It is not easy for the modern reader to enjoy Juvenal. His satires are full of allusions to unknown persons and things at Rome; they abound also in mythological references and literary reminiscences, and finally the savage tone of the earlier books is disagreeable. Yet the power of invective, the clearness and vividness of description, the variety of diction, and the beauty of versification have combined to make Juvenal a much read author. That he is also much quoted is due to the epigrammatic and pointed form of many of his phrases. Mens sana in corpore sano,[118] Rara avis,[119] Panem et circenses,[120] Hoc volo, sic iubeo,[121] Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?[122] are among the most familiar Latin quotations, and many other almost equally familiar expressions are derived from Juvenal. Some of these are distinguished for their significance quite as much as for their form. Such are, for instance: “And for the sake of life give up life’s only end[123] and “The greatest reverence is due a child.”[124] It is not without reason that Juvenal has exerted great influence on human thought.
Tacitus and Juvenal resemble each other in their originality and vigor of thought and expression, their severe judgment of men and manners, and their pessimism. Pliny the younger. The younger Pliny contrasts with them in all these respects, and his letters give us an idea of Roman life very different from that which we derive from them. Gaius Plinius Cæcilius Secundus was the son of Lucius Cæcilius Cilo, a wealthy nobleman of Comum, but was adopted by will by his uncle, the elder Pliny. He therefore changed his name, which was originally Publius Cæcilius Secundus, and took that of his uncle, retaining his original family name, Cæcilius, only for legal and formal use. He was born in 61 or 62 A. D., for he was in his eighteenth year when the eruption of Vesuvius took place, August 24, 79 A. D. Cilo had died when Pliny was young, and the boy had become the ward of Verginius Rufus, which fact did not, however, diminish the paternal interest of his uncle, with whom he was at the time of the eruption. Pliny began his career as an advocate in 80 or 81 A. D. He held various offices, was military tribune, quæstor in 89-90 A. D., tribune of the people in 90-91 A. D., prætor in 93 A. D., was one of the prefects in charge of the war treasury and also of the general treasury, became consul in 100 A. D., and succeeded Sextus Julius Frontinus in the college of augurs in 103 or 104 A. D. He was governor of Pontus and Bithynia either in 111-112 or 112-113 A. D., and died before 114 A. D., either in his province or soon after his return to Italy. His life was passed chiefly in the service of the government, and for the most part at Rome. He was married three times, but had no children. He was an orator of some importance, delivering most of his speeches in inheritance cases, though he was employed five times in important criminal suits. He recited his speeches before delivering them in public, and after delivery he published them, sometimes with corrections. He was interested in poetry, and wrote poems of various kinds, but these, as well as his speeches, with the exception of his panegyric on Trajan, are lost.
Pliny’s extant works consist of nine books of letters to various persons, written between 97 and 109 A. D., a panegyric on the Emperor Trajan, delivered in 100 A. D. when Pliny was made consul, and seventy-two letters to Trajan, written between 98 and 106, and from September, 111, to January, 113 A. D. Pliny’s letters. Trajan’s replies to fifty-one of these letters are published which exhibit his firm judgment and practical common sense in striking contrast to Pliny’s indecision and lack of independence. Pliny’s other letters are more interesting. He describes the scenes in the Roman courts, the gatherings where the audience was bored by authors who recited their works, he gives detailed descriptions of his Laurentine[125] and Tuscan[126] villas, in two letters[127] to Tacitus he gives an account of the eruption of Vesuvius, his uncle’s death, and his own feelings. Incidentally he throws much light upon the social and family life of the time. His own character is also clearly portrayed. What a young prig he must have been who refused his uncle’s invitation to accompany him to see, from a nearer point of view, the great eruption, preferring to spend his time over his books, and who even continued to make extracts when awakened by the terrible quaking of the earth—and this at seventeen years of age! His vanity is beautifully exhibited in another letter to Tacitus,[128] in which he tells a story to his own credit, and hopes that Tacitus will insert it in the Histories, and in still another,[129] where he says to the most original and inimitable of all Roman writers since the Augustan times, “You, such is the similarity of our natures, always seemed to me most easy to imitate and most to be imitated. Wherefore I am the more pleased that, if there is any talk about literature, we are mentioned together, that I occur at once to those who are speaking of you.” Other qualities appear no less clearly. Vain he was and fond of praise, but at the same time kind to his slaves, affectionate to his friends, gentle, and conscientious. He seldom speaks unkindly of any one; and when he utters a sharp criticism, he almost always avoids mentioning the name of the person criticized. The love of nature was fashionable at Rome, and Pliny may be only following the fashion when he writes of natural scenery, but it is quite as probable that he really felt its charms. He had a great admiration for Cicero, and it was doubtless owing, in part, at least, to this admiration that Pliny, like Cicero, published his letters. There is, however, a great difference between the two collections. Cicero’s letters were collected and published by others, whereas Pliny’s were from the beginning intended for publication and were published at various times by Pliny himself. They are therefore not unpremeditated utterances, but carefully prepared writings for the perusal of the public. Nevertheless the epistolary style is well preserved, though not without some pedantic elegance, and the letters give us the same insight into Roman life under Trajan as do those of Cicero into the life of the last years of the republic.
