Part 13 (2/2)

As we survey these broken fragain some appreciation of the cruelty of that fate which preserved to posterity the ten tedious books of Lucan's _Pharsalia_, the seventeen books of Silius' _Punica_, and the twelve books of the _Thebaid_ of Statius, but swept away this great work of Roenuine poet--a work rendered triply valuable because it was the first Roe was juststill hness and heaviness, and because of the priceless contribution to Roman antiquities which it could have furnished us

3 PUBLIUS VERGILIUS MARO

We turn froil as from prophecy to fulfilment A hundred years separated the death of the one from the birth of the other, and nearly a century and a half stood between their e of republican literature During this ti literary treasures fro from native Italian sources the riches of ancient folk-lore, customs, traditions, and annals; many minds had pondered over the proble treasures of philosophy And the coed, polished, and enriched the Latin speech, their co the Augustan age, that finished product was reached which we call the golden age of the language and its literature, and to the standard of which we refer all Latinity of earlier or later date

During this period of development the ”inspired” Accius, the iiven to the world those works which won for hiic poet; Lucilius, the father of Ro ie; Varro's tre riculture and Roreat didactic poem upon the Epicurean philosophy; Catullus, an older conteil, had finished his brief literary as well as earthly career before Vergil had well begun to write; and lastly, Cicero, Caesar, and Sallust had wrought in their strong, polished prose for the further perfecting of the Latin speech

With such a birthright was Vergil born; in such a school and froain the equipment for his literary career, which was destined to make him the most brilliant representative of the in was certainly huh to hide him from fate He was born (B C 70) the son of a potter, or as soe near Mantua, in northern Italy, and received his early education in the not far away towns of Creher education, where he acquired the usual accomplishments of the Roman youth His studies fitted him for the profession of the advocate, but not so his nature His one appearance at the bar taught him his utter unfitness for that pursuit, for his natural shyness on that occasion quite overcame him As Ovid tells us of his own experience, the Muses wooed him irresistibly away from the practical pursuits of the ”wordy forum,” and claimed him for their own Nature had e and generous lines, tall, with the genuine Italian swarthiness of hue, sigestive of the purity of character within that the Neapolitans, a whom he loved most to make his home, called him _Parthenias_, ”the maiden-like one” Even after he had attained fareat that the popular notice which he attracted upon the streets was a torture to hie, as Donatus says, ”into the nearest house,” as from a hostile mob

The steps which led our poet from obscurity to fame we cannot trace in detail Local circuht hie of Asinius Pollio, soldier, statesman, and litterateur; he was admitted also to the select circle of Maecenas, to which he hied later to introduce his friend Horace; and Maecenas in turn introduced both these poets, so unlike and yet so firether in the bonds of friendshi+p, to the Eil's oorks, aside from certain minor poeues_, _Georgics_, and the _aeneid_, all coues_ ritten during the period from 43 to 39 B C, and consists of ten bucolic or pastoral poems after the style of the Sicilian Greek poet Theocritus

These poeenuine feeling for nature, and contain many valuable references to the poet hiics_ are, as their na The first book is devoted to the tilling of the soil, the second to the cultivation of the vine and fruit trees, the third to the breeding of cattle, and the fourth to the care of bees The whole shows a e of the subjects treated which only long and loving personal observation could have given The composition of this book occupied the seven years from 37 to 30 B C The as done chiefly at Naples, where he seems to have passed the reatest as his epic poem in twelve books called the _aeneid_, because it relates the story of the Trojan prince aeneas and his followers

This poem, whose ht in co touches froilto continue his travels to Asia also But in Athens he ustus, who easily persuaded hi home to die Always of frail health, the poet's final sickness seized hie, and increased so rapidly that he died shortly after landing at Brundisium, B C 19 His remains were buried in his beloved Naples, where still is proudly pointed out, upon the side of Posilippo hill, the so-called ”toil” A further evidence of the pride which the reat adopted fellonsman is to be seen in the beautiful memorial shrine of white marble which to-day stands to the poet's (and the city's) honor in the _Villa nazionale_, the fail, conscious of the incomplete condition of the _aeneid_, left instructions to Varius and Tucca, his literary executors, to destroy all his unpublished reat loss to the world was prevented by the interference of the emperor, who directed Varius to revise and publish the _aeneid_, which was accordingly done, probably in the year 17 B C

