Most of these grammarians were emancipated slaves: some were Greeks, some barbarians. Sævius Nicanor and Aurelius Opilius were freedmen: the latter had belonged to the household of some Epicurean philosopher. Cornelius Epicadus was a freedman of Sulla, and completed the Commentaries which his patron left unfinished, and Lenæus was freedman of Pompey the Great. M. Pompilius Andronicus was a Syrian; M. Antonius Gnipho, though of ingenuous birth, a Gaul. Servius Clodius, however, and L. Ælius Lanuvinus were Roman knights. Nor were the labours of these industrious scholars confined to Rome, or even to Italy; for Octavius Teucer, Siscennius Iacchus and Oppius Chares gave instructions in the province of Gallia Togata. To the names already mentioned may be added those of L. Ælius Stilo, who accompanied L. Metellus Numidicus into exile, and Valerius Cato, who not only taught the art of poetry, but was himself a poet. We have now traced from its infancy the rise and progress of Roman literature, and watched the gradual opening of the national intellect. The dawn has gently broken, the light has steadily increased, and is now succeeded by the noon-day brilliance of the "golden age." BOOK II. THE ERA OF CICERO AND AUGUSTUS. CHAPTER I. PROSE THE TEST OF THE CONDITION OF A LANGUAGE-DRAMATIC LITERATURE EXTINCT MIMES-DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ROMAN AND GREEK MIMES-LABERIUSPASSAGES FROM HIS POETRY-MATIUS CALVENA-MIMIAMBI-PUBLIUS SYRUSROMAN PANTOMIME-ITS LICENTIOUSNESS-PRINCIPAL ACTORS OF PANTOMIME. DURING the period upon which we are now entering, Roman literature arrived at its greatest perfection. The time at which it attained the highest point of excellence is fixed by Niebuhr1 about A. U. c. 680, when Cicero was between thirty and forty years old. Poetry, indeed, still continued to improve, as regarded metrical structure and diction, in finish, smoothness, and harmony. There is ex. gr. in these respects a marked difference between the works of Lucretius and Virgil; but nevertheless the principles of language now became fixed and settled. In fact, the condition of a language must be judged of by its prose; so must likewise the state of perfection to which its literature has attained. If poetry could be with propriety assumed as the standard, the commencement of the empire of Augustus would constitute the best age of Latin literature, rather than the time when the forum echoed with the eloquence of Cicero; but in the two ages of Cicero and Augustus, taken together as forming one era, is comprehended the golden age both of poetry and prose. Dramatic literature, however, never recovered from the trance into which it had fallen. The stage had not altogether lost that 1 Lect. R. H. cvi. popularity which it had possessed in the days of Attius and Terence, for Æsopus and Roscius, the former the great tragedian, the latter the favourite comedian, in the time of Cicero, amassed great wealth. Esopus lived liberally,' and yet bequeathed a fortune to his son, and Roscius is said to have earned daily the sum of thirty-two pounds. Notwithstanding, also, the degradation attached to the social position of an actor, both these eminent artists enjoyed the friendship of Cicero and other great men. They brought to the study of their profession industry, taste, talent, and learning, and these qualities were appreciated. Esopus was on one occasion encored a countless number of times (millies) by an enthusiastic audience, and Roscius was elevated by Sulla to the equestrian dignity. But although the standard Roman plays were constantly represented, dramatic literature had become extinct. No one wrote comedy at all, and the tragedies of Valgius Rufus and Asinius Pollio were only intended for reading or recitation. Nor, as has been already shown, does the Thyestes of Varus really form an exception to this statement. The dramatic entertainments which had now taken the place of comedy and tragedy were termed mimes. Their distinguishing appellation was derived from the Greek, but they entirely differed from those compositions to which the Greeks applied that title. The latter were written not in verse, but in prose; they were dialogues, not dramatic pieces, and though they were exhibited at certain festivals, and the parts supported by actors, they were never represented on the stage. Even when Sophron, whose compositions were admired and imitated by Plato, raised them to their highest degree of perfection, and made them vehicles of serious moral lessons mingling together ludicrous buffoonery with grave philosophy, their language was only a rhythmical prose, probably somewhat resembling that in which the celebrated despatch of Hippocrates was written. Some idea may be formed of their nature from the fact that the Plin. H. N. v. 72. * Schlegel Lect. viii.; Müller's Dor. iv. 7, 5. 