FOOTNOTES:
1. See Teuffel and Schwabe, § 272.
2. Cf. Tac. Ann. i. 1. Velleius Paterculus is a good example of the servile historian. For an example of servile oratory of. Tac. Ann. xvi. 28.
3. Suet, Tib. 21.
4. Dion. 1 vii. 22; Tac. Ann. vi. 39; iv. 31.
5. Tac. Ann. iv. 34.
6. Dion. lviii. 24 [Greek: math_on oun touto ho Tiberios, eph' eaut_oi tote to epos eir_esthai eph_e, Atreus dia t_en miaiphonian einai prospoi_esamenos.] Tac. Ann. vi. 29.
7. 'Pulsi tum Italia histriones,' Tac. Ann. iv. 14.
8. III Prol. 38 sqq., Epil. 29 sqq.
9. Suet. Tib. 42.
10. Tac. Ann. iii. 49; Dion. lvii. 20.
11. Suet. Tib. 70
12. Suet. Tib. 71
13. Suet. Tib. 61
14. Suidas, s.v. [Greek: Kaisar Tiberios].
15. Suet. Tib. 70.
16. Suet. Tib. 70.
17. Suet. Cal. 53.
18. Suet. Cal. 53.
19. Suet. Cal. 16.
20. Dion. lix. 20.
21. Suet. Cal. 27.
22. Dion. lix. 19.
23. Suet. Cal. 34 'nullius ingenii minimaeque doctrinae'.
24. Suet. Cal. 20.
25. For his writings generally of. Suet. Claud. 41, 42.
26. Tac. Ann. xiii. 43.
27. Suet. Claud. 33.
28. For his writings generally of. Suet. Claud. 41, 42.
29. Suet Claud. 11.
30. Suet. _Claud. 41. This is borne out by the fragments of the speech delivered at Lyons on the Gallic franchise. C.I. L. 13, 1668.
31. Suet. Claud. 28.
32. Sc. in the Apocolocyntosis.
33. Suet. Ner. 52.
34. Suet. Ner. 49 'qualis artifex pereo!'
35. Suet. Ner. 52; Tac. Ann. xiii. 3.
36. Tac. Ann. xiv. 16.
37. Suet. Domit. 1; Tac. Ann. xv. 49; Suet. Ner. 24.
38. Mart, ix. 26. 9; Plin. N. H. xxxvii. 50.
39. Persius is sometimes said to quote from the Bacchae. Cf. Schol. Pers. Sat. i. 93-5, 99-102. But see ch. in, p. 89.
40. Juv. viii. 221; Serv. Verg. Georg. iii. 36, Aen. v. 370.
41. Dion. lxii. 29.
42. Dion. lxii. 18; Suet. Ner. 38; Tac. Ann. xv. 39. For fragments of his work see Baehrens, Poet. Rom. Fragm., p. 368.
43. Suet, Ner. 10, 21.
44. Philostr. vit. Apoll. iv. 39 [Greek: ad_on ta tou Ner_onos mel_e … ep_ege mel_e ta men ex Oresteias, ta d' ex Antigon_es, ta d' opothenoun t_on prag_odoumen_on aut_o kai _odas ekampten oposas Ner_on elugize te kai kak_os estrephen].
45. Suet. vita Lucani; see chapter on Lucan, p. 97.
46. See chapter on Lucan, p. 98.
47. Suet. Luc.; Tac. Ann. xv. 49.
48. Suet. Ner. 39.
49. It may be urged that the damage lies not in the loss of poetry suppressed by the Emperor, but in the generation of a type of court poetry, examples of which survive in their most repulsive form in the Silvae of Statius and the epigrams of Martial. The objection has its element of truth, but only affects a very small and comparatively unimportant portion of the poetry of the age.
50. See Tacitus, Dial. 28 sqq. on the moral training of a young Roman of his day. Also Juv. xiv.
51. After the death of the great Augustan authors Alexandrian erudition becomes yet more rampant. It was a great assistance to men of second-rate poetical talent.
52. Quint, i. 1. 12.
53. Quint, i. 8. 3; Plin. Ep. ii. 14.
54. Quint, i. 9. 2; Cic. Ep. ad Fam. vi. 18. 5; Quint. i. 8. 6; Stat. Silv. ii. 1. 114; Ov. Tr. ii. 369.
55. Cp. Wilkins, Rom. Education, p. 60.
56. Op. Juv. vii. 231-6; Suet. Tib. 70. The result of this type of instruction is visible throughout the poets of the age, whereas Vergil and the best of the Greek Alexandrians had a true appreciation of the sensuous charm of proper names and legendary allusions, as in our literature had Marlowe, Milton, Keats, and Tennyson. Cp. Milton, Paradise Lost, Bk. 1:
What resounds
In fable or romance of Uther's son
Begirt with British and Armoric knights;
And all who since, baptised or infidel,
Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban,
Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond,
Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore,
When Charlemain with all his peerage fell
By Fontarabia.
Or compare Tennyson's use of the names of Arthur's battles, 'Agned
Cathregonion' and the 'waste sand-shore of Trath Treroit.'
57. Wilkins, Roman Education, p. 72.
58. See Wilkins, op. cit, p. 74.
59. Wilkins, Roman Education, p. 75.
60. The most striking instances of this precocity are Q. Sulpicius Maximus, who at the age of twelve and a half won the prize for Greek verse at the Agon Capitolinus A.D. 94 (cp. Kaibel, Epigr. Gr. 618), and L. Valerius L. F. Pudens, aged thirteen, who won the prize for Latin verse in A.D. 106. Cp. C.I.L. ix. 286.
61. For the importance attached to imitation sec Quint, x. 2.
62. The Greek rhetoricians of this period lay great stress on the importance of avoiding declamatory rhetoric. They belong to the Attic revival. But the Attic revival never really 'caught on' at Rome; by the time of Quintilian the mischief was done.
63. Sen. Suas. 3.
64. Ib. 7.
65. Ib. 2. I subjoin the text of the last. The author is Triarius.' 'Non pudet Laconas ne pugna quidem hostium, sed fabula vinci? Magnum est alumnum virtutis nasci et Laconem: ad certam victoriam omnes remansissent: ad certam mortem tantum Lacones. Non est Sparta lapidibus circumdata: ibi muros habet ubi viros. Melius revocabimus fugientes trecenos quam sequemur. Sed montes perforat, maria contegit. Nunquam solido stetit superba felicitas et ingentium imperiorum magna fastigia oblivione fragilitatis humanae conlapsa sunt. Scias licet non ad finem pervenisse quae ad invidiam porducta sunt. Maria terrasque, rerum naturam statione immutavit sua: moriamur trecenti, ut hic primum invenerit quod mutare non posset. Si tam demens placiturum consilium erat, cur non potius in turba fuginius?'
66. Latro is the author of the following treatment of the theme. 'Hoc exspectastis ut capite demisso verecundia se ipsa antequam impelleretur deiceret? id enim decrat ut modestior in saxo esset quam in sacrario fuerat. Constitit et circumlatis in frequentiam oculis sanctissimum numen, quasi parum violasset inter altaria, coepit in ipso quo vindicabatur violare supplicio: hoc alterum damnatae incestum fuit, damnata est quia incesta erat, deiceta est quia damnata erat, repetenda est quia et incesta et damnata et deiceta est, dubitari potest quin usque eo deicienda sit, donec efficiatur propter quod deiecta est? patrocinium suum vocat pereundi infelicitatem. Quid tibi, importuna mulier, precor nisi ut ne vis quidem deiceta pereas? "Invocavi," inquit, "deos", statuta in illo saxo deos nominasti, et miraris si te iterum deici volunt? si nihil aliud, loco incestarum stetisti.' Sen. Cont. i. 3.
67. e.g. Sen. Cont. i. 7 'Liberi parentes alant aut vinciant: quidam alterum fratrem tyrannum occidit, alterum in adulterio deprehensum deprecante patre interfecit. A piratis captas scripsit patri de redemptione. Pater piratis epistolam scripsit, si praecidissent manus, duplam se daturum. Piratae illum dimiserunt: patrem egentem non alit.'
68. For a brilliant description of the evils of the Roman system of education see Tac. Dial. 30-5. See also p. 127 for the very similar criticism of Petronius.
69. ce. 28-30. Cp. also Quint, i. 2 1-8.
70. The schoolmaster was not infrequently, it is to be feared, of doubtful character. Cp. the case of the famous rhetorician Remmius Palaemon. Cp. also Quint, i. 3. 13.
71. c. 35.
72. Tac. Dial. 26.
73. The influence of rhetoric was of course large in the Augustan age. Vergil and still more Ovid testify to this fact. But the tone of rhetoric was saner in the days of Vergil. Ovid, himself no inconsiderable influence on the poetry of the Silver Age, begins to show the effects of the new and meretricious type of rhetoric that flourished under the anti-Ciceronian reaction, when the healthy influence of the great orators of a saner age began to give way before the inroads of the brilliant but insincere epigrammatic style. This latter style was fostered largely by the importance assigned to the controversia and suasoria as opposed to the more realistic methods of oratorical training during the last century of the republic.
74. See Mayor on Juv. iii. 9.
75. Cp. Juv. i. 1 sqq., iii. 9. For the enormous part played in social life by recitations cp. Plin. Ep. i. 13, ii. 19, iv. 5, 27, v. 12, vi. 2, 17, 21, viii. 21.
76. Cp. especially the speeches of Lucan.
77. For some very just criticism on this head cp. Quint, viii. 5. 25 sqq.
78. For amusing instances of rudeness on the part of members of the audience ep. Sen. Ep. cxxii. 11; Plin. Ep. vi. 15.
79. Petr. 83, 88-91, 115. Mart. iii. 44. 10 'et stanti legis et legis cacanti. | in thermas fugio: sonas ad aurem. | piscinam peto: non licet natare. | ad cenam propero: tenes euntem. | ad cenam venio: fugas sedentem. | lassus dormio: suscitas iacentem.' Cp. also 3, 50 and passim. Plin. Ep. vi. 13; Juv. i. 1-21; iii. 6-9; vii. 39 sqq.
80. Plin. Ep. viii. 12.
81. Suet. Dom. 4.
82. Tac. Dial. 35
83. See ch. v.
84. There had always, it may be noted, existed an archaistic section of literary society. Seneca (Ep. cxiv. 13), Persius (i. 76), and Tacitus (Dial. 23) decide the imitators of the early poets of the republic. But virtually no trace of pronounced imitation of this kind is to be observed in the poetry that has survived. Novelty and what passed for originality were naturally more popular than the resuscitation of the dead or dying past.
85. Boissier, L'Opposition sous les Césars, p. 238.
86. Macrobius (Sat. 10. 3) speaks of a revival of the Atellan by a certain Mummius, but gives no indication of the date.
87. Juv. viii. 185.
888. Suet. Calig. 57; Joseph. Ant. xix. 1. 13; Juv. viii. 187.
89. Mart. de Spect. 7.
90. Plutarch, de Sollert. Anim. xix. 9.
91. Suet. Tib. 45.
92. ib. Ner. 39.
93. Ib. Galb. 13.
94. Ib. Dom. 10.
95. Ib. Calig. 27; Nero, I. c.; Tac. Ann. iv. 14.
96. C. I. L. ix. 1165.
97. Ep. vi. 21.
98. Suet. Ner. II.
999. Quint, xi. 3. 178.
100. Juv. iii. 93.
101. x. 1, 99.
102. Lucian, de Salt. 27.
103. Suet. Ner. 24.
104. Lucian, de Salt. 79.
105. Suet. ap. Hieronym. (Roth, p. 301, 25).
106. Plut. Qu. Conv. vii. 8. 3; Sen. Contr. 3. praef. 10.
107. Lucian, op. cit., 37-61.
108. Plut, Qu. Conv. iv. 15. 17; Libanius (Reiske) iii, p. 381.
109. Lucian, op. cit., 69 sqq.
110. e.g. Pasiphae, Cinyras and Myrrha, Jupiter and Leda. Lucian, 1. c.; Joseph. Ant. Iud. xix. 1. 13; Juv. vi. 63-6.
111. For the effect of such dancing cp. the interesting stories told by Lucian, op. cit., 63-6. Cp. also Liban., in, p. 373. For the importance attached to gesture in ancient times see Quint. xi. 3. 87 sqq.
