CHAPTER XIV
THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS—THE SILVER AGE
Vespasian, 69-79 A. D.—Titus, 79-81 A. D.—Domitian, 81-96 A. D.—Valerius Flaccus, died about 90 A. D.—Silius Italicus, 25-101 A. D.—Statius, about 40 to about 95 A. D.—The father of Statius, about 15-80 A. D.—Saleius Bassus, about 70 A. D.—Curiatius Maternus, about 70 A. D.—Martial, about 40 to about 104 A. D.—Pliny the elder, 23-79 A. D.—Frontinus, prætor 70 A. D.—Quintilian, about 35 to about 100 A. D.
The death of Nero was followed by a year of disorder, in which Galba, Otho, and Vitellius were successively raised to the highest power, overthrown, and killed. The Flavian emperors. But the terror which had brooded over Rome in the latter years of Nero’s rule passed away with the coming of the Flavian emperors. Vespasian (69-79 A. D.) and Titus (79-81 A. D.) were firm but gentle rulers. Both were chiefly known as brave soldiers and able generals, but neither was uncultured or without literary interests. Vespasian wrote memoirs and Titus composed in 76 A. D. a poem on a comet. Their interest in literature and intellectual pursuits was, however, exhibited less by their own productions than in other ways. Vespasian was liberal to poets and artists; he paid attention to dramatic performances; he caused the three thousand bronze tablets destroyed in the burning of the capitol to be replaced by copies; and provided for the payment of rhetors, or instructors in oratory, by the state, being thus the first to establish a system of public education. The banishment of philosophers and astrologers during his reign was due to the reactionary politics of the philosophers, not to any opposition to philosophy on his part. Domitian (81-96 A. D.) was a very different character. Before his accession to the imperial power he exhibited a taste for poetry which led the writers of the day to flatter him as if he were one of the greatest of poets; but when he became emperor he relinquished all literary pursuits. No works by him are mentioned except a poem on the battle that took place at the capitol in 69 A. D. and a treatise on the care of the hair, a subject in which he was interested on account of his baldness. Nevertheless he restored the libraries which had been burned, and instituted public games in which dramatists, poets, and orators took part. But his jealousy and cruelty were greater than his literary interests. Twice, in 89 and 93 A. D., the philosophers and astrologers were banished from Rome, and though these acts may be excused on the ground of political expediency, no such excuse can be found for the cruelty which led him to persecute authors and put them to death on the flimsiest pretexts. The last years of his reign were a period of terror for men of letters even more than for his other subjects.
Under Vespasian, the mad terror of the reign of Nero was succeeded by a period of calm. In literature also greater dignity and better taste succeeds to the exaggerated rhetoric of the preceding years. The writers of the Flavian period—the so-called Silver Age of Roman literature—revert to the manner of the great Augustan writers. Tacitus alone develops a style of marked originality, and Tacitus is the only really great writer of this period. The others, foremost among whom are Quintilian, Statius, and the elder Pliny, show learning and judgment, but not genius.
The earliest poet of the Flavian epoch is Gaius Valerius Flaccus, whose only known work is an epic poem entitled Argonautica, on the adventures of Jason and his comrades in quest of the golden fleece. A reference to the capture of Jerusalem by Titus shows that the earlier part of the poem was written not long after 70 A. D., and the mention of the eruption of Vesuvius proves that Valerius Flaccus. it was not completed until after 79 A. D. The poet died shortly before 90 A. D. Further than this nothing is known of his life. The story of the Argonautic expedition was told in the Argonautica of the Greek poet Apollonius Rhodius in the third century B. C., and Valerius Flaccus imitates Apollonius in his general treatment of the subject, sometimes even translating his words; but he amplifies some scenes which Apollonius had treated briefly and adds some new elements to the tale, while on the other hand he omits much of the superfluous learning displayed by Apollonius and narrates briefly parts of the story which the Greek poet had told at greater length. In general, when Valerius changes the treatment of Apollonius the change is for the better. For instance, in the Latin poem, when Jason reaches Colchis, he finds Æetes hard pressed by a hostile army, and receives from him the promise of the golden fleece in return for his assistance in the war. When the enemy is defeated Æetes breaks his promise, and Jason is thus justified in accepting the aid of Medea and her magic arts. Nothing of all this is to be found in Apollonius, and the Roman poet has made a decided addition to the plot of the story. Valerius pays more attention to character painting than Apollonius, and is especially successful in making the characters of Æetes and Jason stand out in strong relief. His description of the mental struggles of Medea, torn between her love for Jason and her duty to her father and her country, is far more effective than that of Apollonius or even than Virgil’s description of Dido’s love for Æneas, which is founded upon Apollonius. In diction Valerius imitates Virgin, though his style is far less simple and clear than Virgil’s, and in the treatment of many episodes of the poem he copies Virgil’s treatment of similar themes; the work shows also the influence of Ovid and of Seneca’s tragedies. In its present condition the Argonautica breaks off in the eighth book, leaving the tale incomplete; but whether the remainder of the poem is lost or was never written can not be determined.
