This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete
To Which Are Added, His Lives Of The
Grammarians, Rhetoricians, And Poets
Author: C. Suetonius Tranquillus Release Date: November 10, 2004 [EBook #6400]
The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M.D.; Revised and corrected by T.Forester, Esq., A.M.
LIVES OF EMINENT RHETORICIANS.
(524)
I. Rhetoric, also, as well as Grammar, was not introduced amongst us
till a late period, and with still more difficulty, inasmuch as we find
that, at times, the practice of it was even prohibited. In order to
leave no doubt of this, I will subjoin an ancient decree of the senate,
as well as an edict of the censors:--"In the consulship of Caius Fannius
Strabo, and Marcus Palerius Messala [904]: the praetor Marcus Pomponius
moved the senate, that an act be passed respecting Philosophers and
Rhetoricians. In this matter, they have decreed as follows: 'It shall be
lawful for M. Pomponius, the praetor, to take such measures, and make
such provisions, as the good of the Republic, and the duty of his office,
require, that no Philosophers or Rhetoricians be suffered at Rome.'"
After some interval, the censor Cnaeus Domitius Aenobarbus and Lucius
Licinius Crassus issued the following edict upon the same subject: "It is
reported to us that certain persons have instituted a new kind of
discipline; that our youth resort to their schools; that they have
assumed the title of Latin Rhetoricians; and that young men waste their
time there for whole days together. Our ancestors have ordained what
instruction it is fitting their children should receive, and what schools
they should attend. These novelties, contrary to the customs and
instructions of our ancestors, we neither approve, nor do they appear to
us good. Wherefore it appears to be our duty that we should notify our
judgment both to those who keep such schools, and those who are in the
practice of frequenting them, that they meet our disapprobation."
However, by slow degrees, rhetoric manifested itself to be a (525) useful
and honourable study, and many persons devoted themselves to it, both as
a means of defence and of acquiring reputation. Cicero declaimed in
Greek until his praetorship, but afterwards, as he grew older, in Latin
also; and even in the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa [905], whom he
calls "his great and noble disciples." Some historians state that Cneius
Pompey resumed the practice of declaiming even during the civil war, in
order to be better prepared to argue against Caius Curio, a young man of
great talents, to whom the defence of Caesar was entrusted. They say,
likewise, that it was not forgotten by Mark Antony, nor by Augustus, even
during the war of Modena. Nero also declaimed [906] even after he became
emperor, in the first year of his reign, which he had done before in
public but twice. Many speeches of orators were also published. In
consequence, public favour was so much attracted to the study of
rhetoric, that a vast number of professors and learned men devoted
themselves to it; and it flourished to such a degree, that some of them
raised themselves by it to the rank of senators and the highest offices.
But the same mode of teaching was not adopted by all, nor, indeed, did
individuals always confine themselves to the same system, but each varied
his plan of teaching according to circumstances. For they were
accustomed, in stating their argument with the utmost clearness, to use
figures and apologies, to put cases, as circumstances required, and to
relate facts, sometimes briefly and succinctly, and, at other times, more
at large and with greater feeling. Nor did they omit, on occasion, to
resort to translations from the Greek, and to expatiate in the praise, or
to launch their censures on the faults, of illustrious men. They also
dealt with matters connected with every-day life, pointing out such as
are useful and necessary, and such as are hurtful and needless. They had
occasion often to support the authority of fabulous accounts, and to
detract from that of historical narratives, which sort the Greeks call
"Propositions," "Refutations" and "Corroboration," until by a gradual
process they have exhausted these topics, and arrive at the gist of the
argument.
Among the ancients, subjects of controversy were drawn either from
history, as indeed some are even now, or from (526) actual facts, of
recent occurrence. It was, therefore, the custom to state them
precisely, with details of the names of places. We certainly so find
them collected and published, and it may be well to give one or two of
them literally, by way of example:
"A company of young men from the city, having made an excursion to Ostia
in the summer season, and going down to the beach, fell in with some
fishermen who were casting their nets in the sea. Having bargained with
them for the haul, whatever it might turn out to be, for a certain sum,
they paid down the money. They waited a long time while the nets were
being drawn, and when at last they were dragged on shore, there was no
fish in them, but some gold sewn up in a basket. The buyers claim the
haul as theirs, the fishermen assert that it belongs to them."
Again: "Some dealers having to land from a ship at Brundusium a cargo of
slaves, among which there was a handsome boy of great value, they, in
order to deceive the collectors of the customs, smuggled him ashore in
the dress of a freeborn youth, with the bullum [907] hung about his neck.
The fraud easily escaped detection. They proceed to Rome; the affair
becomes the subject of judicial inquiry; it is alleged that the boy was
entitled to his freedom, because his master had voluntarily treated him
as free."
Formerly, they called these by a Greek term, syntaxeis, but of late
"controversies;" but they may be either fictitious cases, or those which
come under trial in the courts. Of the eminent professors of this
science, of whom any memorials are extant, it would not be easy to find
many others than those of whom I shall now proceed to give an account.
II. LUCIUS PLOTIUS GALLUS. Of him Marcus Tullius Cicero thus writes to
Marcus Titinnius [908]: "I remember well that when we were boys, one
Lucius Plotius first began to teach Latin; and as great numbers flocked
to his school, so that all who were most devoted to study were eager to
take lessons from him, it was a great trouble to me that I too was not
allowed to do so. I was prevented, however, by the decided opinion (527)
of men of the greatest learning, who considered that it was best to
cultivate the genius by the study of Greek." This same Gallus, for he
lived to a great age, was pointed at by M. Caelius, in a speech which he
was forced to make in his own cause, as having supplied his accuser,
Atracinus [909], with materials for his charge. Suppressing his name, he
says that such a rhetorician was like barley bread [910] compared to a
wheaten loaf,--windy, chaffy, and coarse.
