The Eclogues were published not later than 38 B. C. In 29 B. C. the four books of the Georgics were completed. The Georgics. One of the most important tasks of the new government, now that the civil strife was ended, was to ensure the continuance of tranquility by settling the veterans in the country and encouraging agriculture, which had been sadly neglected in Italy for many years. It was therefore with a practical end in view that Mæcenas suggested to Virgil the composition of a poem on agriculture. This was a subject which Virgil was especially qualified to treat with success, and the poem, to which he devoted seven years, is the most perfect of his works. It is a very free imitation of the Works and Days of Hesiod, and contains many passages derived from Aratus and other Greek poets, but in its composition and its poetic beauty it is independent of all but Virgil’s own genius. It is dedicated to Mæcenas. The first book treats of the tilling of the soil, the beginning of agriculture, the instruments needed by the farmer, the tasks appropriate to the different seasons, and the signs of the weather, ending with a splendid passage describing the portents at the time of Cæsar’s death, and a prayer that Augustus may put an end to the wars and disorders of the times. This passage is closely connected with the preceding lines in which the signs of the weather given by the appearance of the sun are described. It begins:

The second book treats of the culture of trees and of the vine, and includes a description of the properties of different kinds of soil. Among its beautiful passages one is the praise of Italy,57 another the description of the blessings of the farmer’s life, beginning—

The third book is devoted to the care of horses and cattle. A beautiful passage, near the beginning of the book, expresses the poet’s love for his native Mantua and his homage to Augustus. The first lines of this passage are as follows:

The fourth book treats of the culture of bees. It contains several passages of singular beauty, one of the most striking of which is the description of the life of the hive.60 The poem ends with an epic description of the visit of Aristæus, the mythical founder of bee culture, to his mother, the sea-nymph Cyrene. This includes an account of the struggle of Aristæus with the sea-god Proteus and the death of Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus. A tradition exists that the poem originally ended with a passage in praise of Gallus; but before its publication Gallus had died in disgrace, and the present ending was substituted. In its final form the close of the Georgics shows that Virgil was already tending to become an epic poet.

At the request of Augustus, Virgil began, in 29 B. C., the composition of his greatest work, the Æneid, in which he tells of the mythical origin of the Roman race and of the greatness and glory of the Rome that was to arise and reach its height under the leadership of the Julian family, which claimed direct descent from Æneas. The Æneid. As early as the sixth century B. C. the Sicilian poet Stesichorus had sung of the coming of Æneas to Italy. Nævius and Ennius had connected Æneas with the origin of Rome, and had fixed some of the details of the story. Upon the foundations thus prepared for him Virgil erected the splendid structure of his poem. In the Eclogues he had followed, closely for the most part, in the footsteps of Theocritus; the Works and Days of Hesiod had served as the prototype of the Georgics, though here Virgil was so far from slavish imitation that his work surpasses the Works and Days in every respect. In the Æneid the imitation of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey is constantly evident, and certain passages are clearly derived from Euripides, Sophocles, and Apollonius of Rhodes; but the Æneid is by no means a mere imitation. In some respects it is far inferior to the Homeric poems. It lacks their simplicity, their rapidity of movement, and their fresh joyousness; it can not be compared with them in narrative power or brilliancy of imagery. In these qualities Homer is unapproachable. But as a national epic, as the expression in prophetic form of the national greatness and of the poet’s deep-seated passion for his country’s glory the Æneid had no prototype, as it has had no successor. Virgil is not Homer; he is reflective, filled with the deep thoughts that centuries of speculation had implanted in the serious minds of his age; and his great poem is more than a mere narrative. In execution the Æneid is uneven. At times it is polished to the highest degree, at other times it falls to a level hardly, if at all, above mediocrity; some passages breathe a poetic fervor unsurpassed, while others might almost as well be written in prose. So conscious was Virgil himself of the unevenness and imperfections of his work that he wished it to be burned after his death, and could hardly be persuaded to leave its fate in the hands of his friends. His death came before he had perfected the poem, and its most perfect parts show what he wished it all to be and what it might have become had his life been spared. Even though it lacks the master’s final revision, it remains the greatest poem of Roman times and one of the greatest poems of all ages.

The Æneid was to be for the Romans what the Iliad and the Odyssey together were for the Greeks. The first six books are modelled chiefly on the Odyssey. Imitation of Homer. As the Odyssey tells of the wanderings and adventures of Odysseus before he reaches his home, so these books of the Æneid tell of the adventures of Æneas on his voyage from Troy to Italy, and more than one passage shows how constantly the Odyssey was in the poet’s mind. The last six books tell of the struggles of Æneas and his followers against the warriors who opposed their settlement in Italy; and here the combats described in the Iliad are imitated, sometimes even in details. In the final struggle Æneas is a second Achilles, and the brave but unfortunate Turnus is an Italian Hector.