Silius Italicus, whose whole name was Tiberius Cattius Silius Italicus, chose for the subject of his epic a Roman theme, the second Punic War. Silius Italicus. He was born in 25 A. D. and starved himself to death on account of an incurable disease in 101 A. D. He is said to have been an informer (delator) under Nero, but rose to the consulship in 68 A. D., and was afterwards governor of Asia under Vespasian. The latter part of his life was spent in honorable retirement in Campania. Here he devoted himself to literature and wrote the seventeen books of the Punica, in which he tells the story of the second Punic War to the decisive battle of Zama, in 202 B. C. His historical information is derived from Livy, and is therefore correct in all essential matters. The events of the war are described in chronological order. The style is an imitation of Homer and Virgil, and the imitation extends to more than mere style, for the traditional epic machinery of gods, prophecies, heroes, and the like, is employed as freely as if the second Punic War were as mythical as the adventures of Æneas. So Juno strives to give Hannibal the victory, while Venus aids the Romans. The sea-god Proteus foretells the course of the war to a Carthaginian fleet, and Hannibal, with his crested helmet, his sword, and his spear “fatal to thousands,” rages about the walls of Saguntum like Achilles at the siege of Troy. In short, Silius, having no poetic inspiration or imagination of his own, uses in his account of the Punic War the methods which had been appropriately applied to the myths of earlier days by Homer and Virgil. As a result, the Punica, though written in good hexameters, is hopelessly dull and uninteresting. The so-called Homerus Latinus, or Ilias Latina, an epitome of the Iliad in one thousand and seventy hexameters, is attributed to the earlier years of Silius Italicus. It attained considerable popularity, but is a work of little merit.
The most eminent poet of this period was Publius Papinius Statius. Statius. He was born at Naples, probably about 40 A. D., but spent most of his life at Rome, though he returned to Naples, probably in 94 A. D. The last date to which reference is made in his poems is 95 A. D. His father was of a distinguished but not wealthy family, and attained some distinction as a poet and teacher, first at Naples, and later at Rome, where Domitian was among his pupils. He had intended to write a poem on the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A. D., but was prevented by death, which must therefore have come upon him about 80 A. D. From him Statius received his early education and his first impulse toward poetry. Statius won prizes for poetry at the Augustalia at Naples, and at Alba, but failed to win a prize at the Capitolia in Rome. This was probably in 94 A. D., and his retirement to Naples may have been due to his disappointment. He was married to a widow named Claudia, who had a daughter by her former husband; but Statius had no children of his own. Domitian regarded him with favor, gave him a supply of running water for his country house at Alba, and invited him to his table. These few details of his life are derived from his poems, chiefly from a poem in honor of his father’s memory, which is published as the third in the fifth book of the Silvæ.
The chief work of Statius is the Thebais, an epic poem in twelve books, the subject of which is the strife between the two sons of Œdipus, Eteocles and Polynices, and the legendary history of Thebes to the death of Creon. This work occupied the poet for twelve years, probably about 80-92 A. D. Works of Statius. His other extant works are the Silvæ, a collection of shorter poems on various subjects, divided into five books, and the Achilleis. None of the poems contained in the Silvæ appears to have been written before 91 or 92 A. D., and the fifth book, which has no preface and which contains some incomplete poems, was probably published after the poet’s death. The Achilleis was to be an account of the life of Achilles, embracing the story of the Trojan War, but it breaks off in the second book, before Achilles reaches Troy. The only lost works of Statius to which any reference exists are a pantomime entitled Agave, and an epic on Domitian’s German war; but the latter work was probably never completed.
