CHAPTER XXI
CONCLUSION
The end of the ancient civilization—Boëthius, about 480-524 A. D.—Later literature no longer Roman—Practical character of Roman literature—The first period—The Augustan period—The period of the empire—Our debt to the Romans.
Long before the end of the fifth century the power of Rome was broken, and the centre of what had been the Roman empire was at Constantinople. The western provinces were in the hands of barbarians, Angles and Saxons ruled in Britain, Franks in northern Gaul, Visigoths in southern Gaul and Spain, and Vandals in Africa. The end of the old civilization. Italy itself had been repeatedly overrun by hardy warriors from the north, and Rome had twice been sacked, by the Goths under Alaric in 410 and by the Vandals under Genseric in 455 A. D. With the establishment by Theodoric, in 493 A. D., of the Gothic kingdom with its seat at Ravenna, the last vestige of the Roman empire of the West passed away. Henceforth western Europe is the scene of strife and disorder, through which men were to struggle onward to the new order of modern life. In the empire of the East much of the old civilization survived, and throughout the Middle Ages the ancient culture still shed some rays of light from Constantinople to the darkened west; but in western Europe there was little culture, and learning was for the most part shut up in the walls of monasteries.
The last writer who seems to belong to the old civilization is Boëthius. Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boëthius was a Roman of noble birth and exalted station. Boëthius. He was born about 480 A. D., and after his father’s death was adopted by the patrician Symmachus, whose daughter he afterwards married. In 500 A. D. he delivered in the senate a speech in honor of Theodoric, who made frequent use of his learning and literary skill. He held important offices at Rome, received the title of patrician and in 510 A. D. became consul without a colleague. In 522 A. D. his two sons were made consuls, and the joyful father delivered an oration in praise of the Gothic king to whose favor they owed their elevation. But that favor was destined soon to pass from Boëthius. The emperor of the East, Justin, tried to stir up the Catholic Italians to revolt against the Arian Theodoric. Boëthius was suspected, arrested, and put to death with tortures in 524 A. D. The servile senate decreed his death without even the formality of a trial.
Boëthius was a prolific writer. He translated from the Greek various philosophical and mathematical treatises, to some of which he added commentaries, and the importance of the Aristotelian logic during the Middle Ages is in great measure due to him; he also wrote a bucolic poem, which is lost, and several treatises on points of Christian doctrine; but the work by which he is now best known, and to which he owes his reputation as the last Roman author, is the treatise On the Consolation of Philosophy (De Consolatione Philosophiæ), which he wrote in prison while waiting for his condemnation. The Consolation of Philosophy. This work consists of five books, and has the literary form of a satura—that is, the prose is interrupted and varied by the insertion of passages in verse. These metrical passages, although their rhythms and diction are excellent, do not show the same depth of thought as the prose portions. This is explained by the fact that the prose portions of the treatise are derived in great measure from the Protrepticus of Aristotle, while the verses are more entirely the work of Boëthius himself. It is not likely that Boëthius employed the Protrepticus directly, but he probably had before him some work in which Aristotle’s teachings had been modified by the eclecticism of the later Platonists. Everywhere noble sentiments are expressed, but without the slightest indication of Christianity, or of any specific religion. The names of the pagan deities are used, but Boëthius believes in them no more than did Milton or the numerous writers of the eighteenth century in whose works their names occur. The attitude of Boëthius is throughout that of a cultivated and intellectual man who seeks for consolation when in trouble not in faith, but in reason. In the beginning of the work he laments his hard fate, when Philosophy appears before him in the form of a woman, and a dialogue ensues, in which the unimportance of what is ordinarily termed good or bad fortune, the nature of Providence, the divine order of the world, chance, free will, and similar subjects, are discussed. The style is the artificial, ornate style of the time, held in check by the logical sequence of the argument. Boëthius was a Christian, but in his adversity he turned to philosophy for consolation, and his philosophy is no more Christian than is that of Cicero. Yet his teachings, though not belonging to any one religion, are essentially religious. It is not wonderful that the Consolation was much read in the Middle Ages, and has continued to find many readers in later times.
There were still, in the sixth century, men who, like Boëthius, could find, amid the disorders of the times, the leisure and the taste for study; and the only kind of study possible was that of the ancient literature. Later literature no longer Roman. But Boëthius is the last in whom the ancient thoughts and feelings appear clad in literary form. Throughout the Middle Ages some of the classical writers, especially Virgil, were read and copied in monasteries, and those laymen who received a clerkly education learned Latin as the only language (except the more distant and difficult Greek) in which a literature existed; but Latin was then, as now, a language of the past, even though it was still used for literary purposes, and the ancient civilization was far less understood than now. Writings in Latin after Boëthius belong not to Roman literature, but to the literature of the church and to that of the various nations of Europe.