In the first book, after a brief introduction, the poem begins in the midst of the story. The fleet of Æneas is off the coast of Sicily, when Juno causes the wind-god, Æolus, to rouse a storm. The Trojan vessels are driven on the rocks, and the sea is stirred to its lowest depths. Then Neptune, angered that his waters are thus tossed about without his consent, rebukes Æolus, and puts the waves to rest:

The Trojans reach the African coast, where Æneas meets his mother, Venus, and is directed to the city of Carthage, which the Phœnician princess Dido has just founded. Æneas and his comrade, the faithful Achates, enter the city wrapped in a cloud, which makes them invisible. When they are revealed to Dido, she receives them kindly, and takes them to her palace. Æneas sends to the ships for his son Ascanius, also called Iulus, but Venus substitutes for him the god of love, Cupid, who fills Dido’s heart with love for Æneas. In the second book Æneas begins the story of his adventures with a superb account of the fall of Troy, his own valiant but ineffectual struggle against the Greeks, and his final flight. In the third book he continues his story to the time of his arrival at Carthage. The fourth book is devoted to the love and fate of Dido. Æneas and Dido, with their followers, go hunting in the forest; a storm arises, and the two, separated from the rest, take refuge in a cave, where only the woodland nymphs witness the union of their loves. Dido looks forward to a joint reign over Trojans and Tyrians alike. But Æneas is warned by Mercury, at the command of Jupiter, to fulfil his destiny and sail to Italy. Dido overwhelms him with loving reproaches, but in vain; he remains steadfast in his obedience to the divine will. Then Dido determines to die. She erects a funeral pyre, places upon it the mementoes of her former husband, Sychæus, and mounts it to end her life. But before she dies she calls down curses upon Æneas and his race:

These lines are the poetic and mythological justification for the long and disastrous wars between Rome and Carthage. In the fifth book the Trojans reach Sicily, and celebrate at Eryx funeral games in honor of Anchises, the father of Æneas, who had died there the year before. In the sixth book they reach Cumæ, in Italy. Æneas descends to Hades to consult with the shade of Anchises. Here he sees the fabled monsters of the lower regions, and the shades of many departed heroes. Then there pass before him the forms of those as yet unborn. This gives the poet an opportunity to praise the great men of Rome, among them Julius Cæsar and Augustus. Here he sees the form of the young Marcellus, son of Octavia, the sister of Augustus. When this book was written, Marcellus had recently died in his twentieth year. Virgil read his lines63 on Marcellus to Augustus and Octavia, and the bereaved mother was so moved that she fainted. Virgil’s description of the realm of the dead is in some parts unusually beautiful, and is especially interesting, because it stands, not only in date but also in many other respects, midway between the eleventh book of Homer’s Odyssey and Dante’s Divine Comedy.

The last six books of the Æneid, recounting the struggles of the Trojans in Italy, contain many fine passages, but are for the most part less interesting to the modern reader than the earlier books. The last six books. In many parts they are finished with most exquisite art, even showing that Virgil’s technical ability increased as the poem drew toward its close, but many other passages show the lack of the final revision. To the Roman the ancient legends of the origin of the Roman power must have been of surpassing interest, but most modern readers remember, amid the successive scenes of strife, only the heroic Turnus, the lovely Lavinia, the warlike maidens Camilla and Juturna, and the brave and devoted friends, Nisus and Euryalus, who were slain when endeavoring to carry a message in the night through the hostile camp to the absent Æneas:

The Æneid closes with the death of Turnus, the chief opponent of the Trojans in Italy. Virgil in the Middle Ages. In spite of its obvious imperfections, it is the greatest poem in the Latin language; and no later epic poem in any language equalled or even approached it in excellence until the appearance of Dante’s Divine Comedy. It is not to be wondered at that throughout the Middle Ages Virgil was regarded as the impersonation of all that was great in poetry; nor is it strange that the poet whose verses breathe such an indescribable, sweet sadness, who sings in lofty, inspired language of that Roman greatness which was ever present to the mediæval imagination, who describes the dwellings of the dead, and who was even believed to have foretold the coming of the Messiah, should have become in mediæval legends the possessor of all wisdom and all magic power. It is natural that Dante chose Virgil as his guide through hell and purgatory, and would gladly have admitted him to paradise had his theology allowed him to do so.

