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41755 results in Collections

Page 2033 of 2088

  • 40 - Learning and the past

  • from PART VI - LATER PRINCIPATE
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 762-769

  • Summary

    Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, apparently an African, is probably to be identified with the Theodosius who was Praetorian Prefect of Italy in 430. The picture painted by Macrobius of late fourth-century senatorial society is the very antithesis of that provided by Ammianus Marcellinus. But it is probably going too far to suggest that the desire to rebut Ammianus was high among Macrobius' motives. Wooden and mechanical as much of it is, the Saturnalia is a touching picture of the nostalgia of a class which had been overtaken by events, not the least among which was the conversion to Christianity of the great bulk of the Roman aristocracy. Martianus writes a baroque and convoluted Latin often of extreme obscurity. Throughout the period under review grammar, in its Hellenistic sense of the systematic study of language and literature, continued to form the main content of the education of those who proceeded beyond mere practical ability to read and write.

  • 12 - Sallust

  • from PART III - LATE REPUBLIC
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 268-280

  • Summary

    Sallust was the first recognized classic amongst Roman historians, avidly read, admired and abused, immensely influential on many diverse writers, and cited more often than any Latin prose author, Cicero alone excepted. Oratory at Rome reached its maturity a generation or more before history. That simple fact largely explains why Cicero's remarks about history are prejudiced and condescending. Sallust may more fairly be criticized, in his Catiline at least, for die disproportionate bulk of introductory matter in a comparatively short composition. Ancient critics recorded the most distinctive features of his style: archaism, brevity, abruptness, and novelty. The brevity which Sallust pursued and often attained made a great impression on Roman readers, to judge by the numerous references to it. Sallust's outspokenness and self-will commanded the attention of contemporaries and posterity. He puts over his personality, real or assumed, very forcefully: witness the violent opening words of the lugurtha.

  • 24 - Challenge and response

  • from PART V - EARLY PRINCIPATE
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 495-502

  • Summary

    The first century of the Christian era has often been termed the' age of rhetoric'. Tacitus Dialogus is a valuable witness to the attitudes and aspirations of the first century. The arguments of Vipstanus Messalla have been cited to prove the corrupting effects of rhetorical education. For a professional poet in need of patronage the recitation must have been of some assistance. Statius, for instance, at one point refers to the fact that senators were in the habit of attending his readings and Juvenal, in sarcastic vein, confirms their success, though denying that they brought Statius any financial benefit. To see the literature of die first century in perspective, it seems best to bear in mind a number of disparate but possibly cumulative factors, educational, social, political and philosophical, all of which are, to a greater or lesser degree, relevant to die whole picture.

  • 16 - Theocritus and Virgil

  • from PART IV - THE AGE OF AUGUSTUS
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 301-319

  • Summary

    Theocritus of Syracuse, who invented the pastoral, was a Hellenistic poet, a contemporary of Callimachus and Apollonius. A proud claim, made with all the delicate force of which pastoral rhetoric is capable: the claim, that is, of being the first Latin poet to imitate Theocritean pastoral; and made at the beginning of an eclogue which owes little or nothing overtly to Theocritus. Virgil's imitation of Theocritus is restricted mainly, and not surprisingly, to the pastoral Idylls, with the notable exception of Idyll, Simaetha's incantation, a most unpastoral song which Virgil managed to translate into a pastoral setting. The publication of the Book of Eclogues is an epoch in Latin poetry. Virgil's Eclogue may be taken as a personal expression of a public attitude. Time is a relation of experience, and much had happened in the few urgent years during which Virgil was meditating his book.

  • 15 - Uncertainties

  • from PART IV - THE AGE OF AUGUSTUS
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 295-300

  • Summary

    Cicero was murdered by the soldiers of Antony and Octavian in December of 43 BC. In the following year, according to the ancient tradition, Virgil began to write the Eclogues. In the work of Virgil and Horace it seems that the process of assimilation has achieved a happy equilibrium: the most characteristic monuments of Augustan poetry display a formally and aesthetically satisfying fusion of new and old, native and alien elements. For the first time since the classical age of Greece the competing claims of technique and inspiration were again harmonized. After the elimination of Octavian's last rival at Actium in 31 BC the Roman world entered on an unexampled period of peace and prosperity. Naturally the official author of these blessings expected his achievements to be reflected in contemporary literature. A tradition of court poetry going back through Theocritus and Callimachus to Pindar and beyond offered obvious models.