Statius was an ardent admirer of Virgil, and the Thebais is an elaborate imitation of the Æneid. The Thebais. Not only Virgil’s language is imitated, but the division of the poem into twelve books, the general chronological sequence of events, the arrangement by which the scenes of combat begin with the seventh book, and the treatment of many individual scenes are adopted from the Æneid. The subject of the Thebais had been treated by many previous poets, and Statius could find the story in various mythological handbooks. It is therefore not certain, though not improbable, that he followed the version given by Antimachus in his Thebais, written in the fifth century B. C. Statius is not a great epic poet. He lacks the sense of proportion and has little dramatic power, in spite of the fact that he evidently aims at dramatic effect. He excels in descriptions and similes, but devotes far too much space to each; his similes especially become wearisome. The entire poem lacks the charm of true poetic inspiration. It is learned and correct, but artificial, imitative, and tedious. One of the briefest of the powerful descriptions in the Thebais, and one which shows Statius’s liking for what is horrible and painful, is that of Œdipus, when he hears of the death of his sons and comes forth to lament over their bodies:
But when their father heard the tale of crime,
He rushed from the deep shadows where he dwelt,
And on the cruel threshold brought to view
His half-dead form; his hoary locks unkempt
Were vile with ancient filth, and stiff with gore
The hair that veiled his Fury-driven head;
His mouth and cheeks were sunken deep, and clots
Of blood were remnants of his torn-out eyes.[96]
The Achilleis has much the same good and bad qualities as the Thebais, and is less wearisome only because it is less long. The Achilleis and the Silvæ. In the Silvæ Statius shows to better advantage. These occasional poems were evidently written for the most part in haste. In fact Statius says in his preface to the first book that none of the poems contained in it occupied him more than two days, and one of these poems contains 277 lines. The poems were written chiefly to please some noble or wealthy patron, and the subjects are in many cases trivial, such as a parrot, a fine bath-house, or a beautiful tree belonging to the person addressed. Such works call for little poetic fervor, but merely for skill in writing verses, and that Statius possessed in remarkable measure. Nearly all the poems are in hexameters, only six, among them one in celebration of Lucan’s birthday, being in other metres. There is more or less padding in the poems; invocations of the Muses or of gods take up considerable space, and mythological allusions are needlessly multiplied; but these things are excusable in a poet who writes to order to please a patron. Of all the poems of Statius the most pleasing is one of only nineteen lines addressed to Sleep, the “youth, most gentle of the gods.” The wakeful poet begs Sleep to come, but does not ask him to spread all his wings over his eyes, but merely to touch him with his wand, or pass lightly over him. The Thebais and the Achilleis attained immediate popularity, and continued to be much read and admired in the Middle Ages; but modern times have reversed the former judgment, and such admiration as is still accorded to Statius is given him on account of the Silvæ.
The epics of Saleius Bassus and of Statius’s father, both of whom wrote under Vespasian, have disappeared, as have the tragedies and orations of Curiatius Maternus, who lived at the same time. Other poets. The lyric poet, Arruntius Stella, and the poetess, Sulpicia, wrote under Domitian, but their works also are lost, for the extant short poem attributed to Sulpicia is a product of a later time. The only Flavian poet, besides Valerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus, and Statius, whose works remain, is Martial.
Marcus Valerius Martialis was born at Bilbilis, in the northeastern part of Spain, on the first of March, about 40 A. D. Martial. His parents, Fronto and Flacilla, gave him the usual grammatical and rhetorical education at Bilbilis, or some neighboring town, and in 64 A. D. he went to Rome, where he became a client or hanger-on of the family of Seneca, and some other important families. He may have practised law for a time, but lived chiefly from the bounty of his patrons. The ius trium liberorum granted him by Titus, was ratified by Domitian. He received the title of tribune, which carried with it equestrian rank. He owned a small country estate near Nomemtum, perhaps a gift from Argentaria Polla, Lucan’s widow; and at one time he had a house of his own at Rome and kept some slaves. Still he can never have been rich, for he complains constantly of poverty. In 98 A. D. he returned to Spain, and died in his native place not later than 104 A. D., for the younger Pliny, in a letter written about that date, speaks of his recent death.
