Ancient Rome in the English novel: a study in English historical fiction

by Randolph Faries

C. GERMAN FOLLOWERS OF SCOTT—THE GERMAN NOVEL OF ROMAN LIFE; ITS INFLUENCE ON THE ENGLISH NOVEL

If Becker and other German scholars showed scholars elsewhere the necessity of thoroughness in classical scholarship, and added much to their study of Roman life, it is equally true that Sir Walter Scott showed the world the possibilities of the historical novel. Needless to say Scott had imitators throughout Europe and America; and not only was his success immediate, but his influence on the historical novel was a permanent thing. Many who eagerly devoured his novels in boyhood became his imitators in later life. Not a few of these historical novelists were Germans, and some of their finest works deal with the life of ancient Rome. The authors of these novels endeavored to imitate Scott in many of the things which made his historical novels successful; for example, they saw that the life of Rome supplied them with gorgeous historical scenes, just as the life of mediæval times had supplied such scenes to Scott. But they especially resolved to follow Scott in presenting realistic descriptions of manners, and it must be admitted that some of them described the manners of Roman times quite as well as Scott had described the manners of mediæval times. These German novelists, such as George Ebers, were well fitted to describe the manners of Rome, since they were thorough students of Roman things; and they had been shown how these things could be presented, by Becker and other scholars, who wrote some years before them.

In 1876 was published A Struggle for Rome, by Julius Sophus Felix Dahn. This is Dahn’s greatest novel, and portrays with fine realistic effect the struggle between the Ostrogoths and Belisarius. In this, and in its handling of the character of Totila, it suggests the great novel of George Gissing, Veranilda (1904). Another prominent character besides Totila, in Dahn’s novel, is Cassiodorus. The scene in part is laid at Ravenna, and the decay and final collapse of the Gothic kingdom are well illustrated. In 1882 Dahn began a series of short novels, illustrating, he says, the spread of Roman civilization, which went hand in hand with the decline of Roman power over the migrating German tribes. The first of these novels is Felicitas (1882), which describes the capture of the distinctly Roman town of Claudium Juvavum (now Salzburg), by the Germans. The author gained his material when he was employed at Salzburg, in the archives, library, and museum of Roman antiquities. He added to his fund of thorough information by explorations in the vicinity of the town, finding many Roman things of interest. Felicitas well illustrates the thoroughness of research and the acute scientific spirit, which the Germans in a measure gave to the novel of Roman life. It also tells a story of deep human interest. In 1894 Dahn published A Captive of the Roman Eagles, a novel which tells the story of Bissula, and portrays the struggle between the Romans and the Alemanni near Lake Constance. This novel is also a model of thoroughness and historical accuracy. Dahn’s last novel, which appeared shortly after, was call The Scarlet Banner (1864), and paints with a like accuracy the overthrow of the Vandal king, Gelimer, by Belisarius.

The historical novels of George Ebers, and the profound classical scholarship he displayed in some of them, are well known everywhere. While his important series of historical novels, starting with An Egyptian Princess (1879), is designed principally to follow the course of history in Egypt, some of its numbers illustrate Roman life and Roman history. In 1881 appeared The Emperor, which presents a fine picture of life in the time of Hadrian. While the scene is laid mainly in Egypt, life in Alexandria is shown as presenting a close parallel to that of Rome. The sternness of Roman dominion in Egypt and the growth of Christianity in the Empire are brought home to the reader with many minute touches which show the author’s acuteness. The richly pictorial style is well suited to the description of splendid scenes, and the manners of private life are portrayed with accuracy of detail. Ebers also excels in his analysis of character. The Emperor Hadrian, who appears first as a benevolent philosopher, soon shows that he is capable of becoming a cruel tyrant. The character of Hadrian’s wife Sabina is also carefully analyzed, while his favorite, the beautiful youth Antinous, plays a prominent part in the story. It is likely that this gave a suggestion to Professor Hausroth (pseud. George Taylor), who made Antinous the hero of his novel of that name, which appeared in the same year as The Emperor.

In 1885 Ebers published Serapis, which portrays life in Alexandria in the time of Theodosius, and reveals much of Roman customs. The struggle between Christians and pagans is represented as culminating in the destruction of the temple of Serapis, and the demolition of the gigantic image of the god. This was a result of the edict abolishing the worship of idols. The dramatic scene in which the temple of Serapis is defended by a multitude of pagans, who have stored arms there, has appeared many years later in the novel of Roman life of the American author, T. Everett Harré, called Behold the Woman (1916). Another interesting point is that Serapis contains a splendid scene describing a chariot race, in which a Christian defeats a pagan, after the occurrence of a fatal accident. This scene may have been suggested to Ebers by the famous scene in Ben Hur (1880); while on the other hand it is likely that General Wallace, the American author of Ben Hur, owes some of his exactness in matters of scholarship to the example of such German scholars as George Ebers.

