CHAPTER XX
THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES
Nonius, early in the fourth century—Macrobius, 410 (?) A. D.—Martianus Capella, about 400 A. D.—Firmicus Maternus, 354 (?) A. D.—Marius Victorinus, about 350 A. D.—Ælius Donatus, about 350 A. D.—Charisius, about 350 A. D.—Diomedes, about 350 A. D.—Priscian, about 500 A. D.—Servius, latter part of the fourth century—Itineraries—Notitia, 354 A. D.—Peutinger Tablet—Palladius, about 350 A. D.—Vegetius, about 400 A. D.—Aurelius Victor, 360 A. D.—Eutropius, 365 A. D.—Festus, 369 A. D.—Julius Obsequens, about 360 A. D.—St. Jerome, 331-420 A. D.—Ammianus Marcellinus, about 330-400 A. D.—Sulpicius Severus, early in the fifth century—Orosius, 417 A. D.—Gregorianus, about 300 A. D.—Hermogenianus, about 330 A. D.—Codex Theodosianus, 438 A. D.—The Code of Justinian, 529 A. D.—The Pandects and Institutes, 533 A. D.—Symmachus, about 345-405 A. D.—Dictys (L. Septimius), second half of the fourth century—Dares, fifth century—Hilarius, about 315 to 367 A. D.—Ambrose, about 340-397 A. D.—Jerome, 331-420 A. D.—Augustine, 354-430 A. D.—Optatianus, early in the fourth century—Juvencus, early in the fourth century—Avienus, 370 A. D.—The Querolus, about 370 A. D.—Ausonius, about 310 to about 395 A. D.—Prudentius 348 to about 410 A. D.—Claudian, 400 A. D.—Namatianus, 416 A. D.—Avianus, about 400 A. D.—Sedulius, about 450 A. D.—Dracontius, end of the fifth century.
The prose writings of the fourth century are, with the exception of theological treatises, almost all mere compilations or abbreviations of earlier works. In the early years of the century Nonius Marcellus, a Peripatetic philosopher of Thubursicum, in Numidia, wrote for his son a work in twenty books, De Compendiosa Doctrina, in which he discusses many questions pertaining for the most part to early Latin literature. This work is modelled on the Noctes Atticæ of Gellius, to which it is vastly inferior. It is nevertheless of value as our only authority for the titles of some lost works and even for extracts from them. Nonius. Macrobius. Martianus Capella. For similar reasons the Saturnalia, in seven books, by Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, is of some importance. Macrobius, who was probably, like Nonius, an African, appears to be identical with the Macrobius who was proconsul of Africa in 410 A. D. The imaginary conversations of which his Saturnalia consists treat of Roman literature and antiquities, especially of the poetry of Virgil. Like Gellius and Nonius, Macrobius uses the works of earlier critics and commentators, and gives many quotations from Greek and Roman authors. Macrobius also wrote a commentary on Cicero’s Dream of Scipio, in which he quotes many authors, especially Greeks, but displays little or no originality. The encyclopædia, in nine books, written about the end of the fourth century by a third African, Martianus Capella, is of less value than the compilations of Nonius and Macrobius, though it, too, goes back to good authorities, such as Varro.
