orator Crassus. Scævola, we have already seen, impelled the tendency of public opinion in the same direction. And Cicero himself, though on some occasions he did not scruple to become the advocate of antiquity, was on the whole a partizan of liberal innovation, and his influence contributed in no slight degree to the progress of the new ideas on these subjects." He professed to base his administration of justice in his province on the principles of humanity and reason. As a philosopher and a statesman, he declared that the source and rule of right were not to be sought in the laws of the Twelve Tables, but in the depths of human intelligence; that equity is the true idea of law, the supreme reason engraved in the nature of man, written on his heart, immutable and eternal, beyond the jurisdiction of the senate, bearing sway over all mankind; this law the deity alone has conceived, established and promulgated. These noble sentiments constituted, as it were, the essence which the wisest of the Romans had distilled from the records of Greek philosophy. Above all others it bore Cicero's pure the flavour of the mind of Plato, and of the mild morality. and liberal masters of the Academic school. This was the great boon which Greece proffered to her conquerors, to counteract in some degree the malign influence of so many of her lessons. We shall have occasion hereafter to trace the steps by which the Roman law was humanized by the Greek Philosophy. The sect of the Stoics, just now beginning to excite attention and compel admiration at Rome, became, by the logical character of its speculations, and the lofty sense it inculcated of justice and duty, an efficient instrument in this salutary reform. For the present we must be content with observing the progress of humanity in its action on a few of the most refined and intelligent class. The pure morality of 1 Cic. Philipp. iv. 5. of Servius Sulpicius: "Jus civile semper ad æquitatem et facilitatem referebat." Of Crassus (de Orat. i.): "Multa tum contra scriptum pro æquo et bono dixit." 2 Cic. ad Att. vi. 1. de Leg. ii. 5, 6., de Fin. iii. 20., de Off. i. 7., de Rep. i. 17., iii. 17.: "Natura enim juris explicanda est nobis, neque ad hominibus repetenda natura." Cicero's treatise on Duties, and the practical exhibition of benevolence and natural piety which characterizes his ethical and religious writings,' could not have sprung from the bosom of a society which was totally unable to appreciate them. The beneficial philosophy confined to a small class. It may be presumed however that the evil which the Romans imbibed from their Greek teachers penetrated deeper into the heart of society than the good. Laxity effects of Greek of principle and indifference of belief had their attractions for the vulgar, while the nobler lessons of philosophy, its ideas of equity and natural right, would only be appreciated by the refined and educated. The priests, who belonged to this latter class, might shrink from the atrocity of human sacrifices,' and extenuate the literal signification of the most scandalous of the national dogmas; the nobles might soften the rigour of ancient law; but to the common people these silent changes were offensive or unintelligible. The literature of Rome, adopted as it was from Greece, was an instrument for enlarging men's 1 Such, for instance, as the treatises de Senectute, de Amicitia, de Natura Deorum. 2 The Romans affirmed that human sacrifices had been abolished by the elder Brutus (Macrob. i. 7.). But on three occasions, at least, such victims were demanded at a much later period; namely, in the year u. c. 527 (Oros. iv. 13.), and again, u. c. 536 (Liv. xxii. 57., "minime Romano sacro"); and once more, u. c. 640 (Plut. Qu. Rom. p. 284.). Soon after this the rite was denounced by a decree of the senate. Plin. H. N. xxx. 3., A. u. c. 657. But compare xxviii. 3.: "Boario vero in foro Græcum Græcamque defossos, aut aliarum gentium cum quibus tum res esset, etiam nostra ætas vidit." Dion Cassius, indeed, asserts that a sacrifice of this kind took place at the triumph of Julius Cæsar (xliii. 24.), and adds that he cannot find that any oracle required it. The statements of the Greeks on any subject of this kind are to be received with caution, both on account of their ignorance of Roman manners and their prejudice against them. Thus Eusebius (Paneg. 13.) affirms that human sacrifices were continued at Rome to his day, alluding, perhaps, to the words of Lactantius (de fals. Rel. i. 21.): "Etiam nunc sanguine colitur humano (Jupiter Latiaris); ” which undoubtedly refers only to a libation of the blood of gladiators. Dion's statement may be some misconception of the nature of a military punishment. In ancient times the consul, prætor, or dictator, could devote to Mars a victim selected from the legion. Liv. viii. 10. The story of the human sacrifices of Octavius at the capture of Perusia (Suet. Octav. 