Show r t ff i f j I e e THE HERALDS i i Home Study Circle j tot 1399 w fey by Seymour Semour Eaton Eton t Directed by b Prof Seymour Seyou E 4 4 k 44 I 1 GOLDEN G LE AGES OF OP LITERATURE IX JT EHE GOLDEN GOLE AGE OF OP EO lO lOM O HAN M LITERATURE BY BE JOHN JOH EBENEZER EBE BRYANT BRYM M 11 lL A A ATe There Te are two epochs in the history of Rome Roe when hen literature shone resplendent resplendent dent The earlier epoch was that of dent Te earler Cicero and Caesar It I Is generally spoken of ot ofas as the Ciceronian age The later epoch was that of or Virgil VIrl and ad Horace H re This epoch is i generally called the Augustan age ageo The Tho o of Rome for Ca or sixty years yer that that ended eded with wih Jie he e death Of Caesar Cael was a fearful thing No o mod modern modera era ern er history parallels It except that of France torn fora for a little while during durig and just justH H ll er the revolution There Thee was wa no leisure no n room no possible chance for forthe forthe forthe the development of ot the literary lery spirit as a factor of general culture The na aft nation n tion toni if Rome at that tirre tiIe can cn be called cHed a nation was wholly engrossed in in the the embroilments the te upheavals of or fierce tere internecine struggle And Ao yet out oUt of the chaos of those times were We developed two literary prod products products ucla that had bad ha the quality and ad matter of universal fame In them Cicero Ci er B C was wa a n great geat man manIt manit It If mere mee qualities be con one of the very er greatest men of antiquity He was an orator a pleader at an at the bar a parliamentary debater a scholar a critic an essayist i ikic kic Virgil ln In polite p Ue literature a philosopher all of the first rank and Wd as a such he has always been ben regarded regarded His main am ambition however was to be a successful politician In this he h failed His character caracter was not strong enough either eIter on its Us good side or on its is faulty fauly side for tor effectual coping with wih the mas masterful masterful masterful unscrupulousness of his age In the end his head wa was struck off of taken to Rome and an displayed d played in the senate house hous housea a proceeding which though it I seems wantonly atrocious was only typical of the time Cicero is known kown to scholarship prin principally principally for his parliamentary orations and ao forensic addresses his hs philosophic treatises his essays and his familiar letters letes These have served seved ls as men inex inexhaustible Ine fields of study stud for the aca academic acad demic d youth of tw twenty enty centuries But greatest title tte to fame rests upon the splendid fact fac that it I was wa he who ho by his literary art and literary lero power powe fixed the character of the Latin LaUn tongue as M a vehicle of literary expression expression sion for the greatest nation naton of ant ant luring Juring the Whole period of its ita Is great greatness greatness ness nes and instituted models of style and ad construction which all 21 subsequent Lat Dat Latin Lt DatIn in authors aut followed And when we re reflect Sect that or the Latin language was for sixteen centuries the language of the whole civilized world world this great geat achievement achl verent of his measures up to a much greater magnitude than even first fIt appears appear geater Indeed It I is scarcely too much mch to say s that the models m dels of f literary style and rhetorical rh construction which Cicero a set up are the models that have been acknowledged wherever oratory is practiced or o literature written right up to the present day d Caesar Ca s r B n C the other great geat name Ciceronian epoch of Roman literature was a greater geter man than ta even Cicero was wa Caesar was Indeed the greatest man in all al antiquity And un en u enri ri 2 t Cicero like Uke ke the case e of Cicero Cicer the more critically crt critically cally cl Caesars character and morE achieve achievement achievement ment are a studied the greater great r do they measure He was a great general a great statesman a great get empire builder and geat codifier of law also a great geat poll poli politician and orator In literature how however however ever Caesar c was wa great geat not because of conscious effort efort spent on literary la Ia labors labor hors bors bor but through trough the sheer inevitable inevitableness ness nes of genius His Hi only literary lerry labors 0 o tar mar r as JS s the te world now nw possesses the te traits fruits frIt of ot them were his anonymous or rather impersonal records record of his hr own exploits lt In war wa And Ad yet et these te simple records notes he called cle them cm commentaries as we now nw say were in his hla hi awn time time and have ever since remained in succinctness perspicuity and brilliancy of phrase the despair de ar aral all al who tried or have hae tried tIe to Imitate them Even Cicero Cicer acknowledged this tisTe The age of ot Cicero and ad Caesar Cear was wa il ii illuminated 1 Te ae In lit literature literature by other othe great geat names 1 besides beside the two greatest ones one But these