The chief seat of philosophy in the fourth century was Athens, and philosophical writings were almost all in Greek. Philosophy. Grammar. For the most part they expounded the mystical doctrines of Neoplatonism.[134] The grammarian Ælius Donatus, who flourished at Rome about 350 A. D. and was one of the teachers of St. Jerome, wrote commentaries on Terence and Virgil to which he prefixed the lives of the two poets from the lost work of Suetonius. The work on Virgil is lost, and the commentary on Terence contains in its present form many later additions. The extant grammars (Ars Grammatica) of Charisius and Diomedes, which have preserved much of the learning of earlier grammarians, belong to a very slightly later time. The last and most complete ancient grammar was written under the Emperor Anastasius (491-518 A. D.) at Constantinople in the Latin language by Priscian, from Cæsarea, in Mauretania. This work, in eighteen books, is entitled Institutiones Grammaticæ, and contains a vast quantity of material from the earlier literature. Much of the grammatical terminology, even of the present time, is derived from Priscian. The important commentary on Virgil by Servius was written in the latter part of the fourth century, and is preserved in two forms, in one of which numerous additions have been made to the original work.[135]
In 360 A. D., Aurelius Victor wrote a short history of the emperors (Cæsares) from the time of Augustus to the tenth consulship of Constantius and Julian, i. e., to the date of his writing. He makes free use of Suetonius, and his style is sometimes an imitation of that of Sallust. History. A second entirely distinct work attributed to the same author is a brief epitome of the history of the emperors to the death of Theodosius I (395 A. D.). Under Valens (364-378 A. D.) Eutropius wrote a Breviarium ab Urbe Condita, a short sketch of Roman history from the beginning to the year 365 A. D., which is distinguished for its simple, easy style and pure Latinity, but has no independent value as an historical work.[136]
Much more important is the Chronicle of St. Jerome (331-420 A. D.), a translation from the Greek of Eusebius with important additions. The Chronicle begins with the first year of Abraham (2016 B. C.). From this point to the Trojan War, Jerome merely translates Eusebius, from the Trojan War to 325 A. D. he translates Eusebius and adds much information concerning Roman history and literature, and from 325 to 378 A. D. the work is entirely his own. His information concerning the history of Roman literature is derived chiefly from Suetonius (De Viris Illustribus) and is of the utmost importance, though the dates given are sometimes wrong, which is not surprising when one remembers the carelessness in respect to dates exhibited by Suetonius in his extant Lives of the Cæsars. Jerome’s Chronicle was continued in the fifth century by Prosper of Aquitania to the year 455 A. D., and further additions were made after that time. The Chronicle is of great importance to the historian, but is itself merely the dry bones of history. The only real history that the last centuries of Roman literature produced, the only serious and original historical work after Tacitus, is that of
Ammianus Marcellinus; for the summary of universal history (Chronicorum Libri II) written by the Aquitanian Sulpicius Severus in the early years of the fifth century, and the more pretentious but no more original history of the world (Historiarum Adversus Paganos Libri VII) by Orosius of Spain, compiled soon after 417 A. D., are even less important than the handbook of Eutropius.
Ammianus Marcellinus (about 330-400 A. D.) was a Greek of Antioch, who became a soldier in the Roman army, served in Asia, in Gaul, and in the Persian campaign of the Emperor Julian, and was at some time in Egypt, but finally settled at Rome, where he wrote in Latin a continuation of Tacitus from Nerva to the death of Valens (96-378 A. D.). Ammianus Marcellinus. The entire work consisted of thirty-one books, thirteen of which are lost; but the extant books (XIV-XXXI), treating of the time from 353 to 378 A. D., and dealing with events in which the author took part, are especially valuable. Ammianus is an honest soldier, who, to use his own expression, never knowingly corrupts the truth by silence or falsehood, who has no liking and not much understanding for court intrigues, but is intent upon giving his readers a fair and unbiased account of events. His Latin is hard to understand, partly because he writes it as a foreigner, but still more because he wishes to write an ornate style and embellishes his work with many references to the Roman classics, sometimes quoting their exact words, oftener changing them a little, as if to show his perfect familiarity with the earlier literature. The geographical digressions introduced are not original descriptions of what Ammianus had himself seen, but are taken from Greek or Latin books. Although himself a pagan, Ammianus shows no hostility to Christianity, but his paganism is not very serious. He seems to believe that not all men think alike, and that on the whole it is well for each to believe as he can. His pictures of the life of the times are admirable, and bring before us in a clear light the corruption and degeneration of the age. Yet he does not seem to feel righteous indignation nor to understand that the greatness of the Roman empire is rapidly passing away. His history ends with the disastrous defeat of the Romans by the Goths at Hadrianople and the death of the Emperor Valens; but so accustomed was the world to the power of the Roman empire that even this terrible reverse was not recognized as portending the end of the ancient order of things. For a little while Theodosius was able to maintain the integrity of the empire, but the end was at hand. It is not unfitting that the last Roman historian, himself a Greek by birth, ends his work at a moment when more than ever before the Greek city of Constantinople was becoming the refuge of what remained of the old Roman civilization.