15.), is dubious and obscure. ideas, and refining their sentiments; but it remained a dead letter to the mass of the citizens, to whom the glaring spectacles of the circus and amphitheatre proved more attractive than the intellectual culture of a conquered foe. Influence of Roman litera ture. It was towards the end of the second Punic war that Upper Italy first became filled with Greek settlers. They came indeed, in the first instance, in the train of conquest, and in the condition of slaves. But Greek on their well-trained talents soon secured them ascendency, and they made their captors captive.' Throughout the sixth century of the city the foreign professors of science and literature were flocking into Rome. Archagathus, the first Greek physician, came in the year 534, and the schools of grammar and rhetoric were represented at the end of the century by Crates of Mallus, the commentator on Homer. The Greek language was first rendered fashionable by Scipio Africanus and his friend Lælius. Paulus Emilianus,' and in the next generation Scipio Emilianus, were celebrated for their interest in the literature of Greek antiquity. It was with a verse of Homer that the latter predicted that Rome should one day perish, like sacred Ilium. Early in the century commenced the adaptation of Greek metres to the Latin tongue. Ennius and Livius, under the patronage of the 1 Hor. Ep. ii. 1. 156.: "Græcia capta ferum victorem cepit." " Plut. Emil. 28.; Plin. H. N. xxxv. 40. 30. Scipio Emilianus was adopted by the son of the elder Africanus, and bore his cognomen also. Each of them had a friend named Lælius, and both Scipios and both Lælii were equally distinguished for their zeal for Greek literature. 4 ✦ Iliad, vi. 448. ἔσσεται ἦμαρ ὁτάν ποτ' ὀλώλῃ Ιλιος ἱρή. See Appian, Pun. 132. " Porcius Licinius, apud Gell. xvii. 21., speaks of a foreign Muse: "Pœnico bello secundo Musa pinnato gradu Intulit se bellicosam in Romuli gentem feram." Comp. Hor. Ep. ii. 1. 161. "Serus enim Græcis admovit acumina chartis; Et post Punica bella quietus quærere cœpit liberal nobles of the day, rendered their countrymen familiar with the models of the Epos and the Drama.' But these innovations were not unresented. There are not wanting indications of a struggle between the old school and the new, the domestic and the foreign, in literature as in religion and law. The Romans possessed, indeed, even at that early time, a literature of their own, which many of them were ill disposed to see superseded by an exotic growth. No nation, perhaps, was ever so rich in ballad poetry, or had more completely woven into verse the whole circle of its ancient traditions. The rhythm indeed was rugged, and the strain homely; but the subject was rendered dear by its appeal to family associations. The contempt with which the imitators of the Greeks, such as Ennius, regarded these rude but interesting essays in heroic poetry, excited, we may believe, a dogged spirit of opposition. The victory of the Hexameter over the Saturnian verse symbolized a sweeping revolution of ideas, and obliterated the cherished recollections of many centuries. Obscure as is the history of this long-forgotten contest, it would Nævius cham appear that Nævius was the champion of the old pion of the old Roman literature. He was the enemy and traducer of Scipio, and, on the other hand, the friend of the elder Cato;' the satiric poetry, of which he was the earliest known author, continued to be the most genuine production of the Roman muse; his dramatic pieces seem, from the titles of many of them, to have predicted the manners of the urban populace; he contended for the rude purity of the old language assailed in form and substance by innovation on all sides; and he felt that with himself that purity would perish. It was with this feeling, assuredly, that he composed 1 Suet. de ill. Gramm. 1.: " Antiquissimi doctorum, qui iidem et poetæ et semi-Græci erant, Livium et Ennium dico." Roman literature. 2 Hor. l. c.: Cic. de Senect. 14. 4 "Sic horridus ille Defluxit numerus Saturnius." 4 Quintil. i.: "Satira tota nostra est." 5 As, for instance, Agitatoria, Ariolus, Bubulcus, Cerdo, Figulus, Fullones, Lignaria, Tunicularia. Duruy, H. des Romains, ii. 26. for himself an epitaph, filled with a mournful presentiment of this impending change. If immortals, he said, might weep for mortal men, the divine Camœnæ would weep for Nævius the poet: for since he has descended to the receptacle of the dead, men have forgotten at Rome the use of Latin speech.1 2 His Ennius. The melancholy strain of Nævius is strikingly contrasted with the tone of exultation in which his victorious rival speaks also from his tomb. Let no man, exclaims Ennius, weep for me! For why? I live in the mouths of my countrymen. The influence of the Hellenizing school now became predominant. The career which Ennius had marked out was followed by a long succession of writers, chiefly dramatic, who devoted themselves to the adaptation or servile imitation of Greek models. Cæcilius, Pacuvius, Plautus and Terence refined successively upon the language and taste of their predecessors. Accius alone ventured to compose a few pieces on Roman subjects, but these fell speedily into oblivion. But meanwhile the mantle of Nævius had fallen upon Lucilius, whose satiric vein was inflamed with genuine indignation against the encroachment of foreign ideas. Respected as he was in his lifetime, and long admired after his death, the indiscriminate severity with which he censured his contemporaries seems to bespeak the impugner of certain principles, rather than of personal vices. All the great poets of his day fell equally under his lash; for all of them offended equally against the independence of the Roman muse. He exercised the freedom of his 1 Nævius apud Gell. i. 24.: "Mortales immortales flere si foret fas, Flerent Divæ Camoenæ Nævium poetam : 2 Ennius apud Cic. Tusc. Disp. i. 15.: "Nemo me lachrymis decoret, nec funera fletu 3 Gell. xvii. 21. Lucilius. |