A History of Roman Literature

by Harold North Fowler

Ammianus Marcellinus; for the summary of universal history (Chronicorum Libri II) written by the Aquitanian Sulpicius Severus in the early years of the fifth century, and the more pretentious but no more original history of the world (Historiarum Adversus Paganos Libri VII) by Orosius of Spain, compiled soon after 417 A. D., are even less important than the handbook of Eutropius.

Ammianus Marcellinus (about 330-400 A. D.) was a Greek of Antioch, who became a soldier in the Roman army, served in Asia, in Gaul, and in the Persian campaign of the Emperor Julian, and was at some time in Egypt, but finally settled at Rome, where he wrote in Latin a continuation of Tacitus from Nerva to the death of Valens (96-378 A. D.). Ammianus Marcellinus. The entire work consisted of thirty-one books, thirteen of which are lost; but the extant books (XIV-XXXI), treating of the time from 353 to 378 A. D., and dealing with events in which the author took part, are especially valuable. Ammianus is an honest soldier, who, to use his own expression, never knowingly corrupts the truth by silence or falsehood, who has no liking and not much understanding for court intrigues, but is intent upon giving his readers a fair and unbiased account of events. His Latin is hard to understand, partly because he writes it as a foreigner, but still more because he wishes to write an ornate style and embellishes his work with many references to the Roman classics, sometimes quoting their exact words, oftener changing them a little, as if to show his perfect familiarity with the earlier literature. The geographical digressions introduced are not original descriptions of what Ammianus had himself seen, but are taken from Greek or Latin books. Although himself a pagan, Ammianus shows no hostility to Christianity, but his paganism is not very serious. He seems to believe that not all men think alike, and that on the whole it is well for each to believe as he can. His pictures of the life of the times are admirable, and bring before us in a clear light the corruption and degeneration of the age. Yet he does not seem to feel righteous indignation nor to understand that the greatness of the Roman empire is rapidly passing away. His history ends with the disastrous defeat of the Romans by the Goths at Hadrianople and the death of the Emperor Valens; but so accustomed was the world to the power of the Roman empire that even this terrible reverse was not recognized as portending the end of the ancient order of things. For a little while Theodosius was able to maintain the integrity of the empire, but the end was at hand. It is not unfitting that the last Roman historian, himself a Greek by birth, ends his work at a moment when more than ever before the Greek city of Constantinople was becoming the refuge of what remained of the old Roman civilization.

The study of law, which had for centuries been among the most important pursuits of Roman thinkers, was not neglected in the last centuries of Roman life. Law. Under Diocletian (284-305 A. D.) the imperial edicts were codified by Gregorianus, and in the reign of Constantine (323-337 A. D.) Hermogenianus continued the codification to his own time. In 438 A. D., under Theodosius II, the Codex Theodosianus was compiled by a commission of jurists, and in the reign of Justinian a commission headed by the distinguished jurist, scholar, and man of affairs Tribonian, gave to Roman law its final form in three great works: the Code, published in 529 A. D., the Pandects or Digests, and the Institutes, published in 533 A. D., which have served as the basis for all later jurisprudence.

Oratory found its chief field of activity in the Christian pulpit from the time of Constantine, but was not confined to the exposition of Christian doctrine. The Gallic school of oratory continued to flourish, and indeed Gaul was prominent in literature of all kinds during the fourth and fifth centuries. Oratory. Among other orators the most important was Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, a Roman of noble family and honorable character, whose life extended from about 345 to 405 A. D. His panegyrics on Valentinian I and Gratianus resemble the other panegyrics of the period, and the fragmentary remains of later speeches delivered in the senate show no greater ability. More interesting are his letters, in which he appears as an imitator of the younger Pliny, and his official reports as prefect of the city.

A curious prose version of the story of the Trojan War was written by Lucius Septimius, apparently in the second half of the fourth century. Dictys and Dares. This purports to a translation of an ancient Greek manuscript in Phœnician letters found in the tomb of a certain Dictys, in Crete. The story of the discovery of the manuscript is undoubtedly an invention, but the Latin account may be a translation of a lost Greek original. The style is artificial and full of antiquated expressions. The author most persistently imitated is Sallust. A somewhat similar little work belonging to the fifth century pretends to be a translation by Cornelius Nepos of a Greek account of the Trojan War given by a Phrygian Dares, who fought among the Trojans. The style is dry and unattractive, but the little book was much read in the Middle Ages. These two works serve to give us some idea of the kind of literature which, alongside of the Greek novels, amused the leisure hours of cultivated persons.

The contents of the works of the leaders of the church in the fourth and fifth centuries can hardly be considered in a history of Roman literature, but inasmuch as their writings show the continued influence of classical Latin, their style and choice of words should be briefly mentioned. Hilarius. The bitter controversy between the Arians and the Athanasians produced in the fourth century a great number of controversial writings, among which those of Hilarius (St. Hilary), Bishop of Poitiers, are remarkable for depth of philosophical thought and care in expression. Hilarius was born between 310 and 320 A. D., and was trained in the Gallic school of eloquence. After his conversion to Christianity he soon became bishop of his native Poitiers. His opposition to Arianism, which Constantius favored, led to his banishment, but he was recalled after three years, in 358 A. D. His death took place in 367 A. D. Besides his controversial writings he was the author of commentaries on several books of the Old and New Testaments, and perhaps also of hymns. His style shows in some passages his early training in the school of wordy and ornate Gallic oratory, but is chiefly distinguished for its vigor and passion. Hilarius carried on the work of adapting Latin to the expression of Christian abstract thought, which had been begun in Africa by Tertullian.