2 Cic. pro Sen. 5 Xen. Hell. i. 23. MIMES OF THE ROMANS. 213 idylls of Theocritus were imitated from the mimes of Sophron, and that Persius took them for his model in his peculiarly dramatic satires.1 The Roman mimes were laughable imitations of manners and persons. So far they combined features of comedy and farce; for comedy represents the characters of a class-farce those of individuals. Their essence was that of the modern pantomime; mimicry and burlesque dialogue were only accidentally introduced. Their coarseness and even indecency2 gratified the love of broad humour which characterized the Roman people. They became successful rivals of comedy, and thus came to be admitted on the public stage. It is most probable that like other dramatic exhibitions, they originally grew out of the Fabulæ Atellanæ, which they afterwards superseded. But notwithstanding their indecency, their satire upon the living, and their burlesque representations of the illustrious dead, when exhibited at funeral games, they had sometimes, like the mimes of Sophron, a moral character, and abounded in shrewd wisdom and noble sentiments.3 Schlegel asserts that there is a great affinity between the Roman mimes and the pasquinades and harlequinades of modern Italy. He conjectures that in them may be traced the germ of the Comedie dell' Arte, and states that the very picture of Polichinello is found in some of the frescoes of Pompeii. After a time, when mimes became established as popular favourites, the dialogue or written part of the entertainment occupied a more prominent position, and was written in verse, like that of tragedy or comedy. In the dictatorship of Julius Cæsar, a Roman knight, named Decius Laberius, became eminent for his mimes. Respecting his merits, we have few opportunities of forming a judgment, as the fragments of his writings are but few and short; but Horaces speaks of them in unfavourable language, and finds fault with their carelessness and want of regular plan. He was born about B. c. 107, and died B. c. 45, at Puteoli, 'Müller's Dorians, Trans. ii. 374. 2 Or. Tr. ii. 515. 3 Cic. pro Rab. 12; de Orat. ii. 59. See also fragm. of Syrus' Mimes. 4 Bothe, Po. Sc. Lat. fragm. vol. v. 5 Sat. i. x. 6. See also Sen. Controv., and Nieb. H. R. ii. p. 169. Hieron. Eus. Chron. (Pozzuoli.) The profession of an actor of mimes was infamous; but Laberius was a writer, not an actor. It happened, however, that P. Syrus, who had been first the slave, then the freedman and pupil of Laberius, and lastly a professional actor, challenged all his brethren to a trial of improvisatorial skill. Cæsar entreated Laberius to enter the lists, and offered him five hundred sestertia (about 4,0007.) Laberius did not submit to the degradation for the sake of the money, but he was afraid to refuse. The only method of retaliation in his power was sarcasm. His part was that of a slave, and when his master scourged him, he exclaimed, "Porro, Quirites, libertatem perdimus!" His words were received with a round of applause, and the audience fixed their eyes on Cæsar. On another occasion his attack on the Dictator was almost threatening: Necesse est multos timeat quem multi timent. He appears to have been always quick and ready in repartee. When, on being vanquished by his adversary Syrus, the Dictator said to him with a sneer Favente tibi me victus es Laberi a Syro, He replied with the following sad but true reflections: Non possunt primi esse omnes omni in tempore, Summum ad gradum cum claritatis veneris Consistes ægre; et quum descendas decides; Cecidi ego, cadet qui sequitur, laus est publica. Cæsar, however, restored to him the rank and equestrian privileges of which his act had deprived him; but still he could not. recover the respect of his countrymen. As he passed the orchestra in his way to the stalls of the knights, Cicero cried out, "If we were not so crowded, I would make room for you here." Laberius replied, alluding to Cicero's lukewarmness as a political partisan, "I am astonished that you should be crowded, as you generally sit on two stools." The calm and feeling rebuke with which, in the prologue to his mime, he remonstrated against the tyranny of Cæsar, is singularly spirited and beautiful: |