III. LUCIUS OCTACILIUS PILITUS is said to have been a slave, and,
according to the old custom, chained to the door like a watch-dog [911];
until, having been presented with his freedom for his genius and devotion
to learning, he drew up for his patron the act of accusation in a cause
he was prosecuting. After that, becoming a professor of rhetoric, he
gave instructions to Cneius Pompey the Great, and composed an account of
his actions, as well as of those of his father, being the first freedman,
according to the opinion of Cornelius Nepos [912], who ventured to write
history, which before his time had not been done by any one who was not
of the highest ranks in society.
IV. About this time, EPIDIUS [913] having fallen into disgrace for
bringing a false accusation, opened a school of instruction, in which he
taught, among others, Mark Antony and Augustus. On one occasion Caius
Canutius jeered them for presuming to belong to the party of the consul
Isauricus [914] in his administration of the republic; upon which he
replied, that he would rather be the disciple of Isauricus, than of
Epidius, the false accuser. This Epidius claimed to be descended from
Epidius Nuncio, who, as (528) ancient traditions assert, fell into the
fountain of the river Sarnus [915] when the streams were overflown, and
not being afterwards found, was reckoned among the number of the gods.
V. SEXTUS CLODIUS, a native of Sicily, a professor both of Greek and
Latin eloquence, had bad eyes and a facetious tongue. It was a saying of
his, that he lost a pair of eyes from his intimacy with Mark Antony, the
triumvir [916]. Of his wife, Fulvia, when there was a swelling in one of
her cheeks, he said that "she tempted the point of his style;" [917] nor
did Antony think any the worse of him for the joke, but quite enjoyed it;
and soon afterwards, when Antony was consul [918], he even made him a
large grant of land, which Cicero charges him with in his Philippics
[919]. "You patronize," he said, "a master of the schools for the sake
of his buffoonery, and make a rhetorician one of your pot-companions;
allowing him to cut his jokes on any one he pleased; a witty man, no
doubt, but it was an easy matter to say smart things of such as you and
your companions. But listen, Conscript Fathers, while I tell you what
reward was given to this rhetorician, and let the wounds of the republic
be laid bare to view. You assigned two thousand acres of the Leontine
territory [920] to Sextus Clodius, the rhetorician, and not content with
that, exonerated the estate from all taxes. Hear this, and learn from
the extravagance of the grant, how little wisdom is displayed in your
acts."
VI. CAIUS ALBUTIUS SILUS, of Novara [921], while, in the execution (529)
of the office of edile in his native place, he was sitting for the
administration of justice, was dragged by the feet from the tribunal by
some persons against whom he was pronouncing a decree. In great
indignation at this usage, he made straight for the gate of the town, and
proceeded to Rome. There he was admitted to fellowship, and lodged, with
Plancus the orator [922], whose practice it was, before he made a speech
in public, to set up some one to take the contrary side in the argument.
The office was undertaken by Albutius with such success, that he silenced
Plancus, who did not venture to put himself in competition with him.
This bringing him into notice, he collected an audience of his own, and
it was his custom to open the question proposed for debate, sitting; but
as he warmed with the subject, he stood up, and made his peroration in
that posture. His declamations were of different kinds; sometimes
brilliant and polished, at others, that they might not be thought to
savour too much of the schools, he curtailed them of all ornament, and
used only familiar phrases. He also pleaded causes, but rarely, being
employed in such as were of the highest importance, and in every case
undertaking the peroration only.
In the end, he gave up practising in the forum, partly from shame, partly
from fear. For, in a certain trial before the court of the One Hundred
[923], having lashed the defendant as a man void of natural affection for
his parents, he called upon him by a bold figure of speech, "to swear by
the ashes of his father and mother which lay unburied;" his adversary
taking him up for the suggestion, and the judges frowning upon it, he
lost his cause, and was much blamed. At another time, on a trial for
murder at Milan, before Lucius Piso, the proconsul, having to defend the
culprit, he worked himself up to such a pitch of vehemence, that in a
crowded court, who loudly applauded him, notwithstanding all the efforts
of the lictor to maintain order, he broke out into a lamentation on the
miserable state of Italy [924], then in danger of being again reduced, he
said, into (530) the form of a province, and turning to the statue of
Marcus Brutus, which stood in the Forum, he invoked him as "the founder
and vindicator of the liberties of the people." For this he narrowly
escaped a prosecution. Suffering, at an advanced period of life, from an
ulcerated tumour, he returned to Novara, and calling the people together
in a public assembly, addressed them in a set speech, of considerable
length, explaining the reasons which induced him to put an end to
existence: and this he did by abstaining from food.
END OF THE LIVES OF GRAMMARIANS AND RHETORICIANS.
ENDNOTES
[Footnote 904: This senatus consultum was made A.U.C. 592.]
[Footnote 905: Hirtius and Pansa were consuls A.U.C. 710.]
[Footnote 906: See NERO, c. x.]
[Footnote 907: As to the Bullum, see before, JULIUS, c. lxxxiv.]
[Footnote 908: This extract given by Suetonius is all we know of any
epistle addressed by Cicero to Marcus Titinnius.]
[Footnote 909: See Cicero's Oration, pro Caelio, where Atracinus is
frequently mentioned, especially cc. i. and iii.]
[Footnote 910: "Hordearium rhetorem."]
[Footnote 911: From the manner in which Suetonius speaks of the old
custom of chaining one of the lowest slaves to the outer gate, to supply
the place of a watch-dog, it would appear to have been disused in his
time.]
[Footnote 912: The work in which Cornelius Nepos made this statement is
lost.]
[Footnote 913: Pliny mentions with approbation C. Epidius, who wrote some
treatises in which trees are represented as speaking; and the period in
which he flourished, agrees with that assigned to the rhetorician here
named by Suetonius. Plin. xvii. 25.]
[Footnote 914: Isauricus was consul with Julius Caesar II., A.U.C. 705,
and again with L. Antony, A.U.C. 712.]
[Footnote 915: A river in the ancient Campania, now called the Sarno,
which discharges itself into the bay of Naples.]