Martial’s poems comprise fourteen books of epigrams, the last two books of which, consisting of lines intended to accompany xenia and apophoreta, gifts which it was customary to present to friends at the Saturnalia, were not published as books by their author. One book of Spectacula celebrates the theatrical performances and other shows in which the Romans delighted; the remaining books are Epigrammata, each book revised and published with an introduction by the author. The longest poem contains fifty-one lines, the shortest consists of one hexameter. Most of the poems are in elegiac verse, but many are in hendecasyllables, and a few other metres occur. Martial is the master of epigram. His verses are sententious and to the point, often bitter, not infrequently indecent, but never stilted, dull, or unnatural. In an age of many imitative poets, Martial was original. This does not mean that no traces of imitation are to be found in his poems, for his obligations to Catullus are evident and frankly acknowledged, while the influence of Virgil, Ovid, and Juvenal is plainly to be seen; but his pointed wit, his candor, and his sententious brevity are his own. He has no lofty poetic inspiration, and exhibits no greater height of character than what is needed to let him see and acknowledge his own limitations. In spite of the bitterness of many of his verses, he seems to have been a man of genial nature. He was a friend of Silius Italicus, Quintilian, the younger Pliny, and Juvenal, but does not mention Statius by name, though his sneers at epic poets are probably directed against him. The younger Pliny says of him: “He was a talented, acute, and spirited man, whose writings are full of wit and gall, and not less candor.”[97]
Martial is not to be ranked among great poets, but his ability to express well-defined thoughts in brief, sententious, pointed words, has made his epigrams the models for all later times. The following lines commemorate the death of Arria, who, when her husband Pætus was ordered to kill himself, showed him the way:
The poniard, with her life-blood dyed,
When Arria to her Pætus gave,
“’Twere painless, my beloved,” she cried,
“If but my death thy life could save.”[98]
Another brief epigram is on some fishes, supposed to be the work of the great sculptor Phidias:
These fishes Phidias wrought; with life by him
They are endowed; add water and they swim.[99]
These lines also refer to a work of art:
That lizard on the goblet makes thee start.
Fear not; it lives only by Mentor’s art.[100]
The daily life of Rome is described in the following lines:
Visits consume the first, the second hour;
When comes the third, hoarse pleaders show their power;
At four to business Rome herself betakes;
At six she goes to sleep, by seven she wakes;
By nine well breathed from exercise we rest,
And in the banquet hall the couch is pressed.
Now, when thy skill, greatest of cooks, has spread
The ambrosial feast, let Martial’s rhymes be read,
With mighty hand while Cæsar holds the bowl,
When drafts of nectar have relaxed his soul.
Now trifles pass. My giddy Muse would fear
Jove to approach in morning mood severe.[101]
Among the many learned writers of this period the most important is the elder Pliny. Pliny the elder. Gaius Plinius Secundus was born at Novum Comum, in northern Italy, in 23 A. D. At an early age he went to Rome, where he came under the influence of Pomponius Secundus, whose example may have led him to combine public service with diligent study and authorship. Pliny’s life was passed in the service of the state. He was an officer in the cavalry, serving in Germany and perhaps also in Syria; he was a trusted counsellor and agent of Vespasian, and held at different times the important post of procurator or governor in several provinces. His nephew mentions especially his procuratorship in Spain. These various and important official duties did not, however, withdraw Pliny’s mind from his studies. When he was carried in the litter through the streets in the evening, after his official duties were performed, while he was bathing, and at his meals, he read or was read to constantly. He believed that no book was so poor as not to contain something worth recording, and therefore he took notes of all he read. At his death he left one hundred and sixty rolls of manuscript notes, closely written on both sides. With all this reading Pliny was not a mere bookworm, but a practical man of affairs and an interested observer of men and things about him. His zeal for knowledge cost him his life; for when the great eruption of Vesuvius took place, in 79 A. D., Pliny, who was in command of the fleet at Misenum, went in a war galley to the neighborhood of the volcano to investigate the strange phenomenon and to aid those in peril, landed, and finally succumbed to the ashes and noxious gases. The description of this event is the most interesting of the letters of his nephew, the younger Pliny.