CHAPTER IX

HORACE

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, 65-8 B. C.—Virgil and Horaces—Life of Horace—The first book of Satires—The Epodes—The second book of Satires—The first three books of Odes—The first book of Epistles—The literary Epistles—The Carmen Sæculare—The fourth book of Odes—Conclusion.

Throughout the Middle Ages Virgil was regarded as incomparably the greatest of Roman poets. In modern times his greatness has been called in question, and some scholars have even gone so far as to deny that he was a great poet at all. Virgil and Horace. The difference is due, in great measure, to the fact that in the Middle Ages the poems of Homer, Theocritus, and the other Greek poets whom Virgil imitated, were unknown, and Virgil was regarded as the great epic and pastoral poet of antiquity. That Virgil imitated the Greek poets is evident, but in the last chapter enough has been said to show that his poetry contains qualities not to be found in the works of the Greeks, and that although his poems are in many respects not equal to those of Homer, he must still be regarded as one of the greatest poets of the world. The increase of knowledge which has led to the undue depreciation of Virgil tended to make the second great poet of the Augustan period more highly appreciated. The odes of Horace, which are the best known and the most popular of his poems, are imitations of the poetry of the Greek lyrists, Alcæus, Sappho, Anacreon, and their followers, but the Greek originals are for the most part lost, so that Horace can not suffer by comparison with them. Moreover, modern taste is less pleased with epic than with lyric verse, and the delicate, highly finished, and charming odes of Horace appeal strongly to the cultivated modern reader. In his satires and epistles, too, Horace, whatever his indebtedness to Lucilius and others, displays undoubted originality. It is, therefore, natural that he is sometimes called the greatest of Roman poets. But Virgil wrote of greater themes; he was the great national poet, who sang in grand, prophetic tones of the greatness of Rome and her destinies, while Horace appealed to a narrower circle of cultured readers. Yet Horace is, in his own field, unsurpassed, and deserves all the admiration that has been accorded him.

Quintus Horatius Flaccus was born at Venusia, in Apulia, near the border of Lucania, December 8, 65 B. C. His father was a freedman, the owner of a small farm, but he determined to give his son the best education possible. The school at Venusia was unsatisfactory, and Horace’s father moved with his family to Rome, where he gained his livelihood as a coactor or collector of the money offered by bidders at auctions. Life of Horace. This was a business of some importance at Rome, and must have been lucrative, for Horace attended the best schools, where he came in contact with the sons of wealthy and noble parents. His father exercised personal supervision over the boy’s education, accompanying him to the school, and calling his attention to what went on about him, pointing out the evil effects of bad conduct, and giving him practical advice. In school, under a strict master, Orbilius, who did not spare the rod, Horace read the translation of the Odyssey by Livius Andronicus, and also the Iliad, the latter, perhaps, in the original Greek. From Rome, he went to Athens to study philosophy, and was there when Brutus arrived in 44 B. C., after the death of Cæsar. Like many another patriotic young Roman, he joined the army of Brutus, in which he was given the rank of tribunus militum. He took part in the battle of Philippi and the flight that followed it. In the distribution of lands among the soldiers of the victorious armies, Horace’s farm was confiscated, and the young man, whose father had died during his absence, returned to Rome, where he obtained, perhaps with the last remnants of his father’s savings, a small position as a clerk of the quæstors.

This position gave him a livelihood and some leisure for poetry. Poverty, he says,65 drove him to write verses, and certainly his poems brought him prosperity, for they led Virgil and Varius to introduce him to Mæcenas in the spring of 38 B. C., and in the following winter Mæcenas admitted him to the circle of his familiar friends. Horace, with his short, rotund figure, his witty, genial conversation, and his poetic genius, became socially very intimate with Mæcenas, without, however, being his confidant in political matters. When Mæcenas went to Brundusium to negotiate an agreement between Augustus and Antony, Horace, with Virgil, Varius, Plotius, and the Greek rhetorician Heliodorus, was in his train.66 In 34 or 33 B. C. Mæcenas gave him a country seat in the Sabine hills not far from Tibur (Tivoli), so large that it contained five farmhouses. Here the poet spent a great part of his remaining years. Mæcenas also introduced him to Augustus, who wished to make him his private secretary, but Horace refused the honor, probably because he preferred to retain his freedom. The emperor was not offended by the refusal, but continued to regard him as a friend. Honored by Augustus and his circle, Horace lived in comfort and peace. He died November 27, 8 B. C., and was buried near the tomb of Mæcenas, on the Esquiline. He made Augustus his heir.

