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Tibullus I: Theme And Technique: "Di Tibi Divitias Dederunt"

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Tibullus I: Theme And Technique: "Di Tibi Divitias Dederunt"

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Content TIBULLUS I: THEME A N D TECHNIQUE: PI TIBI PIVITIAS DEDERUNT by Ralph Conrad Barrett A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCH O O L UN IV ERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DO CTO R OF PHILOSOPHY (Classics) January 1974 74-9053 BARRETT, Ralph Conrad, 1933- TIBULLUS I: THEM E AND TECHNIQUE: DI TIBI DIVITIAS DEDERUNT. ------------ U n iv e rsity o f Sotuhern C a lif o r n ia , Ph.D ., 1974 Language and L i te r a t u r e , c la s s ic a l University Microfilms, A X E R O X Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan © 1974 RALPH CONRAD BARRETT ALL RIGHTS RESERVED T H IS D IS S E R T A T IO N H A S B E E N M I C R O F I L M E D E X A C T L Y A S R E C E IV E D . UNIVERSITY O F SO U TH ER N CALIFORNIA TH E GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY PARK LOS ANGELES. C ALIFORNIA 9 0 0 0 7 This dissertation, written by . . . . . . . . . . . . .E A L P . H . . . C O J i l R A J ? . . . B A B R E T . T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . under the direction of h.i § „. Dissertation Com m ittee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by The Graduate School, in partial fulfillm ent of requirements of the degree of D a te .D .M ^ A j.A .hl3J3.... D IS S E R T A T IO N C O M M IT T E E D O C T O R O F P H IL O S O P H Y o Dean Chairman Edwardo Meridiano O'Neilio viro docto atque dicendi perito | P R E F A C E i ; ! I The R om an elegiac poet Tibullus has recently begun to lassume a more important role in Latin scholarship. For icenturies scholars and general readers alike have looked | upon his poems as li t t l e more than pleasant reading. T o some critics these elegies have even been "dreamy, weak, anemic." i . : Tibullus lacks the passionate intensity of the young j i Propertius or the learned ostentation of that poet's later j books . H e lacks 'the clever frivolity of Ovid and the simple! elegance with which Horace adorned his Odes. And of course ; ihe falls far short of Vergil's stately grandeur, j Yet Tibullus has his ow n a rt, his ow n style and the- |matic concept. H e has taken themes and techniques of older ; poets and used them in a new way. H e has added something of his ow h quiet reverence for the old R om an gods, his ow n i ' i yearning for peaceful retirement, his ow n lacrimae rerum. and from his unique blend of the traditional and the personal he has created a small body of poetry that is at once more subtle and more a rtis tic than past c ritic s have realized. | Recent scholars have begun to recognize some of the a rtis tic complexities in Tibullus' poems, but for the most part they have concentrated their attention on individual poems. They have not yet attempted to analyze his work as a| | iwhole or even to examine an entire book. That is the in dention of this study: to examine the a rtis tic unity of :Tibullus 1 Book I. The basic assumption made here is that Book I has one jcentral theme and that the theme is d iv itia e . A further i i I .assumption is that the poet deliberately announces this jtheme in his opening verse: | Divitias alius fulvo sib i congerat auro I The firs t proof of this assumption takes the form of a j 'brief survey of Greek and R om an literatu re to show how the ;Homeric techniques of announcing the theme and invoking a jdeity in the opening lines became standard practice in a l- j I jmost every subsequent genre. The practice of later poets t I . ! |w ho published books of collected poems also receives atten- j tion. The survey shows that these poets used certain key positions to restate or revise the central theme of the book, and these positions are regularly the f ir s t, middle, and concluding poems. The second proof is a survey of the general theme of ploutos and d iv itia e. The whole subject of wealth, greed, 'miserliness, and the faults which result are standard themes in every period of Greek and Latin literatu re from the times of H om er and Hesiod. Moreover, am ong the philos ophers, and in particular among the Stoics, a canon-like grouping came into existence. In this group divitiae is the generic term, the "root of the evil," so to speak. The faults that spring from the "root" emerge as a v a ritia . ambitio. luxuria. and su p erstitio . These faults f ir s t appear as a group in Horace's Ser- mones I I .3, and i t is this poem that seems to have given iTibullus the idea for using divitiae as the central theme of his fir s t book. A n analysis of the book demonstrates that o n e or more of the faults caused by divitiae appears as a major theme in each of the ten poems. ! These moral themes help to create a verisimilitude in v Tibullus' poetry by giving substance to the erotic subject and motivation to the characters . They also provide a I Ivehicle for moral instruction. Reverence for tradition and ja longing for old R om an morality: these are the two domi- i ;nant themes of Augustan literatu re, and by his constant use | of both Tibullus stands out as a true R om an poet of the Augustan Age. | T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S j ! Page i DEDICATION..................................................................................................................... i i ! PREFACE......................................................................................................................................i i i i ! Chapter ! I. P R O O E M IA : T H E M E S A N D TECHNIQUES................................... 1 I | II. T H E M A T IC U N IT Y IN R O M A N E L E G Y .............................................. 65 I | | III. DIVITIAE: T H E M E A N D MORAL.........................................................101 ! f ! IV. T H E M A T IC U N IT Y O F T IB U L L U S I ....................................................143 i I list of W O R K S C O N S U L T E D .................................................................................... 185 vii i i C H A P T E R I 1 i | P R O O E M IA ; T H E M E S A N D T E C H N IQ U E S j Every writer of fiction by the very nature of his craft must create an a rtific ia l world in vdiich his characters can m ove within a set of controlled situations. Thus the readerj I l m ay watch and examine, analyze and appreciate the develop- j ment of the characters as they react to prosperity and | l i adversity. H e shares their hatreds and joys, their suc cesses, their disappointments and m ay even shed a tear if some sympathetic character meets an untimely end. Fictional literatu re m ay provide the reader with only a temporary escape from his world of reality . Such is the role of most novels of mystery and detection and of science fiction. Yet m any novels go farther. They offer comments jon social ills , on changing times and altered values. The writer m ay preach or praise, deride or chastise any aspect of his ow n world by recreating i t in the a rtific ia l world of his ow n fiction.'*' j Every c ritic of modern literatu re accepts such tech niques without question. In fact, th eir absence causes j jsurprise and despair. Without some didactic purpose a novel; or a play or a poem cannot be literatu re in the eyes of the j c ritic . Indeed, the highly sensitive and overly eager c ritic often finds a composition's message when none is intended. W hy, then, has i t taken critics of Greek and Latin literatu re so long to realize that ancient w riters, too, hadj similar purposes? A p artial answer is that the compositions! j of these writers came fir s t into the hands of historians and others w ho searched everywhere for facts about the ancient s world. Not only were the histories of Herodotus and Thucy- | ! dides, of Livy and Tacitus dissected for information on ancient periods, but H om er became a primary source for the j early ages, the tragedians provided data for fifth-century i Athens, Horace's poems became documents to illu stra te the 1 reign of Augustus, and Petronius' Satyricon expounded on Nero's world. ] N o w there is nothing wrong with such studies. They are; i necessary and inevitable, but for too m any centuries such ! exercises were an end in themselves. Thus classical scholarship produced m any competent, even b rillia n t, Greek j land R om an historians. Palaeography and textual criticism 'developed as highly specialized fields, and every scrap of I information about public and private antiquity was gathered j jand catalogued. N o page was le ft unturned in an effort to ! j jreconstruct those ancient civilizations, and a ll the time |the imaginary worlds of the Greek and R om an writers remained; i ! 2 i jvirtually unexplored. j In time, of course, attitudes changed, especially to ward the poets. H om er became not only the chronicler of the; Mycenaean Age but a teacher of morals, of philosophy and ! | Ireligion. Theocritus became more than a singer of pastoral j jlays, and new depths were found in the lyrics of Catullus I i 3 i jand Horace, in Seneca's tragedies and Ovid's Metamorphoses. ; Yet only recently have critics begun to suspect that R om an Elegy, too, offers more than brief expressions of som e; jerotic or frustrated experience, except in such obvious I jcases as Book IV of Propertius and Tibullus I I .5. The in dispensable edition of Propertius by Barber and Butler con tains an introduction which spends most of its time trying to find some cohesion in Propertius' affair with Cynthia. jT he authors assumed that these poems were autobiographical jand despaired when they were forced to acknowledge incon- i t 5 sistencies in the poet's love life . I 4 j Kirby Flower Smith devoted m uch of his commentary on Tibullus to grammar and diction, to matters of R om an re li- jgion, and to his searches for information on the lives of I 6 * Tibullus, Delia, Nemesis, and Messalla. A nd poor Ovid! |N o one has even tried in the last sixty years to write any | j jsort of commentary on his love poetry. H e m ay be most read | in the world, but he is least understood. ! 7 I A new day, however, m ay be at hand. The chapters on the elegiac poets in J. P. Sullivan's C ritical Essays on i i R om an Literature; Elegy and Lyric have at last made i t | ; (clear that the c ritic can no longer be content to point out ; ; I i ! (an echo of H om er or Callimachus in a line of Propertius or j i g i (Tibullus or Ovid. It is not enough to find an allusion to j (a newly repealed law, a general's campaign, or the seating I 0 ' .arrangement in the Circus Maximus. The elegiac poets, like! itheir counterparts in epic and drama, created imaginary (worlds in which lover confronts mistress and riv al, yearns (for peace amid the turmoil of the world about him, yet still! ifinds the time to deplore the ills of his day and to suggestj I (reforms. In short, the elegiac poet considered himself as m uch a teacher as was the epic poet. H om er created a world (of heroes and gods in order to formulate the relationship (between the two. Vergil followed the master but added R om an I 5 t mores. The elegiac poets concerned themselves with less •lofty relationships and concentrated on the com m on m an and j jhis daily existence. Yet, if the elegiac themes are more dow n to earth, if ! i jthey concentrate on man's daily life , his joys and sadness, i I jhis temptations and weaknesses, the poet was s t i l l well enough versed in the themes and techniques of his prede cessors to imitate them or adapt them to his ow n needs. From H om er writers of almost every poetic genre learned to concentrate on some moral theme, some guide for moral behavior. A nd they taught their readers to expect from the i jvery beginning of the work an indication of what the unify- i jing theme was to be. Thus the "Wrath of Achilles" was i | Homer's theme in the Iliad, and he informed his audience of j I jthis fact in his opening lines : i | i M fjviv aei6e, 0ecx, IlriX T i’ C d S ea) ’AxiAfjoq i I i The next six verses sketch the causes of the hero's wrath and give some indication of its effect on friends and foes alike, and the opening passage concludes by indicating at what point in the sequence of events the story begins. i ! The number of analyses and studies of the Iliad are legion. Scholars have examined every word in the poem and ifroxn every conceivable point of view. They have sought to Iprove that individual episodes and passages were borrowed, ithat the blending of isolated lays was a late and arbitrary , I ' i arrangement. Yet, when a ll is said and done, the over-all ( | structure of the Iliad is clear, and it is the theme l q I | |which determines the main divisions of the narrative. I ! The f ir s t eight books deal primarily with the ju s tifi- | i i able wrath of Achilles w ho resents Agamemnon's high-handed j actions and remains in camp, aloof from the b attle. After ! i j Achilles rejects Agamemnon's public apology, his wrath be- j ; jcom es unjustified by heroic standards . Achilles ' sulking | ! jin Books 6-16 causes grief and hardship and death to m any of) i : i i jhis Greek comrades. Even after Patroclus' death and Achil- i le s ' tearful reconciliation with A gam em non and the other j | j (Greek leaders the hero's wrath is unheroic and unnatural. | j jit causes Achilles to lament excessively over the fallen | j Patroclus and later to dishonor the body of Hector. A s w e i ; read these pages of the Iliad, w e feel an ever-growing sensed ! i of horror as Achilles becomes wilder and wilder in his wrath. Then the gods intervene and bring Priam to the i ! I . j hero's ten t. The tension grows until suddenly, at the sightj j : of this old and piteous king, the hero breaks dow n and washes 1 : j j his wrath away with cleansing tears. His wrath is over, and! jso too is the Iliad, which soon thereafter closes with 'Priam's return to Troy where "they held the funeral for j I ! ' I Ihorse-taming Hector." | I : i i The Odyssey employs the same technique. H om er has j i i lindicated the main theme with the opening line: "A v & p o c (lot { > i ievveite, n-oOaa, T toX uxpoT tov . . . It is the "m an of m any j | j iresources" w ho gives unity to this poem. The firs t four ! i i i ■ I books, with their description of disorder in Ithaca and ; ! I Telemachus1 helplessness to cope with the suitors, emphasize; the need for a resourceful man. That Odysseus himself is j I ! ! just such a m an is the theme of Books 6-12 where the hero overcomes a series of disasters, each of which is far more d ifficu lt than anything he must face at home. Then, after his return to Ithaca in Book 13, w e follow the hero step by step as he answers the domestic challenges with his T toX uxpoT tC a and, with Athena, the goddess of wisdom, ever ! at his side, recovers his wife and family, his throne and | possessions. i ! Brief as the discussion of the thematic structure of j i bhe Iliad and Odyssey has been, m uch of it m ay seem un- i j necessary. Everyone knows that H om er began with the sta te - i i xient of his theme and an invocation. Everyone knows that all later epic poets followed H om er in these techniques and j 8 !• , . _ 1 0 j i n m a n y m o r e besides. 1 i Thus Apollonius began his Argonautica: ! 'ApvonevoQ a to, rax\atyEv6(ov H \6 a ^ c p u > T U )v nvtiao|ioa, ot IIovToto h c x tc x axona wal 6ta tcetpocq Kuaveaq |3cxcu\f)og ecprnioauvi^ IleXtdo j xpudeiov (ieTa koxxq eu£uyov fj\adav A pyco. | Here the poet opened with the invocation and then, after |identifying the cast, concluded his brief introduction with the purpose of the voyage and identified the main m ember of the cast with the last word, ’A p y d i). V ergil's A rm a virumque cano. Ovid's In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas / corpora are too famous and too apt as openings to require discussion here. Nor is there any doubt that later poets followed epic tradition. Lucan's D e Bello C ivili begins: I j Bella per Emathios plus quam civ ilia campos j Iusque datum sceleri canimus. S tatiu s' Thebaid; Fraternas acies alternaque regna profanis decertata odiis sontesque evolvere Thebasj Pierius menti calor incidit. His Achilleid: ! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - M agnanim um Aeaciden formidatamque Tonanti progeniem et patrio vetitam succedere caelo, diva, refer. Silius Ita lic u s' Bellum Punicum: Ordior arma, quibus caelo se gloria to llit ! Aeneadum patiturque ferox Oenotria iura \ Carthago. And Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica: j Prima deum magnis canimus freta pervia natis fatidicamque ratem, Scythici quae Phasides oras ausa sequi mediosque inter iuga concita cursus ! rumpere, flammifero tandem consedit Olympo. i i Thus Valerius followed Apollonius and composed his intro- J i duction in four lin es. j There are of course several later epics which could be listed here, but to show how universal this opening tech nique had become, m any centuries later Claudius began his D e Raptu Proserpina with Inferni raptoris equos adflataque curru sidera Taenario caligantesque profundae Iunonis thalamos audaci promere cantu mens congesta iubet. j i And, to leave antiquity entirely, w ho does not know Milton's! j i Of Man's F irst Disobedience, and the Fruit | Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste j Brought Death into the World, and a ll our woe, j With loss of Eden, t i l l one greater M an j Restore us, and regain the blissfu l Seat, j Sing Heav'nly Muse, . . . j j i W hat is the point of this series of quotations? To j io : |point out that epic poets of every age, from Hom er to Mil ton, have adhered to the pattern and opened with a statement! jof the poem's main theme and with an invocation to a muse or; to some appropriate deity. These epic poets, certainly the j early ones, became the firs t teachers in the art of writing.! i | jPoets of other genres followed their lead and used the same I ! i type of opening. j j The firs t to follow H om er was Hesiod with his didactic j ; ' I poems, Theogony and W orks and Days. S trictly speaking, of course, didactic is not a separate literary genre. It is a j | term used for convenience's sake to designate such works as j Hesiod's two major poems, the hexameters of the Ionian j I 1 | | 'philosophers, Dionysius' Periergetes. or, on the Latin side,! iLucretius' D e Rerum Natura. Vergil's Georgies. Manilius' j I ; i i l Astronomica. i I : j Yet, assuming that such works do comprise a true liter-! jary genre, w e must consider Hesiod as the earliest poet in the tradition and turn fir s t to an examination of his poems.; Strange as i t seems at f ir s t, didactic poets, w ho after; jail had instruction as their avowed purpose, appear to have ! f : i 1 jdevoted more introductory space to invocations than to ex- j jplicit statements of theme. In the Theogonv the extensive jinvocation is probably due to the nature of the Theogonic j I ......'.............. '....................... 11 ^tradition, for although Hesiod's poem is no incantation, i t ; ;is a poem based on a tradition of ritu a l and incantation.’ ^'1 ' j i j iYet, even in the face of such restrictions, the poet managesj I ' ! ! I jto insert into his long and varied invocation an explicit j Istatement of the poem's theme. H e calls upon the M uses to grant him inspiration (32-33): . . . tva H\eCoin,L xa x’ eca6p.eva up o x ’ eovxa. I h o o l n.’ EHeXovS’ tip.vetv nandpwv yevog a L ev eovxwv. j i j | i I A nd he repeats these themes, s t i l l as a part of his lengthy j invocation, in lines 103-111. The situation in the W orks and Days is at once more i I jcomplex and more clear cut. Som e have asserted that the I 12 i jfirst ten lines are interpolated. Our thesis is not j i I 'seriously affected either by discarding or retaining the j passage. If the lines are genuine, Hesiod opened with a j j | moderately long invocation before stating his theme. If, on' ! I the other hand, the poem begins with line 11, Hesiod has ■ begun with the theme, for "Eris" is the idea that tie s this j jwhole poem together, including the section on ’ ’ Works." H e | ! s begins: i 0\)K apa liouvov er\v ’EpC Sw v yevog, aXX'sTil yauxv J etca 6ua). | j A nd the rest of this passage, through verse 26, defines, j ; ' 12 j i ! ^explains, and gives examples of the two types of "rivalry." ; jThat such a theme actually serves to bind a ll sections of j jthis poem seems obvious, but there are problems. W e suggest: | | jthat, despite the m any studies which have already been made j i i on the W orks and Days. there is room for one more. But this I i is not the place to make such an investigation. W e must ; re stric t ourselves to the matter at hand: that didactic poets, too, found i t expedient to make an explicit statement of theme early in their poems. In a different sp irit but in the same tradition Aratus, too, begins his Phaenomena with a lengthy invocation. It is not until verses 17-18 that he reveals his theme: . . . enoC y s M -e v daxepa^ e Lk e T v | ^ 0ep.i,Q E uxonevt}) T E H |j.r|paT E uaaav aoi&r|v. i And, as everyone knows, in the verses that follow, Aratus j enumerates the constellations and concludes with the various I weather signs. ! i ! The same tradition is apparent among the R om an poets of I bidactic verse. Lucretius opens his D e Rerum Natura, de spite only a grudging admission that gods exist, with an invocation to Venus: ! i 1 ! Aeneadum genetrix, hominum divomque voluptas, ; alma Venus, i 13 j i ! I : land in verses 24-25 calls upon the goddess to help him write! | i jhis theme: ! j te sociam studeo scribendis versibus esse quos ego de rerum natura pangere conor. j j Then, as m any R om an writers were wont to do, Lucretius also j inserted the name of his (hoped-for) patron in the next j i line; j | i Memniadae nostro, quern tu, dea, tempore in omni omnibus ornatum voluisti excellere rebus. In the Georgies. Vergil seems to adhere more closely to epic tradition than to didactic, for he places his themes f ir s t, with an immediate reference to his patron, before | {m aking a long invocation: | Quid faciat laetas segetes, quo sidere terram vertere, Maecenas, ulmisque adjungere vites conveniat, quae cura bovum, qui cultus habendo s it pecori, apibus quanta experientia parcis, hinc canere incipiam. In these verses, as many have noted, w e have a brief table I I of contents for the Georgies. The subject for each of the ! I four books is given: tilla g e , planting, the rearing of j 1 cattle, and bee-keeping. j Manilius, too, begins his Astronomica with an explicit ! statement of theme before he addresses and invokes Caesar: i I ; ! ................. .......................................'............................." ........... 14 i 1 I Carmine diuinas artes et conscia fa ti j | sidera diuersos hominum variantia casus, ; ; caelestis rationis opus, deducere mundo j | aggredior primusque nouis Helicona mouere cantibus et uiridi nutantis uertice silvas hospita sacra ferens n u lli memorata priorum. |t1 ius the poet from the fir s t announces not only his theme jbut the interpretation which he w ill give i t . His is the ! j Stoic view of the universe where fate and stars join to j {determine man's destiny. Throughout the poem he stresses j I j ;his belief that everything is the work of heavenly reason land that a world-spirit regulates every part of the uni- j i i verse. There are m any other didactic poems which could have 1 ibeen included in this brief study, but i t would not have ! J | {remained b rief. Such poems as G rattius' Cynegetica. Neme- | f i l ! jsianus' poem on the same subject, the Aetna. and the tenth I ' i ; book of Columella's D e Re Rustica could be examined, but i i j such additions would merely be repetitions. Long before the! ^ R o m an s began to write didactic poems, the techniques had I ! been established. They simply adopted them and made such j j i i . minor changes as circumstances demanded. The third genre, in point of time, is ly ric. Such poets as Eumelus and Terpander cannot have lived m uch later { I I jthan Homer, or at least than Hesiod, and even Aleman, j I 15 ! i : jsappho, Alcaeus, Stesichorus, etc. belong to the early per- , |iod of Greek literatu re. | Yet what do w e really know of their poetry? W e have ! ! fragments and an occasional testimonium. In the case of I | Alcaeus, Sappho, Anacreon, and Simonides the fragments are | i jnumerous. But these are s t i l l imperfect examples of their j poetry. Even when w e have the rare poem that is complete, j ( i t is but an isolated expression of an emotion or event, a I ! description of some person or object. These momentary j iglimpses do not permit us to affirm or deny the possibility j that Greek lyric poets followed earlier poetry in using the invocation and statement of theme. j | The earliest examples of complete books of lyric poetryI i ! jare late and Roman. B y that time even these poets were j using the two techniques. Whether or not they were follow- j ing earlier Greek models must be a matter of conjecture. Ini I | Jany case, because our examples belong to the R om an period, iw e must logically postpone discussion of lyric poetry. j i The practice of Athenian dramatists is m uch too d iffi- j i cult a subject to be treated here. Indeed, in m any ways, itj j ! might prove to be a fu tile study. Tragic, even comic, j : themes are too complicated, too involved with other matters jto provide us with clear-cut, unassailable proof that these | ! 16 | ipoets did or did not use epic techniques. A nd yet, a random; I j i _ ; (survey suggests that some such argument could be formulated.! O ne example must suffice here: Aeschylus' Suppliant Maidens. The Prologue and Parodos (w . 1-175) are in effect! one long and elaborate invocation to Zeus. Then the firs t i I i j Episode opens with the words of Danatis (w . 176-179) which j he addresses to his daughters: j | raxi&sg, cppovetv xpV cppovouvxi & ’ fptete I 7 ucjt( 3 yepovTi t w & e vaunX ripu) Tiaxpl. j nal Taul 7 xpopr)0iav X a |3 d > v j atvw cpuX a^at, T ap .* eitr\ SEXxoupsvag. j The g irls reply (w . 204-2 06) with words that obviously echo! their father's instructions: T t& X E p , c p p O V O U T W Q T lp O Q cpgovouvxag EWETtsig. (puXaEopat &s xaa6e jxepv^oSat a s 0sv^ ns&vag scpsxpag. Zsug be ye\>vr\xwp 1601. | i i i The repeated use of qppovsiv and its kindred forms is a! clear indication that this idea is one of the major themes ! of the play. Aeschylus has emphasized i t by inserting i t in! the fir s t speech of both father and daughters. H e also sets i I i t off and brackets i t with two invocations to Zeus (w. 1- ! 175 and again at 2 06). I Thus Aeschylus, the most Homeric of the dramatists, has’ ! ; i i clearly adapted epic techniques to his Suppliant Maidens. ! 1 7 ; jDid he use the same devices in other plays? Did Sophocles ;and Euripides follow his lead? These are subjects for janother project. W e must, however, turn our attention here i ' ■ i ; |to other forms of composition. I i History may, however, seem more removed from epic than | jdrama i s . Yet in m any ways historians are concerned with j ! I jthe same problems as epic poets. In fact, Quintilian ob- | served (X.1.31): Est enim proxima poetis et quodam m odo carmen solutum, et scribitur ad narrandum non ad probandum, totumque opus non ad actum re i pugnamque praesentem, sed ad memoriam posteritatis et ingenii fam am componitur; ideoque et verbis remotioribus et liberioribus figuris narrandi taedium e v ita t. W here H om er created a world and peopled it with legendary j { i jfigures, Herodotus sought to interpret the real world. Both| ! i jthe poet and the historian were concerned with mankind's ! jweakness and the role of gods in mortal affairs. Yet Herodotus m ay be said to have enlarged upon the theme, for jhe sought to analyze divine power not only on individuals ! but on whole states as w ell. In any case, a brief survey of the major historians preveals some influence of epic techniques upon both Greek and R om an h istorical writings. This debt is made obvious by Livy's remark at the end of his firs t Preface (sec. 13): I C u m bonis potius ominibus votisque et precationibus | deorum dearumque, s i, ut poetis, nobis quoque m os | esset, libentius inciperemus, ut orsis tantum operis successus prosperos darent. Thus h isto rical writing does not use the epic invocation. Livy's ow n allusion here is the closest expression of such Ian invocation in the writings of the major historians. Notice, however, that he does not deny, or even refer to, the opening statement of theme. But he uses i t . After an in itia l disclaimer, expressed in words that create the opening of a dactylic hexameter (though not a good one): j Facturusne operae pretium sim. he states the theme of his j jwork: a primordio urbis res populi Romani: and later (sec. j |9) he outlines the moral theme to be examined: I | ad ilia mihi pro se quisque acriter intendat animum, quae v ita, qui mores fuerint, per quos viros quibusque artibus domi militiaeque et partum et auctum imperium s it; labente deinde paulatim disciplina velut desiden- tis primo mores sequatur animo, deinde ut magis magisque lapsi sin t, turn ire coeperint praecipites, donee ad haec tempora quibus nec v itia nostra nec remedia pati possumus perventum e s t. Livy clearly believed that he had composed a great prose epic, worthy to take its place alongside Vergil's I Aeneid. H e both alluded to epic techniques and employed them in his opening section. In doing so, he did not make a ! i j radical departure from the precedents set by earlier Greek I historians. j ! Herodotus, as we suggested earlier, shared with the poets similar themes and appears to have followed their leadj in stating his subject at the beginning of his composition. After identifying himself and his sources, he states his theme and purpose: j i Ac nf|Te xa y ev 6 |iev a e£ av0pumu)v^x5) xpova) Egtxr)Xa ysvT )xat, |i,r|TE sp ya lisyaXa te Hat (jwitaaxa, xa |xev i "EXXtiol xa Be PapBapotat a7to& sx0evxa, aHXsa^ysvTixat, xd xe aXXcs n a t 6 t t^v atxCijv ETtoXEjrHcrav aXXr)Xotat. The purpose, even some of the wording, naturally reminds one of Thucydides 1 opening remarks: eoUHU&C&TlQ ’ A0T)VatOQ £uVEypa<l>E XOV TtoXSjlOV xw v riEXoTtovvTiaCwv n a t ’ A0TivaCa)v wq E T toX snriaav TtpoQ i aX\f)\ouQ. . . . H e then briefly outlines the early history of Greece before turning in chapter 22 to a discussion of his methods and finally his purpose: Soot B e pouXrjoovxat x ffiv xe yevoiievwv xo aacp E Q O H O H E tv ! nat x < 3 v (x eX X o v x co v tioxe au0tQ naxa xd^av0pamtvov t % j xotouxwv Hat T tapaT tX 'nataJv £asa0at, uxpEX tjia npCystv aftxa dpnouvxwQ si^Et. Hxn|id xe eg a tst uaX X ov dydvtap-a eq xo T i;a p a x p T lM ’ a anoustv ^Ovnstxat . - * - 4 Xenophon's Hellenica. because i t was designed to con tinue Thucydides' history, as his famous opening clearly shows, has no introductory statement of theme. Nor, it must be admitted, does the Anabasis identify a theme. Indeed, ;one can with some justification argue that this work has no j j : literary or moral message. Such is not the case with the i ! I Cyropaedia. Even a casual reading of the Preface to Book I ; jreveals Xenophon's basic purpose. H e begins with a general 1 jdiscussion of rulers and the instability of governments, | I t jm oves on to mankind and its general resentment of authority,! i and finally concentrates on a specific example that is actu~: ally an exception to the rule. Most rulers govern only with! I great difficultyj not so in the case of Cyrus. Thus Cyrus the Great is worthy of study, and Xenophon concludes his | ! jpreface (sec. 6): | i I *H|xetc (lev 6f| < S ) Q a£iov ovta 0aun&£ea0ou t o O t o v t o v s ocv6pa eOHety&\iEQ(x t X q tc o t’ u>v ysvECtv nat T toC av Tiva i cpucfiv e^wv nat u o Ccjc Tivl uai6eCcx 7iat6eu0^i,Q t o o o u t o v I 6tf)V EY H ev sic t o apxel v c x v O p w T ic o v . Scra^ouv E7tu06p.E0a nat T|a0fja0at 6oH oO |i.ev Tcspt auToO, TauTa i 7tEtpaao|iE0a 6tr)Yf)oad0ai. j O ne m ay reasonably argue that this paragraph identifies the i I I Isubject matter of the Cyropaedia rather than the theme, but ! ! when the six paragraphs of the Preface are taken as a whole,! jone cannot help but feel that the author has given not only ! j | jhis subject matter but his theme as well. There is a lesson i i (here for the Athenians who, in the opinion of the Spartan i I .................. '.................................................................................................................. 