Vergil - A Biography | Page 6

the banner of Atticism
and had in several biting attacks shown what a simple, frugal and direct
style could accomplish; Calidius, one of the first Roman pupils of the
great Apollodorus, had already begun making campaign speeches in his
neatly polished orations which painfully eschewed all show of
ornament or passion; and Caesar himself, efficiency personified, had
demonstrated that the leader of a democratic rabble must be a master of
blunt phrases. But Calvus did not threaten to become a political force,
Calidius was too even-tempered, and Caesar was now in the north,
fighting with other weapons. Cicero's prestige still seemed unbroken. It
was not till Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49, after Hortensius had died,
and Cicero had been pushed aside as a futile statesman, that Atticism
gained predominance in the schools. Later, in 46, Cicero in several
remarkable essays again took up the cudgels for an elaborate prose, but
then his cause was already lost. Caesar's victory had demonstrated that

Rome desired deeds, not words.
[Footnote 2: Octavius was drawn to the Atticistic principles by the
great master Apollodorus.]
When Virgil, therefore, turned to rhetoric, probably under Epidius, he
received the training which was still considered orthodox. His
farewell[3] to rhetoric--written probably in 48--shows unmistakably the
nature of the stuff on which he had been fed. It is the bombast and the
futile rules of the Asianic creed against which he flings his unsparing
scazons.
[Footnote 3: Catalepton V (Edition, Vollmer). Birt, Jugendverse und
Heimatpoesie Vergils, 1910, has provided a useful commentary on the
Catalepton.]
Begone ye useless paint-pots of the school; Your phrases reek, but not
with Attic scent, Tarquitius' and Selius' and Varro's drool: A witless
crew, with learning temulent. And ye begone, ye tinkling cymbals vain,
That call the youths to drivelings insane.
Epidius, to be sure, is not mentioned, but we happen to know that
Varro--if this be the erudite friend of Cicero--was devoted to the
Asianic principles. And Epidius, the teacher of the flowery Mark
Antony, may well be concealed in Vergil's list of names even if
mention of him was omitted for reasons of propriety.
This poem reveals the fact that Vergil did not, like the young men of
Cicero's youth, enjoy the privilege of studying law, court procedure,
and oratory by entering the law office, as it were, of some distinguished
senator and thus acquiring his craft through observation, guided
practice, and personal instruction. That method, so charmingly
described by Cicero as in vogue in his youth, had almost passed away.
The school had taken its place with its mock courts, contests in oratory,
set themes in fictitious controversies. The analytical rules of rhetoric
were growing ever more intricate and time-wasting, and how pedantic
they were even before Vergil's childhood may be seen by a glance into
the anonymous Auctor ad Herennium. The student had to know the
differences between the various kinds of cases, demonstrativum,
deliberativum and judiciale; he must know the proportionate value to
the orator of inventio, dispositio, elocutio, memoria, and pronuntiatio,
and how to manage each; he must know how to apply inventio in each
of the six divisions of the speech: exordium, narratio, divisio,

confirmatio, confutatio, conclusio. On the subject of adornment of style
a relatively small task lay in memorizing illustrations of some sixty
figures of speech--and so on ad infinitum. Inane cymbalon juventutis is
indeed a fitting commentary on such memory tasks. The end of the
poem cited betrays the fact that the poet had not been able to keep his
attention upon his task. He had been writing verses; who would not?
Quite apart, however, from the unattractive content of the course, the
gradual change in political life must have disclosed to the observant
that the free exercise of talents in a public career could not continue
long. The triumvirate was rapidly suppressing the free republic. Even in
52, when Pompey became sole consul, the trial of Milo was conducted
under military guard, and no advocate dared speak freely. During the
next two years every one saw that Caesar and Pompey must come to
blows and that the resulting war could only lead to autocracy.
The crisis came in January of 49 B.C. when Vergil was twenty years
old. Pompey with the consuls and most of the senators fled southward
in dismay, and in sixty days, hotly pursued by Caesar, was forced to
evacuate Italy. Caesar, eager to make short work of the war, to attack
Spain and Africa while holding the Alpine passes and pressing in
pursuit of Pompey, began to levy new recruits throughout Italy.[4]
Vergil also seems to have been drawn in this draft, since this is
apparently the circumstance mentioned in his thirteenth Catalepton.
"Draft," however, may not be the right word, for we do not know
whether Caesar at this