Vergil - Tenney Frank
Vendidit hic Latium populis agrosque Quiritum
Eripuit: fixit leges pretio atque refixit.
[Footnote 3: Some recent critics have suggested that the poem may have
been a general discussion of the fear of death, but Varius is constantly
referred to as an epic poet (Horace, _Sat_. I. 10, 43; _Carm_. I. 6
and Porphyrio _ad loc_). His poem was written before Vergil's eighth
_Eclogue_ which we place in 41 B.C. (Macrobius, _Sat_. VI. 2. 20) and
probably before the ninth (see I.36).]
The reference here, too, must have been to Antony. The circle was clearly
in harmony in their political views.
The two creatures of Antony attacked by Cicero and Vergil alike are
Ventidius and Annius Cimber. The epigram on the former takes the form
of a parody of Catullus' "Phasellus ille," a poem which Vergil had good
reason to remember, since Catullus' yacht had been towed up the Mincio
past Vergil's home when he was a lad of about thirteen. Indeed we hope
he was out fishing that day and shared his catch with the home-returning
travelers. Parodies are usually not works of artistic importance, and
this for all its epigrammatic neatness is no exception to the rule. But
it is not without interest to catch the poet at play for a moment, and
learn his opinion on a political character of some importance.
Ventidius had had a checkered career. After captivity, possibly slavery
and manumission, Caesar had found him keeping a line of post horses and
pack mules for hire on the great Aemilian way, and had drafted him into
his transport service during the Gallic War. He suddenly became an
important man, and of course Caesar let him, as he let other chiefs of
departments, profit by war contracts. It was the only way he could
hold men of great ability on very small official salaries. Vergil had
doubtless heard of the meteoric rise of this _mulio_ even when he was
at school, for the post-road for Caesar's great trains of supplies led
through Cremona. After the war Caesar rewarded Ventidius further by
letting him stand for magistracies and become a senator--which of course
shocked the nobility. Muleteers in the Senate! The man changed his
cognomen to be sure, called himself Sabinus on the election posters, but
Vergil remembered what name he bore at Cremona. Caesar finally designated
him for the judge's bench, as praetor, and this high office he entered in
43. He at once attached himself to Antony, who used him as an agent to
buy the service of Caesarian veterans for his army. It was this that
stirred Cicero's ire, and Cicero did not hesitate to expose the man's
career. Vergil's lampoon is interesting then not only in its connections
with Catullus and the poet's own boyhood memories, but for its
reminiscences of Cicero's speeches and the revelation of his own
sympathies in the partizan struggle. The poem of Catullus and Vergil's
parody must be read side by side to reveal the purport of Vergil's
epigram.
Phaselus ille, quem videtis, hospites,
Ait fuisse navium celerrimus,
Neque ullius natantis impetum trabis
Nequisse praeterire, sive palmulis
Opus foret volare sive linteo.
Et hoc negat minacis Adriatici
Negare litus insulasve Cycladas
Rhodumque nobilem horridamque Thraciam
Propontida trucemve Ponticum sinum,
Ubi iste post phaselus antea fuit
Comata silva: nam Cytorio in iugo
Loquente saepe sibilum edidit coma.
Amastri Pontica et Cytore buxifer,
Tibi haec fuisse et esse cognitissima
Ait phaselus: ultima ex origine
Tuo stetisse dicit in cacumine,
Tuo imbuisse palmulas in aequore,
Et inde tot per inpotentia freta
Erum tulisse, laeva sive dextera
Vocaret aura, sive utrumque Iuppiter
Simul secundus incidisset in pedem;
Neque ulla vota litoralibus deis
Sibi esse facta, cum veniret a mari
Novissimo hunc ad usque limpidum lacum.
Sed haec prius fuere; nunc recondita
Senet quiete seque dedicat tibi,
Gemelle Castor et gemelle Castoris.
