Part 52 (1/2)
VERGIL AND HORACE
The half century included within the Augustan Age marks a real epoch in the history of Latin literature. The most famous poet of this period was Vergil. The _Aeneid_, which he undertook at the suggestion of Augustus, is his best-known work. In form the poem is a narrative of the adventures of the Trojan hero, Aeneas, [29] but its real theme is the growth of Rome under the fostering care of the G.o.ds. The _Aeneid_, though unfinished at the author's death, became at once what it has always remained--the only ancient epic worthy of comparison with the _Iliad_ or with the _Odyssey._ Another member of the Augustan circle was Vergil's friend and fellow- worker, Horace. An imitative poet, Horace reproduced in Latin verse the forms, and sometimes even the substance, of his Greek models. But, like Vergil, what Horace borrowed he made his own by the added beauty which he gave to it. His _Odes_ are perhaps the most admirable examples of literary art to be found in any language.
LIVY
The most famous prose writer of the Augustan Age was Livy. His _History of Rome_, beginning with Romulus and extending to Augustus, traced the rise and growth of the Roman state during eight centuries of triumphal progress. It did in prose what Vergil's _Aeneid_ had done in verse.
TACITUS
The period of the ”Good Emperors” saw the rise of several important authors, of whom one, the historian Tacitus, was a man of genius. The crowning labor of his life was a history of Rome from Tiberius to Domitian. Of this work, issued under the two t.i.tles of _Histories_ and _Annals_, only about one-half is extant.
SURVIVAL OF ROMAN LITERATURE
Less than two hundred years separate Cicero and Tacitus. During this period Latin authors, writing under the influence of old Greece, accomplished much valuable work. Some of their productions are scarcely inferior to the Greek masterpieces. In later centuries, when Greek literature was either neglected or forgotten in the West, the literature of Rome was still read and enjoyed. Even to-day a knowledge of it forms an essential part of a ”cla.s.sical” education.
97. GREEK ARCHITECTURE
CHARACTERISTICS OF GREEK ARCHITECTURE
The existing monuments of Greek architecture--chiefly ruined temples-- afford some idea of its leading characteristics. The building materials were limestone and white marble. The blocks of stone were not bound together by cement, but by metal clamps which held them in a firm grip. It was usual to color the ornamental parts of a temple and the open s.p.a.ces that served as a background for sculpture. The Greeks did not employ the principle of the arch, in order to cover large s.p.a.ces with a vaulted ceiling. Their temples and other public buildings had only flat ceilings, resting on long rows of columns. The column probably developed from the wooden post or tree trunk used in timber construction. The capital at the top of the column originated in the square wooden slab which supported the heavy beam of the roof.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CORNER OF A DORIC FAcADE]
[Ill.u.s.tration: CORNER OF AN IONIC FAcADE]
THE DORIC COLUMN
The two Greek orders of architecture, Doric and Ionic, [30] are distinguished mainly by differences in the treatment of the column. The Doric column has no base of its own. The st.u.r.dy shaft is grooved lengthwise with some twenty flutings. The capital is a circular band of stone capped by a square block, all without decoration. The mainland of Greece was the especial home of the Doric order. This was also the characteristic style of southern Italy and Sicily.
THE IONIC COLUMN.
The Ionic column rests upon a base. Its shaft is tall and slender. The beautifully carved capital swells outward into two spiral rolls, the ends of which are curled under to form the ”volutes.” The Ionic order flourished particularly in Asia Minor. It was well known, too, at Athens.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CAPITALS The highly decorative Corinthian capital, modeled on acanthus leaves, came into fas.h.i.+on in Alexandrian and Roman times. The Composite capital, as its name indicates, combined details from the Ionic and Corinthian into one ornate whole. This and the plain Tuscan capital were quite generally employed by the Romans.]
NATURE OF THE GREEK TEMPLE
The temple formed the chief structure in a Greek city. It was very simple in outline--merely a rectangular building provided with doors, but without windows. Around it was a single or a double row of columns. Above them rose the architrave, a plain band of ma.s.sive stones which reached from one column to another. Then came the frieze, adorned with sculptured reliefs, then the horizontal cornice, and at the ends of the building the triangular pediments formed by the sloping roof. The pediments were sometimes decorated with statues. Since the temple was not intended to hold a congregation of wors.h.i.+pers, but only to contain the image of the G.o.d, the interior usually had little ornamentation.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PARTHENON RESTORATION PRESENT CONDITION After serving as a temple for about nine centuries the Parthenon was turned into a Christian church and later into a Mohammedan mosque. In 1687 A.D. the Venetians bombarded Athens and sent a sh.e.l.l into the center of the building which the Turks had used as a powder magazine. The result was an explosion that threw down the side walls and many of the columns.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIGURES FROM THE PEDIMENT OF THE PARTHENON]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FROM THE PARTHENON FRIEZE]
[Ill.u.s.tration: CORNER OF THE PARTHENON (RESTORED)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: CARYATID PORCH OF THE ERECHTHEUM]
UNIQUENESS OF THE GREEK TEMPLE