fifteen years younger. He produced his first play in conjunction with Pacuvius, cir. 140. We have the titles of about fifty of his dramas, and the fragments extant contain some 700 verses. He seems to have had pretty much the same qualities as Ennius and Pacuvius, manly seriousness of style combined with fervour of spirit. Cicero, who is said to have conversed with him in his boyhood, and others, bear witness to his oratorical force, his gravity, and passionate energy: pro Plancio, §59 gravis et ingeniosus poeta: pro Sest. §120 summus poeta: Ovid, Am. i. 15, 19 animosi Attius oris: Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 55-6 Ambigitur quotiens uter utro sit prior, aufert Pacuvius docti famam senis, Accius alti. Sellar’s Rom. Poets, pp. 146-7. Quintilian gives a shrewd answer of his (v. 13, 43): aiunt Attium interrogatum cur causas non ageret, cum apud eum in tragoediis tanta vis esset optime respondendi, hanc reddidisse rationem: quod illic ea dicerentur quae ipse vellet, in foro dicturi adversarii essent quae minime vellet.Pacuvius, M.(220-132), the son of Ennius’s sister. Of provincial birth (his birth-place was Brundisium), he couldnot, according to Cicero, boast the pure Latinity which was the pride of Naevius and Plautus: Brut. §258 Caecilium et Pacuvium male locutos videmus. But in Orat. §36 an imaginary opinion is given as follows:—omnes apud hunc ornati elaboratique versus, multa apud alterum (Ennium) neglegentius. Martial (xi. 90), addressing a wrong-headed admirer of the old poets, jeers at him for delighting in archaisms,—Attonitusque legis terrai frugiferai Attius et quidquid Pacuviusque vomunt. We have about 400 lines extant, which are discussed in Sellar’s Roman Poets, and also by Ribbeck (Römische Tragödie, pp. 216-339). The epithetdoctus, in the use of which Horace and Quintilian agree, probably refers to his wide acquaintance with Greek literature: see below.clarissimi: seeCrit. Notes.nitor: v. on§79: and cp.§§33,83,98,113:§124cultus ac nitor.summa manus: Cic. Brut. §126 manus extrema (the ‘finishing touch’) non accessit operibus eius: Cp. i. pr. §4 quasi perfectis omni alio genere doctrinae summam inde eloquentiae manum imponerent. See on§21.magis ... temporibus: but see Cicero, Brut. l.c. Aetatis illius ista fuit laus, tamquam innocentiae, sic latine loquendi ... omnes tum fere ... recte loquebantur.virium Attio: cp. Ovid’s ‘animosi oris,’ quoted above: Vell. Paterc. ii. §9 adeo quidem ut in illis limae in hoc paene plus videatur fuisse sanguinis. Persius is less complimentary, Brisaei ... venosus liber Acci (1, 76), the ‘shrivelled volume of the old Bacchanal Accius.’—Quintilian is here only recording current literary opinion: but such references as those at i. 5, 67: 7, 14: 8, 11: v. 10, 84: 13, 43 go far to prove independent knowledge.doctiorem: cp. Horace’s ‘docti famam senis,’ quoted above.esse docti adfectant: for the constr. cp.§72meruit credi secundus: Introd.p. lvi. Cp. Hor. Sat. i. 9, 7 noris nos, inquit, docti sumus, where Professor Wilkins remarks: “The epithet ofdoctuswas especially assumed by those who were versed in Greek literature and mythology, especially the products of the Alexandrine school.” It aptly characterises the artificial tendencies of the literature of the Empire.Iam—a formula of transition. Kr.3suggests Nam: see on§12.I:98IamVariThyestes cuilibet Graecarum comparari potest.OvidiMedea videtur mihi ostendere quantum ille vir praestare potuerit si ingenio suo imperare quam indulgeremaluisset. Eorum quos viderim longe princepsPomponius Secundus, quem senes quidem parum tragicum putabant, eruditione ac nitore praestare confitebantur.§ 98.L. Varius Rufus(64B.C.-9A.D.), the friend of Vergil and Horace (Hor. Sat. i. 5, 40: 6, 55), enjoyed a high reputation as an epic poet before he took up tragedy. Macrobius (vi. 1, 39 sq.: i. 2, 19 sq.) gives twelve hexameters of his from an epic poem on Caesar’s death: hence Hor. Sat. i. 10, 51 forte epos acer ut nemo Varius ducit. From a Panegyricus Augusti Horace is said to have borrowed the verses which occur Ep. i. 16, 27-29. Cp. the ode addressed to Agrippa (i. 6) Scriberis Vario ... Maeonii carminis alite. He is mentioned as an epic poet together with Vergil, Ep. ii. 1, 147: A. P. 55. His tragedy Thyestes was performed at the games after the battle of Actium (B.C.29). Cp. Tac. Dial. 12 Nec ullus Asinii aut Messallae liber tam illustris est quam Medea Ovidii aut Varii Thyestes: Philargyr. on Verg. Ecl. viii. 10 Varium cuius exstat Thyestes tragoedia, omnibus tragicis praeferenda. A quotation from it is given iii. 8, 45. He edited the Aeneid after Vergil’s death, along with Plotius and Tucca: probably prefixing the biographical sketch from which Quintilian quotesx. 3, 8.Graecarum, sc. fabularum.Medea: a quotation from it is given viii. 5, 6 servare potui: perdere an possim rogas?quantum potuerit ... si maluisset: cp.§62. The use of the perf. subj. in such a sentence corresponds to the use of the pf. ind. inoratio rectawith verbs implying possibility, duty, right, &c., as if to express the idea more unconditionally: e.g. deleri totus exercitus potuit si fugientes persecuti victores essent (Livy xxxii. 12), So Ventum erat eo ut si hostem similem antiquis Macedonum regibus habuisset consul magna clades accipi potuerit (Livy xliv. 4). Roby, 1568.ingenio imperare: cp. nimium amator ingenii sui§88.quos viderim,§118. The subj. seems to be used here on the analogy of thequiof restriction and limitation (Roby 1692): omnium quidem oratorum, quos quidem ego cognoverim, acutissimum iudico Q. Sertorium Brut. §48: cp.§65. The indic. is also used: in iis etiam quos ipsi vidimus xii. 10, 11.Pomponius Secundusunderwent an imprisonment of several years’ duration on account of his friendship with Aelius Gallus, son of Sejanus: Tac. Ann. v. 8 multa morum elegantia et ingenio illustri: ibid. xi. 13: xii. 28, where we are told that he obtained a triumph under Claudius,—modica pars famae eius apud postero, in quis carminum gloria praecellit: Dial. xiii, ne nostris quidem temporibus Secundus Pomponius Afro Domitio vel dignitate vitae vel perpetuitate famae cesserit. One of his plays was called ‘Aeneas.’ He died 60A.D.parum tragicum: contrast Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 166 Nam spirat tragicum satis et feliciter audet. SeeCrit. Notes.I:99In comoedia maxime claudicamus. Licet Varro Musas, Aeli Stilonis sententia,Plautino dicat sermone locuturas fuisse, si Latine loqui vellent, licetCaeciliumveteres laudibus ferant, licetTerentiscripta ad Scipionem Africanum referantur (quae tamen sunt in hocgenere elegantissima, et plus adhuc habitura gratiae si intra versus trimetros stetissent),§ 99.maxime claudicamus. No doubt this dictum must be taken as implying that ‘the educated taste of Romans under the Empire did not find much that was congenial in the works of Plautus, Caecilius, or Terence’ (Sellar, R. P. p. 154). But Quintilian must also have been biassed by a comparison with Greek Comedy, of the superiority of which we can have only an imperfect appreciation, owing to the scantiness of the survivals; while in depreciating Roman Comedy, as compared with Tragedy, he also had the advantage over us of a full acquaintance with the whole range of the latter. Moreover, it was Satire, not Comedy, that represented at Rome much of the spirit of the old Comedy of Athens. Horace, too, is more severe on Plautus than on Ennius and the tragic poets (Ep. ii. 1, 170: A. P. 270 sq.). Again, in Quintilian’s day the Mimus had so completely re-asserted its position that the production of comedies seems to have almost entirely ceased. “Comedy was not congenial to the educated or the uneducated taste of Romans in the last years of the Republic, and in the early Empire. But, on the other hand, the popularity enjoyed by the old comedy between the time of Naevius and of Terence, and even down to the earlier half of the Ciceronian age, when some of the great parts in Plautus continued to be performed by the ‘accomplished Roscius,’ and the admiration expressed for its authors by grammarians and critics, from Aelius Stilo down to Varro and Cicero, shows its adaptation to an earlier and not less vigorous, if less refined stage of intellectual development; while the actual survival of many Roman comedies can only be accounted for by a more real adaptation to human nature, both in style and substance, than was attained by Roman tragedy in its straining after a higher ideal of sentiment and expression.” Sellar, Roman Poets l.c.Musas. To this Muretus added ‘Ne illae saepe, si Plautino more loquerentur, meretricio magis quam virginali more loquerentur.’ For the epigram cp. Plato on AristophanesΑἱ χάριτες τέμενός τι λαβεῖν ὅπερ οὐχὶ πεσεῖται Διζόμεναι ψυχὴν εὗρον Ἀριστοφάνους.Aeli Stilonis, the first Roman philologist (144-70B.C.). His name was L. Aelius Praeconinus: he received the additional cognomen Stilo on the ground of his literary eminence. Suet, de Gramm. 2 Aelius cognomine duplici fuit; nam et Praeconinus, quod pater eius praeconium fecerat, vocabatur, et Stilo, quod orationes nobilissimo cuique scribere solebat. Cp. Cic. Brut. §205 scribebat tamen orationes quas alii dicerent: and above, fuit is omnino vir egregius et eques Romanus cum primis honestus idemque eruditissimus et Graecis litteris et Latinis, antiquitatisque nostrae et in inventis rebus et in actis scriptorumque veterum litterate peritus. Quam scientiam Varro noster acceptam ab illo auctamque per sese ... pluribus et illustrioribus litteris explicavit. Varro ap. Gell. N. A. i. 18, 2 L. Aelius noster, litteris ornatissimus memoria nostra: and L. L. vii. 2 homo in primis in litteris latinis exercitatus. Varro was his pupil; and we are told by Gellius (iii. 3, 1) that both master and pupil made lists of the plays of Plautus, Varro distinguishing his classes according to his personal feeling and judgment as to whether a play was worthy of Plautus or not. Cicero tellsus (l.c.) that in his youth he was a very diligent student under Aelius; and as Lucilius addressed some of his satires to him he may be looked on as a bond of connection between the two epochs.sententia: abl. by itself, after the analogy ofmea,tua,sententia. Varro took the criticism from his master.vellent: the possibility is looked upon as still present.Plautino sermone. Plautus (254-184) fills a very distinct place in the development of Latin comedy. He engrafted the festive traditions of the Italian farce on the literary form which he borrowed from Greece, producing a picture of Roman life and manners which secured for his dramas a degree of popularity that caused them to be represented almost uninterruptedly down even to the fourth century of our era. Modern comedy is under deep obligations to him if only for his spirit of unrestrained fun. See Bernhardy, p. 452 sq.: Teuffel §§84-88: Cruttwell’s Rom. Lit. pp. 43-48: and Sellar’s Roman Poets, p. 189 sq.Caecilius, Statius(219-166), an Insubrian Gaul by birth, and contemporary with Ennius. Fragments of his plays are preserved by Gellius, who tells us (xv. 24) that Volcatius Sedigitus (a critic who probably belonged to the earlier part of the first century,—Ritschl, Parerga, p. 240 sq.) placed him at the head of all the Roman comic poets: Caecilio palmam statuo dandam comico, Plautus secundus facile exsuperat ceteros. The three next are Naevius, Licinius, and Atilius; Terence comes only sixth on the list. Cicero inclines to the same verdict: de Opt. Gen. Orat. §1 itaque licet dicere et Ennium summum epicum poetam, si cui ita videtur: et Pacuvium tragicum: et Caecilium fortasse comicum. But elsewhere he censures his provincial style: Brutus, §258 Caecilium et Pacuvium male locutos videmus: ad. Att. vii. 3, 10 malus enim auctor Latinitatis est. For other quotations v. de Orat. ii §40: Lael. 99: de Sen. 96: de Fin. i. 4. Nonius (p. 374) quotes Varro as saying In argumentis Caecilius poscit palmam, in ethesi Terentius, in sermonibus Plautus. Horace’s criticism (Ep. ii. 1, 57) is still more familiar: Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro, Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi, Vincere Caecilius gravitate, Terentius arte. BygravitasHorace probably means the sententious maxims for which he was distinguished (Sellar, p. 202). See Mommsen, ii. 441. Caecilius imitated Menander mainly, to whom Gellius compares him (ii. 23), while admitting the superiority of his Greek model. He is said neither to have amused his audience, like Plautus, by confounding Greek and Roman terms, manners, and customs, &c., nor like Terence, on the other hand, to have carefully excised everything that did not accord with Roman usage. He is said also to have recognised the division of tastes and interests that was now springing up at Rome, and to have begun to address only the higher classes, to whom Plautus had appealed along with ‘the gallery.’laudibus ferant, for the Ciceronianefferant: Tac. Ann. ii. 13. Cp. Introd.p. l.Terentii scripta ... elegantissima. The gap between the classes at Rome, alluded to above, had widened in the interval that separates Plautus from Terence (cir. 194-159B.C.). The educated class was growing more refined and fastidious under the leavening influence of Greek culture, while the uneducated section of the people was gradually becoming coarser and more debased. A leading member of the Scipionic circle, he may be said to have begun the movement by which the creations of the genius of Rome became more perfect as works of art addressed to a smaller circle of men of rank and education, but lost also something of directness of purpose as having less bearing on the passions and interests of the time. The growing appreciation of Greek literature had produced a sense of dissatisfaction with the uncouth efforts of a previous age; and elegance of style, the cultivation of refinement and taste in thought and language, were the objects now aimed at. There is distinctly less of the drollery of the tavern about Terence than about Plautus. The ‘art’ with which Horace credits him (v. above) is seen in the careful finish of his style. Cp. Caesar’s lines, quoted by Sueton. Vit. Terent., in which he calls himpuri sermonis amator, anddimidiate Menander. See Sellar, p. 208 sq.: Mommsen, vol. iii. p. 449 sq.ad Scipionem Africanum. Cp. Sueton. Vit. Ter. (Roth. p. 293) non obscura famaest adiutum Terentium in scriptis a Laelio et Scipione, eamque ipse auxit nunquam nisi leviter refutare conatus, ut in prologo Adelphorum: Nam quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles Hunc adiutare adsidueque una scribere, &c. The rumour may have arisen from the fact of his Carthaginian origin, which renders all the more remarkable the success with which he cultivated a refined and elegant style.plus adhuc= etiam plus: see on§71.habitura. For this use of the fut. part, in a conditional sentence cp. xi. 1, 74 detracturus alioqui plurimum auctoritatis sibi si eum se esse qui temere nocentes reos susciperet fateretur. So too§119below (without asiclause): pronuntiatio vel scaenis suffectura.intra versus trimetros. This is a curious criticism, but it can be paralleled from Priscian, de Metris Terentii: quosdam vel abnegare esse in Terentii comoediis metra, vel ea quasi arcana quaedam et ab omnibus doctis semota sibi solis esse cognita confirmare. The vagaries of comic prosody were certainly not appreciated by ancient critics: they could not excuse what to them seemed carelessness and undue freedom from constraint: cp. Cicero, Orat. §184 at comicorum senarii propter similitudinem sermonis sic saepe sunt abiecti ut nonnunquam vix in eis numerus et versus intellegi possit. Quintilian and others would no doubt have preferred a stricter imitation of Menander’s versification. Horace himself took the same point of view in writing about Plautus, Ep. ii. 1, 272 si modo ego et vos ... legitimumque sonum digitis callemus et aure. Cp. Bernhardy, 325 n. and 350 n.I:100vix levem consequimur umbram: adeo ut mihi sermo ipse Romanus non recipere videatur illam solis concessam Atticis venerem, cum eam ne Graeci quidem in alio genere linguaesuaeobtinuerint. Togatis excellitAfranius: utinam non inquinasset argumenta puerorum foedis amoribus mores suos fassus.§ 100.vix levem ... umbram: a proverbial expression, from the same disparaging point of view asclaudicamus, above.alio genere linguae suae, i.e. another dialect. The charm referred to is the peculiar property of Attic writers generally,—not the comic poets alone. Latin is too formal and rhetorical to fall into the simple naturalness and directness of Attic Greek. ForsuaeseeCrit. Notes.Togatis, sc. fabulis. TheComoediae Togatae(though founded on Greek models) aspired to be thoroughly national in dress, manners, and tone: quae scriptae sunt secundum ritus et habitum togatorum, i.e. Romanorum (Diom. iii. p. 489). On the other hand, in thePalliataeof Plautus, Caecilius and Terence (so called frompallium, the Greek actor’s cloak, xi. 3, 143), all the surroundings are meant to be Greek, though much of the fun of the Plautine comedy is the result of the inconsistencies that sprang from the introduction into Greek circumstances of Roman names, scenes, manners, and characters.Afranius, fl. cir. 150B.C.He was the chief writer oftogatae, and began to aim at getting rid altogether of Greek surroundings: and so comedy, descending into the low humours of Italian country life, and specially the debaucheries of the Italian towns, rapidly degenerated into farce. He borrowed freely from Menander: dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro, Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 57,—‘Menander’s speeches came very well from the characters of Afranius.’ Cic. de Fin. i. 3, 7. But he did not confine his attentions to Menander only: Macrob. Sat. vi. 1, 4 Afranius togatarum scriptor ... non inverecunde respondens arguentibus quod plura sumpsisset a Menandro, ‘Fateor,’ inquit, ‘sumpsi non ab illo modo sed ut quisque habuit conveniret quod mihi, quodque me non melius facere credidi, etiam a Latino.’ Cicero, Brut. §167 L. Afranius poeta, homo perargutus, in fabulis quidem etiam, ut scitis, disertus.utinam non, i. 2, 6: ix. 3, 1: more usuallyutinam ne: Cic. ad Fam. 5, 17 illud utinam ne vere scriberem: Catull. 64, 171. Krüger (3rd ed.) cites however Cic. ad Att. xi. 9, 3 haec ad te die natali meo scripsi: quo utinam susceptus non essem aut ne quid ex eadem matre postea natum esset.foedis amoribus: cp. Auson. Epigr.71 vitiosa libido ... quam toga facundi scenis agitavit Afrani.I:101At non historia cesserit Graecis. Nec opponere ThucydidiSallustiumverear, nec indignetur sibi Herodotus aequariTitum Livium, cum in narrando mirae iucunditatis clarissimique candoris, tum in contionibus supra quam enarrari potest eloquentem:ita quae dicuntur omnia cum rebus, tum personis accommodata sunt: adfectus quidem praecipueque eos qui sunt dulciores, ut parcissime dicam, nemo historicorum commendavit magis.§ 101.cesserit. So§85auspicatissimum dederit exordium: cp. cesserimus§86. There is no need for Halm’s suggestionin historia cesserimus: or Spalding’scesserimwithhistoriain abl. Cp. Cicero, de Legg. i. 2, 5 ut in hoc etiam genere Graeciae nihil cedamus, and the whole passage.Sallustium. This is a bold statement. Sallust evidently accepted Thucydides as his literary model, imitating his style, and following him in his speeches and the general arrangement of his work. (Capes’ Sallust: Introd. p. 13 sq.). Brevity (cp. illa Sallustiana brevitas§32) is a conspicuous feature in both: but the brevity of Thucydides is greatly the result of inability to keep pace with the rush of thought, whereas that of Sallust is often laboured and artificial, and is attained by conscious processes of excision and compression. Cp. iv. 2, 45 vitanda est etiam illa Sallustiana (quamquam in ipso virtutis obtinet locum) brevitas et abruptum sermonis genus: Seneca, Ep. 114, 17 Sallustio vigente amputatae sententiae et verba ante exspectatum cadentia et obscura brevitas fuere pro cultu: Aul. Gell. iii. 1, 6 Sallustium subtilissimum brevitatis artificem. His Grecisms are referred to by Quint. ix. 3, 17 ex Graeco vero translata vel Sallustii plurima. According to Suetonius (Gramm. 10 extr.) Ateius exhorted Asinius Pollio (ut) vitet maxime obscuritatem Sallustii et audaciam in translationibus. For the high esteem in which he was held in antiquity cp. Velleius ii. 36, 2 aemulum Thucydidi Sallustium: Tacitus, Ann. iii. 30 rerum Romanarum florentissimus auctor: Martial xiv. 191 primus Romana Crispus in historia. See Teuffel §§203-205. In modern times Milton exalted him above Tacitus, saying of the latter that ‘his highest praise consists in his having imitated Sallust with all his might.’ On the other hand Scaliger spoke of Sallust’s style as ‘anxium atque insiticium dicendi genus.’Titum Livium. Quintilian’s estimate of Livy is very happily expressed so far as it goes. He ignores of course the defects which are obvious to modern students of Livy,—his want of that historic sense which shows itself in ability to trace the gradual development of institutions and to take a philosophic view of general political and social conditions, his indifference to the scrupulous collation and weighing of evidence, and his neglect of chronological and geographical precision. Munro in his ‘Criticisms and Elucidations of Catullus’ speaks of Livy’s style as the greatest prose style that has ever been written in any age or language, and certainly it has all the beauties which Quintilian mentions here: besides, the happy adaptation of the language to the ever-varying phases of the subject is one of its greatest charms. Teuffel, §251 sq. The best proof of Livy’s popularity in ancient times may be found in the story of the man from Gades, Pliny, Ep. ii. 3, 8 Nunquamne legisti Gaditanum quendam Titi Livi nomine gloriaque commotum ad visendum eum ab ultimo terrarum orbe venisse statimque ut viderat abisse?narrando ... contionibus. This antithesis is common in Dionysius:διηγήσεσιν ... δημηγορίαις(ad Pomp. p. 776 R, Us. pp. 58-9)τὸ διηγηματικὸν μέρος ... τὸ δημηγορικόν(Iud. de Thucyd.) p. 952 R.candoris, ‘transparency’: ii. 5, 19 candidissimum quemque et maxime expositum velim, ut Livium a pueris magis quam Sallustium: etsi hic historiae maior est auctor, ad quem tamen intellegendum iam profectu opus sit: §32 lactea ubertas. Cp. dulcis et candidus et fusus Herodotus§73, where see note:§113nitidus et candidus.—In a different sense, Seneca, Suas. vi. 22, ut est natura candidissimus omnium magnorum ingeniorum aestimator T. Livius.contionibus. The speeches are introduced in order to give a portrait of some one (xlv. 25, 3), or to indicate motives (viii. 7: iii. 47, 5). Though they make no claim to historical truth (in hanc sententiam locutum accipio iii. 67, 1), they generally give a trustworthy picture of the circumstances and character of the speaker: cp. e.g. vii. 34. In some instances we can see how Livy rhetoricallyenlarges on the brief hints of a predecessor: cp. Polyb. iii. 64 with Liv. xxi. 40 sq. Teuffel §252, 12.supra quam: cp. Sall. Cat. 5, 3 supra quam cuiquam credibile est: Iug. 24, 5: Cicero, Orator §139 saepe supra feret quam fieri posset (cp. de Nat. Deor. ii. §136). Quintilian hasinenarrabilisxi. 3, 177, which occurs also in Livy xliv. 5, 1: xli. 15, 2.eloquentem: viii. 1, 3 Tito Livio, mirae facundiae viro: Tac. Agr. 10 Livius veterum Fabius Rusticus recentium eloquentissimi auctores: Ann. iv. 34 T. Livius eloquentiae ac fidei praeclarus in primis: Seneca, de Ira i. 20, 6 apud disertissimum virum Livium.adfectus:§48adfectus quidem, vel illos mites vel hos concitatos: ‘the softer passions.’parcissime: cp. below,4 §4qui parcissime: xi. 1, 66: 3, 100.commendavit magis: ‘has set in a fairer light,’ ‘represented more perfectly’ (‘hat angemessen und eindringlich dargestellt.’—Bonnell-Meister). Spalding felt a difficulty about this word, but rightly suggested that it means ‘approbavit suis lectoribus,’—a meaning to whichut parcissime dicamis quite appropriate. The nearest parallel is iv. 1, 13 Nam tum dignitas eius (litigatoris) adlegatur, tum commendatur infirmitas (‘set in astronglight,’ ‘made much of’),—where too the verb is used absolutely, without a dative. The usual construction is found v. 11, 38 misericordiam commendabo iudici. In the sense of ‘set off’ (ornare), without a dat., we have quae memoria complecteretur actio commendaret viii. Prooem. 6: quaedam ... virtus haec sola commendat ix. 4, 13: hoc oratio recta, illud figura declinata commendatx. 5, 8.—For the readingcommodavitseeCrit. Notes.I:102Ideoque immortalem Sallusti velocitatem diversis virtutibus consecutus est. Nam mihi egregie dixisse videturServilius Nonianus, pares eos magis quam similes; qui et ipse anobis auditus est clarus vi ingenii et sententiis creber, sed minus pressus quam historiae auctoritas postulat.