2 1 ... i jsympathizer, had carried freedom too far. W e cannot, how- I jever, deny that Xenophon has ignored tradition and omitted I ja specific statement of theme. | That R om an historians fe lt the influence of epic tra dition has already been shown in the discussion of Livy's Preface. Even Caesar's Gallic Wars. which earned Cicero's praise as a work too good to be classified merely as a 15 source for historians, begins with the subject if not the theme: Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres . That his Civil W ar lacks such an opening is probably due to 16 the fact that i t was never completed. Introductions are jwritten la st. ! Sallust, like Xenophon in the Cyropaedia. gives a lengthy discussion of general conditions in the Prefaces to I his Catiline and Jugurtha. In both works his primary con cern is to show how ambitio. a v aritia. and luxuria have 17 jbrought about the decay of virtus . In each case, after the general discussion, the author chooses a specific series of events to exemplify his moral observations. Yet, as in j jthe case of the Cyropaedia, there is no formal, no succinct f iexpression of the theme. N o opening phrase stands in bold r ............................................................................. 22 jrelief to prepare the reader for a specific attitude, i Sallust had a great influence upon Tacitus, but so too ; Idid Livy. The opening words of the Annals seem to echo i I ig |Livy's Preface: Urbem R o m am a principio reges habuere. These words, as noted earlier, also form the beginning of a j S i I ! (dactylic hexameter. Furthermore, Urbem R om am . like Caesar's^ ! i iGallia est omnis. is really the theme of the Annals. Wher- j ever in the whole world R om an legions were campaigning, ! jwherever R om an governors and other officials were operating,! i I I ’ ! i jthat place was the property of R om e the City. The R om an ! i jemperors were f ir s t of a ll rulers of R om e, and i t was in the i jcapitol that most important decisions were made. R om e was I i jthe center of the world, and R om e is the central theme of i S i ! 19 I ‘ Tacitus ' Annals . j j j j M any other histories could be added to this lis t, and i i ! i i jm any other prose compositions. Cicero, for example, begins i jhis D e Natura Deorum with an explicit statement of the sub- j i iject: | i i j ! j C u m multae res in philosophia nequaguam satis adhuc j | explicatae sin t, turn p e rd iffic ilis, Brute, quod tu I minime ignoras, et perob-scura quaestio est de natura j i deorum . . . j 1 | jA n d Seneca reveals his subject of the D e Clementia even j ;earlier: Scribere de clementia. Nero Caesar . . . A nd the! lis t could be expanded a hundredfold. Yet these few exam- Iples must suffice. They prove that the epic tradition con- j jtinued to exert its influence even on prose genres. These j authors do not always follow the tradition as closely as th eir poetic counterparts, but enough examples remain to i show that the technique did not die. It reached the Rom ans : i virtually in ta c t. I I ! ! j N ow , before turning to those poetic genres which are j closer to elegy, w e must retrace our steps one la st time and! turn to the Hellenistic period and to the literary forms | 20 I developed m this period. Pastoral poetry, as a separate literary genre, is a ! ! jcontribution of the Hellenistic period. Under the name of j i ! jTheocritus, the acknowledged "Father of Pastoral Poetry," j | i jsom e th irty Idylls have survived. M any of these, however, ! ! i i 1 lare clearly by other authors and s t i l l more m ay not be ! [Theocritean. Only matters of style and vocabulary, syntax ! i ; l ; land subject matter can be used to study the problem of I ' authenticity. The arrangement of the poems is no help. j i Lawall, however, has advanced the idea that Idylls 1-7 ! were "apparently produced and published as a single poetry 21 book ..." If he is correct, the "Coan Pastorals" of i : I i jTheocritus do not show traditional opening techniques. This; 24 ; jfact m ay be an argument against Lawall's idea, but not I , ‘ necessarily. The point is that Pastoral poetry seeks to icreate an atmosphere of naivete, of spontaneous singing and : j i ifriendly, chance meetings. To arrange the individual poems j in an obvious sequence, to give them unity by a logical or I a rtific ia l development of a theme would destroy the charac- | te ris tic simplicity that is one of the chief attractions of ! pastoral poetry. Thus Theocritus did not begin with a 22 statement of theme or with an invocation to a deity, nor j did the later Greek bucolic poets, Bion and Moschus. ! i Vergil, however, because he seems to have planned a more ambitious type of pastoral poetry, made a more obvious i I use of traditional techniques. There are m any examples of i ' ; allegory, of double entente. The poems seem better struc- j i ; |tured, and the ten m ay be arranged in a definite pattern. : In any case, there is general agreement that the ten Ec- i loques were published as a book and therefore constitute thei I 2 3 i earliest book of poems that has reached us intact. Thus i t m ay be more than coincidence that the f ir s t j word of Eclogue I is Tityre. The nam e appears twice in Theocritus' poems (Idylls III and VII) and, according to 24 G ow , is one that is appropriate to a rustic setting. Con-| j ; jsequently, w e m ay reasonably suggest that Vergil began his i .............................................................. ' 25 fir s t poem by identifying not only his main character but j the poetic genre as well, and he emphasizes his point in the; second line. Thus the fir s t two lines provide us with an- I i ! j other example vdiere a poet has used the epic technique of ! opening with the theme: i I ! - ; } Tityre, tu patulae recubans sub tegmine fagi silvestrem tenui m usam meditaris avena. 25 There is also, in the manner of later imperial verse, a I reference to the Princeps as a god (vv. 6-10) : 0 Meliboee, deus nobis haec otia fe c it. namque e rit ille mihi semper deus, illiu s aram ! saepe tener nostris ab ovilibus imbuet agnus. ille meas errare boves, ut cernis, et ipsum ludere quae vellem calamo permisit agresti. Notice, too, that this invocation concludes with another reference to the genre: calamo . . . ag resti.26 | ! i Yet, even if we agree that Vergil has made a deliberate! I i use of the two epic techniques here, they seem veiled and j isom ehow different. The casual atmosphere, so essential to j j pastoral poetry, was more important to the poet than any j i I i formal technique, however traditional i t had become in other I i genres. I Vergil's ten Eclogues. as w e have seen, were published : ! jin 37 B.C. and represent the earliest book of poems that is j js till extant. Only two years later Horace published his jfirst book of Sermones. For whatever reason, w e can see a |more obvious attempt by the poet to relate the ten poems of I this f ir s t book to one another. There is a clear develop ment toward a rtis tic unity. Perhaps such unity had already become standard in satire before Horace. The genre, of course, already had a long tradition at R om e before the Augustan period. Ennius and Naevius com posed poems that m ay properly be termed sa tiric , if not satire, but Lucilius is the acknowledged "Father of Sat ire." From his th irty or so books w e have only about 1,300 fragmentary verses, enough to get an idea of his vigorous I style and variety of subject matter, but not enough to determine whether he announced or even sought unity of theme in each book or groups of books . It is, however, tempting to speculate that the older poet did exactly th is, for Horace, w ho obviously owed a I jgreat deal to him, constructed his fir s t book of Sermones around a central theme. 27 Scholars agree that the theme is greed, but contrary to what w e have observed in other genres, Horace has not (opened the firs t poem of the book with an explicit statement iof his theme. Rather he begins in a conversational tone and laddresses to his patron Maecenas a series of questions, to i i i |each of which the logical answer is avarus. A s a matter of i I fact, when the poet makes his ow n summary (vv. 108 f f .) , he j returns to his opening lines and repeats his f ir s t question, using the same key words in their original order and in- iserting the word avarus . Thus he clarifies for even the dullest reader the theme of the poem and of the book. S It is not our purpose here, nor do w e intend, to show j in elaborate detail how each poem of the book fits in with the theme of greed. Instead w e must content ourselves with j pointing to certain key poems and passages. For example, in poem IV where Horace defends the writing of satire, he i i !cites typical faults to be attacked and singles out both j I i avaritia and ambitio (vv. 25-26) : j I | . . . quemvis media elige turba: j I aut ob avaritiam aut misera ambitione laborat. i I i The addition of ambitio in this poem serves to anticipate 28 the sixth and the ninth poems. In the la tte r, popularly called "The Bore," Horace refrains from an explicit refer ence to his theme but rather provides a vivid and amusing dramatization of a m an w ho labors under this wretched fault.! i i j In the sixth poem, however, famous for its refrain, j j | KLibertino patre natum. Horace concentrates his attack on I 28 ; Apolitical and social ambition. He instinctively joins to jthese ideas those of gloria (w . 23-24) and avaritia (v. |68)., and with this treatment of greed Horace brings us once | again face to face with the central theme of the book. i I That Horace chose the sixth poem for his renewed dis- j ! | cussion of avaritia and ambitio is no accident. A s w e shall; show m any times in subsequent discussions, poets w ho pub lished books of collected poems developed the technique, for! whatever reason, of reemphasizing, or at least restating, j 29 their theme in certain key positions in the book. Often these positions are the middle and the last poems. Occa sionally, when the number of poems is even as here in Ser- j mones I, the opening poem of the second half becomes the | imiddle point of emphasis . i I ! I In answer to the suggestion that the last poem of a j ! book is another point of thematic emphasis one m ay reason- i ably contend that greed is not the subject of the tenth I poem. Yet the absence of this idea does not necessarily negate our th e sis.^0 M any critics have seen a connection 31 between the third, fourth, sixth, and tenth poems. In Ithese poems one subordinate theme is a defense of the genre, i : I ! and i t is this idea of defending the writing of satire that i jis not only emphasized in the tenth poem but, in a sense, ; 29 j jprovides a transition to the main theme of the second book |of Sermones. Thus i t is the growing importance of the sub- i ordinate theme, rather than the dominant one of greed, that ; iHorace has elected to stress in the last poem of Sermones I.! I The second book of Sermones is concerned with the same j j jmoral themes which w e have observed in the earlier book. N ow , however, the poet has concentrated on the treatment of j i jthese themes and, as w e pointed out before, has made the j |secondary theme of the fir s t book into his primary theme. | i j The poet announces the new theme in the opening words f i j I lof Sermones II. 1: i ' l I I Sunt quibus in satura videar nimis acer et ultra legem tendere opus. i 32 i iThe noun satura occurs only twice in Horace's poetry, and j i I |it is surely more than coincidence that the word is found I here in the opening line of a book whose primary theme is 33 the writing of sa tire . In this book we find a new method of handling sa tiric material. The tone is more gentle, morej j ! urbane, certainly less caustic than w e are accustomed to. j I In addition, there is a feeling of "otherworldliness," as we1 isee in the fifth poem where Ulysses and Tiresias discuss thei i : i ' jmerits of legacy-hunting, and in the sixth poem with its i j jfamous parable of the T ow n M ouse and the Country Mouse. j j The second book, however, does not make a restatement j i : I , ! |of its main theme either at the central or the final posi- j tion of emphasis. Fraenkel believes that the book was not j finished. H e reasons that "since V irgil's extraordinarily j successful book of eclogues had ushered in a new era of j I R om an poetry, ten, or a multiple of it , seems to have been considered by Horace, and by some contemporary poets as 34 well, the ideal number for the poems of a book." Som e of Fraenkel's arguments are weak and unsubstan- j I tiated, but i t is not our purpose here to make a thorough j study of Horace's poems. Whatever the reason m ay be, the j i fact remains that in his second book of Sermones Horace began with the key word satura but did not seek to stress I i the continuing importance of this theme in subsequent poems. 1 i I Yet, ten years later, when he abandoned lyric poetry and returned to this genre, he also returned to the techniques which he had used in his firs t book of Sermones. The opening poem of Epistles I serves as the introduc- i tion to the whole book. It begins by bridging the inter- j I vening decade and announces the poet's return to satire, his! Prima . . . Camena. Maecenas is addressed in the third line; and the opening paragraph concludes with a statement of j i Horace's new theme (vv. 16-19) : j Nunc agilis f-io et mersor civilibus undis, ! v irtu tis verae custos rigidusque satelles; j Nunc in Aristippi furtim praecepta relabor et mihi res, non m e rebus, subiungere Conor. j Thus the theme of Epistles I is to be philosophy, in par- I ticular Stoic philosophy. | ! Once again the poet makes special use of the central j j and final positions in a poem to emphasize his theme. Here j j jhe states in strong language his views on a favorite moral j j | topic (w . 33-40): i j Fervet avaritia miseroque cupidine pectus: i sunt verba et voces, quibus hunc lenire dolorem j possis et m agnam morbi deponere partem. j laudis amore tumes; sunt certa piacula, quae te ter pure lecto poterunt recreare libello. invidus, iracundus, iners, vinosus, amator, nem o adeo ferus est, ut non mitescere possit, si m odo culturae patientem commodet aurem. j i A nd in verse 54, exactly half way in the poem, Horace sum s up the passage with the terse exclamation, virtus post num m os! Then, after playing several variations upon this ! I i ! j ;theme, the poet returns to his central idea (vv. 106-108) : i I | A d sum m am : sapiens uno minor est love, dives, i liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regum, j praecipue sanus, n isi cum p ituita molesta est. j j Here, even with the humorous last phrase, Horace makes i t ; 35 clear that the only real dives is the Stoic sapiens. i The middle point of emphasis in Epistles I is in j | ...................... .....................................................................................................’ ..... 32 I i jreality a double one, for the theme of both the tenth and the eleventh poems revolves around a philosophical precept, 36 and again i t is a Stoic principle that comes to the fore. In the tenth poem the central idea is the Stoic in- 37 junction "to live in accord with nature." Horace's ex pression is Vivere Naturae si convenienter oportet . . . (12). In this "rhapsody upon the simplicity and charm of 38 country life ," the poet asserts that one can best be in accord with Nature if he lives in the Country and away from the temptations of ambition and avarice which are a ll too prevalent in the City. The contrast between Country and City opens the poem: ! Urbis amatorem Fuscum salvere iubemus i I ruris amatores. j Then, after comparing city and country life , the poet hits upon the theme of ambitio (w . 31-33): s i quid mirabere, pones invitus. fuge magna: lic e t sub paupere tecto reges et regum vita praecurrere amicos . 39 In Horace's mind ambitio is associated with av a ritia . and so w e read without surprise in the next section (vv. 39-41) : sic qui pauperiem veritus potiore metallis lib ertate caret, dominum vehet improbus atque serviet aeternum, quia parvo nesciet u ti. ! 33 ! : iHorace then closes the poem with a reminder to Aristius iFuscus of the Stoic w ay of life , Laetus sorte tua vives isapienter. A risti. and returns to the contrast between City ! i ; I ; and Country in the last two lines of the poem (w . 49-50) : j l Haec tib i dictabam post fanum putre Vacunae, j | excepto quod non simul esses, cetera laetus. j t 1 j Thus the firs t half of Epistles I concludes with Horace's version of the Stoic precept "live in accord with j Nature," and he reasons that the best place to live such a | I ' life is in the country. Yet, for Horace this idea, a com m on; I 40 I one am ong Augustan poets, is too re stric tiv e. In the j ; following poem, which opens the second half of the book, he ! I I irejects, or at least corrects, the central idea of the tenth; f j jpoem and says (11. 25-27) : nam si ratio et prudentia curas, j ! non locus effusi late maris arbiter aufert, | caelum, non animum, mutant, qui trans mare currunt. Around this central idea Horace has placed a discussion; of the merits of m any places in the Aegean and Mediterranean! world. N o one of them can of its e lf be an ideal place to live, for i t is the state of the mind, not the state its e lf,j j j that allows us bene vivere (29). ; i Horace's treatment of the subject, together with some I 34 : i i I ■ of the specific places mentioned, must remind us of certain j conventional topics which occur in m any Stoic consolations 41 . on exile. O ne commonplace in such works is the assertion ; Ithat a particular place where a m an happens to be is of no {importance to a wise man. His state of mind can make any i | ! place his native land. j i The sim ilarity of such an argument with Horace's treat-j i | ment of the same theme in the eleventh poem of Epistles I j cannot be an accident. The poet has here continued the philosophical theme of the book and expanded i t beyond its i stage of development reached in the tenth poem. Thus, philosophy and particularly Stoic philosophy is the theme which began the book and which is here emphasized and de- veloped in the central poems. W hat about the final poem of Epistles I? Does i t I i emphasize the philosophical theme? Once again the answer j i must be a negative one. Horace has elected to set a "Seal i : i | ! iPoem " at the end of the book, a device which w e see used by ; I I i 42 many poets. Vergil concluded his Georgies with four linesj of biographical information (vv. 563-566): illo Vergilium m e tempore dulcis alebat ! Parthenope, studiis florentem ignobilis o ti, ! carmina qui lusi pastorum audaxque iuventa, | Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fag i. j 35 I i ; I 1 jPropertius concluded his fir s t book with such a Seal Poem j j(1.22), and Ovid used the same device several times: e.g., j i i jAmores III. 15, T ristia IV. 10 and perhaps 1.11, and Epistulael Ex Ponto I I I .9. Horace himself, in an interesting extension of the j t ! technique, sent forth his Odes with a set of verse which he 43 iincorporated as the thirteenth poem in Epistles I. I | | To return to our main topic, Horace has not closed his | i | fir s t book of Epistles with a restatement of his main theme.j Instead he has composed a Seal Poem, thus following another 44 tradition established by the Greeks. N o such technique as an opening statement of theme or i I ,a Seal Poem or restatement of theme appears in the two—or j I I i S three if the so-called Ars Poetica is included— poems which j i go under the traditional t i t l e of Epistles II. \ ( These poems m ay indeed not even comprise a book in the | I a rtis tic sense, for, although each discusses literatu re, j i among other things, there is no real unity. The reader comes away with the feeling that Horace was merely tying up j | loose ends and writing a couple (or three) le tte rs to cor- j 45 ' rect an oversight. | Whatever the reason for the poet's failure to follow | precedent, the fact remains that the last group of sa tiric ! ipoem s to be considered here does not f it in with our theory | of thematic unity. ; If this study were concerned with the fu ll range of Latin literatu re or even with the whole history of satire, i w e would continue the discussion to include, am ong others, jpersius and Juvenal. Both sa tirists carried on the practice! ! 46 of announcing the theme in the beginning of their work. ] In Juvenal's case, of course, there are five books to be j i ; 47 1 considered, each of which identifies its mam themes in j i the introduction and reemphasizes them in the appropriate | 48 ! places. | Thus the epic tradition continued to influence the j jsatirists dow n into the f ir s t and second centuries and, if l i jRutilius Namatianus is to be included am ong the s a tiris ts , | j j jeven to a m uch later date. W e must, however, turn aside at j jthis point and begin our study of lyric poetry. ; The history of lyric poetry is confused and fragmen- j I Itary. In pastoral and satire w e have a book of poems intact; i which was composed not long after the literary form was j recognized as such. In the lyric genre, however, at least ! six centuries intervene between the time of the earliest 1 i : ]Greek ly ricists and Horace. W e have the names of early [Greek lyric poets and some fragments of their poetry, and we; leven have reason to believe that some of them collected I i their poems into books . But w e do not have enough evidence j leven to speculate on the techniques and themes which these j I I !early poets employed. Indeed, our only evidence for books \ j i 1 ! !of Hellenic lyric poetry lies in fragments from collections j ! I i 49 i put together by Hellenistic scholars . j The Hellenistic lyric poets have fared no b e tte r. All | that remains is fragmentary or scattered in an anthology. j j Such material cannot provide us with the information neces- j sary to evaluate the themes or the techniques used to give unity to a book of poems, if, indeed, these poets sought such unity. Latin literatu re, too, fails us. There are fragments j land an occasional isolated poem, bits and pieces, from the i jearly centuries of literature in Italy . For example, as farj as Laevius is concerned, w e know only that this "first R om anj | poet w ho wrote lyrics on the Greek model . . ." treated j i j mythological and erotic subjects in six books made up of | 50 I many meters. I j I Even Catullus' poetry presents us with m any problems. ! . | |T he manuscripts of his poems show an arrangement that is ! I ; ! } japparently based upon meter and length of poem. Therefore, j jif form was the chief criterion for grouping the poems, i t is unlikely in the extreme that the poet conceived a unify- j ■ ing theme for each of the three apparent sections. If, on j the other hand, the present arrangement is the work of laterj ages, form rather than content has s t i l l been the determin- j ing factor. In either case, no theme is apparent, and no j ! likely candidate for such a theme appears in the f ir s t poem I ! j i ! jwhere we expect i t . Nor, given the state of the text, can ! ! ! I i iw e confidently look at the central and final poems for a j ! j iclue to the theme. W e do not know where such poems are now | j located. A. L. Wheeler has concluded that Catullus published at least his lyric poems as a book, though even he thinks that 51 * some of the firs t sixty poems do not belong. It must be j i ■ i jadmitted that nucras (1.4) is more appropriate to the f ir s t j ! . ! group than to the more learned and serious poems m the ! I I jmiddle section or even to the later epigrams and elegies . Nevertheless, w e have said before that this study would; refrain, as far as possible, from speculation. The myster- I i i ious circumstances surrounding the arrangement of Catullus 1 j j poems are such that any search for a unifying theme can j result only in speculation. Let us admit, then, that Ca- S tullus probably did not write around a central theme and so j I jdid not use the traditional techniques with which we are | here concerned. Let us admit this weakness in our thesis land turn to a poet w ho is, in m any ways, the most important I author in our preliminary survey. Horace wrote the earliest of his Epodes around 40 B.C., but i t was not until 30 or 29 B.C. that he published the ientire book. Whatever the date, the Epodes probably repre sent the earliest book of lyric poetry which has reached us as the author himself arranged i t . Yet the Epodes are the work of a young man, one w ho has not yet learned to grasp the whole but rather one w ho s t i l l struggles to find ex pression in individual and isolated poems. I i Consequently, most critics have not identified a cen tra l, unifying theme for these seventeen poems. Instead they have been content to give general impressions: "the 52 jchief part [is] played by invective, love and wine." A nd i "The dominant theme of the Epodes as an entire book is in- ! 53 yective." Invective, however, is not a theme. It is an i jattitude, a purpose, a technique. It is a form and means of i expression. Love and wine, i t is true, are frequent themes in the I ! 'Epodes. but neither dominates the thought, and neither | ^appears in the opening poem where w e expect some announce- ! ment of a central or dominant theme. Instead, the f ir s t 'poem begins with an address to Maecenas and with an expres- ; is ion of concern for his safety. Then, in the final third ofj ithe poem (w . 25-34), Horace touches upon a theme which I ~ ! I reappears not only in subsequent Epodes but in his Odes and j \ i iSermones. This theme is a denunciation of greed and wealth. | ! W e have a right, therefore, to suspect that this is the! I i jdominant theme of the Epodes. Yet a careful reading of j jthese poems fails to sustain such an idea. W e find the j j ; I theme in the second poem and again in the fourth, and here | i i land there a hint of the idea is apparent, but nowhere is i t j | ! ! j stressed enough to become the central theme. j j In the final analysis, what we find is a number of themes, each the central idea of a small number of poems andj | these scattered, not clustered in groups. W e cannot with j jconfidence in sist upon one central, or even dominant, theme.! j ■ ! Horace simply had not yet acquired the mastery of such an 54 a rtis tic technique. This mastery was le ft for the Odes. j The f ir s t book of the Odes, to the casual reader, seems' j , jto deal with a variety of themes . There is ambitio: there i i I 55 is luxuria and a v a ritia . Yet Horace had, before turning serious attention to lyric poetry, already used these ideas j |in Sermones I I . 3 and had demonstrated their relationship in ' 56 what m ay be termed a canon of human fa u lts. r ........... '..................................................................................................... 41 Here in the Odes Horace, of course, touches upon m any lideas, some serious, some light-hearted and seemingly frivo-j jlous. But running through the poems not only of the firs t i | | ■ b ook but of the other two books as well are an undercurrent j jof morality and a philosophical interest in human behavior, j i i t : The theme of Odes 1.1 is, in the last analysis, ambi- Itio. After a brief, two-line dedication to Maecenas (which ! I | jis balanced by the last two lines of the poem), the poet ! I points to the ambitio that drives m en to aspire to a career | as athletes (vv. 3-6), politicians (vv. 7-8), plantation i 1 owners (vv. 9-10), small farmers (w . 11-14), merchants j I (w . 15-18). Then, after a brief reference to m en whose J jonly ambition is a life of ease (vv. 19-22), he turns to the! ^military (vv. 23-25), hunting (vv. 25-28), and finally, bringing ambitio home to the poet, Horace proclaims that 1 |som e m en aspire to becoming poets . H e concludes in a humor-j I | !ous vein by asserting that i f Maecenas likes his poems, , ! ' I i ; Horace's ambitio is satisfied . | ! 