The History of Rome, Book V - Theodor Mommsen
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The Artificial Dialogue Applied to the Professional Sciences
Cicero's Dialogues
Lastly there sprang up in the aesthetic literature of this period
the artistic treatment of subjects of professional science
in the form of the stylistic dialogue, which had been very extensively
in use among the Greeks and had been already employed also
in isolated cases among the Romans.(37) Cicero especially made
various attempts at presenting rhetorical and philosophical subjects
in this form and making the professional manual a suitable book
for reading. His chief writings are the -De Oratore- (written in 699),
to which the history of Roman eloquence (the dialogue -Brutus-,
written in 708) and other minor rhetorical essays were added
by way of supplement; and the treatise -De Republica- (written in 700),
with which the treatise -De Legibus- (written in 702?) after the model
of Plato is brought into connection. They are no great works
of art, but undoubtedly they are the works in which the excellences
of the author are most, and his defects least, conspicuous.
The rhetorical writings are far from coming up to the didactic
chasteness of form and precision of thought of the Rhetoric
dedicated to Herennius, but they contain instead a store
of practical forensic experience and forensic anecdotes of all sorts
easily and tastefully set forth, and in fact solve the problem
of combining didactic instruction with amusement. The treatise
-De Republica- carries out, in a singular mongrel compound of history
and philosophy, the leading idea that the existing constitution
of Rome is substantially the ideal state-organization sought for
by the philosophers; an idea indeed just as unphilosophical
as unhistorical, and besides not even peculiar to the author,
but which, as may readily be conceived, became and remained popular.
The scientific groundwork of these rhetorical and political
writings of Cicero belongs of course entirely to the Greeks,
and many of the details also, such as the grand concluding effect
in the treatise -De Republica- the Dream of Scipio, are directly
borrowed from them; yet they possess comparative originality,
inasmuch as the elaboration shows throughout Roman local colouring,
and the proud consciousness of political life, which the Roman
was certainly entitled to feel as compared with the Greeks,
makes the author even confront his Greek instructors with a certain
independence. The form of Cicero's dialogue is doubtless neither
the genuine interrogative dialectics of the best Greek artificial
dialogue nor the genuine conversational tone of Diderot or Lessing;
but the great groups of advocates gathering around Crassus
and Antonius and of the older and younger statesmen of the Scipionic
circle furnish a lively and effective framework, fitting channels
for the introduction of historical references and anecdotes,
and convenient resting-points for the scientific discussion.
The style is quite as elaborate and polished as in the best-written
orations, and so far more pleasing than these, since the author
does not often in this field make a vain attempt at pathos.
While these rhetorical and political writings of Cicero
with a philosophic colouring are not devoid of merit, the compiler
on the other hand completely failed, when in the involuntary leisure
of the last years of his life (709-710) he applied himself
to philosophy proper, and with equal peevishness and precipitation
composed in a couple of months a philosophical library. The receipt
was very simple. In rude imitation of the popular writings
of Aristotle, in which the form of dialogue was employed
chiefly for the setting forth and criticising of the different
older systems, Cicero stitched together the Epicurean, Stoic,
and Syncretist writings handling the same problem, as they came
or were given to his hand, into a so-called dialogue. And all
that he did on his own part was, to supply an introduction prefixed
to the new book from the ample collection of prefaces for future works
which he had beside him; to impart a certain popular character,
inasmuch as he interwove Roman examples and references, and sometimes
digressed to subjects irrelevant but more familiar to the writer
and the reader, such as the treatment of the deportment
of the orator in the -De Officiis-; and to exhibit that sort
of bungling, which a man of letters, who has not attained to philosophic
thinking or even to philosophic knowledge and who works rapidly
and boldly, shows in the reproduction of dialectic trains of thought.
In this way no doubt a multitude of thick tomes might very quickly
come into existence--"They are copies," wrote the author himself
to a friend who wondered at his fertility; "they give me little trouble,
for I supply only the words and these I have in abundance."
Against this nothing further could be said; but any one who seeks
classical productions in works so written can only be advised to study
in literary matters a becoming silence.
Professional Sciences.