§ 95.Alterum illud, &c. This takesus back to the earliest forms of the Roman Satura. Alongside of the Fescennine verses (Hor. Epist. ii. 139, sq.), which had originated in the rustic raillery and coarse mirth of vintage and harvest homes, there grew up a sort of dramatic medley or farce, probably containing an element of dialogue, to give opportunity for the sportive exchange of repartees, and soon coming to have a regular musical accompaniment and corresponding gestures. These ‘Saturae’ differed from the Fescennine verses in having more of a set form and not being extemporised; while, again, they were distinct from the developed drama in having no connected plot. They seem from the first to have contained a dramatic element, consisting as they did of comic songs or stories recited with gesticulation and flute accompaniment. In addition to the censorious freedom which they derived from the Fescennine verses, the Saturae received an impulse from the mimetic dances that had been imported from Etruria. They had been acted on the stage for more than a century before Livius Andronicus gave his first dramatic representation (B.C.240), and after the development of the regular drama they passed into a distinct form of literature, which retained to some extent its dramatic cast, but was not intended now for public representation. In the hands of Ennius the Satura became a medley of metrical pieces—a metrical miscellany—in which the poet gave utterance, not without the element of dialogue, to his views on things in general, in a tone that began to be more serious than would have suited the stage and the theatre-going public, who were now to look to Latin Comedy for undiluted amusement. With Lucilius, Satire passed from miscellaneous metrical composition to that aggressive and censorious criticism of persons, manners, literature, and politics, which the word has ever since been employed to denote. It was a form of literary activity that would seem to have been called for by the social and political conditions of Roman life in the latter part of the second century.—The transition is indicated in the following passage from Diomedes, Art. Gram. iii. p. 485 K Satira dicitur carmen apud Romanos nunc quidem maledicum et ad carpenda hominum vitia archaeae comoediae charactere compositum, quale scripseruntLuciliuset Horatius et Persius; at olim carmen quod ex variis poematibus constabat satira vocabatur, quale scripserunt Pacuvius et Ennius.etiam prius, i.e. even before thesaturaof Lucilius: cp. olim carmen quod, &c. in the passage just quoted. Thesaturaof Varro (like that of Menippus, whom he imitated), besides being composed in all sorts of metres, admitted prose also: hence ‘non sola carminum varietate mixtum’ (for the implied antithesis cp.7 §19in prosa ... in carmine). It was also, in respect of material, a sort ofpot-pourrior ‘hodge-podge’: cp. multis rebus refertum, Diomedes, l.c. SeeCrit. Notes.condidit: see§56. There is no need for Jahn’s conj.condivit. The word means ‘wrote,’ ‘composed’ (not ‘founded,’ as Mayor in his analysis): cp. iii. 1, 19 primus condidit aliqua (in arte rhetorica) M. Cato: xii. II, 23 Cato ... idem historiae conditor.Terentius Varro, M.(B.C.116-27). Of his many works (said to number about 600) we have only three books of the De Re Rustica, parts of the De Lingua Latina (in 25 books), and fragments of the Menippean Satires. For the last v. esp. Mommsen, iv. pt. 2, p. 594. A good account of Varro’s life and writings is given in Cruttwell’s Rom. Lit. pp. 141-156. In regard to the Saturae, v. esp. pp. 144-145: ‘There was one class of semi-poetical composition which Varro made peculiarly his own, the Satura Menippea, a medley of prose and verse, treating of all kinds of subjects just as they came to hand in the plebeian style, often with much grossness, but with sparkling point. Of these Saturae he wrote no less than 150 books, of which fragments have been preserved amounting to near 600 lines. Menippus of Gadara, the originator of this style of composition, lived about 280B.C.; he interspersed jocular and commonplace topics with moral maxims and philosophical doctrines, and may have added contemporary pictures, though this is uncertain. Varro followed him; we find him in theAcademicae Quaestionesof Cicero (i. 2, 8) saying that he adopted this method in the hope of enticing the unlearned to read something that might profit them. In thesesaturaetopics werehandled with the greatest freedom. They were not satires in the modern sense. They are rather to be considered as lineal descendants of the oldsaturaewhich existed before (cp. etiam prius) any regular literature.’Romanorum eruditissimus: cp. Cicero ad Att. xiii. 18 where, with some pique, he writes homoπολυγραφώτατοςnunquam me lacessivit (by dedicating a work to him): August. C. D. vi. 2 homo omnium facile acutissimus et sine ulla dubitatione doctissimus. Dion. Hal. ii. 21ἀνὴρ ... πολυπειρότατος: and Plut. Rom. 12ἄνδρα Ῥωμαίων ἐν ἱστορίᾳ βιβλιακώτατον.omnis antiquitatis. He wrote Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum, in forty-one books. Cp. Cic. Brut. 15, 60 diligentissimus investigator antiquitatis. For his general activity v. Acad. Post. i. 3, 9 nos in nostra urbe peregrinantes ... tui libri quasi domum reduxerunt ... tu aetatem patriae, tu descriptiones temporum, tu sacrorum iura, tu sacerdotum, tu domesticam, tu bellicam disciplinam, tu sedem regionum, locorum, tu omnium divinarum humanarumque rerum nomina, genera, officia, causas aperuisti plurimumque idem poetis nostris omninoque latinis et litteris luminis et verbis attulisti, atque ipse varium et elegans omni fere numero poema fecisti philosophiamque multis locis inchoasti, ad inpellendum satis, ad edocendum parum. Cp. Phil. ii. 41, 105, where distinct reference is made (as Halm points out) to treatises de Iure Civili, in fifteen books: de Vita Populi Romani, in four books: Annales in three books: Antiquitates in forty-one books: de Fama Philosophiae: and nine books Disciplinarum: Quint. xii. 11, 24, Quam multa, paene omnia, tradidit Varro.—For this use ofantiquitascp. Tac. Ann. ii. 59 cognoscendae antiquitatis: and other exx. in Nettleship’s Lat. Lex. s.v. 3.scientiae ... eloquentiae: cp. August. C. D. vi. 2 M. Varro ... tametsi minus est suavis eloquio, doctrina tamen atque sententiis ita refertus est ut in omni eruditione ... studiosum rerum tantum iste doceat quantum studiosum verborum Cicero delectat. For the datives cp.§27,§63,§71: conferre withinc. acc. occurs7 §26, q.v.