57 i Thus the opening poem of Odes I-III introduces the | i j canon of human faults by concentrating on one of its m em - j ! ! bers, ambitio. Then, to emphasize the importance of the ! j panon, Horace has employed the central poem of the book for j | | another canonical theme. Here, the center of the book is j 11.20, the poem which begins its second half. To point up | ! ithe importance of this piece, Horace addresses his thoughts ; ( jto Maecenas, and this is the only poem in the f ir s t book, other than 1.1, that mentions the patron by name. ! I I The theme of 1.2 0 is not luxuria. another part of the j canon, but rather the simple pleasures which temperance, thej i very reverse of luxuria, can bring to a man. Thus Horace \ j emphasizes this human failing by praising its absence. j i | Then in the penultimate poem of the book with its ! I j [famous opening Nunc est bibendum (1.37), Horace joyously j | j cries out his exultation at Augustus 1 triumph over Cleopatraj and her Oriental luxuria. And in 1.38, the last poem of the] [book, he hits at the same theme, Persicos odi. puer. appa- | i ratu s. and into this denunciation of luxuria the poet has j woven advice against ambitio: [ | i simplici myrto nihil adlabores \ sedulus, cura. | Book II of the Odes contains several poems, and these j ! in key positions, which continue the theme of ambitio. j 58 a v aritia. and luxuria. The opening words of the firs t j poem point, in a way, to the most disastrous result of ambi-j tio n : r * . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3 i i i ! ! M otum ex Metello consule civicum j bellique causas et v itia et m odos i ludumque Fortunae gravesque principum amicitias et arma nondum expiatis uncta cruoribus, ! W hen leaders are driven by ambition to go beyond natural j bounds, c iv il war resu lts. These words are, of course, parti j I j j of the reference to the subject of Pollio's history, but j this is only a device used by Horace. The real theme of the; I 59 i poem is that ambitio has a ll but destroyed Rom e. j Ambitio is, as w e have shown, closely allied with a v aritia, and to this theme Horace has turned in I I .2: Nullus argento color est avaris abdito te rris and throughout the poem he advises Sallustius Crispus against m iserliness. Variations on this theme appear in i several poems of the second book. For example, 11.14 with I its famous opening line, Eheu fuqaces. Posttune. Postume. | where the poet points out that for a miser (vv. 2 5-28): j i i absumet heres Caecuba dignior j servata centum clavibus et mero j tinguet pavimentum superbo j pontificum potiore cenis. j The same idea occurs in 11.16 together with a reference to ambitio (w . 9-16): 44 non enim gazae neque consularis | summovet licto r miseros tumultus | mentis et curas laqueata circum | tecta volantes. Vivitur parvo bene, cui paternum splendet in mensa tenui salinum j nec leves somnos timor aut cupido | sordidus au fert. jA n d sandwiched between 11.14 and 16 is a denunciation of the iinroads which luxuria has m ade on Rom an life (II. 15.1-2): j j | lam pauca aratro iugera regiae I moles relinquent, Thus greed and luxury are renounced in several poems. Nor is I I .2 the only poem which is concerned with ambition. In I I . 3 and again in 11.11, the la tte r being the opening poem of the book's second half, w e find the carpe diem theme. Fam ous as this idea is, w e must not lose sight of the fact that i t is really a renunciation of ambition (II. 3.21-24) : divesne, prisco natus ab Inacho, n il interest an pauper et infima de gente sub divo moreris; victima n il miserantis Orci. and nec trepides in usum / poscentis aevi pauca ( I I .11.4-5). i jLater Horace asks quid aeternis minorem / consiliis animum I Ifatigas? Not unrelated to the carpe diem theme is the i \ Equally famous "Golden M ean" which appears in 11.10, the ' ....' ......... ~ . ' . ' .... 45 Ipoem that closes the fir s t half of the book. The central |thought of this poem is found in vv. 5-8: auream quisquis mediocritatem d ilig it, tutus caret obsoleti sordibus te c ti, caret invidenda sobrius aula. In short, the two central poems of the book are concerned with the related themes of carpe diem and the "Golden Mean," 60 both, in effect, renunciations of ambitio and a v a ritia . The last poem of a book, as w e have seen, often serves to reemphasize the theme of the whole book. Such, however, is not the case in Odes II. Here the poet has elected to prophesy his ow n immortality. 11.2 0 is , therefore, a kind j g ^ jof Seal Poem such as w e have discussed e arlier. Often, jw hen a poet has closed a book with this kind of poem, w e jnaturally look to the penultimate poem. In this case 11.19 is a praise of Bacchus and his power. H o w can this topic be related to the main themes which w e have identified? Per- I i haps i t has no connection, but in 11.11, which w e discussed above as the poem which opens the second half of the book and which expounds the carpe diem theme, these words appear: i kissipat Euhius / cliras edaces (11.11.17-18) . j Compare with this idea the thought expressed in jl1.19 .5-7 : euhoe, recenti mens trepidat metu, plenoque Bacchi pectore turbidum laetatur. | ] And then in vv. 25-28 he says that the god shares in peace ! and war: quam quam choreis aptior et iocis ludoque dictus non sat idoneus pugnae ferebaris; sed idem pacis eras mediusque b e lli. Thus Horace seems to have tied this poem not only to the j theme as expressed in the central position of the book, but j to the variation of the theme with which he began the book, : i.e ., war. Book III of the Odes opens with the same theme that was 62 the central idea of 11.10, and even the imagery is simi la r. In 11.10 w e read in vv. 1-4: ! i Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum semper urgendo neque, dum procellas j cautus horrescis, nimium premendo ! litu s iniquum. ! i ! and in I I I .1.25-28: j desiderantem quod satis est neque tumultuosum s o llic ita t mari nec saevus Arcturi cadentis impetus aut orientis Haedi. Furthermore, that ambitio and avaritia are the subjects of this poem is clearly indicated in w . 9-16: 47 i est ut viro vir latius ordinet arbusta sulcis, hie generosior descendat in C am pum petitor, moribus hie meliorque fama contendat, i l l i turba clientium s it maiorj aequa lege Necessitas so rtitu r insignes et imos: om ne capax movet urna nomen. And avaritia is part of the theme of III .2 : .63 Angustam amice pauperiem pati robustus acri m ilitia puer condiscat. O ne might contend that ambitio is not the theme of the third poem, but surely its opening words advise against excessive ambition: Iustum et tenacem propositi virurn non civium ardor prava iubentium, non vultus instantis tyranni mente quatit solida neque Auster. Whoever sees his duty and performs i t despite temptation and! pressure from others has firm control of his ow n ambition, ; j and he has wisdom, too, wisdom that controls and directs j power. | i This thought is the message of III .4. See especially j vv. 65-68: I I j vis consili expers mole ru it sua: j vim temperatam di quoque provehunt | in maius; idem odere vires j om ne nefas animo moventes. j i : jOne might argue that steadfastness of purpose combined with | i I jwisdom and strength can create courage, and that is the j subject of I I I .5. I Even I I I.6 fits in with the basic idea in these opening! j poems of the third book. Although the subject is religion, j I |the notion of restrain t, the "Golden Mean," which is a re- j I { ! | nunciation of ambition appears early in the poem (vv. 5-9): j I dis te minorem quod g eris, imperas: i hinc om ne principium: hue refer exitum. | di multa neglecti dederunt j Hesperiae mala luctuosae. j Thus the six "R om an Odes1 1 are a ll concerned, in one way or another, with the themes which w e have traced through the I jfirst two books. These poems merely provide variation upon the themes of ambitio and a v a ritia . ! Poem s 7 through 15 deal with a variety of subjects, some serious, some lighthearted. Then, when w e reach 1 I III. 16, the poem which opens the second half of the book, i jw e find another emphasis on the theme of av a ritia . This is j | i • ! the famous poem about DanSe and Zeus ' v is it to her as a j golden shower. Perhaps the central idea of the poem is to I I l be found in vv. 17-18: I i | ! i crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam maiorumque fames. j ! '. .~............. _.... '.......... ' 49 i j or perhaps the conclusion gives the main theme (w. 42-44) : i S i i I i i I multa petentibus ! desunt multa; bene est, cui deus obtulit parca quod satis est manu.^4 j In any case, this central poem reemphasizes the dominant I 65 theme of the book. | There is no need to discuss Odes I I I .30. This famous I I poem is clearly another example of a Seal Poem. Thus, if w e ! I are to find another statement of the book's main theme at ; i i the end, w e must again turn to the penultimate poem. Here ' t j j I jw e find a reference to ambitio. to a v a ritia . to luxuria. and! to m any variations of these themes. This poem seems to be ! ja summing up of a ll the themes which have appeared in the j | |three books of Odes. and again i t calls attention to its e lf I i i |by addressing Maecenas by name and even echoing the opening j | - | jof 1.1 with the words, Tyrrhena regum progenies (III.29.1). ' ! ! ! | In this poem Horace advises his patron (vv. 9-12): j ! fastidiosam desere copiam et molem propinquam nubibus arduis, omitte mirari beatae j fum um et opes strepitumque Romae. i and (w . 32-33): quod adest. memento / componere aequus. There are too m any passages here which bear upon our subject! for us to quote them a ll. These should be enough, however, 1 I to show that Horace began the firs t book of Odes with the 'theme of ambitio. T o this he added the themes of avaritia land luxuria. H e continued to stress these ideas thoughout j j | jthe three books both by repeating the same point of view and! i by inserting effective variation. i j Other themes, other subjects, obviously appear in these! books, but the three themes which w e have traced occur just ! often enough and in enough of the key positions to make i t ; I ; more than probable that Horace intended them to be the j i 66 i basic, unifying themes of Odes I - I I I . j I I The same m ultiplicity of themes appears in Book IV of the Odes, but, despite an occasional allusion or reference, I ambitio. a v aritia. and luxuria no longer play an important ! j role. Nevertheless, Horace seems to have made a conscious j i and deliberate attempt to tie this last book of lyrics to j 6 7 the fir s t three. j The opening words of IV.1, as Fraenkel rightly points 68 but, must have conveyed to his eager audience the an nouncement of Horace' s new work: | i Intermissa, Venus, diu j rursus bella moves. t i i I { That the poet immediately turns the thought in another i I direction in no way detracts from the effect. With these Iwords Horace recalls the firs t three books of Odes and [consciously ties the new book to the old. Nor is this the j ! ; only indication of such a tie -in . j The fifth line of this opening poem. Mater saeva j Cupidinum. is a repetition of 1.19.1. That poem, w e should 69 I [remember, is the central poem of the f ir s t book. N o w w e do not suggest that the theme of the earlier poem is picked j i up and developed here in IV.1. Indeed Venus, in addition to| I I her previous role as the goddess of love, has now assumed a j second and more imposing character. She has become the alma! i Venus of Lucretius, the Aeneadum genetrix. the mother of the Rom ans as a nation and in particular of the imperial family. Such an understanding of the goddess becomes clear when w e ! consider the closing words of IV. 15, the last poem of the \ i i ! t book and its e lf an address to Augustus (vv. 31-32): j Troiamque et Anchisen et almae progeniem Veneris canemus. j t | The offspring here is obviously Augustus no less than I Aeneas.7^ * Venus appears in two other poems of the fourth book. ! In IV.10 she is s t i l l the goddess of love, and as such she I 'introduces the subject of Horace's affection for Ligurinus, jw h o is mentioned in IV. 1.33. In T V . 11 she is the goddess 52 i | | imost closely associated with April, the month in which 1 | jMaecenas, an important member of the o fficial family, was i ; !born. Thus the dual role in which the goddess appears in j the opening poem is used in at least three poems of the | fourth book and, as w e said before, also ties the book to j the earlier Odes. Another device which Horace used to bind the fourth | book with his earlier lyrics has been recognized by most j 71 > c ritic s . The poet used the F irst Asclepiadean only three i jtimes in his Odes. H e began with i t in 1.1 and he ended, as; i i jhe thought, with i t in I I I .30. Then, when he made the finall ! jarrangement of the fourth book, he used the meter one more | I jtime, and placed the poem, whose theme is the power of j i i poetry, in the central position of the book. B y this place-; ment Horace has clearly added to the suggestion that there j is a unity to a ll four books of Odes. i The chief purpose of Odes IV seems to have been praise I ! i 72 jof the imperial family and, by extension, of m en w ho had a; prominent position in the government. IV.11, as w e said jbefore, is addressed to Maecenas, while IV.1 dwells upon the! I ! \ ; jvirtue of Paulus Fabius M aximus and his services to Augustus; I 73 |and the state. Marcus Lollius, w ho was consul in 21 B.C.,; i ! is honored in IV.9. W e do not know the identity of the iVergil w ho is addressed in IV. 12, but i t is certainly not ithe poet. Yet the conclusion of this poem can be cited to i I | show how this fourth book is tied to the firs t three, for j Ithe themes of the earlier poems appear here (vv. 25-28) : j verum pone moras et studium lucri | nigrorumque memor, dum lic e t, ignium ; i misce stultitiam consiliis brevem; I i 3 \ ■ dulce est desxpere xn loco. | i j In other words, a close analysis of the poems addressed! to friends and to members of the imperial family w ill show ! j jthat the poet praises these m en for their character and ! i | itheir devotion to duty. They have not fallen victims to j ! i ; j .ambition, avarice, or a love of luxury. Horace has turned ] ! I jfrom a discussion of the vices to praise of m en w ho have j i I irisen above such vices and thereby become a source of glory \ i | 7 4 I jto the state. j | ! The fourth book of Odes. then, rather than repeating or! continuing the previous themes, has extended them and showed ! ! jh o w m en w ho have conquered such temptation have led conquer-. ling R om e to greatness. The extension is a subtle one, and | Horace, well aware of the subtlety, provided sure signs for ! |the reader. H e made use of the traditional points of em phasis to announce that his four books of Odes were a unit i j ‘ and had a real a rtis tic unity. ! 54 ; This idea is directly opposite to old theories about lodes IV, but i t is not a new one. Fraenkel has said: "In ithe Augustan period a book composed of a number of poems w as; I 7 5 | as a rule intended to be taken as an a rtis tic unity." W e I I I [merely suggest that Horace extended the technique. H e had j j | ialready given a rtis tic unity to Odes I-III, and i t is not j | [unreasonable to expect him to extend the same unity to Odes tl-IV. i i j Indeed, if Horace did not aim at such unity, he very [ I j [likely stands alone among the Augustan poets. W e have a l- ( I [ready (pp. 24-2 5) seen some indication that Vergil made use jof traditional techniques in his Eclogues. and further study [of these charming pieces m ay well disclose some kind of [ [artistic arrangement in the book. Certainly the Georgies | j has a well-ordered arrangement, and the related themes of each book are announced in the opening lines of the f ir s t I i i book. j i j N o w w e must turn our attention to the elegiac poets. i j They too, as w e shall see, followed tradition and, by the use of the established points of emphasis, achieved thematic unity. NOTES In his introduction to an anthology of modern fantasy Lin Carter discusses these worlds. In fact, he entitles his introduction, "Makers of Worlds." H e explains the newer movements: "N ew generations of story-tellers arise to as sume the place of those whose marvels had been discredited in the cold light of scientific discovery, and the old worlds of epic and saga, myth and legend and romance were replaced by g litterin g new worlds of fiction" (N ew Worlds for Old [N ew York: Ballantine Books, 1971], p. x i i ) . A m o n g ! the writers included in his anthology are Edgar Rice Bur- j roughs (d. 1950), Lord Dunsany (d. 1957), James Branch Cabell (d. 1958), J. R. R. Tolkien (b. 1892), and C. S. Lewis (d. 1963) . S till a standard work dealing with conventional worlds among other elements of tradition is John L. Lowes1 Conven tion and Revolt in Poetry (Boston and N ew York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1919). o I ^In a luncheon address to the Philological Association ! of the Pacific Coast in November 1967 Brooks Otis observed j that in 1925 most American universities required Ph.D. can- I didates in English to concentrate two-thirds to three- j fourths of their attention upon the English language its e lf .j 3 i The broadening of literary investigation is reflected j in the Modern Language Association's booklet designed to j present graduate students with a view of the various ways toj approach verbal a rt: James Thorpe, ed., The A im and Methods! of Scholarship. 2nd ed. (N ew York: Modern Language Associa-! tion of America, 1970). The four chapters are devoted to j linguistics, textual criticism , literary history, and l i te r ary criticism . i 56 j I i I 4 ! H. E. Butler and E. A. Barber, The Elegies of Pro pertius (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933). Hereafter cited I as Butler and Barber. i ^Butler and Barber, esp. pp. xx ff. | ^Kirby Flower Smith, The Elegies of Albius Tibullus: The Corpus Tibullianum Edited with Notes on Books I. II. and IV 2-14 (N ew York: American Book Co., 1913). Hereafter cited as Smith. 7A ny new development in literary investigation, as the one discussed here, cannot com e into being without such recent "old fashioned" works as Hermann Harrauer's collec tion and categorization of Tibullan studies from c. 1900 to 1970, A Bibliography to the Corpus Tibullianum (Hildesheim: | Gerstenberg, 1971) and Edward N . O'Neil's A C ritical Con cordance of the Tibullan Corpus. American Philological Asso-j ciation, No. 21 (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1963).j Upon the la tte r the present investigation, especially Chap- j ter IV, relies most heavily. Also, A. R. Baca's investiga- | tion of the poet's mythological names for his dominae de serves mention as an older kind of endeavor that underlies studies of the a rtis tic aspect of literatu re: "Delia and Nemesis in the Corpus Tibullianum," Diss. Univ. of Southern California, 1965. j Q J. P. Sullivan, ed., C ritical Essays on R om an Litera ture: Elegy and Lyric (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, j 1962). The pertinent chapters are J. P. Elder's "Tibullus: i Tersus atque Elegans," A. W . Allen's "Sunt Qui Propertium | Malint," and A. G. Lee's "Tenerorum Lusor Amorum." Harold Cherniss' introductory chapter on the nature of literary j criticism m ay be the best statement on the subject ever j made. I i 9 For example, Propertius I I . 7j Tibullus 1.3; and Ovid i I I I .2 and cf. A.A. 1.135-162. Unless otherwise indicated, the texts of ancient authors referred to are those in the Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1912- ). For Manilius the text is A. E. Houseman's M . j Manilii Astronomica. editio minor (Cambridge: Cambridge > Univ. Press, 1932). 57 | "^See Quintilian on Homer in this respect (X.i.48) : i Age vero, non utriusque operis sui ingressu in paucissi- i mis versibus legem prooemium non dico servavit sed con- s titu it? N a m benevolum auditorem invocatione dearum, quas praesidere vatibus creditum est, et intentum pro- posita rerum magnitudine et docilem sum m a celeriter com- prehensa fa c it. The passage deserves translation: Has he not by the introduction of each work in the fewest possible words done more than merely preserve the law of the exordium? H e has actually established i t . For by his invocation to the goddesses w ho are believed to pre side over poets he wins the goodwill of his reader and by the statement of the loftiness of his theme he gains their attention and makes them receptive by the brevity of his summary. ■ ^M . L. West, Theogonv (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), p. 16. H e discusses the theogonic tradition on pp. 1-16. * 1 o J. A. Symonds, Studies in the Greek Poets. 3rd ed. (London: A. & C. Black, 1893), pp. 150-152. H e says the critic s as far back as Pausanias have regarded the verses as spurious (p. 150) . Lesky's recent discussion supports this view. Albin Lesky, A History of Greek Literature, tran s. from 2nd German ed. 1963 by James Willis and Cornelius de Heer (N ew York: Thom as Y. Crowell Co., 1966), pp. 99 ff. H e observes "any firm main lines of composition are lacking. The poem darts hither and thither . . ." (p. 100). Here after cited as Lesky. "^Except that the word is lo st. 14 Compare Lxvy's discussion in sections 10-12 of his Preface. ^ Brutus 262 . 1 6 J. W . Duff, A Literary History of Rome: From the Origins to the Close of the Golden A cre. 3rd ed., ed. A. M . {D uff (London: Ernest Benn Ltd., 1953), p. 300. Hereafter jcited as Duff, Golden Age. j \n | This is the theory that is developed by D. C. Earl in| jhis work, The P olitical Thought of Sallust (Cambridge: ' I Cambridge Univ. Press, 1961). See especially Chapter VIII, ! which sums up the discussion of S allust's moral thought. ! | Ip . . : Compare Livy’s a primordio urbis res populi Romani (Preface 1). j I Q j Compare this w riter's beginning of his work on Ger manic peoples and customs: Germania omnis. Tacitus is not so m uch following Caesar's Gallia est omnis as he is a stock formula in ethnographic literatu re. J. G. C. Anderson, Cornelii Taciti D e Origine et Situ Germanorum (Oxford: Ox- j ford Univ. Press, 1938), p. 33. | i * 2 0 ■ It is a truism that the writings of the H ellenistic ] period had, in some ways, an even greater influence upon R om an authors than had the earlier Hellenic age. 2 1 1 Gilbert Lawall, Theocritus' Coan Pastorals, Center of Hellenic Studies (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1966), p. 3. 22 Notice, however, that in Idyll I Thyrsis begins his song with a refrain line vdiich contains both an invocation and a statement of theme: vAp\exe PouhoXihocq Moioou q>C\ai japxex’ aoi& ooQ . But the theme belongs to this song, not I Idyll I and certainly not Idylls I-VII. i i 2 ^ I “ “ The date usually assigned to the publication of the Eclogues is 37 B.C. 2 4 A. S. F. G ow , Theocritus. 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford j iUniv. Press, 1952), II, 65, comment to Idyll I I I .2. i ! 2 5 ' j There is no need to cite a string of such references. j |T w o w ill suffice: Lucan (D e Bello Civili 1.33 ff.) devotes j ja long and, to some, ludicrous passage to Neroj and the same j ruler is addressed in a similar fashion by Calpurnius Siculus j ;in his Eclogue, especially vv. 33 f f . j ' 26 ' i O ne scholar, however, claims that the themes of the Eclogues are "suggested to the observant reader not many j jlines after the sta rt of the firs t eclogue." These are "the | (confrontation of history and the individual, of progress and i 59 ! | , ; !freedom, of practical action and id ealistic pose, of passion! land poetry, to name only a few areas of concern . . This! ! scholar does not explicate the themes he claims are present j in Vergil's work. Michael C. J . Putnam, V irgil's Pastoral A rt: Studies in the Eclogues (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1970), p. 17 f. j 2 7 i J. B. Greenough, Satires and Epistles of Horace (Bos-j ton: Ginn and Co., 1887), p. 1, n. 1. Hereafter cited as Greenough. John C. Rolfe, Horace: Satires and Epistles. rev. ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1935), p. 135. Here after cited as Rolfe. Edward Fraenkel, Horace (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), pp. 90-96; he says he agrees with F. Solmnsen, AJP. 68 (1947), 340. Hereafter cited as Fraenkel. 28 A s w e shall discuss later, avaritia and ambitio are related faults. See below, pp. 109-113. O Q j A paragraph is devoted to the topic of key positions |in the books of Horace's Odes by R. G. M . Nisbet and M . Hubbard in A Commentary on Horace: Odes: Book I (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), pp. 23-24. ^®In lyric poetry, as we shall shortly see, Horace has made clear and pointed use of his closing poems to emphasize his theme, and the same technique is ju st as obvious in books of elegies. ■ 31 ' j For example, H. R. Fairclough, Horace: Satires. j Epistles and Ars Poetica. rev. ed., Loeb Classical Library j (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1929), p. 75. Hereafter i cited as Fairclough. Fraenkel relates Satires 1.4 and 10 | (p. 128) as did Greenough (p. 74). Fraenkel notes also the I sim ilarity between 3 and 6 (p. 101). Rolfe says of the j sixth satire: "in its chronology and subject matter i t be- I longs with 3, 4, and 10" (p. 194, n. 27). 32 The other occurrence is at Sermones 11.6.17. ■^Fraenkel, p. 136. ■^Fraenkel, p. 112. H e also lists other signs of in- ! completeness: cf. esp. pp. 136 f f . \ ^ | j ....." ' 60 ; I j i o c For a parody of this whole idea see Juvenal VII. 189-198 and Ramsay's note on the passage in the Loeb edi- j tion. That Juvenal had the Horatian passage in mind is proved by his mocking assertion (v. 194): et si p erfrix it. ! cantat bene. ! 36 I t is curious that Fraenkel completely ignored these two poems in his sections on Epistles I. 3?Cf. Chrysippus apud Diog. Laert. V II.87 (von Arnim S V F I I I .4) and Zeno Citieus apud Diog. Laert. V II.87 (von Arnim S V F 1.179, p. 45). The fu ll Greek phrase is to 6(j,o\oyou|j.£V(0Q T rj c p u aei £fjv. j | 38Fairclough, p. 313. 38And in that of m any w riters. The history of avaritial and related themes forms a separate part of this study, the j entire third chapter. / 4® T o lis t even a small portion of this theme's occur- j rences would require several pages. Perhaps i t is enough j to mention V ergil's Eclogues. Horace's parable of the T ow n j and Country Mouse, Propertius 11.19, and Tibullus in almost j every poem. j ^T his theme appears in m any places, e.g ., in Teles, j Musonius, Seneca, and especially in Plutarch's O n Exile. j See chapters 2 (599 D ) and 5-9(600 D-602 F) . For a brief butj jhelpful discussion of the subject see D e Lacy's and Einar- son's introduction to Plutarch's essay in the Loeb Moralia. i VII, 513-517. | 42 For a discussion of this device see P. J. Enk, Sex. Propertii Elegiarum Liber I (Leiden, 1946), pp. 197-198; and for an analysis of Horace's poem see Fraenkel, pp. 356-363. |The work of Enk is hereafter cited as Enk. ' 43 ' | This poem has provoked a great deal of discussion and; jcontroversy. See Fraenkel, pp. 350-363. 1 I i I A A \ | Enk says "Hanc consuetudinem librum signandi Romani a! Graecis asciverunt" (p. 197). ! ! 45 . . . ! | Thus there m ay be as m uch truth as poetry m his j lines to Florus (II.2.55-57): ! Singula de nobis anni praedantur euntes: j eripuere iocos, Venerem, convivia, ludum; | tendunt extorquere poemata. A fL . This is true of Persius whether or not we consider the choliambic verses as the authentic introduction. For a recent discussion of the prologue's genuineness, placement, j and unity see C. S. Dessen, Iunctura Callidus Acri: A Study in Persius1 Satires. Univ. of Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, No. 59 (Urbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1968), pp. 15-2 3. An . # Book II is naturally an exception since i t contains a single poem. I ^8M uch work s t i l l needs to be done on the thematic | unity of Juvenal's books, but W . S. Anderson in his several i articles and monographs has made a significant s ta rt. See the Bibliography for his work and for Randle's study of Book IV. Preliminary to studies of the books were the examina tions of the individual poems made especially by W . C. Helmbolt, E. N . O'Neil, and Anderson himself. Som e of these |are listed in the Bibliography. j S ^9W e know nothing of the H ellenistic editions of Aleman! and Stesichorus except that they were in five and twenty-sixi books respectively. Lesky, pp. 195, 152. Theognis' poems were arranged and supplemented by poems of others. Lesky, j pp. 168-171. The athletic victory odes of Pindar and Simon-| ides were arranged by event and locale, not by theme. Lesky, pp. 407, 198. For further accounts of H ellenistic editions of the poets see Rudolph Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship: From the Beginning to the End of thej Hellenistic Age (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), esp. pp. 130 and 181 f f . j 5 0 I T. E. Wright, "Lyric Poetry, Latin, " P C D . 1949. The! a rtic le in the edition of 1970 is not as fu ll. ; 51 1 A. L. Wheeler, Catullus and the Traditions of Ancienti Poetry (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1934), p. 21. ' i ' 62 1 ^Duff, Golden Age, p. 369. ■^R. W . Carrubba, The Epodes of Horace (The Hague: Mouton and Co., 1969), p. 83. J. P. Clancy, translator of Horace's lyric poems, agrees with Carrubba: The Odes and Epodes of Horace (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1960), p. 195. 5^0f course the two books of Sermones show some of !these techniques, but most of the Epodes were written as incidental poems and before the appearance of the Sermones. Besides, we are here concerned with lyric poetry. 55 These moral themes occur in over half of the poems of the book and are prominent in odes 1, 8, 11, 18, 19, 20, 25, 29, 31, 37, and 38. 