Vergil's parody,[4] which substitutes the mule-team plodding through the
Gallic mire for Catullus' graceful yacht speeding home from Asia, follows
the original phraseology with amusing fidelity:
Sabinus ille, quem videtis, hospites
Ait fuisse mulio celerrimus,
Neque ullius volantis impetum cisi
Nequisse praeterire, sive Mantuam
Opus foret volare sive Brixiam.
Et hoc negat Tryphonis aemuli domum
Negare nobilem insulamve Caeruli,
Ubi iste post Sabinus, ante Quinctio
Bidente dicit attodisse forcipe
Comata colla, ne Cytorio iugo
Premente dura volnus ederet iuba.
Cremona frigida et lutosa Gallia,
Tibi haec fuisse et esse cognitissima
Ait Sabinus: ultima ex origine
Tua stetisse (dicit) in voragine,
Tua in palude deposisse sarcinas
Et inde tot per orbitosa milia
Iugum tulisse, laeva sive dextera
Strigare mula sive utrumque coeperat
* * * * *
Neque ulla vota semitalibus deis
Sibi esse facta praeter hoc novissimum,
Paterna lora proximumque pectinem.
Sed haec prius fuere: mine eburnea
Sedetque sede seque dedicat tibi,
Gemelle Castor et gemelle Castoris.
[Footnote 4: See _Classical Philology_, 1920, p. 114.]
The other epigram referred to (_Catalefton II_) also attacks a creature
of Antony's, Annius Cimber, a despised rhetorician who had been helped
to high political office by Antony. Again Cicero's _Philippics_ (XI. 14)
serve as our best guide for the background.
Corinthiorum amator iste verborum,
Iste iste rhetor, namque quatenus totus
Thucydides, Britannus, Attice febris!
Tau Gallicum min et sphin ut male illisit,
Ita omnia ista verba miscuit fratri.
It might be paraphrased: "a maniac for archaic words, a rhetor indeed, he
is as much and as little a Thucydides as he is a British prince, the
bane of Attic style! It was a dose of archaic words and Celtic brogue, I
fancy, that he concocted for his brother."
There seem to be three points of attack. Cimber, to judge from Cicero's
invective, was suspected of having risen from servile parentage, and of
trying, as freedmen then frequently did, to pass as a descendant of
some unfortunate barbarian prince. Since his brogue was Celtic (_tau
Gallicum_) he could readily make a plausible story of being British.
Vergil seems to imply that the brogue as well as the name Cimber had been
assumed to hide his Asiatic parentage. The second point seems to be that
Cimber, though a teacher of rhetoric, was so ignorant of Greek, that
while proclaiming himself an Atticist, he used non-Attic forms and
vaunted Thucydides instead of Lysias as the model of the simple style.
Finally, it was rumored, and Cicero affects to believe the tale, that
Cimber was not without guilt in the death of his brother. Vergil is, of
course, not greatly concerned in deriding Atticism itself: to this school
Vergil must have felt less aversion than to Antony's flowery style; it is
the perversion of the doctrine that amuses the poet.
Taken in conjunction with other hints, these two poems show us where the
poet's sympathies lay during those years of terror. There may well have
been a number of similar epigrams directed at Antony himself, but if
so they would of course have been destroyed during the reign of the
triumvirate. Antony's vindictiveness knew no bounds, as Rome learned when
Cicero was murdered.
VIII
LAST DAYS AT THE GARDEN
Vergil's dedication of the _Ciris_ to Valerius Messalla was, as the poem
itself reveals, written several years after the main body of the poem.
The most probable date is 43 B.C., when the young nobleman, then only
about twenty-one, went with Cicero's blessing[1] to join Brutus and
Cassius in their fight for the Republic. Messalla had then, besides
making himself an adept at philosophy--at Naples perhaps, since Vergil
knew him--and stealing away student hours at Athens for Greek verse
writing, gained no little renown by taking a lawsuit against the most
learned lawyer of the day, Servius Sulpicius. Cicero's letter of
commendation, which we still have, is unusually laudatory.
[Footnote 1: Cicero, _Ad Brutum_, I, 15.]