[Footnote 916: Epidius attributes the injury received by his eyes to the
corrupt habits he contracted in the society of M. Antony.]
[Footnote 917: The direct allusion is to the "style" or probe used by
surgeons in opening tumours.]
[Footnote 918: Mark Antony was consul with Julius Caesar, A.U.C. 709.
See before, JULIUS, c. lxxix.]
[Footnote 919: Philipp. xi. 17.]
[Footnote 920: Leontium, now called Lentini, was a town in Sicily, the
foundation of which is related by Thucydides, vi. p. 412. Polybius
describes the Leontine fields as the most fertile part of Sicily. Polyb.
vii. 1. And see Cicero, contra Verrem, iii. 46, 47.]
[Footnote 921: Novara, a town of the Milanese.]
[Footnote 922: St. Jerom in Chron. Euseb. describes Lucius Munatius
Plancus as the disciple of Cicero, and a celebrated orator. He founded
Lyons during the time he governed that part of the Roman provinces in
Gaul.]
[Footnote 923: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxvi.]
[Footnote 924: He meant to speak of Cisalpine Gaul, which, though
geographically a part of Italy, did not till a late period enjoy the
privileges of the other territories united to Rome, and was administered
by a praetor under the forms of a dependent province. It was admitted to
equal rights by the triumvirs, after the death of Julius Caesar. Albutius
intimated that those rights were now in danger.]
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
The Lives Of The Twelve Caesars, Complete
To Which Are Added, His Lives Of The
Grammarians, Rhetoricians, And Poets
Author: C. Suetonius Tranquillus Release Date: November 10, 2004 [EBook #6400]
The Translation of Alexander Thomson, M.D.; Revised and corrected by T.Forester, Esq., A.M.
LIVES OF THE POETS.
(531)
THE LIFE OF TERENCE.
Publius Terentius Afer, a native of Carthage, was a slave, at Rome, of
the senator Terentius Lucanus, who, struck by his abilities and handsome
person, gave him not only a liberal education in his youth, but his
freedom when he arrived at years of maturity. Some say that he was a
captive taken in war, but this, as Fenestella [925] informs us, could by
no means have been the case, since both his birth and death took place in
the interval between the termination of the second Punic war and the
commencement of the third [926]; nor, even supposing that he had been
taken prisoner by the Numidian or Getulian tribes, could he have fallen
into the hands of a Roman general, as there was no commercial intercourse
between the Italians and Africans until after the fall of Carthage [927].
Terence lived in great familiarity with many persons of high station, and
especially with Scipio Africanus, and Caius Delius, whose favour he is
even supposed to have purchased by the foulest means. But Fenestella
reverses the charge, contending that Terence was older than either of
them. Cornelius Nepos, however, (532) informs us that they were all of
nearly equal age; and Porcias intimates a suspicion of this criminal
commerce in the following passage:--
"While Terence plays the wanton with the great, and recommends himself to
them by the meretricious ornaments of his person; while, with greedy
ears, he drinks in the divine melody of Africanus's voice; while he
thinks of being a constant guest at the table of Furius, and the handsome
Laelius; while he thinks that he is fondly loved by them, and often
invited to Albanum for his youthful beauty, he finds himself stripped of
his property, and reduced to the lowest state of indigence. Then,
withdrawing from the world, he betook himself to Greece, where he met his
end, dying at Strymphalos, a town in Arcadia. What availed him the
friendship of Scipio, of Laelius, or of Furius, three of the most
affluent nobles of that age? They did not even minister to his
necessities so much as to provide him a hired house, to which his slave
might return with the intelligence of his master's death."
He wrote comedies, the earliest of which, The Andria, having to be
performed at the public spectacles given by the aediles [928], he was
commanded to read it first before Caecilius [929]. Having been
introduced while Caecilius was at supper, and being meanly dressed, he is
reported to have read the beginning of the play seated on a low stool
near the great man's couch. But after reciting a few verses, he was
invited to take his place at table, and, having supped with his host,
went through the rest to his great delight. This play and five others
were received by the public with similar applause, although Volcatius, in
his enumeration of them, says that "The Hecyra [930] must not be reckoned
among these."
The Eunuch was even acted twice the same day [931], and earned more money
than any comedy, whoever was the writer, had (533) ever done before,
namely, eight thousand sesterces [932]; besides which, a certain sum
accrued to the author for the title. But Varro prefers the opening of
The Adelphi [933] to that of Menander. It is very commonly reported that
Terence was assisted in his works by Laelius and Scipio [934], with whom
he lived in such great intimacy. He gave some currency to this report
himself, nor did he ever attempt to defend himself against it, except in
a light way; as in the prologue to The Adelphi:
Nam quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nohiles
Hunc adjutare, assidueque una scribere;
Quod illi maledictun vehemens existimant,
Eam laudem hic ducit maximam: cum illis placet,
Qui vobis universis et populo placent;
Quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio,
Suo quisque tempore usus est sine superbia.
--------For this,
Which malice tells that certain noble persons
Assist the bard, and write in concert with him,
That which they deem a heavy slander, he
Esteems his greatest praise: that he can please
Those who in war, in peace, as counsellors,
Have rendered you the dearest services,
And ever borne their faculties so meekly.
Colman.
He appears to have protested against this imputation with less
earnestness, because the notion was far from being disagreeable to
Laelius and Scipio. It therefore gained ground, and prevailed in
after-times.
Quintus Memmius, in his speech in his own defence, says "Publius
Africanus, who borrowed from Terence a character which he had acted in
private, brought it on the stage in his name." Nepos tells us he found
in some book that C. Laelius, when he was on some occasion at Puteoli, on
the calends [the first] of March, [935] being requested by his wife to
rise early, (534) begged her not to suffer him to be disturbed, as he had
gone to bed late, having been engaged in writing with more than usual
success. On her asking him to tell her what he had been writing, he
repeated the verses which are found in the Heautontimoroumenos:
Satis pol proterve me Syri promessa--Heauton. IV. iv. 1.
