The History of Roman Literature Part 52

[78] _Cat._ 3. The chapter is very characteristic; _Jug._ 3, scarcely less so.

[79] Suet. Gram. 15, tells us that a freedman of Pompey named Lenaeus vilified Sall.u.s.t; he quotes one sentence: _Nebulonem vita scriptisque monstrosum; praeterea priscorum Catonisque ineruditissimum furem_. Cf.

Pseudo-Cic. Decl. in Sall. 8; Dio. Hist. Rom. 43, 9.

[80] _Res gestas carptim ut quaeque memoria digna videbantur, perscribere_. Cat. 4.

[81] Anson, id. iv. _ad Nepotem_ implies that he began his history 90 B.C.

Cf. Plutarch, _Compar. of Sulla and Lysander_. And see on this controversy Dict. Biog. s. v. _Sall.u.s.t_.

[82] Jug. 95.

[83] Suet. J. C. 3.

[84] _A spe, metu, partibus, liber_.--Cat. 4; cf. Tac. Hist. i. 1. So in the Annals, _sine ira et studio_.

[85] This is not certain, but the consensus of scholars is in favour of it.

[86] Cat. 31, Cicero's speech is called _luculenta atque utilis Reipublicae_, cf. ch. 48.

[87] Ib. 8, 41, compared with Caes. B. C. ii. 8; iii. 58, 60.

[88] Ib. 1, compared with 52 (Caesar's speech).

[89] See esp. Cat. 54.

[90] Jug. 15.

[91] Ib. 67.

[92] Jug. 31.

[93] Cat. 35, 43; cf. also ch. 49.

[94] Jug. 95.

[95] Cat. 5.

[96] Jug. 6, _sqq._

[97] Cat. 15, and very similarly Jug. 72.

[98] Quint. x. 1. _Nec opponere Thucydidi Sall.u.s.tium verear_. The most obvious imitations are, Cat. 12, 13, where the general decline of virtue seems based on Thuc. iii. 82, 83; and the speeches which obviously take his for a model.

[99] As instances we give--_multo maxime miserabile_ (Cat. 36), _incultus, us_ (54), _neglegisset_ (Jug. 40), _discordiscus_ (66), &c. Poetical constructions are--_Inf_. for _gerund_, often; _pleraque n.o.bilitas_ for _maxima pars n.o.bilium_ (Cat. 17). For _asyndeton_ cf. Cat. 5, _et saep.i.s.s._

[100] Cat. 10. The well-known line _os ch' eteron men kenthoi eni phresin, allo os bazoi_, is the original.

[101] Ib. i. 1, _virtus clara aeternaque habetur; obedientia finxit_.

[102] It should perhaps be noticed that many MSS. spell the name Sal.u.s.tius.

CHAPTER IV.

[1] The actors in the _Atellanae_ not only wore masks but had the privilege of refusing to take them off if they acted badly, which was the penalty exacted from those actors in the legitimate drama who failed to satisfy their audience. Masks do not appear to have been used even in the drama until about 100 B.C.

[2] Second Philippic.

[3] _Planipedes audit Fabios_. Juv. viii. 190.

[4] "_Or Jonson's learned sock be on_." Milton here adopts the Latin synonym for comedy.

[5] The _Pallium_. This, of course, was not always worn.

[6] Ovid's account of the _Mimus_ is drawn to the life, and is instructive as showing the moral food provided for the people under the paternal government of the emperors (Tr. ii. 497). As an excuse for his own free language he says, _Quid si scripsissim Mimos obscaena iocantes Qui semper vet.i.ti crimen amoris habent; In quibus a.s.sidue cultus procedit adulter, Verbaque dat stulto callida nupta viro? Nubilis haec virgo, matronaque, virque, puerque Spectat, et ex magna parte Senatus adest. Nec satis incestis temerari vocibus aures; a.s.suesc.u.n.t oculi multa pudenda pati ...

Quo mimis prodest, scaena est lucrosa poetae_, &c. The laxity of the modern ballet is a faint shadow of the indecency of the Mime.

[7] The pa.s.sage is as follows (Ep. ii. 1, 185): _Media inter carmina posc.u.n.t Aut ursum aut pugiles: his nam plebecula plaudit. Verum equitis quoque iam miravit ab aure voluptas Omnis ad incertos oculos ... Captivum portator ebur, captiva Corinthus: Esseda festinant, pilenta, petorrita, naves ... Rideret Democritus, et ... spectaret populum ludis attentius ipsis Ut sibi pradientem mimo spectacula plura_, etc. From certain remarks in Cicero we gather that things were not much better even in his day.

[8] This is what Gellius (xvii. 14,2) says.

[9] The whole is preserved, Macrob. S. ii. 7, and is well worth reading.

[10] Cic. ad Att. xii. 18.

[11] See App. note 2, for more about Syrus.

[12] Hor. Sat. i. x. 6, where he compares him to Lucilius.

[13] Examples quoted by Gellius, x. 24; xv. 25.

[14] vi. 21.

[15] We should infer this also from allusions to Pythagorean tenets, and other philosophical questions, which occur in the extant fragments of Mimes.

[16] Tr. ii. 503, 4.

[17] S. 1-3, et al.

[18] Vell. Pat. ii. 83, where Plancus dancing the character of Glaucus is described, cf. Juv. vi. 63.

[19] _Quae gravis Aesopus, quae doctus Roscius egit_ (Ep. ii. 1, 82).

Quintilian (_Inst. Or_. xi. 3) says, _Roscius citatior, Aesopus gravior fuit, quod ille comoedias, hic tragoedias egit_.

[20] _Cic. de Or._ i. 28, 130. As Cicero in his oration for s.e.xtius mentions the expression of Aesopus's eyes and face while acting, it is supposed that he did not always wear a mask.

[21] Ep. ii. 1, 173.

[22] xiv. 15. Others again think the name expresses one of the standing characters of the _Atellanae_, like the _Maccus_, etc.