Titus Flavius Domitianus (Domitian) - C. Suetonius Tranquillus
This poem consists of two books, in heroic measure, and is written with
taste and fancy. Commentators are of opinion, that the Achilleis was
left incomplete by the death of the author; but this is extremely
improbable, from various circumstances, and appears to be founded only
upon the word Hactenus, in the conclusion of the poem:
(503) Hactenus annorum, comites, elementa meorum
Et memini, et meminisse juvat: scit caetera mater.
Thus far, companions dear, with mindful joy I've told
My youthful deeds; the rest my mother can unfold.
That any consequential reference was intended by hactenus, seems to me
plainly contradicted by the words which immediately follow, scit caetera
mater. Statius could not propose the giving any further account of
Achilles's life, because a general narrative of it had been given in the
first book. The voyage from Scyros to the Trojan coast, conducted with
the celerity which suited the purpose of the poet, admitted of no
incidents which required description or recital: and after the voyagers
had reached the Grecian camp, it is reasonable to suppose, that the
action of the Iliad immediately commenced. But that Statius had no
design of extending the plan of the Achilleis beyond this period, is
expressly declared in the exordium of the poem:
Magnanimum Aeaciden, formidatamque Tonanti
Progeniem, et patrio vetitam succedere coelo,
Diva, refer; quanquam acta viri multum inclyta cantu
Maeonio; sed plura vacant. Nos ire per omnem
(Sic amor est) heroa velis, Scyroque latentem
Dulichia proferre tuba: nec in Hectore tracto
Sistere, sed tota juvenem deducere Troja.
Aid me, O goddess! while I sing of him,
Who shook the Thunderer's throne, and, for his crime,
Was doomed to lose his birthright in the skies;
The great Aeacides. Maeonian strains
Have made his mighty deeds their glorious theme;
Still much remains: be mine the pleasing task
To trace the future hero's young career,
Not dragging Hector at his chariot wheels,
But while disguised in Scyros yet he lurked,
Till trumpet-stirred, he sprung to manly arms,
And sage Ulysses led him to the Trojan coast.
The Silvae is a collection of poems almost entirely in heroic verse,
divided into five books, and for the most part written extempore.
Statius himself affirms, in his Dedication to Stella, that the production
of none of them employed him more than two days; yet many of them consist
of between one hundred and two hundred hexameter lines. We meet with one
of two hundred and sixteen lines; one, of two hundred and thirty-four;
one, of two hundred and sixty-two; and one of two hundred and
seventy-seven; a rapidity of composition approaching to what Horace
mentions of the poet Lucilius. It is no small encomium to observe, that,
considered as extemporaneous productions, (504) the meanest in the
collection is far from meriting censure, either in point of sentiment or
expression; and many of them contain passages which command our applause.
The poet MARTIAL, surnamed likewise Coquus, was born at Bilbilis, in
Spain, of obscure parents. At the age of twenty-one, he came to Rome,
where he lived during five-and-thirty years under the emperors Galba,
Otho, Vitellius, the two Vespasians, Domitian, Nerva, and the beginning
of the reign of Trajan. He was the panegyrist of several of those
emperors, by whom he was liberally rewarded, raised to the Equestrian
order, and promoted by Domitian to the tribuneship; but being treated
with coldness and neglect by Trajan, he returned to his native country,
and, a few years after, ended his days, at the age of seventy-five.
He had lived at Rome in great splendour and affluence, as well as in high
esteem for his poetical talents; but upon his return to Bilbilis, it is
said that he experienced a great reverse of fortune, and was chiefly
indebted for his support to the gratuitous benefactions of Pliny the
Younger, whom he had extolled in some epigrams.
The poems of Martial consist of fourteen books, all written in the
epigrammatic form, to which species of composition, introduced by the
Greeks, he had a peculiar propensity. Amidst such a multitude of verses,
on a variety of subjects, often composed extempore, and many of them,
probably, in the moments of fashionable dissipation, it is not surprising
that we find a large number unworthy the genius of the author. Delicacy,
and even decency, is often violated in the productions of Martial.
