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Chapter 94 : [Sidenote: STATIUS.]Statius was born at Naples, but early removed to Rome, where he was

[Sidenote: STATIUS.]

Statius was born at Naples, but early removed to Rome, where he was carefully educated and spent the greater part of his life. His father was a scholar, rhetorician, and poet of some distinction, and acted for a time as tutor to Domitian. Statius had thus access to the Court, and repaid the patronage of Domitian by incessant and shameless flattery.

After the completion of his +Thebais+ he retired to Naples, which was endeared to him by its a.s.sociations with Vergil, and there satisfied his real love of nature.

2. Works.

(1) The +Thebais+, an Epic poem in twelve Books, on the strife between the brothers Eteocles and Polynices, and the subsequent history of Thebes to the death of Creon.

The Thebaid became very famous: Juvenal (_Sat._ vii. 82-4) tells us

_Curritur ad vocem iucundam et carmen amicae Thebaidos, laetam c.u.m fecit Statius urbem promisitque diem_ (i.e. for a public recitation of his poem).

'Its smooth versification, copious diction, and sustained elegance made it a sort of canon of poetical technique. Among much tedious rhetoric and c.u.mbrous mythology there is enough imagination and pathos to make the poem interesting and even charming.' --Mackail.

(2) The +Silvae+, in five Books, are occasional poems, descriptive and lyrical, on miscellaneous subjects. These may well be considered his masterpiece. 'Genuine poetry,' says Niebuhr, 'imprinted with the character of the true poet, and const.i.tuting some of the most graceful productions of Roman literature.'

Among the best known are the touching poem to his wife Claudia (iii. 5), the marriage song to his brother-poet Arruntius Stella (i. 2), the _Propempticon Maecio Celeri_ (iii. 2), the _Epicedion_ (funeral song) on the death of his adopted son (v. 5), and the short poem (v. 4) on Sleep.

The greatest poet of the Decline.

GAIUS SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS, circ. 75-160 A.D.

1. Life.

[Sidenote: SUETONIUS.]

The little we know of his life is chiefly gathered from the Letters of Pliny the Younger, and from scattered allusions in his own works. The son of an officer of the Thirteenth Legion, Suetonius in early life practised as an advocate, and subsequently became one of Hadrian's private secretaries (_magister epistularum_), but was dismissed from office in 121 A.D. After his retirement from the service of the Court he devoted the rest of his long life to literary research and compilation, and published a number of works on a great variety of subjects, so that he became famous as the Varro of the imperial period.

2. Works.

His extant works are:

(1) +De Vita Caesarum+, the Lives of the Twelve Caesars, in eight Books (I-VI Julius-Nero; VII Galba, Otho, and Vitellius; VIII Vespasian, t.i.tus, and Domitian). This is his most interesting and most valuable work. His Lives are not works of art: he is simply a gatherer of facts, collected from good sources with considerable care and judgment. 'He follows out with absolute faithfulness his own theory, which makes it necessary to omit no possible detail that can throw light upon the personality of his subject.' --Peck.

(2) +De Viris Ill.u.s.tribus+, a history of Latin literature up to his day.

The greater part of the section +De grammaticis et rhetoribus+ is extant, as well as the Lives of Terence, Horace, and Lucan (partly), from the section +De poetis+, and fragments of the Life of Pliny the Elder from the section +De historicis+.

Extracts made from this work by Jerome (_circ._ 400 A.D.) in his Latin version of Eusebius' Chronicles are the source from which much of our information as to Latin authors is derived.

'Suetonius is terse, and in that respect he resembles Tacitus; he is deeply interesting, and there he shows some likeness to Livy; but his style is one of his own creation. His chief desire is to present the facts stripped of any comment whatever, grouped in such a way as to produce their own effect without the advent.i.tious aid of rhetoric; and then to leave the reader to his own conclusions.' --Peck.

_Probissimus, honestissimus, eruditissimus vir._

Pliny, _Epist. ad Trai._ 94.

