Studies in the Poetry of Italy, I. Roman Part 13

Ennius was born in 239 B. C., shortly after the close of the First Punic War; but he comes first into notice as a centurion in the Roman army in Sardinia during the Second Punic War. Here Cato, while acting as quaestor in the island, found him, and no doubt attracted by the st.u.r.dy scholarly soldier, took him to Rome in 204 in his own train. The poet afterward accompanied M. Fulvius n.o.bilior on that general's expedition to aetolia, a privilege which he richly repaid later by immortalizing in verse the aetolian campaign. He obtained Roman citizenship in 184 through the instrumentality of the son of Fulvius. He was most fortunate, moreover, in enjoying the friendship of the great Scipio, with whom he lived on the most intimate terms. For himself, he lived always at Rome in humble fashion on a slope of the Aventine Hill, and gained a modest living by teaching Greek to the youths of Rome. There is a tradition not very trustworthy that it was of him that Cato himself "learned Greek at eighty."

That Ennius was fitted to be a confidential friend to great men of affairs we may well believe if, as Aulus Gellius, who has preserved the pa.s.sage, would have us understand, the following picture was intended by the poet as a self-portraiture. The pa.s.sage is from the seventh book of the "Annals," and has a setting of its own, but may well represent the familiar intercourse of the poet with Marcus Fulvius or with Scipio. If this is indeed a portrait, it is a pa.s.sage of great value, for it pictures the character in great detail.

So having spoken, he called for a man with whom often and gladly Table he shared, and talk, and all his burden of duties, When with debate all day on important affairs he was wearied, Whether perchance in the Forum wide, or the reverend Senate; One with whom he could frankly speak of his serious matters,-- Trifles also, and jests,--could pour out freely together Pleasant or bitter words, and know they were uttered in safety.

Many the joys and the griefs he had shared, whether public or secret!

This was a man in whom no impulse prompted to evil, Whether of folly or malice; a scholarly man and a loyal, Graceful, ready of speech, with his own contented and happy; Tactful, speaking in season, yet courteous, never loquacious.

Vast was the buried and antique lore that was his, for the foretime Made him master of earlier customs as well as of newer.

Versed in the laws was he of the ancients, men or immortals.

Wisely he knew both when he should talk and when to be silent.

So unto him Servilius spoke in the midst of the fighting....

Lawton.

Ennius died in 169 B. C., and tradition says that his bust was placed in the tomb of the family of his great patron, whereby the poet-soldier and the soldier-statesman were mutually honored. Upon that sarcophagus of Scipio surmounted by the poet's bust might well have been inscribed the saying of Sellar: "Ennius was in letters what Scipio was in action--the most vital representative of his epoch."

Ennius wrote satires and tragedies as we have seen; but it is because of his great epic poem the _Annales_, the work of his ripe age, that he deserves the high t.i.tle accorded to him by the Romans themselves--"the father of Roman literature." This work is epoch-making because of its form and because of its important contribution to the development of the Latin language itself. The poet perceived that the native Saturnian verse was rude and unfitted to serve as a vehicle for the highest form of literary expression. His feeling toward this verse is shown in a fragment upon the First Punic War in which he refers to the _Bellum Punic.u.m_ of Naevius:

Others have treated the subject in the verses which in days of old the Fauns and bards used to sing, before any one had climbed to the cliffs of the Muses, or gave any care to style.

Sellar.

From the Saturnian he turned to the hexameter, whose "ocean-roll of rhythm" had resounded in the great epics of Homer. But it was one thing to admire the Greek dactylic hexameter, with its smooth-flowing cadences, and quite another to force the heavy, rough Latin speech into this measure. But this task, difficult as it was, Ennius essayed, and by the very attempt to force the Latin into the shapely Greek mold, he modified and polished that language itself, and handed it down to his literary successors as a far more fitting vehicle of n.o.ble expression than he had found it. It is true that in comparison with the hexameters of Vergil and Ovid the lines of Ennius are noticeably rough and heavy; but still it must be remembered that it was the older poet's pioneer labors that made the verse of Vergil and Ovid possible.

The "Annals" of Ennius is an attempt to gather up the traditions of early Roman history and the facts of later times, and present them in a continuous narrative. Ennius was the pioneer in this work, and shows, as he says in the supposed self-portraiture quoted above, a very extensive knowledge of Roman antiquities, as well as a vivid first-hand perception of contemporary men and events. His active service as a soldier in the Second Punic War especially fitted him to write the story of a warlike nation. His descriptions of wars and stirring events are _con amore_. He breathed the air of victory in the long series of Roman triumphs following the Second Punic War, and infused into his great national poem something of that exaltation of spirit which animated his times, and which raised his work far above the plane which his modest t.i.tle suggests. The poem sank deep into the national heart, and became a very bible of the race, from which his successors drew freely as from a public fountain.

