not in proportion to the number he had seen might be a modest disclaimer of what little knowledge he felt he did possess; or it might be a bid for the favor of his art-despising Roman audience; or it might be the truth. The sum of evidence indicates that it is the truth, and that Cicero's knowledge of art was slight.' Considering the opportunities he had enjoyed, we must conclude that works of art had exercised little influence upon him. We may add to this another utterance which seems to be the expression of a personal opinion. In the fifth Paradox, where he discusses the thesis that all wise men are free and all fools are slaves, Cicero ranks as among vilest slaves those who take too much delight in statues, paintings, Corinthian ware, embossed silver, and magnificent edifices: "atque in pari stultitia sunt, quos signa, quos tabulae, quos caelatum argentum, quos Corinthia opera, quos aedificia magna nimio opere delectant. Aëtionis tabula te stupidum detinet aut signum aliquod Polycleti; mitto unde sustuleris, quo modo habeas: intuentem te, admirantem, clamores tollentem cum video, servum esse ineptiarum omnium iudico. 'Nonne igitur sunt illa festiva?' Sunt; nam nos quoque oculos eruditos habemus. Sed, obsecro te, ita venusta habeantur ista, non ut vincla virorum sint, sed ut oblectamenta puerorum." Further evidence of Cicero's taste is found in the fact that in the early sixties when Cicero had become a rich man and was fitting out his Tusculan villa, the sculptural equipment in which he invested consisted in Herms, Hermathenas, and signa Megarica, or statues of Megarean marble, which he commissioned Atticus, who was in Athens at the time, to get for him. They were merely for ornament, accompanied by no artist's name, and of no artistic importance. Again, in a letter of uncertain date to his friend, M. Fadius Gallus, who had purchased certain statues for him, but had made a mistake in his selection, Cicero wrote: "prorsus enim ex istis emptionibus nullam desidero: tu autem ignarus instituti mei, quanti ego genus omnino signorum omnium non aestimo, tanti ista quattuor aut quinque sumpsisti." Here again the context shows that the statues were desired only for purposes of ornamentation in connection with the palaestra of Cicero's villa. He had as little interest in the acquisition of works of sculpture

1 This is also the conclusion of Goehling.

2 Parad. V 2, 36-38.

3 Att. I 1,5; 3, 2; 4. 3; 5, 7; 6, 2; 8, 2; 9, 2; 10, 3; II, 3.

Fam. VII 23, 2.

for their own sake as he had in the acquisition of knowledge of sculpture for its own sake.

Thus by word and act does Cicero confess his lack of interest in and appreciation of Greek art. We may go still further, however, and employ the argumentum ex silentio. This is usually dangerous, I am aware; and if Cicero had left nothing but his essays and orations, I should not think of concluding, from his brief and formal mention in the field of art, that he had no appreciation of it. But Cicero has left us a thousand pages of letters, of which three-fourths are written to intimate friends to whom he lays bare all his thoughts; and in all this correspondence, which extends from 68 to 44, there are three references to Greek art of the good period, and of these, two are in letters which are not addressed to his most intimate friends, and which are as formal and rhetorical as any of his essays.' The third is in a letter to Atticus and is a mere illustration. Such silence concerning the famous monuments of art known to the world of his time, monuments which he had abundant opportunity to see, and in the very sight of which he sometimes wrote to his most intimate friend Atticus,' can only mean that Cirero had no enthusiasm for things of that kind.

To sum up: Cicero was keenly appreciative of Greek thought as manifested in Greek literature. As to those products of Greek genius which were manifested in the arts, he has nothing to say of architecture, refers a few times to Corinthian and Delian bronze work and vases, and speaks only of the arts of sculpture and painting, as though he were familiar with them. While his equipment of knowledge regarding these two arts may have been greater than is apparent in his pages, it is altogether likely that it was very superficial; and it is certain that his use of it sprang rather from the instinct of the stylist than from the enthusiasm of the lover of art.

THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN.

GRANT SHOWERMAN.

1 Fam. V 12, 7; I 9, 15.

8 Att. II 21, 4.

Att. V 10, 5; VI 9, 5.

VI. THE ABLATIVE ABSOLUTE IN THE EPISTLES OF CICERO, SENECA, PLINY AND FRONTO.

In another article we discussed the use of Chiasmus in these writings, and here we shall consider the use of the ablative absolute, following the same lines as in the discussion of the ablative absolute in Livy. The latter differs widely from the others in the rhetorical elaboration of his sentences, and for this reason there are marked differences in the use of the ablative absolute. Many of the letters in these collections were written with a direct view to publication, but in those written on the spur of the moment, the writer did not take time for introductory elaboration and had little need for the ablative absolute. In Seneca the normal sentence is so short that there is room for little more than the finite forms of the verb. The Panegyricus of Pliny, though not an epistle, is not more artificial than some of the letters, and is included so as to give a view of Pliny's complete work. As the absolute construction is merely a substitutive element, its use varies in different writers, and the frequency of occurrence is to a considerable extent dependent on the occurrence of those primary forms of statement for which it may be substituted, and for this reason, as it generally expresses temporal relations, it is used with greatest freedom in historical compositions where it helps to prevent an excess of temporal clauses. Compared with Livy these writers do not use the construction freely, the number for each form being as follows:

'Chiasmus in the epistles of Cicero, Seneca, Pliny and Fronto. Studies

in Honor of B. L. Gildersleeve, pp. 339–352.

