CHAPTER II.
[1] The Ludi Romani, as they were afterwards called.
[2] Satura.
[3] The early laws were called "carmina," a term applied to any set form of words, Liv. i. 25, Lex horrendi carminis. The theory that all laws were in the Saturnian rhythm is not by any means probable.
[4] The passages on which this theory was founded are chiefly the following:—"Cic. Brut. xix. utinam extarent illa carmina, quae multis saeculis ante suam aetatem in epulis esse cantitata a singulis convivis de clarorum virorum laudibus in Originibus seriptum reliquit Cato." Cf. Tusc. i. 2, 3, and iv. 2, s.f. Varro, as quoted by Non, says: "In conviviis pueri modesti ut cantarent carmina antiqua, in quibus laudes erant maiorum, et assa voce et cum tibicine." Horace alludes to the custom, Od. iv. 15, 27, sqq.
[5] Poeticae arti honos uon erat: si qui in ea re studebat, aut sese ad convivia adplicabat, grassator vocabatur.—Cato ap. Aul Gell. N.A. xi. 2, 5.
[6] In his epitaph.
[7] See Mommsen Hist. i. p. 240.
[8] It is a term of contempt in Ennius, "_quos olim Fauni vatesque canebant."
[9] Virg. Ecl. ix. 34.
[10] Fest. p. 333a, M.
[11] Ep. ii. 1, 162.
[12] It has been argued from a passage in Livy (ix. 36), "Habeo auctores vulgo tum Romanos pueros, sicut nunc Graecis, ita Etruscis literis erudiri solitos," that literature at Rome must be dated from the final conquest of Etruria (294 B.C.); but the Romans had long before this date been familiar with Etruscan literature, such as it was. We have no ground for supposing that they borrowed anything except the art of divination, and similar studies. Neither history nor dramatic poetry was cultivated by the Etruscans.
[13] Others, again, explain fascinum as = phallos, and regard the songs as connected with the worship of the reproductive power in nature. This seems alien from the Italian system of worship, though likely enough to have existed in Etruria. If it ever had this character, it must have lost it before its introduction into Rome.
[14] Ep. ii. 1, 139, sqq.
[15] vii. 2.
[16] Macr. S. ii. 4, 21.
[17] C. lii.
[18] C. lxi.
[19] Loc. cit.
[20] Juv. viii. 191.
[21] Some have imagined that, as Saturnia tellus is used for Italy, so Saturnius numerus may simply mean the native or Italian rhythm. Bentley (Ep. Phal. xi.) shows that it is known to the Greeks.
[22] The name prochaios, "the running metre," sufficiently indicates its applicability to early recitations, in which the rapidity of the singer's movements was essential to the desired effect.
[23] Attilius Fortunatianus, De Doctr. Metr. xxvi. Spengel (quoted Teuff. Rom. Lit. § 53, 3) assumes the following laws of Saturnian metre:— "(1) The Saturnian line is asynartetic; (2) in no line is it possible to omit more than one thesis, and then only the last but one, generally in the second half of the line; (3) the caesura must never be neglected, and falls after the fourth thesis or the third arsis (this rule, however, is by no means universally observed); (4) hiatus is often permitted; (5) the arsis may be solved, and the thesis replaced by pyrrhics or long syllables."
[24] The reader will find this question discussed in Wagner's Aulularia; where references are given to the original German authorities.
[25] Dactylic poetry is not here included, as its progress is somewhat different. In this metre we observe: (1) That when a dactyl or spondee ends a word, the natural and metrical accents coincide; e.g.—ómnia, súnt mihi, prorúmpunt. Hence the fondness for such easy and natural endings as claudúntur lúmina nócte, common in all writers down to Manilius. (2) That the caesura is opposed to the accent, e.g.—árma virúmque cáno | Troiae | qui. These anti-accentual rhythms are continually found in Virgil, Ovid, &c. from a fondness for caesura, where the older writers have qui Troiae, and the like. (3) That it would be possible to avoid any collision between ictus and accent, e.g.—scílícet ómnibus ést labor ímpendéndus et ómnes: inveteráscit et aégro in corde senescit, &c. But the rarity of such lines after Lucretius shows that they do not conform to the genius of the language. The correspondence thus lost by improved caesura is partially re-established by more careful elision. Elision is used by Virgil to make the verse run smoothly without violating the natural pronunciation of the words; e.g.—mónstrum horréndum infórme; but this is only in the Aeneid. Such simple means of gaining this end as the Lucretian sive volúptas est, immortáli súnt, are altogether avoided by him. On the whole, however, among the Dactylic poets, from Ennius to Juvenal, the balance between natural and metrical accent remained unchanged.
[26] Most of the verses extant in this metre will be found in Wordsworth's Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin.
[27] A good essay on this subject is to be found in Wordsworth's Fragments p. 580, sqq.