112. Story of Turnus; Suet, Ner. 54. Dido; Macrob. Sat. v. 17. 15.
113. See p. 100.
114. Juv. vii. 92.
115. For the general history of the pantomimus see Friedländer, Sittengeschicht, II. in. 3, and Lucian, de Saltatione.
116. Dion. liv. 17; Tac. Ann. i. 54 and 77; Dion. lvii. 14.
117. Suet. Ner. 46.
118. There is no clear proof of the performance on the Roman stage of any tragedy in the strict sense of the word during the Silver Age. The words used e.g. in Dio Chrys. (19, p. 261: 23, p. 396), Lucian (Nigrin. 8), Libanius (iii, p. 265, Reiske) may refer merely to the performance of isolated scenes. See note on Vespasian's attitude to the theatre, p. 166.
119. Pliny the elder wrote his life. Plin. Ep. iii. 5. Cp. also Tac. Ann. v. 8; xii. 28; Plin. N.H. xiii. 83.
120. Ribbeck, Trag. Rom. Fr. p. 268, fr. 1; p. 331 (ed. 3).
121. Ann. xi. 13.
122. Charis, Gr. Lat. i. p. 125, 23; p. 137, 23.
123. Tac. Dial. II.
124. Ib. 2, 3.
125. Ib. 3.
126. Ib. 3.
127. Ib. II.
128. Juv. vii. 12.
129. Juv. vii. 12.
130. Ib. vii. 72.
131. He flourished in reign of Domitian. Schol. Vall. luv. i. 20; Mart. xi. 9 and 10; Donat. Gramm. Lat. iv. p. 537, 17; Apollin. Sid. ix. 266.
132. In the fragment preserved by Donatus (Ribbeck, Trag. Rom. Fr. p. 269) the chorus address Hecuba under the name Cisseis. 'Fulgentius expos. serm. antiq. 25 (p. 119, 5, Helm) says Memos (Schopen emends to Memor) in tragoedia Herculis ait: ferte suppetias optimi comites.'
133. xi. 2. 8.
134. Mart. i. 61, 7; Poet. Lat. Min. iv. p. 62, 19, Bachrens.
135. Tac. Ann. xv. 73; xvi. 17.
136. Tac. Ann. xv. 73; xvi. 17.
137. Sen. ad Helv. de Cons. xix. 2.
138. Sen. ad Helv. 1. c.; Ep. lxxviii. 1. Dion. Cass. lix. 19.
139. 5 Dion. Cass. 1. c.
140. Suet. Calig. 53. See ch. i. p. 4.
141. Ep. cviii. 17 sqq.; Hioronym. ad ann. 2029. That he knew and never lost his respect for the teaching of Pythagoras is shown by the frequency with which he quotes him in the letters.
142. Ep. cviii. 3 sqq.
143. Cp. the speech of Suillius, Tac. Ann. xiii. 42; Dion. Cass. lxi. 10.
144. ad Helv. de Cons. 6 sqq.
145. ad Polyb. de Cons.
146. The Apocolocyntosis—almost undoubtedly by Seneca—hardly falls within the scope of this work. Such intrinsic importance as it possesses is due to the prose portions. In point of form it is an example of the Menippean Satire, that strange medley of prose and verse. The verse portions form but a small proportion of the whole and are insipid and lacking in interest.
147. He was forbidden by Agrippina to give definite philosophical instruction. Cp. Suet. Nero, 52.
148. Cp. ad Ner. de Clem. ii. 2; Henderson, Life of Nero, Notes, p. 459.
149. For what may be regarded as an academic apologia pro vita sua, cp. Ep. 5; 17: 20; de Ira, in. 33; de Const. Sap. 1-4, 10-13; de Vit. Beat. 17-28, &c.
150. Dion. Cass. lxi. 4. 5.
151. Tac. Ann. xvi. 28.
152. This is Dion's view, lxi. 10. For an ingenious view of Seneca's character see Ball, Satire of Sen. on apotheosis of Claudius, p. 34. 'It may be that Seneca cared less for the realization of high ideals in life than for the formulation of the ideals as such. Sincerity and hypocrisy are terms much less worth controversy in some minds than others.'
153. Tac. Ann. xv. 61-4.
154. Quint, x. 1. 125-9.
155. Fronto, p. 155, N.
156. Quint, x. 1. 129. Over and above his writings on moral philosophy we possess seven books ad Lucilium naturalium quaestionum.
157. Patruos duos more naturally, however, refers to Gallio and Mela, in which case Marcus is the son of Seneca himself.
158. Cp. P.L.M. iv. 15, 8; Plin. N.H. xvi. 242.
159. For these cp. Ep. xiv. 13; ib. civ. 29.
160. e.g. 7l 'de Atho monte', 57 'de Graeciae ruina', 50 'de bono quietae vitae', 47, 48 'morte omnes aequari', 25 'de spe'.
161. There is, in fact, direct evidence that he wrote such verses. Plin. Ep. v. 3. 5.
162. Cp. p. 263.
163. Cp. the not dissimilar situation in Sen. Oed. (936), where Oedipus meditates in very similar style, as to how he may expiate his guilt. The couplet vivere si poteris, &c., is nothing if not Senecan.
164. Quint, viii. 3. 31 ('memini iuvenis admodum inter Pomponium ac Senecam etiam praefationibus esse tractatum, an "gradus eliminet" in tragoedia dici oportuisset') shows Seneca as critic of dramatic diction; there is no evidence to show what these praefationes were, but they may have been prefaces to tragedies. The Medea (453) is cited by Quintilian ix. 2. 8. For later quotations from the tragedies, cp. Diomedes, gr. Lat. i. p. 511, 23; Terentianus Maurus, ibid. vi. p. 404, 2672; Probus, ibid. iv. p. 229, 22, p. 246, 19; Priscian, ibid. ii. p. 253, 7 and 9; Tertullian, de An. 42, de Resurr. 1; Lactantius, Schol. Stat. Theb. iv. 530.
165. Cp. also the iambic translation of Cleanthes, Ep. cvii. 11:—
duc, o parens celsique dominator poli, quocunque placuit: nulla parendi mora est. adsum impiger. fac nolle, comitabor gemens malusque patiar, facere quod licuit bono. ducunt volentem fata, nolentem trahunt.
166. Some of the more remarkable parallels have been collected by Nisard (Études sur les poètes latins de la décadence, i. 68-91), e.g. Med. 163 'qui nil potest sperare, desperet nihil'. Ep. v. 7 'desines timere, si sperare desieris'. Oed. 705 'qui sceptra duro saevus imperio regit, timet timentes: metus in auctorem redit'. Ep. cv. 4 'qui timetur, timet: nemo potuit terribilis esse secure'. de Ira_, ii. 11 'quid quod semper in auctores redundat timor, nec quisquam metuitur ipse securus?'-Oed. 980 sqq.; de Prov. v. 6 sqq.; Phoen. 146, 53; Ep. xii. 10; de Prov. vi. 7; Herc. F. 463, 464; Ep. xcii. 14.
167. The arguments against the Senecan authorship are of little weight. It has been urged (a) that the MSS. assign the author a praenomen Marcus. No Marcus Seneca is known, though Marcus was the praenomen of both Gallio and Mela, and of Lucan. Mistakes of this kind are, however, by no means rare (cp. the 'Sextus Aurelius Propertius Nauta' of many MSS. of that poet: both 'Aurelius' and 'Nauta' are errors), (b) Sidonius Apollinaris (ix. 229) mentions three Senecas, philosopher, tragedian, and epic writer (i.e. Lucan). But Sidonius lived in the fifth century A.D., and may easily have made a mistake. Such a mistake actually occurs (S. A. xxiii. 165) where he seems to assert that Argentaria Polla, Lucan's faithful widow, subsequently married Statius. The mistake as regards Seneca is probably due to a misinterpretation of Martial i. 61 'duosque Senecas unicumque Lucanum facunda loquitur Corduba'. Not being acquainted with the works of the elder Seneca the rhetorician, Sidonius invented a new author, Seneca the tragedian.
168. See ch. on Octavia, p.78.
169. Leo, Sen. tragoed. i. 89-134.
170. It is not even necessary to suppose with Leo that these were the earliest of the plays and that these metrical experiments were youthful indiscretions which failed and were not repeated. Leo, i. p. 133.
171. For a detailed treatment see Leo, i. p. 48. Melzer, de H. Oetaeo Annaeano, Chemnitz, 1890; Classical Review, 1905, p. 40, Summers.
172. See p. 39 on relation of epigrams to dramas.
173. Ann. xiv. 52.
174. See also note on p. 42 for Leo's ingenious, but inconclusive theory for the dates of the Agamemnon and Oedipus.
175. There is but one passage that can be held to afford the slightest evidence for a later date, Med. 163 'qui nil potest sperare, desperet nihil' seems to be an echo of Ep. v. 7 'sed ut huius quoque diei lucellum tecum communicem, apud Hecatonem nostrum inveni … "desines", inquit, "timere, si sperare desieris".' This aphorism is quoted as newly found. The letters were written 62-5 A.D. This passage would therefore suggest a very late date for the Medea. But Seneca had probably been long familiar with the works of Hecato, and the epigram is not of such profundity that it might not have occurred to Seneca independently.
176. For comparative analyses of Seneca's tragedies and the corresponding Greek dramas see Miller's Translation of the Tragedies of Seneca, p. 455.
177. The Phaedra of Seneca is interesting as being modelled on the lost Hippolytus Veiled of Euripides. Phaedra herself declares her passion to Hippolytus, with her own lips reveals to Theseus the pretended outrage to her honour, and slays herself only on hearing of the death of Hippolytus. Cp. Leo, Sen. Trag. i. 173. The Phoenissae presents a curious problem. It is far shorter than any of the other plays and has no chorus. It falls into two parts with little connexion. I. (a) 1-319. Oedipus and Antigone are on their way to Cithaeron. Oedipus meditates suicide and is dissuaded by Antigone. (b) 320-62. An embassy from Thebes arrives begging Oedipus to return and stop the threatened war between his sons. He refuses, and declares the intention of hiding near the field of battle and listening joyfully to the conflict between his unnatural sons. II. The remaining portion, on the other hand, seems to imply that Oedipus is still in Thebes (553, 623), and represents a scene between Jocasta and her sons. It lacks a conclusion. These two different scenes can hardly have belonged to one and the same play. They may be fragments of two separate plays, an Oedipus Coloneus and a Phoenissae, or may equally well be two isolated scenes written for declamation without ever having been intended for embodiment in two completed dramas. Cp. Ribbeck, Gesch. Röm. Dichtung, iii. 70.
178. Sen. Trag. i. 161.
179. Leo, op. cit., i. 166 sqq.
180. 530-658. The Oedipus is based on the O. Rex of Sophocles, but is much compressed, and the beautiful proportions of the Greek are lost. In Seneca out of a total of 1,060 lines 330 are occupied by the lyric measures of the chorus, 230 by descriptions of omens and necromancy.
181. It is also to be noted that the nurse does not make use of this device till after Hippolytus has left the stage, although to be really effective her words should have been uttered while Hippolytus held Phaedra by the hair. The explanation is, I think, that the play was written for recitation, not for acting. Had the play been acted, the nurse's call for help and her accusation of Hippolytus could have been brought in while Hippolytus was struggling with Phaedra. But being written for recitation by a single person there was not room for the speech at the really critical moment, and therefore it was inserted afterwards—too late. See p. 73.
182. Similarly, Medea, being a sorceress, must be represented engaged in the practice of her art. Hence lurid descriptions of serpents, dark invocations, &c. (670-842).
183. Seneca never knows when to stop. Undue length characterizes declamations and lyrics alike.
184. As a whole the Troades fails, although, the play being necessarily episodic, the deficiencies of plot are less remarkable. But compared with the exquisite Troades of Euripides it is at once exaggerated and insipid.
185. Cp. Apul. Met. x. 3, where a step-mother in similar circumstances defends her passion with the words, 'illius (sc. patris) enim recognoscens imaginem in tua facie merito te diligo.'
186. This speech is closely imitated by Racine in his Phèdre.
187. 2: Cp. esp. 995-1006: the agnosco fratrem of Thyestes is perhaps the most monstrous stroke of rhetoric in all Seneca. Better, but equally revolting, are ll. 1096-1112 from the same play.
188. For other examples of dialogue cp. esp. Medea, 159-76, 490-529 (perhaps the most effective dialogue in Seneca), Thyestes, 205-20; H. F. 422-38. for which see p. 62.
189. Pro M. 61 'Fuit enim quidam summo ingenio vir, Zeno, cuius inventorum aemuli Stoici nominantur: huius sententia et praecepta huiusmodi: sapientem gratia nunquam moveri, nunquam cuiusquam delicto ignoscere; neminem misericordem esse nisi stultum et levem: viri non esse neque exorari neque placari: solos sapientes esse, si distortissimi sint, formosos, si mendicissimi, divites, si servitutem serviant reges.' &c. He goes on to put a number of cases where the Stoic rules break down.