These figures, however, are not rigidly exact, for in some instances-not sufficiently large to call for a separate listing-we have placed under 'Adjectives' the occurrence of a single noun with an adjective and present participle, as in Cic. ad Att. 16, 7, 3 quibus invitis et dissuadentibus profectus sum. There is also a limited number of other instances in which two forms of the verbal term have been used and these have been put under the first in the statement. As all these writers were to a great extent considering facts falling immediately under their notice, the large number of present participles in the ablative absolute is not surprising. The proportion is the lowest for Cicero, and the highest for Seneca, though in the entire number there is but one noticeable feature,-the occurrence of dis volentibus in letters written to Fronto (p. 72, line 5 Naber; 88, 17; 94, 16); of dis faventibus (56, 21); and of dis iuvantibus (56, 17; 70, 20; 80, 11; 81, 10; 83, 3; 91, 2; 88, 7; and 101, 6), only the last two being in letters written by Fronto.

There are no marked differences in the use of perfect participles excepting of deponents. Of these, the ablative absolute is in Cicero limited to mortuo: ad Att. 2, 19, 3 m. plausu; 2, 19, 4 Cosconio m.; 12, 20, 2 vivone ... an mortuo (twice); 14, 17, 6; 16, 16 A, 7; 12, 22, 2 num Clodia D. Bruto consulari, filio suo, mortuo vixerit; ad Fam. 7, 9, 2 quod huc properes, nihil est, praesertim Battara mortuo. Seneca has ortis 122, 8 inde ortis radicibus quo improbe cacumina egissent; and passis 74, 2 aliquam p. infamiam. Pliny has a different class: 5, 16, 1 filia minore defuncta; 6, 20, 2 profecto avunculo; 9, 12, 1 iuvene digresso. Fronto has profecto 209, 13 Lucio ab urbe necdum etiam tum p.; mortuo 160, 10 Alexandro morbo m.; orto 209, 7 tumultu o.; and perhaps 7, 5 ortis vaporibus.

Ablatives absolute composed of pairs of nouns are most freely used by Cicero, especially consul and auctor. Seneca has the latter 44, 6 populo a.; and 107, 9 quo auctore. Pliny's list resembles Cicero's, but Fronto's is different: 55, 3 me vade, me praede, me sponsore, celeriter te in cacumine eloquentiae sistam; 115, 15 quem ego facile, et omnibus spectantibus, et te, si spectaveris, teste revincam.

The adjectives most commonly occurring are invitus, as in Cic. ad Att. 5, 21, 9 quod et illo et me invitissimo fiet; integer 9, 10, 8 "Tum poterimus deliberare non scilicet integra re, sed certe minus infracta quam si una proieceris te"; salvus: Sen.

117, I ego nec dissentire a nostris salva gratia nec consentire salva conscientia possum; vivus: Cic. ad Att. 9, 7, I sic enim video, nec duobus his vivis nec hoc uno nos umquam rem publicam habituros. Fronto has salva sanitate 164, 2; and invalido adhuc corpore 84, 21.

The ablative absolute of neuter forms is avoided, though Cic. has sortito ad Fam. 8, 8, 8 (quoting from a senate consult); and Seneca tranquillo 85, 34 . . . t. enim, ut aiunt, quilibet gubernator est; cf. Livy 24, 8, 12 quilibet . . . t. mari gubernare potest.

...

In its general aspects the ablative absolute in these writers may be characterized as isolated, unextended and undivided. There are some exceptions to this characterization but most of the examples occur singly, are composed of one noun and one participle or equivalent, and do not have the parts separated.

I. (a) There is occasionally a passage in the letters of Cicero in which two ablatives absolute are introductory to the main statement, as in ad Att. 1, 13, 2 idque admurmurante senatu neque me invito esse factum; 7, 17, 2 violata iam ab illo re publica illatoque bello; ad Fam. 10, 3, 2 omnia summa consecutus es virtute duce, comite fortuna; ad Fam. 4, 4, 3 nam et ipse Caesar accusata 'acerbitate' Marcelli (sic enim appellabat) laudataque honorificentissime et aequitate tua et prudentia repente praeter spem dixit se . . . negaturum. An instance of three ablatives absolute is found ad Fam. 1, 9, 14 recreatis enim bonis viris consulatu tuo et constantissimis atque optimis actionibus tuis excitatis, Cn. Pompeio praesertim ad causam adiuncto, cum etiam Caesar rebus maximis gestis... adiungeretur; and in the letters of his correspondents 10, 32, 1 (Pollio) Balbus quaestor magna numerata pecunia, magno pondere auri, maiore argenti coacto de publicis exactionibus, ne stipendio quidem militibus reddito duxit se a Gadibus; 12, 15, 1 (Lentulus) quod cum pertimuisset Dolabella vastata provincia, correptis vectigalibus, praecipue civibus Romanis omnibus crudelissime denudatis ac divenditis celeriusque Asia excessisset. Cicero uses four ad Att. 4, 18, 5 confecta Britannia, obsidibus acceptis, nulla praeda, imperata tamen pecunia exercitum ex Britannia reportabant; and Plancus the same number ad Fam. 10, 21, 4 (Plancus), duobus iam consulibus singularibus occisis, tot civibus pro patria amissis, hostibus denique omnibus iudicatis bonisque publicatis. A slightly different extension of the participial statement is found in a letter from Dolabella ad Fam. 9, 9, 2 illi non posse contingere...