Upon his return to Rome after the battle of Philippi, Horace employed his leisure in writing verse. To this period belong the Epodes and the first book of the Satires. These poems were originally not intended for publication, but were read to the author’s friends. About 35 B. C. ten Satires were collected and published. Horace himself calls these poems not Satires, but Sermones or “Talks.” He even disclaims the title of poet, though his “Talks” are in hexameters. The first book of Satires. The first Satire is addressed to Mæcenas, and serves to dedicate the entire collection to the poet’s chief patron, though its subject is the general discontent of every man with his own lot and the foolishness of heaping up wealth. In general, the Satires are not, as were those of Lucilius, attacks upon individuals, but rather criticisms of the follies and foibles of the times. In the second Satire the dangers to which adulterers expose themselves are set forth; in the third, those who carp at and criticize their neighbors are held up to ridicule; the fourth praises the wit, but criticizes sharply the style of Lucilius, the defects of which are attributed to the rapidity with which Lucilius wrote great quantities of verse. In the same Satire Horace defends himself against the charge of malice, maintaining that his verse is far less malicious than private gossip, and describes the way his father took to train him in his youth:

The fifth Satire is an account of the journey to Brundusium in the train of Mæcenas with Virgil, Varius, and others; the sixth, again addressed to Mæcenas, tells us how the poet became acquainted with the great man, reverts to his father’s attentive care, and declares that Horace has no reason to be ashamed of his origin or discontented with his lot. The seventh tells of a joke in a lawsuit between Publius Rupilius Rex and a banker, Persius; the eighth, of some interrupted magic rites before a statue of the god Priapus; and the ninth, of the poet’s ineffectual efforts to get rid of a bore, who stuck to him until he was dragged off to the court by a plaintiff. In the tenth Satire, which serves as an epilogue to the collection, Horace returns to his criticism of Lucilius, maintaining that what he had said in the fourth Satire was really not too severe, and at the same time he expresses his opinion of some of the other Roman poets and of his own ability:

The Epodes were written in the same period as the first book of Satires, and, like them, are on various subjects. The Epodes. About 31 B. C. Horace yielded to the persuasions of Mæcenas and published a collection of seventeen pieces which he had written at various times since 40 B. C. The first ten are in the epodic metre, that is, an iambic trimeter followed by an iambic dimeter, as in the lines:

the following translation of which shows approximately the rhythm of the original:

The shorter line is called an epode, or appendix, to the longer, and it is from this that the collection of poems gets its name. The last seven poems of the collection are in various metres, though most of these are in alternating long and short lines. Horace himself calls these poems Iambics simply. In them he imitates the Greek poet Archilochus, but though several of the poems are somewhat aggressive, they all lack the intense and violent tone of invective attributed by the ancients to Archilochus, of which, however, the extant fragments of

Archilochus show few traces. In one of his Epistles70 Horace claims to be the first who introduced the iambics of Archilochus into Latin literature, but this is not strictly true, for Catullus and his contemporaries had written invectives in iambics. Horace did, however, introduce the epodic metre, and he is also the first to employ his iambics to castigate the follies of his time rather than individuals. In subject the Epodes range from the praise of rural life (ii) and encouragement to live a life of ease and pleasure (xiii) to invectives against a rich upstart (iv) or a woman who deals in poisons (v, xvii), and a rebuke of the Romans who are eager to stir up a civil war (xvi). The last Epode (xvii) has the form of a dialogue between the poet and the poisoner Canidia, but the others are the simple expressions of the poet’s sentiments, often in the form of a letter or address to a friend. In this they differ from the Satires, which have something of the dialogue form, either between two persons mentioned by name or between the poet and some indefinite person, perhaps the reader.

The second book of Satires, finished about 30 B. C., contains eight pieces, most of which are in the form of a dialogue between the poet and one other person. The second book of Satires. The most amusing is the fifth, a dialogue between Ulysses and Tiresias, in which Tiresias tells Ulysses how he can repair his fortunes by paying court to rich men and getting them to mention him in their wills. This Satire is directed against a class of men only too numerous in Rome. Others treat of various subjects, such as the serious study bestowed upon dinners (viii, iv), certain Stoic doctrines (iii, vii), the criticisms of the earlier Satires (i), or the joys of the farmer’s simple life (ii). In almost every case, the thoughts and theories expressed are put into the mouth of some one other than the poet, whereas in the first book of Satires the poet expressed the opinions himself. Horace’s Satires differ from those of Lucilius in being less bitter and less political, more carefully composed and written, and far more genial. The kindly, gentlemanly spirit of the man is everywhere visible. His “talks” are the witty, amusing conversation of a man of the world, often dealing with serious subjects, but always in a light and easy way. They are full of sententious remarks, which have been frequently quoted from Horace’s time to our own.