190. Cp. Eurip. Andr. 453 sqq.
191. For still greater exaggeration cp. Phoen. 151 sqq,; Oed. 1020 sqq.
192. Cp. Sen. Contr. ii. 5; ix. 4.
193. Cp. Sen. de Proc. iv. 6 'calamitas virtutis occasio est'.
194. Cp. Sen. Ep. xcii. 30, 31 'magnus erat labor ire in caelum'.
195. Cp. Sen. Ep. xcii. 16 sqq.
196. Ep. cviii. 24.
197. Cp. Macbeth ii. 2. 36, Macbeth does murder sleep, &c. For other Shakespearian parallels, cp. Macbeth, Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased? H.F. 1261 'nemo pollute queat | animo mederi.' Macbeth, I have lived long enough…. And that which should accompany old age, As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have. H.F. 1258 'Cur animam in ista luce detincam amplius | morerque nihil est; cuncta iam amisi bona, | mentem, arma, famam, coniugem, natos, manus.' J. Phil. vi. 70. Cunliffe, Influence of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy.
198. An exception might be made in favour of the beautiful simile describing Polyxena about to die, notable as giving one of the very few allusions to the beauty of sunset to be found in ancient literature (Troad. 1137):
ipsa deiectos gerit vultus pudore, sed tamen fulgent genae magisque solito splendet extremus decor, ut esse Phoebi dulcius lumen solet iamiam cadentis, astra cum repetunt vices premiturque dubius nocte vicina dies.
Fine, too, are the lines describing the blind Oedipus (Oed. 971):
attollit caput cavisque lustrans orbibus caeli plagas noctem experitur.
199. pp. 52 sqq., 59.
200. Cp. Eur. H.F. 438 sqq.
201. For further examples cp. H.F. 5-18, Troades 215-19.
202. This terse stabbing rhetoric is characteristic of Stoicism; the same short, jerky sentences reappear in Epictetus. Seneca is doubtless influenced by the declamatory rhetoric of schools as well, but his philosophical training probably did much to form his style.
203. Exceptions are so few as to be negligible. The effect of this rule is aggravated by the fact that in nine cases out of ten the accent of the word and the metrical ictus 'clash', this result being obtained 'by most violent elisions, such as rarely or never occur in the other feet of the verse'. Munro, J. Phil. 6, 75.
204. The older and more rugged iambic survives in the fables of Phaedrus, written at no distant date from these plays, if not actually contemporary.
205. Cp. Leo, op. cit. i. 166, 174.
206. See p. 29.
207. These horrors go beyond the crucifixion scene in the Laureolus (see p. 24), and the tradition of genuine tragedy was all against such presentation. As far as the grotesqueness and bombast of the plays go, the age of Nero might have tolerated them. We must remember that seventeenth-century England enjoyed the brilliant bombast of Dryden (e.g. in Aurungzebe) and that the eighteenth delighted in the crude absurdities of such plays as George Barnwell.
208. Cp. also Phaedra 707, where Hippolytus' words, 'en impudicum crine contorto caput | laeva reflexi,' can only be justified as inserted to explain to the hearers what they could not see. See also p. 48, note.
209. They have been influenced by the pantomimus and the dramatic recitation so fashionable in their day, inasmuch as they lack connexion, and, though containing effective episodes, are of far too loose a texture to be effective drama.
210. See R. Fischer, Die Kunstentwicklung der englischen Tragödie; J. W. Cunliffe, Influence of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy; J. E. Manly, Introductory Essay to Miller's Translation of the Tragedies of Seneca. The Senecan drama finds its best modern development in the tragedies of Alfieri. Infinitely superior in every respect as are the plays of the modern dramatist, he yet reveals in a modified form not a few of Seneca's faults. There is often a tendency to bombast, an exaggeration of character, a hardness of outline, that irresistibly recall the Latin poet.
211. The debt is as good as acknowledged, ll. 58 sqq.
212. ll. 310 sqq.
213. l. 915.
214. There is no direct evidence of the sex of the chorus in the Octavia. In Greek drama they would almost certainly have been women.
215. The diction is wholly un-Senecan. There is no straining after epigram; the dialogue, though not lacking point (e.g. the four lines 185-8, or 451-60), does not bristle with it, and is far less rhetorical and more natural. The chorus confines itself to anapaests, is simpler and far more relevant. The all-pervading Stoicism is the one point they have in common.
216. The imitation of Lucan in 70, 71 'magni resto nominis umbra,' is also strong evidence against the Senecan authorship.
217. Probus, vita. 'A. Persius Flaccus natus est pridie non. Dec. Fabio Persico, L. Vitellio coss.' Hieronym. ad ann. 2050=34 A.D. 'Persius Flaccus Satiricus Volaterris nascitur.' Where not otherwise stated the facts of Persius' life are drawn from the biography of Probus.
218. Quint, vii. 4, 40; Tac. Ann. xv. 71.
219. Suet. de Gramm. 23.
220. Bassus was many years his senior—addressed as senex in Sat. vi. 6, written late in 61 or early in 62 A.D.—and perished in the eruption of Vesuvius, 79 A. D. Cp. Schol. ad Pers. vi. 1.
221. Lucan was five years his junior. Cp. p. 97.
222. Cp. Tac. Ann. xiv. 19; Dial. 23; Quint. x. 1. 102.
223. This friendship lasted ten years, presumably the last ten of Persius' life; cp. Prob. vit.
The second satire is addressed to Plotius Macrinus, who, according to the scholiast, was a learned man, who 'loved Persius as his son, having studied with him in the house of Servilius Nonianus.'
224. See O. Jahn's ed., p. 240.
225. Prob. vit.'decessit VIII Kal. Dec. P. Mario, Afinio Gallio coss.' Hieronym. ad ann. 2078—62 A.D. 'Persius moritur anno aetatis XXVIII.'
226. Prob. vit.
227. Such at least is a plausible inference. Probus tells us that he used to travel abroad with Thrasea. It is a natural conjecture that these hodoeporica were in the style of Horace's journey to Brundisium.
228. Cp. Mart. i. 13; Plin. Ep. iii. 16. She was the mother of the wife of Thrasea.
229. This may mean that the last satire was actually incomplete, but that the omission of a few lines at the end gave it an appearance of completion; or that a few lines intended for the opening of a seventh satire were omitted.
230. So Probus. Cp. also Quint. x. 1. 94 'multum et verae gloriae quamvis uno libro meruit.' Mart. iv. 29. 7.
231. Hieronym. in apol. contra Rufin. i. 16 'puto quod puer legeris … commentarios … aliorum in alios, Plautum videlicet, Lucretium, Flaccum, Persium atque Lucanum.' The high moral tone of the work, coupled perhaps with the smallness of its bulk, is in the main responsible for its survival. Scholia from different sources have come down to us under the title of Cornuti commentum. Whether such a person as the commentator Cornutus existed or not is uncertain. The name may have been attached to the scholia merely to give them a spurious importance as though possessing the imprimatur of the friend and teacher of the poet.
232. The choliambi are placed after the satires by two of the three best MSS., but before them by the scholia and inferior MSS. It is of little importance which we follow. But it seems probable that Probus (see below) regarded the choliambi as a prologue. Such at least is my interpretation of sibi primo (i.e. in the prologue) mox omnibus detrectaturus. The lines have rather more force if read first and not last.
233. Prob. vit. 'sed mox ut a schola magistrisque devertit, lecto Lucili libro decimo vehementer saturas componere studuit; cuius libri principium imitatus est, sibi primo, mox omnibus detrectaturus, cum tanta recentium poetarum et oratorum insectatione,' &c. This can only refer to the prologue and the first satire, and seems to point to its having been the first to be composed. According to the scholiast the opening line is taken from the first satire of Lucilius.
234. Porphyr. ad Hor. Sat. i. 10. 53 'facit autem Lucilius hoc cum alias tum vel maxime in tertio libro, … et nono et decimo.
235. Cp. Nettleship's note ad loc., and Petron. 4.
236. e.g. Dama, Davus, Natta, Nerius, Craterus, Pedius, Bestius.
237. Instances might be almost indefinitely multiplied. The whole of Pers. i, but more especially the conclusion, is strongly influenced by Hor. Sat. i. 10. Cp. also Pers. ii. 12, Hor. Sat. ii. 5. 45; Pers. iii. 66, Hor. Ep. i. 18. 96; Pers. v. 10, Hor. Sat. i. 4. 19, &c., &c.
238. i. 92-102. According to the scholiast the last four lines—
torva Mimalloneis implerunt cornua bombis, et raptum vitulo caput ablatura superbo Bassaris et lyncem Maenas flexura corymbis euhion ingeminat, reparabilis adsonat echo (i. 99)—
are by Nero. But it is incredible that Persius should have had such audacity as openly to deride the all-powerful emperor. The same remark applies to other passages where the scholiast and some modern critics have seen satirical allusions to Nero (e.g. prologue and the whole of Sat. iv). The only passage in which it is possible that there was a covert allusion to Nero is i. 121, which, according to the scholiast, originally ran auriculas asini Mida rex habet. Cornutus suppressed the words Mida rex and substituted quis non. For an ingenious defence of the view that Persius hits directly at Nero see Pretor, Class. Rev., vol. xxi, p. 72.
239. i. 76 'Est nunc Brisaei quem venosus liber Acci, | sunt quos Pacuviusque et verrucosa moretur | Antiopa, aerumnis cor luctificabile fulta.'
240. The description of the self-indulgent man who, feeling ill, consults his doctor and then fails to follow his advice (iii. 88), is a possible exception. It is noteworthy that in Sat. iv he addresses a young aspirant to a political career as though free political action was still possible at Rome.
241. e.g. iv. 41.
242. But see below, p. 91.
243. Prob. vita Persii.
244. Our chief authorities for Lucan's life are the 'lives' by Suetonius (fragmentary) and by Vacca (a grammarian of the sixth century).
245. Vacca.
246. Tac. Ann. xvi. 17.
247. Vacca.
248. Vacca.
249. The young Lucan is said to have formed a friendship with the satirist at the school of Cornutus; Persius was some five years his senior. Vita Persii (p. 58, Bücheler).
250. Suetonius and Vacca. The latter curiously treats this victory as one of the causes of Nero's jealousy. Considering that the poem was a panegyric of the emperor, and that it was Lucan's first step in the imperial favour, the suggestion deserves small credit.
251. Sueton. There is an unfortunate hiatus in the Life by Suetonius, occurring just before the mention of the visit to Athens. As the text stands it suggests that the visit to Athens occurred after the victory at the Neronia. Otherwise it would seem more probable that Lucan went to Athens somewhat earlier (e.g. 57 A.D.) to complete his education.
252. Sueton., Vacca.
253. Vacca; Tac. Ann. xv. 49; Dion. lxii. 29.
254. Vacca.
255. Suetonius.
256. Suetonius.
257. Sueton.; Tac. Ann. xv. 56.
258. Vacca; Sueton.; Tac. Ann. xv. 70. Various passages in the Pharsalia have been suggested as suitable for Lucan's recitation at his last gasp, iii. 638-41, vii. 608-15, ix. 811.
259. Statius, in his Genethliacon Lucani (Silv. ii. 7. 54), seems to indicate the order of the poems:
ac primum teneris adhuc in annis ludes Hectora Thessalosque currus et supplex Priami potentis aurum, et sedes reserabis inferorum; ingratus Nero duleibus theatris et noster tibi proferetur Orpheus, dices culminibus Remi vagantis infandos domini nocentis ignes, hinc castae titulum decusque Pollae iucunda dabis adlocutione. mox coepta generosior iuventa albos ossibus Italis Philippos et Pharsalica bella detonabis.
Cp. also Vacca, 'extant eius complures et alii, ut Iliacon, Saturnalia, Catachthonion, Silvarum x, tragoedia Medea imperfecta, salticae fabulae xiv, et epigrammata (MSS. appamata sive ippamata), prosae orationes in Octavium Sagittam et pro eo, de incendio Urbis, epistularum ex Campania, non fastidiendi quidem omnes, tales tamen ut belli civili videantur accessio.'
260. Vacca.
261. See chapter on Statius.
262. See chapter on Drama.
263. Cp. Mart., bks. xiii and xiv.
264. There are two fragments from the Iliacon, two from the Orpheus, one from the Catachthonion, two from the Epigrammata, together with a few scanty references in ancient commentators and grammarians: see Postgate, Corp. Poet. Lat.
