A History of Roman Literature | Page 3

work--Criticism of his method--Pompeius
Trogus--Vitruvius--Grammarians--Fenestella--Verrius
Flaccus--Hyginus--Law and philosophy.
APPENDIX.--Note I. A Suasoria translated from Seneca, " II. Some
Observations on the Theory of Rhetoric, from Quintilian, Book III.
BOOK III.
THE DECLINE. FROM THE ACCESSION OF TIBERIUS TO THE
DEATH OF M. AURELIUS, A.D. 14-180.

CHAPTER I.
The Age of Tiberius (14-37 A.D.).
Sudden collapse of letters--Cause of this--Tiberius--Changed position
of literature--Vellius Paterculus--Valerius Maximus--Celsus--Remmius
Palaemon--Germanicus--Phaedrus--Pomponius Secundus the tragedian.

CHAPTER II.
_The Reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero_ (37-68 A.D.).
1. _Poets._
The Neronian period an epoch--Peculiar characteristics of its writers
--Literary pretensions of Caligula--of Claudius--of Nero--Poem on
Calpurnius Piso--Relation of philosophy to
life--Cornutus--Persius--Lucan --Criticism of the
_Pharsalia_--Eclogues of Calpurnius--The poem on Etna-- Tragedies of
Seneca--The apokolokuntosis.

CHAPTER III.
_The Reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero._
2. _Prose Writers--Seneca._
His importance--Life and writings--Influence of his exile--Relations
with Nero--His death--Is he a Stoic?--Gradual convergence of the
different schools of thought--Seneca a teacher more than anything
else--His conception of philosophy--Supposed connection with
Christianity--Estimate of his character and style.

CHAPTER IV.
_The Reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero._
3. Other Prose Writers.
Domitius Corbulo--Quintus Curtius--Columella--Pomponius Mela--
Valerius Protius--Petronius Arbiter--Account of his extant fragments.
APPENDIX.--Note I. The Testamentum Porcelli, " II. On the MS. of
Petronius.

CHAPTER V.
The Reigns of the Flavian Emperors (69-96 A.D.).
1. Prose Writers.
A new literary epoch--Marked by common characteristics--Decay of
national genius--Pliny the elder--Account of his death translated from

the younger Pliny--His studious habits--The _Natural History_--Its
character and value--Quintilian--Account of his book _de Institutione
Oratoria_-- Frontinus--A valuable and accurate writer--Grammatical
studies.
APPENDIX.--Quintilian's Criticism on the Roman Authors.

CHAPTER VI.
_The Reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian_ (69-96 A.D.).
2. Poets.
Reduced scope of poetry--Poetry the most dependent on external
conditions of any form of written literature--Valerius
Flaccus--Silius--His death as described by Pliny--His poem--The elder
Statius--Statius--An extempore poet--His public recitations--The
_Silvae_--The Thebaid and Achilleid --His similes--Arruntius
Stella--Martial--His death as recounted by Pliny --The epigram--Other
poets.
APPENDIX.--On the Similes of Virgil, Lucan, and Statius.

CHAPTER VII.
The Reigns of Nerva and Trajan (96-117 A.D.).
Pliny the younger--His oratory--His correspondence--Letter to Trajan
--Velius Longus--Hyginus--Balbus--Flaccus--Juvenal--His life--A
finished declaimer--His character--His political
views--Style--Tacitus--Dialogue on
eloquence--_Agricola_--_Germania_--_Histories_--Annals_ --Intended
work on Augustus's reign--Style.

CHAPTER VIII.
The Reigns of Hadrian and the Antonines (117-180 A.D.).
Era of African Latinity--Differs from the Silver Age--Hadrian's poetry
--Suetonius--His life--List of writings--Lives of the Caesars--His
account of Nero's death--Florus--Salvius Julianus and Sextus
Pomponius--Fronto-- His relations with Aurelius--List of his
works--Gellius--Gaius--Poems of the period--_Pervigilium
Veneris_--Apuleius--_De Magia_--Metamorphoses or Golden
Ass--Cupid and Psyche--His philosophical works.

CHAPTER IX.
_State of Philosophical and Religious Thought during the Period of the
Antonines--Conclusion_.
Greek eloquence revives in the Sophists--Itinerant rhetors--Cynic
preachers of virtue--The better class of popular philosophers--Dio
Chrysostom--Union of philosophy and rhetoric--Greek now the
language of general literature--Reconciliation of philosophy with
religion--The Platonist school--Apuleius--Doctrine of
daemons--Decline of thought-- General review of the main features of
Roman literature—Conclusion.
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
LIST OF EDITIONS RECOMMENDED
QUESTIONS OR SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS, &c.

INTRODUCTION.
In the latter part of the seventeenth century, and during nearly the

whole of the eighteenth, the literature of Rome exercised an imperial
sway over European taste. Pope thought fit to assume an apologetic
tone when he clothed Homer in an English dress, and reminded the
world that, as compared with Virgil, the Greek poet had at least the
merit of coming first. His own mind was of an emphatically Latin order.
The great poets of his day mostly based their art on the canons
recognised by Horace. And when poetry was thus affected, it was
natural that philosophy, history, and criticism should yield to the same
influence. A rhetorical form, a satirical spirit, and an appeal to common
sense as supreme judge, stamp most of the writers of western Europe as
so far pupils of Horace, Cicero, and Tacitus. At present the tide has
turned. We are living in a period of strong reaction. The nineteenth
century not only differs from the eighteenth, but in all fundamental
questions is opposed to it. Its products have been strikingly original. In
art, poetry, science, the spread of culture, and the investigation of the
basis of truth, it yields to no other epoch of equal length in the history
of modern times. If we go to either of the nations of antiquity to seek
for an animating impulse, it will not be Rome but Greece that will
immediately suggest itself to us. Greek ideas of aesthetic beauty, and
Greek freedom of abstract thought, are being disseminated in the world
with unexampled rapidity. Rome, and her soberer, less original, and
less stimulating literature, find no place for influence. The readiness
with which the leading nations drink from the well of Greek genius
points to a special adaptation between the two. Epochs of upheaval,
when thought is rife, progress rapid, and tradition, political or religious,
boldly examined, turn,