§ 95.Alterum illud, &c. This takesus back to the earliest forms of the Roman Satura. Alongside of the Fescennine verses (Hor. Epist. ii. 139, sq.), which had originated in the rustic raillery and coarse mirth of vintage and harvest homes, there grew up a sort of dramatic medley or farce, probably containing an element of dialogue, to give opportunity for the sportive exchange of repartees, and soon coming to have a regular musical accompaniment and corresponding gestures. These ‘Saturae’ differed from the Fescennine verses in having more of a set form and not being extemporised; while, again, they were distinct from the developed drama in having no connected plot. They seem from the first to have contained a dramatic element, consisting as they did of comic songs or stories recited with gesticulation and flute accompaniment. In addition to the censorious freedom which they derived from the Fescennine verses, the Saturae received an impulse from the mimetic dances that had been imported from Etruria. They had been acted on the stage for more than a century before Livius Andronicus gave his first dramatic representation (B.C.240), and after the development of the regular drama they passed into a distinct form of literature, which retained to some extent its dramatic cast, but was not intended now for public representation. In the hands of Ennius the Satura became a medley of metrical pieces—a metrical miscellany—in which the poet gave utterance, not without the element of dialogue, to his views on things in general, in a tone that began to be more serious than would have suited the stage and the theatre-going public, who were now to look to Latin Comedy for undiluted amusement. With Lucilius, Satire passed from miscellaneous metrical composition to that aggressive and censorious criticism of persons, manners, literature, and politics, which the word has ever since been employed to denote. It was a form of literary activity that would seem to have been called for by the social and political conditions of Roman life in the latter part of the second century.—The transition is indicated in the following passage from Diomedes, Art. Gram. iii. p. 485 K Satira dicitur carmen apud Romanos nunc quidem maledicum et ad carpenda hominum vitia archaeae comoediae charactere compositum, quale scripseruntLuciliuset Horatius et Persius; at olim carmen quod ex variis poematibus constabat satira vocabatur, quale scripserunt Pacuvius et Ennius.

etiam prius, i.e. even before thesaturaof Lucilius: cp. olim carmen quod, &c. in the passage just quoted. Thesaturaof Varro (like that of Menippus, whom he imitated), besides being composed in all sorts of metres, admitted prose also: hence ‘non sola carminum varietate mixtum’ (for the implied antithesis cp.7 §19in prosa ... in carmine). It was also, in respect of material, a sort ofpot-pourrior ‘hodge-podge’: cp. multis rebus refertum, Diomedes, l.c. SeeCrit. Notes.

condidit: see§56. There is no need for Jahn’s conj.condivit. The word means ‘wrote,’ ‘composed’ (not ‘founded,’ as Mayor in his analysis): cp. iii. 1, 19 primus condidit aliqua (in arte rhetorica) M. Cato: xii. II, 23 Cato ... idem historiae conditor.

Terentius Varro, M.(B.C.116-27). Of his many works (said to number about 600) we have only three books of the De Re Rustica, parts of the De Lingua Latina (in 25 books), and fragments of the Menippean Satires. For the last v. esp. Mommsen, iv. pt. 2, p. 594. A good account of Varro’s life and writings is given in Cruttwell’s Rom. Lit. pp. 141-156. In regard to the Saturae, v. esp. pp. 144-145: ‘There was one class of semi-poetical composition which Varro made peculiarly his own, the Satura Menippea, a medley of prose and verse, treating of all kinds of subjects just as they came to hand in the plebeian style, often with much grossness, but with sparkling point. Of these Saturae he wrote no less than 150 books, of which fragments have been preserved amounting to near 600 lines. Menippus of Gadara, the originator of this style of composition, lived about 280B.C.; he interspersed jocular and commonplace topics with moral maxims and philosophical doctrines, and may have added contemporary pictures, though this is uncertain. Varro followed him; we find him in theAcademicae Quaestionesof Cicero (i. 2, 8) saying that he adopted this method in the hope of enticing the unlearned to read something that might profit them. In thesesaturaetopics werehandled with the greatest freedom. They were not satires in the modern sense. They are rather to be considered as lineal descendants of the oldsaturaewhich existed before (cp. etiam prius) any regular literature.’

Romanorum eruditissimus: cp. Cicero ad Att. xiii. 18 where, with some pique, he writes homoπολυγραφώτατοςnunquam me lacessivit (by dedicating a work to him): August. C. D. vi. 2 homo omnium facile acutissimus et sine ulla dubitatione doctissimus. Dion. Hal. ii. 21ἀνὴρ ... πολυπειρότατος: and Plut. Rom. 12ἄνδρα Ῥωμαίων ἐν ἱστορίᾳ βιβλιακώτατον.

omnis antiquitatis. He wrote Antiquitates rerum humanarum et divinarum, in forty-one books. Cp. Cic. Brut. 15, 60 diligentissimus investigator antiquitatis. For his general activity v. Acad. Post. i. 3, 9 nos in nostra urbe peregrinantes ... tui libri quasi domum reduxerunt ... tu aetatem patriae, tu descriptiones temporum, tu sacrorum iura, tu sacerdotum, tu domesticam, tu bellicam disciplinam, tu sedem regionum, locorum, tu omnium divinarum humanarumque rerum nomina, genera, officia, causas aperuisti plurimumque idem poetis nostris omninoque latinis et litteris luminis et verbis attulisti, atque ipse varium et elegans omni fere numero poema fecisti philosophiamque multis locis inchoasti, ad inpellendum satis, ad edocendum parum. Cp. Phil. ii. 41, 105, where distinct reference is made (as Halm points out) to treatises de Iure Civili, in fifteen books: de Vita Populi Romani, in four books: Annales in three books: Antiquitates in forty-one books: de Fama Philosophiae: and nine books Disciplinarum: Quint. xii. 11, 24, Quam multa, paene omnia, tradidit Varro.—For this use ofantiquitascp. Tac. Ann. ii. 59 cognoscendae antiquitatis: and other exx. in Nettleship’s Lat. Lex. s.v. 3.

scientiae ... eloquentiae: cp. August. C. D. vi. 2 M. Varro ... tametsi minus est suavis eloquio, doctrina tamen atque sententiis ita refertus est ut in omni eruditione ... studiosum rerum tantum iste doceat quantum studiosum verborum Cicero delectat. For the datives cp.§27,§63,§71: conferre withinc. acc. occurs7 §26, q.v.

I:96Iambus non sane a Romanis celebratus est ut proprium opus,sed aliisquibusdam interpositus; cuius acerbitas inCatullo,Bibaculo,Horatio, quamquam illi epodos intervenit, reperietur. At lyricorum idemHoratiusfere solus legi dignus; nam et insurgit aliquando et plenus est iucunditatis et gratiae et varius figuris et verbis felicissime audax. Si quem adicere velis, is eritCaesius Bassus, quem nuper vidimus; sed eum longe praecedunt ingenia viventium.