265. Vacca, 'ediderat … tres libros, quales videmus.'
266. Sueton. 'civile bellum … recitavit ut praefatione quadem aetatem et initia sua comparans ausus sit dicere, "quantum mihi restat ad Culicem".' Cp. also Stat, Silv. ii. 7. 73:—
haec (Pharsalia) primo iuvenis canes sub aevo
ante annos Culicis Maroniani.
Vergil was twenty-six when he composed the Culex. Cp. Ribbeck, App.
Verg. p. 19.
267. Vacca, 'reliqui septem belli civilis libri locum calumniantibus tanquam mendosi non darent; qui tametsi sub vero crimine non egent patrocinio: in iisdem dici, quod in Ovidii libris praescribitur, potest: emendaturus, si licuisset, erat.'
268. See p. 4.
269. Boissier, _L'Opposition sous les Césars (p. 279), sees some significance in the fact that the list of Nero's ancestors always stops at Augustus. But there was no reason why the list should go further than the founder of the principate. It is noteworthy that Lucan's uncle Seneca wrote a number of epigrams in praise of the Pompeii and Cato. The famous lines,
quis iustius induit arma scire nefas: magno se iudice quisque tuetur, victrix causa deis placuit, sed victa Catoni (i. 126),
are supremely diplomatic. Without sacrificing his principles, Lucan avoids giving a shadow of offence to his emperor.
270. See p. 116.
271. Petron., loc. cit.
272. v. 207, vii. 451, 596, 782, x. 339-42, 431.
273. i. 143-57.
274. ii. 657 nil actum credens cum quid superesset agendum.
275. v. 317 meruitque timeri non metuens.
276. See Shelley, Prometheus Unbound, Preface.
277. vii. 45-150.
278. vii. 342.
279. vii. 647-727.
280. Cp. the epigrams attributed to Seneca, P. L. M. iv, Anth. Lat. 7, 8, 9.
281. The one exception is Curio, sec iv. 799.
282. i. 185:
ut ventum est parvi Rubiconis ad undas, ingens visa duci patriae trepidantis imago, clara per obscuram voltu maestissima noctem turrigero canos effundens vertice crines caesarie lacera nudisque adstare lacertis et gemitu permixta loqui: 'quo tenditis ultra? quo fertis mea signa, viri? si iure venitis, si cives, huc usque licet.'
283. iii. 1:
propulit ut classem velis cedentibus Auster incumbens mediumque rates movere profundum, omnis in Ionios spectabat navita fluctus; solus ab Hesperia non flexit lumina terra Magnus, dum patrios portus, dum litora numquam ad visus reditura suos tectumque cacumen nubibus et dubios cernit vanescere montes.
284. v. 722-end.
285. vii. 6-44.
286. iii. 399-425.
287. iii. 399.
288. Cp. Seneca, Oed. 530 sqq. The description of a grove was part of the poetic wardrobe. Cp. Pers. i. 70.
289. See p. 103.
290. iii. 509-762. For a still more grotesque fight, cp. vi. 169-262; also ii. 211-20; iv. 794, 5.
291. v. 610-53. Cp. also ix. 457-71.
292. Sir E. Ridley's trans.
293. Sir E. Ridley's trans.
294. ix. 619-838.
295. ix. 946, 7.
296. For examples of erudition, cp. ix. loc. cit., where the origin of serpents of Africa is given, involving the story of Perseus and Medea, iv. 622 sqq. The arrival of Curio in Africa is signalized by a long account of the slaying of Antaeus by Hercules.
297. i. 523-end.
298. ii. 67-220.
299. ii. 392-438. Cp. the geography of Thessaly, coupled with a description of its witches, vi. 333-506.
300. v. 71-236.
301. vi. 507-830. It is noteworthy, also, that incidents not necessarily irrelevant in themselves are treated with a monstrous lack of proportion, e.g. the siege of Massilia is not irrelevant; but it is given 390 lines (iii. 372-762), and Lucan forgets to mention that Caesar captured it.
302. e.g. iv. 799-end, vii. 385-459, 586-96, 617-46, 847-72, viii. 542-60, 793-end.
303. vii. 385-459.
304. There is nothing in these last seven books that can be regarded as in any way written to please Nero, save the description of the noble death of Domitius Ahenobarbus, Nero's great-great-grandfather (vii. 597-616). On the contrary there are many passages which Lucan would hardly have written while he was enjoying court favour: e.g. iv. 821-3, v. 385-402, vi. 809, vii. 694-6, x. 25-8.
305. See p. 98.
306. e.g. the two speeches of Cato quoted above.
307. He is, moreover, very careless in his repetition of the same word, cp. i. 25, 27 urbibus, iii. 436, 441, 445 silva, &c.; cp. Haskins, ed. lxxxi. (Heitland's introd.)
308. He is far less dactylic than Ovid. For the relation between the various writers of epic in respect of metre, see Drobisch, Versuch üb. die Formen des lat. Hex. 140. The proportion of spondees in the first four feet of hexameters of Roman writers is there given as follows: Catullus 65.8%, Silius 60.6%, Ennius 59.5%, Lucretius 57.4%, Vergil 56%, Horace 55%, Lucan 54.3%, Statius 49.7%, Valerius 46.2%, Ovid 45.2%.
309. Tac. Ann. xvi. 18, 19 (Church and Brodribb's trans.).
310. c. 118 sq.
311. cc. 1-5.
312. The first reference in literature to the Satyricon is in Macrobius, in Somn. Scip. i. 2, 8.
313. cc. 1-5.
314. MS. fortuna.
315. MS. dent.
316. c. 83
317. Cp. Juv. Sat. 7; Tac. Dial. 9.
318. c. 89. It has been suggested that this poem is a parody of Nero's Troiae halosis! But the poem shows no signs of being a parody. It is obviously written in all seriousness.
319. MS. minor, I suggest minans as a possible solution of the difficulty.
320. c. 93.
321. Cp. also 128 and the spirited epic fragment burlesquely used in 108.
322. See p. 36.
323. Baehrens, P. L. M. iv. 74-89.
324. Nos. 76 and 86. Cp. Fulg. Mythol. i. I, p. 31; Lactant. ad Stat. Theb. iii. 661; Fulg. Mythol. iii. 9, p. 126.
325. Baehrens, P.L.M. iv. 90-100.
326. Poitiers, 1579 A.D.
327. Fulg. Mythol. i. 12, p. 44.
328. That the attribution to Petronius rests on the authority of the lost MS. is a clear inference from Binet's words, cp. Baehrens, P.L.M. iv. 101-8, 'sequebantur ista, sed sine Petronii titulo, at priores illi duo Phalaecii vix alius fuerint quam Petronii.'
329. Baehrens, P.L.M. iv. 101-8.
330. See note 4.
331. Petr. cc. 14, 83; Baehrens, P.L.M. iv. 120, 121.
332. Cp. Satyr. 127, 131; P.L.M. iv. 75; S. 128; P.L.M. iv. 121; S. 108; P.L.M. iv. 85; S. 79, iv. 101.
333. P.L.M. iv. 75.
334. P.L.M. iv. 81.
335. The MS. is hopelessly corrupt at this point. I suggest naidas alterna manu as a possible correction of the MS. Iliadas armatas s. manus.
336. P.L.M. iv. 84.
337. P.L.M. iv. 85.
338. Ib. 76.
339. Ib. 82.
340. Ib. 78.
341. P. L. M. iv. 99. Cp. also 92 and 107.
342. 569 sqq.
343. 17-22, 43 sqq. He falls into the same error himself (203).
344. 76 sqq.
345. 88 sqq.
346. 220 sqq.
347. 96 sqq.
348. 178 sqq.
349. 400 sqq.
350. 333 sqq.
351. 294.
352. So Ellis (Corp. Poet. Lat., vol. ii. pref.); Baehrens, P. L. M. ii. pp. 29 sqq.
353. Serv. ad Verg. Aen. praef. Donatus, vita Verg., p. 58 R ('Scripsit etiam de qua ambigitur Aetnam').
354. Sen. Nat. Quaest. iii. 26. 5. He also wrote in verse on philosophical subjects; cp. Sen. Ep. 24, 19-21.
355. So Wernsdorf, von Jacob, Munro (edd.), Wagler de Aetna quaest. crit., Berlin, 1884.
356. Sen. Nat. Quaest. iv. 2. 2.
357. Sen. Ep. 79. 5.
358. So many Italian scholars of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, among them Scaliger.
359. Cornelius Severus wrote a poem on the Sicilian War of Octavian and Sext. Pompeius; cp. Quint, x. l. 89.
360. Cp. Nat. Quaest. iii. 16. 4, Aetna, 302 and 303. But this may be due to the fact that both Seneca and the author of Aetna get their information from the same source, perhaps Posidonius; cp. Sudhaus, introd. to his edition, p. 75.
361. It is not improbable that in 293 sqq. the poet refers to the mechanical Triton shown at the Naumachia on the Fucine Lake at a festival given by Claudius in honour of Nero's adoption in 50 A. D.
362. 425-34.
363. Baehrens would put the lower limit at 63 A. D., the year in which severe earthquakes first indicated the reviving activity of Phlegraean fields. But earthquakes, though often caused by volcanic action, do not necessarily produce volcanoes.
364. viii. 16. 9; 10. 185.
365. iii. 3. 3 'his certe temporibus Nomentana regio celeberrima fama est illustris, et praecipue quam possidet Seneca, vir excellentis ingenii atque doctrinae'. He is quoted by Pliny, not infrequently. Columella was an old man when he wrote; cp. 12 ad fin. 'nec tamen canis natura dedit cunctarum rerum prudentiam'.
366. Cp. C.I.L. ix. 235 'L. Iunio L. F. Gal. Moderato Columellae Trib. mil. leg. VI. Ferratae'. That this refers to the poet is borne out by two facts. (1) Gades belonged to the Tribus Galeria. (2) At this date the legio VI. Ferrata was stationed in Syria; cp. Col. ii. 10. 18 'Ciliciae Syriaeque regionibus ipse vidi'.
367. Cp. i. 1. 7. He speaks as a practical farmer; cp. ii. 8. 5; 9. 1; 10. 11; iii. 9. 2; 10. 8, &c. He writes primarily for Italy, not for Spain; cp. iii. 8. 5.
368. Cp. x. praef.: also ix. 16. 2, which tells us that Gallio, Seneca's brother, had added his entreaties.
369. xi. praef.
370. He also wrote a treatise against astrologers (cp. xi. 1. 131) and a treatise on religious ceremonies connected with agriculture (cp. ii. 21. 5). This latter work was perhaps never completed (cp. ii. 21. 6). In any case both treatises were lost. There survives a book on arboriculture which is not an isolated monograph, but portion of a larger work, at least three books long, for it alludes to a 'primum volumen de cultu agrorum' (ad init.). It probably consisted of four books, since Cassiodorus (div. lect. 28) speaks of the sixteen books of Columella.
371. siderei Maronis, 434.
372. Cp. esp. 196 sqq.
373. Cp. 130 sqq., 320 sqq., 344 sqq.
374. 102 sqq.
375. 45-94.
376. 29-34.
377. 196 sqq.
378. Tac. Ann. xii. 58.
379. M. Haupt, Opusc. i. 391; Lachm. Comm. on Lucret. 1855, p. 326 Schenkl (ed. Calp. Sic., p. ix).
380. Or de laude Pisonis. See Baehrens, Poet. Lat. Min. iii. 1. For the question of authorship see p. 159.
381. It was long believed that there were eleven, but the last four eclogues of the collection are shown by their style to be of later date, and there can be little doubt that the MSS. which attribute them to Nemesianus of Carthage are right. We know of a Nemesianus who lived about 290 A.D. and wrote a Cynegetica, a portion of which survives. Comparison with these four eclogues shows a marked resemblance of style.
382. Verg. Ecl. vii. 1:
forte sub arguta consederat ilice Daphnis, compulerantque greges Corydon et Thyrsis in unum, Thyrsis oves, Corydon distentas lacte capellas, ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo, et cantare pares et respondere parati.
Calp. ii. 1:
intactam Crocalen puer Astacus et puer Idas, Idas lanigeri dominus gregis, Astacus horti, dilexere diu, formosus uterque nec impar voce sonans.
The conclusion is borrowed from Vergil, Ecl. iii. 108:
non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites. et vitula tu dignus et hic et quisquis amores aut metuet dulces aut experietur amaros. claudite iam rivos, pueri; sat prata biberunt.