Catullus and his contemporaries had imitated almost exclusively the poems of the Alexandrians, of the Greek poets, that is to say, who flourished after Greece had lost her independence. The Odes. Horace in his Epodes went farther back and imitated Archilochus, and in his Odes, without altogether neglecting the Alexandrians, he follows for the most part in the footsteps of Alcæus, Sappho, and Anacreon. Among his odes are several which are in part translations of extant fragments of these poets, and it is certain that if the poems of the early Greek lyrists were not almost entirely lost, we could recognize many of them in Latin version in the Odes of Horace. The Odes contain also lines that remind one of similar passages in the poems of Euripides, Bacchylides, and other Greek poets, but in form as well as in contents they are for the most part imitations of the three great early lyrists. Most of the Odes are divided into stanzas of four lines each, and in all such a division is possible, with perhaps one exception. The first three books of the Odes were published in 23 B. C., but their composition belongs in part as early as 30 B. C. The first book contains thirty-eight poems, the second twenty, the third thirty. The first ode of Book I serves as a dedication to Mæcenas, and in the odes immediately following nearly all the metres employed in the three books are used one after the other. Throughout the three books variety of metre governs the arrangement. The second book opens with an ode addressed to Pollio, and at the beginning of the third book are six odes celebrating in various tones the Roman glory. The last ode of Book III, beginning

serves as an epilogue to the finished collection.

The subjects of the odes are so various as to touch upon almost every circumstance of human life and every mood of human feeling. Friendship, love, the gods, patriotism, conviviality, the pleasures of country life, events of the day, and philosophical thoughts, all find their place. In tone the odes are grave and gay, lively and serene, sometimes fantastic, more often thoughtful or at least reasonable. More than once the thought that life is short and we should pluck its blossoms ere they fade occurs in one form or another. The workmanship of the odes is wonderful in its perfection. Horace is not one of those who believe that perfect poetry comes purely by inspiration, without labor. He writes no word without being sure that it is the best word in its place. His metres are adapted to the thought he wishes to express, and the perfection of the metre makes even simple or common thoughts beautiful. The odes are not the ardent outpourings of a passionate spirit, as are some of the poems of Catullus, but they are the carefully elaborated expressions of the thoughts and sentiments of a gentle, kindly, thoughtful, but gay and humorous man of the world. They do not stir our blood, but they arouse our admiration, satisfy our taste, and please us by their tone of cultured and refined sentiment. The variety of their contents can not be presented in selections, nor can all the qualities of any ode be adequately rendered in a translation. One of the shortest but not the least attractive odes is the following, addressed to his cup-bearer:

The following ode offers more variety, and is perhaps more representative:

The first book of Epistles. After the three books of Odes were published in 23 B. C., Horace returned to his previous manner of composition in hexameters, but gave to the collection of twenty poems which he published in 20 B. C., the form of letters or Epistles. These are sometimes real letters to his friends, sometimes satires or “talks” in the form of letters. The subjects of these poems are as various as those of the Satires, but it is evident that the poet is turning more toward philosophy. He advises his friends to take things as they find them, without allowing themselves to be troubled or excited (vi), he teaches the Stoic doctrine that virtue suffices to make men happy (xvi), he advocates calmness and the avoidance of care, and urges Tibullus (iv, 13) to live as if each day were to be his last. But he also sings the praise of wine (v, 16 ff.) and of the quiet life in the country (x, xiv). In two epistles he gives practical advice concerning intercourse with persons of high station, and various practical suggestions are found scattered through the other poems. In a letter to Mæcenas (xix) he ridicules his imitators and mocks at his critics. The twentieth poem is an address to his book as he sends it into the world. In it he foretells the various fortunes of the book, and at the end he gives his age, saying that he has seen four times eleven Decembers in the year of the consulship of Lepidus and Lollius. In these letters Horace reveals his character more fully and with a more delicate touch than in any of his other works. The Odes are the works by which he will always be best known, and to which he owes his great fame as a poet, but nowhere so fully as in the Epistles does he disclose his kindly and genial, yet serious views of life as they ripened with his advancing years.

