Roads from Rome

Roads from Rome

The Project Gutenberg eBook, Roads from Rome, by Anne C. E.
Allinson
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Title: Roads from Rome
Author: Anne C. E. Allinson

Release Date: April 1, 2006 [eBook #18100]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROADS
FROM ROME***
E-text prepared by Ron Swanson

ROADS FROM ROME
by

ANNE C. E. ALLINSON
Author with Francis G. Allinson of "Greek Lands and Letters"

[Illustration: Poster of the Roman Exposition of 1911]

New York The MacMillan Company 1922 All rights reserved Printed
in the United States of America Copyright, 1909, 1910, 1913, by the
Atlantic Monthly Company. Copyright, 1913, by the MacMillan
Company. Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1913.

Three of the papers in this volume have already appeared in _The
Atlantic Monthly:_ "A Poet's Toll," "The Phrase-Maker," and "A
Roman Citizen." The author is indebted to the Editors for permission to
republish them. The illustration on the title page is reproduced from the
poster of the Roman Exposition of 1911, drawn by Duilio Cambeliotti,
printed by Dr. E. Chappuis.

PATRI MEO LUCILIO A. EMERY JUSTITIAE DISCIPULO, LEGIS
MAGISTRO, LITTERARUM HUMANARUM AMICO

PREFACE
The main purpose of these Roman sketches is to show that the men and
women of ancient Rome were like ourselves.
"Born into life!--'tis we, And not the world, are new; Our cry for bliss,
our plea, Others have urged it too-- Our wants have all been felt, our
errors made before."
It is only when we perceive in "classical antiquity" a human nature

similar to our own in its mingling of weakness and strength, vice and
virtue, sorrow and joy, defeats and victories that we shall find in its
noblest literature an intimate rather than a formal inspiration, and in its
history either comfort or warning.
A secondary purpose is to suggest Roman conditions as they may have
affected or appeared to men of letters in successive epochs, from the
last years of the Republic to the Antonine period. Three of the six
sketches are concerned with the long and brilliant "Age of Augustus."
One is laid in the years immediately preceding the death of Julius
Caesar, and one in the time of Trajan and Pliny. The last sketch deals
with the period when Hadrian attempted a renaissance of Greek art in
Athens and creative Roman literature had come to an end. Its
renaissance was to be Italian in a new world.
In all the sketches the essential facts are drawn directly from the
writings of the men who appear in them. These facts have been merely
cast into an imaginative form which, it is hoped, may help rather to
reveal than cloak their significance for those who believe that the roads
from Rome lead into the highway of human life.
In choosing between ancient and modern proper names I have thought
it best in each case to decide which would give the keener impression
of verisimilitude. Consistency has, therefore, been abandoned. Horace,
Virgil and Ovid exist side by side with such original Latin names as
Julius Paulus. While Como has been preferred to Comum, the "Larian
Lake" has been retained. Perugia (instead of Perusia) and Assisi
(instead of Assisium) have been used in one sketch and Laurentum,
Tusculum and Tibur in another. The modern name that least suggests
its original is that of the river Adige. The Latin Atesia would destroy
the reader's sense of familiarity with Verona.
My thanks are due to Professor M. S. Slaughter, of the University of
Wisconsin, who has had the great kindness to read this book in
manuscript. My husband, Francis G. Allinson, has assisted me at every
turn in its preparation. With one exception, acknowledged in its place,
all the translations are his.

A. C. E. A.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE THE ESTRANGER . . . . . . 1 A POET'S TOLL . . . . . . 37 THE
PHRASE-MAKER . . . . . 72 A ROMAN CITIZEN . . . . . 107
FORTUNE'S LEDGER . . . . . 144 A ROAD TO ROME . . . . . . 176

ROADS FROM ROME

THE ESTRANGER
I
In the effort to dull the edge of his mental anguish by physical
exhaustion Catullus had walked far out from the town, through
vineyards and fruit-orchards displaying their autumnal stores and
clamorous with eager companies of pickers and vintagers. On coming
back to the eastern gate he found himself reluctant to pass from the
heedless activities