§ 96.Iambus= carmina iambica: cp.§9,§59.celebratus est: cp. ix. 2, 92 celebrata apud Graecos schemata: i. 9, 6 narratiunculas a poetis celebratas. Cp. frequentare.ut proprium opus, i.e. as a separate form of composition, such as it was in the hands of Archilochus, Hipponax, and Simonides.aliis quibusdam(sc. carminibus)interpositus. Hild takes this as referring both to the alternation of the iambic with other metres and the substitution of other feet for the iambus itself (as commonly in Horace). It is probable that it only includes the former, being repeated, as regards Horace, in the words quamquam illi epodos intervenit.’ See Crit. Notes.Catullo. Cp. Fragm. i. At non effugies meos iambos. The most famous examples of hisacerbitasare the lampoons on Julius Caesar, especially that contained in the twenty-ninth poem (where see Munro for an appreciation of the meaning of ancient defamation and invective). Here Catullus appears as the genuine successor of the early Greek iambic writers. (Cp. the more offensive hendecasyllabics of lvii.) These are the two poems which Suetonius (Caesar 73) regarded as having attached an ‘everlasting stigma’ to the name of Caesar: cp. liii. ad fin. Irascere iterum meis iambis Immerentibus unice imperator. Sellar’s Roman Poets, p. 431 sq.Bibaculo. M. Furius Bibaculus (b. at CremonaB.C.99), like Catullus, the author of lampoons directed especially against the monarchists: Tac. Ann. iv. 34 carmina Bibaculi et Catulli referta contumeliis Caesarum leguntur: sed ipse divus Iulius, ipse divus Augustus et tulere ista et reliquere. Some apply to him the words of Horace, Satires ii. 5, 40, sq. seu pingui tentus omaso Furius hibernas cana nive conspuet Alpes (where the scholiast credits him with having written an account of the Gallic War): also i. 10, 36 TurgidusAlpinus iugulat dum Memnona,—the nickname Alpinus having been given to him on account of this ludicrous description of Jupiter sputtering snow over the Alps: v. Quint. viii. 6, 17, where the original line is quoted as an instance of a forced metaphor. The reference in i. 10, 36 is however doubtful; and Bernhardy (R. L. p. 566) supposes that in both passages some unknown poet is meant, whose name may have been Furius Alpinus. See Teuffel, R. L. i. 313.illi, sc. iambo = iambicis versibus.epodos:ὁ ἐπῳδός, sc.στίχος= a shorter (iambic) verse, alternating with a longer. Epodi dicuntur versus quolibet modo scripti et sequentes clausulas habentes particularum quales sunt epodi Horatii: in quibus singulis versibus singulae clausulae adiciuntur.... Dicti autem epodiσυνεκδοχικῶςa partibus versuum, quae legitimis et integris versibusἐπᾴδονται, i.e. accinuntur: Diomedes. Though the term epode includes all kinds of metre (except elegiac) in which a long and a short line are combined, it is used especially of the alternation of the iambic trimeter and dimeter (Hor. Epod. 1-10). Horace himself (who has only one poem—Epod. 17—in iambic trimeter by itself) includes all his Epodes under the head of iambi: Epod. 14, 7: Ep. i. 19, 23-25 Parios ego primus iambos ostendi Latio numeros animosque secutus Archilochi: cp. Car. i. 16, 3, and esp. 23-25 me quoque pectoris Tentavit in dulci iuventa Fervor et in celeres iambos Misit furentem. In Ep. ii. 2, 59 he divides his poetry intocarmina—Odes:iambi—Epodes: and ‘Bionei sermones’—Satires. Of course it was not Horace who introduced the epode into the Archilochean iambics: the form was invented and used by Archilochus himself. See Bernhardy, p. 601.legi dignus: a poetical constr., which passed into the prose of the Silver Age: cp. Plin. Paneg. vii. 4 dignus alter eligi alter eligere. SeeCrit. Notes.varius figuris: cp.§68sententiis densus.verbis felicissime audax: cp. Hor. A. P. 46 sq.: In verbis etiam tenuis cautusque serendis, hoc amet, hoc spernat promissi carminis auctor. Dixeris egregie notum si callida verbum Reddiderit iunctura novum,—where Orelli gives, as instances ofcallida iuncturain Horace himself, the well-known phrases ‘splendide mendax,’ ‘insanientis sapientiae consultus,’ ‘animae magnae prodigus.’ Cp. Petron. Sat. 118 Horatii curiosa felicitas. Ovid pronounces his eulogy in Trist. iv. 10, 49 Tenuit nostras numerosus Horatius aures, Dum ferit Ausonia carmina culta lyra.Caesius Bassus: mentioned by Ovid in the lines immediately preceding the passage just quoted, ll. 47-8: Ponticus Heroo, Bassus quoque clarus Iambo, Dulcia convictus membra fuere mei. He was the friend of Persius, who addresses his sixth Satire to him: and at the request of Cornutus he edited the whole six, after they had been prepared for publication by the latter. He is said to have perished in the eruption of Vesuvius (A.D.79), which was fatal also to the elder Pliny. He is probably the Bassus who wrote a treatise on metres, which still exists in an interpolated epitome: Keil. Gram. Lat. vi. 305 sq.—Forvidimus, ‘amisimus’ and ‘perdidimus’ have been needlessly suggested.ingenia viventium: cp. sunt clari hodieque§94above. It is only in favour of Domitian§91that Quint. breaks his rule not to mention living writers. Hild suspects Quint. of a little ‘log-rolling’ in these compliments.

§ 96.Iambus= carmina iambica: cp.§9,§59.

celebratus est: cp. ix. 2, 92 celebrata apud Graecos schemata: i. 9, 6 narratiunculas a poetis celebratas. Cp. frequentare.

ut proprium opus, i.e. as a separate form of composition, such as it was in the hands of Archilochus, Hipponax, and Simonides.

aliis quibusdam(sc. carminibus)interpositus. Hild takes this as referring both to the alternation of the iambic with other metres and the substitution of other feet for the iambus itself (as commonly in Horace). It is probable that it only includes the former, being repeated, as regards Horace, in the words quamquam illi epodos intervenit.’ See Crit. Notes.

Catullo. Cp. Fragm. i. At non effugies meos iambos. The most famous examples of hisacerbitasare the lampoons on Julius Caesar, especially that contained in the twenty-ninth poem (where see Munro for an appreciation of the meaning of ancient defamation and invective). Here Catullus appears as the genuine successor of the early Greek iambic writers. (Cp. the more offensive hendecasyllabics of lvii.) These are the two poems which Suetonius (Caesar 73) regarded as having attached an ‘everlasting stigma’ to the name of Caesar: cp. liii. ad fin. Irascere iterum meis iambis Immerentibus unice imperator. Sellar’s Roman Poets, p. 431 sq.

Bibaculo. M. Furius Bibaculus (b. at CremonaB.C.99), like Catullus, the author of lampoons directed especially against the monarchists: Tac. Ann. iv. 34 carmina Bibaculi et Catulli referta contumeliis Caesarum leguntur: sed ipse divus Iulius, ipse divus Augustus et tulere ista et reliquere. Some apply to him the words of Horace, Satires ii. 5, 40, sq. seu pingui tentus omaso Furius hibernas cana nive conspuet Alpes (where the scholiast credits him with having written an account of the Gallic War): also i. 10, 36 TurgidusAlpinus iugulat dum Memnona,—the nickname Alpinus having been given to him on account of this ludicrous description of Jupiter sputtering snow over the Alps: v. Quint. viii. 6, 17, where the original line is quoted as an instance of a forced metaphor. The reference in i. 10, 36 is however doubtful; and Bernhardy (R. L. p. 566) supposes that in both passages some unknown poet is meant, whose name may have been Furius Alpinus. See Teuffel, R. L. i. 313.

illi, sc. iambo = iambicis versibus.

epodos:ὁ ἐπῳδός, sc.στίχος= a shorter (iambic) verse, alternating with a longer. Epodi dicuntur versus quolibet modo scripti et sequentes clausulas habentes particularum quales sunt epodi Horatii: in quibus singulis versibus singulae clausulae adiciuntur.... Dicti autem epodiσυνεκδοχικῶςa partibus versuum, quae legitimis et integris versibusἐπᾴδονται, i.e. accinuntur: Diomedes. Though the term epode includes all kinds of metre (except elegiac) in which a long and a short line are combined, it is used especially of the alternation of the iambic trimeter and dimeter (Hor. Epod. 1-10). Horace himself (who has only one poem—Epod. 17—in iambic trimeter by itself) includes all his Epodes under the head of iambi: Epod. 14, 7: Ep. i. 19, 23-25 Parios ego primus iambos ostendi Latio numeros animosque secutus Archilochi: cp. Car. i. 16, 3, and esp. 23-25 me quoque pectoris Tentavit in dulci iuventa Fervor et in celeres iambos Misit furentem. In Ep. ii. 2, 59 he divides his poetry intocarmina—Odes:iambi—Epodes: and ‘Bionei sermones’—Satires. Of course it was not Horace who introduced the epode into the Archilochean iambics: the form was invented and used by Archilochus himself. See Bernhardy, p. 601.

legi dignus: a poetical constr., which passed into the prose of the Silver Age: cp. Plin. Paneg. vii. 4 dignus alter eligi alter eligere. SeeCrit. Notes.

varius figuris: cp.§68sententiis densus.

verbis felicissime audax: cp. Hor. A. P. 46 sq.: In verbis etiam tenuis cautusque serendis, hoc amet, hoc spernat promissi carminis auctor. Dixeris egregie notum si callida verbum Reddiderit iunctura novum,—where Orelli gives, as instances ofcallida iuncturain Horace himself, the well-known phrases ‘splendide mendax,’ ‘insanientis sapientiae consultus,’ ‘animae magnae prodigus.’ Cp. Petron. Sat. 118 Horatii curiosa felicitas. Ovid pronounces his eulogy in Trist. iv. 10, 49 Tenuit nostras numerosus Horatius aures, Dum ferit Ausonia carmina culta lyra.

Caesius Bassus: mentioned by Ovid in the lines immediately preceding the passage just quoted, ll. 47-8: Ponticus Heroo, Bassus quoque clarus Iambo, Dulcia convictus membra fuere mei. He was the friend of Persius, who addresses his sixth Satire to him: and at the request of Cornutus he edited the whole six, after they had been prepared for publication by the latter. He is said to have perished in the eruption of Vesuvius (A.D.79), which was fatal also to the elder Pliny. He is probably the Bassus who wrote a treatise on metres, which still exists in an interpolated epitome: Keil. Gram. Lat. vi. 305 sq.—Forvidimus, ‘amisimus’ and ‘perdidimus’ have been needlessly suggested.

ingenia viventium: cp. sunt clari hodieque§94above. It is only in favour of Domitian§91that Quint. breaks his rule not to mention living writers. Hild suspects Quint. of a little ‘log-rolling’ in these compliments.

I:97Tragoediae scriptores veterumAttiusatquePacuviusclarissimigravitate sententiarum, verborum pondere, auctoritate personarum.Ceterum nitor et summa in excolendis operibus manus magis videri potest temporibus quam ipsis defuisse; virium tamen Attio plus tribuitur, Pacuvium videri doctiorem qui esse docti adfectant volunt.

