Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/806

Rh 792 LTVIUS. {ollowing year at Rome, Leipzig, and Hamburgh. A small portion which he failed to decypher was afterwards made out by Niebuhr, who also sup- plied some words which had been cut away, and published the whole in his Cicero?iis pro M. Funteio et C. Rahirio Orat. Fragm.^ Berlin, 1820. Two short fragments possessing much interest, since they describe the death and character of Cicero, are preserved in the sixth Suasoria of Seneca. P'rom the revival of letters until the reign of Louis XIV. the hopes of the learned were perpe- tually excited and tantalised by reports with regard to complete MSS. of the great historian. Strenuous exertions were made by Leo X. and many other European potentates in their efforts to procure a perfect copy, which at one time was said to be de- posited at lona in the Hebrides, at another in Chios, at another in the monastery of Mount Athos, at another in the seraglio of the grand signor, while it has been confidently maintained that such a treasure was destroyed at the sack of Magdeburg ; and there can be no doubt that a MS. contaijiing the whole of the fifth decade at least was once in existence at Lausanne. Tales too were circulated and eagerly believed of leaves or volumes having been seen or heard of under strange and romantic circumstances ; but the prize, although apparently often within reach, always eluded the grasp, and the pursuit has long since been abandoned in despair. We remarked that two of the Epitomes had been lost. This deficiency was not at first detected, since the numbers follow each other in regular succession from 1 up to 140; and hence the total number of books was supposed not to exceed that amount. Upon more careful examination, how- ever, it was perceived that while the epitome of bk. cxxxv. closed with the conquest of the Salassi, which belongs to B.C. 25, the epitome of bk. cxxxvi. opened with the subjugation of the Rhaeti, by Tiberius, Nero, and Drusus, in B. c. 1 5, thus leav- ing a blank of nine years, an interval marked by the shutting of Janus, the celebration of the secular games, the acceptance of the tribunitian power by Augustus, and other occurrences which would scarcely have been passed over in silence by the abbreviator. Sigonius and Drakenborch, whose reasonings have been generally admitted by scholars, agree that two books were devoted to tliis space, and hence the epitomes which stand as cxxxvi., cxxxvii., cxxxviii., cxxxix., cxl., ought to be marked cxxxviii., cxxxix., cxl., cxli., cxlii., re- spectively. It was little probable, a priori^ that an under- taking so vast should have been brought to a close before any part of it was given to the world ; and in point of fact we find indications here and there which throw some light upon the epochs when dif- ferent sections were composed and published. Thus in book first (c. 19) it is stated that the temple of Janus had been closed twice only since the reign of Nuraa, for the first time in the consulship of T. Manlius (b. c. 235), a few years after the termi- nation of the first Punic war ; for the second time by Augustus Caesar, after the battle of Actium, in B. c. 29, as we learn from other sources. But we are told by Dion Cassius that it was shut again by Augustus after the conquest of the Cantabrians, in H. c. 25 ; and hence it is evident that the first book must have been written, and must have gone forth bctweeji the! years B. c. 29 and b. c. 25. An at- LIVIUS. tempt has been made to render these limits still narrower, from the consideration that the emperor is here spoken of as Augustus^ a title not conferred until the year b. c. 27 ; but this will only prove that the passage could not have been published before that date, since, although written previously, the honorary' epithet might have been inserted here and elsewhere at any time before publication. Again, we gather from the epitome that bk. lix. contained a reference to the law of Augustus, De Maritandis OrdiiiiLus^ from which it has been con- cluded that the book in question must have been written after b. c. 18 ; but this is by no means certain, since it can be proved that a legislative enactment upon this subject was proposed as early as B. c. 28. Since, however, the obsequies of Drusus were commemorated in bk. cxlii. it is evi- dent, at the very lowest computation, that the task must have been spread over seventeen years, and probably occupied a much longer time. We must not omit to notice that Niebuhr takes a very dif- ferent view of this matter. He is confident that Livy did not begin his labours until he had attained the age of fifty (b. c. 9), and that he had not fully accomplished his design at the close of his life. He builds chiefly upon a passage in ix. 3G, where it is said that the Ciminian wood was in these days as impenetrable "quara nuper fuere Gennanici saltus,'' words which, it is urged, could not have been used before the forests of Germany had been opened up by the campaigns of Drusus (b, c. 12 — 9) ; and upon another in iv. 20, where, after it is recorded that Augustus had repaired the shrine of Jupiter Feretrius, he is termed "■ tiimplorum om- nium conditorem aut restitutorem," a description which could not have been applied to him in an early part of his career. Now, without insisting that casual remarks such as these might have been introduced during a revision of the text, it must be evident that the remarks themselves are much too vague to serve as the basis of a chronological theory, except in so far as they relate to the restoration of the shrine of Jupiter Feretrius ; but this we know was undertaken at the suggestion of Atticus (Cornel. Nep. Alt. c. 20), and Atticus died B. c. 32. On the other hand, the reasoning grounded on the shutting of the temple of Janus must be held, in so far as bk. i. is involved, to be absolutely impregnable ; and we can scarcely imagine that the eighth book was not finished until sixteen years after the first. In attempting to form an estimate of any great historical production, our attention is naturally and necessarilj'^ directed to two points, which may be kept perfectly distinct : first, the substance, that is, the truth or falsehood of what is set down ; and secondly, its character merely as a literary compo- sition. As to the latter subject, Livy has little to fear from positive censure or from faint praise. His style may be pronounced almost faultless ; and a great proof of its excellence is, that the clianns with which it is invested are so little salient, and so equally diffused, that no one feature can be selected for special eulogy, but the whole unite to produce a form of singular beauty and grace. The narrative flows on in a calm, but strong current, clear and sparkling, but deep and unbroken ; the diction dis- plays richness without heaviness, and simplicity without tameness. The feelings of the reader are not laboriously worked up from time to time by a grand effort, while he is suffered to languish