Latin Philology
Varro
Of the sciences only a single one manifested vigorous life,
that of Latin philology. The scheme of linguistic and antiquarian
research within the domain of the Latin race, planned by Silo,
was carried out especially by his disciple Varro on the grandest scale.
There appeared comprehensive elaborations of the whole stores
of the language, more especially the extensive grammatical commentaries
of Figulus and the great work of Varro -De Lingua Latina-;
monographs on grammar and the history of the language, such as
Varro's writings on the usage of the Latin language, on synonyms,
on the age of the letters, on the origin of the Latin tongue;
scholia on the older literature, especially on Plautus;
works of literary history, biographies of poets, investigations
into the earlier drama, into the scenic division of the comedies
of Plautus, and into their genuineness. Latin archaeology,
which embraced the whole older history and the ritual law apart
from practical jurisprudence, was comprehended in Varro's "Antiquities
of Things Human and Divine," which was and for all times remained
the fundamental treatise on the subject (published between 687
and 709). The first portion, "Of Things Human," described the primeval
age of Rome, the divisions of city and country, the sciences
of the years, months, and days, lastly, the public transactions
at home and in war; in the second half, "Of Things Divine," the state-
theology, the nature and significance of the colleges of experts,
of the holy places, of the religious festivals, of sacrificial
and votive gifts, and lastly of the gods themselves were summarily
unfolded. Moreover, besides a number of monographs--
e. g. on the descent of the Roman people, on the Roman gentes
descended from Troy, on the tribes--there was added, as a larger
and more independent supplement, the treatise "Of the Life
of the Roman People"--a remarkable attempt at a history of Roman manners,
which sketched a picture of the state of domestic life, finance,
and culture in the regal, the early republican, the Hannibalic,
and the most recent period. These labours of Varro were based
on an empiric knowledge of the Roman world and its adjacent Hellenic
domain more various and greater in its kind than any other Roman
either before or after him possessed--a knowledge to which living
observation and the study of literature alike contributed.
The eulogy of his contemporaries was well deserved, that Varro
had enabled his countrymen--strangers in their own world--to know
their position in their native land, and had taught the Romans
who and where they were. But criticism and system will be sought for
in vain. His Greek information seems to have come from somewhat
confused sources, and there are traces that even in the Roman field
the writer was not free from the influence of the historical
romance of his time. The matter is doubtless inserted
in a convenient and symmetrical framework, but not classified
or treated methodically; and with all his efforts to bring tradition
and personal observation into harmony, the scientific labours of Varro
are not to be acquitted of a certain implicit faith in tradition
or of an unpractical scholasticism.(38) The connection with Greek
philology consists in the imitation of its defects more than
of its excellences; for instance, the basing of etymologies
on mere similarity of sound both in Varro himself and in the other
philologues of this epoch runs into pure guesswork and often
into downright absurdity.(39) In its empiric confidence
and copiousness as well as in its empiric inadequacy and want of method
the Varronian vividly reminds us of the English national philology,
and just like the latter, finds its centre in the study
of the older drama. We have already observed that the monarchical
literature developed the rules of language in contradistinction
to this linguistic empiricism.(40) It is in a high degree significant
that there stands at the head of the modern grammarians no less a man
than Caesar himself, who in his treatise on Analogy (given forth
between 696 and 704) first undertook to bring free language
under the power of law.
The Other Professional Sciences
Alongside of this extraordinary stir in the field of philology
The small amount of activity in the other sciences is surprising.
What appeared of importance in philosophy--such as Lucretius'
representation of the Epicurean system in the poetical child-dress
of the pre-Socratic philosophy, and the better writings of Cicero--
produced its effect and found its audience not through its
philosophic contents, but in spite of such contents solely
through its aesthetic form; the numerous translations of Epicurean
writings and the Pythagorean works, such as Varro's great treatise
on the Elements of Numbers and the still more copious one of Figulus
concerning the Gods, had beyond doubt neither scientific
nor formal value.