The dedication of the _Ciris_ reveals Vergil still eager to win his place
as a rival of Lucretius. We may paraphrase it thus:
"Having tried in vain for the favor of the populace, I am now in the
'Garden' seeking a theme worthy of philosophy, though I have spent many
years to other purpose. Now I have dared to ascend the mountain of wisdom
where but few have ventured. Yet I must complete these verses that I
have begun so that the Muses may cease to entice me further. Oh, if only
wisdom, the mistress of the four sages of old, would lead me to her tower
whence I might from afar view the errors of men; I should not then honor
one so great with a theme so trifling, but I should weave a marvelous
fabric like Athena's pictured robe ... a great poem on Nature, and into
its texture I should weave your name. But for that my powers are still
too frail. I can only offer these verses on which I have spent many hours
of my early school-days, a vow long promised and now fulfilled."
It is apparent that the student still throbs with a desire to become
a poet of philosophy, and that he is willing to appease the muses of
lighter song only because they insist on returning. But there is another
poem addressed to Messalla that is equally full of personal interest.
Messalla, as we know from Plutarch's _Brutus,_ drawn partly from the
young man's diary, joined Cassius in Asia, and did noteworthy service in
helping his general win the Eastern provinces from the Euxine to Syria
for the Republican cause. Later at Philippi he led the cavalry charge
which broke through the triumvirate line and captured Octavius' camp.
That was the famous first battle of Philippi, prematurely reported in
Italy as a decisive victory for the Republican cause. Three weeks later
the forces clashed again and the triumvirs won a complete victory.
Messalla, who had been chosen commander by the defeated remnant,
recognized the hopelessness of his position and surrendered to the
victors.
Vergil's ninth _Catalepton_ seems to have been written as a paean in
honor of Messalla on receipt of the first incomplete report. The poem
does not by any means imply that Vergil favored Brutus and Cassius or
felt any ill-will towards Octavian. Vergil's regard for Messalla
was clearly a personal matter, and of such a nature that political
differences played no part in it. The poet's complete silence in the
poem about Brutus and Cassius indicates that it is not to any extent the
_cause_ which interests him. Nor can a eulogy of a young republican at
this time be considered as implying any ill-will toward Octavian, to whom
Vergil was always devoted. At this early day Antony was still looked upon
as the dominating person in the triumvirate, and for him Vergil had no
love whatever. He may, therefore, though a Caesarian and friendly to
Octavian, sing the praises of a personal friend who is fighting Antony's
triumvirate.
The ninth _Catalepton,_ like most eulogistic verse thrown off at high
speed, has few good lines (indeed it was probably never finished), but it
is exceedingly interesting as a document in Vergil's life.
Since it has generally been placed about fifteen years too late and
therefore misunderstood, we must dwell at length on some of its
significant details. The poem can be briefly summarized:
"A conqueror you come, the great glory of a mighty triumph, a victor on
land and sea over barbarian tribes; and yet a poet too. Some of your
verses have found a place in my pages, pastoral songs in which two
shepherds lying under the spreading oak sing in honor of your heroine to
whom the divinities bring gifts. The heroine of your song shall be more
famous than the themes of Greek song, yes even than the Roman Lucrece for
whose honor your sires drove the tyrants out of Rome."
"Great are the honors that Rome has bestowed upon the liberty-loving
(Publicolas) Messallas for that and other deeds. So I need not sing of
your recent exploits: how you left your home, your son, and the forum, to
endure winter's chill and summer's heat in warfare on land and sea. And
now you are off to Africa and Spain and beyond the seas."
"Such deeds are too great for my song. I shall be satisfied if I can but
praise your verses."
The most significant passage is the implied comparison of Valerius
Messalla with the founder of the Valerian family who had aided the first
Brutus in establishing the republic as he now was aiding the last Brutus
in restoring it. The comparison is the more startling because our
Messalla later explicitly rejected all connection with the first Valerius
and seems never to have used the cognomen Publicola. The explanation of
Vergil's passage is obvious.[2] The poet hearing of Messalla's remarkable
exploit at Philippi saw at once that his association with Brutus would
remind every Roman of the events of 509 B.C., and that the populace would
as a matter of course acclaim the young hero by the ancient cognomen
"Publicola." Later, after his defeat and submission, Messalla had
of course to suppress every indication that might connect him with
"tyrannicide" stock or faction. The poem, therefore, must have been
written before Messalla's surrender in 42 B.C.
