In the Apocolocyntosis Seneca appears as a political satirist. The title may be translated Pumpkinification, for the word is made from the Greek apotheosis, with the word for “pumpkin” substituted for the word meaning “god.” This joke does not, however, appear in the pamphlet itself. The Apocolocyntosis. The Emperor Claudius, who had just died, is supposed to arrive at Olympus and claim admittance among the gods. The gods hold a meeting, at which Augustus speaks against the admission of Claudius, who is finally sent off to Hades, where he is met by those whom he has unjustly put to death. This is the only extant specimen of a complete Menippean Satire, a work written in prose for the most part, but containing also metrical portions. For that reason it has a certain interest, but its literary merit is slight. Nor are Seneca’s epigrams of any great importance. They are merely such verses as any cultivated man of letters like Seneca can write when the occasion offers.
The age of Seneca produced no great poets, and few whose works have survived. Persius. The earliest of these is Aulus Persius Flaccus, who was born at Volaterræ, December 4, 34 A. D., and died at the age of twenty-eight, November 24, 62 A. D. At the age of twelve, Persius left his native town for Rome, where he attended various schools, among them that of the grammarian Remmius Palæmon. At the age of sixteen he attached himself to the Stoic Cornutus and became an enthusiastic adherent of the Stoic school. He was acquainted with many of the distinguished men of the time, among them Seneca and the epic poet Lucan. He was related to Arria, the wife of Pætus Thrasea, and his intimacy with Thrasea and his family doubtless strengthened his interest in the Stoic philosophy; for Thrasea was one of the many noble Romans who found in the Stoic doctrines some moral support amid the vice and corruption of their degenerate times. Persius belonged to a family of equestrian rank, and at his death left a large property. His library he left to Cornutus, who edited his poems, consisting of six Satires. Persius had written some notes of travel and a tragedy of the kind called prætexta, but these were not published. In the first satire he attacks the literary production of the time, and the prevailing love of notoriety. This is a real satire, in imitation of those of Lucilius or, rather, of Horace. In the remaining poems Persius discourses on subjects drawn from the doctrines of the Stoics. The second satire treats of prayer, the third of the contradiction between our conduct and what we know is right, the fourth of self-knowledge; in the fifth Persius gratefully praises Cornutus, who had trained him in Stoic philosophy, and passes on to describe true freedom, which delivers men from the tyranny of the passions; in the sixth he addresses his friend, the poet Cæsius Bassus, speaks of his own pleasant life in retirement at Luna, and discusses the true use of this world’s goods.
The poems of Persius were much admired by his contemporaries, and later generations, even throughout the Middle Ages, read them and wrote commentaries upon them. This admiration was due to the moral and ethical contents of the poems, though the style also no doubt pleased the perverted taste of the poet’s own times. But neither the contents nor the style merits admiration. Quality of the poems of Persius. Persius was a young man of little originality, who expressed in his poems only what he learned from his teachers. The Stoic doctrines he teaches are trite, even the examples he cites being derived from books, not from his own experience; and the style has all the faults of the period. Persius had studied Horace with diligence, and his poems are full of Horatian words and phrases, but they have nothing of the grace and charm of Horace. Persius aims at striking expressions and novelty of form. He therefore avoids as much as possible all that is natural, employs unusual words in unnatural order, and succeeds in being obscure without being profound. Few authors have so undeservedly gained long-enduring reputation.
A far abler poet was Marcus Annæus Lucanus, the nephew of Seneca. He was born at Corduba in 39 A. D., but was taken to Rome when only eight months old. Lucan. There he was well-educated, especially in rhetoric, and acquired a reputation as a declaimer in Greek and Latin. One of his teachers was the philosopher Cornutus, and among his friends was Persius, whom he admired greatly. He went to Athens to complete his education, and was called back to Rome by Nero, who made him one of his circle of friends. In 60 A. D. he wrote a poem in praise of Nero, which led to his political advancement. But Nero’s favor was short-lived, either because Lucan was guilty of some impoliteness in public declaiming, or because Nero was jealous of his reputation as a poet, and forbade him to write or recite. Lucan joined the conspiracy of Piso, and was forced to commit suicide, April 30, 65 A. D.
Lucan wrote several works, chiefly in verse, but the only, one extant is an epic poem in ten books, entitled De Bello Civili (On the Civil War), ordinarily called Pharsalia, in which he tells the story of the civil war to the time when Cæsar was besieged at Alexandria. The Pharsalia. The narrative is prosaic and somewhat dull, but the tedium is relieved by vivid descriptions and really eloquent speeches. The chief historical source is Livy, though other writers seem to have been consulted. Some inaccuracies detract from the historical value of the poem. The diction is in the main Virgilian, though it is evident that Lucan had studied Horace and Ovid. Geographical and mythological lore is sometimes needlessly displayed, and the author’s rhetorical training and ability are too evident. In Books I-III Lucan is still friendly to Nero, whom he flatters in Book I, 33-66, though throughout the entire work Cæsar, the founder of the empire, is the constant object of the poet’s hostility. In the first three books Pompey is the hero, and Cato and Brutus are spoken of with admiration. The opposition to Cæsar does not, however in Lucan’s case, indicate hostility to the empire and a desire to return to the republican form of government; in fact, Lucan’s participation in the conspiracy of Piso, which had for its purpose the overthrow of Nero and the substitution of a good emperor in his place, shows that he accepted the imperial form of government as the only one possible. As a specimen of Lucan’s spirit, and of the speeches which lend brilliancy to his pages, we may take the address of Cato to the Roman soldiers of Pompey’s army in Egypt after Pompey’s death, when the army was on the point of joining Cæsar:
So for no higher cause you waged your wars?
You, too, youths, fought for masters, and you were
No Roman force, but only Pompey’s band?
Since not for royalty you’re toiling now,
Since for yourselves, not for your leaders’ gain