Calp. ii. 95-100:
'iam resonant frondes, iam cantibus obstrepit arbos: i procul, o Doryla, rivumque reclude canali et sine iam dudum sitientes irriget hortos' vix ea finierant, senior cum talia Thyrsis, 'este pares …'
383. Cp. also v. 50 sqq.
384. See Baehrens, Poet. Lat. Min. vol. iii. p. 60. The first poem is unfinished, the award of Midas being missing.
385. Bücheler, Rhein. Mus. xxvi. p. 235.
386. So Bücheler, loc. cit. respexit is a mere conjecture: corrumpit, the MS. reading, is meaningless, and no satisfactory alternative has been suggested. The lines may merely refer to Apollo, but et me suggests strongly that Ladas retorts, 'I, too, have Caesar's favour.' Cp. L. 37, where hic vester Apollo est! clearly refers to Nero.
387. In a MS. at Lorsch, now lost; but used by Sechard for his edition of Ovid, Basle, 1527.
388. In Parisinus 7647 (Florileg.). Sec Baehrens, P. L. M. i. p. 222.
389. Tac. Ann. xv. 48 'facundiam tuendis civibus exercebat, largitionem adversum amicos et ignotis quoque comi sermone et congressu.'
390. Schol. Vall, ad Iuv. v. 109 'in latrunculorum lusu tam perfectus et callidus, ut ad cum ludentem concurreretur.'
391. Cp. ll. 190 sqq.
392. Cp. ll. 190 sqq.
393. Baehrens, Fragm. Poet. Rom. p. 281.
394. Priscian, Gr. Lat. i. 478.
395. Persius derides a certain Labeo (i. 4) and a writer named Attius (i. 50) for his translation of Iliad. On this last passage the scholiast says, 'Attius Labeo poeta indoctus fuit illorum temporum, qui Iliadem Homeri foedissime composuit.' The names are found combined in an inscription from Corinth, Joh. Schmidt, Mitt. des deutsch. archäol. Inst. in Athen, vi (1882), p. 354.
396. Schol. ad Pers. i. 4 (p. 248, Jahn).
397. Schol. ad Pers. i. 4, ex cod. Io. Tillii Brionensis episc., cited by El. Vinetus.
398. Sen. ad Polyb. de Cons. viii. 2, and xi. 5.
399. Vualtherus Spirensis Vs. 93. X cent. (ed. Harster, Munich, 1878, p. 22). Eberhard Bethunensis, Labyr. Tract. iii. 45.
400. This apparent confusion between Homer and Pindar is first found in Benzo, episc. Albensis (Monum. Germ. xi. 599) circa 1087. In Hugo Trimbergensis (thirteenth century) Pindar is the translator: 'Homero, quem Pindarus philosophus fertur transtulisse.' Cp. L. Müller, Philol. xv, p. 475. So, too, in Cod. Vat. Reg. 1708 (thirteenth and fourteenth centuries); in Vat. Pal. 1611 (end of fourteenth century), he is styled Pandarus. See Baehrens, P. L. M. iii. 4.
401. Seyffert, in Munk, Geschichte der Röm. Litt. ii, p. 242. Bücheler, Rhein. Mus. 35 (1880), p. 391.
402. Baehrens (P. L. M. iii) reads (7) ut primum tulerant for ex quo pertulerant. The corruption is unlikely, especially since the corresponding line in the Iliad (i. 6) begins [Greek: ex ou]. In line 1065, for quam cernis paucis … remis, he reads remis quam cernis … paucis, a distinct improvement. Some of those who retain MSS. in (7) attempt to explain Italice as a vocative or adverb. But ex nihilo nihil fit. For a summary of these unprofitable and generally absurd speculations, cp. Schanz, Gesch. Röm. Lit. § 394.
403. Vindobon. 3509 (fifteenth or sixteenth centuries).
404. Mart. vii. 63.
405. Vagellius, Sen. N.Q. vi. 2. 9. Antistius Sosianus, Tac. Ann. xiii. 28. C. Montanus, ib. xvi. 28. 29. Lucilius junior, see p. 144.
406. Tac. Ann. iv. 46; C.I.L. ii. 2093.
407. Dion. lix. 22; Tac. Ann. vi. 30.
408. Dion. loc. cit.; Suet. Claud. 9.
409. Plin Ep. v. 3. 5; Mart. i. praef.
410. Ap. Sid. Ep. ii. 10. 6.
411. v. 16; vi. 190, 331; vii. 71, 244, 245, 275, 354; xi. 409.
412. Baehrens, Poet. Rom. Fragm. p. 361.
413. Quint, x. 1.96 'at lyricorum Horatius fere solus legi dignus:… si quem adicere velis, is erit Caesius Bassus, quem nuper vidimus; sed eum longe praecedunt ingenia viventium'.
414. e.g. perhaps Martial, Sulpicia, and some of Pliny's poet friends, see pp. 170 sqq.
415. See p. 80.
416. See Teuffel and Schwabe, Hist. Röm. Lit. § 304; Schanz, Gesch. Röm. Lit. 384 a.
417. Schol. Pers. vi. 1.
418. Ithyphallicum, Archebulium, Philicium, Paeonicum, Proceleusmaticum, Molossicum. Baehrens, Poet. Röm. Fragm. p. 364.
419. Ioseph. vita 65.
420. Suet. Vesp. 17, 18.
421. Ib. 8.
422. Ib. 19 'vetera quoque acroamata revocaverat'.
423. Ib. 18.
424. Dion. lxvi. 13, in 71 A.D. That this act was ineffectual is shown by Domitian's action in 89-93 A.D.
425. Plin. N.H. praef. 5 and 11.
426. Suet. Dom. 2; Tac. Hist. iv. 86; Quint, x. 1. 91.
427. Suet. Dom. 18.
428. Quint. loc. cit.; Val. Fl. i. 12; Mart. v. 5. 7.
429. Suet. Dom. 4.
430. 6 Stat. Silv. iv. 2. 65, v. 3. 227.
431. Suet. Dom. 20. This may have been creditable to him as ruler of the empire, though Suetonius undoubtedly wishes us to regard Tiberius' memoirs as a manual of tyranny.
432. Suet. Dom. 10.
433. Suet. loc. cit.; Hieronym. ad ann. 89 and 95 A.D. The latter date is wrong: cp. Mommsen, Hermes, iii (1869), p. 84.
434. Tac. Agr. 2.
435. Quint. x. 1. 89. There is no clear indication of his date, but he is coupled with Saleius Bassus by Juvenal (vii. 80), a fact which suggests that he belonged to the Flavian period.
436. x. 1. 90.
437. Juv. vii. 79.
438. Stat. Silv. v. 3.
439. Stat. Silv. i. 2. 253; Mart. iv. 6. 4, i. 7, vii. 14.
440. Schol. Vall, ad Iuv. i. 20; Mart. xi. 10; Rut. Nam. i. 603; Schol. Iuv. i. 71. For his brother Scaevus Memor see p. 30.
441. Plin. Ep. v. 3. 5, vi. 10. 4.
442. Ib. iii. 1. 11, ii. 7. 1
443. Mart. viii. 70. 7.
444. Plin. Ep. v. 3. 5.
445. Priscian, Gr. Lat. ii, p. 205, 6.
446. Plin. Paneg. 47; Ep. iii. 18. 5.
447. Dion. lxviii. 16; Gellius xi. 17. 1.
448. See p. 25. Other names are Octavius Rufus, Plin. Ep. i. 7; Titinius Capito, C. I. L. 798, Plin. Ep. i. 17. 3; viii. 12. 4; Caninius Rufus, Plin. Ep. viii. 4. 1; Calpurnius Piso, Plin. Ep. v. 17. 1.
449. Ep. vi. 15.
450. Ep. ix. 22.
451. Gaius Passennus Paulus Propertius Blaesus was his full title. He derives his chief interest from the fact that the inscription at Assisi which preserves his name is our most conclusive evidence for the birthplace of Propertius. Haupt, opusc. i. p. 283, Leipz. (1875).
452. Ep. iv. 27.
453. viii. 21. 14.
454. vii. 9. 10.
455. iv. 14. 2.
456. iv. 14. 4.
457. He also translated the Greek epigrams of Arrius Antoninus. Cp. Ep. iv. 3. 3, and xviii. 1. One of these translations is preserved. Baehrens, P.L.M. iv. 112.
458. ii. 90. 9.
459. In the sixth Satire.
460. See Schanz, Gesch. Röm. Lit. § 284.
461. Apoll. Sid. ix. 261 'quod Sulpiciae iocos Thalia scripsit blandiloquum suo Caleno'. Auson. Cento. Nupt., 4 'meminerint prurire opusculum Sulpiciae, frontem caperare'. Fulgentius, Mythol. 1 (p. 4, Helm.) 'Sulpicillae procacitas'
462. Schol. Vall, ad Iuv. vi. 537,
unde ait Sulpicia: si me cadurcis dissolutis fasciis nudam Caleno concubantem proferat.
463. Mart. x. 38. 9:
vixisti tribus, o Calene, lustris: aetas haec tibi tota computatur et solos numeras dies mariti.
The first edition of Martial, Book x, was probably published in 95 A.D. If Sulpicia married Calenus at the age of 18-25, her birth will therefore fall between 55 and 62 A. D.
464. Cp. Mart. x. 38. 4-8.
465. Cp. Mart. x. 38. 9-11. It is, of course, possible that mariti is a euphemism.
466. Mart. x. 35. 1.
467. See Ap. Sid. loc. cit.
468. Sulp. Sat., lines 4, 5.
469. Raph. Volaterr. comment. urban. (fol. lvi. 1506 A.D.), 'hic (sc. at Bobbio) anno 1493 huiuscemodi libri reperti sunt. Rutilius Namatianus. Heroicum Sulpici carmen.' The first edition was published in 1498, with the title Sulpitiae carmina quae fuit Domitiani temporibus: nuper a Georgio Merula Allexandrino, cum aliis opusculis reperta. queritur de statu reipublicae et temporibus Domitiani. The MS. is now lost.
470. Cp. line 62. Domitian's edict seems to have threatened the security of Calenus. In the lines which follow, Domitian's death and overthrow are foretold. The poem, therefore, if genuine, must have been published soon after Domitian's assassination in 96, though it may have been composed in part during his lifetime.
471. The work is generally rejected as spurious. Bachrens (P. L. M. v. p. 93, and de Sulpiciae quae vocatur satira, Jena, 1873) holds that the work is contemporary with Ausonius. Boot (de Sulpiciae quae fertur satira, Amsterdam, 1868) goes further, and regards the work as a renaissance forgery. He is followed by Bücheler. But there is no reason to doubt the existence of the Bobbian MS. The metrical difficulties can be remedied by emendation palare for palari (43) is a solecism, but many verbs are found in both active and deponent forms, and palare may be a slip, or even an invention by analogy. captiva (52) does not = the Italian cattiva or the French chétive. The most that we can say is that the work shows no resemblance to any extant contemporary literature. That does not necessarily prove it to be of later date. The problem cannot be answered with certainty. On the whole, to us the difficulty of supposing it to be a late forgery seems greater than the difficulty of supposing it to be by Sulpicia.
472. An exception must be made of the Silvae of Statius.
473. Or Balbus Setinus.
474. Schenkl, Stud, zu V. F. 272.
475. Mart. i. 61 and 76.
476. i. 5:
Phoebe mone, si Cymaeae mihi conscia vatis
stat casta cortina domo.
In Cymaeae vatis there is an allusion to the custody of the
Sibylline books.
477. x, 1. 90.
478. i. 7-12.
479. i. 13, 14:
Solymo nigrantem pulvere fratrem spargentemque faces et in omni turre furentem.
Domitian pretended to be a poet and connoisseur of poetry. See p. 167.
480. iii. 207:
ut mugitor anhelat Vesvius, attonitas acer cum suscitat urbes
481. vii. 645; viii. 228. If these allusions be to events of 89 A. D. they point to the view that the last two books were composed shortly before the poet's death, and confirm the opinion that the Argonautica was never finished.
482. A few instances will suffice. In iii. 302 Jason asserts that seers had prophesied his father's death; this is nowhere else mentioned; on the contrary, at the beginning of the second book, it is specially told us that Juno concealed from Jason the fact of his father's death, while in vii. 494 Jason speaks of him as still alive. In vii. 394 Venus is represented as leaving Medea in terror at the sound of her magic chant, while five lines later it is implied that she is still holding Medea's hand. In viii. 24 Jason goes to the grove of Mars to meet Medea and to steal the fleece of gold; but no arrangement to this effect has been made between Jason and Medea at their previous meeting (vii. 516). Instances might be multiplied. See Schenkl, op. cit. 12 sqq.; Summers' Study of Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus, p. 2 sqq. The inconsistency which makes the Argo to be at once the first ship and to meet many other ships by the way is perhaps the most glaring, but its rectification would have involved very radical alterations.