56W . S. Anderson bestowed this name upon the four fre quently grouped faults of greed, luxury, ambition, and superstition. See his "Introduction," The Satires of Per sius . tran s. by W . S. Merwin (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1961), p. 32. in the third chapter of this discus sion w e shall take up these related moral ideas along with their cause. i 57 j Odes I-III cannot be taken up here as a single unit. This lim itation does not imply such a study would be irre le vant; i t means such an undertaking would be impractical now. The notion of another triad , Propertius I-III, is discussed by G. Williams, Tradition and Originality in R om an Poetry (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1968), pp. 480-495. 5 8 I In fact, the moral themes occur in a third of the j poems: 1, 2, 9, 10, 15, 16, and 18. ! i ! I j | ^®"It is not Asinius Pollio that is going to make the | Rom ans feel the tragedy of the Great War; a ll that was pure ! camouflage; i t is Horace, and he does i t largely by pretend-! ing not to do it." A. Y. Campbell, Horace: A N ew Inter- j pretation (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1924), p. 231. I j 6°Socrates discovered the effect of greed, going past the measure. The citizens who have x P T IP -ttT U V HTfjatv ccreeipovj are in a condition of {creepP& vteq tov twv dvaynaCwv Spov. j |A s a result, the state w ill be compelled to go to war. Rep.I r ' _ .............. 6 3 ! ; ■ i i i |373D-E. Compare Phaedo 66D and Pol. Ath. 8 . j ! i i ! 61Pp. 31-32. | 82The opening poem "recommends . . . moderation." j H. J. Rose., History of Latin Literature (London: Methuen ! and Co. Ltd., 1954), p. 274. 63 ' Compare the central verse of Odes 1.1: . . . in- docilis pauperiem pati (18). ^Not to be overlooked in the poem ending the firs t half of the book (III.15) are: pauperis (1), nequitiae (2), famosis laboribus (3), and illam coget amor (11). j | 6^In his recent commentary on this book Gordon Williams| gives m uch attention to individual poems in several re- j spects. A book-theme is not, however, one of these, though j he briefly discusses unity of the book as achieved by me- j chanical structure. The Third Book of Horace's Odes (O x ford: Clarendon Press, 1969), esp. p. 23. ®^See note 57 above. I 67W e shall attempt to show that Propertius linked his j Ifourth book to his fir s t three, p. 83f. 68Pp. 412-413. ". . . i n addition to what this ode means in its e lf, i t is also to be taken as an introduction to the whole book. It is in fact an overture" (p. 413). ! ^^That the two poems are in the same meter, the Second j Asclepiadean, m ay be no more than coincidence. Yet the fact' remains that they are in the same meter. i y q ! A s C. E. Bennett, Horace: Odes and Epodes. rev. John; C. Rolfe (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1934), p. 393, and j others have already seen. 7^-See in particular Fraenkel, p. 422. j 72IV.2, 5, and 15 are addressed to Augustus himselfj IV.4 praises Drusus and the Claudian house, while IV.14 is poncerned with Drusus and Tiberius. j ................. ....................... ' ~ ~ ' 64 | | 73 This m an was consul in 11 B.C., two years after the j date of this ode. j 74This is what Tibullus apparently does with the seventh poem of his firs t book. For discussion of this function of the poem see Chapter IV. For an extreme view about the book's purpose and conception see T. E. Page, Q . Horatii Flacci Carminum Libri IV et Epodum Liber (London: Macmillan and Co. Ltd., 1883), p. 395. H e claims that eleven of the fifteen odes were included only as a "plausible pretext" for publication of the other four. Compare Fraenkel's reply, p. 410. 7^Fraenkel, p. 410. C H A P T E R II T H E M A T IC U N IT Y IN R O M A N E L E G Y The history of the elegy parallels that of lyric in that l i t t l e has survived the early centuries of its exis tence. In fact, m any of the Greek lyric poets also composed I elegies, and the same fate befell a ll their works— and | probably at the same time and for the same reasons.^- In any case, the firs t 700 years of Greek literary activity have le ft us no elegies beyond scattered fragments, vague references, and an occasional isolated poem. For i example, about the Nanno of Mimnermus, one of two elegiac jbooks by this Greek poet, w e know very l i t t l e . Its t i t l e ! i Isuggests that- the book was concerned with a domina in the j | later tradition of the Augustan elegiac poets, but most ! ! scholars feel that i t was a "collection of poems on very j I 2 ! different themes" and was probably only dedicated to the lady.3 | I 65 j 66 j I The Lyde. an elegiac work of Antimachus of Colophon, i 4 5 ! [w as a continuous narrative poem "at least two books long," ! but its theme is unknown to us. Luck, however, suggests j 6 [that the work contained traditional love poems. The fact i ; I i [remains, however, that w e know very l i t t l e about these poem sj i ; i . ! I 1 [and can only speculate. [ j Yet even speculation is impossible for anyone w ho seeks to study thematic unity and the poet's use of key positions j in a book to point up the unity. W e can only regret the lack of material in the early centuries of Greek literatu re i i and turn our attention to later periods. | Here, too, the situation is similar to what w e have seen in lyric poetry. A m ong the Alexandrians elegiac poetry was a favorite form of expression, but again, with one ! I j ; [possible exception, they have le ft us no complete book of l ' ' 7 i |elegiac poetry. The exception is more apparent than real, j 1 : 8 1 for only a broken series of fragments remains. i I Enough is extant to show that the Aitia extended to . [four books which contained a series of aetiological stories i I ■ 1 9 ! on the subject of Greek history, customs, and ritu a ls. The; fir s t two books seem to have been written in continuous elegiacs in which the poet imagined that the Muses in- i i istructed him in m uch of Greece's legendary lore. In Books j 67 I I I — IV, however, the individual stories m ay not have been connected by any such imaginative device. The very variety of the stories, vhether they were connected or not, makes i t extremely unlikely that C alli machus conceived and carried out a unifying theme. Thus once again w e must admit that another literary genre of the Greeks fails to provide us with a satisfactory example of thematic unity and the device of repeating the theme at the traditional points of emphasis. The Alexandrians, however, did much-to improve elegiac poetry. They made the rules of composition m uch stric te r I than the ones their Hellenic predecessors had observed, and they introduced new themes and motifs which their R om an successors were to follow and carry to the point of perfec tion. That the R om an elegiac poets did not fa ll below the standards of the Alexandrians was recognized in antiquity. Everyone knows the famous judgment of Quintilian (X.1.93) : i Elegia quoque Graecos provocamus. The c ritic then adds a brief evaluation of each poet in the canon of R om an elegiac poets as i t firs t appeared in Ovid (T r_. IV .10.51-54) : r ........................... _ ..... 6 8 I I Vergilium vidi tantum: nec avara Tibullo tempus amicitiae fata dedere meae. successor fu it hie tib i, Galle, Propertius i l l i ; quartus ab his serie temporis ipse fu i. j Where is CatullusNeither Ovid nor Quintilian in- j eluded him among the elegiac poets, and most modern c ritic s ; have agreed with the exclusion. Catullus did, i t is true, | | continue the tradition of the erotic epigram and added four j j longer poems (65-68) which may, with some reason, be called j elegies. Poem s 67-68 even contain and thus anticipate some I I of the themes and techniques which characterize Augustan j elegiac p o etry .^ W e can admit a ll this and s t i l l deny that Catullus was an elegiac poet. Certainly w e must deny that he composed a ! ! jbook of elegiac poetry. A s w e pointed out in the discussion! I | of Catullus' lyrics, the manuscript evidence is confused. j W e do not know the origin of the present arrangement of the j poems, but certainly the four long elegies numbered 65-68 12 i cannot have formed a true book of elegiac poetry. I I With this judgment Ovid and Quintilian seem to have i ! concurred, for both listed Cornelius Gallus, the unfortunate 13 1 friend of Augustus, as the earliest of the elegiac poets. H e wrote four books of love-elegies which he entitled Amores and addressed to his mistress Cytheris under the j r ' . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . '. . . . . . . . . . 6 9 j i ! : i Ipseudonym of Lycoris. Thus Gallus is the acknowledged pio- I 1 i | jneer of elegiac poetry at Rom e, and undoubtedly Tibullus, i , Propertius, and Ovid owed m uch to his themes and techniques.! j Yet once again w e can only guess at his subject matter j i j land the way in which he handled i t , for Augustus' displeas- j f i | I lure at his friend's indiscretions in Egypt led not only to j ! : jGallus' suicide in 26 B.C. but to the disappearance of his ; jpoetry as well. j The death of Gallus almost coincided with the appear- | ance of two new books of elegies, those of Tibullus and j i Propertius. Both Ovid and Quintilian listed Tibullus before Propertius, but most modern scholars feel that the M ono- ! biblos of Propertius appeared about three years (c. 29 B.C.)] ! before the f ir s t book of Tibullus (c. 26 B.C.). In any ; i case, since a thorough study of Tibullus' fir s t book is the j i raison d 'etre of this investigation, convenience dictates i that w e follow modern rather than ancient opinion and turn 14 our attention f ir s t to Propertius. Book I has a unifying theme. It is Cynthia, and m uch of Propertius' a rtistry is designed to clarify and emphasize! this central theme. Following epic tradition the poet used ] the fir s t word to indicate his theme: Cynthia prima suis miserum m e cepit o c e llis. The g irl and the poet's love i I 15 I jaffair with her dominate the thought of the book. O ne or ; i 1 ' 16 jthe other is the theme of the f ir s t nineteen poems where I | |the name Cynthia appears some twenty-eight times It is I ! I significant, however, that in only three of the poems does j the word Cynthia appear in the firs t line: in 1.1, of course, i t serves to introduce his mistress and in 1.19, i which serves as the epilogue to the Cynthia story in Book Ij and in I . 11 which m ay be considered the central position of j the book. Thus, whatever the occasion in this in itia l book j and, apart from the la st three poems, whatever the subject, j i 17 Cynthia causa fu it (1.11.26). I The last three poems of Book I pose a different prob lem. For his closing Propertius chose, as w e have discussed! ! I Jin a previous section, a Seal Poem.1^ In this he followed j i ; i tradition. It is, however, d ifficu lt to see how 1.20 and 21| f i t into the scheme of the book. 1.20, the Hylas poem, is concerned with a homosexual motif, but the poet has not i j attempted to make i t as m uch a part of the book's love story! 19 as Tibullus did. This poet depicted his lover's turning ! in despair and frustration from his mistress to a boy-lover.i 20 ! Not so m Propertius. H e makes no such attempt at cohesion. H e addresses his; poem to Gallus, but even this device serves only to j |introduce a Hellenistic version of the Hylas story. 1.21, | ; I too, is a variation on a well-known theme of the sepulchral ! ! ! i * jepigram found in Callimachus and other Hellenistic poets. j A s w e said above, i t is d ifficu lt to see how these two j i poems, 1.2 0-21, f it into the scheme of Book I, but one thingj seems clear: Propertius here gives a fir s t indication of j turning his a rtis tic attention to Hellenistic themes and | j techniques. ! | This new approach provides the opening statement in | Book I I : Quaeritis, unde mihi totiens scribantur amores, unde m eus veniat mollis in ore lib e r. In this prologue to the book the poet seeks to legitimize | his poetry by claiming kinship with Alexandrian models. I This opening couplet suggests a further change in Proper- i tiu s ' attitu d e. Cynthia is s t i l l a dominant figure, love i elegy is s t i l l the form, but the stress is now on the form, j i For this reason the word amores. "songs of love, " "love j j l affairs," gives an emphatic close to the hexameter and the j phrase mollis . . . liber stresses the same general idea.^* | The same emphasis in Hellenistic models and R om an pre- ; jdecessors concludes 11.34 (or 11.34 B in m any texts), the jclosing poem of the book. In this epilogue Propertius ! 72 : jbriefly considers past poets and claims a place in the lis t ! by citing his poems about Cynthia (11.34.93-94). Cynthia quin etiam versu laudata Properti, hos inter s i m e ponere Fam a volet. Thus, in both the prologue and epilogue of Book II, Pro pertius is clearly concerned with his a rtistry and with his place in literatu re. Cynthia is s t i l l a major theme, but she is no longer the all-consuming passion that she was in 22 the Monobiblos. N o w w e need to look in Book II for that central point of emphasis. But where is it? The state of the manuscripts is such that few scholars can agree on the number of poems in the book. The manuscripts number thirty-four poems, but 23 24 Barber's text identifies forty-six separate poems. Clearly, there is no way to point with confidence to any poem and say that it holds the central position. It is, however, an interesting coincidence that two poems somewhere I near the middle of the book (11.16 and 19) have the word 25 Cynthia in the opening line. If one of them should prove to be the central poem, w e would conclude that Propertius j i l emphasized the continuing theme of Cynthia. j I O n the other hand 11.24 begins, in a sense, on the sub-j I I | jject of Propertius' fame as a poet and on his affair with I 73 ; j | jCynthia, w ho has provided him with his themes: I i ! | Tu loqueris, cum sis iam noto fabula libro j et tua s it toto Cynthia lecta foro? j ! Here w e find both Cynthia, the theme of Book I and of a j j l large part of Book II, and the idea of Propertius 1 role as a poet, which is the theme of the book's epilogue. Yet, once again, a ll this is merely idle speculation. W e cannot 26 with confidence identify the central position of Book II. The text of Book III is in much better condition. It j is true that some doubt has arisen about I I I.8 and I I I .20, ! | but no matter what our decision about these poems happens toj 27 be, III. 13 remains as the central poem of the book. A nd :of course there is no question about the poems which open j ! i land close Book III. j i Several interesting points in I I I .l deserve considera- ; i | tion. Where Book II began with a question about Propertius'; sources for the amores of his mollis liber. Book III iden- j j tifie s two models in the opening couplet: j i | Callimachi M anes et Coi sacra Philetae, in vestrum, quaeso, m e sin ite ire nemus. | i The poet has at last corue out into the open and admitted j I what w e have suspected a ll along. H e has followed Hellenis-j tic models and proposes to do so even more in Book III. ! I '........ '.......... 74 i : I | !Indeed, he m ay have already given us a hint of this devel- i i jopment in the prologue of Book II: j Quaeritis, unde mihi totiens scribantur amores, j unde meus veniat mollis in ore lib er, non haec Calliope, non haec mihi cantat Apollo, ingenium nobis ipsa puella fa c it. sive illam Cois fulgentem incedere cogis, hoc totum e Coa veste volumen e rit. ! i j j The last couplet here is the key. It is true that the j | adjective Cous regularly describes the sheer garments of a | 28 I g irl not only in Propertius but in m any other authors, butj j i t is tempting here in I I .1.5-6 to see not only a flashback j to the thought of 1.2.1-2 but also to I I I .1.1. This idea fits in well with the subject of I I .1: Propertius is s t i l l concerned with Cynthia, her beauty and charm, her a rtistry , : |but i t is not merely Calliope and Apollo—representatives of j | I Hellenic inspiration—that move him to song. N o w she will j walk through his verses clothed in the shining raiment of a I j I H ellenistic model: hoc totum e Coa veste volumen e r i t . j I i This almost sounds like a private joke of Propertius, and it; is just subtle enough to have appealed to a poet as thor oughly immersed in the Alexandrian tradition as Propertius j I i i was . I W hen he set about composing the Prologue to Book II, he; iemembered his previous l i t t l e joke and decided to add to i t ; ' y t 1 iby applying the adjective Cous to Philetas. In doing so, i | ; jhe announced clearly and positively that he had long been j ! under the influence of Hellenistic authors and intended to j 30 ! follow them even more closely in the future. j I This same idea appears at the close of Book III. For j j a number of reasons Propertius elected not to treat the j I I {whole subject of changing a rtis tic purpose in a single epi- j 31 | logue. Instead, as C am ps has seen, he devoted five ele- j ! I gies (III.21-25) to the subject. There m ay be several , reasons for this unusual close to a book, but one stands outj most clearly. In Propertius' mind Books I-III, like Horace's firs t j books of Odes, formed a unit. The lyric poet had not | I I {planned to compose more Odes when he published I-III and so j | i he closed with a positive statement of achievement, exeqi | j monumentum aere perennius ( III.30.1), and put a final seal ! ; jon h?s lyric poetry. The elegiac poet, however, had a double task. H e wanted to bid farewell to the love-elegy and at least hint at things to come. And he s t i l l fe lt the j | need to continue to the end the illusion of a real love j affa ir with a real m istress. Whatever the reasons in Propertius' mind, the fact { {remains that he chose to spread his closing thoughts over ! jseveral elegies. In I I I .21 he proposes to go to Athens in ; I order to escape from Cynthia (vv. 1-2): i M agnum ite r ad doctas proficisci cogor Athenas, ut m e longa gravi solvat amore via. j j | and he gives his reason for such a journey (vv. 9-10) : unum e rit auxilium: mutatis Cynthia te rris quantum oculis, animo tam procul ib it amor. | In this couplet one cannot re sist the temptation to hear an ; j echo of the thought expressed in the famous opening line of i ] i iBook I : Cynthia prima suis miserum m e cepit o c e llis. In | jany case, the poet proposes to leave Cynthia and go to "learned" Athens. I In I I I .22 the idea of a journey to Athens is forgotten. i Instead the poet looks forward to the return to R om e of his j i 32 friend Tullus, who, as C am ps suggests, represents the | Iconventional R om an virtues. Notice that the friend has been1 ! ' ! absent m any years : Frigida tam multos placuit tib i Cyzicus | annos (1). That Tullus m ay represent more than someone to j be addressed in a poem seems clear from the concluding j couplets of the elegy (vv. 39-42) : j I haec tib i, Tulle, parens, haec est pulcherrima sedes, hie tib i pro digna gente petendus honos, hie tib i ad eloquium cives, hie ampla nepotum j spes et venturae coniugis aptus amor. 77 !ln these lines Propertius touches upon m any things dear to 33 the R om an nobility: parents, R om e its e lf, p o litical sue- i cess (honos and in a sense eloquium). citizenship, a good j wife and offspring. These are R om an subjects, and most of \ 34 ^ them form the themes of the poems m Book IV. j From this hint of things to com e the poet turns in the j next poem to another expression of the present situation (III.23.1-2) : j Ergo tam doctae nobis periere tabellae, j scripta quibus pariter to t periere bona! j "Lost! Lost! M y learned tablets and a ll m y good writing lost I ! with them!" That is one meaning of the couplet, but periere! i ' ialso means "lie inactive," "lie dead." It xs obvxous that I i i ! ! . i jthe surface meaning of the poem xs an amusxng one: Pro- j ! i jpertius has lost the tablets on which he and his mistress j ! ; ihad exchanged messages. H e laments their loss and offers a | I reward to their finder (vv. 23-24). If, however, w e consider the other meaning of the re peated verb and if w e also take into account the poem's position in the book, w e are led to the conclusion that the j poet is announcing an end to his former style and subject I matter. The same double meaning m ay lie in the poem's con- \ I ’ ! icluding couplet: I j 78 I i, puer, et citus haec aliqua propone columna, et dominum Esquiliis scribe habitare tuum. I Most authorities, citing this couplet and IV.8 .1-2, inform j us that Propertius resided on the Esquiline. H e probably ! i did, for otherwise the point of the elegy would be lo st. j There is, however, another possible meaning. Propertius m ay ! be suggesting that in the future he w ill be a neighbor to j S Vergil, the greatest of a ll R om an poets, and to Maecenas, j w ho had created new gardens not only in Latin literatu re j 35 ' but, in a more real sense, on the Esquiline its e lf . Both 36 m en are known to have resided on this h ill. Thus 111.23, which begins with a statement that its poet's erotic elegies are dead, ends with a hint that lof tie r themes are in the future. With this part of the epi logue out of the way, Propertius has but one task l e f t : to i bid farewell to Cynthia, the g irl and the theme of his ! ] erotic poems. j The last two poems of the book accomplish this purpose.! O f the two, the former seems concerned primarily with Cyn- 37 ’ thia as a theme. After a strong b itte r opening: j Falsa est ista tuae, mulier, fiducia formae, olim oculis nimium facta superba meis. Propertius devotes most of the poem (w . 3-14) to Cynthia's irole in his poetry. The emphasis in these lines is on the ! I 1 | i ; jmanner in which he has depicted her and their love affair, j I 1 and in his references to the past (vv. 9-11): j i I quod mihi non p a trii poterant avertere amici, j eludere aut vasto Thessala saga mari. haec ego non ferro, non igne coactus, . . . 38 he inserts an echo of 1.1.2 3-28: tunc ego crediderim vobis et sidera et amnes posse Cytaeines ducere carminibus. aut vos, qui sero lapsum revocatis, amici, quaerite non sani pectoris auxilia. j fo rtite r et ferrum saevos patiemur et ignis, I s it m odo libertas quae v e lit ira loqui. j i i H e concludes the poem with a promise of devotion to M ens Bona, a true R om an goddess. H e has had enough of the storm- ! tossed Aegean (v. 12)! j I Cynthia, the theme of his elegies, has received his farewell. N o w in the last poem of the book i t is the g irl i herself w ho is dismissed in terms that preclude any recon- I 3 9 i ciliatio n , any return to the old ways. “ In short, Book Illj | closes with a firm resolve to sever a ll ties with the past j I and with a promise of greater topics to come. j This Janus-like view of things may, to some extent, be | 40 seen in the central poem of the book. I I I .12 begins with ! i the phrase quaeritis. unde which is an echo of I I .1.1. O ne j r ~ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . " " . s o jm ay argue that such a repetition is mere coincidence with : 41 :l i t t l e significance, and he m ay well be right. Yet the , i ; (repetition acquires more significance when he discovers that these are the only two occurrences of the phrase in the fourj books. Whether deliberately or subconsciously, Propertius j ! I has begun the central poem of Book III with the same words : ' jand the same construction which he used to begin Book II. j I This reference to the past, however, assumes added j meaning when we consider the concluding section of I I I .13. j In context, verses 60-66 f it in with the theme of the poem, j i j ibut i t is surely more than coincidence that these same | jverses turn us to the theme of R om e (v. 60) : frangitur ipsa I I I suis R om a superba bonis, and add the thought that the poet I ! jhimself is the one w ho is chosen to speak out against Rome's! ! 42 I jills (v. 61): certa loquor. sed nulla f ides. j j I Each of the individual points made in these last few j pages can, perhaps, be explained away, but their cumulative j 43 significance is unassailable. B y the time Propertius cam e- to arrange the elegies of Book III, he had decided on his j future course of action. Steeped as he was in Hellenistic | poetic tradition, he had no alternative to announcing his jchange of theme and a rtis tic expression. Cynthia must yield! to a mightier theme: "the grandeur that was Rome." j ' 81 i Book IV carries out the new theme of "mighty R om e" which the poet announces in the opening couplet: Hoc quodcumque vides, hospes, qua maxima R om a est, ante Phrygem Aenean collis et herba f u it. In addition, Propertius stresses the fact that the very j foundation of Rome's greatness was there even before the arrival of Aeneas and the Trojans. Thus, in the one couplet he proclaims the City's preeminence and attributes its beginning to Italian, not Greek or Asian, influence. i j This emphasis on the Italian element appears frequently! in a majority of the poems which carry out the R om an theme. Indeed, in no book except the fir s t has Propertius concen trated on one theme quite as m uch as he does in Book IV. j i ' l 44 (O f the twelve elegies in this book only three (IV.5, 7, 8)( | | ifail to emphasize some aspect of Rom an tradition and mores. j Even IV.11, a laudatio for the dead Cornelia, serves to jclose the book with a eulogy of traditional R om an virtues, \ the very cornerstone of the R om an Republic, which Augustus j wanted so desperately to reawaken during his Principate. I 45 The central poem of Book IV is emphatically concerned; jwith the R om an theme, as the fir s t two couplets clearly show; i ! i (IV .6 .1-4): Sacra facit vates: sint ora faventia sacris, et cadat ante meos icta iuvenca focos. serta Philetaeis cert.et Rom ana corymbis, et Cyrenaeas urna m inistret aquas. In these lines Propertius deliberately uses the Rom an word 46 vates with its double meaning of "priest" and "poet." Sacra is repeated both for emphasis and to make its double meaning clear, for i t too refers both to a holy sacrifice 47 and to the holy writings of a vates. The second idea 48 extends into the second couplet where Propertius at last asserts that he has surpassed his Alexandrian models in th eir ow n form of composition. With the theme now introduced, Propertius turns to the matter at hand (IV.6.11-14): Musa, Palatini referemus Apollinis aedem: res est, Calliope, digna favore tuo. Caesaris in nom en ducuntur carmina: Caesar dum canitur, quaeso, Iuppiter ipse vaces. j The main purpose of IV.6 is to explain the origin of the temple of Palatine Apollo and to glorify Augustus' victory | i 49 at Actium. Thus Book IV begins and ends with the subject j ; of R om e and R om an mores. and in its central elegy is set praise of the m an w ho has brought R om e to its very pinnacle j of power and prestige and a description of the b attle which j allowed Augustus to assume his position of Princeps. ! i I ; ! The theme of the book is obvious and consistent. O r isj ! I jit? H o w can w e explain the three elegies which are not j j : devoted to R om an tradition? The firs t of these, IV.5, is a j 50 . > strange poem. At least i t is strange m its present posi-, tion. W hat has a poem, which is mainly concerned with a j i lover's elaborate curse against an aged procuress, named j Acanthis, to do with R om e and R om an tradition? j The answer must be, "Nothing, perhaps." A nd yet the j i old bawd's advice to the g irl in the long central section of I i the poem (vv. 21-62) emphasizes and details a way of life ! I 51 ' that is the very opposite of stern R om an ideals. Her instructions and advice to her young protegee contrast isharply with the pleas of Cornelia in IV.11. A nd if Acan- i i i i i this is already dead here in IV.5, the contrast with Cor- i nelia is even sharper.5^ j There is another possible connection between this poem j i l and others of Propertius. In the midst of her bawdy advice i Acanthis suddenly quotes a couplet from an early poem of j Propertius (IV.5.55-56=1.2.1-2) and develops the idea | through the next two lines (vv. 57-58) : Quid iuvat ornato procedere, v ita, capillo et tenuis Coa veste movere sinus? qui versus, Coae dederit nec munera vestis, ipsius tib i s it surda sine arte ly ra. j iSo strange is this quotation from the earlier poem that m any; ^ 53 '' !editors suggest that i t be deleted. Yet how can w e ac- j count for this couplet creeping into the present context? Barber and Butler suggest that i t was originally a marginal j jcomment on w . 57-58 which themselves allude to the passage I in 1 .2.54 | i The sim ilarity is too slight for this explanation to hold, but another is not impossible. A s w e discussed ear- 55 lie r, Propertius uses the adjective Cous not only to j i describe sheer garments but also to refer to Alexandrian I i models and their themes. In verse 56 the reference is j i clearly to garments, and this meaning naturally carries overj into the next couplet. Yet here the emphasis is upon versus! in the hexameter and upon ipsius and surda . . . lyra in the’ 56 i pentameter. In this context the couplet can imply some thing like: "W hoever gives you verses without their Alex andrian vestments, m ay his lyre be mute and artless." Such j an interpretation makes the reading sine aere meaningless and actually adds to the significance of the phrase sine i a rte . N o arguments, however, can do more than hint at a pos- j sible explanation for the apparent strangeness of IV.5. However m uch w e attempt to explain away its incongruous tonej and subject matter, the fact remains that the poem's motif ; | ! land touol belong more naturally in a book of elegies which j j I is concerned with erotic, rather than patriotic themes. j The same objection can be made against IV.7 and 8 . The f ir s t of these is a marvelous poem and is rightly the favor-! lite of m any critic s and readers. Yet what contribution does i t make to the theme of Book IV ? Like IV.5 and IV.11, this poem reports the words of a i 57 1 dead wom an. Cynthia is dead, and her s p irit comes to j i Propertius in a dream to complain of her treatment in life ! as well as on the day of her funeral. Clearly i t is the poet's guilty conscience that has conjured up the vivid I I jdream, but what has caused this feeling of guilt? Cynthia 1 ! accuses him of plotting her murder (w . 