I'faith! the rogue Syrus's impudent pretences--
Santra [936] is of opinion that if Terence required any assistance in his
compositions [937], he would not have had recourse to Scipio and Laelius,
who were then very young men, but rather to Sulpicius Gallus [938], an
accomplished scholar, who had been the first to introduce his plays at
the games given by the consuls; or to Q. Fabius Labeo, or Marcus Popilius
[939], both men of consular rank, as well as poets. It was for this
reason that, in alluding to the assistance he had received, he did not
speak of his coadjutors as very young men, but as persons of whose
services the people had full experience in peace, in war, and in the
administration of affairs.
After he had given his comedies to the world, at a time when he had not
passed his thirty-fifth year, in order to avoid suspicion, as he found
others publishing their works under his name, or else to make himself
acquainted with the modes of life and habits of the Greeks, for the
purpose of exhibiting them in his plays, he withdrew from home, to which
he never returned. Volcatius gives this account of his death:
Sed ut Afer sei populo dedit comoedias,
Iter hic in Asiam fecit. Navem cum semel
Conscendit, visus nunquam est. Sic vita vacat.
(535) When Afer had produced six plays for the entertainment of the
people,
He embarked for Asia; but from the time he went on board ship
He was never seen again. Thus he ended his life.
Q. Consentius reports that he perished at sea on his voyage back from
Greece, and that one hundred and eight plays, of which he had made a
version from Menander [940], were lost with him. Others say that he died
at Stymphalos, in Arcadia, or in Leucadia, during the consulship of Cn.
Cornelius Dolabella and Marcus Fulvius Nobilior [941], worn out with a
severe illness, and with grief and regret for the loss of his baggage,
which he had sent forward in a ship that was wrecked, and contained the
last new plays he had written.
In person, Terence is reported to have been rather short and slender,
with a dark complexion. He had an only daughter, who was afterwards
married to a Roman knight; and he left also twenty acres of garden ground
[942], on the Appian Way, at the Villa of Mars. I, therefore, wonder the
more how Porcius could have written the verses,
--------nihil Publius
Scipio profuit, nihil et Laelius, nihil Furius,
Tres per idem tempus qui agitabant nobiles facillime.
Eorum ille opera ne domum quidem habuit conductitiam
Saltem ut esset, quo referret obitum domini servulus. [943]
Afranius places him at the head of all the comic writers, declaring, in
his Compitalia,
Terentio non similem dices quempiam.
Terence's equal cannot soon be found.
On the other hand, Volcatius reckons him inferior not only (536) to
Naevius, Plautus, and Caecilius, but also to Licinius. Cicero pays him
this high compliment, in his Limo--
Tu quoque, qui solus lecto sermone, Terenti,
Conversum expressumque Latina voce Menandrum
In medio populi sedatis vocibus offers,
Quidquid come loquens, ac omnia dulcia dicens.
"You, only, Terence, translated into Latin, and clothed in choice
language the plays of Menander, and brought them before the public, who,
in crowded audiences, hung upon hushed applause--
Grace marked each line, and every period charmed."
So also Caius Caesar:
Tu quoque tu in summis, O dimidiate Menander,
Poneris, et merito, puri sermonis amator,
Lenibus atque utinam scriptis adjuncta foret vis
Comica, ut aequato virtus polleret honore
Cum Graecis, neque in hoc despectus parte jaceres!
Unum hoc maceror, et doleo tibi deesse, Terenti.
"You, too, who divide your honours with Menander, will take your place
among poets of the highest order, and justly too, such is the purity of
your style. Would only that to your graceful diction was added more
comic force, that your works might equal in merit the Greek masterpieces,
and your inferiority in this particular should not expose you to censure.
This is my only regret; in this, Terence, I grieve to say you are
wanting."
ENDNOTES
[Footnote 925: Lucius Fenestella, an historical writer, is mentioned by
Lactantius, Seneca, and Pliny, who says, that he died towards the close of
the reign of Tiberius.]
[Footnote 926: The second Punic war ended A.U.C. 552, and the third began
A.U.C. 605. Terence was probably born about 560.]
[Footnote 927: Carthage was laid in ruins A.U.C. 606 or 607, six hundred
and sixty seven years after its foundation.]
[Footnote 928: These entertainments were given by the aediles M. Fulvius
Nobilior and M. Acilius Glabrio, A.U.C. 587.]
[Footnote 929: St. Jerom also states that Terence read the "Andria" to
Caecilius who was a comic poet at Rome; but it is clearly an anachronism,
as he died two years before this period. It is proposed, therefore, to
amend the text by substituting Acilius, the aedile; a correction
recommended by all the circumstances, and approved by Pitiscus and
Ernesti.]
[Footnote 930: The "Hecyra," The Mother-in-law, is one of Terence's
plays.]
[Footnote 931: The "Eunuch" was not brought out till five years after the
Andria, A.U.C. 592.]
[Footnote 932: About 80 pounds sterling; the price paid for the two
performances. What further right of authorship is meant by the words
following, is not very clear.]
[Footnote 933: The "Adelphi" was first acted A.U.C. 593.]
[Footnote 934: This report is mentioned by Cicero (Ad Attic, vii. 3), who
applies it to the younger Laelius. The Scipio here mentioned is Scipio
Africanus, who was at this time about twenty-one years of age.]
[Footnote 935: The calends of March was the festival of married women.
See before, VESPASIAN, c. xix.]
[Footnote 936: Santra, who wrote biographies of celebrated characters, is
mentioned as "a man of learning," by St. Jerom, in his preface to the book
on the Ecclesiastical Writers.]
[Footnote 937: The idea seems to have prevailed that Terence, originally
an African slave, could not have attained that purity of style in Latin
composition which is found in his plays, without some assistance. The
style of Phaedrus, however; who was a slave from Thrace, and lived in the
reign of Tiberius, is equally pure, although no such suspicion attaches to
his work.]
