Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/200

 194: LATIN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE fices of pathos; and Papirius Carbo (about 105) rendered himself famous through the mo- mentary sway of his rhetoric. But these nat- ural-born orators were totally eclipsed by the culture, spirit, and passionate fire of Caius Gracchus. His elder brother Tiberius left no literary monument to bear witness to the greatness of his talents ; but the two sons of Cornelia shared equally the admiration of their nation for legal learning and oratory. The wild partisan quarrels and the tempests of the civil war filled the political profession with men untrained by study. Scribonius Curio, Marcus Antonius the orator, and Licinius Cras- sus depended for their fame rather on their personal bearing and the boldness of their dis- courses, than on such elegance of style and artistic elaboration as would render them of value to literature. Historical works improved, though not enough to leave to posterity either a readable book or a model of historical criti- cism. The Annales Maximi, a dry register of the most memorable events of the republic, had ceased to be kept. Zealous statesmen wrote instead the memoirs of their times, and each gave them a personal coloring, but none possessed the requisites for making a good nar- rative' or for giving details in proportion to their interest and importance. When the re- membrance of their authors had passed away, the biographical memoirs of ^Emilius Scaurus (about 115), Rutilius Rufus (about 105), Luta- tius Catulus (about 105), Cornelius Sulla (about 89), and generally of the closing years of the 2d century B. 0., were also forgotten. Some historians, as Albinus Scipio, Acilius, and later also Lucullus, composed their works in Greek, though they could hardly expect to find read- ers in Greece. The attempts at writing com- plete histories of Rome ended in the accumu- lation of bulky materials, but they were failures in methodical treatment. Fannius and Cassius Hemina (about 134) wrote, though with much naivete of conception and great meagreness, about some episodes in the history of their country ; and only Sempronius Asellio shows that he had at least a perception of what is re- quired in a history. Ceelius Antipater, Clau- dius Quadrigarius, and Cornelius Sisenna (about 89) mark in succession the slow progress to- ward the perfection of historiography; for even the last and best of the three overloads his narrative with useless details, and impedes the flow of language with rhetorical flections and archaic words, both tasteless and weari- some. But the appearance of professional grammarians and rhetoricians was not without some influence on the development of the Latin language. The rhetoricians still labored un- der the difficulty of having no national stand- ard literature to which they could refer for models. The study of their linguistic material led to the adoption of certain rules in regard to what should be avoided in and what should be attained by literary compositions. JElius Stilo (about 100), Servius Claudius, Aurelius Opilius, and Valerius Cato (about 89) were the first to distinguish themselves in grammatical and philological studies. The tragedian Attius, a fruitful poet, and the author of the Didascalia, a history of dramatic poetry, raised his art to a higher standing, and taught the Romans wherein it should really consist. Porcius Licinus wrote versified biographies of the poets, and fur- nishes thereby some evidence of an increased interest in the fortunes of literature. The Romans then began to love literary studies, and they very soon passed a just and practical judgment upon its aims and tendency. They saw the necessity of following the examples of the Greeks and heeding their lessons, and the richness of the materials which they imported raised their desire for a literature of at least equal merit. Their endeavors were crowned with results which have not unjustly given the name of the golden age to the next period. This golden or Ciceronian age was not productive of equally excellent works of poetry and prose. Poetry had so far found root only in the drama, and the sober moods of the Romans during the last stages of the republic were naturally un- productive of attempts at high poetic flights. Even the drama was losing spirit, and that it even continued to exist is due principally to the art of the actors Clodius -^sopus and Ros- cius. Epic poetry was composed by Hostius, Furius, and Varro Atacinus ; but these versi- fied incidents of Roman warfare met probably with less favor than the translations of the Greek epos. Varro Atacinus had some merit as a translator, Varro as a satirist, and Hor- tensius and Licinius Calvus as miscellaneous poets. Lsevius and Helvius Cinna, burdening their poetry with learned conceits which ren- dered their meaning obscure, did not enjoy equal popularity. The only truly poetic mind was Lucretius Carus; his compositions are faithful reflections of the sentiment then nur- tured in Roman hearts, skepticism without con- solation. Rome was never more learned and erudite than at this time. Catullus, called doctus from his Greek learning, wrote an impassioned religious poem, the Aiys, and one legendary heroic poem, but is best known for his exqui- site lyrics, elegies, and epigrams. The univer- sally informed Terentius Varro Reatinus, who was probably the greatest savant of antiquity, not unworthily received from his own nation the title of the "most learned of Romans." His writings are scattered over all depart- ments of human knowledge, and he gathered the facts of early Roman history into a body of antiquities, which he never wearied of enlarging by essays on special subjects. The Romans owe to him the first foundation of a general scientific culture, and it is to be regretted that his discourses on the religions, morals, and institutions of their better days came too late to put a check to the decadence of their social life. Nigidius Figulus (about 60) was a solitary laborer in the fields of speculation and grammar, and his works are