35-38) and of re- jplacing her with a new mistress (vv. 39-48), and she claims j j i jthat she was faithful to him (w . 51-54). Yet Cynthia, as | i w e have seen, was in the past more than Propertius' mis- I i tress. She was also the theme of his early poetry. I M ay w e not, without diluting the drama of this patheticl i poem, see in these verses an expression of guilt, or at \ ! least of regret, for having abandoned a theme he found in 1 ) the end more congenial to his genius? j | This literary idea seems to lie behind such assertions j I " ” ' ' ' ' .' . . " " . . . . . . . . . . 8 6 i : iof Cynthia as (v. 50): I i i ! i longa m ea in lib ris regna fuere tuis and (w . 7 7-78): | l et quoscumque m eo fe c isti nomine versus, | ure mihi: laudes desine habere meas. | I Propertius' mistress utters these lines. The g irl's s p irit ! j resents the fame he has w on by writing of their love. Yet j these thoughts are just as apt for Cynthia, the literary j theme. The poet has had second thoughts about his recent a rtis tic plans. H e regrets the change and expresses his j 5gi regret in th is, the most moving of a ll Propertian elegies. | i i i A similar interpretation is possible even for IV.8 . j 'Nothing can completely alleviate the incongruity of this humorous poem's position beside the somber seventh, but one j can see in i t another recanting of his recent poetic plans, i | O n the surface this poem describes a night when Pro- I i i pertius invites two girls in for dinner, drinking, and dal- ; liance while Cynthia is out of town. She returns unexpect- j i edly, chases the g irls out of the house, and, after punish- , ing both Propertius and the unfortunate Lygdamus, purifies I Jthe house and its furnishings which have been polluted by ! her riv als. W hen she has laid dow n the law to her trembling I jlover, the two make up their quarrel in the "well-known j i " .............'...... . : ......................................... ............ .............................' 87 b e d . ” i This is the dramatic situation of the poem, but the events m ay have an added significance. The two g irls are 59 Greek, at least they have Greek names (w . 29-32) : Phyllis Aventinae quaedam est vicina Dianae, sobria grata parum: cum bibet, om ne decet. altera Tarpeios est inter Teia lucos, C a n d i d a , s e d p o t a e n o n s a t i s unus e r i t . With these lovelies he plans to try something new (w . 33- 34) : his ego constitui noctem lenire vocatis, et Venere ignota furta novare mea. But his plans are set in vain, for (vv. 47-48) : cantabant surdo, nudabant pectora caeco: Lanuvii ad portas, ei mihi, solus eram. The f ir s t two words of the couplet remind one of IV.5.58: 6 0 ipsius tib i s it surda sine arte ly ra. At this c ritic a l m oment Cynthia storms into the house, and Phyllis and Teia i !flee to the neighboring tavern (vv. 57 f f .) . Poor Lygdamus j has no tavern for a refuge and must accept his punishment 61 for lending aid and comfort to Propertius' intrigues. Has he now been helping the poet with new themes just as once he m ay have hindered?6^ i I Cynthia has carried out these preliminaries in furious isilence. N o w she turns to Propertius (w . 73-74) : I ! j atque a it "Admissae si vis m e ignoscere culpae, j j accipe, quae nostrae formula legis e r i t ." i "Here are m y rules and regulations!" O f conduct or of com- j position? Both probably. She then lis ts some specific places which the poet must avoid (vv. 75-78) : tu neque Pompeia spatiabere cultus in umbra, nec cum lascivum sternet harena Forum, colla cave inflectas ad su m m u m obliqua theatrum, aut lectica tuae sedet aperta morae. N ow , w e know the erotic significance of such places from 63 Ovid's references and instructions in the Ars Amatona, and certainly Cynthia has this idea in mind. Yet, in the immediate context, what have these places to do with her ! 64 |lover's unfaithfulness? She caught him at home, not at I the games or in some other public spot. Something more must lie behind Cynthia's rules. Has the Portico of Pom pey or the theater, or the Forum figured in any of Propertius' new poems on the greatness of R om e? T w o of them certainly have. N o reference to the Portico seems to appear after 11.32.11-16, but the theater is described (vv. 15-16) in the opening poem of Book IV: nec sinuoso cavo pendebant vela theatro, pulpata sollemnes non oluere crocos. r ’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ~ ~ 89 i i !A nd the Forumj as one might expect, is mentioned several j i | i ; |times in Book IV. At 2.5-6 he says: ! • ; haec m ea turba iuvat, nec templo laetor eburno: j R om anum satis est posse videre Forum. j Cynthia almost seems to answer the pentameter here when she j te lls Propertius to stay away from that place. At IV.4.9-12 the Forum again appears in a discussion of Rome's past: i i quid turn R om a fu it, tubicen vicina Curetis j cum quateret lento murmure saxa Iovis, j I atque ubi nunc te rris dicuntur iura subactis, I stabant Rom ano pila Sabina Foro? And a similar contrast, reminiscent of the statement at IV. 1.2 collis et herba f u it. occurs at IV.9.2 0: nobile e rit Rom ae pascua vestra Forum. j i ; | The Forum, then, is a frequent topic in Propertius' j i | "R om an" book. A m ong other things i t was the symbol of j i ; R om an sovereignty and R om an law, two of the topics stressed ; in the book. Cynthia, however, has another kind of law in mind in IV.8 . She wants her lover back under her control (vv. 81-82) : j j i indixit legem: respondi ego "Legibus utar." | riserat imperio facta superba dato. I Under the control, that is, not only of Cynthia the g irl butj 6 7 * of Cynthia the poetic theme as well. | | 90 i j I | | If any part of the symbolism which w e have attempted to; j ! idiscern in IV.5, 7, and 8 is real, there is some sig n ifi- j i jcance to their presence in the book. If, on the other hand,: l I :all this is mere imagination, the poems must remain oddities: in a book which otherwise has a unity of theme that is more | i ; i ! cohesive than Propertius achieved in any of his previous 68 I jbooks, with the possible exception of the Monobiblos. j i : l ' In summary, then, each of Propertius' four books has a | unifying theme. H e announces i t in the opening poem of each; book and repeats some variation of i t in the last poem. He I I | frequently restates some part of the theme in the central i poem, and occasionally w e get a hint that this poem was j | designed either to refer to a previous book or to hint at j i ! | j jthemes to come. | i I | Such intricacies of structure were clearly known to the! ! ; iAugustan poets. W e have already observed their presence in i 69 . ' Vergil's Eclogues and Georgies. Horace's Sermones. Epis- 70 ti e s . and Odes. and now m the Elegies of Propertius. If I i t were necessary, an examination of Ovid's elegiac works would provide further proof that a ll the Augustan poets were; 71 concerned with a thematic structure to their books. These ja rtistic techniques, borrowed from the Alexandrian poets, were "in the a ir." The Augustans made a conscious effort to: jcreate unity in their works by employing traditional devices; ; i of rhetoric and poetry, and Tibullus was no exception. i i ! At the same time, they instinctively sought to avoid ! ; ithe stigma of producing triv ia litie s (nugae) by weaving into; i ! !their erotic themes some instruction on good, old-fashioned j j j R om an morality. The poet, even an elegiac poet, was s t i l l a; i teacher. W e have seen how Propertius, like Vergil and | Horace, added moral and philosophic depth to the apparent | ! i jsurface meaning of his poems. In m any cases, these poets I turned to the same ideas. Indeed, one is tempted to call i some of them commonplaces of Augustan poetry, for they too, ! |like the techniques, were "in the air." I The moral themes with which w e are especially concerned t jare divitiae. a v aritia. luxuria. ambitio. and su p erstitio . j j j |Each of these ideas has a long history before Augustan j | times— and of course the finis to their history is vet to bei i written. Yet more significant is the fact that these five ideas, in addition to their individual development in lite r-; I ’ ature, have a history as a canon of related concepts. | In the following chapter we shall briefly consider the i i i early history of these ideas and attempt to show that w rit- ’ ers of every period, epic poets, dramatists, philosophers | i I i land, in fact, literary a rtists of every kind, discussed the i 92 I concepts or used them as themes in their works. W e shall also see that these concepts appeared regularly in the works; of the Augustan poets and in particular in Horace's poetry, j Finally w e shall offer an analysis of Sermones I I .3 in order! to show that a ll the themes are treated almost as a canon ofl ( human fa u lts. NOTES It is worth recalling Quintilian's general view toward elegy. H e praises certain forms of literatu re as optimis. but speaks of elegy as v ilio rib u s. S till he says that the reader of elegy must be well educated, perfectis constitu- tisque viribus. Inst. Or. 1.1.58. ^c. M . Bowra, "Elegiac Poetry, Greek," P C D . 1970. ^Georg Luck, The Latin Love Elegy. 2nd ed. (London: Methuen and Co. Ltd., 1969), p. 31. Hereafter referred to as Luck. ^Luck, p. 33. ^E. A. Barber, "Antimachus," P C D . 1970. 6Luck, p. 33. ?For a discussion of this topic see the reference to Pfeiffer given here in n. 49 of the preceding chapter. T o say nothing of books, "no fragment of Hellenistic love- elegy has been found" (Luck, p. 12). 8The text used of this fragmentary work is that of R. Pfeiffer, Callimachus (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1959), I. 9C. A. Trypanis, "Callimachus," P C D . 1970. 10]3efore Catullus we believe that Ennius introduced the meter into the language, but apparently used i t only in short non-amatory poems. Later, Lucilius used the meter in a book, but only, i t seems, in parts (Luck, p. 47). About the time the s a tiris t died, three authors put erotic (subjects into the Latin elegiac epigram for the fir s t time: ; iValerius Aedituus, Porcinus Lucinius, and Lutatius Catulus. j J. W . Duff, "Valerius Aedituus," P C D . 1970. i i i ■ Poem s 67, 68, and 76 are quite like Augustan elegies.! C. J. Fordyce, "Catullus," P C D . 1970. Yet Luck says about Catullus 66, 67, and 68: "Each of them represents a differ-j ent type of elegiac poem, and none of them is an erotic j elegy in the manner of Propertius, Tibullus, or Ovid" (p. 58) . 1 2 For the physical size of the ancient book see A. L. Wheeler's work (esp. pp. 18-24) cited in n. 51, Chap. I. 13Tr. IV.10.51-54; Inst. Or. 10.1.93. 14Just as we shall, in the nane of convenience, lim it | our survey of moral notions to writers known by Tibullus, so! shall w e lim it our survey of literary techniques to the samej w riters. See n. 71 below. i I ^ ■ 5For a recent, but brief, discussion of the subject I see W . A. Camps, Propertius: Elegies Book I (Cambridge: | Cambridge Univ. Press, 1961), pp. 7 f f . Hereafter referred i to as C am ps I. j i ) i I , i C am ps I, 7. H e also observes that she is named m | thirteen poems of the book. j I i 1 7 W e could also quote 1.12.20: Cynthia prima fu it. Cynthia finis e r i t . A nd w e should note how Martial referred! to the book: Cynthia iucundi carmen iuvenale Properti ! (Epigrams XIV.cixxxix). Pn the other hand, in a recent study J. T. Davis proposed that fides is the theme of Books ; I and IV. Davis arrived at his conclusion after studying especially the grouping of poems. "Fides and the Construe- j tion of Propertius I and IV," Diss. Univ. of Michigan, 1967.: ^ ■ 8See n. 41 of Chap. I. ■ ® - 9The main character in three of the ten poems that j constitute Book I is the lad Marathus. In our discussion of; Tibullus 1.4, 8, and 9 w e shall show how the homosexual part; of the conventional amatory world serves to express the book's main theme, just as the heterosexual poems do. j 95 ! 2 0 I Yet w e must observe that Tibullus' lover turns away Ifrom Marathus also (9.79-80). The lover does so for the ! Isam e reason that he was driven to turn from Delia in poem 6 .| iThe reason is the subject of Chap. IV of this investigation:' ithe theme of Tibullus I. 21In their discussion of I I . 1 Butler and Barber observe! that the piece is a "prologue poem," stress its major divi- j sions (1-46 and 47-78) and concentrate on tone as a key to | the poem (p. 188). 2^The number of times Cynthia is named agrees with the jpoet's new direction. In Book I she was named twenty-eight times in thirteen of twenty-two poemsj in Book II she is j named twenty-one times in eleven of thirty-four poems. 23E. A. Barber, Sexti Properti Carmina. 2nd ed., Oxfordj Classical Texts (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1960). Here- j after cited as Barber. ^He sp lits into two poems the following: 11.13, 22, 24, 26, 29, 30, 33, 34. H e divides into three poems each |I I .18 and 28. Thus, he adds a to ta l of twelve poems to the jbook. i i OK ! The only other poems of Book II which do this are j lelegies 5 and 7. ! ! 26Using Barber's divisions and counting forty-six poems iin the book, w e are forced to consider 11.20 as the poem j |which closes the f ir s t half (i.e ., the twenty-third poem) j and 11.21 as the opening of the book's second half. Neitherj poem seems a likely candidate for the mid-point of emphasis.! 27 • I I If w e follow Barber's text in vdiich the traditional 'arrangement of the twenty-five poems is maintained, III. 13 \ is the central poem. If w e follow the older text of Butler j and Barber, the book has twenty-six poems and I I I .13 is s t i l l in a central position, being the poem that closes the j firs t half of the book. If w e follow C am ps and divide both j I I I.8 and I I I .20, the book has a to ta l of twenty-seven Ipoems. Yet once again I I I .13 stands as the central poem, j jfor (counting I I I .8 .A and 8 .B) i t is the fourteenth poem of ! jthe twenty-seven (Propertius: Elegies Book III [Cambridge: ^Cambridge Univ. Press, 1966] j hereafter cited as C am ps j 96 j | I I I I .) . O ne should perhaps remark that a ll M S S except N jpresent I I I .24 and 25 as a single elegy, but this is so j jmanifestly wrong that w e need not pay any attention to the jproblem which such an arrangement would present. j ; | ^® The word is used in this sense at 1.2.2; IV .2 .23 | (though the secondary meaning "Hellenistic" can be read into! jthis passage as well); and IV.5.23. The repetition of the Sw ord in IV.5.56-57 is a quotation of 1.2.2, yet even here j |the secondary meaning as well is possible. j | O Q i That Philetas was from Cos added to the joke. j ^°As C am ps puts it , Propertius is "a poet in search of j subjects" and "an identified department of poetry in which to work." C am ps III, 22. Butler and Barber believe that in; Book III "the poet is primarily concerned with his ow n self j praise" (p. x iii) . O 1 C am ps III, 4. M uch of the argument that follows herej is based on this scholar's discussion. j ^Propertius uses sedes only four times— and only in i Books III-IV— and each time i t refers to a place, a region, : 'rather than to a house or any sort of building. j I O A t O ne m ay compare Tibullus 1.7 for a similar treatment ; of these R om an themes, and, of course, as w e shall see, Propertius' ow n IV.11. j 3 6 The Horti Maecenatis. alluded to by Propertius in the! words novis . . . acrris at IV.8 .2, were laid out by Maecenas! on the site of an ancient burial ground. Cf. Horace, Satire; 1.8.14. 36 i See Suetonius' Vita Vergili 13: habuitque dom um j R om ae Esquiliis iuxta hortos Maecenatianos. The V ergilii j Vita Donatiana (41— 42) repeats Suetonius' words exactly. "^Only here does Propertius himself address Cynthia as mulier. The only other use of this word in connection with ; iher is at I I .29.9 where one of the pueri turba minuta uses j Ithis word of Propertius ' mistress . I 3®There m ay be another echo of 1 .1.1 in the second line! |of this poem, especially if w e follow Burman and read tuis instead of the meis of the M SS. It should be noted that Cynthia is named only three times in Book III. The poet does, however, at least allude j to the love theme in twenty-three of the twenty-five poems. | C am ps III, 1. ^Opor a discussion of I I I .13 as the central poem, see I p. 80. i I ^Several editors explain the use of quaerere as a ! technique of the poets to introduce an imaginary interlocu- j tor, and cite as an authority W . Abel's Die Anredeformen beil den romischen Elegikern. Diss. Berlin 1930. ! 4^As observed, J. T. Davis has suggested that fides is : the central theme of Book IV. See above, n. 17. Also P. Grimal makes a case for this idea as the theme of Book IV. "Les intentions de Properce et la composition du livre IV j des 'E legies'," Latomus, 11 (1952), 183-197, 315-326, 437- j 450. ! 4 3 H ad Butler and Barber known even more about the poet's a rt, they might not have said: "O n the whole . . . the book is disappointing notwithstanding great technical sk ill and m any striking passages" (p. x iv ). | 44Editors are surely correct in dividing IV.1 into two ■ ! poems. | 45IV.6 is the central poem whether IV.1 is taken as one' ipoem or two, i.e ., if the book has eleven poems, IV.6 is i iobviously in the central position, but if the book has 'twelve poems, IV,6 closes the fir s t half of the book. i ! 46 j For another significance of vates see, among others, Camps, Propertius: Elegies Book IV (Cambridge: Cambridge (Univ. Press, 1965), p. 104. For a close parallel to this meaning see Ovid, Tr. IV.10.19: et mihi iam puero caelestiaI sacra placebant. i l ' A 7 \ ^'For a parallel to such a double meaning see Horace's j Odes IV.1.1-2 and the double meaning of b ella. j ! 98 ; I ■ i ' | | 48At I I . 1.39-42 Propertius had disclaimed any ab ility jto sing of Augustus' glory in verse, and he asserted that isuch lofty themes were beyond Callimachus as well. So close; |is the earlier passage to the one here, that IV.6.14 is actually an echo of I I . 1.42. ! 49 Coincidence is a tricky and often misleading thing. ; Yet i t is interesting to see that Propertius' central elegy is concerned with the same subject as Horace's Epode IX, the central poem of that book. With only a l i t t l e imagination jone can see some sim ilarities in the two poems. I ! • I 88This strangeness is in no way lessened by the fact jthat parts of i t bear a close relationship to several pas sages in Tibullus: 1.2.43-54; 1.5.49-60; 1.4.9-72; I I . 3.51- j58; or by the fact that Ovid imitated Propertius' poem in iAm ores 1.8. I I ! 51W e show in the next chapter that most of the poems inj Tibullus I do the same and that 1.7 is an exemplum. j i 3 Whether she speaks from the grave or not depends upon the form of the verb in v . 71. If we follow the M S S and read fuerant. she is dead. Despite the awkwardness which this form creates in vv. 9-10, the opening four lines of the poem, with their variation of s it tib i terra lev is. favor ! the past tense and indicate that Acanthis is already dead. J 88E.g., Butler and Barber, and Camps. In his O C T edi tion Barber brackets the couplet. 58See above, p. 74£. j 88C am ps follows N and reads sine aere in this line, but! Barber (as he has in the Butler and Barber edition) follows j the other M S S and reads sine a rte . Arguments can be given j for and against each reading, but arte gives more point to j the literary theme. Furthermore, aere seems pointless no matter what interpretation w e give this passage. W hat poet j at this time earned cash from his poetic compositions? I 5^The moving pleas that the poet have compassion for her faithful servants should be compared with Cornelia's 99 requests to her husband and children in IV.73-98. 5® It m ay be significant that, if w e count twelve poems j in this book, IV.7 is the elegy which opens the second half | of the book and thus can be expected to emphasize one of its! important themes. Cf. Horace's Satires 1.6 and p. 27 f. | ■above. ! j 59Is i t merely coincidence that Ovid describes an af- j jfair with two g irls simultaneously: duas uno tempore turpisi i am o (A m . II. 10.4)? Notice, too, that Cynthia's ghost in j !lV.7 accuses Propertius of having two Greek girls as her j rivals (vv. 37 f f . and 71-72). i 60See above, p. 83 f. for a discussion of this couplet.I 61Supposedly this is the same Lygdamus w h o m Cynthia's | ghost accuses of being implicated in her murder (IV.7.35- 36) . I 62 ' The same servant is addressed by Propertius in I I I.6 j jwhere his loyalty is questioned. There is an added problem:j |W h a t i s a s l a v e o f C y n t h i a d o i n g i n P r o p e r t i u s ' h o u s e , e v e n j jif i t had been the poet w ho gave him to her? If w e assume jsom e symbolic sense here, the situation is eased somewhat. i 63Cf. 1.67 f f ., 89 f f ., and 163 ff. Unless she supposes that he has picked up the two girls in one of these places. ®^But of I I .23.5-6: et quaerit totiens, "Quaenam nunc porticus illam integit?" et "C am po quo movet ilia pedes?1 ' 66See also IV.1.A.134. 6 7 O ne can detect a slight echo in the pentameter here of I I .1.8: gaudet laudatis ire superba meis and of I I I .24. 2: olim oculis nimium facta superba meis. Both passages refer to the literary form as well as to the love a ffa ir. And, to conclude the analogy, one might say that Propertius' jresolve to describe Rome's greatness in his elegies is bro ken just as R om e herself has fallen victim to prosperity j(III .13.60) : frangitur ipsa suis R om a superba bonis . r ’ ’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . 1 0 0 1 j go I | The cohesiveness of the book, especially if the threej [seemingly incongruous poems have a thematic function, seems ■ ito argue against the belief of m any c ritic s that a literary j jexecutor assembled these poems after Propertius' death. j ^Although Duckworth seems to have carried the idea tooj far, he has produced some evidence that the Aeneid, too, w asj structured in a seemingly in tricate fashion. George E. j Duckworth, Structural Patterns and Proportions in V ergil's ; Aeneid (A nn Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1962). | 70It is surely more than coincidence that in the next century w e find evidence that Calpurnius Siculus paid spe cial attention to the f ir s t, la st, and central positions in his book of Eclogues. See, for example, Duff's discussion in Minor Latin Poets. Loeb Classical Library, rev. ed. (C am bridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1934), pp. 212-213, of Cal purnius' arrangement of his book. H e says: "The three courtly poems, i, iv, v ii, were written after these four [sc. i i , i i i , v, vi] and placed at the beginning, middle and end of the collection." 71 Since one purpose of this study is to trace the h is tory of techniques and themes which Tibullus used and to show how he was influenced by his models, w e need not pro long the matter by examining Ovid's works. They came la te r. It is true that some insight into Tibullus' methods might be 'obtained from an analysis of, for example, the Amores. but if w e once m ove later than Tibullus, where would we draw the line? Therefore, w e must re sist temptation and leave the j thematic structure of Ovid's elegiac poetry to a future j study. j C H A P T E R III DIVITIAE: T H E M E A N D M O R A L \ The theirie of Tibullus ' fir s t book of elegies is divi- tia e . W h y this is so and how the poet used the idea to give unity to the ten poems is the subject of the next chapter. Here our task is to identify Tibullus 1 sources for a theme th at, at f ir s t glance, seems more appropriate to philosophy or to the epic than to a book of elegiac poetry.’ * ' Obviously the general idea of wealth, its proper use and its abuse in society, was a frequent and popular theme 2 in antiquity. It s t i l l is today. Knowing th is, w e are tempted to play the old game of Quellenforschunq and trace the history of w \ o u to q and divitiae through a ll the w rit ings of Greek and Latin literatu re. A nd what a task that would be! H o w useless! Tibullus was an educated man. H e had undoubtedly read a great share of older poetry and philosophy, and he was naturally influenced by m uch that he read. 102 i I | Yet, not only is i t impossible for us to identify those; i i |works which had the greatest influence upon Tibullus, i t is | also unnecessary. The key to an understanding of the theme j ! I jof Tibullus 1 fir s t book is Horace and in particular his j Sermones I I . 3. " i ! That the older poet should have provided the elegist j not only with m any isolated thoughts and expressions but even with his f ir s t book's central theme need cause no sur prise. The tradition is strong that the two m en were more j i I than casual acquaintances, and we have Odes 1.33 and Epis tle s 1.4 as support for the tradition. In fact, if our interpretation of the la tte r poem is even partially correct, w e have proof of their friendship. ! 1 W hat is our interpretation? That Epistles 1.4 is an ac- j | knowledgment by Horace that Tibullus had borrowed from his l j j 3 i poetry. This theory is so novel and depends to such a i | great extent upon Horace's ow n words, that i t is necessary here to quote the poem in fu ll. i Albi, nostrorum sermonum candide iudex, j quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedana? [ scribere quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula vincat, ! an taciturn silvas inter reptare salubris, j curantem quidquid dignum sapiente bonoque est? 5 i non tu corpus eras sine pectore: di tib i formam, j di tib i divitias dederunt artemque fruendi. quid voveat dulci nutricula maius alumno, ; qui sapere et fari possit quae sentiat, et cui i gratia, fama, valetudo contingat abunde, j et mundus victus non deficiente crumina? | Inter spem curamque, timores inter et iras | om nem crede diem tib i diluxisse supremum. ! grata superveniet, quae non sperabitur hora. j m e pinguem et nitidum bene curata cute vises, | cum ridere voles, Epicuri de grege porcum. I I ( j There m ay be several points in these verses which bear j i I t j jout our interpretation but vrtiich w e do not recognize. The i | following words and phrases, however, seem sufficient to ! justify the suggestion that this poem is a kind of "thank | you" le tte r from Horace to Tibullus. W e begin with the j j f ir s t verse: "Tibullus, you are a fair judge of our Ser- I I i mones." Nothing here points directly to a specific poem or j even book, but there is no denying the reference to the j | - ! jSermones. j i ... I The reference to Pedana in v . 2 is troublesome, but ! ! i this very fact m ay help our interpretation. Ancient and j 4 jmodern authorities suggest that this old Italian city had I i I ' jbecome extinct long before the time of Horace and Tibullus. j W hy, then, if the place did not exist, did Horace ponder what his friend might be doing there? The answer m ay be j simple. In his poetry Tibullus frequently contrasts the j jturmoil of the City with the peacefulness and contentment of; ! 5 i ithe Country. A s w e have discussed earlier, the elegiac i i ; i' i jpoet created a fictional world in which his lover and j 103 : 1 0 i I j l 15 j j 104 imistress lived. Horace, therefore, by his reference to a I , ■traditional but no longer existing place in the country, j jshows his understanding of Tibullus' world. The fourth | | | jverse, an taciturn silvas inter reptare salubris. seems to j t ! Isuggest such a meaning. | | Verse 5, curantem quidquid dignum sapiente bonoque, ( Iserves to acknowledge that Tibullus has concerned himself j jwith a Stoic theme, for i t is d ifficu lt to ignore the im plication in the words sapiente bonoque. especially when we j i isee that i t was Horace's use of Stoic theme in Sermones I I . 3 ] jthat most influenced Tibullus. M ore on this point in our ! jdiscussion of vv. 15-16 below. The words in verse 7, di tib i divitias dederunt. are j ! j jperhaps the most significant and the most pointed of a ll. j i i Coming not more than six years after the publication of ! ! Tibullus' f ir s t book and addressed to the elegiac poet, j Ithese words, or more especially the noun, must have reminded' ! ! i I jthe reader of the opening line of Tibullus 1.1: Divitias I alius fulvo sibi congerat auro. This is especially true j i when we realize that the ancients often referred to a poem j j by its firs t words. Then, too, the last part of Horace's j jline, artemque fruendi. seems to sum up in a curiously apt I ! Iw ay the subject of Tibullus' firs t elegy. This poem ! I ............... . j ! 105 ■concentrates on the poet's, or rather the fictional lover's, |concern with life and what is enough for him to enjoy that ilife to the fu lle st. Indeed, Horace's words, without a ! single verbal echo, seem to refer to and to sum up the con clusion of Tibullus' poem: i . . . ego composito securus acervo dites despiciam despiciamque famem. The four nouns listed in verse 12 of Horace's poem are a ll technical words of amatory poetry, and a ll appear in Tibullus' fir s t book. Horace, however, cannot re sist the temptation to work in at this point one more version of his carpe diem theme, and so he admonishes the elegiac poet to I !be grateful for the time he has even amidst his poetic con- | cerns. I f Finally, in vv. 15-16 w e see Horace concluding the l i t t l e poem with one of his frequent jokes turned against himself. And yet, even within the joke, there is s t i l l janother reference to the idea with which the poem began, land this time perhaps the reference is even more pointed.^ Here Horace says, "W hen you want a laugh, you'll v is it me, fat and sleek and with m y skin well cared for, a pig from Epicurus' herd." For "visit" understand a literary v is it; j 7 ! that is, some future use of Horace's verses. A nd when j | 106 ! i ' ; |Tibullus, w ho has now used Stoic precepts so extensively, |turns again to Horace's poetry, he w ill undoubtedly find the; i ; ! Epicurean sentiment ridiculous. j I 8 I Thus Horace ends with a tone that is at once humorous j and serious. I t is humorous because the poet pokes fun at j {himself. It is serious because i t acknowledges Tibullus' real debt to him and, in effect, says "thank you" for the honor. M any w ill certainly disagree with this interpretation 9 of Horace's poem, while others m ay agree and even find {additional allusions. Yet, the long-standing tradition of friendship between the two m en naturally does not stand or | fa ll upon this new understanding of Epistles 1 .4 .