This poem, the work of the poet's old age, contained eighteen books, of which only about six hundred lines of fragments remain. The first book covers the period from the death of Priam to the death of Romulus. This period is, however, not as long as it is usually represented by tradition, for Ennius pa.s.ses over the three hundred years of the Alban kings and represents aeneas as the father of Ilia, the mother of Romulus.

One of the longest fragments describes the dream of Ilia in which the birth of Romulus and Remus is foreshadowed.

Then follow scattered fragments relating to the birth and exposure of the twins, their nourishment by the wolf, their growth to manhood, a long fragment on the taking of the auspices by which the sovereignty of Romulus over his brother was decided, and at the end a spirited pa.s.sage from the lamentation of the Romans over the death of Romulus.

The second and third books give a history of the Roman kings after Romulus, with glimpses of the victory of the Horatii, the dreadful death of the treacherous Mettius Fufetius, the disgusting impiety of Tullia, and the rape of Lucretia, which precipitated the banishment of the Tarquins. The fourth and fifth books cover the period from the founding of the republic to the beginning of the war with Pyrrhus, which is described in the sixth book. This contains the fine pa.s.sage in which King Pyrrhus refuses to accept money for the ransom of captives. He says to the Roman amba.s.sadors:

Gold for myself I wish not; ye need not proffer a ransom.

Not as hucksters might let us wage our war, but as soldiers: Not with gold but the sword. Our lives we will set on the issue.

Whether your rule or mine be Fortune's pleasure,--our mistress,-- Let us by valor decide. And to this word hearken ye also: Every valorous man who is spared by the fortune of battle, Fully determined am I of his freedom as well to accord him.

Count it a gift. At the wish of the G.o.ds in heaven I grant it.

Lawton.

The seventh book treats of the First Punic War, which he touches upon but lightly, since this subject had been so fully covered by his predecessor. Then follow, in the remaining books, the Macedonian, aetolian, and Istrian wars, the history being brought down to within a few years of the writer's death. In the last book the old poet very fittingly compares himself to a spirited horse who has won victories in his day, but now enjoys his well-earned rest in the dignity and inactivity of age.

As we survey these broken fragments, we gain some appreciation of the cruelty of that fate which preserved to posterity the ten tedious books of Lucan's _Pharsalia_, the seventeen books of Silius' _Punica_, and the twelve books of the _Thebaid_ of Statius, but swept away this great work of Rome's first genuine poet--a work rendered triply valuable because it was the first Roman experiment in hexameters, because in it the Latin language was just molding into literary form, retaining still much of its early roughness and heaviness, and because of the priceless contribution to Roman antiquities which it could have furnished us.

3. PUBLIUS VERGILIUS MARO

We turn from Ennius to Vergil as from prophecy to fulfilment. A hundred years separated the death of the one from the birth of the other, and nearly a century and a half stood between their maturer works, a period covering almost the whole range of republican literature. During this time many hands had been at work importing literary treasures from Greece, gleaning from native Italian sources the riches of ancient folk-lore, customs, traditions, and annals; many minds had pondered over the problems of life and human destiny, evolving and compiling treasures of philosophy. And the combined labors of all these had so enlarged, polished, and enriched the Latin speech, their common instrument, that, in the single generation embracing the Augustan age, that finished product was reached which we call the golden age of the language and its literature, and to the standard of which we refer all Latinity of earlier or later date.

During this period of development the "inspired" Accius, the immediate successor of Ennius, had given to the world those works which won for him the name of the greatest Roman tragic poet; Lucilius, the father of Roman satire, had left his strong imprint upon his country's life and language; Varro's tremendous diligence had stored up, among much other treasure, material upon agriculture and Roman history and antiquities; Lucretius had written his great didactic poem upon the Epicurean philosophy; Catullus, an older contemporary of Vergil, had finished his brief literary as well as earthly career before Vergil had well begun to write; and lastly, Cicero, Caesar, and Sall.u.s.t had wrought in their strong, polished prose for the further perfecting of the Latin speech.

With such a birthright was Vergil born; in such a school and from such masters did he gain the equipment for his literary career, which was destined to make him the most brilliant representative of the most brilliant period in Roman literature.

His origin was certainly humble enough to hide him from fate. He was born (B. C. 70) the son of a potter, or as some say a farmer, in an obscure little village near Mantua, in northern Italy, and received his early education in the not far away towns of Cremona and Mediolanum.