In the seventh Epistle of the first book Horace refuses, at least for the present, an invitation of Mæcenas, on the ground that his health is poor and that he needs the repose of the country and the seashore. At the same time he explains the manner in which he wishes his relation to his patron to be understood. He is not a parasite, and openly says that he must retain his freedom, and can not be at the beck and call even of Mæcenas. In the first Epistle (lines 4 and 10) he refuses to write more odes, because he is no longer young and is turning toward philosophy. The second book of Epistles. The same attitude is disclosed in the second Epistle of the second book (lines 25 and 141 ff.). The poet wished to retire and pursue the study of philosophy; but he had gained much experience in literary matters, and in three letters, written probably between 19 and 14 B. C., he records the results of this experience. The first letter is addressed to Augustus, the second to Julius Florus. These two form the second book of the Epistles. The Ars Poetica. The third letter, addressed to the Pisos, father and two sons, was originally published with the others, but was soon separated from them, and is known as the Ars Poetica. This is not a systematic treatise on poetry, but Horace’s views, derived in part from his own experience, in part from his reading, are set forth in the easy style of a letter or talk. He insists that each poem must have a consistent fundamental idea or plot, that the characters of a drama must speak as befits their age and station, and must be drawn from life, he advises care in the choice of a subject, points out that nobody cares for mediocre poets, and that what is once published can not be recalled. Throughout the letter or treatise he constantly impresses upon his readers his conviction that good poetry is the result of hard work. Many critical and historical remarks are scattered through the Ars Poetica as well as through the two other letters.

In spite of his desire to give up the writing of poetry and to devote himself to philosophy, Horace did not finish his career as a lyric poet with the completion of three books of odes. In 17 B. C. it was decided that the Sibylline books required the celebration of the ludi sæculares, which were supposed to recur at the end of every sæculum, or period of one hundred and ten years. An important part of the celebration was the singing of a hymn in honor of Apollo and Diana. This was to be sung by a chorus of boys and girls of pure Roman birth, both of whose parents were living, and whose mothers had married only once. Horace was asked by Augustus to compose this hymn, and could not refuse the honor, which distinguished him as the official poet laureate of the Roman Empire. The Carmen Sæculare. The hymn, called the Carmen Sæculare, is a somewhat formal poem, as is fitting for the solemn occasion at which it was first sung, but it shows real religious feeling, mingled with pride and confidence in the Roman greatness. It is the work of a masterly artist and an inspired poet.

In addition to appointing him to write the Carmen Sæculare, Augustus demanded of Horace a song, or songs, in honor of his stepsons, Tiberius and Drusus. The fourth book of Odes. Horace could not refuse, and composed odes in honor of the victories of Drusus (IV, iv) and Tiberius (IV, xiv), to which he added thirteen other poems, making a fourth book of fifteen odes, written apparently in the years 17-13 B. C. The fourth book of Odes is in no way inferior to its predecessors in variety of form or perfection of workmanship, and it contains a larger proportion of exalted, patriotic poems. The sixth ode, addressed to Apollo, seems to be a proœmium to the Carmen Sæculare, or at any rate to have some connection with the ludi sæculares. The fifth ode, to Augustus, urging his return to Rome, and the fifteenth, also to Augustus, on the restoration of peace, celebrate the greatness of Rome as well as its ruler. Horace, as well as Virgil, though in a different way, was a poet of the Roman Empire.

As we look back upon the literary activity of Horace, we find that he turned at first to satires in hexameters and epodes in the simple epodic metre. The literary activity of Horace. Then he enriched Roman literature by odes in imitation of the early Greek lyrists, to return afterward to his original style in the more refined form of epistles. It was only at the command of Augustus that he once more composed elaborate lyrics. His lyric poems are not natural outpourings of sentiment, but deliberate attempts to add to the beauty of Roman literature and thereby to the glory of the Roman Empire. And it is chiefly to these poems that he owes his fame. They are not equal in merit, but they are the most perfect productions of Roman lyric poetry. As such they were recognized in Horace’s own lifetime, and as such they have been admired and loved through the succeeding ages, never more than in recent times. Countless scholars, poets, and men of letters have read them with delight, and many have been the attempts to render their inimitable charm in translations. But their subtle beauty defies the translator’s art. None but Horace himself has been able to express his delicate feeling and poetic fancy in such perfect form. The Satires and the Epistles are full of brilliant and witty sayings, of critical and historical remarks; they throw much light upon the social and literary life of the period, and make us acquainted with the character of the poet; but the Odes are “a monument more enduring than bronze,” testifying to the genius, the industry, the good taste, and, in some cases, to the patriotic spirit of the most perfect of Roman lyric poets.

CHAPTER X

TIBULLUS—PROPERTIUS—THE LESSER POETS

Roman society—The amorous elegy—Cornelius Gallus, 70-27 B. C.—Gaius Valgius Rufus, consul 12 B. C.—Albius Tibullus, about 54 to about 19 B. C.—Lygdamus, born 43 B. C.—Sulpicia—Sextus Propertius, about 50 to about 15 B. C.—Domitius Marsus, about 54 to about 4 B. C.—Albinovanus Pedo—Ponticus—Macer—Grattius—Rabirius—Cornelius Severus—Gaius Melissus and the Fabula Trabeata—Manilius—The Priapea—Poems ascribed to Virgil and Ovid.

