The History of Roman Literature - Part 55
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Part 55

[118] C. vi. 15, _quicquid habes boni malique Die n.o.bis_.

[119] See xix. 5-9, and lxxvi.

[120] Especially in the Attis.

[121] Ov. Amor. iii. 9, 62, _docte Catulle_. So Mart. viii. 73, 8. Perhaps satirically alluded to by Horace, _simius iste Nil praeter Calvum et_ doctus _cantare Catullum_. S. I. x.

[122] The first foot may be a spondee, a trochee, or an iambus. The licence is regarded as _duriusculum_ by Pliny the Elder. But in this case freedom suited the Roman treatment of the metre better than strictness.

[123] A trimeter iambic line with a spondee in the last place, which must always be preceded by an iambus, _e.g. Miser Catulle desinas ineptire._

[124] _E.g._ in C. lx.x.xiv. (12 lines) there is not a single dissyllabic ending. In one place we have _dictaque factaque sunt_. I think Martial also has _hoc scio, non amo te_. The best instance of continuous narration in this metre is lxvi. 105-30, _Quo tibi tum--conciliata viro_, a very sonorous pa.s.sage.

[125] _E.g. Perfecta exigitur | una amicitia_ (see Ellis. Catull.

Prolog.), and _Iupiter ut Chalyb.u.m | omne genus percut_, which is in accord with old Roman usage, and is modelled on Callimachus's _Zeu kater, os chalybon pan apoloito genos_.

[126] This has been alluded to under Aratus. As a specimen of Catullus's style of translation, we append two lines, _Hae me Konon eblepsen en aeri ton Berenikaes bostruchon on keinae pasin ethaeke theois_ of translation, we append two lines, which are thus rendered, _Idem me ille Conon_ caelesti munere _vidit E Bereniceo vertice caesariem_ Fulgenlem clare, _quam multis illa deorum_ Levia protendens brachia _pollicitaest_. The additions are characteristic.

[127] clxviii.

[128] Ca. clxi: lxii.

[129] The conceit in v. 63, 64, must surely be Greek.

[130] _Epullion_.

[131] C. 68.

[132] See Ellis, _Cat. Prolegomena_.

PART II.

CHAPTER I.

[1] Tibullus was, however, a Roman knight.

[2] O. ii. 7, 10. _Tec.u.m Philippos et celerem fugam Sensi relicta non bene parmula._

[3] G. ii. 486. _Flumina amem silvasque inglorius._

[4] i. 57. _Non ego laudari curo mea Delia: tec.u.m Dummodo sim, quaeso, segnis inersque vocer._

[5] Pr. i. 6,29. _Non ego sum laudi, non natus idoneus armis._

[6] The lack of patrons becomes a standing apology in later times for the poverty of literary production.

[7] Pollio, however, stands on a somewhat different footing. In his cultivation of rhetoric he must be cla.s.sed with the imperial writers.

[8] Dis te minorem quod geris imperas, 0. iii. 6, 5.

[9] Cicero was Augur. Admission to this office was one of the great objects of his ambition.

[10] Od. iii. 24, 33.

[11] C. S. 57; O. iv. 5, 21.

[12] Ecl. i. 7.

[13] Ep. ii. 1, 16.

[14] Prop. iii. 4, 1; Ovid Tr. iii. 1, 78.

[15] This subject is discussed in an essay by Gaston Boissier in the first volume of _La Religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins._

[16] _Tac. Ann_. i. 2, Ubi militem donis, populum annona, cunctos dulcedine otii pellexit, insurgere paulatim, munia senatus magistratuum legum in se trahere, nullo adversante, c.u.m ferocissimi per acies aut proscriptione cecidissent, ceteri n.o.bilium, quanto quis servitio promptior, opibus et honoribus extollerentur, ac novis ex rebus aucti tuta et praesentia quam vetera et periculosa mallent.

[17] c.u.m divus Augustus sicut caetera eloquentiam pacaverat.--_De Causs.

Corr. Eloq._

[18] Pompon Dig. I. 2. 2.47 (quoted by Teuffel). Primus Divus Augustus, _ut maior iuris auctoritas haberetur_, const.i.tuit ut ex auctoritate eius responderent.

[19] _Odi profanum vulgus et arceo_ (Hor. Od. iii. 1, 1), _Parca dedit malignum spernere vulgus_ (id. ii. 16, 39), _satis est equitem mihi plaudere_ (Sat. I. x. 77), and often. So Ovid, Fast. I. _exordium_.

[20] See the pleasing description in the ninth Satire of Horace's first book.

[21] Suet. Aug. 84. Tac. An. xiii. 3.

[22] _Tuque pedestribus Dices historiis praelia Caesaris Maecenas melius ductaque per vias Regum colla minacium_ (Od. ii. 12, 9).

[23] Ep. 101, 11. I quote it to show what his sentiments were on a point that touched a Roman nearly, the fear of death: _Debilem facito manu debilem pede c.o.xa: Tuber astrue gibberum, lubricos quate dentes: Vita dum superest, bene est: hanc mihi vel acuta Si sedeam cruce sustine._

[24] He was so when Horace wrote his first book of Satires (x. 51). _Forte epos acer lit nemo Varius ducit_.

[25] Often quoted as the poem _de Morte_.

[26] Sat. vi. 2.

[27] Ecl. viii. 5, 88, _proc.u.mbit in ulva Perdita, nec serae_, &c. Observe how Virgil improves while he borrows.

[28] Aen. vi. 621, 2.

[29] Od. i. 61.

[30] So says the Schol. on Hor. Ep. I. xvi. 25.

[31] X. i. 98

[32] X. 3. 8.