Thence he went to Rome for his higher education, where he acquired the usual accomplishments of the Roman youth. His studies fitted him for the profession of the advocate, but not so his nature. His one appearance at the bar taught him his utter unfitness for that pursuit, for his natural shyness on that occasion quite overcame him. As Ovid tells us of his own experience, the Muses wooed him irresistibly away from the practical pursuits of the "wordy forum," and claimed him for their own. Nature had marked him for a poet. We are told that he was framed on large and generous lines, tall, with the genuine Italian swarthiness of hue, simple and gentle, almost rustic in appearance, with face so suggestive of the purity of character within that the Neapolitans, among whom he loved most to make his home, called him _Parthenias_, "the maiden-like one." Even after he had attained fame, his natural shyness was so great that the popular notice which he attracted upon the streets was a torture to him, from which he always took refuge, as Donatus says, "into the nearest house," as from a hostile mob.

The steps which led our poet from obscurity to fame we cannot trace in detail. Local circ.u.mstances and his marked poetic ability brought him early under the influence and patronage of Asinius Pollio, soldier, statesman, and litterateur; he was admitted also to the select circle of Maecenas, to which he himself was privileged later to introduce his friend Horace; and Maecenas in turn introduced both these poets, so unlike and yet so firmly knit together in the bonds of friendship, to the Emperor Augustus.

Vergil's own works, aside from certain minor poems attributed to him, were three in number: the _Eclogues_, _Georgics_, and the _aeneid_, all composed in the dactylic hexameter. His book of _Eclogues_ was written during the period from 43 to 39 B. C., and consists of ten bucolic or pastoral poems after the style of the Sicilian Greek poet Theocritus.

These poems, while somewhat artificial in style, are full of genuine feeling for nature, and contain many valuable references to the poet himself and his contemporaries. The _Georgics_ are, as their name implies, a series of treatises in four books upon farming. The first book is devoted to the tilling of the soil, the second to the cultivation of the vine and fruit trees, the third to the breeding of cattle, and the fourth to the care of bees. The whole shows a minute and first-hand knowledge of the subjects treated which only long and loving personal observation could have given. The composition of this book occupied the seven years from 37 to 30 B. C. The work was done chiefly at Naples, where he seems to have pa.s.sed the most of the remainder of his life. His third and greatest work was his epic poem in twelve books called the _aeneid_, because it relates the story of the Trojan prince aeneas and his followers.

This poem, whose merits are so evident to us, and whose faults are so slight in comparison, never in fact received the finishing touches from the author. Having spent eleven years upon the work, Vergil made a journey to Greece, intending to continue his travels to Asia also. But in Athens he met his friend Augustus, who easily persuaded him to return in his train to Italy. It was but coming home to die. Always of frail health, the poet's final sickness seized him on the homeward voyage, and increased so rapidly that he died shortly after landing at Brundisium, B. C. 19. His remains were buried in his beloved Naples, where still is proudly pointed out, upon the side of Posilippo hill, the so-called "tomb of Vergil." A further evidence of the pride which the modern Neapolitans feel in their great adopted fellow-townsman is to be seen in the beautiful memorial shrine of white marble which to-day stands to the poet's (and the city's) honor in the _Villa n.a.z.ionale_, the famous seaside park of Naples.

Vergil, conscious of the incomplete condition of the _aeneid_, left instructions to Varius and Tucca, his literary executors, to destroy all his unpublished ma.n.u.script; but this great loss to the world was prevented by the interference of the emperor, who directed Varius to revise and publish the _aeneid_, which was accordingly done, probably in the year 17 B. C.

What is the _aeneid_? The Roman no doubt saw in it a national epic, celebrating the greatness and glory of the Roman race. His heart swelled with renewed pride of citizenship as he read those glorious lines in which world dominion was promised to his race:

Others, belike, with happier grace From bronze or stone shall call the face, Plead doubtful causes, map the skies, And tell when planets set or rise: But, Roman, thou, do thou control The nations far and wide; Be this thy genius, to impose The rule of peace on vanquished foes, Show pity to the humbled soul, And crush the sons of pride.

Conington.

But Vergil was not alone an intense patriot. He was also ardently attached to the new imperial administration; and he seems to have set himself the difficult task of knitting together again into harmony with Augustus' rule the different cla.s.ses of Roman citizens so long rent asunder by factional strife and civil war. He attempts this by reminding his fellow-citizens of their glorious past and tracing the hand of destiny in unbroken manifestation from aeneas to Caesar and to Caesar's heir. Thus Jupiter is seen promising to Venus for her Trojan descendants "endless, boundless reign." This glorious reign is to culminate in the great Caesar, who with his heir Augustus shall inaugurate the Golden Age again.