  • 13 - Caesar

  • from PART III - LATE REPUBLIC
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 281-285

  • Summary

    Julius Caesar's surviving output comprises seven books on the Gallic Wars and three on the Civil Wars. This chapter presents the literary background to the Commentaries on the Gallic Wars and on the Civil Wars. The publication of the Commentaries was timed to assert his claim on the gratitude of his fellow-countrymen and to display his dignitas, the Roman quality of achievement which merits recognition by high office. The Gallic Wars was a statement of Caesar's achievements. Caesar's motive is principally simplicity, but the comparison with Livy shows that he is also influenced by concern for purity or propriety of diction. Language had always been a study of interest to him. The style and presentation follow the pattern of the Gallic Wars. The Bellum Hispaniense is one of the very few works written in a predominantly un-literary Latin, and is a very valuable source for the knowledge of the language.

  • 9 - The new direction in poetry

  • from PART III - LATE REPUBLIC
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 178-206

  • Summary

    In 50 BC Cicero begins a letter to Atticus with a playful reference to a mannerism of the New Poets, the spondaic hexameter. The spondaic hexameter is as old as Homer, but in Homer infrequent and casual. In the Hellenistic poets, Aratus, Callimachus, Apollonius, Euphorion, and odiers, and in their Latin imitators it becomes frequent and designed. The New Poets were a group of young and impressionable poets in the generation after Cicero's who shared a literary attitude relating even to stylistic minutiae, of which Cicero chose to notice two. They wished to change Latin poetry, and to a considerable extent they succeeded in their purpose. The Marriage of Peleus and Thetis is Catullus' longest and most ambitious poem, undoubtedly his intended masterpiece. The subject of the poem, home-coming, is likely to occasion diffuse sentiment. Catullus' delight is exactly reflected in the wit and complicated play, the happiness, of his language.

  • 30 - Minor poetry

  • from PART V - EARLY PRINCIPATE
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 624-632

  • Summary

    Phaedrus stands apart from the main stream of Augustan and post-Augustan poetry. Phaedrus' language is generally plain and commonplace, occasionally coarse. He admits colloquial and prosaic terms avoided by most of the poets. Like Publilius, he can point a memorable phrase. The eclogues of Calpurnius originate perhaps from a single literary coterie, centred upon the patron represented as Meliboeus in Calp 1 and 4. Enthusiasm about a new golden age, evinced both by Calpurnius and the Einsiedeln poet, links these writers together and accords with other evidence for the optimism and sense of revival which seem to have marked Nero's accession to power. Calpurnius is overshadowed by Theocritus and Virgil, who provided his main inspiration. Calpurnius' book of eclogues has an intentionally patterned structure: the first, central, and concluding poems relate to the real world around him, while the others stand, ostensibly apart from their present circumstances.

  • 41 - Minor figures

  • from PART VI - LATER PRINCIPATE
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 770-773

  • Summary

    Astrology was believed in and practised by all classes in the Late Empire. Julius Firmicus Maternus defends astrology against sceptical criticism and alleges that he was the first to introduce the science to Rome. Maternus' vocabulary includes many late Latin words such as concordialis, mansuetarius, quiescentia, and he is particularly fond of intimare. Arnobius uses a wide-ranging vocabulary, including many archaisms and poetic words, and often piles synonym upon synonym for the same idea. As a display of rhetorical pyrotechnics his treatise has few rivals. As a serious contribution to its declared subject its value is negligible. It is noteworthy that his style is very different from the sober, rather dull Ciceronianism of the contemporary Gaulish orators whose speeches survive in the Panegyrici Latini. Perhaps the influence of Apuleius and Tertullian was still strong in their native land.

  • 35 - Introductory

  • from PART VI - LATER PRINCIPATE
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 681-691

  • Summary

    This chapter explores the period that extends roughly from the middle of the third century to the middle of the fifth century AD. The period, that of Diocletian and Constantine saw the re-establishment of firm central power in the empire on a new basis. By Constantine's death stability had been restored in the military, administrative and economic spheres. Literature and art began to find patrons and the pen began to replace the sword as an instrument of persuasion. The period, in the first half of the fifth century, saw the political separation between the eastern and western parts of the Roman empire, which had been a temporary expedient in the past, become permanent. Christian writers, with their essentially historical view of the world, were more sensitive to the signs of change than the pagan contemporaries. Augustine's City of God in its way marks the end of the ancient world in the west as clearly as do the great barbarian invasions.