What is the _aeneid_? The Roreatness and glory of the Roman race His heart swelled with renewed pride of citizenshi+p as he read those glorious lines in which world dominion was prorace From bronze or stone shall call the face, Plead doubtful causes, map the skies, And tell when planets set or rise: But, Roman, thou, do thou control The nations far and wide; Be this thy genius, to impose The rule of peace on vanquished foes, Show pity to the huton

But Vergil was not alone an intense patriot He was also ardently attached to the new imperial administration; and he seeether again into harustus' rule the different classes of Ro rent asunder by factional strife and civil war He attelorious past and tracing the hand of destiny in unbroken manifestation from aeneas to Caesar and to Caesar's heir Thus Jupiter is seen pro to Venus for her Trojan descendants ”endless, boundless reign” This glorious reign is to culustus shall inaugurate the Golden Age again

The _aeneid_ itself ustus, for in the vision which is granted to aeneas in the underworld of the long line of his led out for lory of the race that is to be:

This, this is he, so oft the theustus Caesar, God by birth, Restorer of the age of gold In lands where Saturn ruled of old, O'er Ind and Garan, that spans the earth

Look to that land which lies afar, Beyond the path of sun or star, Where Atlas on his shoulder rears The burden of the incuypt e'en now and Caspia hear The muttered voice of many a seer, And Nile's sevenconqueror know

Conington

Such strains as these in the setting of such a poe all that most delicately and most powerfully stimulated the Roman pride of birth and country, would doemperor historic and divine sanction

Perhaps connected with the national character of the _aeneid_ is the strong religious motive which animates the whole Roht of the fact that all has been predestined for ages past aeneas from the first is in the hands of heaven, fated indeed to wander, to endure disappoint, loss that would have tried beyond endurance a lorious destiny And aeneas, like the typical Roman after him, believed in his destiny He calmly consoles his shi+pwrecked friends upon the wild shores of Africa in the face of seely irreparable disaster:

Coers to hardshi+ps already; hearts that have felt deeper wounds! for these too heaven will find a balm Why, men, you have even looked on Scylla in her madness, and heard those yells that thrill the rocks; you have even s of the Cyclops Come, call your spirits back, and banish these doleful fears Who knows but soh h theseour way to Latium, where the Fates hold out to us a quiet settleain frohter days

Conington

The _aeneid_ breathes throughout a tone of reverence for the Gods This is best seen if we contrast Vergil's and Ovid's attitude The latter poet affects a free and easy familiarity with the deities of tradition, whose deeds, adventures, and escapades are told, often with slight reverence, and il's poem the reader enters a stately te reverence for the Gods of heaven, who are to be approached bywise, with veiled face and pure hands; whose power is over all and wielded in righteousness It should be added that the whole sixth book is devoted to an account of the spirit world, where human souls receive their rewards and punishil's poeht to have a decidedly Christian tone, so much so, indeed, that he was revered by the early Christian fathers, who regarded hian There is a tradition of thein honor of St Paul, in which that saint is said to have stood at the toreatest of poets, what a man I should have il's standing with the early church was no doubt ue, in which he foretells the golden age to be inaugurated by the birth of the infant son of Pollio There is a remarkable similarity between the poet's description of the happy ti and the language of the Messianic prophecies of Isaiah

But entirely aside froious, or other characteristics, and so far as its place in the world's literature is concerned, the _aeneid_ is first of all a story It has not, indeed, the sirandeur of the _Iliad_, upon theof nearly a millennium of world-life after Homer's time made that impossible; and it is obviously unfair to compare any product of the refined and artificial society of the Augustan with the product of the sie when the world was young But the _aeneid_ has a grandeur, a grace, a polished beauty all its own; and, coil's poeue

It is the heroic story of the last night of Troy, and the subsequent wanderings of a band of Trojans under aeneas, prince of Troy; their long, vain search for their fate-promised land; their shi+pwreck upon the shores of Africa; their sojourn in Carthage and the love tragedy of Dido and aeneas; their ale of the Trojan exiles against native princes for a foothold in their destined Italy--all a story of heroes and heroic deeds, sketched on broad lines and with a free hand, but worked out with exquisite grace and beauty of detail