Even the professional sciences were but feebly cultivated. Varro's
Books on Husbandry written in the form of dialogue are no doubt
more methodical than those of his predecessors Cato and Saserna--
on which accordingly he drops many a side glance of censure--
but have on the whole proceeded more from the study than, like those
earlier works, from living experience. Of the juristic labours of Varro
and of Servius Sulpicius Rufus (consul in 703) hardly aught more
can be said, than that they contributed to the dialectic
and philosophical embellishment of Roman jurisprudence. And there is
nothing farther here to be mentioned, except perhaps the three
books of Gaius Matius on cooking, pickling, and making preserves--
so far as we know, the earliest Roman cookery-book, and, as the work
of a man of rank, certainly a phenomenon deserving of notice.
That mathematics and physics were stimulated by the increased
Hellenistic and utilitarian tendencies of the monarchy, is apparent
from their growing importance in the instruction of youth (41)
and from various practical applications; under which, besides
the reform of the calendar,(42) may perhaps be included the appearance
of wall-maps at this period, the technical improvements
in shipbuilding and in musical instruments, designs and buildings
like the aviary specified by Varro, the bridge of piles over the Rhine
executed by the engineers of Caesar, and even two semicircular
stages of boards arranged for being pushed together, and employed
first separately as two theatres and then jointly as an amphitheatre.
The public exhibition of foreign natural curiosities at the popular
festivals was not unusual; and the descriptions of remarkable animals,
which Caesar has embodied in the reports of his campaigns,
show that, had an Aristotle appeared, he would have again
found his patron-prince. But such literary performances
as are mentioned in this department are essentially associated
with Neopythagoreanism, such as the comparison of Greek and Barbarian,
i. e. Egyptian, celestial observations by Figulus, and his writings
concerning animals, winds, and generative organs. After Greek
physical research generally had swerved from the Aristotelian effort
to find amidst individual facts the law, and had more and more
passed into an empiric and mostly uncritical observation of the external
and surprising in nature, natural science when coming forward
as a mystical philosophy of nature, instead of enlightening
and stimulating, could only still more stupefy and paralyze;
and in presence of such a method it was better to rest satisfied
with the platitude which Cicero delivers as Socratic wisdom,
that the investigation of nature either seeks after things
which nobody can know, or after such things as nobody needs to know.
Art
Architecture
If, in fine, we cast a glance at art, we discover here
the same unpleasing phenomena which pervade the whole mental life
of this period. Building on the part of the state was virtually
brought to a total stand amidst the scarcity of money that marked
the last age of the republic. We have already spoken of the luxury
in building of the Roman grandees; the architects learned in consequence
of this to be lavish of marble--the coloured sorts such as
the yellow Numidian (Giallo antico) and others came into vogue
at this time, and the marble-quarries of Luna (Carrara)
were now employed for the first time--and began to inlay the floors
of the rooms with mosaic work, to panel the walls with slabs of marble,
or to paint the compartments in imitation of marble--the first steps
towards the subsequent fresco-painting. But art was not a gainer
by this lavish magnificence.
Arts of Design
In the arts of design connoisseurship and collecting were always
on the increase. It was a mere affectation of Catonian simplicity,
when an advocate spoke before the jurymen of the works of art
"of a certain Praxiteles"; every one travelled and inspected,
and the trade of the art-ciceroni, or, as they were then called,
the -exegetae-, was none of the worst. Ancient works of art
were formally hunted after--statues and pictures less, it is true,
than, in accordance with the rude character of Roman luxury,
artistically wrought furniture and ornaments of all sorts for the room
and the table. As early as that age the old Greek tombs of Capua
and Corinth were ransacked for the sake of the bronze and earthenware
vessels which had been placed in the tomb along with the dead.
for a small statuette of bronze 40,000 sesterces (400 pounds)
were paid, and 200,000 (2000 pounds) for a pair of costly carpets;
a well-wrought bronze cooking machine came to cost more than
an estate. In this barbaric hunting after art the rich amateur was,
as might be expected, frequently cheated by those who supplied him;
but the economic ruin of Asia Minor in particular so exceedingly rich
in artistic products brought many really ancient and rare ornaments
and works of art into the market, and from Athens, Syracuse,
Cyzicus, Pergamus, Chios, Samos, and other ancient seats of art,
everything that was for sale and very much that was not migrated
to the palaces and villas of the Roman grandees. We have
already mentioned what treasures of art were to be found within
the house of Lucullus, who indeed was accused, perhaps not unjustly,
of having gratified his interest in the fine arts at the expense
of his duties as a general. The amateurs of art crowded thither
as they crowd at present to the Villa Borghese, and complained
even then of such treasures being confined to the palaces
and country-houses of the men of quality, where they could be seen
only with difficulty and after special permission from the possessor.