483. Cp. viii. 189:
inde sequemur ipsius amnis iter, donec nos flumine certo perferat inque aliud reddat mare.
484. Summers, op. cit. 6.
485. e.g. Argous Portus, Cales, the portico of the Argonauts at Rome.
486. i. 7-12.
487. Summers, p. 7.
488. i. 806; ii. 4.
489. Valerius was no slavish imitator of Apollonius. Some of his incidents are new, such, as the rescue of Hesione (ii. 450 sqq.). Many of the incidents in Apollonius are omitted (e.g. Stymphalian birds, A.R. ii. 1033, and the encounter with the sons of Phrixus, A.R. ii. 1093). Other incidents receive a fresh turn. In both poets the Argonauts see traces of the doom of Prometheus. But in A. he is still being devoured, in V. he is being freed by Hercules amid an earthquake. Again V. often expands or contracts an incident related by A. E.g. Contraction: The launching of Argo, V.F. i. 184-91; A.R. i. 362-93. Expansion: The story of Lemnos V. ii. 72-427; A. i. 591-884: here there is not much difference in length, but V. tells us much more. The visit to Cyzicus, V. iii. 1-361; A. i. 947-1064: note also that in V. the purification of the Argonauts, 362-459, takes the place of the irrelevant founding of the temple of Rhea on Dindymus, A. i. 1103 sqq. The debate as to whether to abandon Hercules, who has gone in search of Hylas, V. iii. 598-714; in A. the Argonauts sail without noticing the absence of Hercules and Hylas, and the debate takes place at sea, A. i. 1273-1325. As a rule, however, V. is longer than A., partly owing to longer descriptions, partly owing to the greater complication of the plot at Colchis. On the other hand, there is much imitation of A. Cp. V.F. i. 255; A.R. i. 553; V.F. iii. 565-97; A. i. 1261-72; V.F. iv. 733; A. ii. 774; V.F. v. 73-100; A. ii. 911-929.
490. In Apollonius the aid of Aphrodite and Eros is requisitioned to make Medea fall in love with Jason, but there is no further conventional supernatural interference. In Valerius, Juno (v. 350, vi. 456-660, vii. 153-90) kindles Medea's passion with Venus's aid. In vii, 190 sqq., Venus goes in person.
491. As evidence for Apollonius' superiority cp. V.F. v. 329 sqq.; A.R. iii. 616 sq.; V.F. vii, 1-25; A.R. iii. 771 sq.; V.F v. 82-100; A.R. ii. 911-21.
492. v. 418. Cp. Apollon. iv. 272; Herod, ii. 103; Strab. xvi. 4. 4; Plin. N.H. xxxiii, 52.
493. vi. 118. Cp. also v. 423:
Arsinoen illi tepidaeque requirunt otia laeta Phari.
494. Cp. vii. 35 sqq.
495. As, for instance, in the Alcestis of Euripides and Callimachus' Hymn to Artemis.
496. A.R. i. 1167 [Greek: d_e tot anochliz_on tetr_echotos oidmatos olkous | messothen axen eretmon atar tryphos allo men autos | amph_o chersin ech_on pese dochmios, allo de pontos | klyze palirrothioisi pher_on. ana d' hezeto sig_e | paptain_on cheires gar a_etheon _eremeousai].
497. Cp. also V.F. iv. 682-5; viii. 453-7.
498. For obscurity cp. also iii. 133-7, 336-7; vii. 55.
499. Valerius is fond of such inversions, especially in the case of particles, pronouns, &c.; cp. v. 187 iuxta; ii. 150 sed; vi. 452 quippe; vi. 543 sed.
500. Cp. i. 436-8; ii. 90; iii. 434; vi. 183, 260-4.
501. See p. 183.
502. The passage may conceivably be only a rough draft, cp p. 197 note.
503. Cp. also i. 130-48, 251-4.
504. There is little evidence that he had any influence on posterity, though there may be traces of such influence in Hyginus and the Orphic Argonautica. Of contemporaries Statius and Silius seem to have read him and at times to imitate him. See Summers, pp. 8, 9. Blass, however (J. f. Phil. und Päd. 109, 471 sqq.), holds that Valerius imitates Statius.
505. Cp. V. F. i. 833 sqq.; Aen. vi. 893, 660 sqq., 638 sqq.; V. F. i. 323; A. viii. 560 sqq.; V. F. vi. 331; A. ix. 595 sqq.; V. F. iii. 136; A. xii. 300 sqq.; V. F. viii. 358; A. x. 305; V. F. vi. 374; A. xi. 803. See Summers, pp. 30-3. His echoes from Vergil are perhaps more obvious in some respects than similar echoes in Statius, owing to the fact that he had a more Vergilian imagination than Statius, and lacked the extreme dexterity of style to disguise his pilferings. But in his general treatment of his theme he shows far greater originality; this is perhaps due to the fact that the Argonaut saga is not capable of being 'Aeneidized' to the same extent as the Theban legend. But let Valerius have his due. He is in the main unoriginal in diction, Statius in composition.
506. Cp. Summers, p. 49. See also note, p. 123.
507. Cp. beside the passages quoted below iii. 558 sqq., 724, 5; iv. 16-50, 230, 1; v. 10-12; vii. 371-510, 610, 648-53.
508. One is tempted at times to account for the profusion and lack of spontaneity of similes in poets of this age by the supposition that they kept commonplace books of similes and inserted them as they thought fit.
509. vi. 260:
qualem populeae fidentem nexibus umbrae siquis avem summi deducat ab aere rami, ante manu tacita cui plurima crevit harundo; illa dolis viscoque super correpta sequaci inplorat ramos atque inrita concitat alas.
510. vii. 124:
sic adsueta toris et mensae dulcis erili, aegra nova iam peste canis rabieque futura, ante fugam totos lustrat queribunda penates.
511. iv. 699:
discussa quales formidine Averni Alcides Theseusque comes pallentia iungunt oscula vix primas amplexi luminis oras.
512. This simile is a free translation from Apollonius, iii. 966 [Greek: t_o d' aneo kai anaudoi ephestasan all_eloisin, | h_e drusin h_e makr_esin eeidomenoi elat_esin, | ai te parasson ek_eloi en ourresin erriz_ontai,| n_enemiae meta d' autis upo mip_es anemoio | kitumenai omad_esan apeiriton _os ara t_oge | mellon alis phthenchasthai upo pnoi_esin Er_otos.] Valerius has compressed the last three lines into rapidus nondum quas miscuit Auster. The effective miscuit conveys nearly as much as the longer and not less beautiful version in the Greek.
513. This accumulation is probably due to the lack of revision. obvius … pavor fits the context ill and is curiously reminiscent of I. 392 ('iam stabulis gregibusque pavor strepitusque sepulcris inciderat'), while II. 400-2 would probably have been considerably altered had the poem undergone its final correction. There are other indications of the unfinished character of the work to be found in this passage (p. 181, note).
514. Cp. also viii. 10, where Medea bids farewell to her home. 'O my father, would thou mightest give me now thy last embrace, as I fly to exile, and mightest behold these my tears. Believe me, father, I love not him I follow more than thee: would that the stormy deep might whelm us both. And mayest thou long hold thy realm, grown old in peace and safety, and mayest thou find thy children that remain more dutiful than me.'
515. Ap. Rh. iii. 1105 sqq.; cp. also Murray on Apollonius in his History of Greek Literature, p. 382.
516. Silv. v. 3. 116 sqq.
517. Ib. 146 sqq.
518. Ib. 163.
519. Ib. 141.
520. Ib. 195-208. This passage suggests that the elder Statius died soon after 79 A.D. On the other hand, he probably lived some years longer as the Thebais, inspired and directed by him, was not begun till 80 A.D. He must, however, have died before 89 A.D., the earliest date assignable to Statius' victory at the Alban contest.
521. Silv. v. 3. 225.
522. Juv. vii. 86. Paris had fallen from imperial favour by 83 A.D. Dio. lxvii. 3. 1.
523. Silv. v. 3. 215.
524. Juv. vii. 82.
525. Silv. v. 3. 227. The subject of his prize recitation was the triumph of Domitian over the Germans and Dacians; i.e. after 89 A.D.
526. Praef. Silv. i. 'pro Thebaide quamvis me reliquerit timeo.' The first book of the Silvae was published in 92 A.D. For the time taken for its composition and the poet's anticipations of immortality see Th. xii. 811 sqq.
527. See previous note.
528. Silv. iii. 5. 28, v. 3. 232. The Agon Capitolinus was instituted in 86 A.D. The contests falling in Statius' lifetime are those of 86, 90, 94 A.D. As his failure is always mentioned after the Alban victory, 94 A.D. would seem the most probable date.
529. Rutilius Gallicus had just died when the first book was published; cp. Praef., bk. i. This took place in 92 A.D.; cp. C.I.L. v. 6988, vi. 1984. 8. Silv. iv. 1 celebrates Domitian's seventeenth consulate (95 A.D.).
530. See previous note.
531. Such at least is a legitimate inference from the fact that it is not mentioned before the fourth and fifth books of the Silvae; cp. iv. 4. 94, iv. 7. 23, v. 2. 163.
532. Written probably in 95 A.D. Statius promises such a work in Silv. iv. 4. 95. Four lines are quoted from it in G. Valla's scholia on Juv. iv. 94:
lumina: Nestorei mitis prudentia Crispi et Fabius Veiento (potentem signat utrumque purpura, ter memores implerunt nomine fastos), et prope Caesareae confinis Acilius aulae.
533. Praef. Silv. iv 'Maximum Vibium et dignitatis et eloquentiae nomine a nobis diligi satis eram testatus epistula quam ad illum de editione Thebaidos meae publicavi.'
534. Witness poems such as the Villa Surrentina Pollii. Silv. ii. 2. 3, 1.
535. Silv. iii. 5. 13.
536. Praef. Silv. iii. and iii. 5. He was married soon after beginning the Thebais, i.e. about 82 A.D. (cp. S. iii. 5. 35). Claudia had a daughter by her first husband, iii. 5. 52-4.
537. v. 5. 72-5.
538. iii. 5. 13, iv. 4. 69, v. 2. 158. It is worth noting how late in life all his best work was done, i.e. 80-95 A.D.
539. The well-known passage of Juvenal, vii. 86 ('cum fregit subsellia versu, esurit, intactam Paridi nisi vendit Agaven'), as has been pointed out, is only Juvenal's exaggerated way of saying that the Thebais brought Statius no material gain. The family was not, however, rolling in wealth; cp. v. 3. 116 sqq.
540. His friendships do not throw much light on his life, though they show that he moved in high circles. Rutilius Gallicus (i. 4) had had a distinguished career and rose to be praefectus urbis; Claudius Etruscus (i. 5), originally a slave from Smyrna, had risen to the imperial post a rationibus; Abascantus (v. 1) held the office known as ab epistulis; Plotius Grypus (iv. 9) came of senatorial family; Crispinus (v. 2) was the son of Vettius Bolanus, Governor of Britain and afterwards of Asia; Vibius Maximus (iv. 7) became praefect of Egypt under Trajan; Polla Argentaria (ii. 7) was the widow of Lucan; Arruntius Stella (i. 2) was a poet, and rose to the consulship. Most of these persons must have been possessed of strong literary tastes. Some are mentioned by Martial, e.g. Stella, Claudius Etruscus, Polla Argentaria. Atedius Melior and Novius Vindex were also friends of the two poets. Both must have moved in the same circles, yet neither ever mentions the other. They were probably jealous of one another and on bad terms.
541. e.g. ii. 2. Cp. also i. 3. 64-89.
542. Dante regards him also as a Christian. This compliment was paid by the Middle Ages to not a few of the great classical authors. It was not even a fatal obstacle to have lived before the birth of Christ. Cicero, for instance, was believed to have been a Christian. The description of the Altar of Mercy at Athens (Th. xii. 493) has been regarded as a special reason for the Christianizing of Statius: cp. Verrall, Oxford and Cambridge Review, No. 1; Arturo Graf, Roma nella memoria del medio evo, vol. ii, ch. 17.