[Footnote 938: Cicero (de Clar. Orat. c. 207) gives Sulpicius Gallus a
high character as a finished orator and elegant scholar. He was consul
when the Andria was first produced.]
[Footnote 939: Labeo and Popilius are also spoken of by Cicero in high
terms, Ib. cc. 21 and 24. Q. Fabius Labeo was consul with M. Claudius
Marcellus, A.U.C. 570 and Popilius with L. Postumius Albinus, A.U.C. 580.]
[Footnote 940: The story of Terence's having converted into Latin plays
this large number of Menander's Greek comedies, is beyond all probability,
considering the age at which he died, and other circumstances. Indeed,
Menander never wrote so many as are here stated.]
[Footnote 941: They were consuls A.U.C. 594. Terence was, therefore,
thirty-four years old at the time of his death.]
[Footnote 942: Hortulorum, in the plural number. This term, often found
in Roman authors, not inaptly describes the vast number of little
inclosures, consisting of vineyards, orchards of fig-trees, peaches, etc.,
with patches of tillage, in which maize, legumes, melons, pumpkins, and
other vegetables are cultivated for sale, still found on small properties,
in the south of Europe, particularly in the neighbourhood of towns.]
[Footnote 943: Suetonius has quoted these lines in the earlier part of
his Life of Terence. See before p. 532, where they are translated.]
THE LIFE OF JUVENAL.
D. JUNIUS JUVENALIS, who was either the son [944] of a wealthy freedman,
or brought up by him, it is not known which, declaimed till the middle of
life [945], more from the bent of his inclination, than from any desire
to prepare himself either for the schools or the forum. But having
composed a short satire [946], which was clever enough, on Paris [947],
the actor of pantomimes, (537) and also on the poet of Claudius Nero, who
was puffed up by having held some inferior military rank for six months
only; he afterwards devoted himself with much zeal to that style of
writing. For a while indeed, he had not the courage to read them even to
a small circle of auditors, but it was not long before he recited his
satires to crowded audiences, and with entire success; and this he did
twice or thrice, inserting new lines among those which he had originally
composed.
Quod non dant proceres, dabit histrio, tu Camerinos,
Et Bareas, tu nobilium magna atria curas.
Praefectos Pelopea facit, Philomela tribunos.
Behold an actor's patronage affords
A surer means of rising than a lord's!
And wilt thou still the Camerino's [948] court,
Or to the halls of Bareas resort,
When tribunes Pelopea can create
And Philomela praefects, who shall rule the state? [949]
At that time the player was in high favour at court, and many of those
who fawned upon him were daily raised to posts of honour. Juvenal
therefore incurred the suspicion of having covertly satirized occurrences
which were then passing, and, although eighty years old at that time
[950], he was immediately removed from the city, being sent into
honourable banishment as praefect of a cohort, which was under orders to
proceed to a station at the extreme frontier of Egypt [951]. That (538)
sort of punishment was selected, as it appeared severe enough for an
offence which was venial, and a mere piece of drollery. However, he died
very soon afterwards, worn down by grief, and weary of his life.
ENDNOTES
[Footnote 944: Juvenal was born at Aquinum, a town of the Volscians, as
appears by an ancient MS., and is intimated by himself. Sat. iii. 319.]
[Footnote 945: He must have been therefore nearly forty years old at this
time, as he lived to be eighty.]
[Footnote 946: The seventh of Juvenal's Satires.]
[Footnote 947: This Paris does not appear to have been the favourite of
Nero, who was put to death by that prince (see NERO, c. liv.)
but another person of the same name, who was patronised by the emperor
Domitian. The name of the poet joined with him is not known. Salmatius
thinks it was Statius Pompilius, who sold to Paris, the actor, the play of
Agave;
Esurit, intactam
Paridi nisi vendat Agaven.
--Juv. Sat. vii. 87.]
[Footnote 948: Sulpicius Camerinus had been proconsul in Africa; Bareas
Soranus in Asia. Tacit. Annal. xiii. 52; xvi. 23. Both of them are said
to have been corrupt in their administration; and the satirist introduces
their names as examples of the rich and noble, whose influence was less
than that of favourite actors, or whose avarice prevented them from
becoming the patrons of poets.]
[Footnote 949: The "Pelopea," was a tragedy founded on the story of the
daughter of Thyestes; the "Philomela," a tragedy on the fate of Itys,
whose remains were served to his father at a banquet by Philomela and her
sister Progne.]
[Footnote 950: This was in the time of Adrian. Juvenal, who wrote first
in the reigns of Domitian and Trajan, composed his last Satire but one in
the third year of Adrian, A.U.C. 872.]
[Footnote 951: Syene is meant, the frontier station of the imperial
troops in that quarter of the world.]
THE LIFE OF PERSIUS.
AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS was born the day before the Nones of December [4th
Dec.] [952], in the consulship of Fabius Persicus and L. Vitellius. He
died on the eighth of the calends of December [24th Nov.] [953] in the
consulship of Rubrius Marius and Asinius Gallus. Though born at
Volterra, in Etruria, he was a Roman knight, allied both by blood and
marriage to persons of the highest rank [954]. He ended his days at an
estate he had at the eighth milestone on the Appian Way. His father,
Flaccus, who died when he was barely six years old, left him under the
care of guardians, and his mother, Fulvia Silenna, who afterwards married
Fusius, a Roman knight, buried him also in a very few years. Persius
Flaccus pursued his studies at Volterra till he was twelve years old, and
then continued them at Rome, under Remmius Palaemon, the grammarian, and
Verginius Flaccus, the rhetorician. Arriving at the age of twenty-one,
he formed a friendship with Annaeus Cornutus [955], which lasted through
life; and from him he learned the rudiments of philosophy. Among his
earliest friends were Caesius Bassus [956], and Calpurnius Statura; the
latter of whom died while Persius himself was yet in his youth.
