Post-Augustan Poetry

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Title: Post-Augustan Poetry
From Seneca to Juvenal
Author: H.E. Butler
Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9303]
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0. START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
POST-AUGUSTAN POETRY ***
Produced by Keren Vergon, Tapio Riikonen, and PG Distributed
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POST-AUGUSTAN POETRY
From Seneca to Juvenal
By
H.E. BUTLER, Fellow of New College
PREFACE
I have attempted in this book to provide something of an introduction
to the poetical literature of the post-Augustan age. Although few of the
writers dealt with have any claim to be called poets of the first order,
and some stand very low in the scale of poetry, as a whole the poets of
this period have suffered greater neglect than they deserve. Their
undeniable weaknesses tend in many cases to obscure their real merits,
with the result that they are at times either ignored or subjected to
unduly sweeping condemnation. I have attempted in these pages to
detach and illustrate their excellences without in any way passing over
their defects.
Manilius and Phaedrus have been omitted on the ground that as regards
the general character of their writings they belong rather to the
Augustan period than to the subsequent age of decadence. Manilius
indeed composed a considerable portion of his work during the lifetime
of Augustus, while Phaedrus, though somewhat later in date, showed a
sobriety of thought and an antique simplicity of style that place him at
least a generation away from his contemporaries. The authorities to
whose works I am indebted are duly acknowledged in the course of the
work. I owe a special debt, however, to those great works of reference,
the Histories of Roman Literature by Schanz and Teuffel, to
Friedländer's Sittengeschichte, and, for the chapters on Lucan and
Statius, to Heitland's Introduction to Haskin's edition of Lucan and

Legras' _Thébaïde de Stace_. I wish particularly to express my
indebtedness to Professor Gilbert Murray and Mr. Nowell Smith, who
read the book in manuscript and made many valuable suggestions and
corrections. I also have to thank Mr. A.S. Owen for much assistance in
the corrections of the proofs.
My thanks are owing to Professor Goldwin Smith for permission to
print translations from 'Bay Leaves', and to Mr. A.E. Street and Mr. F.J.
Miller and their publishers, for permission to quote from their
translations of Martial (Messrs. Spottiswoode) and Seneca (Chicago
University Press) respectively.
H.E. BUTLER.
November, 1908.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE DECLINE OF POST-AUGUSTAN POETRY
Main characteristics, p. 1.
The influence of the principate, p. 1.

Tiberius, p. 2.
Caligula, p. 4.
Claudius, p. 5.
Nero, p. 6.
Decay
of Roman character, p. 9.
Peculiar nature of Roman literature, p. 10.

Greatness of Augustan poets a bar to farther advance, p. 11. Roman
education: literary, p. 12;
rhetorical, p. 14.
Absence of true
educational spirit, p. 16.
Recitations, p. 18.
Results of these
influences, p. 19.
CHAPTER II
DRAMA
i. THE STAGE.
Drama never really flourishing at Rome, p. 23.

Comedy, represented by Mime and Atellan farce, p. 24.
Legitimate
comedy nearly extinct, p. 25.
Tragedy replaced by salticae fabulae, p.

26;
or musical recitations, p. 28.
Pomponius Secundus, p. 29.

Curiatius Maternus, p. 30.
ii. SENECA: his life and character, p. 31.
His position in literature, p.
35.
His epigrams, p. 36.
His plays, p. 39.
Their genuineness, p. 40.

The Octavia, Oedipus, Agamemnon,_ and _Hercules Oetaeus, p. 41.
Date of the plays, p. 43.
Their dramatic value, p. 44.
Plot, p. 45.

Descriptions, p. 48.
Declamation, p. 49;
at its best in Troades_ and
_Phaedra, p. 51.
Dialogue, p. 55.
Stoicism, p. 58.
Poetry
(confined mainly to lyrics), p. 63.
Cleverness of the rhetoric, p. 65.

Sententiae, p. 68.
Hyperbole, p. 69.
Diction and metre; iambics, p.
70;
lyrics, p. 71.
Plays not written for the stage, p. 72.
Influence
on later drama, p. 74.
iii. THE OCTAVIA. Sole example of fabula praetexta, p. 74.
Plot, p. 75.
Characteristics, p. 76.
Date and authorship, p. 77.
CHAPTER III
PERSIUS
Life, p. 79.
Works, p. 81.
Influence of Lucilius, p. 83;
of Horace,