Literature. The last century of the republic saw the completion of the amalgamation of Greek and Roman culture which had begun in the previous epoch. The resulting Graeco-Roman culture was a [pg 199]bi-lingual civilization based upon Greek intellectual and Roman political achievement which it was the mission of the empire to spread to the barbaric peoples of the western provinces. The age was marked by many-sided, keen, intellectual activity which brought Rome’s intellectual development to its height. Yet this Graeco-Roman culture was almost exclusively a possession of the higher classes.
The drama. In the field of dramatic literature the writing of tragedy practically ceased and comedy took the popular forms of caricature (fabula Atellana) and the mime, or realistic imitation of the life of the lower classes. Both forms were derived from Greek prototypes but dealt with subjects of everyday life and won great popularity in the theatrical exhibitions given at the public games.
Poetry: Catullus, 87–c. 54 B. C. The best exponent of the poetry of the age is Catullus, a native of Verona in Cisalpine Gaul, who as a young man was drawn into the vortex of fashionable society at the capital. This new poetry appealed to a highly educated class, conversant alike with the literature of the Greek classic and Hellenistic periods as well as with modern production, and able to appreciate the most elaborate and diversified meters. The works of Catullus show the wide range of form and subject which appealed to contemporary taste. Translations and copies of Greek originals find their place alongside epigrams and lyric poems of personal experience. It is his poetry of passion, of love and hate, which places him among the foremost lyric poets of all time.
Lucretius, 98–53 B. C. An exception among the poets of his time was Lucretius, who combined the spirit of a poet with that of a religious teacher. He felt a mission to free the minds of men from fear of the power of the gods and of death. To this end he wrote a didactic epic poem, On the Nature of Things, in which he explained the atomic theory of Democritus which was the foundation of the philosophical teachings of Epicurus. The essence of this doctrine was that the world and all living creatures were produced by the fortuitous concourse of atoms falling through space and that death was simply the dissolution of the body into its component atomic elements. Consequently, there was no future existence to be dreaded. True poetic value is given to the work by the author’s great imaginative powers and his keen observation of nature and human life. Lucretius made the Latin hexameter a fitting medium for the expression of sustained and lofty thought.
Oratory. It was through the study and practice of oratory that Roman prose attained its perfection between the time of the Gracchi and Julius Caesar. Political and legal orations were weapons in the party strife of the day and were frequently polished and edited as political pamphlets. Along with political documents of this type appeared orations that were not written to be delivered in the forum or senate chamber but were addressed solely to a reading public. Among the great forensic orators of the age were the two Gracchi, of whom the younger, Caius, had the reputation of being the most effective speaker that Rome ever knew. Others of note were Marcus Antonius, grandfather of the triumvir, Lucius Licinius Crassus, and Quintus Hortensius Hortalus. But it was Cicero who brought to its perfection the Roman oration in its literary form.
Cicero, 106–43 B. C. Cicero was beyond question the intellectual leader of his day. He was above all things an orator and until past the age of fifty his literary productivity was almost entirely in that field. In his latter years he undertook the great task of making Hellenistic philosophy accessible to the Roman world through the medium of Latin prose. In addition to his speeches and oratorical and philosophic treatises Cicero left to posterity a great collection of letters which were collected and published after his death by his freedman secretary. His correspondence with his friends is a mine of information for the student of society and politics in the last century of the republic.
Caesar, 100–44 B. C. Julius Caesar made his genius felt in the world of letters as well as of politics. Though an orator of high rank, he is better known as the author of his lucid commentaries on the Gallic war and on the Civil war, which present the view that he desired the Roman public to take of his conflict with the senate.
Sallust, 86–36 B. C. Foremost among historical writers of the period was Caius Sallustius Crispus, “the first scientific Roman historian.” Subsequent generations ranked him as the greatest Roman historian. His chief work, a history of the period 78–67 B. C., is almost entirely lost, but two shorter studies on the Jugurthine war and Cataline’s conspiracy have been preserved. In contrast to Cicero, he is the protagonist of Caesarianism.
Varro, 116–27 B. C. Of great interest to later ages were the works of the antiquarian and philologist, Marcus Terentius Varro, the most learned Roman of his time. His great work on Roman religious and [pg 201]political antiquities has been lost, but a part of his study On the Latin Language is still extant, as well as his three books On Rural Conditions. The latter give a good picture of agricultural conditions in Italy towards the end of the republic.
Jurisprudence. To legal literature considerable contributions were made both in the domain of applied law and of legal theory. We have already noticed the appeal which the Stoic philosophy made to the best that was in Roman character and many of the leading Roman jurists accepted its principles. It was natural then that Roman legal philosophy should begin under the influence of the Stoic doctrine of a universal divine law ruling the world, this law being an emanation of right reason, i. e. the divine power governing the universe. The most influential legal writers of the period were Quintus Mucius Scaevola who compiled a systematic treatment of the civil law in eighteen books, and Servius Sulpicius Rufus, the contemporary of Cicero. Sulpicius was a most productive author, whose works included Commentaries on the XII Tables, and on the Praetor’s Edict, as well as studies on special aspects of Roman law.