Historical writing was at a low ebb. Suetonius is far the most important historian of the second century, and he is made important rather by the dearth of good historians than by his own merits. Other historical writings of the second century. Florus hardly deserves the name of historian. Justin’s epitome of Trogus (see page [164]) belongs, perhaps, to the time of Hadrian, and is important because it has preserved much of the substance of the work of Trogus, but is in no sense an original history. Under Antoninus Pius a history of Rome was written by Granius Licinianus, but the extant fragments show that this was little more than an epitome of Livy. The Liber Memorialis, by Lucius Ampelius, written at about the same time, is a little handbook of useful knowledge, containing general information about the earth, the stars, and the winds, followed by a brief sketch of the history of various nations. It is a mere compilation, possessing neither historical nor literary value.
The study of law was, on the other hand, pursued by many jurists of ability, whose works were much used by those who gave to Roman law its final form in the reign of Justinian. Jurists. Under Hadrian the edicts of the prætors and other magistrates were collected and codified by Salvius Julianus, a distinguished jurist of African birth, who attained the position of præfectus urbi and was twice consul. The Edictum Perpetuum, as his work is called, became henceforth the basis of Roman law. Julianus was also the author of independent juristic works. Sextus Pomponius, a younger contemporary of Julianus, wrote among other things a brief history of Roman jurisprudence, which is incorporated in the digests. Among the many jurists of the reign of Antoninus Pius, the most important is Gaius (about 110-180 A. D.), whose introduction to the study of law (Institutiones), clearly written in good and simple language, is for the most part preserved in the digests, and served as the foundation of the similar work written at the command of Justinian. The works of Quintus Cervidius Scævola, who lived under Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, were also much used by the writers of the pandects. One of the most distinguished jurists under Commodus and Septimius Severus was Papinianus, who was put to death under Caracalla (212 A. D.) because he was faithful to that emperor’s brother Geta.
The study of grammar was diligently pursued in the second century, and with it went the writing of commentaries on the classical authors. Grammar, literature, and philosophy. Under Hadrian, Terentius Scaurus wrote a Latin grammar, part of which is preserved in an abbreviated form, as well as commentaries on Plautus, Virgil, and Horace, fragments of which are found in the works of later commentators. Under the Antonines, rhetoricians and grammarians were numerous, and discussions of literary and grammatical questions formed a considerable part of polite conversation. Metrical handbooks were written by Terentianus Maurus and Juba, Helvius Acro wrote commentaries on Terence, Horace, and Persius about the end of the second century, and Pomponius Porphyrio, a grammarian of distinction, whose scholia on Horace still exist, though not in their original form, wrote probably at the end of the second or the beginning of the third century. Festus, who made an epitome of Verrius Flaccus (see page [166]) probably lived but little after this time. Some of the rhetoricians of this period probably continued to teach as they had themselves been taught, but the most important among them developed a new school, which will form the subject of our next chapter. Philosophy had in the second century still many followers, but there was little literary production in Latin. Dio Chrysostom, Plutarch, Marcus Aurelius, and Sextus Empiricus wrote in Greek.
CHAPTER XVII
LITERARY INNOVATIONS
Fronto, about 100 to about 175 A. D.—Gellius, born about 125 A. D.—Apuleius, about 125 to about 200 A. D.—Innovations in poetry—The Pervigilium Veneris.
An important figure in the literature of the second century was Marcus Cornelius Fronto, of Cirta, in Numidia. Fronto. He was born about 100 A. D., studied under the best teachers, and was distinguished as an orator and teacher even under Hadrian, though his greatest influence was exerted under the Antonines. He became a member of the senate under Hadrian, and his speech against the Christians may have been delivered before that body. In 143 A. D. he was consul, and was to have been proconsul entrusted with the government of Asia, but relinquished that office on account of ill health. He was the teacher of Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Verus, both of whom were much attached to him, and as was natural under such circumstances, he was greatly honored and became very wealthy. Of his family life we know only that he was married, that his daughter Gratia married Gaius Aufidius Victorinus, and that five daughters were removed by death. The date of his death is unknown, but it was probably shortly after 175 A. D. Parts of Fronto’s correspondence were discovered in 1815, and from his letters, we get an idea of his style and his teaching. The correspondence is with Marcus Aurelius, Lucius Verus, Antoninus Pius, and others, and several essays are included, which were probably sent with the letters to Fronto’s correspondents. One of these essays, the Principia Historiæ compares the Parthian campaigns of Verus and Trajan to the advantage of Verus. This essay was intended to serve as an introduction to a history of the deeds of Verus in the Parthian War, but the history was never written. What gives Fronto’s letters their chief interest is his teaching in regard to oratory and style. He considers rhetoric the noblest possible study, and warns Marcus Aurelius against surrendering to the charms of philosophy, but the chief end of the study of rhetoric is to acquire new and striking words and phrases. Fronto apparently despaired of acquiring new ideas or new points of view, and he saw that Latin literature could not go on forever merely imitating the writers of the Golden Age, or even those of the Silver Age. He was too much of a scholar to think of drawing from the living spring of common every-day speech, and therefore hit upon the expedient of reverting to the early writers, such as Ennius, Plautus, Accius, Cato, Sallust, and Gracchus. His language is therefore full of old-fashioned expressions used without the simplicity that belongs to the early times. That such a writer as Fronto was highly respected and exerted a powerful influence upon his contemporaries is a sign of the depth to which Roman literature had sunk.
A much younger man than Fronto, but like him, a man of books and an admirer of archaic phraseology, was Aulus Gellius, who was born probably about 125 A. D., studied under various masters at Rome and at Athens, and held some judicial position at Rome. Aulus Gellius. His extant work, entitled Noctes Atticæ (Attic Nights), received its title from the fact that it contains the results of the writer’s labors begun at Athens, when he used to read various authors and make extracts from them in the night. These extracts, with a variety of notes and comments, are arranged in twenty books, all of which are preserved except the eighth, of which we have only the table of contents, and the end of the twentieth. The subjects treated are language and literature, law, philosophy and natural history. Gellius quotes no contemporary authors, but introduces them as speakers, for parts of his work have the form of dialogues. There is no order in the arrangement of subjects, but things are put down as Gellius happened to find them in the works he read. No critical faculty is exhibited, nor has Gellius any marked literary skill. He is simply a diligent compiler, whose work is interesting and valuable to us merely because it preserves fragments of earlier works now lost and information about a variety of subjects.