During the last century of the republic Rome had grown from a powerful Italian city to be the mistress of the world, and this growth of power had been accompanied by many changes. The wealth of the governing classes had increased enormously. Greek art and Greek literature had become familiar in the form of original works and of Roman imitations, and with the increase of wealth and luxury the growth of immorality went hand in hand. The early profligacy of Cæsar and Sallust, and the love of Catullus for a married woman have already been mentioned. These were not isolated cases, but merely examples of what was only too common. In fact, the man whose life was pure was an exception in the latter days of the republic. The condition of society. Nor were the women of the wealthier classes better than the men. The Roman matron, who was betrothed at twelve and married at fourteen years of age, naturally found herself in many instances united to a man with whom she had no sympathy, and whose distasteful society she gladly exchanged for that of a clandestine lover. Divorces were numerous, and were accompanied with little disgrace. When Augustus established his power, he brought about many reforms in the government of the city and the provinces and caused laws to be passed to ensure the sanctity of marriage and of family life, but his success in stemming the tide of immorality was slight. To be sure, the life of his chosen friends and of the court circle in general was pure, and even perhaps puritanical; but the spirit of the times was so corrupt that even his own family did not escape. The immorality of his daughter Julia became at last so notorious that she was banished from Rome and ended her life in exile. Her daughter Julia resembled her in character and met with a similar fate. In the later years of Augustus banishments for moral reasons were numerous, but it was impossible to bring order into the life of a society in which immorality had ceased to be disgraceful.

It was in and for this society that the Roman elegists composed their poems. Elegiac verse had been employed in the seventh and sixth centuries B. C. by Mimnermus, Tyrtæus, Solon, and others, for the expression of all sorts of personal sentiments, as well as for political purposes; but in the Alexandrian period it had been appropriated almost exclusively to poems of love. The elegy. This Alexandrian elegiac poetry had been introduced at Rome by some of the contemporaries of Catullus, and in the Augustan period it attained a remarkable development. The Roman elegists imitate the Alexandrians, and, like them, insert in their love poems countless mythological allusions and even mythological stories. The fashion demanded that the elegist be learned in Greek mythology. Cornelius Gallus received from the Greek Parthenius a compendium of mythological tales to aid him in selecting proper allusions to the myths. The poet’s beloved is compared to Juno, Minerva, or Venus, Antiope or Helen; the lover gazes upon his mistress as Argus gazed upon Io; faithful wives are compared with Penelope or Alcestis, faithless lovers with Ulysses who deserted Calypso, and Jason who left Medea for another wife. These and similar allusions are mingled with figures drawn from rustic life or from war. The god Amor and his mother Venus play important parts in the poems. Amor transfixes the poet’s heart with his arrows, plants his foot upon the poet’s neck, makes him his slave. The poet sings of the beauty of his mistress, designating her by a fictitious name, but one which has the same length of syllables as the real name of the woman to whom the poems are addressed. The poet is usually poor, but offers his songs as the most valuable of offerings, and is filled with indignation if his mistress seems to care for wealth or jewels. No adornments are necessary for the beautiful woman, and love of wealth is disgraceful. The woes of lovers, false promises, faithlessness, the troubles of the lover who spends whole nights waiting at the door, the torments which love inflicts upon the heart, all these are repeated over and over again. So much of all this is conventional that it is hard to tell what part of the contents of these poems has any truth. Occasionally a line is evidently intended to give information about the writer, and in general it is certain that the poems were really addressed to some particular person, but how much of the feeling expressed is genuine, and how much mere affectation, it is impossible to determine. The details—the nights spent in wind and rain before the door, the quarrels or reconciliations, the voyages and returns—may or may not be founded upon real events in the poet’s life. Whether they are to be regarded as historical or not depends upon their context; but it is evident that many details are purely imaginary.

