A History of Roman Literature

to after 30 B. C.-Varro, 116-27 B. C.-Atticus, 109-32 B. C.-Hortensius, 114-50 B. C.-Calidius, died 47 B. C.-Calvus, 87-47 B. C.-Brutus, 78 (?)-42 B. C.-Cornificiu

the story of his life belongs to the history of Rome rather than to that

f Jupiter at the age of not more than fifteen. While still little more than a boy he married Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, and barely escaped the proscription of Sulla when he refused to divorce her. The young C?sar was thus, in spite of his patrician birth, identified with the popular party

as a dissolute man and an unscrupulous demagogue. His extravagance had involved him in debts amounting to more than a million dollars. But in the governme

province of Gaul through 49 B. C., while Pompey and Crassus were to be consuls in 55 B. C., after which Syria and Spain were to be given to Crassus and Pompey respectively for five years. The agreement was duly carried out, and in 54 B. C. Crassus want to Syria, where he lost his life after the battle of Carrh?, in 53 B. C. In the same year Pompey's wife, Julia, died. Pompey had not gone to Spain to take possession of his province, but remained at Rome, and soon became openly hostile to C?sar. When the Gallic war was e

al monarchy. C?sar's dictatorship and death. In the brief period of his power C?sar accomplished the reform of the calendar, and carried through numerous important changes for the improvement of the government, but nothing coul

rs, two books Against Cato, and a few grammatical or rhetorical essays, all of which are lost, as are also his orations, which were greatly admired. Collections of his letters existed in antiquity, but these also have been lost, and the only extant

the glory and power of Rome, and to prove to his detractors that his conquest of Gaul had not been an act of unprovoked aggression, but had been forced upon him by circumstances. The facts narrated are drawn, in all probability, from the official army records, supplemented from C?sar's own recollections, and perhaps from his private journals. In striking contrast to the transparent vanity which led Cicero to extol his own merits on all possible occasions, C?sar keeps his personality in the background, and writes of

ns is varied and enlivened by the insertion of descriptions, speeches, dialogues, and all sorts of interesting details. He frequently takes occa

you, I will at least provide for your safety, since through my greed for glory I have led you into danger. When an opportunity is given you, do you look out for yourselves." At once he rushed into the midst of the enemy, and after killing two, drove the rest a little away

ng title of Commentarii, or "notes"; but such is the perfectio

, while the story of the first year of the Civil War occupies two books. The historical interest of this work is at least as great as that of the books on the Gallic War, but it does not compete with them in literary merit, and contains some positive misstatements. Probably the work was

inst Antony. The only work ascribed to him with certainty is the eighth book of the Commentaries on the Gallic War, in which he shows himself far inferior to C?sar as a writer, but not without some ability. The book is well written, in a style evidently intended to resemble that of C?sar. Whether the book on the Alexandrian War was written by Hirtius or by Gaius Oppius is uncertain. Oppius was a man of equestrian rank, a supporter and agent of C?sar at Rome. After C?sar's death he attached himself to the party of Oct

ive the reader a broad general knowledge of the course of events, with all their causes and consequences. They are not, strictly speaking, history, but a masterly presentation of the material from which history is made. The earli

e. In 50 B. C. he was expelled from the senate by the censors Appius Claudius and Lucius Piso. In the following year he was reappointed qu?stor by C?sar and thus regained his place in the senate. In 48 B. C. he was in command of a legion in Illyria, in the year following he was sent by C?sar to suppress a mutiny a

ch treated of the events from 78 to 67 B. C., only fragments are preserved, in addition to four speeches and two letters, which were inserted in the narrative, but w

the bare facts of history, but exerts himself to depict the sentiments and motives underlying the actions of the chief persons about whom he writes, and even of mankind in general. He prefaces his narrative with introductions of a philosophical nature, sometimes not strictly relevant to the subject in hand. His style is rhetorical and piquant, and he uses many archaic words, chosen in great part from Cato's works. He evidently imitates the style of Thuc

But all our power is situated in the spirit and the body; our spirit is more for command, our body for obedience; the one we have in common with the gods, the other with the beasts; wherefore it

ss of the danger from the conspiracy of Catiline b

ess, which long peace had brought forth, suddenly utter sadness came in; people hurried, ran trembling about, had no

ans exhibits Sallust's rhetorical style, his lik

as much as the entire state is more important than the consulship or the pr?torship, with so much greater care ought the former to be administered than these latter to be sought. Nor am I ignorant how much trouble I am taking upon myself at the same time with the greatest hono

ers, especially upon that of Tacitus, the greatest of Roman historians. We must remember, too, that the Catiline and the Jugurtha were of much less importa

t Rome. His works were all, with the exception of some love poems, historical and biographical. The Chronica, in three books, treating of universal history, was probably written before 52 B. C. The Exempla, in five books, was a history of Roman manners and customs. Three other works were a Life of Cato (the elder), a Life of Cicero, and a treatise on geography. His latest work, published apparently between 35 and 33 B. C., was a great

also generals, and biographies of Hamilcar and Hannibal. Nepos draws his facts from good sources, such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Theopompus, Polybius, and the writings of Hannibal, but is careless and uncritical, and does not employ all the important sources of information on each subject. He makes mistakes in matters of history and geography, arranges his material badly,

d himself in the war against the pirates. Perhaps he continued to serve under Pompey in the war with Mithridates. In the civil war he was on the side of Pompey, and was forced to surrender to C?sar the legion under his command. He was afterward in Epirus, at Corcyra, and at Dyrrhachium. After C?sar's victory, Varro

losophy, mathematics, literary history and education, miscellaneous essays, orations, and letters. Of all these there remain one complete work, On Agriculture (De Re Rustica), in three books, six (v-x) of the original twenty-five books of the

and fish. The dialogue is stiff, and the arrangement of the different parts of the subject artificial. The work is valuable for the information it contains, but its literary form is unattractive. The extant books of the treatise On the Latin Language are chiefly concerned with the derivation of words and with inflections. Syntax was treated in books xiv-xxv. Varro's etymologies are often incorrect, and his ideas concerning inflections unscientific; but the work contains much that is of value to the student of the Latin language and of Roman antiquities. The style is dry and often dull. In fact, this is hardly a work of literatu

rnelius Nepos. He was a wealthy man, who abstained from public life and devoted himself to literature by publishing the works of others and giving friendly aid to literary men as well as by writing. His friendship with Cicero has already been mentioned. His works were histor

aged by the same client who secured Cicero's services. Hortensius was the chief representative of the florid and ornamental "Asian" style of oratory at Rome. Among the orators who adopted the simple Attic style, the most important were Marcus Calidius, who was

cero now existing are three letters to Tiro and one to Marcus Cicero, besides an Essay on Candidature for the Consulship, in the form of a letter to Marcus, written when he was a candidate for that office in 64 B. C. This gives some interesting information about the methods of Roman politicians,but has little literary interest. The first of Marcus Cicero's Letters to Quintus is a

whose teachings helped to inform some of the great writers and orators of the time, but whose works have not been preserved. A philologist, historian, and poet, whose writings were considered important, was Santra, who seems to have been somewhat younger than Varro, but we are now unable to determine wherein their importance consisted. Among the jurists of this period the most distinguis

llus, Cicero, and C?sar. In the Augustan age, poetry attained a still greater height of p

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GUSTAN