The result of Pliny’s diligence is seen in his great encyclopædic work, the Natural History, in thirty-seven books. In this he undertakes to describe the whole realm of nature in a systematic way. The first book consists of a table of contents with a list of the authors consulted. The Natural History. Then follow in order the general mathematical and physical description of the universe, geography and ethnology, anthropology, zoology, botany, and mineralogy. Under mineralogy the uses of metals and stones are described, and this leads to a valuable history of painting and sculpture. The Natural History is written for the most part in a simple, straightforward style, though with occasional lapses from good taste, but it is not a great work of literature. Its importance lies in the information it contains. In the first book, Pliny mentions nearly five hundred authors from whom his information is derived, but as he also speaks of one hundred chosen ones whose works he consulted, it is evident that his authorities fall into two classes. Apparently he really consulted about one hundred, but recorded in the first book the names of other writers to whom his real authorities referred. Pliny is almost the only ancient writer who tries to give much information about the sources of his knowledge, but it is often difficult, if not impossible, even in his case to be sure from what source a particular statement is derived. In general, it is clear that Pliny was a careful worker, and his statements can, as a rule, be accepted as true. The great work was ready for publication in 77 A. D. and was sent to Titus with an interesting preface. But even after this, Pliny continued to add the results of further reading or observation. His death came upon him in the midst of his work. Pliny’s other works. Pliny was also the author of several other works, the most important of which were the History of the German Wars, in twenty books, and a history From the End of the History of Aufidius Bassus, in thirty-one books. Just what period this work embraced is not certain, but the suggestion that each book treated of one year and that the whole was a history of the years 41-71 A. D. is not improbable. These works, as well as Pliny’s lesser writings, are lost, but they served at least to supply material to Tacitus, who cites the German Wars, and to other historians.
Of the technical writings of this period only two now exist: the Stratagems (Strategemata) and the treatise on the Roman aqueducts (De Aquis Urbis Romæ Libri II), by Sextius Julius Frontinus, a man of some distinction, who was prætor in 70 A. D., consul several times, and was appointed Curator Aquarum, or overseer of the water supply of Rome, in 97 A. D. Frontinus. Various writers. His writings belong rather to the history of technical studies than to that of literature. The names of several authors of memoirs of travels, legal treatises, speeches, histories, and technical writings of various kinds are known to us, but their works are lost or only partially preserved as unsatisfactory fragments. The schools of grammar and rhetoric continued to exist, and many teachers of these subjects enjoyed considerable reputation. The greatest among them, and the only one whose work has survived to modern times, is Quintilian, the last, and in some respects the greatest, of the Spanish writers of Rome.
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was born at Calagurris, in Spain, about 35 A. D. He was educated at Rome under the most distinguished teachers of the time, and when his education was completed returned to his native place. Quintilian. But in 68 A. D., Galba, who had been governor in Spain before he became emperor, called Quintilian to Rome. Here he became a teacher of rhetoric, and received a salary from the imperial treasury. At the same time he was a prominent barrister, but published only one speech, though others were published without his authority from shorthand reports. He was a man of great influence, and was even raised to the consulship by Domitian, who had appointed him tutor of his grandnephews. After teaching for twenty years he gave up his school and devoted himself to the composition of his great work, the Institutio Oratoria. This was published about 93 A. D. An earlier work, On the Reasons for the Decay of Oratory (De Causis Corruptæ Eloquentiæ), is lost. Quintilian’s private life was not free from trouble. He married at an advanced age, but his wife died when only eighteen years old, his younger son soon after at the age of five, and his elder son after a brief interval at the age of nine. When Quintilian died is not known, but he can hardly have lived long after 100 A. D.
