l war. The history of this age is highly controversial, the learned literature overwhelming in bulk. I have been driven to mak

eptional favour may be largely assigned to one thing the influence of literature when studied in isolation from history. The writi

dead became a god and a myth, passing from the realm of history into literature and legend, declamation and propaganda. By August

te who restored the Republic. In its treatment of Caesar the inspired literature of the Augustan Principate is consistent and inst

o scope for talent or ideas on the other side. The newer movements in literature were sponsored by a brilliant circle of orators a

yalty to Roman standards of conduct with a lively appreciation of the literature and philosophy of Hellas: he was the friend and p

that might have brought Cicero and Caesar together a common taste for literature , to which Pompeius was notoriously alien, and com

ng him back upon himself, had then sought and created consolations in literature and in theory: the ideal derived its shape from h

d irrelevant pleading. The private virtues of Cicero, his rank in the literature of Rome, and his place in the history of civiliza

9 IN Rome of the Republic, not constrained by any law of libel, the literature of politics was seldom dreary, hypocritical or ed

n the unimpeachable Philodemus from Gadara, a town in high repute for literature and learning. 10 Antonius had attacked Dolabella,

y as a whole. An aspiration rather than a programme. If the political literature of the period had been more abundantly preserved,

gered until too late. His murder disgraced the Triumvirs and enriched literature with an immortal theme. 1 But the fugitives cou

C. (Plutarch, Cato Minor 35). The name ‘Canidius’, familiar enough to literature from Horace’s witch Canidia, is exceedingly rare:

thousand years; it has been aggravated by a hazard to which prophetic literature by its very nature is peculiarly liable, that of

ic library known at Rome for to Libertas Pollio ever paid homage, and literature meant more to him than war and politics; Sosius (

ion. Men turned to the care of property and family, to the studies of literature and philosophy. From the official religion of the

he preceding generation. Fashions had altered rapidly. A truly modern literature , disdaining the caprice of individual tastes in l

divine providence; ancient legends could be employed to advertise in literature and on monuments the glory and the traditions of

es and influential outside them. 4 Dominant in politics, commerce and literature , these men formed and propagated the public opini

all. Antonius the enslaved sensualist belongs to popular and edifying literature . Cleopatra was neither young nor beautiful. 3 But

of Cleopatra there is no doubt: her importance in history, apart from literature and legend, is another matter. It NotesPage=>

l at once. Princeps remained also and very truly Dux, as the poetical literature of the earliest years of the new dispensation une

r when an official historian sought to refute Sallustius. The tone of literature in the Augustan age is certainly Pompeian rather

raditional concepts and the consecrated vocabulary of Roman political literature , much of it, indeed, in no way peculiar to Cicero

ense of disquiet and insecurity, still to be detected in contemporary literature . The past was recent and tangible the Ides of Mar

nate naming Augustus the Father of his Country. 3 Religion, law and literature all came under guidance, from above and from behi

l had gone eleven years before. In the last period of Augustus’ rule, literature not merely languished from the loss of its shinin

he duties of war and government, the sciences, the fine arts and mere literature were clearly superfluous, when not positively nox

influenced by the intellectual movements of the capital, by Hellenic literature , science or scepticism. He was capable of dissimu

N PageBook=>459 IN Rome of the Republic the aristocracy guided literature through individual patronage. As in politics, the

blame of the dead rather than the living foreshadows the sad fate of literature under the Empire. When the rule of Augustus is

national antiquities. As yet, however, no systematic exploitation of literature on the grand scale. That was left for Augustus. P

rts and by the best poets. 3 The Princeps succeeded: other patrons of literature were left far behind. Pollio lost his Virgil. M

something much greater was afoot, the deliberate creation of a Roman literature worthy to stand beside the achievement of Greece,

lier and classic exemplars, to the great age of Greece. The new Roman literature was designed to be civic rather than individual,

and to claim the rank of classics for the better sort of contemporary literature . As in politics, the last generation was not ri

ls a gravity and depth of feeling beside which much of the ceremonial literature of Augustan Rome appears hard, flashy and hollow.

he Corinna of the Amores cannot match Propertius’ Cynthia. Corinna is literature , a composite or rather an imaginary figure. The p

k=>484 The fashion quickly spread and propagated a disease among literature in both prose and verse, a scourge in the social

been underestimated. Even Agrippa took up the pen. 3 Paramount in the literature of apology stood Augustus’ own autobiographical m

rs of Augustus witnessed stern measures of repression against noxious literature . 5 Public bonfires were instituted but not for su

for such trifles as the Ars amatoria of Ovid. Contemporary political literature provided the cause and the fuel. Thus did Augustu

confirmed by Juvenal and by Tacitus, the typical glories of imperial literature and the last of the Romans. PageNotes. 489 1

nd Plancus were Messalla and Pollio, the consular patrons of Augustan literature , themselves no mean part of it. The Roman patrici

completely renovated, with new institutions, new ideas and even a new literature that was already classical. The doom of Empire ha

nts, 496 ff., 500; character and bibulous habits, 436; as a patron of literature , 460. Calpurnius Piso Frugi Licinianus, L., ado

, 376, 377, 379, 420, 421, 425, 487; his oratory, 375; as a patron of literature , 460; proconsul of Asia, 375, 395, 405, 474; in S

90 f. Greece, in relation to Roman patriotism, 440, 449; and Roman literature , 461. Greeks, conciliated by Antonius, 262 f.;

er the Triumvirs, 247 ff.; under the Principate, 459 ff.; political literature , 149 ff., 486; opposition literature, 486 f.; cre

Principate, 459 ff.; political literature, 149 ff., 486; opposition literature , 486 f.; creation of a classical literature at Ro

149 ff., 486; opposition literature, 486 f.; creation of a classical literature at Rome, 461; repression of, 486; decline of, 487