Grasping at every thought which afforded even the shadow of ingenuity, he
gave unlimited scope to the exercise of an active and fruitful
imagination. In respect to composition, he is likewise liable to
censure. At one time he wearies, and at another tantalises the reader,
with the prolixity or ambiguity of his preambles. His prelusive
sentiments are sometimes far-fetched, and converge not with a natural
declination into the focus of epigram. In dispensing praise and censure,
he often seems to be governed more by prejudice or policy, than by
justice and truth; and he is more constantly attentive to the production
of wit, than to the improvement of morality.
But while we remark the blemishes and imperfections of this poet, we must
acknowledge his extraordinary merits. In composition he is, in general,
elegant and correct; and where the subject is capable of connection with
sentiment, his inventive ingenuity never fails to extract from it the
essence of delight and surprise. His fancy is prolific of beautiful
images, and his (505) judgment expert in arranging them to the greatest
advantage. He bestows panegyric with inimitable grace, and satirises
with equal dexterity. In a fund of Attic salt, he surpasses every other
writer; and though he seems to have at command all the varied stores of
gall, he is not destitute of candour. With almost every kind of
versification he appears to be familiar; and notwithstanding a facility
of temper, too accommodating, perhaps, on many occasions, to the
licentiousness of the times, we may venture from strong indications to
pronounce, that, as a moralist, his principles were virtuous. It is
observed of this author, by Pliny the Younger, that, though his
compositions might, perhaps, not obtain immortality, he wrote as if they
would. [Aeterna, quae scripsit, non erunt fortasse: ille tamen scripsit
tanquam futura.] The character which Martial gives of his epigrams, is
just and comprehensive:
Sunt bona, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt mala plura,
Quae legis: hic aliter non fit, Avite, liber.
Some are good, some indifferent, and some again still worse;
Such, Avitus, you will find is a common case with verse.
THE END OF THE TWELVE CAESARS
FOOTNOTES:
[795] A.U.C. 804.
[796] A street, in the sixth region of Rome, so called, probably, from a
remarkable specimen of this beautiful shrub which had made free growth on
the spot.
[797] VITELLIUS, c. xv.
[798] Tacitus (Hist. iii.) differs from Suetonius, saying that Domitian
took refuge with a client of his father's near the Velabrum. Perhaps he
found it more safe afterwards to cross the Tiber.
[799] One of Domitian's coins bears on the reverse a captive female and
soldier, with GERMANIA DEVICTA.
[800] VESPASIAN, c. xii; TITUS, c. vi.
[801] Such excavations had been made by Julius and by Augustus [AUG.
xliii.], and the seats for the spectators fitted up with timber in a rude
way. That was on the other side of the Tiber. The Naumachia of Domitian
occupies the site of the present Piazza d'Espagna, and was larger and
more ornamented.
[802] A.U.C. 841. See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxi.
[803] This feast was held in December. Plutarch informs us that it was
instituted in commemoration of the seventh hill being included in the
city bounds.
[804] The Capitol had been burnt, for the third time, in the great fire
mentioned TITUS, c. viii. The first fire happened in the Marian war,
after which it was rebuilt by Pompey, the second in the reign of
Vitellius.
[805] This forum, commenced by Domitian and completed by Nerva, adjoined
the Roman Forum and that of Augustus, mentioned in c. xxix. of his life.
From its communicating with the two others, it was called Transitorium.
Part of the wall which bounded it still remains, of a great height, and
144 paces long. It is composed of square masses of freestone, very
large, and without any cement; and it is not carried in a straight line,
but makes three or four angles, as if some buildings had interfered with
its direction.
[806] The residence of the Flavian family was converted into a temple.
See c. i. of the present book.
[807] The Stadium was in the shape of a circus, and used for races both
of men and horses.