The Panegyric on Trajan was delivered as the official expression of thanks on the part of Pliny and his colleague Cornutus Tertullus for their elevation to the consulate. After the speech was delivered it was revised and enlarged. It is therefore in its extant form neither a speech nor an historical essay, but a mixture of the two. The Panegyric.After an introduction, Trajan’s acts before his entrance into Rome are recounted, then his entrance into the city, and his many political, municipal, and financial measures for the good of the state. Trajan’s personal qualities are praised in the most fulsome manner and those of Domitian set forth in the most hateful light. Then comes an account of Trajan’s second and third consulships, his care for the provinces, and his judicial acts, with traits of his private life. The speech or treatise ends with the expression of thanks from Pliny and his colleague. The Panegyric is not an attractive production, but it is the chief source of information concerning the history of the earlier years of Trajan’s rule.
Though not a great man nor a great writer, Pliny was a cultivated gentleman and a useful citizen. Other writers. His letters make us acquainted with Roman life from a side that Tacitus and Juvenal leave practically untouched. They are therefore not only interesting, but, as historical documents of great importance. Besides Tacitus, Juvenal, and Pliny, there are no writers of the time of Trajan who deserve more than passing mention. The names of numerous poets are preserved, chiefly in Pliny’s letters, but their works are lost, and we have no reason to believe that they merited preservation. Orators, jurists, and grammarians continued speaking and writing, and some among them attained eminence, but their works are lost for the most part, and the technical treatises on grammar which are preserved possess little interest for the student of literature. The same remark applies to the treatises on surveying and on the fortification of camps by Hyginus, on geometry by Balbus, and on surveying by Siculus Flaccus. The literature of the period between the death of Domitian and the accession of Hadrian is contained in the works of Tacitus, Juvenal, and Pliny.
CHAPTER XVI
THE EMPERORS AFTER TRAJAN—SUETONIUS—OTHER WRITERS
Hadrian, 117-138 A. D.—Antoninus Pius, 138-161 A. D.—Marcus Aurelius, 161-180 A. D.—Commodus, 180-192 A. D.—Septimius Severus, 193-211 A. D.—Alexander Severus, 222-235 A. D.—Gordian I, 238 A. D.—Gallienus, 260-268 A. D.—Aurelian, 270-275 A. D.—Tacitus, 275 A. D.—Suetonius, about 70 or 75 to about 150 A. D.—Florus, time of Hadrian—Justin, time of Hadrian (?)—Liciniauus, time of Antoninus Pius—Ampelius, time of Antoninus Pius (?)—Salvius Julianus, time of Hadrian—Sextus Pomponius, time of Antoninus Pius—Gaius, about 110-180 A. D.—Quintus Cervidius Scævola, time of Antoninus and M. Aurelius—Papinianus, time of Commodus and Septimius Severus—Terentius Scaurus, time of Hadrian—Terentianus Maurus and Juba, before 200 A. D.—Aero, about 200 A. D.—Porphyrio, about 200 A. D.—Festus, early in the third century.