Chapter 96
M. TERENTIUS VARRO, 116-27 B.C.
1. Life.
[Sidenote: VARRO.]
Born at Reate, in the Sabine territory, which was the nurse of all manly virtues, Varro was brought up in the good old-fas.h.i.+oned way. 'For me when a boy,' he says, 'there sufficed a single rough coat and a single under-garment, shoes without stockings, a horse without a saddle.' Bold, frank, and sarcastic, he had all the qualities of the country gentleman of the best days of the Republic. On account of his personal valour he obtained in the war with the Pirates, 67 B.C., where he commanded a division of the fleet, the naval crown. In politics he belonged, as was natural, to the const.i.tutional party, and bore an honourable and energetic part in its doings and sufferings. On the outbreak of the Civil War he served as the legatus of Pompeius in command of Further Spain, but was compelled to surrender his forces to Caesar, 69 B.C. When the cause of the Republic was lost Caesar, who knew Varro's worth, employed him in superintending the collection and arrangement of the great library at Rome designed for public use. After Caesar's death Varro was exposed to the persecution of Antonius, whose drunken revels and excesses at Varro's villa at Casinum are vividly described by Cicero (_Phil._ ii. 103 sqq.) Through the influence of his many friends Varro obtained the protection of Octavia.n.u.s, and was enabled to live at Rome in peace until his death, 27 B.C., in his ninetieth year.
2. Works.
Of all the works of Varro, embracing almost all branches of knowledge and literature, only two have come down to us:
(1) The +De Re Rustica+, in three Books, in the form of a dialogue, written in his eightieth year. It was a subject of which he had a thorough practical knowledge, and is the most important of all the treatises upon ancient agriculture now extant. Book I treats of agriculture; Book II of stock-raising; Book III of poultry, game, and fish.
(2) +De Lingua Latina+, in twenty-five Books, of which only V-X have been preserved. These contain much valuable information not found elsewhere, but Varro's notions of etymology are extremely crude.
Of his other works, we have much cause to regret the loss of his +Antiquities of Things Human and Divine+, the standard work on the religious and secular antiquities of Rome down to the time of Augustus, and his +Imagines+, biographical sketches, with portraits, of seven hundred famous Greeks and Romans, the first instance in history of the publication of an ill.u.s.trated book.
'Varro belongs to the genuine type of old Roman, improved but not altered by Greek learning, with his heart fixed in the past, deeply conservative of everything national, and even in his style of speech protesting against the innovations of the day.' --Cruttwell.
_Omnium facile acutissimus, et sine ulla dubitatione doctissimus._ --Cicero.
_Studiosum rerum tantum docet, quantum studiosum verborum Cicero delectat._ --St. Augustine.
VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, circ. 19 B.C.-31 A.D.
1. Life.
[Sidenote: VELLEIUS PATERCULUS.]
All we know of him is derived from his own pages. He descended from a distinguished family in Campania, and his father was a Praefectus equitum. He accompanied C. Caesar, the grandson of Augustus, on his mission to the East, and was present at the interview with the Parthian king. Two years afterwards, 4 A.D., he served under Tiberius in Germany as Praefectus equitum. For the next eight years Paterculus served under Tiberius in
2. Works.
The +Historia Romana+ in two Books. The beginning of Book I is lost; chapters 1-8 in our text are occupied with a rapid survey of universal history, especially of the East and of Greece. Chapter 8 breaks off at the rape of the Sabine women, and there is a great gap in the text before we reach in c. 9 the defeat of Perseus at Pydna in 168 B.C.
Chapters 9-13 carry the narrative down to the destruction of Carthage and Corinth in 146 B.C. Book II continues the history and ends at the death of Livia 27 A.D.
'The pretentiousness of his style is partly due to the declining taste of the period, partly to an idea of his own that he could write in the manner of Sall.u.s.t. It alternates between a sort of laboured sprightliness and a careless, conversational manner full of endless parentheses. Yet Velleius has two real merits: the eye of a trained soldier for character, and an unaffected, if not a very intelligent, interest in literature.' --Mackail.
P. VERGILIUS MARO, 70-19 B.C.
1. Important Events in Vergil's Life, and Chief Works.
[Sidenote: VERGIL.]