Ambrosius (St. Ambrose), who lived from about 340 to 397 A. D., was probably born in Gaul, where his father was prefect, but was of Roman, not Gallic blood. Ambrosius. After a careful education he became a barrister, and was soon raised to the consular rank and made governor of the provinces of Liguria and Æmilia. Thus he came to Milan, where he was chosen bishop in 374 A. D. He was a man of great tact as well as firmness, who dared to exclude the Emperor Theodosius from the church, until he had shown repentance for the massacre at Thessalonica, and to refuse the request of the Empress Justina that one of the churches at Milan be set aside for the Arians, but who succeeded in avoiding any breach with the emperor in spite of his independence. It was in great part due to St. Ambrose that Italy was kept from adopting the Arian heresy. His writings comprise letters, dogmatic treatises, practical treatises on the conduct of life, commentaries on the Scriptures, funeral orations on Valentinian II and Theodosius, and hymns. He is also the probable author of a translation of Josephus into Latin. In his mystic, allegorical interpretations of Scripture St. Ambrose follows the Jewish-Stoic philosopher Philo, who lived about the time of Christ, and in his treatise On Duties he imitates Cicero’s work of the same title. His intimate acquaintance with other works of the classical period is made evident both by the general quality of his style, which is purer than that of most of his contemporaries, and by many special references. His hymns have had great influence upon church poetry and music.

St. Jerome (Hieronymus) was born about 331 A. D., at Stridon, a town on the borders of Dalmatia and Pannonia, studied at Rome under Donatus, then spent two years at Treves, was afterwards at Aquileia for some time, then sailed to Syria. Jerome (Hieronymus). Here he was ill for a time, and solaced himself by reading the classics, until he was warned by a dream to give up profane literature. He retreated into the wilderness of Chalcis, where he remained five years. In 362 A. D. he returned Rome, where he had great influence for many years, but in 386 he retired to a monastery at Bethlehem. There he remained until his death, in 420 A. D. As a controversial writer St. Jerome had great influence in settling the doctrines of the Catholic church; he also wrote commentaries on various books of the Bible, and numerous letters dealing with religious questions. His translation of the Bible was a masterly performance, and is the basis of the Latin Vulgate, still in use in the Roman Catholic church. He compiled a brief work, De Viris Illustribus, in which he gave sketches of the lives of Christian writers, as Suetonius, in his work of the same title, had given the lives of the old Roman authors. The sketches given by Jerome are, however, much briefer than were those of Suetonius. The translation and continuation of the Chronicle of Eusebius has already been mentioned (see page [262]). St. Jerome is one of the ablest writers of the early Christian church, and certainly the most learned Christian writer of his time. His style is not exempt from the faults of exaggeration and verbal quibbling common in the writings of the age, but possesses much life and earnestness, and is free from the affectation of classicism, though it shows the effect of his prolonged study of the classics.

St. Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus) was born in 354 A. D. at Tagaste, in Africa. Augustine. His father was a pagan, his mother a Christian, and in his early years Augustine himself accepted the doctrine of Manicheeism, a sort of mystical materialism, which denied all authority, and claimed to rest entirely upon reason. He was a successful teacher of rhetoric in Africa, at Rome, and at Milan, where he came under the influence of St. Ambrose and was converted. In 388 A. D. he returned to Africa, became presbyter at Hippo in 392, and bishop in 395 A. D. His death took place in 430 A. D. His nature was many sided, and composed of apparently contradictory elements. He was a mystic speculator, a sharp reasoner, at one time harsh and uncompromising, at another full of tenderness, an original thinker yet a believer in authority, dreamer, poet, philosopher, rhetorician, and quibbler in one. His writings are in part speculations on theology, in part ponderings on the soul, its nature and its relations to God, and in part controversial treatises, sermons, commentaries, and letters. The best known among them are the Confessions, in which Augustine gives many details of his life, and records the doubts that perplexed him, and the City of God (De Civitate Dei), a work of his old age, in which he contrasts the city (or better, the state) of this world with the ideal city of God. This work was written in reply to the pagans, who claimed that the sack of Rome by Alaric was due to the neglect of the ancient worship. It consists of twenty-two books, in the first ten of which the “vain opinions adverse to the Christian religion” are refuted, while the twelve remaining are devoted to a presentation of Christian truth, though each division contains many digressions, and in each the part of the subject properly belonging to the other is treated as occasion demands. In many parts of this great work reference is made to Cicero’s De Re Publica and other philosophical writings, and Augustine’s dialogue Contra Academicos is an evident imitation of Cicero’s Academics. Yet it can not be said that Augustine’s style is modelled upon that of Cicero. It is rather a style which had gradually developed among Christian writers, in which the periodic structure of the Ciceronian age is abandoned for the most part, many words unknown to strictly classical Latin have been introduced, partly from the popular speech and partly by new formation to express abstract ideas, not a few Biblical phrases are employed, and some slight changes in syntax are noticeable. This is the Latin of the church, which has remained nearly as St. Augustine left it, except in so far as the strictly classical element grew less in the centuries preceding the Renaissance. For St. Augustine the “state” of this world still means the Roman empire, though the eternal city had been sacked by the Goths, but the time seems to him not far distant when the state of God shall rest in the “stability of its eternal seat.” So his language is still Latin; but his thoughts and sentiments are Christian, not Roman. The ancient world was still visible about him, but the life of the Middle Ages had begun.