^ It can i [only be strengthened. Even the reality of the friendship is not a necessary prerequisite to the theory that Tibullus j found the theme for his fir s t book in Horace's Sermones ' i I I .3. The friendship helps, but the obvious literary rela- j tionship is more important. The only way to show this relationship is to analyze j j Horace's poem and identify its themes and then show how ! these themes are the very basis for Tibullus' morality in 12 his fictional world of love and intrigue. Horace himself has created a semi-fictional situation for Sermones I I . 3 . H e pictures himself in seclusion on his j Sabine Farm with the intention of avoiding the turmoil of the Saturnalia. Into his quiet repose bursts Damasippus, a j 13 i bankrupted speculator and a rt dealer. This egocentric j i busybody piously te lls Horace how he was saved from suicide | t by Stertinius, w ho converted him to Stoicism. A s part of his account, Damasippus repeats to Horace the long discourse which Stertinius had delivered, and i t is this speech that f ills the long central section of Horace's poem (vv. 82- 295) . It is also this passage with which we are primarily concerned. The main idea here is the Stoic paradox that everyone except the wise m an is mad. To demonstrate the paradox Stertinius listed the chief fo llies of mankind and assailed them one by one. F irst the catalogue (77-81) : i i Audire atque togam iubeo componere, quisquis j ambitione mala aut argenti pallet amore, j quisquis luxuria tristiv e superstitione aut alio mentis morbo calet: hue propius me, j dum doceo insanire omnis vos ordine, adite. j j i And i t is in order (ordine) that the speaker takes up ! i each of these faults. F irst the worst of them (v. 82) : j Panda est ellebori multo pars maxima avaris. In the section! (w . 82-157), which is the longest of the four, Stertinius points out that the avari believe poverty to be the greatest! t ' l ] | |disgrace and contend that wealth alone can bring every j i | blessing. The key passage in the section, though i t is j d ifficu lt not to quote the whole thing, is verses 91-92: j . . . quoad v ix it, credidit ingens ! pauperiem vitium . . . and 94-96 : . . . omnis enim res, virtus, fama, decus, divina humanaque pulchris d iv itiis parent. Clearly the ideas of wealth and greed have the closest connection, but Horace—or rather Damasippus quoting Ster tin iu s—shows that other madnesses are as clearly associated 14 I with wealth. The next section (w . 193-223) demonstrates i ! that the ambitious, too, are mad. Most of these verses deal with Ajax, heros ab Achille secundus (v. 193) and Agam em non,j i to w hom the speaker says (vv. 199-201): j s Tu cum pro vitula statuis dulcem Aulide gnatam ante aras spargisque mola caput, improbe, salsa, rectum animi servas cursum? I Thus Ajax, w ho slew sheep in the insane belief that he was | I I hacking down Odysseus, Menelaus, and A g a m e m n o n was no madderj than the commander himself w ho sacrificed his daughter on i the altar of Artemis and Ambition. And so to the central ! I 109 : |idea of the section (vv. 212-213): I , cum prudens scelus ob titu lo s admittis inanis, j stas animo et purum est v itio tib i, cum tumidum est, cor? The third fault vfliich comes up for discussion is luxu- ; ria (w . 224-280), which is often translated into English asj I I ! ' "self-indulgence," though "prodigality" m ay be a better j 15 j translation. This Stoic scelus (or insania) is the re verse of avaritia and is thus directly related to d iv itia e. j I | Interestingly enough, Horace—or the Stoics?— has dxvxded j the subject into two distinct parts. In the f ir s t (vv. j 224-246) he deals with luxuria proper and gives examples of j j the extravagant waste of money. Then, at verse 247 and the | rest of the section, the subject is the special extravagance I ; jof the lover. So abrupt is the change and so clearly are w ej l on another aspect of luxuria that some critic s have actually jm ade verses 247-280 a separate division of Damasippus' 16 ' speech. This xs, however, unnecessary. The lusus ama- torius was clearly a part of luxuria. Indeed, i t is tempt ing to reason that the close connection here between luxuriai and love was the starting point for Tibullus, w ho elected to use an essentially moral theme as the unifying force in jhis elegies. Love, like the four scelera discussed in i Horace's poem, is a form of insania. Before w e can ! no ; i ■ : jconcentrate on Tibullus, however, w e must complete our brief; I i I 1 'study of Horace's poem and look at the last of the four i 1 ! forms of madness. i ; ! I Superstitio is the subject of this section (vv. 281- j 17 ' j295), and i t is by far the shortest. Horace's discussion j ; ; |is primarily concerned with two examples: a m an w ho fre- I i quents a ll the temples praying that he alone be rescued from; death, and the Jewish mother w ho utters pious pleas and j promises if her son is cured of his ailment. The passage j concludes with a specific definition of such attitudes (v. j 295) : guone malo mentem concussa? timore deorum. Thus w heni j ( ! love and respect for the gods become fear, religion must j | give way to superstition. That the w om an here is Jewish and| j jso a worshipper of a foreign god makes her attitude, in the i eyes of a Greek or Rom an, superstition. The same prejudice ! ! i appears to some extent in the poems of Tibullus. There are ! 1 ' m any passages where Tibullus' chief character reveals his ; t | | jpious respect for the rustic R om an d e itie s. This is r e li- j j j gion. If, however, Delia or Nemesis or someone else v isits j the shrine of Isis or the M agna Mater, this is superstition.! i This contrast in attitude is an important point in Tibullus' | ielegies. ; j ! Returning to Sermones I I . 3, w e can best sum up our ! jdiscussion by giving a brief outline of Stertinius' speech, j |H e points out that in the eyes of a Stoic only the wise m an I is free from madness and that every fault is a form of in sanity. H e concentrates on those faults which result di- I rectly from wealth, for these scelera result when man's | reason falls prey to divitiae (vv. 94-96). Thus divitiae j and the improper use of divitiae is the cause of human 18 crimes and madness. The specific faults which Stertinius j !discusses are avaritia (82-157), ambitio (165-223), luxuria | | I |(224-280), and supers t i t io (281-295). | i I Despite the fact that these faults appear in Horace's poem as Stoic examples of the paradox that only the wise m an is free from such madness, the themes are not the exclusive j Iproperty of the Stoics. They appear, singly or in groups of I two or more, in both Platonic and A ristotelian writings, and! even earlier these themes were standard in the epic, lyric, and dramatic poets. Consequently, though with no intention ; of reverting to a Quellenforschung. w e propose to make a brief survey here of some significant uses of these themes j in older literatu re, both Greek and Latin. The best place | to begin such a survey is with H om er and Hesiod. These poets were the earliest teachers, and they sought! | I ito instruct in matters that were of prime concern to their jaudience. Thus i t is no accident that man's attitude toward! jwealth and work should have found expression in the composi-j tions of the early poets. j The fact is that a desire for wealth is as old as m an himself. The earliest caveman gathered his acorns to ward j i off hunger in times of need, but soon he discovered delight j I 19 I in serving himself from a large heap. From this early i instinct came miserliness and covetousness, and these two ! ! sins—or madnesses as the Stoics were eventually to call them— were the A dam and Eve of a ll human failings. Lucretius attributed the origin of these human, but 20 irrational, instincts to the invention of property, but the caveman's f ir s t property was surely his store of food. In any case, these faults affected m an and his early social I development. The f ir s t laws tried to regulate the control j of property and to confirm the rights of those w ho possessed1 ! wealth against those w ho wisi ? .d to seize it for them- 21 selves. At other times, when the greedy rich sought to j suppress the rights of the poor, there were usually m en j I around to promise a redistribution of the wealth and thus to! i win their way into power, satisfying their ow n ambition. Such class struggles naturally played a major role in j ! the life of the early Greeks— as i t undoubtedly had in the j IMinoan-Mycenaean period and earlier— and just as naturally jthese problems led to many of the early literary themes. i \ iLiterature, if i t is to endure, must concern its e lf with thei i : i \ jproblems of the people. Consequently, i t is no accident that the f ir s t Greek writers whose works have survived j f i i touched upon m any questions of human conduct, and am ong then* i were the problems caused by wealth and greed. j For example, irked by the actions of his brother Per- | seus, Hesiod composed his W orks and Days as an attack upon ! 1 22 i idleness and greed, ambition and wealth. The emphasis j throughout the poem is on the proper attitude toward work j and its rewards. To Hesiod wealth was an excess that could lead only to a wrong set of standards. Thus, with its stress upon the benefits of labor, the W orks and Days was j i certainly not a guide for the aristocracy. j ! I Homer, w ho wrote for those possessing wealth and power,' i ! (painted a more favorable picture of t iX o u to q : Zeus poured ! I • i wealth upon the people of Rhodes w hom he loved (II.II .668- 669) j Glaucus ' fame was based upon oX Py Te nXovxw re (I I . X V I .596) i a m an is noted for his wealth and his sons (I I . i ! XXIV.546 and Od.X IV .206). and in this respect Peleus ex- j celled other m en (II .X X IV .536) . There are m any other refer-! ences and isolated passages which could be added here, but i 114 'these few serve to show that to Hom er and his audience 1 . i ! jwealth was a blessing and something not only to be sought ; 23 ' but to be guarded as an essential part of one's position. Yet Homer, too, was alert to the dangers of excess. j The suitors of Penelope are depicted as victims of excessive! I i greed. They abuse the property of others and thereby incur j J the enmity not only of certain townspeople in addition to : Odysseus and Telemachus, but of Athena herself, w ho plans j i their destruction. Finally Zeus, intending to put an end to' j | the impending b attle between Odysseus and the Ithacans, says; ! ! | to Athena (Od.XXIV.485-486) : T O I & ’& X \fj\oU Q cp tA e o V T W V / j d ) Q to TtdpoQ , t iX o u to q 6e Hat etpf)V T i a\tQ ecmo. A nd H om er i I returns us to earlier thoughts. Wealth its e lf is a desir- j able possession and even a necessity, but the desire for j i excessive wealth leads to conflict. j j Pindar, like Homer, was concerned with aristocratic ideals. For him too, wealth was something to be cherished, j not despised. H e praises kX o u to q as cxpeTaiQ &e&ai&a\p,evoQ | (Olv.2 .53) and daT T )p auC ^T iX oQ (ib id .55) . A nd in Pyth.3 . j I 107-111 he proclaims what might almost be considered the | credo of aristocracy: j t Small shall I be when means are small, I Great when they're great. I 'l l heartily j D o honor to m y shifting worth B y using i t as best I can, A nd should G od grant m e gladsome wealth, I hope to gain high fame someday. A n echo of this sentiment occurs in the writings of Plato, another aristo crat. In the Republic (1.331 B ) the philosopher has Cephalus say to Socrates: It is for th is, then that I affirm that the possession of wealth is of most value, not perhaps to everyman but to the good man. Not to cheat anyone even unintention ally or play him false, not remaining in debt to a god for some sacrifice or to a m an for money, so to depart in fear to that other world— to this result the posses sion of property contributes not a l i t t l e . These sentiments are uttered by a character in the dialogue and m ay not necessarily reflect Plato's views. Yet he has Socrates agree with Cephalus, w ho is himself depicted as a j 24 I just man. Furthermore, the stress here is not on exces- I isive wealth but, as in Pindar, on what good the proper amount of money can achieve. W hen Plato takes up the question of extremes, he looks at both ends of the scale and balances ire via and t c X o u to q (L aws XI.919 B ) :25 It is an old and true saying that i t is hard to fight against the attack of two foes from opposite quarters, as in the case of diseases and many other things; and indeed our present fight in this matter is against two { foes, poverty and plenty, of which the one corrupts the ! soul of m en with luxury [ T pucprj], while the other by means j of pain plunges it into shamelessness [ avouaxuvT C av ] . jln an earlier passage (Law s V III.831 B-D ) Plato has already ; jasserted that the excessive wealth, or rather the lust for wealth, can be the undoing not only of the individual c iti- j * 26 zen but of the T toX lQ its e lf . Indeed, if i t were useful I j to our subject, m any pages could be filled with Platonic j I ideas about wealth and ambition and their effect upon m en j I and governments. Fortunately this task is unnecessary, for j I I I w e need only show that such topics were matters of literary ! i \ and philosophical interest. Here are two more examples: Aristophanes and Aris- | to tle . In the Plutus w e find sentiment that is very similar to P lato's: xX o u to q and TievC a are opposed to one another. Indeed, in the Agon (w . 454-626) Poverty and Chremylus, w hoj I ! jproposes to cure Plutus of his blindness, debate whether Poverty or Plutus confers the greater benefits on mankind, j The debate ends with the defeated Poverty retiring and j uttering th rea ts. j Plutus wins the victory and recovers his sight. Soon ! the just are happily rich while the wicked and corrupt are j ruined. Then, in a kind of foreshadowing of a relationship I between wealth and superstition, Hermes appears in the scene! to complain that he is starving because m en no longer offeri ! 27 him sacrifice. M en with money have no need of the gods. j 117 ! At this point a priest of Zeus enters to report that he: !too is starving because m en are no longer offering the usual; sacrifices. Thus the message is clear: wealth without w ork! can lead to disaster. The whole economic structure of ■ i supply and need crumbles, and even religion must be desti- ' tute in the midst of plenty. Aristophanes, however, con- 1 I eludes the action of the play with Plutus making a promise j to an old w om an w ho has been deserted by her gigolo that thej young m an w ill soon come back to her. Som e sanity, then, j w ill return even to this Utopian dream of wealth for every- ! one. | i I A s w e turn from the make-believe world of comedy to the| Lyceum, w e find A ristotle concerned with the same subjects, j i i In his study of mankind and its problems he naturally found j | m any occasions to discuss the effects of wealth upon men. j I I Our purpose here, however, is not to collect a ll such refer-; ences but rather to concentrate upon examples of his a t- j i tempts to relate greed and miserliness, ambition, prodi- j gality, and superstition to wealth and the desire for ' i wealth. i A ristotle recognized that greed is a human instinct l (Pol. I I .4.11): j r ~ ~ ' ■ " '. . . . . . ■ " 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ' . '. '.... 1 . 1 8 j - ototetpoQ yap t 1 ) xfjq eT tt0i> p.C aQ (ptiatQ, ? iQ repot; xf|v ava- j nX f|pa)cfiv ol uoMot Cffiatv. ; !A nd this instinct exists whether the aim is vast riches or I : i j jmerely a larger share of the public dole. Not even the j average householder is exempt from the attendant faults of | greed and miserliness (Pol. 1.3.18): fijoxe Sonet xioi to u t’ el vat x f)Q otnovop.t>tfjQ epyov,^ nat StaxeXouatv rj cfa&etv otoixevot Setv % \ atf^etv tt|v i to u vop,C apaT O Q ouata\!> etg artetpov. j i i i H e goes on to say (Pol. 1.3.19) that the cause of this atti-j tude is that people are more interested in enjoying life j than in using i t for the right purposes. Such people meas ure the good life by bodily enjoyments and devote a ll their I energies to the business of acquiring wealth. Then, once they possess great wealth, they search for ways to squander i t : j i 1 nat to exepov elSog x t )q YpT)p.aTiaxiHrj<;j6td tout’ ^ j eX t )\u0£v. ev tirteppoXfj yap o u o t )q t t iq artoX aucfetuQ , xf|v i x rjQ duoXavaxtHfjQ {m eppoXfjt; T cotr)X tH r|V Ctixoucriv. | ! In a word, great wealth, used wrongly, flares up into prodigality, luxuria in Latin. Another type of excess is ambition. A ristotle recog- ! nized this fact and connected i t directly with greed (Pol. j II.6.19): | h c x C t o i t g 5 v a 6 i K T ] p , d T a ) v t S v y * ^ h o u o C w v x a T t X e i a x a j ! a u n P o c C v e i ax^bov 6ta c p iX o T in ta v nat c p iX o x p T iM - a T C a v ! T O U Q a V 0 p < U T l O l Q . ! | ! jjHere, then, are four brief examples out of m any more that j 28 * could have been chosen. In these passages A ristotle j i directly associates wealth with greed and miserliness, prodigality, and ambition. W hat about superstition? Aris- jtotle apparently does not attribute i t to the desire for money, at least in his extant works. In fact, the subject I of superstition seems not to have concerned A ristotle, and even the word 6etOL6ai|JtovCa which later became the stand ard term for this attitude toward the gods seems not to have . . 29 had the pejorative meaning m his w ritings. | The earliest extant use of 6etdt6at(iovCa with the meaning "superstition” seems to be in Theophrastus 1 Charac- 30 ters 16. Yet even our scanty fragments of the Stoic j I i writers show that superstition was a frequent topic and thatj the word 6eiat6ai,|iovCa was the regular term. To Chrysip- j pus, for example, i t was one of the c p o (3 o u el6t ) or, as I 31 Andronicus quotes i t (S V F I I I .409, p. 99) : 6etai6aL^,ovCa 6e cp 6 p o Q toO Sainovtou [fj {mepewiTwaiQ t t } q upog 6eo u q Tipfjg ] . | ! ! | Superstition remained a subject for Stoic discussion ! 3 2 even after Chrysippus. W e learn, for example, from i 120 ; I 33 lAthenaeus (Deip. VIII.346c-d) that Antipater of Tarsus jwrote a work in at least four books whose t i tl e was probablyj Ilept Aeiaiboci^iovtaQ . W hen w e remember that Antipater was lone of the teachers of Panaetius, w ho went to R om e in about ; 144 B.C. and soon joined the Scipionic Circle, w e have one j of the links between Greek Stoicism and its subsequent development in Rom e. ! At Rom e, of course, references to divitiae. av a ritia . ■ i luxuria. ambitio. and superstitio occur as early as the j iworks of Plautus and Ennius and therefore before the arrival! | j of Panaetius. The fact is that the R om an way of life , or atj 34 i least the aristocratic way of life , bore a striking simi- | 35 I la rity to Stoicism, and we find m any apparent Stoic pre- j [ cepts even in works written before that philosophy had begunj ito exert its strong influence upon R om an thought. I . A m ong the early works are the plays of Plautus, w ho actually employed a ll the words with which w e are here con- i 36 cerned except su p erstitio . There is, of course, no need to cite every instance of each word. Divitiae. for example,j occurs some twenty-five times in the plays, regularly j designating material wealth. A s usual, i t is the basis of ja man's position, whether desirable or not (Stichus 410- |414) : I videte, guaeso, quid potest pecunia: quoniam bene gesta re rediise m e videt magnasque adportavisse divitias dom um , sine advocatis ibidem in cercuro in stega j in amicitiam atque in gratiam convortimus . A varitia. with the stress on "miserliness," is the ! I theme of the Aulularia. In this play w e find three genera- ! j tions of avari. The grandfather had once buried a pot of gold and when he died (vv. 9-12) : ita avido ingenio fu it— num quam indicare id filio voluit suo, inopemque optavit potius eum relinquere, quam eum thensaurum commonstraret filio . The son never found the treasure and so lived a miserable life . The household god, to w hom the treasure had of course i been entrusted, waited to see if the son would show him more! j [honor than the father had, but he vero minus minusque im- j I i 1 j pendio / curare minusque m e impertire honoribus (vv. 18-19).' i So he too died without the treasure but with a son (v. 22) : j Ipariter moratum ut pater avosque huius f u it. This third- j i l I : generation avarus is named Euclio, and he is the main char- ! i I acter xn the Aulularxa. H e fxnds the pot of gold but with I his inherited greediness he hides i t again. Then amid the usual comic confusion Eculio loses the hoard but later re- 37 ! covers x t. The m any changes of fortune which he suffers ! i cure hxm of his av aritia. and w e thus have the play's moral: I ! 122 i jm oney is meaningless unless i t is properly used. j | | The Trinummus is primarily concerned with a young m an j I ! |named Lesbonicus, w ho has squandered his father's property j j ; Iwhile the old m an is abroad. A s a result of his extrava- j | ! i : jgance, the young man's sister is in danger of being married | I i ;without a dowry. To point up the underlying theme of the 'play, Plautus supplied a special prologue in which Luxuria. | |the chief speaker, brings her daughter Inopia to the home !of Lesbonicus. Thus luxuria and its harmful effects are the! j . . . . . 1 j I j imain theme of the play, and, despite the rather stereotyped j ending, the Trinummus is one of the more serious plays of j i I [Plautus. j i ! i ; Ambitio. strangely enough, does not appear as often as j jthe other faults. The word shows up but four times, yet i |these occurrences make i t plain that the term held a pejora-j jtive meaning. For example, in one of his many attacks on i i 38 jthe moral degeneration of the times, Plautus has one of | ! jthe characters in the Trinummus say (vv. 1032-1035): ; ; i ; • j j N a m nunc mores n ih ili faciunt quod lic e t, nisi | quod lubet: | ambitio iam more sanctast, liberast a legibus; | scuta iacere fugereque hostis more habent J licentiam: j | petere honorem pro flag itio more f i t . j i ; i ; jA nd in the Amphitryon Mercury quotes Jupiter (w . 75-76) : j 123 v irtu te dixit vos victores vivere, non ambitione neque p erfidia: qui minus eadem histrioni s it lex quae sum m o viro? v irtu te ambire oportet, non favitoribus. In both passages ambitio is harmful and contrary to custom. This discussion of Plautus's use of moral terms has perhaps been extended more than necessary, but their very presence in a dramatist w ho usually concentrated on the slapstick kind of comedy is in its e lf significant. Plautus was, for whatever reason, concerned with R om an mores. and instinctively or deliberately resorted to the same terms that later R om an writers used under the influence of the Stoics. The scanty fragments of Ennius do not provide us with m uch material, and the temptation is strong to omit him altogether. O ne fragment, however, deserves mention, for 39 it seems to relate superstition and wealth (Traq. 332-336): . . . superstitiosi vates inpudentesque harioli, aut inertes aut insani aut quibus egestas imperat; qui sib i semitam non sapiunt, a lte ri monstrant viamj quibus divitias pollicentur, ab iis drachumam ipsi petunt. D e his d iv itiis sibi deducant drachumam, reddant cetera. I I j There were undoubtedly m any more references, but as chance would have i t the fragments do not happen to touch upon these themes. 124 W hen w e turn to the writers of the Scipionic Circle, things are b e tte r. Yet i t is with a shock that w e discover iTerence almost silen t about these moral precepts. W e have 40 jalready observed that Panaetius, the Stoic philosopher, ! jcam e to R om e and became a m em ber of the Circle. Naturally |w e expect to see some Stoic coloring, some Stoic emphasis, jupon the moral tone of Terence's plays. The fact is, how- ! 41 |ever, that Terence never uses superstitio or ambitio. I jEven avaritia occurs but once (Phormio 357-359) : i Ph. quia egens re lic ta st misera, ignoratur parens, j neclegitur ipsa: vide avaritia quid fa c it. | Ge. si erum insimulabis malitiae, male audies. i i Divitiae, or ditiae as Terence spells it , appears twice. ;0nce ( Andria 796-798) where the old m an Crito reflects on jthe fate of Chrysis : i i In hac habitasse platea dictumst Chrysidem, quae sese inhoneste optavit parere hie ditias potius quam in patria honeste pauper viveret; and (H.T. 192-196) where the old m an Chremes reflects upon i I jthe conditions of the youth M enedem us : j j miserum? quern minus crederes? | quid relicu ist quin habeat quae quidem in homine | dicuntur bona? | parentis, patriam incolumem, amicos, genus, cognatos, ; d itia s . atque haec perinde sunt ut illiu s animust qui ea possidet: 125 qui u ti sc it ei bona; i l l i qui non u titu r recte mala. i This brief speech echoes the sentiment of Pindar, Plato, and :others w ho say that wealth is a blessing if used properly, ! : {but there is certainly nothing here that can be called ex- | ; clusively Stoic, i ' 42 The same m ay be said of Terence's use of luxuria. IThe word occurs but once, where the same Chremes explains jthis attitude toward his son (H.T. 945-946): | ; | ut eius animum, qui nunc luxuria et lascivia | d ifflu it, retundam, redigam, ut quo se vortat nesciat. ! : [A nd that is a ll. M any passages allude to standards of con- I Iduct, and the very character of various personae contributes: : ( !to the same picture, but the fact remains that Terence sel- i i : jdom allows his people to worry or to preach about such mat- ' jters as wealth and greed, ambition, and riotous living, and 43 least of a ll about superstition. At f ir s t glance, Lucilius, the other poet of the Scipi- i , |onic Circle, seems to have been as chary of these moral terms as Terence was. In his case, however, appearances are5 deceiving. M any of his fragments result from the reference i |by a grammarian to some strange word or unusual meaning of a word. These scholars were not especially interested in the [contents of the S atires, and so it is only by accident that ! 126 !such words as divitiae. a v aritia. luxuria show up in the 'fragments. There is, however, l i t t l e doubt that Lucilius discussed; |most of these concepts on numerous occasions. Their impor- ■ i 44 . jtance in later writers w ho acknowledge a literary debt to him are proof that these subjects appeared frequently and |with some emphasis in his satires. Here are three examples,! land, few as they are, they show that Lucilius' ideas fo l lowed the literary trend. They also show a Stoic influence.; i : 45 jThis is especially true of fragments 1196-12 08 where v ir- j ' ; i 46 . I tus is defined m d etail. A m ong the definitions is this , jone (v . 12 02) : ! ! i | i virtus d iv itiis pretium persolvere posse. | ; Lucilius attempted at least once to define how much | wealth is enough for him, and he used the words multum and Satis as his terms. The fragment (208-210) contains only i 4 7 s a tis . but the general sense is s t i l l clear: I I i N a m s i, quod satis est homini, id satis esse potisset, ! hoc sat erat; nunc cum hoc non est, qui credimus porro divitias ulla animum m e explere potisse? ' j M oney and ambition and the proper use of each is the theme ! 48 of another fragment (1194-1195): 127 Aurum atque ambitio specimen v irtu tis virique est. Tantum habeas quantum ipse sies tantique habearis . 4 9 i There are a few other fragments where wealth or greed | I lor some extravagance is mentioned, but the few examples here I ; jmust suffice for our purpose. Lucilius was interested in |these matters, and he undoubtedly devoted m any verses and i ' t Ipoem s to them. W hat he m ay have said, however, can be found! jonly in the writers of later periods w ho borrowed from and j . 1 even imitated him. t | j O ne of these writers is Cicero, w ho often refers to j ■ jLucilius and quotes some forty lines or more, far in excess > i ! ! ! |of any other classical author. Yet w e are not concerned j jwith Cicero's admiration of the s a tiris t or his use of his jpoems. This orator, politician, statesman, philosopher, i ; ietc. was also a great admirer of Plato, A ristotle, Posi- idonius, and numerous other philosophers. It is to the pas- ; i i sages where Cicero used these men's ideas w e must look for ireferences to divitiae. avaritia, etc., for although he i 50 considered himself an Academic philosopher he borrowed 51 ideas from almost every recognized philosophical sect. j Yet, because he was a follower of the Academic school, j i I ' jCicero was especially interested in Stoic principles, and jseveral of his philosophical works contain lengthy sections ; 128 which either approve of or attempt to refute Stoic precepts. |The D e Fato, mutilated as i t is, rejects the fatalism of jposidonius, a Stoic friend of Cicero; then there is the jParadoxa Stoicorum which discusses the most important ethi- | jcal doctrines of the Stoics . Stoic doctrines are also the 'subject of lengthy passages in D e Finibus. D e O fficiis. D e i iNatura Deorum. D e Divinatione. Tusculan Disputations, and i Im any other works too numerous to mention here. The point is i ithat Cicero was profoundly influenced by the Stoics, and I jthis influence is apparent in his discussions of divitiae i t jand its attendant fa u lts. Let us take divitiae f ir s t. At D e O fficiis I I I .15.63 iCicero quotes Hecaton of Rhodes, a pupil of Panaetius, as saying: ! sapientis esse nihil contra mores, leges, in stitu ta | facientem habere rationem rei fam iliaris. Neque enim | solum nobis divites esse volumus, sed lib eris, propin- | quis, amicis, maximeque rei publicae. Singulorum enim i facultates et copiae divitiae sunt c iv ita tis . i jThis sentiment closely resembles that of Pindar and Plato i 52 jwhich has already been discussed. It is also obviously Stoic, but the whole idea has now been so directed that i t jfits with the R om an concept of p ietas. i.e ., duty to family, i jfriends, and especially country. I 129 In another passage divitiae and avaritia are related :and so, too, is ambitio. though the word does not appear 53 i (Tusc. Disp. IV.9.21): j | Distinguunt [sc. Stoici] illud etiam, ut libido s it earura j | rerum, quae dicuntur de quodam aut quibusdam, quae hoctt}— ' YopfjjiaTa dialectici appellant, ut habere d iv itias, capere honores: indigentia rerum ipsarum est, ut hono- i rum, ut pecuniae. i j jln D e O fficiis 1.7.24, moreover, Cicero asserts that ava r itia is the worst of a ll faults : I ; M axim am autem partem ad iniuriam faciendam aggrediuntur, I ut adipiscantur ea, quae concupiveruntj in quo v itio latissime patet avaritia. | i jYet in D e Oratore 11.40.171 he calls avaritia a child of ; i : luxuries: avaritiam s i to llere v u ltis . mater eius est to l- i lenda. luxuries. This sentiment is very similar to that j jwhich Cicero had expressed m any years before when as a young! i m an he defended Sextus Roscius. Yet the passage reverses I 54 jthe relationship of the two abstractions (Pro Ros. Amer. |27 .75) : : j ; In urbe luxuries creatur, ex luxurie existat avaritia necesse est, ex avaritia erumpat audacia, inde omnia scelera ac maleficia gignuntur; vita autem haec rustica, quam tu agrestem vocas, parsimoniae, diligentiae, iu s ti- | tiae magistra est. | A s far as ambition is concerned, w e expect that a m an ......................130 : with the experience of Cicero— both in the Forum and his study—would have something definite to say. H e does. At jpe O fficiis 1.25.87 he both defines and passes judgment on ! 