The _aeneid_ itself may be said in a sense to focus upon Augustus, for in the vision which is granted to aeneas in the underworld of the long line of his mighty descendants, it is Augustus who is singled out for most glowing tribute as the chief glory of the race that is to be:

This, this is he, so oft the theme Of your prophetic fancy's dream, Augustus Caesar, G.o.d by birth, Restorer of the age of gold In lands where Saturn ruled of old, O'er Ind and Garamant extreme Shall stretch his reign, that spans the earth.

Look to that land which lies afar, Beyond the path of sun or star, Where Atlas on his shoulder rears The burden of the inc.u.mbent spheres.

Egypt e'en now and Caspia hear The muttered voice of many a seer, And Nile's seven mouths, disturbed with fear, Their coming conqueror know.

Conington.

Such strains as these in the setting of such a poem, embodying all that most delicately and most powerfully stimulated the Roman pride of birth and country, would do much to confer upon the ruling emperor historic and divine sanction.

Perhaps connected with the national character of the _aeneid_ is the strong religious motive which animates the whole. Rome was not produced by chance. The poet never lets us lose sight of the fact that all has been predestined for ages past. aeneas from the first is in the hands of heaven, fated indeed to wander, to endure disappointment, suffering, loss that would have tried beyond endurance a man of weaker faith; but fated as well to work out a glorious destiny. And aeneas, like the typical Roman after him, believed in his destiny. He calmly consoles his shipwrecked friends upon the wild sh.o.r.es of Africa in the face of seemingly irreparable disaster:

Comrades! for comrades we are, no strangers to hardships already; hearts that have felt deeper wounds! for these too heaven will find a balm. Why, men, you have even looked on Scylla in her madness, and heard those yells that thrill the rocks; you have even made trial of the crags of the Cyclops. Come, call your spirits back, and banish these doleful fears. Who knows but some day this too will be remembered with pleasure? Through manifold chances, through these many perils of fortune, we are making our way to Latium, where the Fates hold out to us a quiet settlement; there Troy's empire has leave to rise again from its ashes. Bear up, and reserve yourselves for brighter days.

Conington.

The _aeneid_ breathes throughout a tone of reverence for the G.o.ds. This is best seen if we contrast Vergil's and Ovid's att.i.tude. The latter poet affects a free and easy familiarity with the deities of tradition, whose deeds, adventures, and escapades are told, often with slight reverence, and much to the detriment of their divine dignity. But in Vergil's poem the reader enters a stately temple filled with an all-pervading reverence for the G.o.ds of heaven, who are to be approached by men only in fitting wise, with veiled face and pure hands; whose power is over all and wielded in righteousness. It should be added that the whole sixth book is devoted to an account of the spirit world, where human souls receive their rewards and punishments for the deeds of their life on earth.

Vergil's poems have always been thought to have a decidedly Christian tone, so much so, indeed, that he was revered by the early Christian fathers, who regarded him in the light of a semi-inspired pagan. There is a tradition of the medieval church preserved in a ma.s.s sung in honor of St. Paul, in which that saint is said to have stood at the tomb of Vergil and to have exclaimed: "O greatest of poets, what a man I should have made of thee had I but met thee in thy day!"

Vergil's standing with the early church was no doubt much enhanced by his remarkable fourth eclogue, in which he foretells the golden age to be inaugurated by the birth of the infant son of Pollio. There is a remarkable similarity between the poet's description of the happy time of "peace on earth" which the Child shall bring and the language of the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah.

But entirely aside from its national, religious, or other characteristics, and so far as its place in the world's literature is concerned, the _aeneid_ is first of all a story. It has not, indeed, the simple grandeur of the _Iliad_, upon the model of which it was probably composed. The pa.s.sing of nearly a millennium of world-life after Homer's time made that impossible; and it is obviously unfair to compare any product of the refined and artificial society of the Augustan with the product of the simple and fresh life of the Homeric age when the world was young. But the _aeneid_ has a grandeur, a grace, a polished beauty all its own; and, compared with the epic product of his own and later ages, Vergil's poem stands colossal--the unapproachable epic of the Roman tongue.

It is the heroic story of the last night of Troy, and the subsequent wanderings of a band of Trojans under aeneas, prince of Troy; their long, vain search for their fate-promised land; their shipwreck upon the sh.o.r.es of Africa; their sojourn in Carthage and the love tragedy of Dido and aeneas; their memorial games in Sicily; aeneas' visit to the underworld, and the struggle of the Trojan exiles against native princes for a foothold in their destined Italy--all a story of heroes and heroic deeds, sketched on broad lines and with a free hand, but worked out with exquisite grace and beauty of detail.