Servilius (539) Numanus [957], he reverenced as a father. Through
Cornutus he was introduced to Annaeus, as well as to Lucan, who was of
his own age, and also a disciple of Cornutus. At that time Cornutus was
a tragic writer; he belonged to the sect of the Stoics, and left behind
him some philosophical works. Lucan was so delighted with the writings
of Persius Flaccus, that he could scarcely refrain from giving loud
tokens of applause while the author was reciting them, and declared that
they had the true spirit of poetry. It was late before Persius made the
acquaintance of Seneca, and then he was not much struck with his natural
endowments. At the house of Cornutus he enjoyed the society of two very
learned and excellent men, who were then zealously devoting themselves to
philosophical enquiries, namely, Claudius Agaternus, a physician from
Lacedaemon, and Petronius Aristocrates, of Magnesia, men whom he held in
the highest esteem, and with whom he vied in their studies, as they were
of his own age, being younger than Cornutus. During nearly the last ten
years of his life he was much beloved by Thraseas, so that he sometimes
travelled abroad in his company; and his cousin Arria was married to him.
Persius was remarkable for gentle manners, for a modesty amounting to
bashfulness, a handsome form, and an attachment to his mother, sister,
and aunt, which was most exemplary. He was frugal and chaste. He left
his mother and sister twenty thousand sesterces, requesting his mother,
in a written codicil, to present to Cornutus, as some say, one hundred
sesterces, or as others, twenty pounds of wrought silver [958], besides
about seven hundred books, which, indeed, included his whole library.
Cornutus, however, would only take the books, and gave up the legacy to
the sisters, whom his brother had constituted his heirs.
He wrote [959] seldom, and not very fast; even the work we possess he
left incomplete. Some verses are wanting at the end of the book [960],
but Cornutus thoughtlessly recited it, as if (540) it was finished; and
on Caesius Bassus requesting to be allowed to publish it, he delivered it
to him for that purpose., In his younger days, Persius had written a
play, as well as an Itinerary, with several copies of verses on Thraseas'
father-in-law, and Arria's [961] mother, who had made away with herself
before her husband. But Cornutus used his whole influence with the
mother of Persius to prevail upon her to destroy these compositions. As
soon as his book of Satires was published, all the world began to admire
it, and were eager to buy it up. He died of a disease in the stomach, in
the thirtieth year of his age [962]. But no sooner had he left school
and his masters, than he set to work with great vehemence to compose
satires, from having read the tenth book of Lucilius; and made the
beginning of that book his model; presently launching his invectives all
around with so little scruple, that he did not spare cotemporary poets
and orators, and even lashed Nero himself, who was then the reigning
prince. The verse ran as follows:
Auriculas asini Mida rex habet;
King Midas has an ass's ears;
but Cornutus altered it thus;
Auriculas asini quis non hahet?
Who has not an ass's ears?
in order that it might not be supposed that it was meant to apply to
Nero.
ENDNOTES
[Footnote 952: A.U.C. 786, A.D. 34.]
[Footnote 953: A.U.C. 814, A.D. 62.]
[Footnote 954: Persius was one of the few men of rank and affluence among
the Romans, who acquired distinction as writers; the greater part of them
having been freedmen, as appears not only from these lives of the poets,
but from our author's notices of the grammarians and rhetoricians. A
Caius Persius is mentioned with distinction by Livy in the second Punic
war, Hist. xxvi. 39; and another of the same name by Cicero, de Orat. ii.
6, and by Pliny; but whether the poet was descended from either of them,
we have no means of ascertaining.]
[Footnote 955: Persius addressed his fifth satire to Annaeus Cornutus.
He was a native of Leptis, in Africa, and lived at Rome in the time of
Nero, by whom he was banished.]
[Footnote 956: Caesius Bassus, a lyric poet, flourished during the reigns
of Nero and Galba. Persius dedicated his sixth Satire to him.]
[Footnote 957: "Numanus." It should be Servilius Nonianus, who is
mentioned by Pliny, xxviii. 2, and xxxvii. 6.]
[Footnote 958: Commentators are not agreed about these sums, the text
varying both in the manuscripts and editions.]
[Footnote 959: See Dr. Thomson's remarks on Persius, before, p. 398.]
[Footnote 960: There is no appearance of any want of finish in the sixth
Satire of Persius, as it has come down to us; but it has been conjectured
that it was followed by another, which was left imperfect.]
[Footnote 961: There were two Arrias, mother and daughter, Tacit. Annal.
xvi. 34. 3.]
[Footnote 962: Persius died about nine days before he completed his
twenty-ninth year.]
THE LIFE OF HORACE.
HORATIUS FLACCUS was a native of Venusium [963], his father having been,
by his own account [964], a freedman and collector of taxes, but, as it
is generally believed, a dealer in salted (541) provisions; for some one
with whom Horace had a quarrel, jeered him, by saying; "How often have I
seen your father wiping his nose with his fist?" In the battle of
Philippi, he served as a military tribune [965], which post he filled at
the instance of Marcus Brutus [966], the general; and having obtained a
pardon, on the overthrow of his party, he purchased the office of scribe
to a quaestor. Afterwards insinuating himself first, into the good
graces of Mecaenas, and then of Augustus, he secured no small share in
the regard of both. And first, how much Mecaenas loved him may be seen
by the epigram in which he says:
Ni te visceribus meis, Horati,
Plus jam diligo, Titium sodalem,
Ginno tu videas strigosiorem. [967]
But it was more strongly exhibited by Augustus, in a short sentence
uttered in his last moments: "Be as mindful of Horatius Flaccus as you
are of me!" Augustus offered to appoint him his secretary, signifying
his wishes to Mecaenas in a letter to the following effect: "Hitherto I
have been able to write my own epistles to friends; but now I am too much
occupied, and in an infirm state of health. I wish, therefore, to
deprive you of our Horace: let him leave, therefore, your luxurious table
and come to the palace, and he shall assist me in writing my letters."
And upon his refusing to accept the office, he neither exhibited the
smallest displeasure, nor ceased to heap upon him tokens of his regard.