[Footnote 2: The argument is given in full in _Classical Philology_,
1920, p. 36.]
The poet's silences and hesitation in touching upon this subject of civil
war are significant of his mood. The principals of the triumph receive
not a word: his friend is the "glory" of a triumph led by men whose names
are apparently not pleasant memories. Nor is there any exultation over
a presumed defeat of "tyrants" and a restoration of a "republic." The
exploit of Messalla that Vergil especially stresses is the defeat of
"barbarians," naturally the subjection of the Thracian and Pontic tribes
and of the Oriental provinces earlier in the year. And the assumption is
made (1. 51 ff.) that Messalla has, as a recognition of his generalship,
been chosen to complete the war in Africa, Spain, and Britain. Most
significant of all is Vergil's blunt confession that his mind is not
wholly at ease concerning the theme (II. 9-12): "I am indeed strangely at
a loss for words, for I will confess that what has impelled me to write
ought rather to have deterred me." Could he have been more explicit in
explaining that Messalla's exploits, for which he has friendly praise,
were performed in a cause of which his heart did not approve? And does
not this explain why he gives so much space to Messalla's verses, and why
he so quickly passes over the victory of Philippi with an assertion of
his incapacity for doing it justice?
To the biographer, however, the passage praising Messalla's Greek
pastorals is the most interesting for it reveals clearly how Vergil came
to make the momentous decision of writing pastorals. Since Messalla's
verses were in Greek they had, of course, been written two years before
this while he was a student at Athens. Would that we knew this heroine
upon whom he represents the divinities as bestowing gifts! Propertius,
who acknowledged Mesalla as his patron later employed this same motive
of celestial adoration in honor of Cynthia (II. 3, 25), but surely
Messalla's _herois_ was, to judge from Vergil's comparison, a person of
far higher station than Cynthia. Could she have been the lady he married
upon his return from Athens? Such a treatment of a woman of social
station would be in line with the customs of the "new poets," Catullus,
Calvus, and Ticidas, rather than of the Augustans, Gallus, Propertius,
and Tibullus. Vergil himself used the motive in the second _Eclogue_ (l.
46), a reminiscence which, doubtless with many others that we are unable
to trace, Messalla must have recognized as his own.
The pastoral which Vergil had translated from Messalla is quite fully
described:
Molliter hic _viridi patulae sub tegmine quercus_
Moeris pastores et Meliboeus erant,
Dulcia jactantes alterno carmina versu
Qualia Trinacriae doctus amat iuvenis.
That is, of course, the very beginning of his own _Eclogues_. When he
published them he placed at the very beginning the well-known line that
recalled Messalla's own line:
Tityre, tu _patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi_.
What can this mean but a graceful reminder to Messalla that it was he who
had inspired the new effort?[3]
[Footnote 3: Roman writers frequently observed the graceful custom of
acknowledging their source of inspiration by weaving in a recognizable
phrase or line from the master into the very first sentence of a new
work: cf. _Arma virumque cano_--[Greek: Andra moi ennepe] (Lundstroem,
_Eranos_, 1915, p. 4). Shelley responding to the same impulse paraphrased
Bion's opening lines in "I weep for Adonais--he is dead."]
We may conclude then that Vergil's use of that line as the title of his
_Eclogues_ is a recognition of Messalla's influence. Conversely it is
proof, if proof were needed, that the ninth _Catalepton_ is Vergil's. We
may then interpret line thirteen of the ninth _Catalepton:_
pauca tua in nostras venerunt carmina chartas,
as a statement that in the autumn of 42, Vergil had already written some
of his _Eclogues_, and that these early ones--presumably at least numbers
II, III, and VII--contain suggestions from Messalla.
