Immagini della pagina
PDF
ePub

INTRODUCTION.

DIALOGUE III. OF J. SPENCE'S POLYMETIS, VOL. I. PAGE 17.

ON THE POLITICAL CHARACTER OF THE AENEID, AND FLOURISHING STATE OF POETRY AMONG THE ROMANS.

THE first age was only as the dawning of the Roman Poetry, in comparison of the clear full light that opened all at once afterwards, under Augustus Caesar. The state, which had been so long tending towards a monarchy, was quite settled down to that form by this prince. When he had no longer any dangerous opponents, he grew mild; or, at least, concealed the cruelty of his temper. He gave peace and quiet to the people that were fallen into his hands; and looked kindly on the improvement of all the arts and elegancies of life among them. He had a minister, too, under him, who (though a very bad writer himself) knew how to encourage the best: and who admitted the best poets, in particular, into a very great share of friendship and intimacy with him. Virgil was one of the foremost in this list; who at his first setting out grew' soon

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

2

their most applauded writer for genteel pastorals; then gave them the most beautiful and most correct poem that ever was wrote in the Roman language, in his rules of agriculture (so beautiful, that some of the antients seem to accuse Virgil of having studied beauty too much in that piece): and last of all undertook a political poem, in support of the new establishment. I have thought this to be the intent of the Aeneid, ever since I first read Bossu; and the more one considers it, the more I think one is confirmed in that opinion. Virgil is said to have begun this poem the very year that Augustus was free from his great rival, Antony: the government of the Roman empire was to be wholly in him; and though he chose to be called their Father*, he was, in every thing but the name, their King. This monarchical form of government must naturally be apt to displease the people. Virgil seems to have laid the plan of poem to reconcile them to it. He takes advantage of this religious turn, and of some old prophecies that must have been very flattering to the Roman people, as promising them the empire of the whole world. He weaves this in with the most *probable account of their origin; that of their being descended from the Trojans. To be a little more particular; Virgil, in his Aeneid, shews that Aeneas was called into their country by

his

[ocr errors][ocr errors]

5

NOTES.

2 As Pliny and Seneca in particular. "Sed nos obliterata quoque scrutabi66 mur; nec deterrebit quarundam 66 rerum humilitas. Quanquam videmus Virgilium, praecellentissimum vatem, eâ de causâ hortorum dotes "fugisse; tantisque quae retulit, flores “modò rerum decerpisse." Pliny, L. 14. Proem. Virgilius noster, qui non "quid verissimè, sed quid decentissimè "diceretur, aspexit; nec agricolas "docere voluit, sed legentes delec"tare." Seneca, L. 13. Epist. 87.

66

3 By de la Rue, in his life of Virgil. 4 Dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile Saxum

Accolet; imperiumque pater Romanus habebit.

Virg. Aen. 9. v. 449.

"Non aliud discordantis patriae reme"dium fuisse, quin ut ab uno regeretur: non regno tamen, neque dictaturâ,

66

66

"sed principis nomine constitutam rempublicam." Tacit. Annal. L. I., where he is speaking for Augustus. Princeps here signifies much the same with princeps Senatus; and so falls in with the title of Pater; the Senator by way of eminence, or the ruling Senator; which was a title as modest as his power was exorbitant.

He had the title of Pater Patriae, too, given him by all the three orders of the state; in the strongest manner that could be.

Sancte pater patriae, tibi plebes, tibi
curia nomen

Hoc dedit, hoc dedimus nos tibi nomen
eques.
Ovid. Trist. 2. v. 126.

5 Plutarch, in his life of Julius Caesar.

6 As being that of Dionysius Halicarnasseus, and some of the best Roman historians.

the express order of the Gods; that he was made King of it by the will of heaven; and by all the human rights that could be; that there was an uninterrupted succession of Kings from him to Romulus; that his heirs were to reign there for ever;

9

NOTES.

