and predominant aristocracy, or a court, which represents or leads the public taste. Rome was too populous to crowd into a theatre, where the legitimate drama could be effectively performed. The people required at least a Colosseum; and directly, as elsewhere, their theatres rivalled their amphitheatres, the art was gone. Society, too, in Rome was in its state of transition from the public spectacle to the private banquet or entertainment; and, as our own present mode of living requires the novel instead of the play, affords a hundred readers of a book to one spectator of a theatrical performance, so Roman comedy receded from the theatre, in which she had never been naturalized, and concentrated her art and her observation on human life and manners, in the poem, which was recited to the private circle of friends, or published for the general amusement of the whole society. Lucilius, as Horace himself says, aspired to be in Rome what Eupolis, Cratinus, and Aristophanes had been in Athens (Sat. I. v. 1 et seqq.); and more than Cæcilius, Plautus, and Terence, excellent as the two latter at least appear to us, were at Rome. The tone of society of which Horace is the representative, was that into which Rome, weary and worn out with civil contests, was delighted to collapse. The peace of the capital was no more disturbed; though the foreign disturbances in Spain and on the other frontiers of the empire, the wars with the sons of Pompey, and finally with Antony in the East, distracted the remoter world, Rome quietly subsided into the pursuits of peace. It was the policy no less than the inclination of Augustus and his true friends, to soften, to amuse, to introduce all the arts, and tastes, and feelings which could induce forgetfulness of the more stirring excitements of the rostrum and the senate; to waken the song of the poet, that the agitating eloquence of the orator might cause less regret; to spread the couch of luxury, of elegant amusement, and of lettered ease, on which Rome might slumber away the remembrance of her departed liberties. Agrippa and Augustus himself may be considered as taking charge of the public amusements, erecting theatres, and adorning the city with magnificent buildings of every description, transmuting the Rome of brick into the Rome of marble; exhibiting the most gorgeous shows and spectacles; distributing sumptuous largesses; and compensating, by every kind of distraction and diversion, for the privation of those more serious political occupations in the forum, or at the comitia, which were either abolished by the new constitution, or had languished into regular and unexciting formalities.(") Mæcenas in the mean time was winning, if not to the party, or to personal attachment towards Augustus, at least to contented acquiescence in his sovereignty, those who would yield to the silken charms of social enjoyment. Though in (45) The pantomimes had begun to supersede the regular drama. Pylades was expelled by a faction, but recalled from exile by Augustus. In a dispute with Bathyllus, who was patronized by Maecenas, Pylades cried out, "It is well for you, Cæsar, that the people trouble themselves so much about us, the less therefore about you."-Dion. Cass. LIV. 17. See on the pantomimes of the Romans an excellent dissertation by E. J. Gryser. Rheinisches Museum, 1834. olives, and vines; it was surrounded by pleasant and shady woods, and with abundance of the purest water; it was superintended by a bailiff (villicus), and cultivated by five families of free coloni (Epist. I. xiv. 3), and Horace employed about eight slaves (Sat. II. vii. 118). To the munificence of Mæcenas we owe that peculiar charm of the Horatian poetry, that it represents both the town and country life of the Romans in that age; the country life, not only in the rich and luxurious villa of the wealthy at Tivoli, or at Bais; but in the secluded retreat and among the simple manners of the peasantry. It might seem as if the wholesome air which the poet breathed, during his retirement on his farm, re-invigorated his natural manliness of mind. There, notwithstanding his love of convivial enjoyment in the palace of Mecenas and other wealthy friends, he delighted to revert to his own sober and frugal mode of living. Probably, at a later period of life, he indulged himself in a villa at Tivoli, which he loved for its mild winter and long spring; (4) and all the later years of his life were passed between these two country residences and Rome. The second book of Satires followed the first. It is evident from the first lines of this book that the poet had made a strong impression on the public taste. No writer, with the keen good sense of Horace, (46) For Tibur, see C. 1. vii. 10-14. C. п. vi. 5-8; iv. 21-24. C. 1v. ii. 27-31; iii. 10-12. Epod. i. 29, 30. Epist. 1. vii. 44, 45. I. viii. 12. would have ventured on such expressions as the following, unless he had felt confident of his position: "Sunt quibus in Satirâ videor nimis acer, et ultra This is the language of a privileged egotist; of one who had acquired a right, by public suffrage, to talk of himself. The victim of his satire will be an object of ridicule to the whole city: "Nec quisquam noceat cupido mihi pacis! et ille The sixth Satire of this book is the most important in the chronology of the life and works of Horace. "Septimus octavo propior jam fugerit annus, Ex quo Mæcenas me cœpit habere suorum In numero, duntaxat ad hoc, quem tollere rheda (47) I subjoin the imitation of his best interpreter at least, if not commentator: "There are (I scarce can think it, but am told), And the sad burden of a merry song."-Pope. 56 LIFE OF HORACE. Hoc genus: Hora quota est? Threx est Gallina Syro par? Matutina parum cautos jam frigora mordent, Et quæ rimosâ bene deponuntur in aure."("") Sat. II. vi. 40-47.(5) It was in the eighth year (") of his familiarity with Maecenas that this Satire was composed. To this must be added the nine months after his first introduction. If Horace returned to Rome in the winter after the battle of Philippi (u. c. 712, 713), time must be allowed for him to form his friendship with Virgil and with Varius, and to gain that poetic reputation by pieces circulated in private which would justify their recommendation of their friend to Mæcenas. The first introduction could scarcely therefore be earlier than u. c. 715. It is impossible therefore that this book could be completed before late in u. c. the battle of Actium. If, allusion to the division of 722, the year before however, there be an lands to the soldiers The past, fugerit, actually elapsed, and (49) Some construe "Septimus octavo propior jam fugerit annus," as only six years and a half. surely implies that the seventh year had above half a year more. (50) This pleasant passage is exquisitely adapted by Swift: 66 "Tis (let me see) three years and more Since Harley bid me first attend, And chose me for an humble friend; And question me of this and that; As, What's o'clock? or How's the wind? Or, Have you nothing new to-day From Pope, from Parnell, or from Gay?" &c. &c. |