There was, of course, no triumph, and Vergil's eulogy was never sent,
indeed it probably never was entirely completed.[4] Messalla quickly made
his peace with the triumvirs, and, preferring not to return to Rome in
disgrace, cast his lot with Antony who remained in the East. Vergil, who
thoroughly disliked Antony, must then have felt that for the present, at
least, a barrier had been raised between him and Messalla. Accordingly
the _Ciris_ also was abandoned and presently pillaged for other uses.
[Footnote 4: It ought, therefore, not to be used seriously in discussions
of Vergil's technique.]
The news of Philippi was soon followed by orders from Octavian--to be
thoroughly accurate we ought of course to call him Caesar--that lands
must now, according to past pledges, be procured in Italy for nearly
two hundred thousand veterans. Every one knew that the cities that had
favored the liberators, and even those that had tried to preserve their
neutrality, would suffer. Vergil could, of course, guess that lands in
the Po Valley would be in particular demand because of their fertility.
The first note of fear is found in his eighth _Catalepton_:
Villula, quae Sironis eras, et pauper agelle,
Verum illi domino tu quoque divitiae,
Me tibi et hos una mecum, quos semper amavi,
Si quid de patria tristius audiero,
Commendo imprimisque patrem: tu nunc eris illi
Mantua quod fuerat quodque Cremona prius.
It is usually assumed from this passage that Siro had recently died,
probably, therefore, some time in 42 B.C., and that, in accordance with a
custom frequently followed by Greek philosophers at Rome, he had left his
property to his favorite pupil. The garden school, therefore, seems to
have come to an end, though possibly Philodemus may have continued it
for the few remaining years of his life. Siro's villa apparently proved
attractive to Vergil, for he made Naples his permanent home, despite the
gift of a house on the Esquiline from Maecenas.
This, however, is not Vergil's last mention of Siro, if we may believe
Servius, who thinks that "Silenum" in the sixth _Eclogue_ stands for
"Sironem," its metrical equivalent. If, as seems wholly likely, Servius
is right, the sixth _Eclogue_ is a fervid tribute to a teacher who
deserves not to be forgotten in the story of Vergil's education. The poem
has been so strangely misinterpreted in recent years that it is time to
follow out Servius' suggestion and see whether it does not lead to some
conclusions.[5]
[Footnote 5: Skutsch roused a storm of discussion over it by insisting
that it was a catalogue of poems written by Gallus (_Aus Vergils
Fruehzeit_.) Cartault, _Etude sur les Bucoliques de Virgile_ (p. 285),
almost accepts Servius' suggestion: "un resume de ses lectures et de ses
etudes."]
After an introduction to Varus the poem tells how two shepherds found
Silenus off his guard, bound him, and demanded songs that he had long
promised. The reader will recall, of course, how Plato also likened his
teacher Socrates to Silenus. Silenus sang indeed till hills and valleys
thrilled with the music: of creation of sun and moon, the world of
living things, the golden age, and of the myths of Prometheus, Phaeton,
Pasiphae, and many others; he even sang of how Gallus had been captured
by the Muses and been made a minister of Apollo.
A strange pastoral it has seemed to many! And yet not so strange when we
bear in mind that the books of Philodemus reveal Vergil and Quintilius
Varus as fellow students at Naples. Surely Servius has provided the key.
The whole poem, with its references to old myths, is merely a rehearsal
of schoolroom reminiscences, as might have been guessed from the fine
Lucretian rhythms with which it begins:
Namque canebat, uti magnum per inane coacta
Semina terrarumque animaeque marisque fuissent
Et liquidi simul ignis; ut his exordia primis
Omnia et ipse tener mundi concreverit orbis;
Tum durare solum et discludere Nerea ponto
Coeperit, et rerum paulatim sumere formas;
Iamque novum terrae stupeant lucescere solem.
Altius atque cadant summotis nubibus imbres;
Incipiant silvae cum primum surgere, cumque
Rara per ignaros errent animalia montis.