need not be mentioned here There Is one ope writer wrier of the ate age how however howver ever ver Tere iver who wo monte merits erit special mention menton Lu Lucretius Lucretius BC c author of De Natura On the Nature of Things was s a poet whose genius was wasso wasso so ile that it i lacked adequate 5 recognition almost down dow to our own day I Only with wih the te advance in science and the explanation of the causes cause of natural processes presses which the nineteenth nine eth century has 1 witnessed has ha U the far reaching scope of the great gat poem pom of Lucretius written nearly twenty cen centuries tunes ago been fully understood In Ia its ture own on ag Sal day da it was wa but little under understood understood stood It and md indeed but little known lown Sod the unification and Caesar Cesar achieved achieved ad iCOD consolidation of the Roman Roma He reduced chaos to order faction fa Uon and ad in internecine Internecine contention to cohesion and ad strength He paid the price of his achievements with ih his hi life Ufe After Ater Ills his assassination B C 44 4 faction and contention raised ried head hed once more mor and ad chaos again agin ruled rIed i everywhere But only ony for a short time Caesars work had been ben too wel well done and ad Caesars Ca s grandnephew and heir known to t fame as an A Augustus Angustus ustus B B C 63 63 A A D 14 1 perfected and made permanent pret the great gat consolidation which Caesar C had planned planed and inaugurated With Wih the order and ad peace pee which Augustus es established established mens minds mind had opportunity to develop along the lines of their nat axt natural n ural ur bents beats bens Literature blossomed blossome out once more macre into beauty beauty and strength and ad the glory glor of letters in his reign was wa such that tat his b name as a applied to toa toa toa a a literary epoch has ever eer since sice been regarded a synonym for transcendent excellence The Augustan age of lit Ut literature literature in n Rome Pome was wa in good god reality rait a golden age age And Ad yet that age ge derived its It principal luster from only two great geat names Both Bothof Bot of these thes were poets So that while the Ciceronian age was wa an a age of prose for Lucretius it will be remembered was a but little known lown in his day the Augustan Augsta age was an a age of poetry pett The one epoch eph represented indeed the culmination of prose literature among the Romans the other the culmination oter te of poetry B C ranks as a one of the worlds greatest poets poet For many cen Cell centuries tunes tures he was wa named with wIh Homer Homel w of course cure was to o place him in II the he highest rank ran of all al Then a rac tion lon set st In and he was looked looke upon for fot fora fota foia a tine as an a thin and ad artificial Of late years yer a truer criticism has placed place him back in a a position poston corre corresponding corresponding closely to his earlier one onele While le not the equal eual of Homer in force forcen ire in n rapidity of movement in plc or vital vial Interest Virgil VIrgl yet et possessed qualities which Homer did not have and which no other poet pet showed showe till tn comparatively modern ages were reached reach d For with all aU his brilliancy of oC objective description Virgil also alo was wasa a subjective poet pot He brooded over the pathos of life the team teara of things thing to use us his own phrase His heart her went out In pity for the distresses die which fate i imposes es on humanity Whereas ere Homer Homers L is s aa as a unconcerned with wit the destinies of ot human beings being except to portray portra them accurately as any pagan god upon Olympus Olympus Virgil is read rad today for tor his hi Aeneid an epic poem describing chiefly the fall faU of Troy taking up the te story where Hemer left it in m the II Ila a al albut 3 but dwelling upon the exploits and adventures of Aeneas a a Trojan Tjan hero aero who after the fall faU of Troy came cameto to Italy and became the reputed pro progenitor progenitor genitor ge lor of the Roman people peole But the Aeneid was as a publication tion ton On his deathbed Virgil VIrgl made it I his last desire that the manuscript t of his poem p m should be destroyed for kA I I Julius Caesar though he had been bee at work upon It i eleven years ears he judged that tat three years ears more w were ere necessary to perfect it it This wish was not carried out only because of the express S command of Augustus The publication of the poem pom was wa ef Of effected f immediately and so much ap approved approved approved proved was it I by the Roman people that I scarcely a century had elapsed before VIrgUs tomb became as a it were the theof I Ia a vr p e of a god i iVirgil Virgil VIrgl was nas as a I poet for all al time Hor Her Horace Horace Herace ace B C also a o was a poet pot for all aU time ume and yet he WS and I emphatically a poet of the age he be belonged belonged belonged longed to The Odes of or Horace Horce de derived derived rived ried their origin their being their very ery soul and essence from the life of ot the t s they depicted