543. This statement does not, however, apply to the Silvae.
544. Ov. Am. i. 15. 14.
545. Merivale, Rom. Emp. viii. 80, 1.
546. Merivale, Rom. Emp. viii. 80, 1.
547. The sources for his story were the old Cyclic poem, the later epic of Antimachus, the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, that draw their plots from the Theban cycle of legend. The material thus given him he worked over in the Vergilian manner, remoulding incidents or introducing fresh episodes in such a fashion as to provide precise parallels to many episodes in the Aeneid. He also drew certain hints from the Phoenissae and Oedipus of Seneca: for details see Legras, Étude sur la Thébaide de Stace, part i, ch. 2, part ii, chh. 1 and 2. The subject had been treated also by one Ponticus, the friend of Propertius (Prop. i. 7. 1, Ov. Tr. iv. 10. 47) and possibly by Lynceus (Prop. ii. 34).
548. Legras, Les Légendes Théb., ch. iii. 4. The [Greek: Amphiaraou exelasis] mentioned by Suidas s.v. [Greek: Hom_eros] is sometimes identified with the Thebais; but it is more probably merely the title of a book of that epic. Still the fact that the [Greek: Amph. exel.] is given such prominence by Suidas does lend some support to the view that he was the chief character of the epic. He is certainly the most tragic figure.
549. Porphyr. ad Hor. A.P. 146.
550. Vergil had given six books to the wanderings of Aeneas; Statius must give six to the preparation and march of the Thebans!
551. See Legras, op. cit., pp. 183 ff.
552. x. 632.
553. xi. 457. Cp. also the strange and stilted description of the cave of sleep, x. 84, where Quies, Oblivio, Ignavia, Otium, Silentium, Voluptas, and even Labor and Amor are to be found. But with the exception of Amor these abstract personages are inventions of Statius. Virtus and Pietas had temples at Rome.
554. iv. 32-308; vii. 250-358.
555. x. 262-448.
556. vi. 1-921. Two other funerals are to be found, in. 114-217, xii. 22-104.
557. Th. i. 557 sqq.; Verg. Aen. viii. 190 sqq.
558. v. 17-498: with this compare the version of the story given by Valerius Maccus, ii. 78-305; except in point of brevity there is little to choose between the two versions. But it is not a digression in Valerius, and it is told at less inordinate length. The versions differ much in detail, and Statius owes little or nothing to Valerius.
559. Op. Legras, Les légendes Thébaines, ch. ii. 4, Welcker, Ep. Cycl. ii. 350. The story was well known. Aeschylus probably treated it in his [Greek: Nemea,] Euripides certainly in his [Greek: ypsipel_e]. The legend gives the origin of the Nemean games.
560. The speeches in the Thebais, though they lack variety, are almost always exceedingly clever and quite repay reading; see esp. i. 642; iii. 59, 151, 348; iv. 318; vi. 138; vii. 497, 539; ix. 375; xi. 155, 677, 708.
561. iii. 348.
562. v. 660.
563. vii. 538.
564. viii. 751. Tydeus bites the severed head of Melanippus to the brain, thereby losing the gift of immortality that Pallas was hastening to bring him. The incident is revolting, but Statius has merely followed the old legend recorded by Aesch. Sept. 587; Soph. Fr. 731; Eurip. Fr. 357.
565. Cp. in this context Atalanta's beautiful lament on his departure for the war, iv. 318.
566. Every book, however, abounds in echoes of Vergil, both in matter and diction; e.g. Aen. vii. 475, Allecto precipitates the war by making Ascanius kill a tame stag. Theb. vii. 562, an Erinnys brings about the war by causing the death of two pet tigers sacred to Bacchus. Aen. xi. 591, Diana orders one of her nymphs to kill the slayer of Camilla. Theb. ix. 665, she tells Apollo that the slayer of Parthenopaeus shall perish by her arrows, for which see Th. ix. 875. Cp. also Th. ii. 205; Aen. iv. 173, 189; Th. ii. 162; Aen. xi. 581. The passage previously referred to concerning the exploits of Dymas and Hopleus is especially noteworthy as openly challenging comparison with Vergil; cp. x. 445. For verbal imitations cp. Aen. v. 726, 7; Th. ii. 115; Aen. i. 106; Th. v. 366; Aen. vii. 397; Th. iv. 379, &c. It is no defence to urge that the ancients held different views on plagiarism, that Vergil and Ovid pilfered from their predecessors. For they made their appropriations their own, and set the stamp of their genius upon what they borrowed. And, further, the process of borrowing cannot continue indefinitely. The cumulative effect of progressive plagiarism is distressing. For Statius' imitation of other Latin poets, notably Lucan, Seneca, and Ovid, see Legras, op. cit., i. 2. Such imitations, though not very rare, are of comparatively small importance.
567. ix. 315 sqq.
568. Statius is imitating early Greek epic. That might excuse him if these similes possessed either truth or beauty.
569. See p.123, note.
570. i. 841-85 gives a good idea of the Achilleis at its best. The passage describes the unmasking of the disguised Achilles.
571. Quint, x. 3. 17.
572. Silv. i. 1. 6; iii. 4; iv. 1. 2, 3.
573. ii. 1. 6; iii. 3.
574. v. 1. 3, 5.
575. iii. 5; iv. 4. 5, 7; v. 2.
576. i. 4.
577. iii. 2.
578. i. 3. 5; ii. 2; iii. 1.
579. i. 2.
580. ii. 7.
581. iv. 6.
582. ii. 4. 5.
583. v. 4.
584. Cp. also the extravagant dedication of the Thebais.
585. It is hard to select from the Silvae. Beside, those poems from which quotations are given, iii. 5, v. 3 and 5 are best worth reading. But the average level is high. The Sapphic and Alcaic poems (iv. 5 and 7) and the hexameter poems in praise of Domitian (i. 1, iii. 4, iv. 1 and 2) are the least worth reading.
586. The poem on the death of his father (v. 3) shows genuine depth of feeling, but its elaborate artificiality is somewhat distressing, considering the theme. (The same is true to a less degree of v. 5.) V. 3 must be, in portions at any rate, the earliest of the Silvae, for (l. 29) the poet states that his father has been dead but three months. But it records (ll. 219-33) events which took place long after that time (i.e. victory at Alba and failure at Agon Capitolinus). The poem must have been rewritten in part, ll. 219-33 at least being later additions. The inconsistency between these lines and line 29 is probably due to the poet having died before revising bk. v for publication.
587. viii. 8; ii. 17; v. 6.
588. With Statius, as with Martial, the hendecasyllable always begins with a spondee. The Alcaics of iv. 5 and Sapphics of iv. 7 call for no special comment. They are closely modelled on Horace. The two poems fail because they are prosy and uninteresting, not through any fault of the metre, but it may be that Statius felt his powers hampered by an unfamiliar metre.
589. If iuvenis be taken to refer to Statius, the poem must be an early work or depict an imaginary situation. The alternative is to take it as a vocative referring to Sleep.
590. C.I.L. vi. 1984. 9, in the 'fasti sodalium Augustalium Claudialium'. In MSS. Pliny and Tacitus, he is Silius Italicus, in Martial simply Silius or Italicus.
591. Plin. Ep. iii. 7. In the description of his life which follows, Pliny is the authority, where not otherwise stated.
592. Pliny writes in 101 A.D. to record Silius' death. Silius was over seventy-five when he died.
593. Italicus might suggest that he came from the Spanish town of Italica. But Martial, who addresses him in several epigrams of almost servile flattery, would surely have claimed him as fellow-countryman had this been the case.
594. Pliny, loc. cit.; Tac. Hist. iii. 65.
595. His poem was already planned in 88; cp. Mart. iv. 14 (published 88 A.D.). Some of it was already written in 92; cp. legis, M. vii. 62 (published 92 A.D.). But the allusion to Domitian, iii. 607, must have been inserted after that date, while xiv. 686 points to the close of Nerva's principate. Statius, Silv. iv. 7. 14 (published 95 A.D.) seems to imitate Silius:
Dalmatae montes ubi Dite viso pallidus fossor redit erutoque concolor auro.
Sil. i. 233 'et redit infelix effosso concolor auro.' The last five books, compressed and markedly inferior to i-xii, may have been left unrevised.
596. In 101 A.D. at the age of seventy-five.
597. Epict. diss. iii. 8. 7.
598. Mart. xi. 48:
Silius haec magni celebrat monumenta Maronis, iugera facundi qui Ciceronis habet. heredem dominumque sui tumulive larisve non alium mallet nec Maro nec Cicero.
That it was the Tusculanum and not the Cumanum of Cicero that Silius possessed is an inference from C.I.L. xix. 2653, found at Tusculum: 'D.M. Crescenti Silius Italicus Collegium salutarem.'
599. Enn. Ann. vii, viii, ix.
600. Sec p. 103.
601. i. 55.
602. iv. 727.
603. viii. 28.
604. x. 349.
605. ix. 484.
606. xvii. 523.
607. iv. 675.
608. xi. 387.
609. ix. 439.
610. ii. 395.
611. xvi. 288.
612. ii. 36.
613. iii. 222 and viii. 356.
614. xiii. 395.
615. e.g. the Funeral Games, the choice of Scipio (xv. 20), the Nekuia.
616. At Nola.
617. Cp. x. 628 'quod … Laomedontiadum non desperaverit urbi'. The tasteless Laomedontiadum as a learned equivalent for Romanorum is characteristic. Silius has the Aeneid in his mind when he chooses this word: his literary proclivities lead him astray; where he should be most strong he is most feeble.
618. Vide infra for his treatment of Paulus' dead body after Cannae.
619. Trebia, iv. 480-703; Trasimene, v. 1-678; Cannae, ix. l78-x. 578.
620. Mart, vii. 90.
621. See p. 123, note.
622. Bk. vi.
623. xii. 212-67, where the death of Cinyps clad in Paulus' armour is described, are pretty enough, but too frankly an imitation of Vergil to be worth quoting. The simile 247-50 is, however, new and quite picturesque.
624. Sights of Naples, xii. 85; Tides at Pillars of Hercules, iii. 46; Legend of Pan, xiii. 313; Sicily, xiv. 1-50; Fabii, vii. 20; Anna Perenna, viii. 50; Bacchus at Falernum, vii. 102; Trasimenus, v. ad init.
625. See note on p. 13.
626. Plin. Ep. i. 13.
627. Mart. vii. 63.
628. On the modern Cerro de Bambola near the Moorish town of El Calatayud.
629. Cp. ix. 52, x. 24, xii. 60.
630. Cp. v. 34.
631. ix. 73. 7.
632. In x. 103. 7, written in 98 A. D., he tells us that it is thirty-four years since he left Spain.
633. iv. 40, xii. 36.
634. He is found rendering poetic homage to Polla, the wife of Lucan, as late as 96 A. D., x. 64, vii. 21-3. For his reverence for the memory of Lucan, cp. i. 61. 7; vii. 21, 22; xiv. 194.
635. Cp. his regrets for the ease of his earlier clienthood and the generosity of the Senecas, xii. 36.
636. ii. 30; cp. 1. 5:
is mihi 'dives eris, si causas egeris' inquit. quod peto da, Gai: non peto consilium.
637. Vide his epigrams passim.
638. xiii. 42, xiii. 119. Perhaps the gift of Seneca, cp. Friedländer on Mart. i. 105.
639. ix. 18, ix. 97. 7, x. 58. 9.
640. Such is the most plausible interpretation of iii. 95. 5, ix. 97. 5:
tribuit quod Caesar uterque ius mihi natorum (uterque, i.e. Titus and Domitian).
641. iii. 95, v. 13, ix. 49, xii. 26.
642. iii. 95. 11, vi. 10. 1.
643. xiii. 4 gives Domitian his title of Germanicus, assumed after war with Chatti in 84; xiv. 34 alludes to peace; no allusion to subsequent wars.
644. I, II. Perhaps published together. This would account for length of preface. II. Largely composed of poems referring to reigns of Vespasian and Titus. Reference to Domitian's censorship shows that I was not published before 85. There is no hint of outbreak of Dacian War, which raged in 86.
III. Since bk. IV contains allusion to outbreak of revolt of Antonius Saturninus towards end of 88 (11) and is published at Rome, whereas III was published at Cornelii forum (1), III probably appeared in 87 or 88.
IV. Contains reference to birthday of Domitian, Oct. 24 (1. 7), and seems then to allude to ludi saeculares (Sept. 88). Reference to snowfall at Rome (2 and 13) suggests winter. Perhaps therefore published in Saturnalia of 88.
V. Domitian has returned to Italy (1) from Dacian War, but there is no reference to his triumph (Oct. 1, 89 A. D.). Book therefore probably published in early autumn of 89.
