Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/890

* LATIN LITERATURE. 806 LATIN LITERATURE. to the Iambic senarii and scptcnarii with such ease as to create a new Latin poetry that lias stood the test of time, llis sources in Greek were the phiys of the New Attic comedy, and especially the works (now lost) of Menander, Diphilus, and Philemon — comedies from which the strong personal and political satire of Aristophanes was perforce wholly expunged. Uut while the plots and scenes are Greek, and even the titles can often be ideiitilied with those of the Greek playwright, Plautus shows his own originality in all his work. He thoroughly knew his audience, and his plays are brim-fiiU of situations and humorous touches that could not fail to ajjpeal to his contemporaries; while still to-day the best of them, where they do not olTend modern taste, afl'ord delightful reading, and have influenced not a little modern ])oetry from Shakespeare to ^loli^re. Among the best are the Amphilriio, the sole surviving example of the ancient tragicomedy, an inimitable burlesque which even the genius of iloliOre could not re- jiroduee; the Bacchides with its masterly plot and characters; the C'aplivi, which though sen- timental is wholly without female characters; the Mcnwchmi, a charming comedy of errors; the Miles (Horiosus, laughable from beginning to end; the Iludois, a merry romance; and the Triniimiinis, also without female characters, a lively comedy of virtuous middle-class life. These plays represent PlautiLS at his best; though he wrote for a peculiar and not highly cultured audience, his genius was broad and deep, and ho stamped his work with a permanent interest and value. It was now an age of great names in literary Uorac. (^>uintus Ennius (B.C. 2.30-lGO), born at about the same time as Plautus, attained even a greater fame among his countrymen and was lionored with the title 'Father of Roman Poetrj'.' Bom at the village of Rudia-. in Calabria, he fought in the Koman army in Sardinia, where the bright young man attracted the notice of M. Porciiis C'ato, who brought him with him to Rome; and during a long and active life wholly devoted to literary pursuits, Ennius wrote an astonishing number of poetical works, includ- ing tragedies, comedies, a great national epic, and miscellanies. But notwithstanding his fame and jjopularity — Cicero was among his most ardent admirers — only the very barest fragments of his writings have survived, quoted here and there in other authors. His earlier work was mainly translations from the Greek, both trage- dies and comedies, notably some of the tragedies of Euripides. His miscellanies, in a variety of metres, received the name Saltirce, and were the first of a series of 'medleys' which by a gradual development culminated in real fialircs, as the word is used to-day. But the greatest work of Ennius was his Annalcs, in eighteen books, an epic in hexameter verse of the chief events in Roman tradition and history from the earliest times to his own. Of course. Homer was his model, and the Annalcx fell far short of the Homeric perfection. The clumsy Latin had to l)e remolded, as it were, to the easy flow of the Greek metre. The difficulties were of the great- est, but according to the almost universal judg- ment of his successors his Axiitiirs was a master- piece, which only the deeper study of Greek models and the genius of a Vergil could replace. WTiile the storv of Rome was thus being writ- ten in' verse, we find also an attempt at the ele- ments of history in prose. Doubtless simple ac- counts of yearly events, of the victories and defeats, the imixising triumi)hs. the succession of high civil officers, had long been drawn up in a formal way without an.v embellishment. The first important prose annalist was Q. Fabius Pictor (born about 254 i).c. ), who wrote, how- ever, in Greek, under the title of 'lam/iia; but his work was early translated into Latin. It covered about the same period as the Aiinnlcs of Ennius, that is, from the traditional landing of -Eneas in Italy to his own time, narrating in some detail the events of the Second Punic War, during which he was alive. Both the Greek original and its Latin version are lost; but Poly- bius and Livy I'olh drew upon him materially for their accounts of the Punic War. His stj'le was crude, and he is censured for his unfairness as an historian. In the long ])eriod of construction following the Second Punic War, no name in politics or litera- ture at Rome stands out more brightly than that of M. Porcius Cato (B.C. 234-149), a" native of Tusculum, who held all the high ofiices at Rome, and is familiarly known as 'Cato the Cen- sor.' Rigid and eonseryative, a true type of the stern old Roman, he set his face .against the modern spirit of innovation that was steadily broadening as a result of closer contact with the culture of (Jrcece. Yet in his old age. when experience showed him that not all that came from CJreece was bad, he friinkly accepted the situation and studied the Greek language and literature with avidity. In a most charming way, Cicero makes him the chief speaker in his well-known dialogue De Soicclute, setting forth in imagination the broad and genial philosophy of the liberalized old man. Cato was no less great in his private than in his public life; he was a typical Roman gentleman farmer, watch- ing over his estate and his servants with an eagle eye; and in his hoirs of repose from the Senate and the farm he devoted himself to reading and to writing. Oratory was a native talent of the Romans, and Cato was a great orator. More- over, he was the first to write down and publish his speeches. Of these, no fewer than l•^0 were extant in Cicero's day; unfortunately, we know them onl.v from fragments, but these fragments suffice to show his effective, mordant style. In historical studies, also, Cato was no less active, and the loss of his important work Origines, in seven books, is greatly to be deplored. It was the labor of his old age. Far more compre- hensive than the bare Anmiirs of I"al)ius Pictor, it was a sort of loose historical narrative, inter- spersing the narrower descriptions with re- searches in the field of' geographj-, politics, and social life, and accounts of his personal experi- ences. The name Oriiiincs shows the earlier plan of the work, from which his enthusiasm for his subject carried him far afield — to trace the origin of Rome and of all the important tribes of ancient Italy. We are able to judge of Cato's style and of his painstaking accuracy from the one work of his that has survived entire — De Afiri Cultura. or De Re Rustica. the outcome of his practical experience on the farm. Its naivete is wholly charming. Cato lays down the rules for the conduct of the farm and the management of slaves, describes the methods of planting and harvesting, the sacrifices to be