Part 24 (2/2)

But many of the warlike incidents in the later books-as for instance the night foray of Nisus and Euryalus, the treacherous wounding of Aeneas, the withdrawal by supernatural agency of Turnus from the battle, the death of Pallas and the effect which that event has on Aeneas, and the final conflict between Turnus and Aeneas-show that Virgil was still following in the footsteps of his original guide. The pa.s.sages, however, which bring out most clearly both this relation of Virgil to Homer and his point of departure from him are those which give an account of the descent into h.e.l.l and describe the s.h.i.+eld of Aeneas. The sixth book of the Aeneid owes its existence to the eleventh book of the Odyssey: but the shadowy conceptions of the Homeric 'Inferno,' suggested by the impulses of natural curiosity and the yearnings of human affection, are enlarged and made more definite, on the one hand, by thoughts derived from Plato, and, on the other, by the proudest memories of Roman history, from the legends of the Alban kings to the warlike and peaceful triumphs of the Augustan Age. The s.h.i.+eld of Achilles presents to the imagination the varied spectacle of human life-sowing and reaping, a city besieged, a marriage festival, etc.; the s.h.i.+eld of Aeneas presents the spectacle of the most momentous crises in the annals of Rome, culminating in the great triumph of Augustus. We note too in the latter pa.s.sage the enhancement of patriotic sentiment by the use of the language and representation of Ennius, as at lines 630634, and the lesson taught of the dependence of national welfare on the observance of religious traditions and of the duties of life sanctioned by religion, in the lines which describe the processions of the Salii and Luperci, and which indicate the punishment awarded to the sin of rebellion and disloyalty in the person of Catiline, and the recognition of civic virtue, even when exercised in defence of a losing cause, in the position a.s.signed to Cato in the nether world-

Secretosque pios, his dantem iura Catonem(492).

The Iliad and the Odyssey are thus seen to be essentially epics of human life; the Aeneid is essentially the epic of national glory. The Iliad indeed is the n.o.blest monument of the greatness, as it is of the genius, of the Greeks. And the Aeneid is much more than a monument of national glory. It is full of pathetic situations and stirring incidents which move our human compa.s.sion or kindle our sympathies with heroic action. But if we ask what are the most powerful sources of interest in the Greek and in the Roman epic respectively, the answer will be that in the first these spring immediately out of human life; in the second they spring out of the national fortunes. And this distinction is generally recognisable in the art, literature, and history of the two nations. This predominance of national interest and the presence of a large element of living modern interest in the treatment of an ancient legend separate the Aeneid still further from the Alexandrine epic and its later Roman imitations. The compliance with the conditions of epic poetry, as established by Homer and confirmed by the great law-giver of Greek criticism, equally separates it from the rude attempts of Ennius and Naevius, and from the poems which treat of historical subjects of a limited and temporary significance, such as the Pharsalia of Lucan and the Henriade of Voltaire. Though Virgil may be the most imitative, he is at the same time one of the most original poets of antiquity. We saw that he had produced a new type of didactic poetry. By the meaning and unity which he has imparted to his Greek, Roman, and Italian materials through the vivifying and harmonising agency of permanent national sentiment and of the immediate feeling of the hour, he may be said to have created a new type of epic poetry-to have produced a work of genius representative of his country as well as a masterpiece of art.

CHAPTER X.

THE AENEID AS THE EPIC OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

I.

The Aeneid, like the Annals of Ennius, is a poem inspired by national sentiment, and expressive of the idea of Rome. But the 'Res Romana(493),'

the growth of which Ennius witnessed and celebrated, had become greatly extended and had a.s.sumed a new form since the epic of the Republic was written. Yet the sentiment of national glory was essentially the same in the age of the elder Scipio and in the age of Augustus, though in the first it may be described as still militant, in the second as triumphant.

In each time the Romans had a firm conviction of their superiority over all other nations, and a firm trust in the great destiny which had attended them since their origin, and still, as they believed, awaited them in the future. The ground on which their national self-esteem rested was their capacity for conquest and government; the result of that capacity was only fully visible after the empire over the world was established.

The pride of empire is thus the most prominent mode in which the national sentiment a.s.serts itself in the poetry of the Augustan Age. In that series of Odes in which the art of Horace becomes the organ of the new government this sentiment finds expression by the mouth of the old enemy of the Roman race, the G.o.ddess Juno:-

Horrenda late nomen in ultimas Extendat oras, qua medius liquor Secernit Europen ab Afro, Qua tumidus rigat arva Nilus.

Quicunque mundi terminus obst.i.tit, Hunc tanget armis, visere gestiens Qua parte debacchentur ignes, Qua nebulae pluviique rores(494).

And while it animates even the effeminate tones of the elegiac poets to a more manly sound, this pride of empire is the dominant mode of patriotic enthusiasm in the Aeneid. Thus, in the very beginning of the poem, Virgil describes the people destined to spring from the remnant of the Trojans as

populum late regem belloque superb.u.m.

To them Jupiter himself promises empire without limit either in time or place:-

His ego nec metas rerum nec tempora pono, Imperium sine fine dedi(495).

In the same pa.s.sage he sums up their greatness in the arts of war and peace in the line

Romanos rerum dominos gentemque togatam(496).

The earliest oracle given to Aeneas in the course of his wanderings contains the promise of universal dominion:-

Hic domus Aeneae cunctis dominabitur oris, Et nati natorum et qui nascentur ab illis(497).

The sacred images of the G.o.ds who are partners of his enterprise make a similar announcement to him:-

Nos tumidum sub te permensi cla.s.sibus aequor, Idem venturos tollemus in astra nepotes, Imperiumque urbi dabimus(498).

In the fourth book Jupiter, who appears rather as contemplating the future course of affairs than as actively influencing it, speaks of Aeneas in these words:-

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