§ 97.Tragoediae scriptores. Quint. did not consider it necessary for his purpose to take any account of the first beginnings of tragedy, otherwise he would have mentioned Livius Andronicus (284-204), Naevius (235), and Ennius himself, who was probably almost as great in tragedy as in narrative poetry. It wasEnnius who first impressed on Roman tragedy the deeply moral and highly didactic character which it bore down to the age of Cicero. He made it his endeavour to hold up patterns of heroic virtue to his audience and to inspire them with right ideas of life. Even his adaptations from the Greek (nearly half of the extant names of his tragedies suggest subjects taken from the Trojan cycle) are fired with the truly national spirit which he succeeded in handing on to his successors, Attius and Pacuvius. Ennius also wrote somepraetextatae(i.e. national tragedies on historic subjects of poetic interest, e.g. the Rape of the Sabine Women); and in view of this fact it may appear strange that his example was not more widely followed, so that these national dramas should have outlived the hackneyed subjects drawn from Greek legend. The reason probably is that there was too much party life in Rome to make the dramatic treatment of the national history equally acceptable to all. Few incidents could have been dramatised that would not have excited various feelings in the hearts of an audience, say, in the times of the Gracchi. Under the Empire the free treatment of the national history for dramatic purposes was positively discouraged, and under the Republic the Senate had exercised almost as severe a political censorship as the Emperor did in later times.From many points of view it might have been expected that tragedy would have found a congenial home at Rome. There was much in the national character, history, and institutions that was favourable to its growth. The speculative element and the deep spiritual interest which pervades Greek tragedy must no doubt have been absent; though Schlegel thought that the place of Nemesis could naturally have been taken by the idea of Religio, in so far as it comprehended the subordination of the individual to the State, and his supreme self-surrender. But tragedy flourished at Rome only during a comparatively short period: the populace probably failed to rise to the demands made on them by its lofty and serious purpose. Their tastes became more and more estranged from it, as gladiatorial and spectacular shows grew in favour; and appreciation of the drama came to be the proof of the culture of a small and exclusive class. But the popularity which it enjoyed for a time must have been due to the fact that, though the subjects were generally adapted from the Greek, Roman tragedy came to have a character of its own. It appealed to the ethical and political sympathies of the audience, and satisfied that taste for rhetoric which led afterwards to the development of Latin oratory. There may have been about it no subtle analysis of character, no lofty delineation of the action and passion of men entangled in the meshes of a destiny which they could neither understand nor unravel; but it seems to have embodied all the manly feeling and moral dignity of which the nation was capable. By its vigorous rhetoric it may be said at least to have helped to develop the language for use in those departments in which it achieved so great success, i.e. oratory, history, and philosophical composition. And when under the Empire literature had become altogether divorced from practical life, the composition of tragedies was still a favourite practice with many (e.g. Seneca) who recognised in that pursuit an appropriate sphere for the rhetorical style which was then so much in vogue.Attius L., (170-about 90B.C.) should have come after Pacuvius, as being fifteen years younger. He produced his first play in conjunction with Pacuvius, cir. 140. We have the titles of about fifty of his dramas, and the fragments extant contain some 700 verses. He seems to have had pretty much the same qualities as Ennius and Pacuvius, manly seriousness of style combined with fervour of spirit. Cicero, who is said to have conversed with him in his boyhood, and others, bear witness to his oratorical force, his gravity, and passionate energy: pro Plancio, §59 gravis et ingeniosus poeta: pro Sest. §120 summus poeta: Ovid, Am. i. 15, 19 animosi Attius oris: Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 55-6 Ambigitur quotiens uter utro sit prior, aufert Pacuvius docti famam senis, Accius alti. Sellar’s Rom. Poets, pp. 146-7. Quintilian gives a shrewd answer of his (v. 13, 43): aiunt Attium interrogatum cur causas non ageret, cum apud eum in tragoediis tanta vis esset optime respondendi, hanc reddidisse rationem: quod illic ea dicerentur quae ipse vellet, in foro dicturi adversarii essent quae minime vellet.Pacuvius, M.(220-132), the son of Ennius’s sister. Of provincial birth (his birth-place was Brundisium), he couldnot, according to Cicero, boast the pure Latinity which was the pride of Naevius and Plautus: Brut. §258 Caecilium et Pacuvium male locutos videmus. But in Orat. §36 an imaginary opinion is given as follows:—omnes apud hunc ornati elaboratique versus, multa apud alterum (Ennium) neglegentius. Martial (xi. 90), addressing a wrong-headed admirer of the old poets, jeers at him for delighting in archaisms,—Attonitusque legis terrai frugiferai Attius et quidquid Pacuviusque vomunt. We have about 400 lines extant, which are discussed in Sellar’s Roman Poets, and also by Ribbeck (Römische Tragödie, pp. 216-339). The epithetdoctus, in the use of which Horace and Quintilian agree, probably refers to his wide acquaintance with Greek literature: see below.clarissimi: seeCrit. Notes.nitor: v. on§79: and cp.§§33,83,98,113:§124cultus ac nitor.summa manus: Cic. Brut. §126 manus extrema (the ‘finishing touch’) non accessit operibus eius: Cp. i. pr. §4 quasi perfectis omni alio genere doctrinae summam inde eloquentiae manum imponerent. See on§21.magis ... temporibus: but see Cicero, Brut. l.c. Aetatis illius ista fuit laus, tamquam innocentiae, sic latine loquendi ... omnes tum fere ... recte loquebantur.virium Attio: cp. Ovid’s ‘animosi oris,’ quoted above: Vell. Paterc. ii. §9 adeo quidem ut in illis limae in hoc paene plus videatur fuisse sanguinis. Persius is less complimentary, Brisaei ... venosus liber Acci (1, 76), the ‘shrivelled volume of the old Bacchanal Accius.’—Quintilian is here only recording current literary opinion: but such references as those at i. 5, 67: 7, 14: 8, 11: v. 10, 84: 13, 43 go far to prove independent knowledge.doctiorem: cp. Horace’s ‘docti famam senis,’ quoted above.esse docti adfectant: for the constr. cp.§72meruit credi secundus: Introd.p. lvi. Cp. Hor. Sat. i. 9, 7 noris nos, inquit, docti sumus, where Professor Wilkins remarks: “The epithet ofdoctuswas especially assumed by those who were versed in Greek literature and mythology, especially the products of the Alexandrine school.” It aptly characterises the artificial tendencies of the literature of the Empire.Iam—a formula of transition. Kr.3suggests Nam: see on§12.

§ 97.Tragoediae scriptores. Quint. did not consider it necessary for his purpose to take any account of the first beginnings of tragedy, otherwise he would have mentioned Livius Andronicus (284-204), Naevius (235), and Ennius himself, who was probably almost as great in tragedy as in narrative poetry. It wasEnnius who first impressed on Roman tragedy the deeply moral and highly didactic character which it bore down to the age of Cicero. He made it his endeavour to hold up patterns of heroic virtue to his audience and to inspire them with right ideas of life. Even his adaptations from the Greek (nearly half of the extant names of his tragedies suggest subjects taken from the Trojan cycle) are fired with the truly national spirit which he succeeded in handing on to his successors, Attius and Pacuvius. Ennius also wrote somepraetextatae(i.e. national tragedies on historic subjects of poetic interest, e.g. the Rape of the Sabine Women); and in view of this fact it may appear strange that his example was not more widely followed, so that these national dramas should have outlived the hackneyed subjects drawn from Greek legend. The reason probably is that there was too much party life in Rome to make the dramatic treatment of the national history equally acceptable to all. Few incidents could have been dramatised that would not have excited various feelings in the hearts of an audience, say, in the times of the Gracchi. Under the Empire the free treatment of the national history for dramatic purposes was positively discouraged, and under the Republic the Senate had exercised almost as severe a political censorship as the Emperor did in later times.

From many points of view it might have been expected that tragedy would have found a congenial home at Rome. There was much in the national character, history, and institutions that was favourable to its growth. The speculative element and the deep spiritual interest which pervades Greek tragedy must no doubt have been absent; though Schlegel thought that the place of Nemesis could naturally have been taken by the idea of Religio, in so far as it comprehended the subordination of the individual to the State, and his supreme self-surrender. But tragedy flourished at Rome only during a comparatively short period: the populace probably failed to rise to the demands made on them by its lofty and serious purpose. Their tastes became more and more estranged from it, as gladiatorial and spectacular shows grew in favour; and appreciation of the drama came to be the proof of the culture of a small and exclusive class. But the popularity which it enjoyed for a time must have been due to the fact that, though the subjects were generally adapted from the Greek, Roman tragedy came to have a character of its own. It appealed to the ethical and political sympathies of the audience, and satisfied that taste for rhetoric which led afterwards to the development of Latin oratory. There may have been about it no subtle analysis of character, no lofty delineation of the action and passion of men entangled in the meshes of a destiny which they could neither understand nor unravel; but it seems to have embodied all the manly feeling and moral dignity of which the nation was capable. By its vigorous rhetoric it may be said at least to have helped to develop the language for use in those departments in which it achieved so great success, i.e. oratory, history, and philosophical composition. And when under the Empire literature had become altogether divorced from practical life, the composition of tragedies was still a favourite practice with many (e.g. Seneca) who recognised in that pursuit an appropriate sphere for the rhetorical style which was then so much in vogue.

Attius L., (170-about 90B.C.) should have come after Pacuvius, as being fifteen years younger. He produced his first play in conjunction with Pacuvius, cir. 140. We have the titles of about fifty of his dramas, and the fragments extant contain some 700 verses. He seems to have had pretty much the same qualities as Ennius and Pacuvius, manly seriousness of style combined with fervour of spirit. Cicero, who is said to have conversed with him in his boyhood, and others, bear witness to his oratorical force, his gravity, and passionate energy: pro Plancio, §59 gravis et ingeniosus poeta: pro Sest. §120 summus poeta: Ovid, Am. i. 15, 19 animosi Attius oris: Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 55-6 Ambigitur quotiens uter utro sit prior, aufert Pacuvius docti famam senis, Accius alti. Sellar’s Rom. Poets, pp. 146-7. Quintilian gives a shrewd answer of his (v. 13, 43): aiunt Attium interrogatum cur causas non ageret, cum apud eum in tragoediis tanta vis esset optime respondendi, hanc reddidisse rationem: quod illic ea dicerentur quae ipse vellet, in foro dicturi adversarii essent quae minime vellet.

Pacuvius, M.(220-132), the son of Ennius’s sister. Of provincial birth (his birth-place was Brundisium), he couldnot, according to Cicero, boast the pure Latinity which was the pride of Naevius and Plautus: Brut. §258 Caecilium et Pacuvium male locutos videmus. But in Orat. §36 an imaginary opinion is given as follows:—omnes apud hunc ornati elaboratique versus, multa apud alterum (Ennium) neglegentius. Martial (xi. 90), addressing a wrong-headed admirer of the old poets, jeers at him for delighting in archaisms,—Attonitusque legis terrai frugiferai Attius et quidquid Pacuviusque vomunt. We have about 400 lines extant, which are discussed in Sellar’s Roman Poets, and also by Ribbeck (Römische Tragödie, pp. 216-339). The epithetdoctus, in the use of which Horace and Quintilian agree, probably refers to his wide acquaintance with Greek literature: see below.

clarissimi: seeCrit. Notes.

nitor: v. on§79: and cp.§§33,83,98,113:§124cultus ac nitor.

summa manus: Cic. Brut. §126 manus extrema (the ‘finishing touch’) non accessit operibus eius: Cp. i. pr. §4 quasi perfectis omni alio genere doctrinae summam inde eloquentiae manum imponerent. See on§21.

magis ... temporibus: but see Cicero, Brut. l.c. Aetatis illius ista fuit laus, tamquam innocentiae, sic latine loquendi ... omnes tum fere ... recte loquebantur.

virium Attio: cp. Ovid’s ‘animosi oris,’ quoted above: Vell. Paterc. ii. §9 adeo quidem ut in illis limae in hoc paene plus videatur fuisse sanguinis. Persius is less complimentary, Brisaei ... venosus liber Acci (1, 76), the ‘shrivelled volume of the old Bacchanal Accius.’—Quintilian is here only recording current literary opinion: but such references as those at i. 5, 67: 7, 14: 8, 11: v. 10, 84: 13, 43 go far to prove independent knowledge.

doctiorem: cp. Horace’s ‘docti famam senis,’ quoted above.

esse docti adfectant: for the constr. cp.§72meruit credi secundus: Introd.p. lvi. Cp. Hor. Sat. i. 9, 7 noris nos, inquit, docti sumus, where Professor Wilkins remarks: “The epithet ofdoctuswas especially assumed by those who were versed in Greek literature and mythology, especially the products of the Alexandrine school.” It aptly characterises the artificial tendencies of the literature of the Empire.

Iam—a formula of transition. Kr.3suggests Nam: see on§12.

I:98IamVariThyestes cuilibet Graecarum comparari potest.OvidiMedea videtur mihi ostendere quantum ille vir praestare potuerit si ingenio suo imperare quam indulgeremaluisset. Eorum quos viderim longe princepsPomponius Secundus, quem senes quidem parum tragicum putabant, eruditione ac nitore praestare confitebantur.

§ 98.L. Varius Rufus(64B.C.-9A.D.), the friend of Vergil and Horace (Hor. Sat. i. 5, 40: 6, 55), enjoyed a high reputation as an epic poet before he took up tragedy. Macrobius (vi. 1, 39 sq.: i. 2, 19 sq.) gives twelve hexameters of his from an epic poem on Caesar’s death: hence Hor. Sat. i. 10, 51 forte epos acer ut nemo Varius ducit. From a Panegyricus Augusti Horace is said to have borrowed the verses which occur Ep. i. 16, 27-29. Cp. the ode addressed to Agrippa (i. 6) Scriberis Vario ... Maeonii carminis alite. He is mentioned as an epic poet together with Vergil, Ep. ii. 1, 147: A. P. 55. His tragedy Thyestes was performed at the games after the battle of Actium (B.C.29). Cp. Tac. Dial. 12 Nec ullus Asinii aut Messallae liber tam illustris est quam Medea Ovidii aut Varii Thyestes: Philargyr. on Verg. Ecl. viii. 10 Varium cuius exstat Thyestes tragoedia, omnibus tragicis praeferenda. A quotation from it is given iii. 8, 45. He edited the Aeneid after Vergil’s death, along with Plotius and Tucca: probably prefixing the biographical sketch from which Quintilian quotesx. 3, 8.Graecarum, sc. fabularum.Medea: a quotation from it is given viii. 5, 6 servare potui: perdere an possim rogas?quantum potuerit ... si maluisset: cp.§62. The use of the perf. subj. in such a sentence corresponds to the use of the pf. ind. inoratio rectawith verbs implying possibility, duty, right, &c., as if to express the idea more unconditionally: e.g. deleri totus exercitus potuit si fugientes persecuti victores essent (Livy xxxii. 12), So Ventum erat eo ut si hostem similem antiquis Macedonum regibus habuisset consul magna clades accipi potuerit (Livy xliv. 4). Roby, 1568.ingenio imperare: cp. nimium amator ingenii sui§88.quos viderim,§118. The subj. seems to be used here on the analogy of thequiof restriction and limitation (Roby 1692): omnium quidem oratorum, quos quidem ego cognoverim, acutissimum iudico Q. Sertorium Brut. §48: cp.§65. The indic. is also used: in iis etiam quos ipsi vidimus xii. 10, 11.Pomponius Secundusunderwent an imprisonment of several years’ duration on account of his friendship with Aelius Gallus, son of Sejanus: Tac. Ann. v. 8 multa morum elegantia et ingenio illustri: ibid. xi. 13: xii. 28, where we are told that he obtained a triumph under Claudius,—modica pars famae eius apud postero, in quis carminum gloria praecellit: Dial. xiii, ne nostris quidem temporibus Secundus Pomponius Afro Domitio vel dignitate vitae vel perpetuitate famae cesserit. One of his plays was called ‘Aeneas.’ He died 60A.D.parum tragicum: contrast Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 166 Nam spirat tragicum satis et feliciter audet. SeeCrit. Notes.