Horace is the singular example of ofa A a poet w who ho is really not a great poet pot becoming by b his art artS the infinite felicity of pf his hl art ar greater greater that is to cay aay ey more nore widely read red more mor enduringly renowned than the very ver greatest of pots For without doubt Horace has ha been more widely and ad more continuously read more widely Idel and more mor frequently quoted quote than any other poet who ever eer lived He owes this mar marvelous marvelous popularity a popularity ex en extending e tending through every age and ad throughout every civilized country not notto to power of thought or of or suggestion or of inspiration but to an inimitable apt aptness aptness ness ne of expression which gives to even e n mediocre Ideas idea such ch lodgment in the memory memry that once they are there they are never displaced There Ther Was a time not so very ver long longa ago a o when to know ones Horace wan wat the shibboleth of or culture Readers Reder of novels novel will wI remember how continually Horace Horce is I quoted by him and by his characters If I men of po pote pote te society met anywhere their dis discourse d course couise with wih one another anoter their jests J ts their heir repartees w were ere sure to t be flavored by Hor tan allusions and oftentimes deed by direct d quotations That Tat time Is is past pat The great geat expansion Ion don of knowledge in these later la r days I has h made made the le surely study of classic J literature once the rule once indeed imperative on n all aU who aspired to t cul culture culture ture tare quite Quie impossible Today even the professed d classical scholar scarcely knows his Horace Hrace as a well wel as a forty fort years y as ago the well weil Drained school boy knew It It Some idea of or most classical authors can obtained be from translations Ho Homer Homer mer especially the Odyssey has ha beer been ben benwel well wel rendered Into info English So too reIde has ha Virgil Virl but with less le success Vir Virgis ir gils gis art is too personal persona too to character characteristic latin of his hi own individuality to t be b ad adequately a adequately transferred by another minu m into another language But of o all al classic authors authora none none is so impossible to translate A as a Horace His Hs aptness of phrase Ph his deftness defte o c metrical construction in a z aanos Lad vanish aih entirely The result reut pio e bare commonplace prose prose Ev Evi Et with wih all a his love of Horace Horce with all al his hi wealth wet t classical scholarship and skill In En gush versification made me nothing noting of h attempt tempt To enjoy enjoY Horace Homce at all al on nest do so in the Besides Beld Virgil Virl Horac there ther we wei other othe ornaments orent Of If literature in th Ut Augustan age but none of or course cur wb approached these tese two Ovid B C CA 4 t tA A 4 D 6 a younger member of tb Ut Augustan group was a more mor representative of or the e Ideas Idea and ad ma maners mane maness ness ners ne o the age than tha eve ev orace But Ovid Old though a a poet pt o 0 felicity f lct of or expression and a amos most unequaled narrative power does doe do donot mos not rank and never ner has h ranked with r his older contemporaries Another Ante Seat great name 1 9 of at the Augustan age ag was W Livy LV Llvy Ly B C 0 50 D 17 11 was wa not nota a poet pt He e was a a prose prom writer I and ad one of the te first rank rk He He was mss w a historian up to t his hI Ume the te greatest bf Latin LUn historians Livy Liv was wa not crit critical crt criticaL ical He was wa not exact et or painstaking But he narrated history dramatically and ad gave ge to t the te world pictures of men mena and a manners which If i not true tre to ac actual teal tul fact are ae like Uke She ars dra dramatic dr Sm matic histories hire accepted by the world word worda as a truer ter in their ter general correctness i of or portraiture than t the te narratives of ot more mor technically accurate historians There Ter was a a little later on a third epoch ep of ot Roman literature not Incon Inconsiderable Inen in its greatness by any ay means m a It I continued for tor a number of years aror for some som distance into the te see sec second se ond end century cent indeed Inde It I included Include Sen Sea Seneca Sene eca e the te philosopher Martial Marta the epi epigrammatist epigrammatist Pliny the naturalist the most mst learned lere man of or his age as ashe a ashe he was wa justly called Tacitus the te his historian torian toran the rhetorician and Juvenal Juena the satirist Of these thee the most was wa Tacitus Titus Tad Taci Tacitus Tal tUg A A D has been called cled the te Latin LUn Carlyle The piercing scorching phrases by which he trans transfixed transfixed fixed fo a character chater and ad showed showe the th evil evi lurking within or lit 1 up as a with wih strokes of lurid lud color his usually somber and awesome portraiture of the fateful pro procession cession events are unique In literature Tacitus Indeed ind in his way was w one on of the te greatest historical writers the world has known known |