In poetry as in
everything
else
_urbem fecit quod prius orbis erat_.
_urbem fecit quod prius orbis erat_.
Oxford Book of Latin Verse
Caecilius was an Insubrian Gaul.
Catullus, Bibaculus, Ticidas,
Cinna, Vergil were Transpadanes. Asinius Gallus came from Gallia
Narbonensis, Horace from Apulia. So long as there was in the Italian
_municipia_ new blood upon which it could draw, Roman poetry grew in
strength. But as soon as the fresh Italian blood failed Roman poetry
failed--or at any rate it fell away from its own greatness, it ceased to
be a living and quickening force. It became for the first time what it
was not before--imitative; that is to say it now for the first time
reproduced without transmuting. Vergil, of course, 'imitates' Homer. But
observe the nature of this 'imitation'. If I may parody a famous saying,
there is nothing in Vergil which was not previously in Homer--_save
Vergil himself_. But the post-Vergilian poetry is, taken in the mass,
without individuality. There is, of course, after Vergil much in Roman
poetry that is interesting or striking, much that is brilliant,
graceful, or noble. But even so it is notable that much of the best work
seems due to the infusion of a foreign strain. Of the considerable poets
of the Empire, Lucan, Seneca, Martial are of Spanish birth: and a
Spanish origin has been--perhaps hastily--conjectured for Silius.
Claudian is an Alexandrian, Ausonius a Gaul. [4] Rome's rôle in the world
is the absorption of outlying genius.
In poetry as in everything else
_urbem fecit quod prius orbis erat_.
If we are to understand the character, then, of Roman poetry in its best
period, in the period, that is, which ends with the death of Augustus,
we must figure to ourselves a great and prosaic people, with a great and
prosaic language, directing and controlling to their own ends spiritual
forces deeper and more subtle than themselves. Of these forces one is
the Greek, the other may for convenience be called the Italian. In the
Italian we must allow for a considerable intermixture of races: and we
must remember that large tracts at least of Northern Italy, notably
Transpadane Gaul and Umbria, have been penetrated by Celtic influence.
No one can study Roman poetry at all deeply or sympathetically without
feeling how un-Roman much of it really is: and again--despite its
Hellenic forms and its constant study of Hellenism--how un-Greek. It is
not Greek and not Roman, and we may call it Italian for want of a better
name. The effects of this Italian quality in Roman poetry are both
profound and elusive; and it is not easy to specify them in words. But
it is important to seize them: for unless we do so we shall miss that
aspect of Roman poetry which gives it its most real title to be called
poetry at all. Apart from it it is in danger of passing at its best for
rhetoric, at its worst for prose.
Ennius is a poet in whom the Roman, as distinct from the Italian,
temperament has asserted itself strongly. It has asserted itself most
powerfully, of course, in the _Annals_. Even in the _Annals_, however,
there is a great deal that is neither Greek nor Roman. There is an
Italian vividness. The coloured phraseology is Italian. And a good deal
more. But it is in the tragedies--closely as they follow Greek
models--that the Italian element is most pronounced.
Cinna, Vergil were Transpadanes. Asinius Gallus came from Gallia
Narbonensis, Horace from Apulia. So long as there was in the Italian
_municipia_ new blood upon which it could draw, Roman poetry grew in
strength. But as soon as the fresh Italian blood failed Roman poetry
failed--or at any rate it fell away from its own greatness, it ceased to
be a living and quickening force. It became for the first time what it
was not before--imitative; that is to say it now for the first time
reproduced without transmuting. Vergil, of course, 'imitates' Homer. But
observe the nature of this 'imitation'. If I may parody a famous saying,
there is nothing in Vergil which was not previously in Homer--_save
Vergil himself_. But the post-Vergilian poetry is, taken in the mass,
without individuality. There is, of course, after Vergil much in Roman
poetry that is interesting or striking, much that is brilliant,
graceful, or noble. But even so it is notable that much of the best work
seems due to the infusion of a foreign strain. Of the considerable poets
of the Empire, Lucan, Seneca, Martial are of Spanish birth: and a
Spanish origin has been--perhaps hastily--conjectured for Silius.
Claudian is an Alexandrian, Ausonius a Gaul. [4] Rome's rôle in the world
is the absorption of outlying genius.
In poetry as in everything else
_urbem fecit quod prius orbis erat_.
If we are to understand the character, then, of Roman poetry in its best
period, in the period, that is, which ends with the death of Augustus,
we must figure to ourselves a great and prosaic people, with a great and
prosaic language, directing and controlling to their own ends spiritual
forces deeper and more subtle than themselves. Of these forces one is
the Greek, the other may for convenience be called the Italian. In the
Italian we must allow for a considerable intermixture of races: and we
must remember that large tracts at least of Northern Italy, notably
Transpadane Gaul and Umbria, have been penetrated by Celtic influence.
No one can study Roman poetry at all deeply or sympathetically without
feeling how un-Roman much of it really is: and again--despite its
Hellenic forms and its constant study of Hellenism--how un-Greek. It is
not Greek and not Roman, and we may call it Italian for want of a better
name. The effects of this Italian quality in Roman poetry are both
profound and elusive; and it is not easy to specify them in words. But
it is important to seize them: for unless we do so we shall miss that
aspect of Roman poetry which gives it its most real title to be called
poetry at all. Apart from it it is in danger of passing at its best for
rhetoric, at its worst for prose.
Ennius is a poet in whom the Roman, as distinct from the Italian,
temperament has asserted itself strongly. It has asserted itself most
powerfully, of course, in the _Annals_. Even in the _Annals_, however,
there is a great deal that is neither Greek nor Roman. There is an
Italian vividness. The coloured phraseology is Italian. And a good deal
more. But it is in the tragedies--closely as they follow Greek
models--that the Italian element is most pronounced.