  • 11 - Cicero and the relationship of oratory to literature

  • from PART III - LATE REPUBLIC
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 230-267

  • Summary

    Marcus Tullius Cicero has been endlessly studied as a character and as a politician, and certainly these aspects of him are of absorbing interest; but his chief historical importance is as a man of letters. Hellenistic criticism recognized three styles, the grand, middle and plain. Not only higher education but literature in general at Rome was founded on oratory. Cicero in the Orator associated these with the three aims of oratory, to move, to please and to convince respectively. The grand style was forceful, weighty, spacious, emotional and ornate, carrying men away: it was what is understood by rhetorical. The ambition to be an orator probably came to the boy from the hill-town of Arpinum, south-east of Rome, through his being entrusted by his father to the care of Rome's leading orator, Lucius Crassus. The nature of Roman legal procedure promotes Cicero's oratorical development.

  • 31 - Prose satire

  • from PART V - EARLY PRINCIPATE
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 633-638

  • Summary

    For sparkle and malicious with few works of Latin literature can match the only complete Menippean satire which has survived, a skit upon the life and death of Claudius Caesar ascribed in manuscripts which transmit it to Seneca. Transition from prose to verse, a distinctive feature of the Menippean genre, is aptly and amusingly contrived. In general frivolity prevails, but the praise of Nero can be taken seriously and, of course, many of the charges against Claudius, made by Augustus and elsewhere, are in themselves grave enough. Petronius' Satyrica, commonly known as Satyricon, raise abundant problems for literary historians and critics alike. Petronius presents the adventures of a hero, or anti-hero, Encolpius, a conventionally educated young man, without money or morals, and his catamite, Giton, handsome and unscrupulous. Both in incident and character Petronius' novel is highly realistic, indeed startlingly so, if compared with sentimental romances.

  • 27 - Lucan

  • from PART V - EARLY PRINCIPATE
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 533-557

  • Summary

    Lucan is a model for orators, not poets. Martial shows that prose and verse had become polarized that sense was now distinct from sensibility, when Quintilian records that Lucan, for many, had forfeited the name of poet: there were rules, and the rules were there to be followed. In the Bellum civile, Lucan began with tired neoteric essays, stylistically akin to those of the princeps, quite mainstream, and accomplished. Rhetoric may demand an increasing amount of anti-Caesarian invective, but that has no necessary bearing on Lucan's relations with the princeps. Lucan devoting too much space to moralization, and little, if any, to narrative; and his apotheosis at the beginning of Book 9 is too abstract to reflect on him as an individual. Rome had seen a good deal of civil war, and a literature had been adapted to the theme.

  • 1 - Books and readers in the Roman world

  • from PART I - READERS AND CRITICS
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 1-32

  • Summary

    For half a millennium the printed book has been the primary means of communicating ideas in the Western world. The history of Roman literature effectively begins with Ennius. Plautus in his comedies had reproduced his Greek models in metres in which the influence of native Latin verse is apparent. Roman educational institutions, predictably, follow Greek models. The casual and fluid nature of publication in the ancient world is described just as characteristic of what happened to books after publication. For educational and rhetorical purposes epitomes and abstracts were increasingly in vogue. Roman scholars took over the traditions of Alexandrian literary scholarship along with the rest of Hellenistic culture. From Virgil onwards Latin poetry was profoundly influenced by rhetoric, and a style of literary criticism that fails to take account of this fact will miss much that is essential to the poetry. Literary Latin was an artificial dialect, quite distinct from the spoken idiom.

  • 20 - Love elegy

  • from PART IV - THE AGE OF AUGUSTUS
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 405-419

  • Summary

    The elegiac distich appears as a fully developed poetic form in Greece in the seventh century BC. This chapter concentrates on the famous Augustan love-poets. The love elegy or the book of love elegies may be considered as a creation of the Augustan age, though Catullus is sometimes included. His poem would seem to represent the prototype of the Augustan love elegy though love is only one theme among many; it is interwoven most skilfully with the themes of friendship, the loss of his brother, the Trojan War. The elegiac poets of the Augustan age, beginning with Cornelius Gallus, write whole books of elegies. Albius Tibullus' friendship with the great statesman M. Valerius Messalla Corvinus is one of the main themes of his poetry. The Corpus Tibullianum may be considered an anthology of poems written by members of that circle, probably published after Messalla's death.

Page 2033 of 2088