The study of law, which had for centuries been among the most important pursuits of Roman thinkers, was not neglected in the last centuries of Roman life. Law. Under Diocletian (284-305 A. D.) the imperial edicts were codified by Gregorianus, and in the reign of Constantine (323-337 A. D.) Hermogenianus continued the codification to his own time. In 438 A. D., under Theodosius II, the Codex Theodosianus was compiled by a commission of jurists, and in the reign of Justinian a commission headed by the distinguished jurist, scholar, and man of affairs Tribonian, gave to Roman law its final form in three great works: the Code, published in 529 A. D., the Pandects or Digests, and the Institutes, published in 533 A. D., which have served as the basis for all later jurisprudence.
Oratory found its chief field of activity in the Christian pulpit from the time of Constantine, but was not confined to the exposition of Christian doctrine. The Gallic school of oratory continued to flourish, and indeed Gaul was prominent in literature of all kinds during the fourth and fifth centuries. Oratory. Among other orators the most important was Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, a Roman of noble family and honorable character, whose life extended from about 345 to 405 A. D. His panegyrics on Valentinian I and Gratianus resemble the other panegyrics of the period, and the fragmentary remains of later speeches delivered in the senate show no greater ability. More interesting are his letters, in which he appears as an imitator of the younger Pliny, and his official reports as prefect of the city.
A curious prose version of the story of the Trojan War was written by Lucius Septimius, apparently in the second half of the fourth century. Dictys and Dares. This purports to a translation of an ancient Greek manuscript in Phœnician letters found in the tomb of a certain Dictys, in Crete. The story of the discovery of the manuscript is undoubtedly an invention, but the Latin account may be a translation of a lost Greek original. The style is artificial and full of antiquated expressions. The author most persistently imitated is Sallust. A somewhat similar little work belonging to the fifth century pretends to be a translation by Cornelius Nepos of a Greek account of the Trojan War given by a Phrygian Dares, who fought among the Trojans. The style is dry and unattractive, but the little book was much read in the Middle Ages. These two works serve to give us some idea of the kind of literature which, alongside of the Greek novels, amused the leisure hours of cultivated persons.
The contents of the works of the leaders of the church in the fourth and fifth centuries can hardly be considered in a history of Roman literature, but inasmuch as their writings show the continued influence of classical Latin, their style and choice of words should be briefly mentioned. Hilarius. The bitter controversy between the Arians and the Athanasians produced in the fourth century a great number of controversial writings, among which those of Hilarius (St. Hilary), Bishop of Poitiers, are remarkable for depth of philosophical thought and care in expression. Hilarius was born between 310 and 320 A. D., and was trained in the Gallic school of eloquence. After his conversion to Christianity he soon became bishop of his native Poitiers. His opposition to Arianism, which Constantius favored, led to his banishment, but he was recalled after three years, in 358 A. D. His death took place in 367 A. D. Besides his controversial writings he was the author of commentaries on several books of the Old and New Testaments, and perhaps also of hymns. His style shows in some passages his early training in the school of wordy and ornate Gallic oratory, but is chiefly distinguished for its vigor and passion. Hilarius carried on the work of adapting Latin to the expression of Christian abstract thought, which had been begun in Africa by Tertullian.
Ambrosius (St. Ambrose), who lived from about 340 to 397 A. D., was probably born in Gaul, where his father was prefect, but was of Roman, not Gallic blood. Ambrosius. After a careful education he became a barrister, and was soon raised to the consular rank and made governor of the provinces of Liguria and Æmilia. Thus he came to Milan, where he was chosen bishop in 374 A. D. He was a man of great tact as well as firmness, who dared to exclude the Emperor Theodosius from the church, until he had shown repentance for the massacre at Thessalonica, and to refuse the request of the Empress Justina that one of the churches at Milan be set aside for the Arians, but who succeeded in avoiding any breach with the emperor in spite of his independence. It was in great part due to St. Ambrose that Italy was kept from adopting the Arian heresy. His writings comprise letters, dogmatic treatises, practical treatises on the conduct of life, commentaries on the Scriptures, funeral orations on Valentinian II and Theodosius, and hymns. He is also the probable author of a translation of Josephus into Latin. In his mystic, allegorical interpretations of Scripture St. Ambrose follows the Jewish-Stoic philosopher Philo, who lived about the time of Christ, and in his treatise On Duties he imitates Cicero’s work of the same title. His intimate acquaintance with other works of the classical period is made evident both by the general quality of his style, which is purer than that of most of his contemporaries, and by many special references. His hymns have had great influence upon church poetry and music.