[808] The Odeum was a building intended for musical performances. There
were four of them at Rome.
[809] See before, c. iv.
[810] See VESPASIAN, c. xiv.
[811] See NERD, c. xvi.
[812] This absurd edict was speedily revoked. See afterwards c. xiv.
[813] This was an ancient law levelled against adultery and other
pollutions, named from its author Caius Scatinius, a tribune of the
people. There was a Julian law, with the same object. See AUGUSTUS,
c. xxxiv.
[814] Geor. xi. 537.
[815] See Livy, xxi. 63, and Cicero against Verres, v. 18.
[816] See VESPASIAN, c. iii.
[817] Cant names for gladiators.
[818] The faction which favoured the "Thrax" party.
[819] DOMITIAN, c. i.
[820] See VESPASIAN, c. xiv.
[821] This cruel punishment is described in NERO, c. xlix.
[822] Gentiles who were proselytes to the Jewish religion; or, perhaps,
members of the Christian sect, who were confounded with them. See the
note to TIBERIUS, c. xxxvi. The tax levied on the Jews was two drachmas
per head. It was general throughout the empire.
[823] We have had Suetonius's reminiscences, derived through his
grandfather and father successively, CALIGULA, c. xix.; OTHO, c. x. We
now come to his own, commencing from an early age.
[824] This is what Martial calls, "Mentula tributis damnata."
[825] The imperial liveries were white and gold.
[826] See CALIGULA, c. xxi., where the rest of the line is quoted; eis
koiranos esto.
[827] An assumption of divinity, as the pulvinar was the consecrated
bed, on which the images of the gods reposed.
[828] The pun turns on the similar sound of the Greek word for "enough,"
and the Latin word for "an arch."
[829] Domitia, who had been repudiated for an intrigue with Paris, the
actor, and afterwards taken back.
[830] The lines, with a slight accommodation, are borrowed from the poet
Evenus, Anthol. i. vi. i., who applies them to a goat, the great enemy of
vineyards. Ovid, Fasti, i. 357, thus paraphrases them:
Rode caper vitem, tamen hinc, cum staris ad aram,
In tua quod spargi cornua possit erit.
[831] Pliny describes this stone as being brought from Cappadocia, and
says that it was as hard as marble, white and translucent, cxxiv. c. 22.
[832] See note to c. xvii.
[833] The guilt imputed to them was atheism and Jewish (Christian?)
manners. Dion, lxvii. 1112.
[834] See VESPASIAN, c. v.
[835] Columella (R. R. xi. 2.) enumerates dates among the foreign fruits
cultivated in Italy, cherries, dates, apricots, and almonds; and Pliny,
xv. 14, informs us that Sextus Papinius was the first who introduced the
date tree, having brought it from Africa, in the latter days of Augustus.
[836] Some suppose that Domitilla was the wife of Flavius Clemens
(c. xv.), both of whom were condemned by Domitian for their "impiety,"
by which it is probably meant that they were suspected of favouring
Christianity. Eusebius makes Flavia Domitilla the niece of Flavius
Clemens, and says that she was banished to Ponza, for having become a
Christian. Clemens Romanus, the second bishop of Rome, is said to have
been of this family.
[837] A.U.C. 849.
[838] See c. v.
[839] The famous library of Alexandria collected by Ptolemy Philadelphus
had been burnt by accident in the wars. But we find from this passage in
Suetonius that part of it was saved, or fresh collections had been made.
Seneca (de Tranquill. c. ix. 7) informs us that forty thousand volumes
were burnt; and Gellius states that in his time the number of volumes
amounted to nearly seventy thousand.
[840] This favourite apple, mentioned by Columella and Pliny, took its
name from C. Matius, a Roman knight, and friend of Augustus, who first
introduced it. Pliny tells us that Matius was also the first who brought
into vogue the practice of clipping groves.
[841] Julia, the daughter of Titus.