The Roman Poets of the Republic Part 11

834-7.]

[Footnote 6: Mommsen, book iii. ch. 5.]

[Footnote 7: The author of Caesar's Spanish War quotes Ennius in his account of the critical moment in the Battle of Munda:--'Hic, ut ait Ennius, "pes pede premitur, armis teruntur arma."'--Bell. Hisp. x.x.xi.]

[Footnote 8: Amphit. 52-3--

Quid contraxistis frontem, quia tragoediam Dixi futuram hanc?]

[Footnote 9: Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, etc.]

[Footnote 10: De Senectute, 5.]

[Footnote 11: De Oratore, ii. 68.]

[Footnote 12: 'L. Aelium Stilonem dicere solitum ferunt Q.

Ennium de semet ipso haec scripsisse, picturamque istam morum et ingenii ipsius Q. Ennii factam esse.'--Gell. xii. 4.]

[Footnote 13: 'He finished: and summons to him one with whom often, and right gladly, he shared his table, his talk, and the whole weight of his business, when weary with debate, throughout the day, on high affairs of state, within the wide Forum and the august Senate,--one to whom he could frankly speak out serious matters, trifles, and jest; to whom he could pour forth and safely confide, if he wanted to confide in any one, all that he cared to utter, good or bad; with whom, in private and in public, he had much entertainment and enjoyment,--a man of that nature which no thought ever prompts to baseness through levity or malice: a learned, honest, pleasant man, eloquent, contented, and cheerful, of much tact, speaking well in season; courteous and of few words; with much old buried lore; whom length of years had made versed in old and recent ways; in the laws of many ancients, divine and human; one who knew when to speak and when to be silent. Him, during the battle, Servilius thus addresses.']

[Footnote 14: [Greek: Skipiona gar adon kai epi mega ton andra exarai boulomenos phesi monon an Homeron epaxious epainous eipein Skipionos.]--Aelian, as quoted by Suidas, vol. i. p.

1258. Ed. Gaisford. Cf. Vahlen.]

[Footnote 15: 'Here is he laid, to whom no one, either countryman or enemy, has been able to pay a due meed for his services.']

[Footnote 16: 'From the utmost east, beyond the Maeotian marsh, there is no one who in actions can vie with me. If it is lawful for any one to ascend to the realms of the G.o.ds, to me alone the vast gate of heaven is opened!']

[Footnote 17: 'Yet nothing more glorious than this man doth it (the island of Sicily) seem to have contained, nor aught more holy, nor more wonderful and beloved.']

[Footnote 18: 'Behold, my countrymen, the bust of the old man, Ennius. He penned the record of your fathers' mighty deeds.

Let no one pay to me the meed of tears, nor weep at my funeral. And why? because I still live, as I speed to and fro, through the mouths of men.']

[Footnote 19: 'Hail, poet Ennius, who pledgest to mortals thy fiery verse from thy inmost marrow.']

[Footnote 20: '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 the cliffs of the Muses, or gave any care to style.']

[Footnote 21: 'I have always said and will say that the G.o.ds of heaven exist, but I think that they heed not the conduct of mankind; for, if they did, it would be well with the good and ill with the bad; and it is not so now.']

[Footnote 22:

Cor jubet hoc Enni, postquam destertuit esse Maeonides, Quintus pavone ex Pythagoreo.

Persius, vi. 10 (ed. Jahn).]

[Footnote 23: Vahlen.]

[Footnote 24: Horace, Sat. ii. 4.]

[Footnote 25: 'The poetical philosophy, which the later Pythagoreans had extracted from the writings of the old Sicilian comedian, Epicharmus of Megara, or rather had, at least for the most part, circulated under cover of his name, regarded the Greek G.o.ds as natural substances, Zeus as the atmosphere, the soul as a particle of Sun-dust, and so forth.'--Mommsen's Hist. of Rome, Book iii. ch. 15. (d.i.c.kson's Translation.)]