St. Jerome (Hieronymus) was born about 331 A. D., at Stridon, a town on the borders of Dalmatia and Pannonia, studied at Rome under Donatus, then spent two years at Treves, was afterwards at Aquileia for some time, then sailed to Syria. Jerome (Hieronymus). Here he was ill for a time, and solaced himself by reading the classics, until he was warned by a dream to give up profane literature. He retreated into the wilderness of Chalcis, where he remained five years. In 362 A. D. he returned Rome, where he had great influence for many years, but in 386 he retired to a monastery at Bethlehem. There he remained until his death, in 420 A. D. As a controversial writer St. Jerome had great influence in settling the doctrines of the Catholic church; he also wrote commentaries on various books of the Bible, and numerous letters dealing with religious questions. His translation of the Bible was a masterly performance, and is the basis of the Latin Vulgate, still in use in the Roman Catholic church. He compiled a brief work, De Viris Illustribus, in which he gave sketches of the lives of Christian writers, as Suetonius, in his work of the same title, had given the lives of the old Roman authors. The sketches given by Jerome are, however, much briefer than were those of Suetonius. The translation and continuation of the Chronicle of Eusebius has already been mentioned (see page [262]). St. Jerome is one of the ablest writers of the early Christian church, and certainly the most learned Christian writer of his time. His style is not exempt from the faults of exaggeration and verbal quibbling common in the writings of the age, but possesses much life and earnestness, and is free from the affectation of classicism, though it shows the effect of his prolonged study of the classics.
St. Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus) was born in 354 A. D. at Tagaste, in Africa. Augustine. His father was a pagan, his mother a Christian, and in his early years Augustine himself accepted the doctrine of Manicheeism, a sort of mystical materialism, which denied all authority, and claimed to rest entirely upon reason. He was a successful teacher of rhetoric in Africa, at Rome, and at Milan, where he came under the influence of St. Ambrose and was converted. In 388 A. D. he returned to Africa, became presbyter at Hippo in 392, and bishop in 395 A. D. His death took place in 430 A. D. His nature was many sided, and composed of apparently contradictory elements. He was a mystic speculator, a sharp reasoner, at one time harsh and uncompromising, at another full of tenderness, an original thinker yet a believer in authority, dreamer, poet, philosopher, rhetorician, and quibbler in one. His writings are in part speculations on theology, in part ponderings on the soul, its nature and its relations to God, and in part controversial treatises, sermons, commentaries, and letters. The best known among them are the Confessions, in which Augustine gives many details of his life, and records the doubts that perplexed him, and the City of God (De Civitate Dei), a work of his old age, in which he contrasts the city (or better, the state) of this world with the ideal city of God. This work was written in reply to the pagans, who claimed that the sack of Rome by Alaric was due to the neglect of the ancient worship. It consists of twenty-two books, in the first ten of which the “vain opinions adverse to the Christian religion” are refuted, while the twelve remaining are devoted to a presentation of Christian truth, though each division contains many digressions, and in each the part of the subject properly belonging to the other is treated as occasion demands. In many parts of this great work reference is made to Cicero’s De Re Publica and other philosophical writings, and Augustine’s dialogue Contra Academicos is an evident imitation of Cicero’s Academics. Yet it can not be said that Augustine’s style is modelled upon that of Cicero. It is rather a style which had gradually developed among Christian writers, in which the periodic structure of the Ciceronian age is abandoned for the most part, many words unknown to strictly classical Latin have been introduced, partly from the popular speech and partly by new formation to express abstract ideas, not a few Biblical phrases are employed, and some slight changes in syntax are noticeable. This is the Latin of the church, which has remained nearly as St. Augustine left it, except in so far as the strictly classical element grew less in the centuries preceding the Renaissance. For St. Augustine the “state” of this world still means the Roman empire, though the eternal city had been sacked by the Goths, but the time seems to him not far distant when the state of God shall rest in the “stability of its eternal seat.” So his language is still Latin; but his thoughts and sentiments are Christian, not Roman. The ancient world was still visible about him, but the life of the Middle Ages had begun.