§ 98.L. Varius Rufus(64B.C.-9A.D.), the friend of Vergil and Horace (Hor. Sat. i. 5, 40: 6, 55), enjoyed a high reputation as an epic poet before he took up tragedy. Macrobius (vi. 1, 39 sq.: i. 2, 19 sq.) gives twelve hexameters of his from an epic poem on Caesar’s death: hence Hor. Sat. i. 10, 51 forte epos acer ut nemo Varius ducit. From a Panegyricus Augusti Horace is said to have borrowed the verses which occur Ep. i. 16, 27-29. Cp. the ode addressed to Agrippa (i. 6) Scriberis Vario ... Maeonii carminis alite. He is mentioned as an epic poet together with Vergil, Ep. ii. 1, 147: A. P. 55. His tragedy Thyestes was performed at the games after the battle of Actium (B.C.29). Cp. Tac. Dial. 12 Nec ullus Asinii aut Messallae liber tam illustris est quam Medea Ovidii aut Varii Thyestes: Philargyr. on Verg. Ecl. viii. 10 Varium cuius exstat Thyestes tragoedia, omnibus tragicis praeferenda. A quotation from it is given iii. 8, 45. He edited the Aeneid after Vergil’s death, along with Plotius and Tucca: probably prefixing the biographical sketch from which Quintilian quotesx. 3, 8.

Graecarum, sc. fabularum.

Medea: a quotation from it is given viii. 5, 6 servare potui: perdere an possim rogas?

quantum potuerit ... si maluisset: cp.§62. The use of the perf. subj. in such a sentence corresponds to the use of the pf. ind. inoratio rectawith verbs implying possibility, duty, right, &c., as if to express the idea more unconditionally: e.g. deleri totus exercitus potuit si fugientes persecuti victores essent (Livy xxxii. 12), So Ventum erat eo ut si hostem similem antiquis Macedonum regibus habuisset consul magna clades accipi potuerit (Livy xliv. 4). Roby, 1568.

ingenio imperare: cp. nimium amator ingenii sui§88.

quos viderim,§118. The subj. seems to be used here on the analogy of thequiof restriction and limitation (Roby 1692): omnium quidem oratorum, quos quidem ego cognoverim, acutissimum iudico Q. Sertorium Brut. §48: cp.§65. The indic. is also used: in iis etiam quos ipsi vidimus xii. 10, 11.

Pomponius Secundusunderwent an imprisonment of several years’ duration on account of his friendship with Aelius Gallus, son of Sejanus: Tac. Ann. v. 8 multa morum elegantia et ingenio illustri: ibid. xi. 13: xii. 28, where we are told that he obtained a triumph under Claudius,—modica pars famae eius apud postero, in quis carminum gloria praecellit: Dial. xiii, ne nostris quidem temporibus Secundus Pomponius Afro Domitio vel dignitate vitae vel perpetuitate famae cesserit. One of his plays was called ‘Aeneas.’ He died 60A.D.

parum tragicum: contrast Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 166 Nam spirat tragicum satis et feliciter audet. SeeCrit. Notes.

I:99In comoedia maxime claudicamus. Licet Varro Musas, Aeli Stilonis sententia,Plautino dicat sermone locuturas fuisse, si Latine loqui vellent, licetCaeciliumveteres laudibus ferant, licetTerentiscripta ad Scipionem Africanum referantur (quae tamen sunt in hocgenere elegantissima, et plus adhuc habitura gratiae si intra versus trimetros stetissent),

§ 99.maxime claudicamus. No doubt this dictum must be taken as implying that ‘the educated taste of Romans under the Empire did not find much that was congenial in the works of Plautus, Caecilius, or Terence’ (Sellar, R. P. p. 154). But Quintilian must also have been biassed by a comparison with Greek Comedy, of the superiority of which we can have only an imperfect appreciation, owing to the scantiness of the survivals; while in depreciating Roman Comedy, as compared with Tragedy, he also had the advantage over us of a full acquaintance with the whole range of the latter. Moreover, it was Satire, not Comedy, that represented at Rome much of the spirit of the old Comedy of Athens. Horace, too, is more severe on Plautus than on Ennius and the tragic poets (Ep. ii. 1, 170: A. P. 270 sq.). Again, in Quintilian’s day the Mimus had so completely re-asserted its position that the production of comedies seems to have almost entirely ceased. “Comedy was not congenial to the educated or the uneducated taste of Romans in the last years of the Republic, and in the early Empire. But, on the other hand, the popularity enjoyed by the old comedy between the time of Naevius and of Terence, and even down to the earlier half of the Ciceronian age, when some of the great parts in Plautus continued to be performed by the ‘accomplished Roscius,’ and the admiration expressed for its authors by grammarians and critics, from Aelius Stilo down to Varro and Cicero, shows its adaptation to an earlier and not less vigorous, if less refined stage of intellectual development; while the actual survival of many Roman comedies can only be accounted for by a more real adaptation to human nature, both in style and substance, than was attained by Roman tragedy in its straining after a higher ideal of sentiment and expression.” Sellar, Roman Poets l.c.Musas. To this Muretus added ‘Ne illae saepe, si Plautino more loquerentur, meretricio magis quam virginali more loquerentur.’ For the epigram cp. Plato on AristophanesΑἱ χάριτες τέμενός τι λαβεῖν ὅπερ οὐχὶ πεσεῖται Διζόμεναι ψυχὴν εὗρον Ἀριστοφάνους.Aeli Stilonis, the first Roman philologist (144-70B.C.). His name was L. Aelius Praeconinus: he received the additional cognomen Stilo on the ground of his literary eminence. Suet, de Gramm. 2 Aelius cognomine duplici fuit; nam et Praeconinus, quod pater eius praeconium fecerat, vocabatur, et Stilo, quod orationes nobilissimo cuique scribere solebat. Cp. Cic. Brut. §205 scribebat tamen orationes quas alii dicerent: and above, fuit is omnino vir egregius et eques Romanus cum primis honestus idemque eruditissimus et Graecis litteris et Latinis, antiquitatisque nostrae et in inventis rebus et in actis scriptorumque veterum litterate peritus. Quam scientiam Varro noster acceptam ab illo auctamque per sese ... pluribus et illustrioribus litteris explicavit. Varro ap. Gell. N. A. i. 18, 2 L. Aelius noster, litteris ornatissimus memoria nostra: and L. L. vii. 2 homo in primis in litteris latinis exercitatus. Varro was his pupil; and we are told by Gellius (iii. 3, 1) that both master and pupil made lists of the plays of Plautus, Varro distinguishing his classes according to his personal feeling and judgment as to whether a play was worthy of Plautus or not. Cicero tellsus (l.c.) that in his youth he was a very diligent student under Aelius; and as Lucilius addressed some of his satires to him he may be looked on as a bond of connection between the two epochs.sententia: abl. by itself, after the analogy ofmea,tua,sententia. Varro took the criticism from his master.vellent: the possibility is looked upon as still present.Plautino sermone. Plautus (254-184) fills a very distinct place in the development of Latin comedy. He engrafted the festive traditions of the Italian farce on the literary form which he borrowed from Greece, producing a picture of Roman life and manners which secured for his dramas a degree of popularity that caused them to be represented almost uninterruptedly down even to the fourth century of our era. Modern comedy is under deep obligations to him if only for his spirit of unrestrained fun. See Bernhardy, p. 452 sq.: Teuffel §§84-88: Cruttwell’s Rom. Lit. pp. 43-48: and Sellar’s Roman Poets, p. 189 sq.Caecilius, Statius(219-166), an Insubrian Gaul by birth, and contemporary with Ennius. Fragments of his plays are preserved by Gellius, who tells us (xv. 24) that Volcatius Sedigitus (a critic who probably belonged to the earlier part of the first century,—Ritschl, Parerga, p. 240 sq.) placed him at the head of all the Roman comic poets: Caecilio palmam statuo dandam comico, Plautus secundus facile exsuperat ceteros. The three next are Naevius, Licinius, and Atilius; Terence comes only sixth on the list. Cicero inclines to the same verdict: de Opt. Gen. Orat. §1 itaque licet dicere et Ennium summum epicum poetam, si cui ita videtur: et Pacuvium tragicum: et Caecilium fortasse comicum. But elsewhere he censures his provincial style: Brutus, §258 Caecilium et Pacuvium male locutos videmus: ad. Att. vii. 3, 10 malus enim auctor Latinitatis est. For other quotations v. de Orat. ii §40: Lael. 99: de Sen. 96: de Fin. i. 4. Nonius (p. 374) quotes Varro as saying In argumentis Caecilius poscit palmam, in ethesi Terentius, in sermonibus Plautus. Horace’s criticism (Ep. ii. 1, 57) is still more familiar: Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro, Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi, Vincere Caecilius gravitate, Terentius arte. BygravitasHorace probably means the sententious maxims for which he was distinguished (Sellar, p. 202). See Mommsen, ii. 441. Caecilius imitated Menander mainly, to whom Gellius compares him (ii. 23), while admitting the superiority of his Greek model. He is said neither to have amused his audience, like Plautus, by confounding Greek and Roman terms, manners, and customs, &c., nor like Terence, on the other hand, to have carefully excised everything that did not accord with Roman usage. He is said also to have recognised the division of tastes and interests that was now springing up at Rome, and to have begun to address only the higher classes, to whom Plautus had appealed along with ‘the gallery.’laudibus ferant, for the Ciceronianefferant: Tac. Ann. ii. 13. Cp. Introd.p. l.Terentii scripta ... elegantissima. The gap between the classes at Rome, alluded to above, had widened in the interval that separates Plautus from Terence (cir. 194-159B.C.). The educated class was growing more refined and fastidious under the leavening influence of Greek culture, while the uneducated section of the people was gradually becoming coarser and more debased. A leading member of the Scipionic circle, he may be said to have begun the movement by which the creations of the genius of Rome became more perfect as works of art addressed to a smaller circle of men of rank and education, but lost also something of directness of purpose as having less bearing on the passions and interests of the time. The growing appreciation of Greek literature had produced a sense of dissatisfaction with the uncouth efforts of a previous age; and elegance of style, the cultivation of refinement and taste in thought and language, were the objects now aimed at. There is distinctly less of the drollery of the tavern about Terence than about Plautus. The ‘art’ with which Horace credits him (v. above) is seen in the careful finish of his style. Cp. Caesar’s lines, quoted by Sueton. Vit. Terent., in which he calls himpuri sermonis amator, anddimidiate Menander. See Sellar, p. 208 sq.: Mommsen, vol. iii. p. 449 sq.ad Scipionem Africanum. Cp. Sueton. Vit. Ter. (Roth. p. 293) non obscura famaest adiutum Terentium in scriptis a Laelio et Scipione, eamque ipse auxit nunquam nisi leviter refutare conatus, ut in prologo Adelphorum: Nam quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles Hunc adiutare adsidueque una scribere, &c. The rumour may have arisen from the fact of his Carthaginian origin, which renders all the more remarkable the success with which he cultivated a refined and elegant style.plus adhuc= etiam plus: see on§71.habitura. For this use of the fut. part, in a conditional sentence cp. xi. 1, 74 detracturus alioqui plurimum auctoritatis sibi si eum se esse qui temere nocentes reos susciperet fateretur. So too§119below (without asiclause): pronuntiatio vel scaenis suffectura.intra versus trimetros. This is a curious criticism, but it can be paralleled from Priscian, de Metris Terentii: quosdam vel abnegare esse in Terentii comoediis metra, vel ea quasi arcana quaedam et ab omnibus doctis semota sibi solis esse cognita confirmare. The vagaries of comic prosody were certainly not appreciated by ancient critics: they could not excuse what to them seemed carelessness and undue freedom from constraint: cp. Cicero, Orat. §184 at comicorum senarii propter similitudinem sermonis sic saepe sunt abiecti ut nonnunquam vix in eis numerus et versus intellegi possit. Quintilian and others would no doubt have preferred a stricter imitation of Menander’s versification. Horace himself took the same point of view in writing about Plautus, Ep. ii. 1, 272 si modo ego et vos ... legitimumque sonum digitis callemus et aure. Cp. Bernhardy, 325 n. and 350 n.

