The Greek Epigram was originally, as the word implies, simply an inscription. It was therefore short and concise; its metre elegiac, as especially suited to the periodic structure of the sentiment, and its characteristic qualities, terseness and neatness. So long as it retained this character it was free from bitterness; and the principal element of success in this species of composition was tact rather than genius, and a cultivated taste rather than poetical inspiration. Not only were Catullus, Virgil, and Ovid epigrammatists, but some Roman literati, arrived at mediocrity, or even excellence, in epigram, who were not capable of becoming great poets. Julius Cæsar wrote one on Terence, and perhaps the following neatly-turned lines; although they have been ascribed to Augustus and Germanicus:—
Thrax puer astricto glacie dum ludit in Hebro
Pondere concretas frigore rupit aquas;
Dumque imæ partes rapido traherentur ab amne,
Abscidit tenerum lubrica testa caput.
Orba quod inventum mater dum conderet urna,
Hoc peperi flammis, cetera, dixit, aquis.
Lutatius Catulus was the author of a quatrain on Roscius the comedian; and the Anthology, amongst numerous others, contains one by Augustus,[[1143]] and four of no merit by Mæcenas,[[1144]] together with those beautiful lines addressed by Hadrian to his soul, which Pope has imitated in his “Dying Christian:”—
Animula vagula blandula,
Hospes comesque corporis,