The fourth century produced a considerable number of poets who possessed no mean skill in versification, but whose works have for the most part disappeared. Optatianus. Optatianus (Publilius Optatianus Porphyrius) composed a poem in praise of Constantine in which he shows his ingenuity by writing lines that take the shape of an altar or an organ, contriving to make fifteen successive hexameters each one letter shorter than its predecessor, making nineteen stanzas of four lines each from the same twenty words, and inventing the most complicated and elaborate acrostics and the like. Such work is not poetry, but it shows skill in the manipulation of words. It is interesting to know that Constantine was so pleased that he recalled the ingenious author from banishment. Juvencus. About the same time Juvencus (Gaius Vettius Aquilinus Juvencus) made a version of the Gospel story in hexameters after the manner of Virgil. He shows intelligent appreciation of the dignity and beauty of his model, and writes skillfully and easily. Avienus. This Latin poem is the prototype of the “Gospel Harmonies” of the Middle Ages. Avienus (Rufus Festus Avienus), of Vulsinii, in Etruria, was a descendant of the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus (see page [177]), and was twice proconsul—in Africa in 366 and in Greece in 371 A. D. He translated the Phænomena of Aratus into Latin verse, and tried to improve upon the translations by Cicero and Germanicus (see pages 70 and 173), made a similar translation with variations from the Periegesis of Dionysius, described the coasts of the Black Sea, the Caspian, and the Mediterranean in iambic trimeters, and made abridgments of Livy and Virgil in the same metre. These last are lost, as is a large part of the description of the coasts. Avienus was also the author of several short poems. He has no little ability as a maker of verses, and has the good taste to imitate Virgil, but exhibits no poetic originality. His language is for the most part strictly classic. Querolus. To about the same time as Avienus belongs also a curious comedy entitled Querolus (The Discontented Man), a free imitation of the Aulularia of Plautus, composed in a remarkable mixture of prose and verse.
The only really interesting poet of the fourth century is, however, Ausonius, whose life extends through nearly the entire century. Decimus Magnus Ausonius was born at Bordigala (Bordeaux) about 310 A. D. Ausonius. He became a teacher of rhetoric and oratory, and was appointed tutor to Gratian, the son of the Emperor Valens. When Gratian became emperor he rewarded his teacher with public offices, and raised him in 379 A. D. to the consulate. After Gratian’s death (383 A. D.) Ausonius retired from public life and devoted himself to literary pursuits at his native Bordeaux until his death, which took place not far from 395 A. D. Nearly all his extant writings belong to this period. The only considerable specimen of his prose extant is the oration in which he expressed his thanks to Gratian for the consulship. In this the style, though somewhat flowery, is not without dignity, and the vocabulary is pretty strictly classic. The extant poems are of various kinds and in various metres. They include epigrams, idylls, letters, a series of short poems called Parentalia, devoted to the poet’s relatives, a Commemoratio Professorum Burdigalensium, describing his colleagues at Bordeaux, verses on the Roman emperors, on famous cities, and a variety of other subjects. Some of these show cleverness in the use of language, but no higher quality. Such are the letters written partly in Greek and partly in Latin, and the idylls so composed that the last word of each line is a monosyllable; but among the poems are some of considerable interest even though their poetic qualities are not of the highest. So the Parentalia and the verses on the Bordeaux professors give the reader some insight into the life of an important provincial city. It is interesting, too, to observe that of the seventeen cities mentioned in the List of Famous Cities five are in Gaul. To be sure, Ausonius was himself a Gaul, and may have made his native region unduly prominent, but other evidence, including the remains of ancient buildings, supports his estimate of the importance of the Gallic cities. His lines on Bordeaux, famous for its wine, its culture, its fertile soil, great rivers, copious water supply, and fine buildings, show his patriotism and his skill in descriptive writing. The latter quality is conspicuous in the most famous of his idylls, the one entitled Mosella, in which Ausonius describes the stream and the valley of the Moselle, which he had visited on some business not further specified. The vine-clad hills and grassy meadow lands, the roofs of villas that stand upon the banks, the broad, clear river, calm and placid as a lake, are all brought before our eyes with clear, well-chosen words and a masterly lightness of touch. At the same time the poet’s love of nature and her beauties is as plainly manifest as in any poem of Wordsworth or Whittier. Unfortunately, Ausonius proceeds to mention all the different kinds of fish in the Moselle, and the remarkable productivity of the river does not add to the attractiveness of the poem. Yet the poem is deservedly famous for its beauty of expression and its enthusiastic love of nature. It is also remarkably modern in its tone. Satyrs and Naiads are mentioned, but only as a modern poet might mention them. Ausonius is a Christian, and for him the pagan deities of the woods are only beings which he “might imagine.” This poem shows as clearly as the Pervigilium Veneris, though in a different way, that the spirit of the Middle Ages was awake.