§ 99.maxime claudicamus. No doubt this dictum must be taken as implying that ‘the educated taste of Romans under the Empire did not find much that was congenial in the works of Plautus, Caecilius, or Terence’ (Sellar, R. P. p. 154). But Quintilian must also have been biassed by a comparison with Greek Comedy, of the superiority of which we can have only an imperfect appreciation, owing to the scantiness of the survivals; while in depreciating Roman Comedy, as compared with Tragedy, he also had the advantage over us of a full acquaintance with the whole range of the latter. Moreover, it was Satire, not Comedy, that represented at Rome much of the spirit of the old Comedy of Athens. Horace, too, is more severe on Plautus than on Ennius and the tragic poets (Ep. ii. 1, 170: A. P. 270 sq.). Again, in Quintilian’s day the Mimus had so completely re-asserted its position that the production of comedies seems to have almost entirely ceased. “Comedy was not congenial to the educated or the uneducated taste of Romans in the last years of the Republic, and in the early Empire. But, on the other hand, the popularity enjoyed by the old comedy between the time of Naevius and of Terence, and even down to the earlier half of the Ciceronian age, when some of the great parts in Plautus continued to be performed by the ‘accomplished Roscius,’ and the admiration expressed for its authors by grammarians and critics, from Aelius Stilo down to Varro and Cicero, shows its adaptation to an earlier and not less vigorous, if less refined stage of intellectual development; while the actual survival of many Roman comedies can only be accounted for by a more real adaptation to human nature, both in style and substance, than was attained by Roman tragedy in its straining after a higher ideal of sentiment and expression.” Sellar, Roman Poets l.c.

Musas. To this Muretus added ‘Ne illae saepe, si Plautino more loquerentur, meretricio magis quam virginali more loquerentur.’ For the epigram cp. Plato on AristophanesΑἱ χάριτες τέμενός τι λαβεῖν ὅπερ οὐχὶ πεσεῖται Διζόμεναι ψυχὴν εὗρον Ἀριστοφάνους.

Aeli Stilonis, the first Roman philologist (144-70B.C.). His name was L. Aelius Praeconinus: he received the additional cognomen Stilo on the ground of his literary eminence. Suet, de Gramm. 2 Aelius cognomine duplici fuit; nam et Praeconinus, quod pater eius praeconium fecerat, vocabatur, et Stilo, quod orationes nobilissimo cuique scribere solebat. Cp. Cic. Brut. §205 scribebat tamen orationes quas alii dicerent: and above, fuit is omnino vir egregius et eques Romanus cum primis honestus idemque eruditissimus et Graecis litteris et Latinis, antiquitatisque nostrae et in inventis rebus et in actis scriptorumque veterum litterate peritus. Quam scientiam Varro noster acceptam ab illo auctamque per sese ... pluribus et illustrioribus litteris explicavit. Varro ap. Gell. N. A. i. 18, 2 L. Aelius noster, litteris ornatissimus memoria nostra: and L. L. vii. 2 homo in primis in litteris latinis exercitatus. Varro was his pupil; and we are told by Gellius (iii. 3, 1) that both master and pupil made lists of the plays of Plautus, Varro distinguishing his classes according to his personal feeling and judgment as to whether a play was worthy of Plautus or not. Cicero tellsus (l.c.) that in his youth he was a very diligent student under Aelius; and as Lucilius addressed some of his satires to him he may be looked on as a bond of connection between the two epochs.

sententia: abl. by itself, after the analogy ofmea,tua,sententia. Varro took the criticism from his master.

vellent: the possibility is looked upon as still present.

Plautino sermone. Plautus (254-184) fills a very distinct place in the development of Latin comedy. He engrafted the festive traditions of the Italian farce on the literary form which he borrowed from Greece, producing a picture of Roman life and manners which secured for his dramas a degree of popularity that caused them to be represented almost uninterruptedly down even to the fourth century of our era. Modern comedy is under deep obligations to him if only for his spirit of unrestrained fun. See Bernhardy, p. 452 sq.: Teuffel §§84-88: Cruttwell’s Rom. Lit. pp. 43-48: and Sellar’s Roman Poets, p. 189 sq.

Caecilius, Statius(219-166), an Insubrian Gaul by birth, and contemporary with Ennius. Fragments of his plays are preserved by Gellius, who tells us (xv. 24) that Volcatius Sedigitus (a critic who probably belonged to the earlier part of the first century,—Ritschl, Parerga, p. 240 sq.) placed him at the head of all the Roman comic poets: Caecilio palmam statuo dandam comico, Plautus secundus facile exsuperat ceteros. The three next are Naevius, Licinius, and Atilius; Terence comes only sixth on the list. Cicero inclines to the same verdict: de Opt. Gen. Orat. §1 itaque licet dicere et Ennium summum epicum poetam, si cui ita videtur: et Pacuvium tragicum: et Caecilium fortasse comicum. But elsewhere he censures his provincial style: Brutus, §258 Caecilium et Pacuvium male locutos videmus: ad. Att. vii. 3, 10 malus enim auctor Latinitatis est. For other quotations v. de Orat. ii §40: Lael. 99: de Sen. 96: de Fin. i. 4. Nonius (p. 374) quotes Varro as saying In argumentis Caecilius poscit palmam, in ethesi Terentius, in sermonibus Plautus. Horace’s criticism (Ep. ii. 1, 57) is still more familiar: Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro, Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi, Vincere Caecilius gravitate, Terentius arte. BygravitasHorace probably means the sententious maxims for which he was distinguished (Sellar, p. 202). See Mommsen, ii. 441. Caecilius imitated Menander mainly, to whom Gellius compares him (ii. 23), while admitting the superiority of his Greek model. He is said neither to have amused his audience, like Plautus, by confounding Greek and Roman terms, manners, and customs, &c., nor like Terence, on the other hand, to have carefully excised everything that did not accord with Roman usage. He is said also to have recognised the division of tastes and interests that was now springing up at Rome, and to have begun to address only the higher classes, to whom Plautus had appealed along with ‘the gallery.’

laudibus ferant, for the Ciceronianefferant: Tac. Ann. ii. 13. Cp. Introd.p. l.

Terentii scripta ... elegantissima. The gap between the classes at Rome, alluded to above, had widened in the interval that separates Plautus from Terence (cir. 194-159B.C.). The educated class was growing more refined and fastidious under the leavening influence of Greek culture, while the uneducated section of the people was gradually becoming coarser and more debased. A leading member of the Scipionic circle, he may be said to have begun the movement by which the creations of the genius of Rome became more perfect as works of art addressed to a smaller circle of men of rank and education, but lost also something of directness of purpose as having less bearing on the passions and interests of the time. The growing appreciation of Greek literature had produced a sense of dissatisfaction with the uncouth efforts of a previous age; and elegance of style, the cultivation of refinement and taste in thought and language, were the objects now aimed at. There is distinctly less of the drollery of the tavern about Terence than about Plautus. The ‘art’ with which Horace credits him (v. above) is seen in the careful finish of his style. Cp. Caesar’s lines, quoted by Sueton. Vit. Terent., in which he calls himpuri sermonis amator, anddimidiate Menander. See Sellar, p. 208 sq.: Mommsen, vol. iii. p. 449 sq.

ad Scipionem Africanum. Cp. Sueton. Vit. Ter. (Roth. p. 293) non obscura famaest adiutum Terentium in scriptis a Laelio et Scipione, eamque ipse auxit nunquam nisi leviter refutare conatus, ut in prologo Adelphorum: Nam quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles Hunc adiutare adsidueque una scribere, &c. The rumour may have arisen from the fact of his Carthaginian origin, which renders all the more remarkable the success with which he cultivated a refined and elegant style.

plus adhuc= etiam plus: see on§71.

habitura. For this use of the fut. part, in a conditional sentence cp. xi. 1, 74 detracturus alioqui plurimum auctoritatis sibi si eum se esse qui temere nocentes reos susciperet fateretur. So too§119below (without asiclause): pronuntiatio vel scaenis suffectura.

intra versus trimetros. This is a curious criticism, but it can be paralleled from Priscian, de Metris Terentii: quosdam vel abnegare esse in Terentii comoediis metra, vel ea quasi arcana quaedam et ab omnibus doctis semota sibi solis esse cognita confirmare. The vagaries of comic prosody were certainly not appreciated by ancient critics: they could not excuse what to them seemed carelessness and undue freedom from constraint: cp. Cicero, Orat. §184 at comicorum senarii propter similitudinem sermonis sic saepe sunt abiecti ut nonnunquam vix in eis numerus et versus intellegi possit. Quintilian and others would no doubt have preferred a stricter imitation of Menander’s versification. Horace himself took the same point of view in writing about Plautus, Ep. ii. 1, 272 si modo ego et vos ... legitimumque sonum digitis callemus et aure. Cp. Bernhardy, 325 n. and 350 n.

I:100vix levem consequimur umbram: adeo ut mihi sermo ipse Romanus non recipere videatur illam solis concessam Atticis venerem, cum eam ne Graeci quidem in alio genere linguaesuaeobtinuerint. Togatis excellitAfranius: utinam non inquinasset argumenta puerorum foedis amoribus mores suos fassus.

§ 100.vix levem ... umbram: a proverbial expression, from the same disparaging point of view asclaudicamus, above.alio genere linguae suae, i.e. another dialect. The charm referred to is the peculiar property of Attic writers generally,—not the comic poets alone. Latin is too formal and rhetorical to fall into the simple naturalness and directness of Attic Greek. ForsuaeseeCrit. Notes.Togatis, sc. fabulis. TheComoediae Togatae(though founded on Greek models) aspired to be thoroughly national in dress, manners, and tone: quae scriptae sunt secundum ritus et habitum togatorum, i.e. Romanorum (Diom. iii. p. 489). On the other hand, in thePalliataeof Plautus, Caecilius and Terence (so called frompallium, the Greek actor’s cloak, xi. 3, 143), all the surroundings are meant to be Greek, though much of the fun of the Plautine comedy is the result of the inconsistencies that sprang from the introduction into Greek circumstances of Roman names, scenes, manners, and characters.Afranius, fl. cir. 150B.C.He was the chief writer oftogatae, and began to aim at getting rid altogether of Greek surroundings: and so comedy, descending into the low humours of Italian country life, and specially the debaucheries of the Italian towns, rapidly degenerated into farce. He borrowed freely from Menander: dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro, Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 57,—‘Menander’s speeches came very well from the characters of Afranius.’ Cic. de Fin. i. 3, 7. But he did not confine his attentions to Menander only: Macrob. Sat. vi. 1, 4 Afranius togatarum scriptor ... non inverecunde respondens arguentibus quod plura sumpsisset a Menandro, ‘Fateor,’ inquit, ‘sumpsi non ab illo modo sed ut quisque habuit conveniret quod mihi, quodque me non melius facere credidi, etiam a Latino.’ Cicero, Brut. §167 L. Afranius poeta, homo perargutus, in fabulis quidem etiam, ut scitis, disertus.utinam non, i. 2, 6: ix. 3, 1: more usuallyutinam ne: Cic. ad Fam. 5, 17 illud utinam ne vere scriberem: Catull. 64, 171. Krüger (3rd ed.) cites however Cic. ad Att. xi. 9, 3 haec ad te die natali meo scripsi: quo utinam susceptus non essem aut ne quid ex eadem matre postea natum esset.foedis amoribus: cp. Auson. Epigr.71 vitiosa libido ... quam toga facundi scenis agitavit Afrani.

§ 100.vix levem ... umbram: a proverbial expression, from the same disparaging point of view asclaudicamus, above.

alio genere linguae suae, i.e. another dialect. The charm referred to is the peculiar property of Attic writers generally,—not the comic poets alone. Latin is too formal and rhetorical to fall into the simple naturalness and directness of Attic Greek. ForsuaeseeCrit. Notes.

Togatis, sc. fabulis. TheComoediae Togatae(though founded on Greek models) aspired to be thoroughly national in dress, manners, and tone: quae scriptae sunt secundum ritus et habitum togatorum, i.e. Romanorum (Diom. iii. p. 489). On the other hand, in thePalliataeof Plautus, Caecilius and Terence (so called frompallium, the Greek actor’s cloak, xi. 3, 143), all the surroundings are meant to be Greek, though much of the fun of the Plautine comedy is the result of the inconsistencies that sprang from the introduction into Greek circumstances of Roman names, scenes, manners, and characters.

Afranius, fl. cir. 150B.C.He was the chief writer oftogatae, and began to aim at getting rid altogether of Greek surroundings: and so comedy, descending into the low humours of Italian country life, and specially the debaucheries of the Italian towns, rapidly degenerated into farce. He borrowed freely from Menander: dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro, Hor. Ep. ii. 1, 57,—‘Menander’s speeches came very well from the characters of Afranius.’ Cic. de Fin. i. 3, 7. But he did not confine his attentions to Menander only: Macrob. Sat. vi. 1, 4 Afranius togatarum scriptor ... non inverecunde respondens arguentibus quod plura sumpsisset a Menandro, ‘Fateor,’ inquit, ‘sumpsi non ab illo modo sed ut quisque habuit conveniret quod mihi, quodque me non melius facere credidi, etiam a Latino.’ Cicero, Brut. §167 L. Afranius poeta, homo perargutus, in fabulis quidem etiam, ut scitis, disertus.

utinam non, i. 2, 6: ix. 3, 1: more usuallyutinam ne: Cic. ad Fam. 5, 17 illud utinam ne vere scriberem: Catull. 64, 171. Krüger (3rd ed.) cites however Cic. ad Att. xi. 9, 3 haec ad te die natali meo scripsi: quo utinam susceptus non essem aut ne quid ex eadem matre postea natum esset.

foedis amoribus: cp. Auson. Epigr.71 vitiosa libido ... quam toga facundi scenis agitavit Afrani.