PUBLILIUS SYRUS, circ. 45 B.C.

1. Life.

[Sidenote: SYRUS.]

All we know of him is that he was an enfranchised Syrian slave, a native of Antioch, and wrote for the stage _mimes_ (farces) which were performed with great applause. Mime-writing was also practised at this time by the Knight Laberius, and Caesar is said to have patronised these writers in the hope of elevating their art.

2. Works.

+Sententiae+ (_Maxims_). We possess 697 lines from his mimes (unconnected and alphabetically arranged), a collection made in the early Middle Ages, and much used in schools. As proverbs of worldly wisdom, and admirable examples of the terse vigour of Roman philosophy, they are widely known, e.g.

_Cuivis potest accidere quod cuiquam potest._

CORNELIUS TACITUS, circ. 54-120 A.D.

1. Life.

[Sidenote: TACITUS.]

The personal history of Tacitus is known to us only from allusions in his own works, and from the letters of his friend the younger Pliny. He was born early in the reign of Nero, probably in Rome; his education, political career, and marriage into the distinguished family of Agricola prove that he was a man of wealth and position. He studied rhetoric under the best masters (possibly under Quintilian), and had, as Pliny tells us (_Epist._ II. i. 6), a great reputation as a speaker. He pa.s.sed through the usual stages of an official career and was appointed _consul suffectus_ under Trajan, 98 A.D., when he was a little over forty. From 89 to 93 A.D. he was absent from Rome, probably in some provincial command, and during these years he may have acquired some personal knowledge of the German peoples. In 100 A.D. he was a.s.sociated with Pliny in the prosecution for extortion of Marius Priscus, proconsul of Africa, of whom Juvenal says (_Sat._ viii. 120):

_c.u.m tenues nuper Marius discinxerit Afros._

_Since Marius has so lately stripped to their girdles_ (i.e. thoroughly plundered) _the needy Africans_.

From this date Tacitus seems to have devoted himself entirely to literary pursuits and to have lived to or beyond the end of Trajan's reign, 116 A.D.

2. Works.

(1) +Dialogus de Oratoribus+, an inquiry into the causes of the decay of oratory, his earliest extant work. In the style of this work the influence of Quintilian and Cicero is strongly seen.

(2) +De Vita et Moribus Iulii Agricolae liber+, an account of the life of his father-in-law, particularly of his career in Britain, published shortly after the accession of Trajan, 98 A.D. 'The Sall.u.s.tian epoch of Tacitus finds its expression in the _Agricola_ and _Germania_.'

--Teuffel.

The _Agricola_ is perhaps the most beautiful biography in ancient literature.

(3) The +Germania+, or _Concerning the Geography, the Manners and Customs, and the Tribes of Germany_, published in 98 or 99. 'The motive for its publication was apparently the pressing importance, in Tacitus'

opinion, of the "German question," and the necessity for vigorous action to secure the safety of the Roman Empire against the dangers with which.

it was threatened from German strength.' --Stephenson.

'The +Germania+ is an inestimable treasury of facts and generalisations, and of the general faithfulness of the outline we have no doubt.'

--Stubbs.

(4) +Historiae+, consisting originally of fourteen Books, is a narrative of the events of the reigns of Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, t.i.tus, and Domitian, 69-96 A.D. Only Books I-IV and the first half of Book V are extant, and give the history of 69 and most of 70 A.D.

'The style of the _Historiae_ still retains some traces of the influence of Cicero: it has not yet been pressed tight into the short _sententiae_ which were its final and most characteristic development, but shows in a marked degree the influence of Vergil.' --Cruttwell.

In the _Historiae_, as Tacitus himself says, 'the secret of the imperial system was divulged--that an emperor could be made elsewhere than at Rome'; or, in other words, that the imperial system was a military and not a civil inst.i.tution.

(5) The +Annales, ab excessu divi Augusti+, in sixteen Books, containing the history of the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, 14-68 A.D. There are extant only Books I-IV, parts of V and VI, and XI-XVI.