The public buildings on the other hand were far from filled
in like proportion with famous works of Greek masters,
and in many cases there still stood in the temples of the capital
nothing but the old images of the gods carved in wood.
As to the exercise of art there is virtually nothing to report;
there is hardly mentioned by name from this period any Roman sculptor
or painter except a certain Arellius, whose pictures rapidly went off
not on account of their artistic value, but because the cunning reprobate
furnished, in his pictures of the goddesses faithful portraits
of his mistresses for the time being.
Dancing and Music
The importance of music and dancing increased in public
as in domestic life. We have already set forth how theatrical music
and the dancing-piece attained to an independent standing
in the development of the stage at this period;(43) we may add
that now in Rome itself representations were very frequently given
by Greek musicians, dancers, and declaimers on the public stage--
such as were usual in Asia Minor and generally in the whole Hellenic
and Hellenizing world.(44) To these fell to be added the musicians
and dancing-girls who exhibited their arts to order at table
and elsewhere, and the special choirs of stringed and wind instruments
and singers which were no longer rare in noble houses. But that even
the world of quality itself played and sang with diligence, is shown
by the very adoption of music into the cycle of the generally
recognized subjects of instruction;(45) as to dancing, it was,
to say nothing of women, made matter of reproach even against
consulars that they exhibited themselves in dancing performances
amidst a small circle.
Incipient Influence of the Monarchy
Towards the end of this period, however, there appears
with the commencement of the monarchy the beginning of a better time
also in art. We have already mentioned the mighty stimulus
which building in the capital received, and building throughout
the empire was destined to receive, through Caesar. Even in the cutting
of the dies of the coins there appears about 700 a remarkable change;
the stamping, hitherto for the most part rude and negligent,
is thenceforward managed with more delicacy and care.
Conclusion
We have reached the end of the Roman republic. We have seen
it rule for five hundred years in Italy and in the countries
on the Mediterranean; we have seen it brought to ruin in politics
and morals, religion and literature, not through outward violence
but through inward decay, and thereby making room for the new monarchy
of Caesar. There was in the world, as Caesar found it, much
of the noble heritage of past centuries and an infinite abundance of pomp
and glory, but little spirit, still less taste, and least of all
true delight in life. It was indeed an old world; and even
the richly-gifted patriotism of Caesar could not make it young again.
The dawn does not return till after the night has fully set in
and run its course. But yet with him there came to the sorely harassed
peoples on the Mediterranean a tolerable evening after the sultry noon;
and when at length after a long historical night the new day dawned
once more for the peoples, and fresh nations in free self-movement
commenced their race towards new and higher goals, there were found
among them not a few, in which the seed sown by Caesar had sprung up,
and which owed, as they still owe, to him their national individuality.
Notes for Chapter I
1. IV. VII. Bestowal of Latin Rights on the Italian Celts, 527
2. It is a significant trait, that a distinguished teacher of
literature, the freedman Staberius Eros, allowed the children of
the proscribed to attend his course gratuitously.
3. IV. X. Proscription-Lists
4. IV. IX. Pompeius
5. IV. IV. Administration under the Restoration
6. IV. IV. Livius Drusus
7. IV. IX. Government of Cinna
8. IV. IX. Pompeius
9. IV. IX. Sertorius Embarks
10. IV. VII. Strabo, IV. IX. Dubious Attitude of Strabo
11. IV. IX. Carbo Assailed on Three Sides of Etruria
12. IV. VII. Rejection of the Proposals for an Accomodation
13. IV. X. Reorganization of the Senate
14. It is usual to set down the year 654 as that of Caesar's
birth, because according to Suetonius (Caes. 88), Plutarch (Caes.
69), and Appian (B. C. ii. 149) he was at his death (15 March 710)
in his 56th year; with which also the statement that he was 18
years old at the time of the Sullan proscription (672; Veil. ii.
