Another member of the Seipionie circle, a man who played a great role in the literature of the day, and the loss of whose works is a calamity to us. is Gains Lucilius (B.c. 180-103), a native of Suessa Aurunea. in Campania, who so defined the scope and application of the satura as to deserve the name of 'Father of Roman Satire.' To him was due the popularizing of a kind of poetic miscellany of reflection, criticism, and de scription. now serious, now pungent, now witty, that was singularly adapted to the genius and habits of the Romans. The particular direction which Lueilius gave to satire was that of a sys tematic criticism of literature and life, which often took the form of parody. Nothing escaped his trenchant pen: polities, morals, society, all things sacred and profane received from him their share of attention. Even his 01‘11 life and personality were laid bare to his readers. The later satirists, and especially Horace. while frankly criticising his careless style, willingly admit, their debt to Lucilius. Horace, indeed, often follows him closely, as in the satire describ ing hi, journey to Brundisium in the company of neeenas and his party. which is merely a et py of Lueilius's account of his own trip to the Straits of Messina. The satires were published in thirty books. The predominant metre was the hexameter. in this he differed from his prede cessor Ennius. whose Su furir mingled troehaics, hexameter,. and iambics indifferently, and from Varro (-ce below), whose 'Menippean Satires' were written in both prose and verse.
To this period belongs the last of the great Latin tragic poets. Lucius Attius (r..c. 170-94), of Pisaurum. the modern Wsaro. As a young man 1n.c. 140), he was already putting tragedies on the stage when the aged Paeuvius was still writing. Attins, too, lived to be an old man, and the young Cicero liked to listen to his reminiscences. Of his many tragedies only some titles and a few fragments survive. His style is marked by such old-fashioned ornament as assonance. alliteration, plays upon words, and archaic forms. which connect him more closely with the age of Ennius than with the literary period immediately following him. With Attius the old character-drama came to an end.
The old Latin comedy ended also in this period, with Lucius Afranius, born about 154 I44 lax., author of totpthr or comedies of Latin life, which achieved a great popularity and were still acted a century after Afranius's death. All are now lost, but we have the titles of many. which serve to show the general character of the plots.
It only remains in closing this brief sketch of the literature of the pre-classical period to men tion the many ()ration., that were minced to writing and funned no unimportant part of the literature of the time. This was a branch of intellectual activity in which the Romans ex celled. The first published orations of impor tance were those of Cato (see above), whose elo quence. though rough and nide, was dignified and forceful, and touched upon every department of public life. Among Cato's contemporaries in ora tory there were the younger Scipio and C. Lcelius (n.c. 1S5-129). The advent of the Gracchi, too, formed an epoch in oratory. Their was far freer than that of their predecessors. The fame of Tiberius Gracchns (n.c. 163-133) was obscured by that of his brother Gains Gracchus (n.c. 154-121), whose most striking character istic was vehemence. 1\feanwhi1e graninmr, rhetoric, philosophy, and law were not without their devotees; but no work of this class has reached us except the treatise on rhetoric known as .1d/ //crennium, which was long ascribed to
Cicero, hut is in reality the work of an otherwise unknown Cornificius.
Ill. THE CLASSICAL Old GOLDEN AGE. A. THE CICERONIA N (n.c. S7-43). The Golden Age marks the culmination of stylistic perfection in the literature of the Romans. Rome was no hmger struggling for a place among the nations, but for the dominant world-powen and her life was cosmopolitan. At the hands of her masters of prose, like Cicero and Caesar, Latin now had cast off the last remnants of archaism and pro vincialism. and the deep and passionate study of the Greek poets had infused into Latin verse a strong, and original beauty. In the earlier part of the Golden Age—the Cieeronian Period— the newly found national aspirations of the Ro mans expressed themselves mostly in prose, though great poets. such as Lucretius and Catul Ins, were not lacking: the later period. or Augmstan Age, was rendered glorious chiefly by a galaxy of poets, high at the head of which stand Vergil and llo•ace.
If the life of Rome was now become cosmo politan. so too the intellectual horizon was im nwasnrably extended. Every branch of human knowledge was studied with avidity. and though the scientific method was not yet developed. the scientific spirit was certainly not wanting. A thirst for knowledge was rife, especially along historical and the Romans began to study themselves, their glorious past. their religion. and their language. Among the many scholars of the day, one stands far alcove the rest, and in his eneyelopiedic knowledge and the broad range of his studies reminds us match of the great schol ars of the modern classical revival. M. Terentius Varro (n.c. I 16-c.27), a native of Reate. de voted a life of prodigious industry to the study of Roman antiquities and literature, When Julius Caesar planned a great library for Rome among, his public works, he selected Varro to be its first librarian. The scheme, however, like many others of the great Dictator, was never realized. owing to Ciesar's death. In n.c. 3S Asinins l'ollio established a public library, and adonied it with the busts of great literary men. Varro alone, of living authors, was accorded the honor of a place in this gallery. lie lived to be almost ninety years of age, and during his long life published between six and seven hundred volumes, on no fewer than seventy-four different topics, in both prose and NT1'..,42. The .Yatura: Menippew, in 1.50 books, of which fragments re main, were a miscellany in verse and prose, inod eled on the works of Menippus of Gadara. The Rennin Ilumunarnin et Dirinantni, in forty-one hooks, was :a repository of the reli gious and secular antiquities of the Romans, and long remained a standard work of information, being quoted frequently by the Christian Fathers down to Saint Augustine. It is unfortunately lost. A better fate awaited his De binynu Latina Libri XXV., of which hooks v. to x. are in large part extant, and furnish us invaluable informa tion regarding little-known points of Roman an tiquities. The etymologies are often ludicrous; but Roman scholarship was always faulty in this respect. His last work, the product of Varro's old age, De Re Rustien, which has come down to us entire, is an essay in the form of a dialogue on agriculture, cattle-raising, and laird and fish breeding in a pleasant and readable style.