Post-Augustan Poetry From Seneca to Juvenal Part 32

22. Dion. _lix. 19._

23. Suet. _Cal._ 34 'nullius ingenii minimaeque doctrinae'.

24. Suet. _Cal. 20._

25. For his writings generally of. Suet. _Claud. 41, 42._

26. Tac. _Ann. xiii. 43._

27. Suet. _Claud. 33._

28. For his writings generally of. Suet. _Claud. 41, 42._

29. Suet _Claud. 11._

30. Suet. _Claud. 41. This is borne out by the fragments of the speech delivered at Lyons on the Gallic franchise. _C.I. L. 13, 1668._

31. Suet. _Claud. 28._

32. Sc. in the _Apocolocyntosis_.

33. Suet. _Ner. 52._

34. Suet. _Ner. 49_ 'qualis artifex pereo!'

35. Suet. _Ner. 52_; Tac. _Ann. xiii. 3._

36. Tac. _Ann. xiv. 16._

37. Suet. _Domit. 1_; Tac. _Ann. xv. 49_; Suet. _Ner. 24._

38. Mart, ix. 26. 9; Plin. _N. H. x.x.xvii. 50._

39. Persius is sometimes said to quote from the Bacchae. Cf. Schol.

Pers. _Sat. i. 93-5, 99-102_. But see ch. in, p. 89.

40. Juv. viii. 221; Serv. Verg. _Georg. iii. 36, Aen. v. 370._

41. Dion. lxii. 29.

42. Dion. lxii. 18; Suet. _Ner. 38_; Tac. _Ann. xv. 39_. For fragments of his work see Baehrens, _Poet. Rom. Fragm., p. 368._

43. Suet, Ner. 10, 21.

44. Philostr. _vit. Apoll_. iv. 39 [Greek: ad_on ta tou Ner_onos mel_e ... ep_ege mel_e ta men ex Oresteias, ta d' ex Antigon_es, ta d'

opothenoun t_on prag_odoumen_on aut_o kai _odas ekampten oposas Ner_on elugize te kai kak_os estrephen].

45. Suet. _vita Lucani_; see chapter on Lucan, p. 97.

46. See chapter on Lucan, p. 98.

47. Suet. _Luc_.; Tac. _Ann_. xv. 49.

48. Suet. _Ner_. 39.

49. It may be urged that the damage lies not in the loss of poetry suppressed by the Emperor, but in the generation of a type of court poetry, examples of which survive in their most repulsive form in the _Silvae_ of Statius and the epigrams of Martial. The objection has its element of truth, but only affects a very small and comparatively unimportant portion of the poetry of the age.

50. See Tacitus, _Dial._ 28 sqq. on the moral training of a young Roman of his day. Also Juv. xiv.

51. After the death of the great Augustan authors Alexandrian erudition becomes yet more rampant. It was a great a.s.sistance to men of second-rate poetical talent.

52. Quint, i. 1. 12.

53. Quint, i. 8. 3; Plin. _Ep._ ii. 14.

54. Quint, i. 9. 2; Cic. _Ep. ad Fam._ vi. 18. 5; Quint. i. 8. 6; Stat.

_Silv._ ii. 1. 114; Ov. _Tr._ ii. 369.

55. Cp. Wilkins, _Rom. Education_, p. 60.

56. Op. Juv. vii. 231-6; Suet. _Tib._ 70. The result of this type of instruction is visible throughout the poets of the age, whereas Vergil and the best of the Greek Alexandrians had a true appreciation of the sensuous charm of proper names and legendary allusions, as in our literature had Marlowe, Milton, Keats, and Tennyson. Cp. Milton, _Paradise Lost_, Bk. 1:

What resounds In fable or romance of Uther's son Begirt with British and Armoric knights; And all who since, baptised or infidel, Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban, Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond, Or whom Biserta sent from Afric sh.o.r.e, When Charlemain with all his peerage fell By Fontarabia.

Or compare Tennyson's use of the names of Arthur's battles, 'Agned Cathregonion' and the 'waste sand-sh.o.r.e of Trath Treroit.'

57. Wilkins, _Roman Education_, p. 72.

58. See Wilkins, op. cit, p. 74.

59. Wilkins, _Roman Education_, p. 75.

60. The most striking instances of this precocity are Q. Sulpicius Maximus, who at the age of twelve and a half won the prize for Greek verse at the Agon Capitolinus A.D. 94 (cp. Kaibel, _Epigr_. Gr. 618), and L. Valerius L. F. Pudens, aged thirteen, who won the prize for Latin verse in A.D. 106. Cp. _C.I.L._ ix. 286.

61. For the importance attached to imitation sec Quint, x. 2.

62. The Greek rhetoricians of this period lay great stress on the importance of avoiding declamatory rhetoric. They belong to the Attic revival. But the Attic revival never really 'caught on' at Rome; by the time of Quintilian the mischief was done.

63. Sen. _Suas_. 3.

64. Ib. 7.

65. Ib. 2. I subjoin the text of the last. The author is Triarius.' 'Non pudet Laconas ne pugna quidem hostium, sed fabula vinci? Magnum est alumnum virtutis nasci et Laconem: ad certam victoriam omnes remansissent: ad certam mortem tantum Lacones. Non est Sparta lapidibus circ.u.mdata: ibi muros habet ubi viros. Melius revocabimus fugientes trecenos quam sequemur. Sed montes perforat, maria contegit. Nunquam solido stet.i.t superba felicitas et ingentium imperiorum magna fastigia oblivione fragilitatis humanae conlapsa sunt. Scias licet non ad finem pervenisse quae ad invidiam porducta sunt. Maria terrasque, rerum naturam statione immutavit sua: moriamur trecenti, ut hic primum invenerit quod mutare non posset. Si tam demens placiturum consilium erat, cur non potius in turba fuginius?'

66. Latro is the author of the following treatment of the theme. 'Hoc exspectastis ut capite demisso verecundia se ipsa antequam impelleretur deiceret? id enim decrat ut modestior in saxo esset quam in sacrario fuerat. Const.i.tit et circ.u.mlatis in frequentiam oculis sanctissimum numen, quasi parum viola.s.set inter altaria, coepit in ipso quo vindicabatur violare supplicio: hoc alterum d.a.m.natae incestum fuit, d.a.m.nata est quia incesta erat, deiceta est quia d.a.m.nata erat, repetenda est quia et incesta et d.a.m.nata et deiceta est, dubitari potest quin usque eo deicienda sit, donec efficiatur propter quod deiecta est?

patrocinium suum vocat pereundi infelicitatem. Quid tibi, importuna mulier, precor nisi ut ne vis quidem deiceta pereas? "Invocavi,"

inquit, "deos", statuta in illo saxo deos nominasti, et miraris si te iterum deici volunt? si nihil aliud, loco incestarum stetisti.' Sen.

_Cont_. i. 3.