Ausonius was a Christian, but his poems have no specifically Christian contents. Prudentius. The most important specifically Christian poet of the fourth century is Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, who was born in Spain, at or near Saragossa, in 348 A. D., studied and practised oratory, and held important offices. His life was apparently passed for the most part in Spain, but at one time he held a position at the imperial court of Theodosius. The date of his death is probably about 410 A. D. Prudentius, like Ausonius, employs hexameters and various other classic metres, in which he departs occasionally, but not often, from the rules of quantitative verse. His poems, both epic and lyric, are religious and inspired by earnest faith and genuine enthusiasm. He excels in narrative and description, in wealth and brilliancy of language, but lacks the virtue of simplicity. His poetry was intended to appeal to educated readers, not to the people, and the cultured classes of the time were only too thoroughly accustomed to an artificial style. Yet, in spite of his faults of style, Prudentius is the most important Christian poet of the fourth century, and among the other poets of the time none equal him except Ausonius and Claudian.
Claudius Claudianus, the last important Roman poet, was, like Livius Andronicus, with whom Roman poetry began, a Greek by birth. Claudian. He was born in Asia Minor, but lived so long at Alexandria that he called that centre of learning his fatherland (patria). In 395 A. D. he went to Rome, where he was attached to the court of Honorius, from whom he received the rank of patrician and the honor of a statue in the Forum of Trajan. He remained at Rome, or rather at Milan, until 404 A. D., but about that time returned to Alexandria, and married a noble woman of the place, being aided in his suit by Serena, niece and adopted daughter of the Emperor Theodosius and wife of Stilicho. Claudian’s poems all appear to have been written from 395 to 404 A. D., and throughout this period he is the faithful follower and enthusiastic admirer of Stilicho, Whether Stilicho’s death in 408 A. D. relegated Claudian to obscurity, or the poet himself died at about the same time as his patron, can not now be determined. Claudian’s works comprise epic poems on the important events of his times, such as the Gothic war and the war against Gildo, mythological epics, and shorter miscellaneous poems. Among the historical epics are included poems in praise of Honorius and other patrons of the poet, as well as metrical attacks upon Rufinus and Eutropius. The only remains of his mythological epics are three books of a poem, on the Rape of Proserpine, and somewhat more than one hundred lines of a Gigantomachia. In these poems Claudian shows the mythological and antiquarian learning which had for centuries been characteristic of the Alexandrian school of poetry. That school was already old when it was imitated by Catullus and his contemporaries in the early days of Roman poetry, and now, when Roman literature was dying, Alexandria continued to train learned poets. Had Claudian not gone to Italy, he would doubtless have continued to write in his native Greek, and might, as a Greek poet, have rivalled his contemporary Nonnus. In his historical and miscellaneous poems also Claudian exhibits much Alexandrian learning, and at the same time shows an intimate acquaintance with the earlier Roman poets, which is somewhat surprising in one who was educated in the Greek-speaking provinces of the east. It is equally surprising that Claudian uses the Latin language with an ease and grace not attained by any of his contemporaries. His verse is correct, dignified, and harmonious, his diction pure and classical. In these respects, as well as in wealth of imagery, brilliancy of narrative, and skill in composition, he is unequalled by any Roman poet after Statius. His historical poems must be used with caution by historians, for, although facts are not invented, they are presented in a strong light, or left in obscurity, according to the effect they might have upon the reputation of the poet’s friends or enemies. In the exuberance of his praise, Claudian equals the contemporary prose panegyrists, and surpasses the early Alexandrian and most of the later Roman poets. Among his miscellaneous poems none is so well known in modern times, or so modern in tone, as the brief elegy of only twenty-two lines, on an old man of Verona, who never left his suburb, who pressed his staff upon the same sand in which he had crept, counted his years by the changes of crops, not by consuls, and saw the trees grow old which he had seen as little sprouts. The advantages of a quiet, humble life have seldom been more charmingly set forth than in this poem.