B.C. 70. Born at Andes, near Mantua.
65. Birth of Horace.
55. a.s.sumes the _Toga Virilis_ at Cremona. Death of Lucretius.
53. Studies philosophy at Rome under the Epicurean Siron.
42. +Eclogues II, III, V+, and perhaps +VI+, written.
41. Suffers confiscation of his estate. Takes refuge in _Siron's_ villa. Estates restored by Octavia.n.u.s through Pollio. +Eclogue I+.
40. Vergil evicted a second time. +Eclogues IV, VI, IX+.
Becomes a member of the literary circle of Maecenas.
39. +Eclogues VIII+ and +X+.
38. Introduces Horace to Maecenas.
37. Begins the +Georgics+ at the suggestion of Maecenas.
29. +Completed Georgics+ read to Octavia.n.u.s. +Aeneid+ begun.
27. Augustus Emperor.
26. Banishment and death of his friend Gallus.
25. Marriage of Marcellus to Julia, daughter of Augustus.
23. Death of Marcellus: +Aeneid, Book VI+, read to the Imperial family.
19. Journey of Vergil to Greece: is taken ill, dies at Brundusium, and is buried at Naples:
_Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope: cecini pascua, rura, duces._
2. Works.
(1) +Bucolica+ (Pastoral Poems), ten +Eclogues+ (selected pieces), written 42-39 B.C. These are closely modelled on Theocritus, and have all the weaknesses of imitative poetry. 'The Eclogues of Vergil have less of consistency but more of purpose than the Idylls of Theocritus.
They are an advocacy of the charm of scenery and the pleasures of the country addressed to a luxurious and artificial society of dwellers in a town.' --Myers.
(2) +Georgica+, in four Books, written 37-30 B.C., at the suggestion of Maecenas, 'the Home Minister of Augustus, and public patron of art and letters in the interest of the new government.' --Mackail. 'The details of his subject Vergil draws mainly from his Greek predecessors, Hesiod, Xenophon, Aratus, and Nicander, but it is to Lucretius he is chiefly indebted. The language of Lucretius, so bold, so genial, so powerful, and in its way so perfect, is echoed a thousand times in the Georgics.'
--Nettles.h.i.+p.
Book I treats of agriculture, Book II of the cultivation of trees, Book III of domestic animals, Book IV of bees (including the Myth of Aristaeus, ll. 315-558).
The _purpose of the Georgics_ is to enn.o.ble the annual round of labour in which the rural life was pa.s.sed and to help the policy of Augustus by inducing the people to go back to the land.
'The motto of the Georgics might well be said to be _Ora et labora_.'
--Tyrrell.
'The Georgics represent the art of Vergil in its matured perfection, and in mere technical finish are the most perfect work of Latin literature.'
--Mackail.
(3) The +Aeneid+, in twelve Books, written 29-19 B.C.
The _choice of the subject_ was influenced by the wish of Augustus to establish the legendary tradition of the connection of the gens Iulia with Aeneas through his son Iulus, and by Vergil's own desire to write an epic on the greatness of Rome, in the manner of Homer. Thus 'the centre of the mythical background was naturally Aeneas, as Augustus was the centre of the present magnificence of the Roman Empire. _We surpa.s.s all other nations_, says Cicero (_De Nat. Deor._ ii. 8), _in holding fast the belief that all things are ordered by a Divine Providence_. The theme of the _Aeneid_ is the building up of the Roman Empire under this Providence. Aeneas is the son of a G.o.ddess, and his life the working out of the divine decrees.' --Nettles.h.i.+p.
_Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento; Hae tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem._
_Aen._ vi. 851-2.
'At a verse from the _Aeneid_, the sun goes back for us on the dial; our boyhood is recreated, and returns to us for a moment like a visitant from a happy dreamland.' --Tyrrell.
'In merely technical quality the supremacy of Vergil's art has never been disputed. The Latin Hexameter, _the stateliest measure ever moulded by the lips of man_, was brought by him to a perfection which made any further development impossible.' --Mackail.
'As Homer among the Greeks, so Vergil among our own authors will best head the list; he is beyond doubt the second epic poet of either nation.' --Quint. X. i. 85.
'The chastest poet and royalest, Vergilius Maro, that to the memory of man is known.' --Bacon.