The date of the beginning of Roman literature can be fixed almost to a year, for there was no Roman literature before Livius Andronicus. At that time Latin imitations of Greek works were introduced to add to the attractions of public entertainments and to make the young acquainted with the history of the past. The first period of Roman literature. As the republic grew in power, literature, still in imitation of the Greek, but expressing more and more completely the Roman character, developed in all directions, but especially in prose. The orators cultivated perfection in speech that they might move the judges, the senate, or the people; historians hoped that the records of the past would have a practical effect upon the deeds of the future, or they aimed, like Cæsar in his Commentaries, to further their own immediate ends; and Cicero adapted Greek philosophy to Roman readers in order that the republic might have wise and good citizens. The practical purpose of the lyric poetry of Catullus and his contemporary poets is less evident, though even lyric verse may serve political ends, and yet there seems to have been in the careful imitation of learned Alexandrian works a deliberate educational purpose. Certainly in all branches of literature except lyric poetry throughout the republican period a practical purpose, and usually a political purpose, is almost invariably to be found. Literature as developed by the Greeks seemed to the Romans to possess practical utility, and the great works of the republican period were created by practical men to aid in the attainment of their ends.
In the Augustan period the practical purpose of literature is even more evident than in the earlier years. The Augustan period. In the transition from the republic to the monarchy it was desirable that the minds of men should not be too much occupied with politics, and literature was naturally encouraged by Augustus as an outlet for intellectual energy which might otherwise have turned to political matters. It was also desirable that the Julian family be connected as closely as possible with the beginnings of Rome, and how could that be done better than by such a poem as the Æneid? The immediate practical purpose of Virgil’s Georgics is evident. The poems of Horace, too, are in part openly intended to increase the popular prestige of the imperial house, and the mere fact that the poet was known to be the friend of the emperor would add as much to the glory of the one as of the other. The greatness of poetry in this period is due directly to the encouragement of Augustus, and his encouragement had a practical purpose. That prose, especially oratory, declined at this time is due to the fact that the orator was no longer the great power in the state.
Under the empire the influence of literature upon politics disappeared. Oratory no longer led to the highest power, poetry must, under some emperors at least, be careful not to overstep prescribed limits, and history could not safely record all facts with their causes and results. Even philosophical speculation was not safe if it led to practical conclusions adverse to the government. The imperial period. It was precisely those branches of literature which might be used for political purposes that the imperial government could hardly fail to discourage directly or indirectly, and those were the branches in which the practical Romans naturally excelled. There were, to be sure, emperors who encouraged literature, but their encouragement, leading to flattery and artificial eloquence, was little likely to raise the quality, even though it increased the quantity, of literary production. With its practical importance Roman literature loses its vigor. Aside from Tacitus and Juvenal, hardly a single powerful and vigorous author appears in the imperial period until, with the growth of Christianity, literature again acquires practical importance. That literature maintained for so many years a relatively high degree of excellence is due to the constant influence of Greece, which counteracted to some extent the forces that tended to destroy all literary life. Thus Roman literature lingered on until after the breaking up of the Roman empire.
Only a small part of the great bulk of Roman literature is preserved to us, but that part includes the greatest works of the best period. Those are worthy subjects of study for their beauty of form, their clearness of thought, their power, their vigor, and their ethical qualities. The productions of the imperial period are inferior in quality to those of the republican and the Augustan times, though their quantity is proportionate to the duration of the empire; but these works also are proper subjects of study, for they also express the character of the Romans.
Three ancient peoples have impressed themselves strongly upon the nations of Europe and America—the Hebrews, the Greeks, and the Romans. To the first we owe the foundations of our religion, to the second the beginnings of all arts and sciences, to the Romans we are indebted for the adaptation of the arts and sciences, of philosophy, and even of religion to civilized life. Our debt to the Romans. The names of our months are Roman, and our calendar is, with slight necessary changes, that established by Julius Cæsar. The laws of continental Europe and, though to a less degree, of England and the United States, are based upon Roman law as finally established under Justinian. The so-called Gothic architecture, which arose in France in the Middle Ages and which is still the prevailing style of our churches, can be traced back step by step to Roman buildings, and though Roman architecture was dependent upon that of Greece, it was through Rome that western Europe learned to use the column, the arch, and the vault. The beautiful architecture of the Renaissance is a conscious imitation of that of Rome. The Romans, too, in the early centuries of the Christian church, did their full share to systematize Christian belief, to reconcile it with philosophy, and to establish a reasonable form of church government. The results of their labors are inherited directly by the Roman Catholic church, and indirectly or partially by Protestants. There is hardly a side of modern life which is not more or less affected by ancient Rome; while the dignity, the sturdy manhood, the stoical disregard of fortune, the patriotism, and the vigorous earnestness expressed in Roman literature have a powerful influence in developing what is best in modern manhood. Roman literature will continue to be an important object of study as long as men still feel their obligations to the past, or are capable of learning from the example and precepts of other ages.
APPENDIX I
BIBLIOGRAPHY
[This is not intended to be an exhaustive bibliography, but is merely an attempt to refer the student to some of the best and most available sources of information. Books in foreign languages, and editions with notes in foreign languages, are mentioned only in exceptional cases and for special reasons. Further bibliographical information is to be found in the larger histories of Roman literature, in Engelmann’s Bibliotheca Scriptorum Classicorum, the monthly lists in the Classical Review, and the Guide to the Choice of Classical Books, by J. B. Mayor, London, 1879, D. Nutt; with its New Supplement, 1896.]