[Footnote 26: 'This is that Jupiter which I speak of, which the Greeks call the air; it is first wind and clouds; afterwards rain, and after rain, cold; next it becomes wind, then air again. All those things which I mention to you are Jupiter, because it is he who supports mortals and cities and all animals.']

[Footnote 27: Mommsen.]

[Footnote 28: 'Inventore minor.'--Horace.]

[Footnote 29: Another pa.s.sage, ascribed to Ennius, descriptive of the greed of a parasite, occupies the ground common to Roman comedy and to Roman satire:--

Quippe sine cura laetus lautus c.u.m advenis Insertis malis, expedito bracchio Alacer, celsus, lupino expectans impetu, Mox c.u.m alterius obligurias bona, Quid censes domino esse animi? pro divum fidem!

Ille tristis cib.u.m dum servat, tu ridens voras.]

[Footnote 30: The meaning of the pa.s.sage amounts to no more than this, that the man who tries to 'sell' another, and fails, is himself 'sold.']

[Footnote 31: Brutus, 20.]

[Footnote 32: De Fin. i. 2.]

[Footnote 33: Cf. Eur. Med. 1-8:--

[Greek: Eith' ophel' Argous me diaptasthai skaphos Kolchon es aian kyaneas Symplegadas, med' en napaisi Peliou pesein pote tmetheisa peuke, med' eretmosai cheras andron aristeon, hoi to panchryson deros Pelia metelthon; ou gar an despoin' eme Medeia pyrgous ges epleus' Iolkias eroti thymon ekplageis' Iasonos.]]

[Footnote 34: Several of these fragments will be examined later.]

[Footnote 35: Tusc. Disp. ii. 16.]

[Footnote 36: 'How tender, how true to character, how affecting!'--De Div. i. 31. 'What a great poet, though he is despised by those admirers of Euphorion. He understands that sudden and unlooked-for calamities are more grievous. A n.o.ble poem,--pathetic in its matter, language, and music.'--Tusc.

Disp. iii. 19.]

[Footnote 37: 'Here it is; here, the torch, wrapped in fire and blood. Many years it hath lain hid; help, citizens, and extinguish it. For now, on the great sea, a swift fleet is gathering. It hurries along a host of calamities. They come: a fierce host lines the sh.o.r.es with sail-winged ships.' Exitium = exitiorum; cf. Cic. Orator. 46, Itaque idem poeta, qui inusitatius contraxerat 'Patris mei meum factum pudet' pro 'meorum factorum' et 'Texitur: exitium examen rapit' pro 'exitiorum.']

[Footnote 38: Acad. ii. 28.]

[Footnote 39: Gellius, xvii. 21.]

[Footnote 40: He speaks of Eurydice as the wife of Aeneas.

This statement he is supposed to have derived from the _Cypria_.]

[Footnote 41: Cicero, Arch. 9.]

[Footnote 42: 'Wisdom is banished from amongst us, violence rules the day: the good orator is despised, the rough soldier loved; striving, not with words of learning, but with words of hate, they get embroiled in feuds, and stir up enmity one with another. They challenge not their adversaries to contend by forms of law, but claim their rights by the sword, and aim at sovereign power, and make their way by sheer force.']

[Footnote 43: Cic. De Off. i. 12.]

[Footnote 44: 'Neither do I ask gold for myself, nor offer ye to me a ransom. Let us wage the war, not like hucksters, but like soldiers--with the sword, not with gold, putting our lives to the issue. Whether our mistress Fortune wills that you or I should reign, or what her purpose be, let us prove by valour. And hearken too to this saying,--The brave men, whom the fortune of battle spares, their liberty I have resolved to spare. Take my offer, as I grant it, under favour of the great G.o.ds.']

[Footnote 45: 'Whither have your minds, which heretofore were wont to stand firm, madly swerved from the straight course?']

[Footnote 46: A comparison with the original pa.s.sage (Iliad vi. 506) will show that Ennius, while reproducing much, though not all, of the force and life of Homer's image, has added also some touches of his own:--