Chapter 89
'In spite of its immaturity and bad taste the poem compels admiration by its elevation of thought and sustained brilliance of execution; it contains pa.s.sages of lofty thought and real beauty, such as the dream of Pompeius, or the character which Cato gives of Pompeius, and is full of quotations which have become household words; such as, _In se magna ruunt--Stat magni nominis umbra--Nil actum reputans si quid superesset agendum_ (a line which rivals Caesar's energy).'--Mackail.
The brief and balanced judgment of Quintilian (_Inst. Orat._ X. i. 90) sums up Lucan in words which suggest at once his chief merits and defects as a poet: _Luca.n.u.s ardens et concitatus et sententiis clarissimus et magis oratoribus quam poetis imitandus--Lucan has fire and point, is very famous for his maxims, and indeed is rather a model for orators than poets_.
GAIUS LUCILIUS, circ. 170-103 B.C.
1. Life.
[Sidenote: LUCILIUS.]
Lucilius was born in the Latin town of Suessa of the Aurunci, in Campania, of a well-to-do equestrian family. Velleius tells us that the sister of Lucilius was grandmother to Pompeius, and that Lucilius served in the cavalry under Scipio in the Numantine war, 134 B.C. Lucilius lived on very intimate terms with Scipio Africa.n.u.s Minor and Laelius, and died at Naples (103 B.C.), where he was honoured with a public funeral.
2. Works.
+Saturae+ in thirty Books, in various metres. Fragments only are extant.
'After Terence he is the most distinguished and the most important in his literary influence among the friends of Scipio. The form of literature which he invented and popularised, that of familiar poetry, was one which proved singularly suited to the Latin genius. He speaks of his own works under the name of _Sermones_ (talks)--a name which was retained by his great successor and imitator Horace; but the peculiar combination of metrical form with wide range of subject and the pedestrian style of ordinary prose received in popular usage the name _Satura_ (mixture).'--Mackail.
_Satura quidem tota nostra est, in qua primus insignem laudem adeptus Lucilius._ --Quint. X. i. 93.
'The chief social vices which Lucilius attacks are those which reappear in the pages of the later satirists. They are the two extremes to which the Roman temperament was most p.r.o.ne: rapacity and meanness in gaining money, vulgar ostentation and coa.r.s.e sensuality in using it.' --Sellar.
Juvenal says of him (_Sat._ i. 165-7):
'When old Lucilius seems to draw his sword and growls in burning ire, the hearer blushes for shame, his conscience is chilled for his offences, and his heart faints for secret sins.'
T. LUCRETIUS CARUS, circ. 99-55 B.C.
1. Life.
[Sidenote: LUCRETIUS.]
Very little is known of his life. The subiect of his poem prevented him from telling his own history as Catullus, Horace, and Ovid have done, and his contemporaries seldom refer to him. The name Lucretius suggests that he was descended from one of the most ancient patrician houses of Rome, famous in the early annals of the Republic. He was evidently a man of wealth and position,
2. Works.
The +De Rerum Natura+, a didactic poem in hexameter verse in six Books.
The poem was left unfinished at his death, and Munro supports the tradition that Cicero both corrected it and superintended its publication. The object of the poem is to deliver men from the fear of death and the terrors of superst.i.tion by the new knowledge of Nature:
_Hunc igitur terrorem animi tenebrasque necessest Non radii solis neque lucida tela diei Discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque._
_This terror of the soul, therefore, and this darkness must be dispelled, not by the rays of the sun or the bright shafts of day, but by the outward aspect and harmonious plan of nature._ --S.
The source of these terrors is traced to the general ignorance of certain facts in Nature--ignorance, namely, of the const.i.tution and condition of our minds and bodies, of the means by which the world came into existence and is still maintained, and, lastly, of the causes of many natural phenomena. Thus:
Books I and II uphold the principles of the Atomic Theory as held by Epicurus (_fl._ 300 B.C.).
Book I states that the world consists of atoms and void. At line 694 is stated the important doctrine that the evidence of the senses alone is to be believed--_sensus, unde omnia credita pendent, the senses on which rests all our belief_.
Book II treats of the _motions_ of atoms, including the curious doctrine of the _swerve_, which enables them to combine and makes freedom of will possible: then of their _shapes_ and _arrangement_.
Book III shows the nature of mind (_animus_) and life (_anima_) to be material and therefore mortal. Therefore death is nothing to us:
_Nil igitur mors est ad nos neque pertinet hilum, Quandoquidem natura animi mortalis habetur.
Death therefore to us is nothing, concerns us not a jot, Since the nature of the mind is proved to be mortal._ --(M.)
Book IV gives Lucretius' theory of vision and the nature of dreams and apparitions.
Book V explains the origin of the heavens, of the earth, of vegetable and animal life upon it, and the advance of human nature from a savage state to the arts and usages of civilisation.
Book VI describes and accounts for certain natural phenomena--thunderstorms, tempests, volcanoes, earthquakes, and the like. It concludes with a theory of disease, ill.u.s.trated by a fine description of the plague at Athens.
Professor Tyrrell says: 'It is interesting to point to places in which Lucretius or his predecessors had really antic.i.p.ated modern scientific research. Thus Lucretius recognises that in a vacuum every body, no matter what its weight, falls with equal swiftness; the circulation of the sap in the vegetable world is known to him, and he describes falling stars, aerolites, etc., as the unused material of the universe.' The great truth that matter is not destroyed but only changes its form is very clearly stated by Lucretius, and his account (Book V) of the beginnings of life upon the earth, the evolution of man, and the progress of human society is interesting and valuable.
3. Style.
'Notwithstanding the antique tinge (e.g. his use of archaism, a.s.sonance, and alliteration) which for poetical ends he has given to his poem, the best judges have always looked upon it as one of the purest models of the Latin idiom in the age of its greatest perfection.' --Munro.
'The language of Lucretius, so bold, so genial, so powerful, and in its way so perfect.' --Nettles.h.i.+p.
_Carmina sublimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti, Exitio terras c.u.m dabit una dies._ --Ovid. _Am._ I. xv. 23.
'But till this cosmic order everywhere Shattered into one earthquake in one day Cracks all to pieces... till that hour My golden work shall stand.' --Tennyson, _Lucretius_.
MARCUS MANILIUS, fl. 12 A.D.
1. Life.
[Sidenote: MANILIUS.]
Nothing is known of his life. That he was not of Roman birth (perhaps a native of N. Africa) is probable from the foreign colouring of his language at the outset, which in the later books becomes more smooth and fluent from increased practice.
2. Works.
The +Astronomica+ in five Books of hexameter verse. The poem should rather be called Astrology, as Astronomy is treated only in Book I. He is proud of being the first writer on this subject in Latin literature.
A close study of Lucretius is obvious from several pa.s.sages: he often imitates Vergil, and in the legends (e.g. of Perseus and Andromeda) Ovid.
3. Style.
He is not a great poet; but he is a writer of real power both in thought and style. In his introductions to each Book, and in his digressions, he shows sincere feeling and poetical ability.
M. VALERIUS MARTIALIS, circ. 40-102 A.D.
1. Life.