[When two dates are given they designate the birth and death of the author or authors named in the same line. The dates given opposite the names of emperors, which are printed in italics, refer, however, to their reigns, not to their lives. When one date is given it designates a time when the activity of the author or authors was probably at its height. Interrogation points denote uncertainty.]
1 Even if this work and some treatises on grammar should be ascribed to a later Ennius, which is not proved, the works of the great poet were sufficiently various.
2 Ancient customs and men cause the Roman republic to prosper.
3 Whom no one with the sword could overcome nor by bribing.
4 This line occurs in a context which is worth translating. “I do not ask gold for myself, and do not you offer me a ransom: not waging the war like hucksters, but like soldiers, with the sword, not with gold, let us strive for our lives. Let us try by our valor whether our mistress Fortune wishes you or me to rule.”
5 Aulus Gellius, xii, 4.
6 Quoted by Cicero, De Deor. Nat. II, 35, 89.
7 Rudens, 160-173.
8 Persa, 204-224.
9 Phormio, 784 ff. Translated by M. H. Morgan.
10 Quoted by Pliny, N. H. xxix, 7, 14.
11 De Re Rustica, i.
12 A brief description of some of the feet and metres most frequently used by Roman poets may be useful. These were, with the exception of the Saturnian verse (see p. 7), borrowed, with certain modifications, from the Greek. The most usual feet are the iambus (◡—), the trochee (—◡), the spondee (——), the dactyl (—◡◡), the anapæst (◡◡—), and the choriambus (—◡◡—). The dactylic hexameter consists of six feet, each of which is either a dactyl or a spondee, though the sixth is always a spondee and the fifth almost always a dactyl. An illustration of this is the line from Lucilius,
the rhythm of which is retained in this translation:
The iambic senarius consists of six iambics, as
(Plautus, Menaechmi, 240.)
This is a common metre in the dialogue parts of dramas. It is one foot longer than the line in English blank verse. The trochaic septenarius, also a common metre in the drama, consists of seven trochees and an additional long syllable. The English line
Do not lift him from the bracken; leave him lying where he fell
gives an idea of the rhythm.
The elegiac distich consists of an hexameter followed by a so-called pentameter, that is, a line made up of six dactyls or spondees, with the omission of the last half of the third and of the sixth feet. This is illustrated and described by Coleridge in the lines,
In the iambic and trochaic metres other feet are often substituted for the iambus and the trochee, but without change of rhythm.
Some of the other metres will be explained or illustrated as they occur.
13 iv, Frg. 8, Müller.
14 v, Frg. 33, Müller.
15 vi, Frg. 16, Müller.
16 libr. incert., Frg. 1, Müller.
17 Lucius Ælius Præconinus Stilo, of Lanuvium, Stoic philosopher, philologist and rhetorician, was the first to give regular lessons in Latin literature and eloquence and to apply the historical method to the study of the Latin language. He was born not far from 154 B. C., and lived well into the first century B. C. His contemporary, Quintus Valerius Soranus (from Sora), also wrote on Latin literature, the study of which was, in his case, joined with that of Roman antiquities. Volcacius Sedigitus, of whose personality nothing is known, wrote a didactic poem on the history of Latin literature about 90 B. C. Besides these, numerous works on grammar, philology, antiquities, agriculture, and other subjects were written by various authors, whose names are in many cases lost, but whose works served as quarries from which Varro and other writers derived their treasures of learning.
Many prominent Romans played some part in the progress of literature. So Publius Rutilius Rufus (born about 158 B. C., consul in 105, died about 75) studied the Stoic philosophy, published speeches, juristic writings, and an autobiography in Latin, and wrote a history in Greek, while Quintus Lutatius Catulus (born about 152 B. C., consul in 102, died in 87) published orations and epigrams. Among the letters written and published in this period none were more admired than those of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi.
18 Jerome, in Eusebius’ Chronicle, year 1922 of Abraham, i. e., 95 B. C.
19 Vita Vergilii, 2.
20 Ad Quintum Fratrem, II, xi, 4.
21 Book i, 921-947.
22 iii, 830 f.
23 Book ii, 172.
24 ii, 14 ff.
25 v, 18.
26 Book i, 271-294.
27 ii, 323-332 and ii, 40-43.
28 i, 716-725.
29 ii, 573-579.
30 ii, 29-33.
31 i, 1-9, translation by Goldwin Smith.
32 Book ii, 1-13, translated by C. S. Calverley.
33 c. cxiii, l. 2.
34 cc. xi and xxix.
35 Translated by Theodore Martin.
36 c. v.
37 c. iii. Translated by Goldwin Smith in Bay-Leaves.
38 c. xxxi, Translated by C. S. Calverley.
39 De Oratore, i, 15, 64.
40 Ibid., i, 8, 34.
41 Pro Ligario, 1.
42 Pro Lege Manilia, 5, 11.
43 Pro Archia Poeta, 7, 16.
44 In Verrem, ii, v, 52.
45 De Divinatione, ii, 1.
46 Ep. ad Atticum, iii, 5, Shuckburgh’s translation.
47 Ep. ad Familiares, ix, 1, Shuckburgh’s translation.
48 Ep. ad Atticum, ix, 18.
49 Hirtius, De Bello Gallico, viii, 1.
50 Catiline, 1.
51 Ibid., 31.
52 Ecl. i, 1-10. The selections from the Eclogues are given in the translation by C. S. Calverley.
53 Ibid., 42-45.
54 Ecl. iv, 1-17.
55 Ecl. v, 1-18.
56 Georgics, i, 461-483.
57 Georgics, ii, 136 ff.
58 Ibid., ii, 458-460.
59 Ibid., iii, 9-18.
60 Ibid., iv, 149 ff.
61 Æneid, i, 142-156. The selections from the Æneid are given in Conington’s translation.
62 Æneid, iv, 607-629.
63 Ibid., vi, 868-686.
64 Æneid, ix, 446-449.
65 Epist. II, ii, 51.
66 Sat. I. v.
67 Sat. I, iv, 103-120, freely translated by Conington.
68 Sat. I, x, 40-49, freely translated by Conington.
69 Epode ii, 1-4.
70 Epist. I, xix, 23.
71 Od. I, xxxviii, translated by Sir Theodore Martin.
72 Od. I, ix, Calverley’s version.
73 I, iii, 1-9, 53-56, translated by James Grainger.
74 I, xii. Elton’s translation.
75 Ex Ponto, IV, xvi.
76 Book i, 499-507. The same subject is continued through line 530.
77 Book v, 540-615.
78 Tristia, IV, x, 69.
79 Tristia, II, 107 ff.
80 Ovid, Amores II, xviii, 27 ff.
81 Lines 177 ff.
82 Tristia, I, vii, 13 ff.
83 Argonautica, III, 750 ff. Virgil, Æneid, IV, 522 ff., imitates Apollonius more closely.
84 Especially Tristia, IV, x.