Decline of Roman Literature-It became declamatory-Biography of Phædrus-Genuineness of his Fables-Moral and Political Lessons inculcated in them-Specimens of Fables-Fables suggested by His- torical events-Sejanus and Tiberius-Epoch unfavourable to Litera- ture-Ingenuity of Phædrus-Superiority of Æsop-The style of Phæ- Dramatic Literature in the Augustan Age-Revival under Nero-De- fects of the Tragedies attributed to Seneca-Internal evidence of their authorship-Seneca the Philosopher a Stoic-Inconsistent and un- stable—The sentiments of his Philosophical Works found in his Tra- gedies-Parallel passages compared-French School of Tragic Poets 403 Biography of Persius-His schoolboy days- His friends-His purity and modesty-His defects as a Satirist-Subject of his Satires-Obscurity of his style-Compared with Horace-Biography of Juvenal-Corrup- tion of Roman Morals-Critical observations on the Satires-Their Historical value-Style of Juvenal-He was the last of Roman Sa- Biography of Lucan-Inscription to his Memory-Sentiments expressed in the Pharsalia—Lucan an unequal Poet-Faults and merits of the Pharsalia-Characteristics of his Age-Difficulties of Historical Poetry —Lucan a descriptive Poet-Specimens of his Poetry-Biography of Silius Italicus-His character by Pliny-His Poem dull and tedious— C. Valerius Flaccus-Faults of the Argonautica-Papinius Statius- Beauty of his minor Poems-Incapable of Epic Poetry-Domitian- Epigram-Martial-His Biography-Profligacy of the Age in which he lived-Impurity of his Writings-Favourable specimens of his Aufidius Bassus and Cremutius Cordus-Velleius Paterculus-Character of his Works-Valerius Maximus-Cornelius Tacitus-Age of Trajan -Biography of Tacitus-His extant Works enumerated-Agricola- C. Suetonius Tranquillus-His Biography-Sources of his History- His great fault-Q. Curtius Rufus-Time when he flourished doubtful M. Annæus Seneca-His Controversia and Suasoriæ-L. Annæus Se- neca Tutor to Nero-His enormous fortune-His death and cha- racter-Inconsistencies in his Philosophy-A favourite with early Pliny the Elder-His habits described by his Nephew-His industry and application-His death in the eruption of Vesuvius-The Erup- tion described in two Letters of Pliny the Younger-The Natural His- tory of Pliny-Its subjects described-Pliny the Younger-His affec- tion for his guardian-His Panegyric, Letters, and Despatches-That M. Fabius Quintilianus-His Biography-His Institutiones Oratoriæ- His views of Education-Division of his Subject into Five Parts- Review of Greek and Roman Literature-Completeness of his great Work-His other Works-His disposition-Grief for the loss of his son 499 A. Cornelius Celsus-His merits-Cicero Medicorum-Scribonius Lar- gus Designatianus-Pomponius Mela-L. Junius Moderatus Colu- mella-S. Julius Frontinus-Decline of taste in the Silver Age- ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. BOOK I. FIRST ERA. CHAPTER I. COMPARISON OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE WITH THE GREEK-ERAS OF LATINITY-ORIGIN OF THE ROMANS-ELEMENTS OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE-ETRUSCAN INFLUENCE. THE various races which, from very remote antiquity, inhabited the peninsula of Italy, necessarily gave a composite character to the Latin language. But as all of them sprang from one common origin, the great Indo-European stock to which also the Hellenic family belonged, a relation of the most intimate kind is visible between the languages of ancient Greece and Rome. Not only are their alphabets and grammatical constructions identical, but the genius of the one is so similar to that of the other, that the Romans readily adopted the principles of Greek literary taste, and Latin, without losing its own characteristic features, moulded itself after the Greek model. Latin, however, has not the plastic property which the Greek possesses the natural faculty of transforming itself into every variety of shape conceived by the fancy and imagination. It is a harder material, it readily takes a polish, but the process by which it receives it is laborious and artificial. Greek, like a liquid or a soft substance, seems to crystallize as it were spontaneously into the most beautiful forms: Latin, whether poetry or prose, derives only from consummate art and skill that graceful beauty which is the natural property of the kindred language. Latin, also, to continue the same metaphor, has other characteristic features of hard substances-gravity, solidity, and momentum or energy. It is a fit language for embodying and expressing the thoughts of an active and practical but not an imaginative and speculative people. But the Latin language, notwithstanding its nervous energy and constitutional vigour, has, by no means, exhibited the permanency and vitality of the Greek. The Greek language, reckoning from the earliest works extant to the present day, boasts of an existence measured by nearly one-half the duration of the human race, and yet how gradual were the changes during the classical periods, and how small, when compared with those of other European languages, the sum and result of them all! Setting aside the differences due to race and physical organization, there are no abrupt chasms, no broad lines of demarkation, between one literary period and another. The transition is gentle, slow, and gradual. The successive steps can be traced and followed out. The literary style of one period melts and is absorbed into that of the following one, just like the successive tints and colours of the prism. The Greek of the Homeric poems is not so different from that of Herodotus and Thucydides, or the tragedians or the orators, or even the authors of the later debased ages, but that the same scholar who understands the one can analyze the rest. Though separated by so many ages, the contemporaries of Demosthenes could appreciate the beauties of Homer; and the Byzantines and early Christian fathers wrote and spoke the language of the ancient Greek philosophers. The Greek language long outlived Greek nationality. The earliest Roman historians wrote in Greek because they had as yet no native language fitter to express their thoughts. The Romans, in the time of Cicero, made Greek the foundation of a liberal education, and frequented Athens as a University for the purpose of studying Greek literature and philosophy. The great orator, in his defence of the poet Archias, informs us that Greek |