Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/896

* LATIN LITERATURE. 812 LATIN LITERATURE. books that are certainlj- his, his editors added a iiuinher of elegiac verses Uy other writers, notably those of Sulpicia, interesting as the work of a woman, and those of a certain "Lygdanius," evi- dently a pseudonym. Sextus Propertius (c.40-1.') B.C.) lacked the restraint and purity of diction of Tiliullus. but is far broader in his range of sub- jects, and riclicr iu his wealth of imagery and of mythical allusions. He gave promise of becom- ing a poet of the first rank, hut did not live to mature his genius. T.ike Latullus and Tilnillus, he found his inspiration in love, in his ca.se, for a woman, i)erhaps Hostia, to whom be writes un- der the name of 'C.vnthia.' The latest in order of time of the elegiac poets is P. Ovidius Xaso (B.C. 4.3-A.D. 17 or 18), a native of Sulmo, but early a resident of Rome, wlierc be wrote love- poetry with a strong trend to the purely sensual as])ecl. as in the .lmorc.5, the subject of wbidi passed under the fictitious name of 'Corinna.' In the Hvrokhs we have an early exanii)le of the jniagiiiary love-letters, which have lately become so ]iopular. Each of these poems purports to be a letter addressed by a Homeric heroine, as Pene- lope, Briseis. Pha>dra, to her absent lover. Not long after this, he pviblished his Ars Amatoria (also called Ars Amaiidi), containing instruc- tions, couched in poetic form, for lovers of both se.xes in the art of retaining their conquests; and his h'rDicdia Aiiwris. on the same genera) theme, but even coarser in tone. To the middle period of his literary activity belong the Metamorphoses and the Fasti. The former, which are written wlioDy in hexameters, show the breadth of Ovid's versatile poetic genius, and form a considerable manual of Greek and Roman mythology. The Fasti explain in elegiac couplets the religious significance of each da.v and month — a sort of conuiientary on the calendar. The work was planned in twelve parts, with a book dedicated to each month, but only si.x were ever completed, and these were not published until after Ovid's death. While still engaged in writing the Metamorphoses, Ovid was overtaken with sudden disaster that wrecked his life and reduced him to desolation and despair. Exactly what caused his downfall is, and probably will always remain, a mystery. Toward the end of n.c. S lie was sud- denly banished from Rome by Imperial orders, and commanded to live in the far-distant and wholly uncongenial village of Tomi. on the shores of the Rlack Sea. Here he miserably passed his remaining years, yearning for Rome and hoping in vain for a reprieve. His poetry now became melancholy: the Tristia. in five books, the Ex Poiilo in four, and the Ibis, a single poem wliose title is but its first word ihis. 'yon will go.' give but too vivid a picture of his lonely wretched- ness. He died in a.d. 17, a broken-hearted old man. The one great prose writer of the Augustan period was Titus Livius (B.C. .59-a.d. 17), of Patavium (Padua), author of a history of Rome (.III I'rhe Condita Libri) from the arrival of yEneas in Italy down to Li-y's own times. This great work was in 142 books, earr^-ing the story as far as the death of Drusus in B.C. 0. I.ivy probably intended to complete 1.50 books, but death prevented its consummation. Only about a tjuarter of the work (i.e. books i.-x. and xxi. to xlv. ) is extant, but we have prriochw. or out- lines, of the rest. Livy has fairly been called the most eloquent of historians, but he is wholly uncritical. He troul>led himself little with origi- nal research, and had small knowledge of consti- tutional or military alt'airs; and his idea of the pliilosophy of history and of the significance of cause and ellect was of the vagiu'st possible sort. But in the art of expression and of telling a story in a fascinating style he surpasses all hi.s countrymen. His language is unconventional, though carefully cliosen. and forms the first transition to the so-called 'silver' Latinity. Among the minor writers of tliis epoch, several deserve a brief mention. Pompeius Trogus wrote a luiiversal history with the title Ilistoriw ['hi- lippicw. in 44 l)Ooks. This work was abridged in the second century by .lustinus, and the abridg- ment, which is extant, caused the loss of the original. The learned M. Verrius Flaccus met the same fate as Trogus, and for the same reason. His encydopa'dic lexicon entitled De 'erborum. jSifiiii/ieiilii was aliriilgeil by Sextus Pompeius Festus in the second century, and this in its turn by Paulus Diaconus in the time of Charlemagne. All of the original work and most of the first abridgment are therefore lost. C. Jtilius Hy- ginus (c.(!4 B.C.-17 A.i).). another learncil writer, was a freedman of Augustus, who placeut all are lost except two hooks of Fabiila; (a school text-book of mythology), and four on astrology', and these, in the form in which we have them are later aliridgnients. We are more fortunate in the case of the architect Vi- truvius Pollio, whose work De Arehilcetiira, in ten books, is of the greatest value to students of classical architecture, but, like all the lesser works just mentioned, is quite without real lit- erary merit. IV. TiiK Silver Ace. (Post-classical Period. Sjianish Latinity. B.C. 17-C.130 a.d.) This period may be divide<l conveniently into three parts: (a) the Claudia n Era : ( b) the Flavian Era : (c) the era of literary revival, comprising the reigns of Nerx'a and Trajan and part of that of Hadrian. The republican age is now definitely and admittedly at an end. and society, and with it literature, enters upon a new phase. The writers whose works survive liccnme vastly more numerous, but generally of secnndary importance, and can be treated only briefly. As several of them in the first century (the two Senecas. Pomponius Mela, Eucan, Columella. iilntilian. Jlartial) were of Spanish origin, the wiinle period is often spoken of as that of Spanish Latinity. The accession of Tiberius (a.d. 14-.'i7) marked the growth of despotic power, which crushed all a-i|>irations after freedom and deadened intellectual activity. The Emperor, though an ;iuthor himself, dis- couraged literature for political reasons, and men did not dare either to praise the past or record the deeds of the present, (a) L. -Xnna'us Seneca, the elder (C..54 B.C.-39 A.D.). of Corduba in Spain, really belongs to the end of the Republic, but as his extant works, written toward the end of his life, fall under the Empire, he is best considered here. He was an orator of repute, and a great admirer of Cicero. A single volume of Siiasoriw (school declamations) and ten books of ('ontrorersi(F (school debates) remain to us in a mutilated form. The brave but un- forttinate Prince Oermanicus (B.C. 15-a.d. 19), the Emperor's nephew, translated into Latin hexameters the I'hcrnomena of Aratus. C. Vel-