BOOK The old Latin festivals. ing a public show he was discharging a debt of gratitude to the gods. Funeral games in honour of a defunct father came to be looked upon more and more as a simple act of filial piety which a Roman in a high position could not easily neglect, especially as it increased the glory of his family and his own credit with the people. Considering the extraordinary multiplication of holidays, all of which had in form at least a religious character, it is not to be wondered at that many of the more simple old festivals and religious acts were neglected, and even forgotten. It is true that the more important festivals, the Lupercalia, the Saturnalia, and the like, continued to be kept with great solemnity, for the whole nation took part in them; but when only single families or classes and localities celebrated a festival, the usual business life and the daily traffic of the town were little disturbed by religious ceremonies. At the Quinquatria the fluteplayers celebrated the festival of their guild. The goddesses of Fortune for men and for women, the gods of seedtime and harvest, of the vine, of navigation, &c., had each their own set of worshippers, and probably many such deities were worshipped almost in private, with scanty sacrifices, in out-of-the-way places, at half-ruined altars. Religion, like language, customs and laws, like literature and taste, was undergoing a constant change, and could not possibly preserve old institutions in unabated vigour whilst new ideas and new forms of worship were being received in great number. Although the conservatism with which the Romans clung to what was old often preserved usages, the meaning of which had been forgotten, more especially in matters of religion, yet the old system was fast decaying, as it was not based upon sacred books, upon confessions of faith carefully drawn up, and upon dogmas solemnly recognised. The religion of Rome was not one of those from whose coherent system 1 Livy, xli. 6, 4, shows that sometimes formal inquiries were made into the truth of such reports of victories, for which special honours were claimed. 2 Marquardt, Röm. Alterth, iv. p. 74. not a little can be removed or altered without causing a complete collapse. In the same manner as the Roman dominion spread and gradually embraced the old world, and as by this gradual process of development the narrow circle of Roman citizenship was enlarged into a cosmopolitan citizenship, thus also in the religion of Rome that which was purely national gradually disappeared by being merged into a religion of humanity, СНАР. XIII. BOOK Ancient CHAPTER XIV. CULTURE, ART, SCIENCE. WHILST the Romans in politics and law remained free from the influence of foreign states, and thus were indebted only to themselves for their greatest and most literature. memorable performances; whilst in religion they mingled national and foreign elements, and superficially overlaid their simple and prosaic conceptions of the deity with Greek imagination and Oriental fanaticism, the development of literature took another direction. It altogether abandoned its native standard, and passed under the absolute dominion of Greek taste and Greek rules of art. This process began as soon as the Romans came into contact with the Greeks. When Livius Andronicus had with one single stroke transplanted the Greek epic poetry and the Greek drama, tragic as well as comic, the victory of Greek over Italian literature was decided; and, as has been shown in a former chapter,' the growth and development of the new literature went on almost without check or interruption. But the mode of its development was different from that of the literature of Greece, where its origin and growth were natural, spontaneous, and uninfluenced by foreign nations. Foreign A literature which is moulded on foreign models, and influences. therefore strives after an ideal which has been already attained by others, does not attempt to go beyond this ideal, but sees perfection attained in proportion as it approaches these models. If, as was the case with the Romans, and has since been the case in other European countries, a nation does not become acquainted with its 1 Vol. ii. p. 474. model literature until this has passed the climax of its development and is on the road to decay, the imitating literature seeks its models in those productions which are nearest to it with respect to time, in the later works of its instructors; and not until it becomes more intimately acquainted with its ideal does it aspire to the full understanding and imitation of those works which stand highest. At the same time it gradually strives after greater purity, i.e. correctness in imitation of the forms of the original; it relinquishes more and more all claim. to individuality, original treatment, and invention; it becomes more slavish and more incapable of working out genuine national masterpieces. On comparing the productions of the earlier poets, Livius, Ennius, Nævius, with those that followed, such as Plautus, Terence, Cæcilius, Pacuvius, and Attius, and these again with the masterly perfection in form attained by Horace and Virgil, we find a good illustration of this phenomenon. The older writers, still working to a great extent in the national spirit, took from the foreign literature only their patterns and materials in general. Nævius, following Homer, wrote a national Roman epos in the Saturnian verse. Ennius, advancing further on the path of imitation, found his materials in native Italian history, but adopted the hexameter verse to which the Saturnian verse was sacrificed. Plautus borrowed materials and pattern from the Attic comedies, but he clothed the Greek characters in a drapery so decidedly Roman that they appeared to the spectators like old acquaintances. He generally gave Latin names to his plays, and composed his verses with that freedom in the treatment of metre which distinguishes the popular poet from the metrical artist. It is different with Terence. In his case genius is overbalanced by art. The verses are more regular, the language more refined, the Greek tone more purely pre The Romans when they became acquainted with the Greek dramatists admired Euripides more than Sophocles. So did the French and English after the revival of letters. CHAP. XIV. The earlier Roman. poets, BOOK Tragic and comic poets. Poverty of Roman imagination. served, the models more strictly and faithfully imitated. Imitation already begins to approach the character of a translation. It is quite in keeping with this closer approach to the Greek models that his plays are no longer called Miles, Captivi, or Mercator, but Adelphi, Hecyra, and even Heautontimorumenos. The attempt at purity and correctness naturally involves a greater restriction of the poet to special departments. Livius, Ennius, and Nævius were productive in all branches of literature; whereas Plautus, Cæcilius, and Terence wrote only comedies; Pacuvius and Attius only, or at least almost exclusively, tragedies. The work became more artistic, and required more special study.' Thus Greek poetry made its victorious entry in Italy, though not without a struggle, for in tragedy and still more in comedy, which grew up with far greater vigour, considerable and persistent attempts were made. for some time to cultivate and to improve the natural productions of the soil. Tragedy in the 'prætexta,' the Roman garment of honour, comedy in the national ‘toga' (fabula prætextata and fabula togata), treated at least national subjects, though they had no national form of art that could compete with the foreign. Such a form of art might have been perfected if the Atellana and Mimi had been thoroughly cultivated; but all attempts failed because Not in literature alone, but in all departments of art, the same phenomenon may be observed, and points to the existence of a general law. The epic poetry of the middle ages, the romances of the Trojan war and of Alexander, the Knight's Tale of Chaucer, and the like, were anything but slavish imitations of classical models. It was not Homer, nor even Virgil, that was the great favourite and pattern of the time, but Statius. At the period of the renaissance people began to study the classical poets of the best time and to imitate them. The result was the studied and correct but less original productions of the classical school, such as Milton's Paradise Lost, Racine's Phædra, Klopstock's Messias, and Göthe's Iphigenia. In architecture the same spirit of imitation has produced similar results. The Romance and the Gothic styles of architecture, which are offshoots of the latest styles of antiquity, were far more original than the modern classicism which is the outcome of an accurate study of the best productions of the Greek architects. A true imitator is not satisfied until he has caught all the detail in forms and proportions of his model, and has divested himself of everything that may savour of originality. |