The myths that follow are meant to continue this list of subjects, only
with somewhat less blunt obviousness. They suggested to Varus the usual
Epicurean theories of perception, imagination, passion, and mental
aberrations, subjects that Siro must have discussed in some such way as
Lucretius treated them in his third and fourth books of the _De Rerum
Natura_.
It is, of course, not to be supposed that Siro had lectured upon
mythology as such. But the Epicurean teachers, despite their scorn
for legends, employed them for pedagogical purposes in several ways.
Lucretius, for instance, uses them sometimes for their picturesqueness,
as in the _prooemium_ and again in the allegory of the seasons (V. 732).
He also employs them in a Euhemeristic fashion, explaining them as
popular allegories of actual human experiences, citing the myths of
Tantalus and Sisyphus, for example, as expressions of the ever-present
dread of punishment for crimes. Indeed Vergil himself in the _Aetna_--if
it be his--somewhat naively introduced the battle of the giants for its
picturesque interest. It is only after he had enjoyed telling the story
in full that he checked himself with the blunt remark:
(1. 74) Haec est mendosae vulgata licentia famae.
Lucretius is little less amusing in his rejection of the Cybele myth,
after a lovely passage of forty lines (II, 600) devoted to it.
Vergil was, therefore, on familiar ground when he tried to remind his
schoolmate of Siro's philosophical themes by designating each of them by
means of an appropriate myth. Perhaps we, who unlike Varus have not heard
the original lectures, may not be able in every case to discover the
theme from the myth, but the poet has at least set us out on the right
scent by making the first riddles very easy. The _lapides Pyrrhae_ (I.
41) refer of course to the creation of man; _Saturnia regna_ is, in
Epicurean lore, the primitive life of the early savages; _furtum
Promethei_ (I. 42) must refer to Epicurus' explanation of how fire came
from clashing trees and from lightning. The story of Hylas (I. 43)
probably reminded Varus of Siro's lecture on images and reflection,
Pasiphae (I. 46) of unruly passions, explained perhaps as in Lucretius'
fourth book, Atalanta (I. 61) of greed, and Phaeton of ambition. As for
Scylla, Vergil had himself in the _Ciris_ (I. 69) mentioned, only to
reject, the allegorical interpretation here presented, according to which
she portrays:
"the sin of lustfulness
and love's incontinence."
Vergil had not then met Siro, but he may have read some of his lectures.
Finally, the strange lines on Cornelius Gallus might find a ready
explanation if we knew whether or not Gallus had also been a member
of the Neapolitan circle. Probus, if we may believe him, suggests the
possibility in calling him a schoolmate of Vergil's, and a plausible
interpretation of this eclogue turns that possibility into a probability.
The passage (II. 64-73) may well be Vergil's way of recalling to Varus a
well-beloved fellow-student who had left the circle to become a poet.
The whole poem, therefore, is a delightful commentary upon Vergil's
life in Siro's garden, written probably after Siro had died, the school
closed, and Varus gone off to war. The younger man's school days are
now over; he had found his idiom in a poetic form to which Messalla's
experiments had drawn him. The _Eclogues_ are already appearing in rapid
succession.
IX
MATERIALISM IN THE SERVICE OF POETRY
It has been remarked that Vergil's genius was of slow growth; he was
twenty-eight before he wrote any verses that his mature judgment
recognized as worthy of publication. A survey of his early life reveals
some of the reasons for this tardy development. Born and schooled in
a province he was naturally held back by lack of those contacts which
stimulate boys of the city to rapid mental growth. The first few years at
Rome were in some measure wasted upon a subject for which he had neither
taste nor endowment. The banal rhetorical training might indeed have
made a Lucan or a Juvenal out of him had he not finally revolted so
decisively. However, this work at Rome proved not to be a total loss.
His choice of a national theme for an epic and his insight into the
true qualities of imperial Rome owe something to the study of political
questions that his preparation for a public career had necessitated. He
learned something in his Roman days that not even Epicurean scorn for
politics could eradicate.