Letters of his are extant, from which I will make some short extracts to
establish this: "Use your influence over me with the same freedom as you
would do if we were living together as friends. In so doing you will be
perfectly right, and guilty of no impropriety; for I could wish that our
intercourse should be on that footing, if your health admitted of it."
And again: "How I hold you in memory you may learn (542) from our friend
Septimius [968], for I happened to mention you when he was present. And
if you are so proud as to scorn my friendship, that is no reason why I
should lightly esteem yours, in return." Besides this, among other
drolleries, he often called him, "his most immaculate penis," and "his
charming little man," and loaded him from time to time with proofs of his
munificence. He admired his works so much, and was so convinced of their
enduring fame, that he directed him to compose the Secular Poem, as well
as that on the victory of his stepsons Tiberius and Drusus over the
Vindelici [969]; and for this purpose urged him to add, after a long
interval, a fourth book of Odes to the former three. After reading his
"Sermones," in which he found no mention of himself, he complained in
these terms: "You must know that I am very angry with you, because in
most of your works of this description you do not choose to address
yourself to me. Are you afraid that, in times to come, your reputation
will suffer; in case it should appear that you lived on terms of intimate
friendship with me?" And he wrung from him the eulogy which begins with,
Cum tot sustineas, et tanta negotia solus:
Res Italas armis tuteris, moribus ornes,
Legibus emendes: in publica commoda peccem,
Si longo sermone morer tua tempora, Caesar.--Epist. ii. i.
While you alone sustain the important weight
Of Rome's affairs, so various and so great;
While you the public weal with arms defend,
Adorn with morals, and with laws amend;
Shall not the tedious letter prove a crime,
That steals one moment of our Caesar's time.--Francis.
In person, Horace was short and fat, as he is described by himself in his
Satires [970], and by Augustus in the following letter: "Dionysius has
brought me your small volume, which, little as it is, not to blame you
for that, I shall judge favourably. You seem to me, however, to be
afraid lest your volumes should be bigger than yourself. But if you are
short in stature, you are corpulent enough. You may, therefore, (543) if
you will, write in a quart, when the size of your volume is as large
round as your paunch."
It is reported that he was immoderately addicted to venery. [For he is
said to have had obscene pictures so disposed in a bedchamber lined with
mirrors, that, whichever way he looked, lascivious images might present
themselves to his view.] [971] He lived for the most part in the
retirement of his farm [972], on the confines of the Sabine and Tiburtine
territories, and his house is shewn in the neighbourhood of a little wood
not far from Tibur. Some Elegies ascribed to him, and a prose Epistle
apparently written to commend himself to Mecaenas, have been handed down
to us; but I believe that neither of them are genuine works of his; for
the Elegies are commonplace, and the Epistle is wanting in perspicuity, a
fault which cannot be imputed to his style. He was born on the sixth of
the ides of December [27th December], in the consulship of Lucius Cotta
[973] and Lucius Torquatus; and died on the fifth of the calends of
December [27th November], in the consulship of Caius Marcius Censorinus
and Caius Asinius Gallus [974]; having completed his fifty-ninth year.
He made a nuncupatory will, declaring Augustus his heir, not being able,
from the violence of his disorder, to sign one in due form. He was
interred and lies buried on the skirts of the Esquiline Hill, near the
tomb of Mecaenas. [975]
ENDNOTES
[Footnote 963: Venusium stood on the confines of the Apulian, Lucanian,
and Samnite territories.
Sequor hunc, Lucanus an Appulus anceps;
Nam Venusinus arat finem sub utrumque colonus.
Hor Sat. xi. 1. 34.] [Footnote 964: Sat. i. 6. 45.]
[Footnote 965: Horace mentions his being in this battle, and does not
scruple to admit that he made rather a precipitate retreat, "relicta non
bene parmula."--Ode xi. 7-9.]
[Footnote 966: See Ode xi. 7. 1.]
[Footnote 967: The editors of Suetonius give different versions of this
epigram. It seems to allude to some passing occurrence, and in its present
form the sense is to this effect: "If I love you not, Horace, to my very
heart's core, may you see the priest of the college of Titus leaner than
his mule."]
[Footnote 968: Probably the Septimius to whom Horace addressed the ode
beginning
Septimi, Gades aditure mecum.--Ode xl. b. i.]
[Footnote 969: See AUGUSTUS, c. xxi.; and Horace, Ode iv, 4.]
[Footnote 970: See Epist. i. iv. xv.
Me pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises.]
[Footnote 971: It is satisfactory to find that the best commentators
consider the words between brackets as an interpolation in the work of
Suetonius. Some, including Bentley, reject the preceding sentence also.]
[Footnote 972: The works of Horace abound with references to his Sabine
farm which must be familiar to many readers. Some remains are still
shewn, consisting of a ruined wall and a tesselated pavement in a
vineyard, about eight miles from Tivoli, which are supposed, with reason,
to mark its site. At least, the features of the neighbouring country, as
often sketched by the poet--and they are very beautiful--cannot be
mistaken.]
[Footnote 973: Aurelius Cotta and L. Manlius Torquatus were consuls
A.U.C. 688. The genial Horace, in speaking of his old wine, agrees with
Suetonius in fixing the date of his own birth:
O nata mecum consule Manlio Testa.--Ode iii. 21.
And again,
Tu vina, Torquato, move Consule pressa meo.--Epod. xiii. 8.]
[Footnote 974: A.U.C. 745. So that Horace was in his fifty-seventh, not
his fifty-ninth year, at the time of his death.]
(544) M. ANNAEUS LUCANUS, a native of Corduba [976], first tried the
powers of his genius in an encomium on Nero, at the Quinquennial games.
He afterwards recited his poem on the Civil War carried on between Pompey
and Caesar. His vanity was so immense, and he gave such liberty to his
tongue, that in some preface, comparing his age and his first efforts
with those of Virgil, he had the assurance to say: "And what now remains
for me is to deal with a gnat." In his early youth, after being long
informed of the sort of life his father led in the country, in
consequence of an unhappy marriage [977], he was recalled from Athens by
Nero, who admitted him into the circle of his friends, and even gave him
the honour of the quaestorship; but he did not long remain in favour.