VI. Domitian has held his triumph (4. 2 and 10. 7). Julia (13) is dead (end of 89). Book probably published in 90, perhaps in summer. Friedländer sees allusion to Agon Capitolinus (Summer, 90) in vi. 77.
VII. 5-8 refer to Domitian's return from Sarmatic War. He has not yet arrived. These epigrams are among last in book. He returned in January 93. His return was announced as imminent in Dec. 92.
VIII. 21 describes Domitian's arrival; 26, 30, and others deal with festivities in this connexion. 65 speaks of temple of Fortuna Redux and triumphal arch built in Domitian's honour. They are mentioned as if completed. 66 speaks of consulate of Silius Italicus' son beginning Sept. 1, 93.
IX. 84 is addressed to Appius Norbanus Maximus, who has been six years absent from Rome. He went to Upper Germany to crush Antonius Saturninus in 88. 35 refers to Agon Capitolinus in summer of 94.
X. Two editions published. We possess later and larger. Cp. x. 2. 70. 1 suggests a year's interval between IX and X. X, ed. 1 was therefore perhaps published in Dec. 95. X, ed. 2 has references to accession of Trajan, Jan. 25, 98 A. D. (6, 7 and 34). Martial's departure for Spain is imminent.
XI. 1 is addressed to Parthenius, executed in middle of 97 A. D. xii. 5 refers to a selection made from X and XI, perhaps from presentation to Nerva; cp. xii. 11.
XII. In preface Martial apologizes for three years' silence (1. 9) from publication of X. ed. 2. xii. 3. 10 refers to Stella's consulship, Oct. 101 or 102. Three years' interval points to 101. It was published late in the year; cp. 1 and 62. Some epigrams in this book were written at Rome. But M. says that it was written paucissimis diebus. This must refer only to Spanish epigrams, or the book must have been enlarged after M.'s death.
For the whole question see Friedländer Introd., pp. 50 sqq.
645. iii. 1 and 4.
646. Cp. xi. 3.
647. xii. 21, xii. 31. There is no reason to suppose with some critics that she was his wife.
648. xii. praef. 'civitatis aures quibus adsueveram quaero.'
649. Ib. 'accedit his municipalium robigo dentium.'
650. See p. 271. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this silence was due to dislike or jealousy.
651. Mackail, Greek Anthol., Introd., p. 5.
652. Domitius Marsus was famous for his epigrams, as also Calvus, Gaetulicus, Pedo, and others.
653. See p. 36.
654. See p. 134.
655. The best of his erotic poems is the pretty vi. 34, but it is far from original; cp. the last couplet:
nolo quot (sc. basia) arguto dedit exorata Catullo
Lesbia; pauca cupit qui numerare potest.
656. Cp. Cat. 5 and 7; Mart. vi. 34; Cat. 2 and 3; Mart. i. 7 and 109 (it is noteworthy that this last poem has itself been exquisitely imitated by du Bellay in his poem on his little dog Peloton).
657. Cp. Ov. Tr. ii. 166; Mart. vi. 3. 4; Ov. F. iii. 192; Mart, vi. 16. 2; Ov. A. i. 1. 20; Mart. vi. 16. 4; Ov. Tr. i. 5. 1, iv. 13. 1; Mart, i. 15. 1. His imitations of other poets are not nearly so marked. There are a good many trifling echoes of Vergil, but little wholesale borrowing. A very large proportion of the parallel passages cited by Friedländer are unjust to Martial. No poet could be original judged by such a test.
658. There is little of any importance to be said about Martial's metre. The metres most often employed are elegiac, hendecasyllabic, and the scazon. In the elegiac he is, on the whole, Ovidian, though he is naturally freer, especially in the matter of endings both of hexameter and pentameter. He makes his points as well, but is less sustainedly pointed. His verse, moreover, has greater variety and less formal symmetry than that of Ovid. On the other hand his effects are less sparkling, owing to his more sparing use of rhetoric. In the hendecasyllabic he is smoother and more polished. It invariably opens with a spondee.
659. Cp. vii. 72. 12, x. 3.
660. Cp. vii. 12. 9, iii. 99. 3.
661. Catull. xvi. 5; Ov. Tr. ii. 354; Apul. Apol. 11; Auson. 28, cento nup.; Plin. Ep. vii. 8.
662. We might also quote the beautiful
extra fortunam est quidquid donatur amicis: quas dederis solas semper habebis opes (v. 42).
What thou hast given to friends, and that alone,
Defies misfortune, and is still thine own.
PROFESSOR GOLDWIN SMITH.
But the needy poet may have had some arrière-pensée. We do not know to whom the poem is addressed.
663. Cp. the description of the villa of Faustinus, iii. 58.
664. Their only rival is the famous Sirmio poem of Catullus.
665. Even Tennyson's remarkable poem addressed to F. D. Maurice fails to reach greater perfection.
666. e.g. Arruntius Stella and Atedius Melior. Cp. p. 205.
667. Cp. the poems on the subject of Earinus, Mart. ix. 11, 12, 13, and esp. 16; Stat. Silv. iii. 4.
668. Mart. vi. 28 and 29.
669. The remaining lines of the poem are tasteless and unworthy of the portion quoted, and raise a doubt as to the poet's sincerity in the particular case. But this does not affect his general sympathy for childhood.
670. 101 provides an instance of Martial's sympathy for his own slaves. Cp. 1. 5:—
ne tamen ad Stygias famulus descenderet umbras,
ureret implicitum cum scelerata lues,
cavimus et domini ius omne remisimus aegro;
munere dignus erat convaluisse meo.
sensit deficiens mea praemia meque patronum
dixit ad infernas liber iturus aquas.
671. i. 13.
672. i. 42.
673. i. 21. He is perhaps at his best on the death of Otho (vi. 32):
cum dubitaret adhuc belli civilis Enyo
forsitan et posset vincere mollis Otho,
damnavit multo staturum sanguine Martem
et fodit certa pectora tota manu.
sit Cato, dum vivit, sane vel Caesare maior:
dum moritur, numquid maior Othone fuit?
When doubtful was the chance of civil war,
And victory for Otho might declare;
That no more Roman blood for him might flow,
He gave his breast the great decisive blow.
Caesar's superior you may Cato call:
Was he so great as Otho in his fall?
HAY.
674. It is to be noted that even in the most worthless of his epigrams he never loses his sense of style. If childish epigrams are to be given to the world, they cannot be better written.
675. Cp. Juv. 5; Mart. iii. 60, vi. 11, x. 49; Plin. Ep. ii. 6.
676. v. 18. 6.
677. This is doubly offensive if addressed to the poor Cinna of viii. 19. Cp. the similar vii. 53, or the yet more offensive viii. 33 and v. 36.
678. More excusable are poems such as x. 57, where he attacks one Gaius, an old friend (cp. ii. 30), for failing to fulfil his promise, or the exceedingly pointed poem (iv. 40) where he reproaches Postumus, an old friend, for forgetting him. Cp. also v. 52.
679. See p. 252.
680. Cp. the elaborate and long-winded poem of Statius on a statuette of Hercules (Silv. iv. 6) with Martial on the same subject, ix. 43 and 44.
681. Cp. viii. 3 and 56.
682. Bridge and Lake, Introd., Select Epigrams of Martial.
683. The ancient biographies of the poet all descend from the same source: their variations spring largely from questionable or absurd interpretations of passages in the satires themselves. The best of them, if not their actual source, is the life found at the end of the codex Pithoeanus, the best of the MSS. of Juvenal. It was in all probability written by the author of the scholia Pithoeana—to whom Valla, on the authority of a MS. now lost, gave the name of Probus—and dates from the fourth or fifth century.
684. L. 41. Cp. Plin. Ep. ii. 11.
685. xiii. 17 'sexaginta annos Fonteio consule natus'. xv. 27 'nuper consule Iunco'.
686. Vita 1 (O. Jahn ed.): 1 a (Dürr, Das Leben Juvenals). A life contained in Cod. Barberin. viii. 18 (fifteenth century), says Iunius Iuvenalis Aquinas Iunio Iuvenale patre, matre vero Septumuleia ex Aquinati municipio, Claudio Nerone et L. Antistio consulibus (55 A. D.) natus est; sororem habuit Septumuleiam, quae Fuscino nupsit. This may be mere invention on the part of a humanist of the fifteenth century. The life contains many improbabilities and the MS. is of suspiciously late date. But see Dürr, p. 28.
687. Vitae 2 and 3 'oriundus temporis Neronis Claudii imperatoris'. Vit. 4 'decessit sub Antonino Pio'.
688. So Cod. Paris. 9345; Vossian. 18 and 64; Bodl. (Canon Lat. 41); Schol. Pith, ad vit. 1.
689. So all ancient biographies except 1. In Sat. iii, Umbricius, addressing Juvenal, speaks of tuum Aquinum: cp. also the inscription found near Aquinum and quoted later.
690. This is only conjecture, but the son of a rich citizen of Aquinum would naturally be sent to Rome for his education. For his rhetorical education cp. i. 15-17.
691. Vita 1.
692. Cp. especially the whole of xvi; also i. 58, ii. 165, iii. 132, vii. 92, xiv. 193-7.
693. C.I.L. x. 5382.
694. C.I.L. vii, p. 85; Hübner, Rhein. Mus. xi (1857), p. 30; Hermes, xvi (1881), p. 566.
695. Satt. 3, 11, 12, 13. Trebius in 5 is perhaps an imaginary character.
696. vi. 75, 280, vii. 186.
697. vii, 82.
698. Mart. vii. 24, 91, xii. 18.
699. vi. 57.
700. xi. 65.
701. xi. 190, xii. 87.
702. Vita 1.
703. There are, however, allusions to Domitian as dead in ii. 29-33, iv. 153.
704. Ap. Sid. ix. 269.
705. Joh. Mal. Chron. x, p. 341, Chilm.
706. Vita 7. Schol. ad vii. 92.
707. Vita 6.
708. Vitae 1, 2, 4, 7. Perhaps an inference from Sat. xv. 45.
709. See 708.
710. Vitae 5 and 6. If the inscription (see p. 288) refers to the poet, this view has further support.
711. Joh. Mal., loc. cit.
712. Trajan had, however, a favourite in the pantomimus Pylades. Dio. Cass. Ixviii. 10.
713. The simplest suggestion is that Juvenal was at some time banished, that the reason for his banishment was forgotten and supplied by conjecture. Cp. Friedländer's ed., p. 44. There is no real evidence to prove that Juvenal was ever in Egypt or Britain. His topography in Sat. xv is faulty, and allusion to the oysters of Richborough (ostrea Rutupina, iv. 141) would be possible even in a poet who had never visited Britain.
714. i. 1-3, 17, 18 (Dryden's translation).
715. i. 79.
716. Ib. 85.
717. Ib. 147-50.
718. i. 165-71.
719. x. 356-66 (Dryden's translation).
720. There is nothing in this satire to suggest that Juvenal had or had not visited Egypt. The legend of his banishment to Egypt may be true, but it is quite as likely that this satire caused the scholiast to localize his traditional exile in Egypt. The theme of cannibalism was sometimes dealt with by the rhetoricians. Cp. Quintilian, Decl. 12.
721. e.g. Claudius Etruscus, who held the imperial secretaryship of finance under Nero and Vespasian, and Abascantus, the secretary ab epistulis to Domitian. Stat. Silv. iii. 3, v. 1.
722. For a fine picture of the exclusive Roman spirit, cp. Le procurateur de Judée, by Anatole France in L'Étui de nacre.
723. iii. 60-125.
724. xiv. 96 sqq.
725. i. 130 sqq, and the whole of xv. Above all, he hates the Egyptian Crispinus, cp. iv. 2.
726. i. 102 sqq.
727. For the tradition of coarseness see chapter on Martial, p. 263.
728. It has been pointed out that the epigrams of Martial addressed to Juvenal are disfigured by gross obscenities. It is, however, a little unfair to make Juvenal responsible for his friend's observations.
729. The sixth satire abounds throughout its great length with sketches of the most appalling clearness and power, though they tend to crudeness of colour and are few of them suitable for quotation.
730. xiii. 120 sqq.
731. x. 346 sqq.
732. xiii. 180.
733. ix. 32, xii. 63.
734. vii. 194 sqq., ix. 33.
735. xiii. 192-249.
736. xii. 3-6, 89 sqq.
737. Such obscurity as he presents is due almost entirely to the fact that we have lost the key to his topical allusions. He has a strong affection for ingenious periphrases (e.g. v. 139, vi. 159, x. 112, xii. 70), but they are as a rule effective and amusing.