Another of Ebers’ novels which portrayed much of Roman life was Per Aspera (A Thorny Path) (1892). While the scene is again Alexandria, Per Aspera, like The Emperor, shows that city at the time of the visit paid to it by the Roman Emperor. In Per Aspera the Emperor is Bassianus, whose nickname, “Caracalla,” was derived from his custom of wearing a hood (caracalla). The portrait of Caracalla is well done, showing his physical and mental suffering, his pride, his dreams and his increasing insanity. The Christians are portrayed in a natural light, while pagan customs are well explained, and the splendor, display and wealth of Alexandria dazzle the imagination. The labyrinth motive appears in the mystery of the secret passages of the temple of Serapis. Scenes representing gladiators in the arena are characteristically Roman, while the slaughter of the youths in the parade-ground shows the cruelty of Rome and the power of her Emperor. Yet Ebers, with his usual insight into human character, shows that the Emperor, who could cruelly punish those who had wittily derided him, found his power of little ultimate value to him. In speaking of the Emperor’s poor health, mention is made of the great Roman physician, Galen, who plays an important part in Mr. E. L. White’s Andivius Hedulio (1921).

The next of Ebers’ novels to be considered is Cleopatra (1894). While it contains many characteristic touches, which show Ebers’ knowledge of life in what was soon to become permanently a Roman province, Cleopatra is not so much a portrayal of Roman life as a sympathetic interpretation of the later history of Egypt’s great queen. Ebers, as usual, is absolutely true to history, but endeavors to present Cleopatra as a human being, subject to strong emotions, rather than as an historical figure. Even Antony appears not so much in the character of a Roman general, as in that of a strong man who influences the character of Cleopatra. The chief value of Ebers’ Cleopatra lies in the fact that Ebers has come much nearer to presenting the real character of Cleopatra than has any other novelist. Sir Rider Haggard’s Cleopatra has been mentioned as a poor piece of work, while in Mr. W. S. Davis’s excellent novel, A Friend of Caesar (1900), Cleopatra is merely represented as a young girl.

A beautiful little novel which Ebers calls A Question; the Idyll of a Picture by His Friend Alma Tadema (1881), is written in a style quite different from that of his other novels. Its scene is Sicily, near Aetna, at a “time when the entire earth and air were peopled with gods, nymphs and satyrs.”[25] It is mentioned here because in its scene, its theme, and the simplicity and beauty of its style, there is a strong suggestion of the recently published novel of Mr. Eden Phillpotts, Evander (1919), the scene of which is prehistoric Italy. Evander gives one an idea of the first faint beginnings of Roman life in a semi-mythological setting similar to that of A Question.

The novels of Ernst Eckstein were almost as widely read in England and America as those of Ebers. Some of them equal or even surpass Ebers’ best work. Quintus Claudius (1881), gives a splendid portrayal of life in Rome under Domitian. The author has presented in a single story practically the whole life of Rome, and has described the most noted characters of the time. “The life and manners of all classes at this period were never painted with a bolder pencil than by Eckstein in this masterly romance, which displays as much scholarship as invention.”[26] In this review a better expression than “invention” would be “a gifted imagination and a deep insight into human nature.” In Quintus Claudius, the character of Domitia is interpreted in an entirely different way from that in which Baring-Gould interpreted it in Domitia (1898); but this does not mean that either author was untrue to history, since little is known of her, save that she and her Emperor-husband were at variance. In Eckstein’s novel the intrigues of Domitia really furnish the central theme, rather than the affairs of the imaginary Quintus Claudius, who spurns her and loves Cornelia. Quintus and Cornelia are very finely characterized, the former being by no means perfect, and subject to the vices of the time, although he later becomes a Christian. Among historical characters the poet Martial is portrayed as the court parasite that he was. The conspiracy against Domitian is described with historical accuracy and fine realistic effect. The book ends with the murder of Domitian and the accession of Trajan. Nerva is mentioned but not as an emperor.