The three chief elegists are Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid. Of Ovid, the youngest and most voluminous, and one of the most gifted among the Augustan poets, it will be better to treat in a separate chapter. Cornelius Gallus. Somewhat older than Tibullus and Propertius was Cornelius Gallus, whose elegies were greatly admired by his contemporaries, but of which hardly a trace remains. Gallus was born at Forum Julii (Fréjus), in 70 B. C. He was a schoolmate of Augustus, commanded some troops in the war against Antony, and held the town of Parætonium when Antony attacked it. He was afterwards prefect of Egypt, but indulged in offensive remarks about Augustus, and showed his pride by setting up statues of himself in various places in Egypt, and having his name carved upon the pyramids. When he was recalled in disgrace by Augustus his creditors brought suits against him, he was condemned to exile, and his property was confiscated. Unable to bear his troubles, he committed suicide at the age of 43 years. His greatest claim to remembrance is his friendship for Virgil, who expressed his gratitude to him in the sixth and tenth Eclogues, and, perhaps, in the original ending of the Georgics. The elegies of Gallus, in four books, were addressed to Lycoris, an actress of low birth and loose morals, whose stage name was Cytheris. In addition to his elegies, Gallus wrote translations from the Greek of Euphorion. Valgius. Another writer of elegies was Gaius Valgius Rufus, a friend of Horace, who was consul suffectus in 12 B. C. Of his elegies on a boy named Mystes little remains, but they are spoken of by Horace and admired by the author of a panegyric on Messalla. Valgius also wrote some learned works, among them a treatise on medicine and a translation of the rhetoric of Apollodorus.

Albius Tibullus was born near Pedum, in Latium, probably about 54 B. C., and was, if the “Life of Tibullus,” contained in the best manuscripts of his works, is to be trusted, of equestrian rank. Tibullus. He inherited a large property, but lost the greater part of it, perhaps in the confiscations of 41 B. C. Apparently it was restored to him by Messalla, of whom he speaks with great affection. He followed Messalla to the East soon after the battle of Actium, but was detained by illness at Corcyra. He also accompanied Messalla in his campaign in Aquitania. Nothing further is known of his life, except his love for Delia, who appears to have been a married woman of low birth (libertina), and for Nemesis, who is apparently identical with the Glycera mentioned by Horace (Od. I, xxxiii, 2). Tibullus died about 19 B. C. He was a friend of Horace and was admired by Ovid, but there is no evidence that he and Propertius knew one another.

Four books of elegies are ascribed to Tibullus, but not all of these are really his work. Apparently the collection was made in the literary circle of Messalla, and poems by less noted members of the circle were added to those of Tibullus. Elegies to Delia and Nemesis. The ten elegies of the first book, addressed to Delia and to a youth named Marathus, are undoubtedly by Tibullus, and were published during his lifetime. The six elegies of Book II, addressed to Nemesis, seem to have been written several years later. They were left unfinished by Tibullus, and were published after his death. The six elegies published as Book III are by a poet who calls himself Lygdamus. Lygdamus. No poet of that name is known, and probably this is a pseudonym. Whoever the author of these poems was, he was a member of the circle of Messalla, was born in 43 B. C., and was familiar with the poems of Tibullus, Horace, Propertius, and Ovid. These elegies are addressed to Neæra, who was probably the poet’s cousin, and either married or betrothed to him. They are greatly inferior to those of Tibullus. They lack variety and imagination, and in technical execution they want the graceful charm for which the genuine poems of Tibullus are distinguished. The remaining poems ascribed to Tibullus are printed in most editions as Book IV, though in the manuscripts they form a part of Book III. The first of these is a Panegyric on Messalla, written in honor of his consulship, 31 B. C. This poem, which is written in hexameters, shows a lack of taste and a love of rhetorical exaggeration entirely foreign to Tibullus. Lygdamus can not be its author, for he was only twelve years old at the time of Messalla’s consulship. It was doubtless written by some member of Messalla’s circle, and included in the collection with the poems of Tibullus on account of its subject. The other poems of Book IV have for their subject the love of Messalla’s niece Sulpicia for a young Greek named Cerinthus. Sulpicia. The five elegies numbered viii-xii are by Sulpicia to Cerinthus. These are very short poems—none having more than eight lines—but they express genuine feeling in beautiful form, though without delicacy or reserve. The seventh elegy—of ten lines—seems rather to be by Tibullus than Sulpicia. Elegies ii-vi and xiii are apparently by Tibullus, and the epigram of four lines, with which the book closes, is of doubtful authorship.

The elegies of Tibullus are less learned than those of his contemporaries. They contain many mythological allusions, but these are simply expressed and do not form too large a part of the poems. The sentiments expressed are not virile or powerful, but gentle and pensive. Tibullus loves the life of the country and hates war; he feels deeply the woes that oppress the lover; the thought of death weighs upon him; but love is ever in his heart. His poems are masterpieces of expression and versification, though they lack the fire of passionate emotion. Two brief selections73 from the third elegy of Book I may give at least some idea of the quality of his sentiment: