LITMIR.BIZ

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Greece; he was altogether of a colder temperament, just as his literary friends Terence and Lucilius were by nature less ardent than Ennius. Between them they laid the foundation of that broader conception of civilisation which is expressed by the significant word humanitas, and which had borne its intellectual fruit when the whole people raised a shout of applause at the line in the Hautontimorumenos—

      "Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto."

      This conception, trite as it seems to us, was by no means so when it was thus proclaimed: if philosophers had understood it (apas anthropos anthropo oikeion kai philon.—Ar. Eth. N. lib. 9), they had never made it a principle of action; and the teachers who had caused even the uneducated Roman populace to recognise its speculative truth must be allowed to have achieved something great. Some historians of Rome have seen in this attitude a decline from old Roman exclusiveness, almost a treasonable conspiracy against the Roman idea of the State. Hence they have regarded Ennius with something of that disfavour which Cato in his patriotic zeal evinced for him. The justification of the poet's course, if it is to be sustained at all, must be sought in the necessity for an expansion of national views to meet the exigences of an increasing foreign empire. External coercion might for a time suffice to keep divergent nationalities together; but the only durable power would be one founded on sympathy with the subject peoples on the broad ground of a common humanity. And for this the poet and his patron bore witness with a consistent and solemn, though often irreverent, earnestness. Ennius had early in life shown a tendency towards the mystic speculations of Pythagoreanism: traces of it are seen in his assertion that the soul of Homer had migrated into him through a peacock, [5] and that he had three souls because he knew three languages; [6] while the satirical notice of Horace seems to imply that he, like Scipio, regarded himself as specially favoured of heaven—

      "Leviter curare videtur

       Quo promissa caadant et somnia Pythagorea." [7]

      At the same time he studied the Epicurean system, and in particular, the doctrines of Euhemerus, whose work on the origin of the gods he translated. His denial of Divine Providence is well known [8]—

      "Ego deum genus esse dixi et dicam semper caelitum:

       Sed eos non curare opinor quid agat humanum genus.

       Nam si curent, bene bonis sit, male malis, quod nunc abest."

      Of these two inconsistent points of view, the second, as we should expect in a nature so little mystical, finally prevailed, so that Ennius may well be considered the preacher of scepticism or the bold impugner of popular superstition according to the point of view which we assume. In addition to these philosophic aspirations he had a strong desire to reach artistic perfection, and to be the herald of a new literary epoch. Conscious of his success and proud of the power he wielded over the minds of the people, he alludes more than once to his performances in a self-congratulatory strain—

      "Enni poeta salve, qui mortalibus

       Versus propinas flammeos medullitus."

      "Hail! poet Ennius, who pledgest mankind in verses fiery to the heart's core." And with even higher confidence in his epitaph—

      "Aspicite, o cives, senis Enni imagini' formam:

       Hic vostrum panxit maxima faeta patrum.

       Nemo me lacrimis decoret nec funera fletu

       Faxit. Cur? volito vivu' per ora virum."

      We shall illustrate the above remarks by quoting one or two passages from the fragments of his tragedies, which, it is true, are now easily accessible to the general reader, but nevertheless will not be out of place in a manual like the present, which is intended to lead the student to study historically for himself the progress of the literature. The first is a dialogue between Hecuba and Cassandra, from the Alexander. Cassandra feels the prophetic impulse coming over her, the symptoms of which her mother notices with alarm:

      "HEC.

       "Sed quid oculis rabere visa es derepente ar dentibus?

       Ubi tua illa paulo ante sapiens virginali' modestia?

      CAS.

       Mater optumarum multo mulier melior mulierum,

       Missa sum superstitiosis ariolationibus.

       Namque Apollo fatis fandis dementem invitam ciret:

       Virgines aequales vereor, patris mei meum factmn pudet,

       Optimi viri. Mea mater, tui me miseret, me piget:

       Optumam progeniem Priamo peperisti extra me: hoc dolet:

       Men obesse, illos prodesse, me obstare, illos obsequi!"

      She then sees the vision—

      * * * * *

       "Adest adest fax obvoluta sanguine atque incendio!

       Multos annos latuit: cives ferte opem et restinguite!

       Iamque mari magno classis cita

       Texitur: exitium examen rapit:

       Advenit, et fera velivolantibus

       Navibus complebit manus litora."

      This is noble poetry. Another passage from the Telamo is as follows:—

      "Sed superstitiosi vates impudentesque arioli,

       Aut inertes aut insani aut quibus egestas imperat,

       Qui sibi semitam non sapiunt, alteri monstrant viam,

       Quibus divitias pollicentur, ab eis drachumam ipsi petunt.

       De his divitiis sibi deducant drachumam, reddant cetera."

      Here he shows, like so many of his countrymen, a strong vein of satire. The metre is trochaic, scanned, like these of Plautus and Terence, by accent as much as by quantity, and noticeable for the careless way in which whole syllables are slurred over. In the former fragment the fourth line must be scanned—

      ___ ___ ____ "Vírgi | nés ae | qúales | vércor | pátris mei | meúm fac | túm pudet."

      Horace mentions the ponderous weight of his iambic lines, which were loaded with spondees. The anapaestic measure, of which he was a master, has an impetuous swing that carries the reader away, and, while producing a different effect from its Greek equivalent, in capacity is not much inferior to it. Many of his phrases and metrical terms are imitated in Virgil, though such imitation is much more frequently drawn from his hexameter poems. He wrote one Praetexta and several comedies, but these latter were uncongenial to his temperament, and by no means successful. He had little or no humour. His poetical genius was earnest rather than powerful; probably he had less than either Naevius or Plautus; but his higher cultivation, his serious view of his art, and the consistent pursuit of a well-conceived aim, placed him on a dramatic level nearly as high as Plautus in the opinion of the Ciceronian critics. His literary influence will be more fully discussed under his epic poems.

      His sister's son PACUVIUS (220–132 B.C.), next claims our attention. This celebrated tragedian, on whom the complimentary epithet doctus [9] was by general consent bestowed, was brought up at Brundisium, where amid congenial influences he practised with success the art of a painter. At what time he came to Rome is not known, but he gained great renown there by his paintings before attaining the position of chief tragic poet. Pliny tells us of a picture in the Temple of Hercules in the Forum Boarium, which was considered as only second to that of Fabius Pictor. With the enthusiasm of the poet he united that genial breadth of temper which among artists seems peculiarly the painter's gift. Happy in his twofold career (for he continued to paint as well as to write), [10] free from jealousy as from want, successful as a poet and as a man, he lived at Rome until his eightieth year, the friend of Laelius and of his younger rival Accius, and retired soon after to his native city where he received the visits of younger writers, and died at the great age of eighty-eight (132 B.C.). His long career was not productive of a large number of works. We know of but twelve tragedies and one praetexta by him. The latter was called Paullus, and had for its hero the conqueror of Perseus, King of Macedonia, but no fragments of it survive. The great authority

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