5 5 | i t : Miserrima omnino est ambitio honorumgue contentio. I " ' " " | Finally, w e reach Cicero's attitude toward su p erstitio .; jand w e need go no farther than the conclusion of Book II of 1 : i ipe Divinatione (72.148): ! I ; N am , ut vere loquamur, superstitio, fusa per gentis, oppressit omnium fere animos atque hominum im becillita- ; tem occupavit. iH e does not relate i t to divitiae as he has the other ideas, jbut he rejects and denounces the whole subject. j i | In summary, then, Cicero, the most important, the most j I • jinfluential, and, so far as extant writings are concerned, ; I 5 6 j ithe most prolific writer of the age, found m any opportu- ; I jnities to discuss and evaluate the effect of wealth and igreed, extravagance and ambition upon his fellow Romans. W e j j i lhave given only a very few samples here, but they are suffi-: j ; jcient to show that he not only followed the Stoic doctrine iin great part, but that his ideas closely resemble those i 1 I jfound m Horace's sa tiric poems. j The same observation m ay be made about Sallust. There | jis no need here to quote passages from his famous introduc- 131 tions to the Catiline and Juqurtha. Indeed a sceptic might in sist that Sallust himself practiced the very sort of thing which he has the younger Cato attack in his answering speech j ; to Caesar (B.C. 52 .22-23): i : Pro his [sc. old R om an virtues and action] nos habemus luxuriam atque avaritiam, publice egestatem, privatim opulentiam. Laudamus divitias, sequimur inertiam. Inter bonos et malos discrimen nullum, omnia virtucis I praemia ambitio possidet. Neque mirumj ubi vos sepa- ratim sib i quisque consilium capitis, ubi domi volupta- tibus, hie pecuniae aut gratiae serv itis, eo f i t ut impetus fia t in vacuam rem publicam. | ; ;This remarkable passage, put in the mouth of a notoriously jstrict Stoic, seems to sum up a ll the ideas and most of the | Iwords with which w e have been concerned in this chapter. I And they are Stoic words and ideas. i I : With them Cato, or rather Sallust, pronounces what might almost be considered a funeral oration over a fallen i Rom an Republic. Whether the Catiline appeared immediately after Caesar's death or in 40 B.C., the republic had already ;died. The turmoil and tyranny that were eventually to lead i i ! to Augustus and the Principate were already tearing the i i I corpse apart. i I i As far as literatu re is concerned, i t is somehow always I ! a shock to recall that both Vergil and Horace, so tradition ally associated with the Augustan period, were already 132 writing their early poems in the 40's B.C. If, indeed, the Catiline appeared as late as 40 B.C., then Vergil had begun :his Eclogues. and Horace had composed his Epodes. These two ;great poets had already met and formed a firm friendship, land in the next year (39 B.C.) Horace was to join the grow ing circle of Maecenas. Thus of these three contemporaries, Sallust marked the i lend of one epoch, while Vergil and Horace began a new one. |01d ideas, however, die less easily than old republics, and | 'm any of the Stoic precepts which had justified republican i i 1 jstandards continued to be discussed and defended, and they j I I 57 Iremained conventional literary and moral themes . ! The fact that Octavian insisted his goal was to restore: the republic fostered an interest in these subjects. Even iafter 27 B.C., when he became Augustus, the Princeps main tained this pleasant fiction, and the literary figures w ho Igathered around Maecenas continued to devote m uch of their j writings to the same old— but s t i l l new— Stoic doctrine. j Thus w e have now returned to the point from which this ; Isurvey began. The m any references to Greek and Latin au- i ! ithors, the frequent quotations which demonstrate the popu- l i |larity of wealth and its attendant faults as philosophical and literary themes m ay seem to contradict the earlier 133 promise to refrain from a Quellenforschung. Not really. There has been no attempt made to identify the actual sources which Horace and, by implication, Tibullus used. •This is, as w e have said, an impossible task. Rather the purpose has been to demonstrate that these precepts, what ever their source and whatever their philosophical origin, Iwere conventional themes in very period of Greek and R om an :literatu re. W h y is this point so important? Tibullus has long suffered from the jibes of critics w ho have dismissed him as a third-rate poet w ho wrote his : i isimple l i t t l e poems off somewhere in an isolated corner. I ! i I iThese critic s have insisted that he alone of the Augustan ! i : : i 5 8 i poets was outside the main stream of literary development. Recent c ritic s, i t is true, have begun to reverse these, 59 mistaken notions. Such m en as Luck and Elder have pointed but new depths, new techniques in Tibullus' poetry. This jstudy hopes to make some contribution in the same direction. With that purpose in mind, we have taken the trouble to; trace a brief history of the ideas associated with d iv itia e. ; j W e have stated several times that divitiae is the central j ; theme of Tibullus' fir s t book. N ow , in the next chapter, bur task is to tie a ll these matters together and prove that divitiae is the theme and that Tibullus used i t to give his fir s t book not only unity but a moral and emotional depth that no c ritic has yet acknowledged. NOTES Homer's Odyssey, on the other hand, in giving most stress to the cunning and resourcefulness of its hero (see ipp. 7-8), m ay be said to have a theme that would suit a book; of love poetry. ^For an easily available lis t of wealth as a major theme in literatu re since and during antiquity see the a r tic le "Wealth" in Great Books of the Western World. Encyclo-; jpaedia Britannica (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1952), !III. j ; ^ W e should remember that Horace1 s Sermones II appeared j in about 30 B.C.j Tibullus' Elegies I in about 26 B.C.j and i Horace's Epistles in about 2 0 B.C. 4See, for example, Sir William Smith's A Dictionary of j Greek and Rom an Geography (London: Walton and Maberly, 11854-1857), II, 560. j ^Compare above, pp. 1-5. See, for example, Tib. 1.5. \21: rura colam. frugumque aderit m ea Delia custos. j i i ^Or is i t merely coincidence that the word porcus (v. 1 1 6 ) occurs only once in a ll the Sermones and then in verse il65 of Serm. I I .3, the very poem which most influenced Tibullus. 7 . j For a sim ilarly veiled allusion to literary activity icf. Propertius 1.7 and 9 and Tibullus I I .6. For a recent jinterpretation of the Tibullan poem cf. E. N. O'Neil, "Ti- j jbullus I I .6: A N ew Interpretation," CP, 62 (1967), 163-168.; S I ! j ; I | 135 136 Q The same technique appears in many of his poems, am ong which is Serm. I I . 3. j Q For a conventional and rather mundane interpretation see Fraenkel, Horace, pp. 323-327. For a brief and unsatis factory discussion of the relationship between Horace and Tibullus see S. Commager, The Odes of Horace;- A C ritical Study (N ew Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1962), pp. 33, 240-241. ^°The problem of Odes 1.33 is even more d iffic u lt. There seems to be no clear reference in this poem to the poetry of Tibullus. ■^The discussion here of Serm. I I .3 contains li ttl e that is new. This very fact lends strength to the theory that it is somehow related to the elegies of Tibullus. That is. nothing has been twisted or distorted. In this poem which is "not only the longest, but also the best con structed of Horace's Satires" (Fairclough, p. 151) the themes of the main section (vv. 82-295) are straightforward. It is true that Niall Rudd (The Satires of Horace: A Study [London: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1966], pp. 173-188) is not as pleased with the poem, but even his criticism does not distort the themes and the structure of vv. 82-295. Apparently Fraenkel's complete silence on this poem is an other indication that there is general agreement on its ■meaning. 12 It is this point and only this point that is new. N o one seems to have detected any such relationship between Horace's satire and the elegies of Tibullus. 1 3 Most c ritic s identify this m an with the Damasippus w h o m Cicero mentions in ad Fam. V II.23 and ad A tt. XII.29. 33. 14 This connection is brought out by Horace m verses 94-96 which were just quoted. ■^In any case, the Greek word which corresponds most closely is probably T pucpr). ■ I / • i Compare, for example, Rolfe's division of the poem inj his commentary, pp. 283-287, though even he le ft the second subject as part of the general theme of luxuria. 137 17 For Whatever reason, a brief survey of Greek and Latin literatures shows that superstitio ( 6eicJi6aiiiOvCa ) -is the least frequently treated of the four themes which 'appear in this poem. Horace seems to recognize this situa tio n by placing i t last in the lis t and by devoting the fewest lines to i t . It is also the idea which is least used by Tibullus. later w riter expressed the same idea more vividly. ■ Compare 1 Timothy 6:10: pt£a ydp toxvtwv tujv h o ck w v eo ttv j (piAapyupta j or as Jerome expressed it, radix enim om nitun malorum est cupiditas. The root of a ll evils is not money ibut the love of money. ^ I f the early caveman had spoken in Latin verse, he might have anticipated Horace's words (Serm. 1.1.51: at i suave est magno to llere acervo. i ; - ^ D e Rerum Natura V.1113 ff. The whole passage (V . 11028-1280), fanciful though i t m ay seem, at least shows that 'some ancients believed th at greed and its attendant faults j(ambition and superstition) arose in the very beginning of man's history. ' 2 1 Som e such connection between property and the regula tion of ownership m ay well have led to the early development ;of the Greek words v6j x o q and v o p -O Q ; the former means "pasturage"; the la tte r, "usage," "custom," "law." Both jnouns belong to the same root from which the verb veiiw ("to d istribute," "to possess," "to pasture") derives. I t a | M any lines of Hesiod's poem could be cited here, but perhaps i t is enough to call attention to such passages as verses 27-41, 311-341, 694. ^Compare Pindar's words discussed below, p. 114 f. ! 2^Compare Paul Shorey on Plato's Republic. rev. ed., Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, |1937), I, ix. ! 2 S | M any editors cite Law s I I I .679 B and IV.705 B as pas sages which reflect a similar sentiment. The basic idea here in Law s XI reminds one not only of the opening argument 138 ! in Hesiod's W orks and Days. but of the Agon in Aristophanes'; I piutus (vv. 454-626). i o f i j This is certainly one of the central ideas in Thucy- : Jdides' history, for in this b rillia n t work the historian itraces the fa ll of a tragic hero. In this case, the hero isj not an individual but Athens herself. | 2 7 Euripides' Cyclops states that the god of the wise isj |7 c \ o 0to q (Cyclops 316 f f .) . I i ; I O Q ! ^°See, for example, Rhet. 11.16 and, though i t is cer- j tainly later than A ristotle, O n Virtue and Vice VI .7-VII. 12 . ■ i 2 Q i H. A. Moellering (Plutarch on Superstition [Boston: j Christopher Publishing House, 1963], pp. 45-46), although hej acknowledges this fact in his examination of Pol. V.9.15 j where A ristotle discusses the ty ran t's feigned attitude j toward the gods, s t i l l seems to go too far in saying of \ 6stai6anJtovCa that "the pejorative tendency of the term as j implying fatuous, extravagant piety is already apparent." I j ^0R. Ussher, The Characters of Theophrastus (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1900), p. 135. H e adds Menander jand cites his Asiqi6(xt|i,a)v. j Compare III .408, p. 98: 6slOi&ainovCot 6s < p o (3 o Q 0sfi)v 6atji6va)Vj m .411, p. 99: youv 6siai.&aniovCa t o x 0oq, < p 6 f3 o q 6at|i6va>v ovoa. With nadoQ compare Horace's super- Stjtione / aut alio mentis morbo calet (Serm. I I . 3.79-80). [T o conclude the references from Chrysippus ' fragments, cf. j S V F I I I .394, p. 96: ^xo 6s tov c p o f3 o v [sc. lix& XETai] 8hvoi j nat dty co v C au nal sH T tX ri^tQ nat alaxuvai nat 0opuf3oi nal j 6sicrt6aLnovCat nal 6eoq nal 6sCiiaTa. j I 32 1 So, too, did the other faults with which w e are con- | cerned: for t c X o u to q see, for example, the t i t l e of a work ! by Sphaerus which is given as lisp I IIX o u to u (S V F 1.62 0, p. 140). It is true that Sphaerus was an older contemporary of Chrysippus, but his definitions were highly esteemed by later Stoics, a fact brought out by the m any references to 7t\ouT O Q and its significance listed by the index to SV F. IV, 115. For greed and ambition w e need look no farther j than the definitions of Chrysippus. Both are given as ski- j 0U |iC aQ (S V F i l l . 397. p. 97): c p i \ o x p r ) i x a T C a 6s sni,0U|iCa j 139 [ax p T lcJT O Q T ) ] ajiEX poQ xPT llJ L C * 'ir(0 V » while qptAoxijita 6e sxi0u(iCa japExpoQ TtpfjQ. For the Greek equivalent of luxuria the evidence is not as clear. Perhaps w e can look to S V F III. 265, p. 65 (Diog. Laert. V II.93): a v a \ o y o v 6 s n a t xffiv x a x t c o v tocq h e v s l v a t x p d o x a q , x a g 6 * (>xd x a t i x a c . o l o v dcmpocruvriv p s v x a t 6 s i \ C a v x a l a 6 t x C a v x a t a x o X a a t a v e v x o u q x p w x a t g , a x p a a C a v b e | x a l ( 3p a 6 t i v o i a v x a t x a x o ( 3o u \ C a v e v x a t q O x o x a u x a q . S e e a l s o SVF i l l . 4 7 6 , p . 1 2 7 : o l o u x a t a x p a x s t Q a t x o t a u - I I x a t x a x a o x a a s t g s t a C v , <I>q a v o u x p a x o u v x w v 4a v x 2 5v , a K k ’ i | Excpspoixilviov. | j i I 33S V F . I I I .64, p. 257. : ; i 24Erich Segal's thesis in his R om an Laughter: The jCom edy of Plautus. Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature1 No. 29 (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 1968) is that I Plautus inverted the values and decorum of everyday R om an society. See, however, the review of E. N. O'Neil (CP. 66 | [1971], 62-64), w ho suggests that Segal misses the mark and j jit is only the aristocratic values and decorum that Plautus j jhas inverted. In any case, such aspirations as dignitas. j qravitas. and pietas belonged to the R om an aristocracy, not j jto the R om an masses. ' 35 ; Compare R. Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship: i From the Beginning to the End of the Hellenistic Age (Qx- iford: Clarendon Press, 1968), p. 246, where he points out j |that Stoic influence upon the Rom ans dated from Crates' pro-j itracted stay at Rom e. Panaetius merely gave impetus to the ! jgrowing interest in Stoicism and, by his intimacy with the j lyounger Scipio and his circle, supplied the aristocratic jgroup with a philosophical justification for their way of jlife. 36 Although superstitio does not appear, the adjective superstitiosus occurs at Amphit. 323, Cure. 397, Rud. 1139; j yet, in each case the word refers to an ab ility to fo retell ! the future. It does not carry the same pejorative sense i t i does in Horace. 37 i The ending of the play has been lost, but the. usual ; interpretation is that Euclio gave the pot of gold as a jwedding present to his daughter and her husband. 140 3 8 For a discussion of such passages and their purpose in the play cf. Tenny Frank, "Som e P olitical Allusions in Plautus' Trinummus," AJP. 53 (1932), 152-156. 3 9 The word su p erstitio si, however, seems to have the same meaning as i t does in Plautus. Cf. above, p. 12 0, n. 36 . i ; 4 < 3 See p. 1 2 0 above. 4^The verb ambio occurs once ( Andria 373) but without ' ja moral connotation. j ; A g The noun luxus appears once (Adel. 760) : dom us sumptuosa; adulescens luxu perditur. 43The to ta l absence of aravitas. a single use of dig- j nitas (H.T. 576), and only five examples of pietas add to jthe dilemma here. It is surely a paradox that Terence, a member of the aristocratic circle of Scipio, touched so Slightly upon these aristocratic ideals. i j 44The m any sim ilarities between the thoughts and ex- j pressions of Lucilius on the one hand and Horace and Juvenal! on the other cannot but persuade us that the older s a tiris t idealt m any times with these moral precepts. 45 The numbering by Warmmgton m the Loeb Classical Library has been followed, as have line numbers and textual i readings of a ll ancient authors unless otherwise indicated. | 4^M uch of the sentiment in these lines appears as early ias Plato (cf. pp. 115-116 above) or, for that matter, Pindar i(cf. p. 115 above). Yet the actual expressions here seem more akin to the Stoic maxims. A 7 The same general thought concludes Juvenal's Satire X IV (cf. w . 316-331). The word satis also appears with a similar meaning at Tibullus 1.1.43. ! 4® T he remarkable sim ilarity of theme and words in Juvenal I I I .143-144 proves that the later s a tiris t used Lucilius, as the scholiast on Juvenal noted. Juvenal's words are: quantum guiscrue sua num m orum servat in area. / tantum habet et fidei. 141 49 Compare, for example, 213, 550-551, 1174. 5 0 T u s c . Disp. I I . 3.9; IV.21, 47. 51E V en a li s t of references to the Epicureans, the jStoics, to Plato, A ristotle, Chrysippus, etc. would f i l l a book. ■^See pp. 115-116 above. i \ S^This w hole section has been accepted by von Arnim as ja fragment of Chrysippus: c f . S V F I I I .398, p. 97. ! ^This same sentiment, especially the contrast between j icity and country life , appears not only in such Horatian ipoem s as the famous "Tow n M ouse and Country Mouse" (Serm. Ill.6), but in the elegies of Tibullus and Propertius as ■well. I 5 5 j Compare with this sentiment his remark at D e Off. ;I.19.64: Sed illu a odiosum est. quod in hac elatione et j i magnitudine animi facillime pertinacia et nimia cupiditas j i principatus innascitur. j i : ^Even without this qualifying statement, only Varro 1 Iwrote more than Cicero. 57E. V. Arnold (R om an Stoicism [Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1911], p. 389) makes a strange statement. H e ;says, "After the death of Brutus Stoicism ceases for a while; jto play a prominent part in R om an history; but its indirect ; jinfluence is very marked in the two great poets of the Augustan epoch." Since Brutus died in 42 B.C. and the two ipoets were at work no later than 41 B.C., where is the la cuna? i ' ; 58 ! This sounds a b it extreme, but i t appears to be the opinion of most students of Latin literatu re, most of w h o m have approached literatu re with a heavy biographical b ias. For example, see W . Y. Sellar, Poets of the Augustan Age: Horace and the Elegiac Poets. 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1899), esp. pp. 212-215; and Duff, Golden Age: "To Iturn from Vergil and Horace to Tibullus is to breathe a different atmosphere. The imperial note has gone. Tibullus■ 142 inever mentions either Caesar or Augustus. Here is a new empire—of the heart" (p. 400). J. H am m er and M . Hubbard, (in their articles on Tibullus in the P C D (1949 and 1970), though less descriptive, do not react against this trad i- jtion. A most colorful expression of this view.is supplied |by M . Hadas in his A History of Latin Literature (N ew York: i Columbia Univ. Press, 1952): "But Tibullus' preoccupation |with love and with the bland pleasures of the countryside land with his ow n sen sib ilities is something more than a Ipsychological introvert weeping in his beer; i t is a gentle | I soul seeking a viable level of existence in a brutal world" j j (p. 193). | ! 5^See Bibliography. Their works must be read for their! japproaches and contributions to be appreciated. j CHAPTER IV j i T H E M A T IC U N IT Y O F T IB U L L U S I i : ! Previous sections of this study have attempted to jidentify certain techniques of composition and arrangement i iwhich appear to have originated early and to have become ’standard and even traditional in Greek and Latin literature.; |W e have seen how later poets borrowed from Hom er the tech nique of opening with a statement of the main theme, how j 1 ; ! ! jthey frequently used the Homeric type of invocation, and j jhow, at least am ong the Romans, an address to an emperor or 1 ;to a patron occasionally replaced the invocation. W e have jalso observed how poets w ho collected several poems in one hook arranged the individual pieces in such a way that they ; jrestated and thus emphasized the central theme of the col lectio n . These key positions are usually the f ir s t, the jmiddle, and the concluding poem of each book. i ! i N o w i t is time to show that Tibullus was not only aware; i : i ; |of these traditional techniques, but used them to give j I | j 143 ................................................144 ’ unity, coherence, and even added meaning to his fir s t book 'of elegies. Yet, in one major aspect, this elegiac poet is quite different from his predecessors and from his friend jPropertius. Where these poets wrote love poetry and, at jleast in the case of Propertius, began by concentrating on ithe love-motif, Tibullus fir s t created an atmosphere, estab lished a moral tone, and only as a part of the larger scene i I did he introduce his Delia. j Thus, where Propertius began his fir s t book with Cyn- I thia and a discussion of their none-too-smooth love affair, ! Tibullus begins with a statement of his attitude toward ! i jwealth and possessions, his hopes in life and finally, as ' lone desire for the life he longs to live, he introduces Delia. B y that time (v. 55,^ yet she is not named until v. ; 57) w e realize that love is not to be the all-consuming i passion for Tibullus that i t was in Propertius' life . Con- 1 i | jsequently, love is not the central theme of his verses. But i |let us begin at the beginning (1.1-6): Divitias alius fulvo sib i congerat auro j Et teneat cu lti iugera multa soli, ! Q u em labor adsiduus vicino terreat hoste, i | Martia cui somnos classica pulsa fugent: M e m ea paupertas vita traducat in e rti, | D u m meus adsiduo luceat igne focus. ^ . 2 j With this opening Tibullus demonstrates that he is j 145 3 following tradition. H e begins this fir s t poem of the book with a word vhich identifies his theme: d iv itia e . H e adds alius to emphasize that this basic idea is the desire of I : others. Then, to stress his ow n aspirations he devotes the : third couplet to his ow n situation and to his paupertas. Even the repetition of adsiduus (3)-adsiduo (6), which critic s have often scorned, seems to point up the contrast: I "Let others have the wealth and the constant to il; le t m e have a modest amount (paupertas) and constant leisure and 'contentment." This contrast between divitiae for others and paupertas; 4 ' for Tibullus establishes the pattern for the whole poem. j Verses 7-40 elaborate upon Tibullus' concept of paupertas 'and add the notion that the life he wants to lead is a rustic one. This reference to life in the country intro duces s t i l l another contrast which appears in several later I poems. Tibullus has created two worlds: an ideal rustic scene in contrast to the "wickedness," or at least the 5 jtemptation of life in the City. W e shall later have occasion to refer to this contrast between City and Country several times in the discussion of iother poems, for i t is in the City that ambition, greed, ^extravagance, and superstition are found. In the country 146 a ll is peaceful, and simplicity as well as moderation hold sway. It is , then, the peace, the moderation, the simple way o f life that Tibullus concentrates on throughout m uch of Elegy 1. A s w e have seen, verses 7-40 paint a picture of rustic life . In verses 41-42 he returns momentarily to the | iidea of divitiae but only to assert that he is not inter ested even in the large income which his ancestors w on from ■ the so il: i i N on ego divitias patrum fructusque requiro, Q uos tu lit antiquo condita messis avo. \ i i ! jH e then repeats his earlier idea of paupertas and identifies! i : iit as "enough" (v. 43): parva seges satis e s t. The idea ofj satis est becomes the transition and introduction to a be- i : i j iloved and her role in his life (vv. 43-46). Yet, as w e have ‘ noticed, the g irl is as yet without a name. She is but a I i ipart of the general life of peace and contentment which i ‘ Tibullus hopes to live. j ! | At this point, the poet returns for a m om ent to the | j jcontrasting life of the dives (vv. 49-50) : j j Hoc mihi contingat. Sit dives iure, furorem I Qui maris et triste s ferre potest pluvias. | But he immediately returns to his ow n way of life and j 147 ' exclaims (w . 51-52): O quantum est auri pereat potiusque smaragdi, Q u am fleat ob nostras ulla puella v ias. i : jThe mention of gold and jewels conjures up in the poet's Im ind a thought of cupido and, by a natural extension of the j j I jidea, of ambitio. I t is at this point that Tibullus' patron: jm akes his fir s t appearance (vv. 53-54): I ! Te bellare decet terra, Messalla, marique, ! i Ut dom us hostiles praeferat exuvias. j |H e reprimands Messalla for his display of pride, but he doesj j ; iso gently and, as w e shall see later in Elegy 7, he com m ends: | I Shis patron for his moderation and the proper use of his j ! i ia m b it ion. Having now introduced Messalla and the idea of ambi tion, Tibullus immediately reverts to his ow n role and dis- j | claims any thought of ambition. In fact, he asserts the jvery opposite and repeats both the idea of verses 5-6 and i ; jeven one of the words: in e rti in verse 5, iners in verse |58. Again he introduces the g irl as part of his contented ! i f and leisurely life , and finally he gives her a name (vv. i ! 57-58):6 i j N on ego laudari euro, m ea Deliaj tecum D u m m odo sim, quaeso segnis inersque vocer. 148 With Delia now named and set in her place amid his world of hope, the poet briefly reverts to traditional ex- jpressions of erotic poetry: she w ill be true to him in life; ;and grieve at his death. But, as poets have ever urged, he ; j ! begs (vv. 69-70) : i i ; Interea dum fata sinunt, iungamus amores: lam veniet tenebris M ors adoperta caput. j I ; i i Once on this theme, Tibullus continues with a traditional ; ipicture of love and even includes the age-old idea of the i : 7 Hover as a soldier (v. 75): Hie ego dux milesque bonus. :Yet, instead of developing the idea, Tibullus uses i t merely; las a transition and a means to return to his main idea (w . ! 