In Prusias (1882), Eckstein rises to the greatness of his theme. The story is that of the revolt, in which Roman slaves, under the leadership of Spartacus, rose against Roman oppression. The character of Spartacus, in every respect true to history, is made to represent democracy and freedom. Coming, as it did, shortly after the Civil War had settled the slavery question in America, Prusias had a wide reading here. To supplement the fine character of Spartacus, Prusias, the technical hero of the story, is also represented as magnanimous and farsighted, well-fitted to aid the great general of the slaves in inspiring them to fight for freedom. By a stroke of genius, Prusias, who first appears in the disguise of a Chaldean magician, is conceived to be the brother and agent of Mithradates, King of Pontus. Rome’s two most powerful enemies are thus allied against her. While Prusias does much of the planning of the conspiracy, he does not overshadow the general of the slaves. The truly great historical character, Spartacus, is presented with a power not since equaled in fiction, and only approached by the Rev. A. J. Church in his excellent book for boys, Two Thousand Years Ago (1885), written shortly afterward. Prusias also portrays life in the city of Rome under the republic with accurate detail.

In The Chaldean Magician (1886), Eckstein portrays life at Rome under Diocletian. The varied phases of the many-sided life at Rome are brought into the picture in many ways, and Diocletian’s persecution of the Christians is given its due place. But as the title implies, the author gives especial attention to the magic arts which were practiced by Chaldean astrologers at Rome. The character of the “Chaldean Magician” had been in Eckstein’s mind when he was writing Prusias, and he took the opportunity of giving it greater prominence in his novel named for such a character. In fact, from the date of this novel, the figure of the Chaldean astrologer supplants that of the priest who deals in “Egyptian magic,” in those novels which deal with magic imported from foreign lands to Rome. It became the fashion for wealthy Romans to keep a Chaldean astrologer in their household, and such a character appears in Baring-Gould’s Domitia, and in Mr. W. S. Davis’s A Friend of Caesar.

Eckstein’s greatest novel of Roman life was Nero (1889). It was impossible for him to surpass the portrayal of the general life of Rome, which he had already made in his earlier novels; but in dealing with life in the time of Nero, he found the greatest opportunity to display his talents. In his faithfulness to the life and history of the time he prepared the way for the two other authors who have written great novels dealing with Nero’s time,—Canon Farrar in Darkness and Dawn (1892), and H. Sienkiewicz in Quo Vadis (1895). He was also closely followed by Hugh Westbury in Acte (1890), and by two writers of books for boys, the Rev. A. J. Church in The Burning of Rome (1892), and G. A. Henty in Beric, the Briton (1892). Eckstein’s keenness in portraying the court intrigues of Agrippina, Seneca, and Tigellinus, shows his understanding of human nature. But his greatest triumph is in the analysis of the character of Nero. The early boyhood of Nero, and his ingenuous love for Acte, who is kidnapped and kept hidden by the agents of Agrippina, are revealed with genuine sympathy. And Nero’s later development is traced step by step, with a fairness that makes him appear the victim not only of his own weakness, but of circumstance. In his revelation of character, as shown in his handling of the character of Nero or of Spartacus, Eckstein surpasses even the notable work of George Ebers.

REVIEW OF THE INFLUENCE OF GERMAN SCHOLARS AND AUTHORS

It is not intended to overemphasize the importance of the influence of German scholars and authors upon the English novel of Roman life. The influence of work such as that of Becker upon the English novel of Roman life may be described as follows: (1) It stimulated many English scholars to study the life of ancient Rome with a similar insistence upon accuracy in regard to the most minute details of history and archæology; in one or two instances an attempted imitation of work like Becker’s is seen in the work of pedantic authors of the novel of Roman life. (2) It served as one of the influences, which led popular writers of the novel of Roman life to realize the need for at least some accurate study of the history and life of Rome. The influence of German novelists such as Ebers and Eckstein, upon the English novel of Roman life, is seen in the more thorough scholarship which such English novels display,—especially after the publication of Eckstein’s Nero, which is the first of a series of important novels portraying life in Nero’s time. This series, as has been said, includes not only Farrar’s great novel, Darkness and Dawn, and other English fictions, but also the fine work of the Polish author, Sienkiewicz, in Quo Vadis (1895). In speaking of the thoroughness of German scholars, it might be said that in some instances German novelists such as Ebers, seem occasionally to have made the mistake of assuming that a mass of particulars heaped together can be shaped into the aspect of a general truth. In pursuing the details of a picture of Roman life, they have lost sight of its larger lines sometimes; but, on the whole, very rarely. We must not forget that there were English scholars, who played their part in impressing upon historical novelists the necessity for accuracy. But the German authors of novels of Roman life, produced so many good novels of this kind in so short a time, that their influence is seen in the work of English novelists, both in regard to the subjects which English writers have chosen, and in the methods of presenting such subjects taken from Roman life.