The title Institutio Oratoria, given by Quintilian to his work, designates it as a text-book of oratory. Institutio Oratoria. But it is no mere technical treatise on the art of speaking. Quintilian was an enthusiastic lover of his profession, and believed that oratory was the highest expression of human thought and human life. Like Cato, he demanded that the orator be not merely a good speaker, but also, and first of all, a good man. He must also have a general literary education before proceeding to the technical study of oratory.
Owing to this large conception of the qualities of the orator, Quintilian’s great work became a general and very important treatise on education. Its arrangement is as follows: the first book treats of the elements of education and contains many interesting observations upon family life; the fundamental principles of rhetoric are treated in the second book, which carries on the discussion of the purposes and methods of education; the next five books (III-VII) deal exhaustively with the matter of oratory under the main heads of invention and disposition or arrangement, and are for the most part strictly technical; four books (VIII-XI) treat of expression and all that is included in the word style with a discussion of memorizing and delivery; and the last book (XII), now that the theory of oratory is expounded, reverts to the orator himself, and discusses the moral qualities and the continuous self-discipline which alone can make the orator great.
The technical part of the Institutio Oratoria, is now, since the study of formal rhetoric is no longer an important part of a liberal education, of little interest except to those who make a special study of Roman style and educational theories. Yet even in these books are many wise utterances of permanent value, such as “the price of a laugh is too high when it is purchased at the expense of virtue”;[102] or, “a joke at the expense of the wretched is inhuman”;[103] or, “it is the spirit and the force of mind that make men eloquent.”[104] Such remarks, admirably expressed and inserted in fitting places, make the more technical books of Quintilian’s work even now well worth reading. But the chief interest for the modern reader lies in those parts of the work which have less to do with the special training of the orator, and are more general in their scope—the discussion of elementary education in the first book, the treatise on the larger and broader education of mature life in the last book, and the brief critical survey of Greek and Latin literature in the first chapter of the tenth book.
The theory of education as presented by Quintilian is the result of serious thought. The theory of education. It shows a breadth of view, a reasonableness, and at the same time a loftiness of conception that give its author at once an important position among educational writers. The ethical or moral element in education is especially emphasized. Quintilian, like many others in his day, felt that the standard of morals, of literature, and of oratory was lower than in the days of the republic. But instead of mourning over the decay of
Roman virtue and taste, Quintilian, seeing that the only cure lay in right education, undertook to show the way to a restoration of the ancient excellence. Tacitus, in his essay on oratory, mentions carelessness of parents and bad education as the chief reason for the decay of eloquence; the same ground had apparently been taken by Quintilian himself in his lost essay on the Decay of Oratory, and in the Institutio Oratoria the attempt is made to show how deterioration may be stopped and the old virtue restored. That others besides Quintilian were seriously interested in reform there is no doubt, and if their efforts met with little success, it is probably in part because they tried to restore the excellence of a time that was past and were unable to regulate the active forces of the present.
As a literary critic Quintilian exhibits the same sanity that characterizes his educational theory. Literary criticism. Since a knowledge of the best literature is necessary for the orator, Quintilian passes in review the chief Greek and Latin writers, and it is interesting to observe that he regards the latter as the equals of the Greeks. He has decided preferences, and gives to Cicero, whom he regards as the equal of Demosthenes, the foremost place among the Romans. Yet he recognizes the merits even of those authors, such as Seneca, whose style he least admires. In brief and admirably expressive words he characterizes the style of the chief writers of Greece and Rome, and his judgment has, in almost every case, remained the judgment of later ages. It is interesting also to note that the works of nearly all those writers whom he mentions as the best have been preserved to our own time, which is an additional proof that the extant works have been preserved for the most part not by mere chance but on account of their intrinsic merit. Quintilian’s admiration for Cicero is evident in his own style. Statius had reverted to the style of Virgil, and Quintilian goes back to Cicero, discarding the rhetorical excrescences of Seneca and his school. Style. His Latin is classical and beautiful, sometimes equal to that of Cicero himself. He is the foremost representative of the classical reaction of his time. But the reversion to an earlier style, whether in literature or art, has never been permanent, and Quintilian’s influence, great as it undoubtedly was, could not stop the course of that change and decay which was in the end destined to transform the Latin language and bring into being the Romance tongues of modern times.