With all his learning, skill, and genuine poetic inspiration, Claudian is still the belated singer of a worn-out empire and a dying civilization. Rome was no longer the mighty and unquestioned ruler of the world. The poet whose chief task it was to sing the praises of Stilicho, and spread the glory of his victories, must needs shut his eyes, so far as possible, to the evident decay, but he could not simulate utter blindness. In the beginning of his poem on the war with Gildo, Claudian shows that the feebleness and old age of Rome were not hidden from him. He describes the personified city, the goddess Roma, as she approaches Olympus to beg for aid against Gildo, whose revolt, involving the loss of the African grain supply, threatened to expose the city to famine:
Her voice is weak, and slow her steps; her eyes
Deep sunk within; her cheeks are gone; her arms
Are shrivelled up with wasting leanness. On
Her feeble shoulders hardly can she bear
Her tarnished shield; she shows from loosened helm
Her hoary locks, and drags a rusty spear.[137]
Even the poet who sang of Rome’s victories could portray her in such terms as these. Namatianus. Yet the tradition of Roman greatness still survived. In the year 416, Rutilius Claudius Namatianus, a Gaul who had risen to the position of præfectus urbi at Rome, was obliged to return to Gaul to attend to his property, which had been laid waste by the Goths. The journey was the occasion of a poem in two books, most of which is preserved. It is written in elegiacs, with much still and feeling. Many episodes and descriptions are inserted in the narrative, but no passage is so striking as that in which the traveller, passing out from the Ostian gate, addresses the imperial city:
Wide as the ambient ocean is thy sway,
And broad thy empire as the realms of day;
Still on thy bounds the sun’s great march attends,
With thee his course begins, with thee it ends.
Thy strong advance nor Afric’s burning sand,
Nor frozen horrors of the Pole withstand;
Thy valor, far as kindly Nature’s bound
Is fixed for man, its dauntless way has found.
All nations own in thee their common land,
And e’en the guilty bless thy conquering hand;
One right for weak, for strong, thy laws create,
And bind the wide world in a world-wide State.[138]
The history of Roman poetry is virtually at an end with Claudian. Avianus. Sedulius. Dracontius. Other poets there were, but none whose works are living and breathing exponents of the ancient Roman life. About 400 A. D. Avianus published forty-two fables of Æsop in elegiac verse; about the middle of the fifth century the presbyter Sedulius wrote several religious poems, in which he shows acquaintance not with Biblical literature alone, but also with the Latin classics; and at the end of the century the African poet Blossius Æmilius Dracontius wrote a didactic poem On the Praise of God, in three books, a number of short epics, chiefly mythological, and several other poems. Dracontius is not unskillful in his versification and his use of language, and his poems prove that rhetorical training was still to be found in Africa. Moreover, his knowledge of the Roman classics is as evident as his knowledge of the Bible. But neither Dracontius nor the other poets whose works are preserved to us from the fifth century could do more than help to pass on to the Middle Ages something of the ancient feeling for beauty of form in literature. And even that had ceased to be understood by the people.