Smarting at this, and having publicly stated that Nero had withdrawn, all
of a sudden, without communicating with the senate, and without any other
motive than his own recreation, after this he did not cease to assail the
emperor both with foul words and with acts which are still notorious. So
that on one occasion, when easing his bowels in the common privy, there
being a louder explosion than usual, he gave vent to the nemistych of
Nero: "One would suppose it was thundering under ground," in the hearing
of those who were sitting there for the same purpose, and who took to
their heels in much consternation [978]. In a poem also, which was in
every one's hands, he severely lashed both the emperor and his most
powerful adherents.
At length, he became nearly the most active leader in Piso's conspiracy
[979]; and while he dwelt without reserve in many quarters on the glory
of those who dipped their hands in the (545) blood of tyrants, he
launched out into open threats of violence, and carried them so far as to
boast that he would cast the emperor's head at the feet of his
neighbours. When, however, the plot was discovered, he did not exhibit
any firmness of mind. A confession was wrung from him without much
difficulty; and, humbling himself to the most abject entreaties, he even
named his innocent mother as one of the conspirators [980]; hoping that
his want of natural affection would give him favour in the eyes of a
parricidal prince. Having obtained permission to choose his mode of
death [981], he wrote notes to his father, containing corrections of some
of his verses, and, having made a full meal, allowed a physician to open
the veins in his arm [982]. I have also heard it said that his poems
were offered for sale, and commented upon, not only with care and
diligence, but also in a trifling way. [983]
ENDNOTES
[Footnote 975: It may be concluded that Horace died at Rome, under the
hospitable roof of his patron Mecaenas, whose villa and gardens stood on
the Esquiline hill; which had formerly been the burial ground of the lower
classes; but, as he tells us,
Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus, atque Aggere in aprico
spatiare.--Sat. i. 8.]
[Footnote 976: Cordova. Lucan was the son of Annaeus Mella, Seneca's
brother.]
[Footnote 977: This sentence is very obscure, and Ernesti considers the
text to be imperfect.]
[Footnote 978: They had good reason to know that, ridiculous as the
tyrant made himself, it was not safe to incur even the suspicion of being
parties to a jest upon him.]
[Footnote 979: See NERO, c. xxxvi.]
[Footnote 980: St. Jerom (Chron. Euseb.) places Lucan's death in the
tenth year of Nero's reign, corresponding with A.U.C. 817. This
opportunity is taken of correcting an error in the press, p. 342,
respecting the date of Nero's accession. It should be A.U.C. 807, A.D.
55.]
[Footnote 981: These circumstances are not mentioned by some other
writers. See Dr. Thomson's account of Lucan, before, p. 347, where it is
said that he died with philosophical firmness.]
[Footnote 982: We find it stated ib. p. 396, that Lucan expired while
pronouncing some verses from his own Pharsalia: for which we have the
authority of Tacitus, Annal. xv. 20. 1. Lucan, it appears, employed his
last hours in revising his poems; on the contrary, Virgil, we are told,
when his death was imminent, renewed his directions that the Aeneid should
be committed to the flames.]
[Footnote 983: The text of the concluding sentence of Lucan's life is
corrupt, and neither of the modes proposed for correcting it make the
sense intended very clear.]
THE LIFE OF PLINY.[984]
PLINIUS SECUNDUS, a native of New Como [985], having served in (546)
the wars with strict attention to his duties, in the rank of a knight,
distinguished himself, also, by the great integrity with which he
administered the high functions of procurator for a long period in the
several provinces intrusted to his charge. But still he devoted so much
attention to literary pursuits, that it would not have been an easy
matter for a person who enjoyed entire leisure to have written more than
he did. He comprised, in twenty volumes, an account of all the various
wars carried on in successive periods with the German tribes. Besides
this, he wrote a Natural History, which extended to seven books. He fell
a victim to the calamitous event which occurred in Campania. For, having
the command of the fleet at Misenum, when Vesuvius was throwing up a
fiery eruption, he put to sea with his gallies for the purpose of
exploring the causes of the phenomenon close on the spot [986]. But
being prevented by contrary winds from sailing back, he was suffocated in
the dense cloud of dust and ashes. Some, however, think that he was
killed by his slave, having implored him to put an end to his sufferings,
when he was reduced to the last extremity by the fervent heat. [987]
THE END OF LIVES OF THE POETS.
ENDNOTES
[Footnote 984: Although this brief memoir of Pliny is inserted in all the
editions of Suetonius, it was unquestionably not written by him. The
author, whoever he was, has confounded the two Plinys, the uncle and
nephew, into which error Suetonius could not have fallen, as he lived on
intimate terms with the younger Pliny; nor can it be supposed that he
would have composed the memoir of his illustrious friend in so cursory a
manner. Scaliger and other learned men consider that the life of Pliny,
attributed to Suetonius, was composed more than four centuries after that
historian's death.]
[Footnote 985: See JULIUS, c. xxviii. Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus
(the younger Pliny) was born at Como, A.U.C. 814; A.D. 62. His father's
name was Lucius Caecilius, also of Como, who married Plinia, the sister of
Caius Plinius Secundus, supposed to have been a native of Verona, the
author of the Natural History, and by this marriage the uncle of Pliny the
Younger. It was the nephew who enjoyed the confidence of the emperors
Nerva and Trajan, and was the author of the celebrated Letters.]
[Footnote 986: The first eruption of Mount Vesuvius occurred A.U.C. 831,
A.D. 79. See TITUS, c. viii. The younger Pliny was with his uncle at
Misenum at the time, and has left an account of his disastrous enterprise
in one of his letters, Epist. vi. xvi.]
[Footnote 987: For further accounts of the elder Pliny, see the Epistles
of his nephew, B. iii. 5; vi. 16. 20; and Dr. Thomson's remarks before,
pp. 475-478.]
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