[blocks in formation]

Tot responsa secuti, Quae Superi Manesque dabant,Italiam petiere.

8

Aen. 10. v. 32-34.

The divine right appears from what is said in the note before: Virgil takes care to join all the civil rights to it that can be. He has an hereditary claim from Dardanus and Jasius. Aen. 3. v. 168. He has a right by conquest. Aen. 12. v. 1.-He has a right by compact. Aen. 12. v. 175 to 225.-And he has a right by marrying the only daughter of the then King. Aen. 12. v. 937; and 7. v. 50-52.

9 Aeneas succeeds Latinus. Aen. 1. v. 265. Iülus succeeds Aeneas. Aen. 1. v. 269. His race (which is therefore called the Trojan line by Virgil, Aen. 1. v. 273.) reign for the next three hundred years; then follows Romulus, Aen. 1. v. 276, still of the Trojan line, as grandson of Aeneas Sylvius. Aen. 6. v. 778.

Romulus Assaraci quem sanguinis Ilia Aen. 6. v. 780.

mater

Educet

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

and that the Romans under them 10 were to obtain the mo

narchy of the world.

12

It appears from Virgil ", and the other Roman writers, that Julius Caesar was of this royal race; and that Augustus was his sole heir. The natural result of all this is, that the promises made to the Roman people, in and through this race,

NOTES.

10 Homer had said, that Aeneas and ́his descendants should be princes for ever; or, in the eastern style, from generation to generation.

Οφρα μὴ ἄσπερμος γενὴ καὶ ἄφαντος ὄληται

Δαρδάνου, ὃν Κρονίδης, περὶ πάντων φίλατο παίδων,

Οἱ ἔθεν ἐξεγένοντο γυναικῶν τε θνητάων.
Ἤδη γὰρ Πριάμε γενεὴν ἤχθηρε Κρονίων.
Νῦν δὲ δὴ Αἰνεία, βίη Τρώεσσιν ἀνάξει,
Καὶ παιδες παίδων, τοί κεν μετόπισθε γένωνται
Homeri, H. T. 308.

That this prophecy was much insisted on by Augustus and his favourers, appears probable from the early care that was taken to alter the reading from Τρώεσσιν to Πάντεσσιν. See Ruaeus in Aen. 3. v. 97. Pope, on Il. 20. v. 355. And Bochart's letter to Segrais. Agreeably to which, Virgil, in inserting this prophecy in his Aeneid, says, the Trojan race, or family of Aeneas should reign in Italy, and obtain the universal empire.

Hic domus Aeneae cunctis dominabitur oris;

Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis. Aen. 3. v. 97.

He uses the same, even proverbially: Dum domus Aeneae Capitoli immobile

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Caesar,

Imperium oceano, famam qui terminet astris;

Julius, à magno demissum nomen Iülo. Aen. I. v. 288.

Genus qui ducis Olympo,
Projice tela prior, sanguis meus

Anchises of Julius Cæsar,
Aen. 6. v. 836.

Several of the Roman writers speak of this high descent of Julius Caesar; and Suetonius in particular, who mentions a funeral oration made by Julius Caesar, over one of his relations, in which he says were these words; "Amitae meae, Juliae, maternum genus ab regibus ortum; paternum, cum diis immortalibus conjunctum est. Nam ab Anco Martio sunt reges, quo nomine fuit mater: a Venere, Julii : Cujus gentis familia est nostra." Suet. in Julio, § 6.

12 His uncle Julius adopted him for his son: and made him his heir.-Utque primum occisum eum, haeredemque se comperit; urbe repetitâ, haereditatem adiit: atque ab eo tempore exercitibus comparatis, primum cum M. Antonio Marcoque Lepido, dein tantum cum Antonio, per duodecim fere annos; novissime, per quatuor et quadraginta, solus rempublicam tenuit.-Suetonius in Aug. § 8.

« IndietroContinua »