I:101At non historia cesserit Graecis. Nec opponere ThucydidiSallustiumverear, nec indignetur sibi Herodotus aequariTitum Livium, cum in narrando mirae iucunditatis clarissimique candoris, tum in contionibus supra quam enarrari potest eloquentem:ita quae dicuntur omnia cum rebus, tum personis accommodata sunt: adfectus quidem praecipueque eos qui sunt dulciores, ut parcissime dicam, nemo historicorum commendavit magis.

§ 101.cesserit. So§85auspicatissimum dederit exordium: cp. cesserimus§86. There is no need for Halm’s suggestionin historia cesserimus: or Spalding’scesserimwithhistoriain abl. Cp. Cicero, de Legg. i. 2, 5 ut in hoc etiam genere Graeciae nihil cedamus, and the whole passage.Sallustium. This is a bold statement. Sallust evidently accepted Thucydides as his literary model, imitating his style, and following him in his speeches and the general arrangement of his work. (Capes’ Sallust: Introd. p. 13 sq.). Brevity (cp. illa Sallustiana brevitas§32) is a conspicuous feature in both: but the brevity of Thucydides is greatly the result of inability to keep pace with the rush of thought, whereas that of Sallust is often laboured and artificial, and is attained by conscious processes of excision and compression. Cp. iv. 2, 45 vitanda est etiam illa Sallustiana (quamquam in ipso virtutis obtinet locum) brevitas et abruptum sermonis genus: Seneca, Ep. 114, 17 Sallustio vigente amputatae sententiae et verba ante exspectatum cadentia et obscura brevitas fuere pro cultu: Aul. Gell. iii. 1, 6 Sallustium subtilissimum brevitatis artificem. His Grecisms are referred to by Quint. ix. 3, 17 ex Graeco vero translata vel Sallustii plurima. According to Suetonius (Gramm. 10 extr.) Ateius exhorted Asinius Pollio (ut) vitet maxime obscuritatem Sallustii et audaciam in translationibus. For the high esteem in which he was held in antiquity cp. Velleius ii. 36, 2 aemulum Thucydidi Sallustium: Tacitus, Ann. iii. 30 rerum Romanarum florentissimus auctor: Martial xiv. 191 primus Romana Crispus in historia. See Teuffel §§203-205. In modern times Milton exalted him above Tacitus, saying of the latter that ‘his highest praise consists in his having imitated Sallust with all his might.’ On the other hand Scaliger spoke of Sallust’s style as ‘anxium atque insiticium dicendi genus.’Titum Livium. Quintilian’s estimate of Livy is very happily expressed so far as it goes. He ignores of course the defects which are obvious to modern students of Livy,—his want of that historic sense which shows itself in ability to trace the gradual development of institutions and to take a philosophic view of general political and social conditions, his indifference to the scrupulous collation and weighing of evidence, and his neglect of chronological and geographical precision. Munro in his ‘Criticisms and Elucidations of Catullus’ speaks of Livy’s style as the greatest prose style that has ever been written in any age or language, and certainly it has all the beauties which Quintilian mentions here: besides, the happy adaptation of the language to the ever-varying phases of the subject is one of its greatest charms. Teuffel, §251 sq. The best proof of Livy’s popularity in ancient times may be found in the story of the man from Gades, Pliny, Ep. ii. 3, 8 Nunquamne legisti Gaditanum quendam Titi Livi nomine gloriaque commotum ad visendum eum ab ultimo terrarum orbe venisse statimque ut viderat abisse?narrando ... contionibus. This antithesis is common in Dionysius:διηγήσεσιν ... δημηγορίαις(ad Pomp. p. 776 R, Us. pp. 58-9)τὸ διηγηματικὸν μέρος ... τὸ δημηγορικόν(Iud. de Thucyd.) p. 952 R.candoris, ‘transparency’: ii. 5, 19 candidissimum quemque et maxime expositum velim, ut Livium a pueris magis quam Sallustium: etsi hic historiae maior est auctor, ad quem tamen intellegendum iam profectu opus sit: §32 lactea ubertas. Cp. dulcis et candidus et fusus Herodotus§73, where see note:§113nitidus et candidus.—In a different sense, Seneca, Suas. vi. 22, ut est natura candidissimus omnium magnorum ingeniorum aestimator T. Livius.contionibus. The speeches are introduced in order to give a portrait of some one (xlv. 25, 3), or to indicate motives (viii. 7: iii. 47, 5). Though they make no claim to historical truth (in hanc sententiam locutum accipio iii. 67, 1), they generally give a trustworthy picture of the circumstances and character of the speaker: cp. e.g. vii. 34. In some instances we can see how Livy rhetoricallyenlarges on the brief hints of a predecessor: cp. Polyb. iii. 64 with Liv. xxi. 40 sq. Teuffel §252, 12.supra quam: cp. Sall. Cat. 5, 3 supra quam cuiquam credibile est: Iug. 24, 5: Cicero, Orator §139 saepe supra feret quam fieri posset (cp. de Nat. Deor. ii. §136). Quintilian hasinenarrabilisxi. 3, 177, which occurs also in Livy xliv. 5, 1: xli. 15, 2.eloquentem: viii. 1, 3 Tito Livio, mirae facundiae viro: Tac. Agr. 10 Livius veterum Fabius Rusticus recentium eloquentissimi auctores: Ann. iv. 34 T. Livius eloquentiae ac fidei praeclarus in primis: Seneca, de Ira i. 20, 6 apud disertissimum virum Livium.adfectus:§48adfectus quidem, vel illos mites vel hos concitatos: ‘the softer passions.’parcissime: cp. below,4 §4qui parcissime: xi. 1, 66: 3, 100.commendavit magis: ‘has set in a fairer light,’ ‘represented more perfectly’ (‘hat angemessen und eindringlich dargestellt.’—Bonnell-Meister). Spalding felt a difficulty about this word, but rightly suggested that it means ‘approbavit suis lectoribus,’—a meaning to whichut parcissime dicamis quite appropriate. The nearest parallel is iv. 1, 13 Nam tum dignitas eius (litigatoris) adlegatur, tum commendatur infirmitas (‘set in astronglight,’ ‘made much of’),—where too the verb is used absolutely, without a dative. The usual construction is found v. 11, 38 misericordiam commendabo iudici. In the sense of ‘set off’ (ornare), without a dat., we have quae memoria complecteretur actio commendaret viii. Prooem. 6: quaedam ... virtus haec sola commendat ix. 4, 13: hoc oratio recta, illud figura declinata commendatx. 5, 8.—For the readingcommodavitseeCrit. Notes.

§ 101.cesserit. So§85auspicatissimum dederit exordium: cp. cesserimus§86. There is no need for Halm’s suggestionin historia cesserimus: or Spalding’scesserimwithhistoriain abl. Cp. Cicero, de Legg. i. 2, 5 ut in hoc etiam genere Graeciae nihil cedamus, and the whole passage.

Sallustium. This is a bold statement. Sallust evidently accepted Thucydides as his literary model, imitating his style, and following him in his speeches and the general arrangement of his work. (Capes’ Sallust: Introd. p. 13 sq.). Brevity (cp. illa Sallustiana brevitas§32) is a conspicuous feature in both: but the brevity of Thucydides is greatly the result of inability to keep pace with the rush of thought, whereas that of Sallust is often laboured and artificial, and is attained by conscious processes of excision and compression. Cp. iv. 2, 45 vitanda est etiam illa Sallustiana (quamquam in ipso virtutis obtinet locum) brevitas et abruptum sermonis genus: Seneca, Ep. 114, 17 Sallustio vigente amputatae sententiae et verba ante exspectatum cadentia et obscura brevitas fuere pro cultu: Aul. Gell. iii. 1, 6 Sallustium subtilissimum brevitatis artificem. His Grecisms are referred to by Quint. ix. 3, 17 ex Graeco vero translata vel Sallustii plurima. According to Suetonius (Gramm. 10 extr.) Ateius exhorted Asinius Pollio (ut) vitet maxime obscuritatem Sallustii et audaciam in translationibus. For the high esteem in which he was held in antiquity cp. Velleius ii. 36, 2 aemulum Thucydidi Sallustium: Tacitus, Ann. iii. 30 rerum Romanarum florentissimus auctor: Martial xiv. 191 primus Romana Crispus in historia. See Teuffel §§203-205. In modern times Milton exalted him above Tacitus, saying of the latter that ‘his highest praise consists in his having imitated Sallust with all his might.’ On the other hand Scaliger spoke of Sallust’s style as ‘anxium atque insiticium dicendi genus.’

Titum Livium. Quintilian’s estimate of Livy is very happily expressed so far as it goes. He ignores of course the defects which are obvious to modern students of Livy,—his want of that historic sense which shows itself in ability to trace the gradual development of institutions and to take a philosophic view of general political and social conditions, his indifference to the scrupulous collation and weighing of evidence, and his neglect of chronological and geographical precision. Munro in his ‘Criticisms and Elucidations of Catullus’ speaks of Livy’s style as the greatest prose style that has ever been written in any age or language, and certainly it has all the beauties which Quintilian mentions here: besides, the happy adaptation of the language to the ever-varying phases of the subject is one of its greatest charms. Teuffel, §251 sq. The best proof of Livy’s popularity in ancient times may be found in the story of the man from Gades, Pliny, Ep. ii. 3, 8 Nunquamne legisti Gaditanum quendam Titi Livi nomine gloriaque commotum ad visendum eum ab ultimo terrarum orbe venisse statimque ut viderat abisse?

narrando ... contionibus. This antithesis is common in Dionysius:διηγήσεσιν ... δημηγορίαις(ad Pomp. p. 776 R, Us. pp. 58-9)τὸ διηγηματικὸν μέρος ... τὸ δημηγορικόν(Iud. de Thucyd.) p. 952 R.

candoris, ‘transparency’: ii. 5, 19 candidissimum quemque et maxime expositum velim, ut Livium a pueris magis quam Sallustium: etsi hic historiae maior est auctor, ad quem tamen intellegendum iam profectu opus sit: §32 lactea ubertas. Cp. dulcis et candidus et fusus Herodotus§73, where see note:§113nitidus et candidus.—In a different sense, Seneca, Suas. vi. 22, ut est natura candidissimus omnium magnorum ingeniorum aestimator T. Livius.

contionibus. The speeches are introduced in order to give a portrait of some one (xlv. 25, 3), or to indicate motives (viii. 7: iii. 47, 5). Though they make no claim to historical truth (in hanc sententiam locutum accipio iii. 67, 1), they generally give a trustworthy picture of the circumstances and character of the speaker: cp. e.g. vii. 34. In some instances we can see how Livy rhetoricallyenlarges on the brief hints of a predecessor: cp. Polyb. iii. 64 with Liv. xxi. 40 sq. Teuffel §252, 12.

supra quam: cp. Sall. Cat. 5, 3 supra quam cuiquam credibile est: Iug. 24, 5: Cicero, Orator §139 saepe supra feret quam fieri posset (cp. de Nat. Deor. ii. §136). Quintilian hasinenarrabilisxi. 3, 177, which occurs also in Livy xliv. 5, 1: xli. 15, 2.

eloquentem: viii. 1, 3 Tito Livio, mirae facundiae viro: Tac. Agr. 10 Livius veterum Fabius Rusticus recentium eloquentissimi auctores: Ann. iv. 34 T. Livius eloquentiae ac fidei praeclarus in primis: Seneca, de Ira i. 20, 6 apud disertissimum virum Livium.

adfectus:§48adfectus quidem, vel illos mites vel hos concitatos: ‘the softer passions.’

parcissime: cp. below,4 §4qui parcissime: xi. 1, 66: 3, 100.

commendavit magis: ‘has set in a fairer light,’ ‘represented more perfectly’ (‘hat angemessen und eindringlich dargestellt.’—Bonnell-Meister). Spalding felt a difficulty about this word, but rightly suggested that it means ‘approbavit suis lectoribus,’—a meaning to whichut parcissime dicamis quite appropriate. The nearest parallel is iv. 1, 13 Nam tum dignitas eius (litigatoris) adlegatur, tum commendatur infirmitas (‘set in astronglight,’ ‘made much of’),—where too the verb is used absolutely, without a dative. The usual construction is found v. 11, 38 misericordiam commendabo iudici. In the sense of ‘set off’ (ornare), without a dat., we have quae memoria complecteretur actio commendaret viii. Prooem. 6: quaedam ... virtus haec sola commendat ix. 4, 13: hoc oratio recta, illud figura declinata commendatx. 5, 8.—For the readingcommodavitseeCrit. Notes.

I:102Ideoque immortalem Sallusti velocitatem diversis virtutibus consecutus est. Nam mihi egregie dixisse videturServilius Nonianus, pares eos magis quam similes; qui et ipse anobis auditus est clarus vi ingenii et sententiis creber, sed minus pressus quam historiae auctoritas postulat.

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