41) nearly accords. But this view is utterly inconsistent with
the facts that Caesar filled the aedileship in 689, the praetorship in
692, and the consulship in 695, and that these offices could,
according to the -leges annales-, be held at the very earliest in
the 37th-38th, 40th-41st, and 43rd-44th years of a man's life
respectively. We cannot conceive why Caesar should have filled all
the curule offices two years before the legal time, and still less
why there should be no mention anywhere of his having done so.
These facts rather suggest the conjecture that, as his birthday
fell undoubtedly on July 12, he was born not in 654, but in 652; so
that in 672 he was in his 20th-21st year, and he died not in his
56th year, but at the age of 57 years 8 months. In favour of this
latter view we may moreover adduce the circumstance, which has been
strangely brought forward in opposition to it, that Caesar "-paene
puer-" was appointed by Marius and Cinna as Flamen of Jupiter
(Veil. ii. 43); for Marius died in January 668, when Caesar was,
according to the usual view, 13 years 6 months old, and therefore
not "almost," as Velleius says, but actually still a boy, and most
probably for this very reason not at all capable of holding such
a priesthood. If, again, he was born in July 652, he was at
the death of Marius in his sixteenth year; and with this the expression
in Velleius agrees, as well as the general rule that civil
positions were not assumed before the expiry of the age of boyhood.
Further, with this latter view alone accords the fact that
the -denarii- struck by Caesar about the outbreak of the civil war are
marked with the number LII, probably the year of his life; for
when it began, Caesar's age was according to this view somewhat
over 52 years. Nor is it so rash as it appears to us who are
accustomed to regular and official lists of births, to charge our
authorities with an error in this respect. Those four statements
may very well be all traceable to a common source; nor can they at
all lay claim to any very high credibility, seeing that for
the earlier period before the commencement of the -acta diurna-
the statements as to the natal years of even the best known and most
prominent Romans, e. g. as to that of Pompeius, vary in the most
surprising manner. (Comp. Staatsrecht, I. 8 p. 570.)
In the Life of Caesar by Napoleon III (B. 2, ch. 1) it is objected
to this view, first, that the -lex annalis- would point for
Caesar's birth-year not to 652, but to 651; secondly and
especially, that other cases are known where it was not attended
to. But the first assertion rests on a mistake; for, as
the example of Cicero shows, the -lex annalis- required only that at
the entering on office the 43rd year should be begun, not that it
should be completed. None of the alleged exceptions to the rule,
moreover, are pertinent. When Tacitus (Ann. xi. 22) says that
formerly in conferring magistracies no regard was had to age, and
that the consulate and dictatorship were entrusted to quite young
men, he has in view, of course, as all commentators acknowledge,
the earlier period before the issuing of the -leges annales---the
consulship of M. Valerius Corvus at twenty-three, and similar
cases. The assertion that Lucullus received the supreme magistracy
before the legal age is erroneous; it is only stated (Cicero, Acad.
pr. i. 1) that on the ground of an exceptional clause not more
particularly known to us, in reward for some sort of act performed
by him, he had a dispensation from the legal two years' interval
between the aedileship and praetorship--in reality he was aedile in
675, probably praetor in 677, consul in 680. That the case of
Pompeius was a totally different one is obvious; but even as to
Pompeius, it is on several occasions expressly stated (Cicero, de
Imp. Pomp, ax, 62; Appian, iii. 88) that the senate released him
from the laws as to age. That this should have been done with
Pompeius, who had solicited the consulship as a commander-in-chief
crowned with victory and a triumphator, at the head of an army and
after his coalition with Crassus also of a powerful party, we can
readily conceive. But it would be in the highest degree
surprising, if the same thing should have been done with Caesar on
his candidature for the minor magistracies, when he was of little
more importance than other political beginners; and it would be, if
possible, more surprising still, that, while there is mention of
that--in itself readily understood--exception, there should be no
notice of this more than strange deviation, however naturally such
notices would have suggested themselves, especially with reference
to Octavianus consul at 21 (comp., e. g., Appian, iii. 88). When
from these irrelevant examples the inference is drawn, "that
the law was little observed in Rome, where distinguished men were
concerned," anything more erroneous than this sentence was never
uttered regarding Rome and the Romans. The greatness of the Roman
commonwealth, and not less that of its great generals and
statesmen, depends above all things on the fact that the law held
good in their case also.