75-78): | vos, signa tubaeque, Ite procul, cupidis volnera ferte v iris, i Ferte et opes: ego conposito securus acervo j Despiciam dites despiciamque famem. j Tibullus thus closes the elegy not only with the con trasting ideas of divitiae and paupertas which have formed j the bulk of the theme in this firs t poem, he also inserts i i deliberate echoes of previous words and ideas . For example, 1 j : signa tubaeque (v. 75) repeats the idea of Martia . . . classics (v. 4), cupidis (v. 76), and dites (v. 78) sum up t the theme of verses 49-54, and conposito securus acervo 149 (v. 77) echoes the thought of contentus vivere parvo (v. 25). Finally, the concluding line not only defines anew both divitiae and paupertas. i t also introduces the idea of the Golden M ean—or to put i t another way, paupertas in Tibullus' mind is the Golden Mean. B y stressing the general idea of divitiae. and in par ticu lar non nimis (or s a tis ) divitiarum, i.e ., paupertas .and; ;by doing so both in the opening and the conclusion of the ; firs t elegy, Tibullus has clearly given notice that this idea is the unifying theme of the poem. This m uch is ob- jvious and beyond controversy. Yet, the presence of such a j j I theme in one poem, even if i t is the introductory poem, doesj inot prove that the same theme continues through the rest of ! the book. A s a matter of fact, i t does not continue. At least 'divitiae its e lf does not remain the central theme. But jremember how the Stoics in general and Horace in particular ilooked upon the concept of d iv itia e. The word refers to a general topic: the whole matter of wealth and possessions, i . how and w hy one acquires it, how and in what ways one uses i t . Horace, in Sermones I I .3, deliberately and elaborately ^connected divitiae with a v a ritia . ambitio. luxuria. and su p erstitio . W e have already suggested that Tibullus was 150 indebted to this Horatian poem. N o w i t is time to show the nature and extent of the indebtedness. In his concentration upon the idea of divitiae in the f ir s t elegy, Tibullus alludes to each of the subordinate > j | ithemes several times. In some places the allusion is ob- jvious; in others i t is more oblique. For example, avaritia ! iis the subject of verses 49-52 : j [ j | Sit dives iure, furorem j Qui maris et triste s ferre potest pluvias. j 0 quantum est auri pereat potiusque smaragdi, Q u am fleat ob nostras ulla puella vias . ! j : , i jHere the reference is a double one: "Let others have the | I ; : I ; i Igain which they covet, but m ay I never cause any anguish by j j i Igreed." Again w e have the contrast between Tibullus and I i others which appears both in the beginning and the conclu sion of the poem. Ambitio. as we have already pointed out, lies behind i t |the thought of the couplet addressed to Messalla (vv. 55- i ' 58) : | S | M e retinent vinctum formosae vincla puellae, j Et sedeo duras ianitor ante fores. N on ego laudari euro, m ea Delia; tecum i D u m m odo sim, quaeso segnis inersque vocer. i i i i I ! • ! jlndeed, in Tibullus 1 mind, ambitio and avaritia seem inex- i I jtricably bound in this poem, just as w e have seen them in j Horace and earlier compositions. In short, both ambitio and avaritia here are clearly part of d iv itia e. The case for luxuria is not so obvious. The idea of extravagance, prodigality, excessiveness, or however we are Ito define the word, seems not to be stressed in the opening ‘ ipoem. It is only after analysis of the other elegies in the jbook that one can read into the f ir s t poem any allusion to iluxuria. Even so, the reference is oblique. A s w e shall i ;see later, Tibullus seems to consider the excessive atten tio n to love a form of luxuria. In particular, the various | jconventions, literary or real, which are connected with love; ; t jaffairs appear to him as manifestations of luxuria. | In Elegy 1 the note is struck briefly in verses 55-56: | i ' 1 M e retinent vinctum formosae vincla puellae, i Et sedeo duras ianitor ante fores. ;The pentameter refers to the convention, literary and real, 1 i ! jof the Exclusus Amator. B y its e lf here, the reference to jthis convention does not prove that the poet had luxuria in ; ;mind. His later references to the same subject, however, | j jgive a strong indication that Tibullus made such a connec- ! Q It ion. I | The fourth theme traditionally associated with d iv itiae! is su p erstitio . Admittedly neither the word its e lf nor any ; .......152 ' ;synonym appears in the poems of Tibullus, but the idea is at least touched upon in almost every poem of the f ir s t book. To m any of us superstition is any religious belief which seems foreign or false to us, and so i t was with Tibullus, j In the opening poem there is no reference to foreign deities or obscure ritu a l, no resorting to magic rite s . ^Instead w e find Tibullus emphasizing on several occasions jhis ow n pious belief in the R om an gods. For example, the whole passage in verses 9-24 and again in verses 35-38 [stresses his pious attitude toward the traditional R om an jgods of home and field . In subsequent poems, Tibullus 9 10 [brings in foreign deities; he resorts to magical rite s, and describes people spitting on themselves for lu ck .^ [These are surely references to superstitious beliefs, if not to the abstract notion of superstition. ! i In summary, then, and before w e turn to the other poems ! jof the fir s t book: the theme of the f ir s t elegy is divi tia e . This idea f ills almost every couplet of the poem and |in doing so i t touches, lightly or in some d etail, upon the ! I j - • Ifour themes that Horace and the Stoics connected with divi- Itiae. Furthermore, i t is the presence of these related themes that provides the unity of Book I. A s a matter of fact, the word divitiae appears only one 153 more time in the poems of Tibullus (1.9.9). Yet the thought is never far away, and every poem in the f ir s t book is con cerned with at least one, and often more than one, of the subordinate themes. In particular, I . 10, the concluding poem of the book, I where Tibullus laments over war and yearns for peace and retirement in the country, the basic cause of man's troubles! is sum m ed up with the phrase (v. 7): Divitis hoc vitium est a u ri. Then, in a series of echoes from 1.1, the poet com plains that he is now being dragged off to war and m ay well i iperish in b attle (vv. 13-14). The next several couplets ireintroduce the power of the R om an deities of home and field! ' I ;and include a brief description of traditional rite s paid to; them (w . 15-28). In several lines of the poem, to return j !for the m oment to divitiae, there are references to ideas associated with the theme: pauper (v. 19), exiqua (v. 20), ; and parva (v. 40). Each of these serves to bring out the idea of paupertas. ! j In addition, there is the eulogy to Pax (w . 45 ff.) j ! jwhich serves to glorify the simplicity and innocence of the j jrustic life . This elaborate reference to Peace serves to jemphasize the attack on war (vv. 1-14), and war is, as the key phrase (v. 7) clearly shows, a direct result of ! avaritia and ambitio. The closing poem of the book, therefore, although it ! j jemphasizes different aspects of d iv itia e. manages to touch upon most of the themes related to i t . There are even 12 echoes, both of words and ideas, from the opening poem, I i |and these echoes seem to be deliberate attempts to tie the I i jtwo poems together. ; i | | Furthermore, if our ow n thesis is correct, the fact I j that Tibullus chose his opening and closing poems for such j jechoes is a strong indication that the repeated ideas con- I ; jstitute the central theme of the whole book. A nd if each of; | Ithese themes is in turn a subordinate part of divitiae. this I j idea is indeed the unifying theme of Book I. ! j The third position of emphasis in a book is regularly i ! ' ! jthe central poem. W hen the poet has composed an uneven j j i number of poems, the central position is, of course, ob- I jvious. W hen, as in the case of Tibullus 1 firs t book, the j i number is even, the poet has a choice: he m ay close the j I ; jfirst half by repeating and thus emphasizing his main theme, ! i ! i ! pr he m ay open the second half in this way — or he m ay even j i i I t luse both poems for the purpose. j Tibullus selected 1.5, the poem which closes the firs t j I half, to restate and emphasize certain aspects of the I 155 general theme of d iv itia e. Yet, he adds complications by tying Elegies 5 and 6 together. There are m any verbal and 13 thematic sim ilarities in the two poems. For example, asper appears in 5.1 and 6.2; crloria in 5.2 and 6.3; adsueta I . . . ab arte in 5.4 is similar to callida in 6.6; and finally furtivus amor (5.75) is a good t i t l e for the dis- 14 I cussion of 6.9-36. i I 1 Elegies 5 and 6 are Tibullus' farewell to Delia. She ihas never played the important role in this poet's firs t book that, for example, Cynthia claimed in Propertius' iMonobiblos. This subordinate role is nowhere more obvious j I | than here where the poet discards her with the book only j islightly more than half over. W hen she reappears, as w e j , i have said before, she has another name, Nemesis, with addi- j ; I itional, but not entirely new, character t r a i ts . So, these two poems bid Delia farewell, but the lover 15 1 !is s t i l l her slave. H e talks big, but he knows that i t is: jonly talk . W h y has he vowed a discidium? Delia has taken up with another m an w ho is rich (v. 47), for the g irl has j now begun to show that she is more interested in filth y | i ■ ■ jlucre than faithful love. I ' | It is this contrast that Tibullus uses throughout 16 ■1.5. Despite his unhappiness and his vows to be done with; !'................ 156 her, he turns immediately and begs her to save him (vv. 7- ;8). H e reminds her that he once prayed for her recovery when she was t r i s t i morbo defessa (v. 9) and that he even i resorted to witches and black magic (vv. 11-16). And for iwhat? i i fruitur nunc a lte r amore, Et precibus felix u titu r ille meis. | (vv. 17-18) I |Then, as w e are often wont to do at the end of an affair, i |Tibullus reflects upon what might have been and te lls Delia jagain his dreams (vv. 21-36). j Life in the country was one dream, Delia, loving and itrue, the mistress of his house was another dream. H e i dreamed that his friend and patron Messalla would v is it him there, and Delia herself would serve the meal. This whole iscene is very similar to the one which the poet painted in jthe firs t elegy. But now he realizes that his dreams were | !in vain (vv. 35-36): i | | Haec mihi fingebam, quae nunc Eurusque Notusque | Iactat odoratos vota per Armenios. ! In fact, he has known for some time how vain these dreams were (vv. 37-46). In his anguish and despair he has j often deserted his well-ordered life and turned to wine as 157 an escape (vv. 37-38; cf. 1.2.1-14). Often he has tried to ifind a substitute (vv. 39-42), but neither wine nor another 17 igirl has helped. D elia's beauty prevails and proves his undoing: haec nocuere mihi (v. 47). S till, despite his unhappiness, Tibullus is reluctant to put a ll the blame on Delia. H e accuses the lena, a sym bol of avaritia and luxuria and even superstitio. of mis leading the g irl with corrupt teaching (vv. 59-60). H e calls down upon the bawd a ll the foul curses that he can imagine (vv. 49-58). Yet, s t i l l Tibullus hopes that i t is ;not too late for Delia to listen to reason. ] | He urges her to ignore the bawd and he preaches the advantages of having a pauper amator (vv. 61-66). In this brief sermon he returns momentarily to his old idyllic idreams and hope, but grief so overpowers him (vv. 67-68) : | Heu canimus frustra, nec verbis victa patescit | Ianua, sed plena est percutienda manu. j Greed has triumphed. The dives amator reigns supreme—for |the moment. I ! Tibullus, more unhappy and frustrated than before, | jturns his anger against the riv a l. He picks up his ow n word I frustra (vv. 67 and 71) and, in the concluding lines of the Ipoem , warns the m an that his reign w ill be b r ie f .‘ Elegy 6 seems to continue the theme of 5, for Delia j ' here has both a coniunx and a lover—and Tibullus is s t i l l ■around! N o w the unhappy poet blames his misfortunes on ;Cupid (vv. 1-2): Semper, ut inducar, blandos offers mihi voltus, j Post tamen es misero tr is tis et asper, Amor. ) ! i I |But soon he comes to see the whole situation in its true I • ! I |light and at least he lays the blame at his ow n feet (vv. j 9-10): i ! | Ipse miser docui, quo posset ludere pacto ! Custodes: heu heu nunc premor arte mea. ! i ! I I | j jB y persuading her to be unfaithful to others, he has taught | i i l |her to be unfaithful to him. H e realizes this and in the Ifollowing section ( w . 11-36) he recalls those times when j ; • I jhe himself was the "other man." I ; Then he addresses the coniunx and begs for his help. Tibullus has reached the depths of despair and in his des peration he beseeches the m an to give Delia to him (v. 37) : | At mihi servandam credas. To strengthen his appeal, he even; I suggests that the frenzied priestess of Bellona has ordered i t (vv. 43-44): Sic fie ri iubet ipse deus, sic magna sacerdos Est mihi divino vaticinata sono. i ...............159 ' ■ And he describes the scene with the priestess and quotes her ow n words (vv. 45-54). The priestess, Tibullus continues, had a warning for Delia, but he hopes that the punishment w ill be light (vv. i : 55-56). Then in another one of his smooth transitions from ; | i one passage to another, Tibullus turns to Delia's mother and; [lavishes praise upon her (vv. 57-58). She, quite unlike thei llena of Elegy 5, has favored Tibullus' affair with the g irl. [H e concludes the address to the aurea anus (v. 58) by urging; jher to teach Delia to be chaste, i.e ., true to Tibullus (vv.[ 67-78). i ; ! For his part, Tibullus promises (w . 69-72) that he j |will be true to Delia, and finally he concludes the elegy jon the note of faithfulness by describing to her the kind ofi lold age that comes to a g irl quae fida fu it nulli (vv. 77- S ; 1 8 4 ) . H e ends with a prayer : i • ! I | Haec a liis maledicta cadant; nos, Delia, amoris | Exemplum cana simus uterque coma. | ; i In this way, Tibullus has led us to the final moment ofi his affair with Delia. H e wants to be free from her, but he| ! jstill loves her. For his frenzy, his frustration, his jfutile passion he blames the lena. Cupid, and at last him- i ; |self. But in the final m om ent he s t i l l longs for a return jto the old life of his dreams. That she does come back to him seems certain if , as w e suggest, Nemesis in the second !book is the same g irl as Delia. N ow , what has a ll this to do with the theme of divi- j — Itiae? A great deal. In his denunciations of Delia and the dives amator he attributes av a ritia . and, though not with 18 the specific word, luxuria to them. In contrast he ! Upraises the ways of the pauper and longs once again for the simple life in the country. Moreover, in these final ap- ; i ipeals to Delia, the frenzied lover resorts to the aid of i ; (superstition: he used magic and incantation when Delia was j ! | (ill (5.9-16); he calls dow n b itte r curses on the lena (5.49-1 ; [ (58); he warns against Delia's v isits to the rites of the ! Bona Pea (6.21-24); and he quotes the priestess of Bellona (6 .43-56) . i In short, in these middle poems, Tibullus has touched i ‘ f i iupon divitiae. a v a ritia . luxuria. and especially upon super- ! j s t it io . Only ambitio is strangely missing. Whatever the j : (reason for the neglect of this concept here, the poet more than makes up for i t in Elegy 7. This whole poem, in a sense, deals with ambitio. yet, because a ll the concepts are (usually related, he does not neglect the others. I Instead of attacking the faults, however, Tibullus i praises Messalla for his attitude and for his proper use of divitiae and ambitio in his life and in particular in his 'o fficial position. Thus 1.7 becomes in effect an exemplum i by dramatizing the virtues that stand in opposition to the I faults which pervade so m uch of the f ir s t book. The poem is not in one of the standard positions of :emphasis. This is strange. Yet Tibullus has applied an !emphasis of another kind. H e addresses the poem to his i ; patron and friend Messalla, and attributing to him the v ir- j ;tues which he dramatizes, he achieves an emphasis of a ! 19 ! special kind. j I The opening of 1.7 immediately sets forth two ideas j ! which are developed and blended into one in the course of 20 i the poem: Messalla's birthday and triumph. It is the j i ! itriumph its e lf which establishes the theme of ambitio. for i ; |the greatest mom ent in a Roman's life was to ride in the j 21 triumphal procession wearing the laurel crown. R om an -ambition knew nothing more sublime. Such a m oment ruined im any a good m an and stirred envy in even more. W hat about ! 22 Messalla? Gaisser suggests that he took more pride in his 1 literary accomplishments than in his m ilitary successes. Whether this is true or not, Tibullus uses the theme of Messalla's triumph to touch upon his foreign activ ities: the poet begins his description in Gaul (w. 9-12) and m oves: to Cilicia (vv. 13-16), Syria (vv. 17-2 0), and Egypt (vv. 21-22). Egypt introduces the Nile, and the Nile in turn means Osiris, the god w hom the Greeks and Rom ans identified 23 with Bacchus. With the reference to a foreign deity w e expect another reference to superstitio. but such is not the i # ; jpurpose here. Rather Tibullus stresses the benefits which [this god has conferred upon mankind. He, like Messalla, has 24 used his position to help mankind. The association of the god Osiris-Bacchus with Messalla' I [leads to the concluding section. Tibullus invites the god [to com e to R om e and join in the celebration of his patron's ! i i [birthday. The mention of the Genius w ho is dressed in keep ing with the occasion (vv. 51-52) serves not only to tie i i 2 5 [Osiris and the Genius of Messalla together (cf. vv. 37-48) but demonstrates that w e are back in R om e and concerned with ia very special type of R om an god. A s far as the poem's 'theme is concerned, Tibullus has also returned us to the place where the poem began: Messalla's birthday. | | This occasion naturally calls for felicitations and, i ■ after a brief but significant reference to one special bene-; faction of Messalla's, the poem ends with the hope that the I ! poet's patron w ill have m any more "happy returns" (vv. 63- .............................163 64): At tu, Natalis multos celebrande per annos, Candidior semper candidiorque veni. I After this rather elaborate allusion to Messalla's i i ( ! m ilitary accomplishments and the equally elaborate identi fication of the R om an general with Osiris, the god of ; 26 ipeace, the reader might expect some lofty and significant i ideed of Messalla to be listed as a contribution to the R om an; {People. W hat do w e find instead? There is a vague and general reference to his m any exploits (vv. 55-56), but the j ione deed that receives attention is his repair of a section 27 ! |of the Via Latina. j | j W hat is so special about the repair of a road, and only; lone section of i t at that? In the f ir s t place the repairs j 28 jwere paid for by Messalla himself (vv. 59-60). In the jtheme of Tibullus' f ir s t book this act represents the proper? ! i juse of divitiae. and is an exemplum of the virtue that i . {stands in opposition to avaritia. [ . | ; | There is, however, an equally important significance to; the road-repair and one that has a more immediate applica- j tion. Tibullus te lls Messalla that because of this benefit ; J : j (vv . 61-62 ) : Te canet agricola, a magna cum venerit urbe ; Serus inoffensum rettuleritque pedem. 164 It is, then, the farmer that Messalla has helped, just as it was the farmer that had received the blessings of Osiris- !Bacchus. The passage concerning Messalla has two verbal connections with the Osiris passage: Te canit (v. 61) re peats Te canit (v. 27), and agricola (v. 39) has anticipated its use here (v. 61). Thus w e have Messalla identified ;s t i l l further with the god. ! There is one more point. A s w e have seen on several [occasions, Tibullus' dreamworld lies in the Country. The jCity represents his troublesome temptations. Thus, s t i l l jas part of the book's theme, any help that can be given to i ’ i ja rustic, especially one on his w ay from the city, must be ! 29 !the object of gratitude and praise. ! J ! In summary, then, 1.7 is an exemplum of R om an virtues, ; I i in particular those opposed to the faults which are a part ! jof the theme of Tibullus' f ir s t book: Messalla has reached . i [the summit of R om an ambition, but he uses his position for jthe good of others. H e even spends the monetary rewards of his accomplishments for the benefit of others, and the poet is especially pleased that i t is the farmer, on his way out , of the city, that receives the greatest benefit. j : j Luxuria is present on occasion, but that occasion is the traditional celebration of a Roman's triumph and 165 birthday and is nothing more than innocent ostentation. Indeed i t is similar to the luxuria that attends the worship of O s iris-Bacchus (vv. 43-48). In such an atmosphere super- s titio has no place. Instead w e find fulsome but honest ipraise of Osiris and his benefits to mankind, where again ithe farmer is the special recipient of his blessings. W e lalso find, as befits the occasion, a great deal of attention! given to the Genius, one of the oldest and most R om an of a ll numina. 1.7 is, in short, Tibullus' Elegia R om ana just as ihe himself is a vates Rom anus in the truest sense of the I i phrase. j j To this point, attention has centered upon the poems | ; i Iwhich seem to have received the greatest emphasis : 1 and 10 because they open and close the book, 5 and 6 because i ‘ Ithey are the central poems, and 7 because i t is addressed |to Messalla and forms thereby the exemplum of the virtues lopposed to the thematic faults of the book. N o w w e must have a brief look at the remaining five elegies, for each jof them, too, contains a reference or allusion to one or i l jm ore of the same faults . t : i : ! In Elegy 2, for example, the very setting of the open- ; i ling is an example of luxuria. for the scene is a drinking i iparty. The lover is distraught over his unhappy affair with 166 Delia and announces to one and a ll that he wants to drown his sorrows in wine (vv. 1-4). The reason for his unhappi ness is that Delia's coniunx has gone off to war in search j of fame and booty (vv. 65-70) and le ft Delia securely i I iguarded (vv. 5-6). The situation allows Tibullus to use the; traditional Exclusus Amator theme, including the equally traditional serenade, i.e ., the 7 rapax\avaC6upov (vv. 7- 1 14). In this introductory passage Tibullus uses the tra d itional theme to exemplify luxuria. as w e have indicated | ! I earlier. j j Luxuria appears elsewhere in the poem. See for example! jhis words when he deplores a loveless affair that is sa tis- i j I fied with purple cushions and feathery pillows (vv. 77-80): ; | ; j Quid Tyrio recubare toro sine amore secundo j Prodest, cum fletu nox vigilanda venit? | N a m neque turn plumae nec stragula picta soporem j N ec sonitus placidae ducere posset aquae. I ! j ; but the last line of the brief passage returns the thought ! 30 ^ to the opposite of luxuria. the simple life which he has j ! ; just mentioned (vv. 71-74). Indeed, throughout the fir s t ! | ; book Tibullus again and again expresses his hopes of a Ipeaceful and simple life in the country. This is to him the best haven from the turmoil of riotous and luxurious life in the City. ; 167 Closely linked with urban luxuria and avaritia is the . superstition that is rampant in Rome. Even Tibullus himself cannot remain aloof from its effects, and in verses 41-64 he | announces that he has enlisted the help of a saga. w ho has I Iworked her magic to assure the lover's success with Delia. All in vain, for Delia's door is s t i l l barred, and he must jspend his nights alone. His appeals to the door, to Delia ! iherself, and at last to the witch have availed him nothing. Finally, in his despair he turns to Venus herself (vv. i : j 79 — 88) and concludes the poem (vv. 99-100) with a last i iappeal to this truly R om an goddess: I I [ ! ! At mihi parce, Venus: semper tib i dedita servit I M ens mea: quid messes uris acerba tuas? Yet, even in this moment of utter despair, Tibullus manages I jonce again to include an allusion to the rustic life , for I !such is the meaning of messes in the last line. I — — This technique of alluding to an entirely different jidea when the reader least expects i t is one of the most | jexquisite—and for the c ritic sometimes the most exasperat- jing—features of Tibullus' poetry. B y the technique he I manages to give added depths to his ideas, to his imagery, I land often he succeeds in handling, as here, more than one |theme at a time. Double themes are also present in Elegy 3. The story [itself is simple: Tibullus lies sick in Corcyra after he lhas accompanied Messalla to the East. A s he lies alone, I : [sick in body and s p irit, he recalls the events just prior j Ito his departure and dreams of what the scene w ill be when he returns. Into the framework of this simple story Tibul lus weaves several references to the thematic faults. ! F irst Messalla— and Tibullus— have undertaken a journey; jto gratify ambition and a desire for gain. That seems to be i I i ithe meaning of a ll such journeys abroad, and the point is [emphasized when the poet exclaims (vv. 35-36): i I | Q u am bene Saturno vivebant rege, priusquam ! j Tellus in longas est patefacta vias! i [That such journeys were specifically for gain is implied in ; ; i |the same passage when Tibullus says (vv. 39-40) : | [ Nec vagus ignotis repetens compendia te rris | Presserat externa navita merce ratem. [T oo late, the poet regrets the fact that he accompanied jMessalla. Delia, however, had misgivirtgs even before the sta rt of the journey. She resorted to appeals to a ll the j [gods (v. 10) and especially to Isis (vv. 23-32). The whole I [passage (w. 9-32) is an example of Delia's superstition, j [and like Tibullus' ow n application to the witch in Elegy 7, 169 the g ir l's appeals were in vain. In direct contrast to Delia's superstitious beliefs, jTibullus utters a brief prayer to his household gods. O ne couplet (vv. 33-34) is enough to balance the fu tility of jDelia's hopes for I s is1 help: i ; I At mihi contingat patrios celebrare Penates Reddereque antiquo menstrua tura Lari. jThe thought of antiquo immediately suggests to Tibullus the ;"Good Old Days," and in the beautiful passage that follows I ; jhe recalls the times when Saturn reigned supreme (vv. 35- j48) . But these old-time virtues are remarkably similar to j Tibullus' ow n present hopes and dreams. Consequently w e I i ! ihave s t i l l another reference to the idyllic country life j Iwhere a ll is simple and serene. I ! i | From this pastoral setting the poet turns immediately i i : I ; |to Jupiter and the present (vv. 49-50) : j Nunc love sub domino caedes et vulnera semper, N unc mare, nunc le ti mille repente viae. jBack in the present, Tibullus reflects on his illness and j iprays that, if death is at hand, his epitaph show that he j ; jdied accompanying Messalla (vv. 51-58). A typical Tibullan I | ■ j ‘ transition leads us from the thought of death and grave to ja most effective description of life in the Underworld (w. 57-82). He concludes the description with the fate of those 'w ho have been faithless in love and especially those w ho jhave profaned his ow n affair (vv. 81-82): j Illic s it, quicumque meos violavit amores, ! Optavit lentas et xnihi m ilitia s. ! The idea of faithfulness leads naturally to Delia. |H e begs her to remain chaste (v. 83) and concludes this ' j ; jpoem, one of the best and most effective in the whole cor- S jpus, by imagining the scene when he returns to her one fine jday. Thus, what seems at fir s t a simple account of Tibul- ! jlus' illness and despair becomes, under the masterful hand j I I !of this poet, a renunciation of ambition and greed, a re- ; i Ijection of superstitious beliefs in favor of prayers to the ! [R om an gods, and finally a glorification of the simple life ithat m en once lived Saturno . . . rege. i The rustic setting m ay have given Tibullus the idea for i : U.4. Priapus was a typical god of the country, and m any I [representations of this god in his natural habitat have com e; 1 : jdow n to us from antiquity. At the same time, Priapus' jassociation with fe rtility and sex led to his chief role in ; | 1 jliterature, and in addition to such relatively innocent ] t ! i • : ipoem s as the one here of Tibullus, w e have a collection of jso-called Priapea. some of the most obscene verses ever 171 composed. Tibullus uses 1.4 as a kind of introduction to the |three poems which deal with the homosexual theme. All of |the poems reveal strong Alexandrian characteristics, but jagain Tibullus has taken the traditional settings and themes and converted them into his ow n special mode of ; thought. Most of the motifs in these three poems have already ! appeared in one form or another in the Delia and Messalla Ipoems. Here the emphasis is shifted, and avaritia becomes ithe most blatant fau lt. It is the motivating force behind i I ; ! I |the homosexual affairs, and in particular the puer delicatust is accused of caring more for money than for his lover. T o quote a line (5.68) which Tibullus applies elsewhere to j | I Delia, the boy's Ianua sed plena est percutienda manu. i To show how dominant a theme a v a ritia . and by implica tio n divitiae. has become, w e need only cite the major pas- ! jsages in each poem. For example, at 4.57-60 Priapus laments I : the fact that boys have learned to expect g ifts : lam tener adsuevit munera velle puer (v. 58). And he urges them to pay more attention to the Muses and less to the luxuries of i ; ithe East (vv. 61-70). Tibullus himself has learned the ilesson which Priapus taught, and he advises Marathus .........................................172' |(I.8.29-30): Munera ne poscas : det munera canus amator Ut foveat molli frigida m em bra sinu. i : |A nd in the whole passage here (w . 29-40) the poet inveighs ; i ; iagainst those w ho give and take g ifts in love affairs. I Both 1.4 and 1.8 have their humorous side, both seem Ito end with a gentle joke. Such is not the case with 1.9. ! i ; |A s Smith says, "the ninth is more powerful and less amus- 31 . ing." Tibullus accuses Marathus of having an affair with i ia senex whose only attraction is his money. M oney and the jexcessive desire to possess i t become the main themes of the: i . ! jpoem. Consequently, i t is here that the word divitiae i t - j i ; jself occurs for the firs t time since the opening elegy. The boy is d iv itiis captus (v. 19). The idea is echoed! jshortly when Tibullus berates Marathus and says (vv. 31-32):; i j j T u rn mihi iurabas nullo te d iv itis auri i Pondere, non gemmis, vendere velle fidem. I I I The last phrase here also echoes Priapus1 words at 4.58. I ; j The emphasis on gold and riches appears in several lines: 1 ; ;e.g., 17, 18, 51-53. A nd the boy's greed is the s’ object of verses 7-12, where the key phrases are lucra petens (v. 7) I and lucra petituras (v. 9). And finally, there is a sweep- : I i ing denunciation of a ll w ho value money more than love i ; ’ " 173 | (w . 51-52) : Tu procul hinc absis, cui formam vendere cura est Et pretium plena grande referre manu. |Again, this pentameter, especially the phrase plena . . . I manu. recalls Tibullus' accusation of Delia: Ianua sed plena est percutienda m anu (5.68). In summary, then, m any of the themes of the three ’ i i iMarathus poems are similar to those in the Delia and M es salla poems. The chief difference lies in the emphasis here |on divitiae and a v a ritia . Yet the other faults are not jentirely neglected. The dives amator puerorum is guilty of ' i l ambitio. H e tempts the boy with luxuria. and both the ex cesses and the deities of the East (cf. esp. 4.68-70 and 8.17-24) are blamed for their corrupting influence upon both! the boy and his rich lover. j j j ! I ’ ! i This study has ranged far. Som e readers m ay think too i ; |far, but despite its scope the limits have at times seemed jtoo re stric tiv e. Frequently the temptation has been strong jto explore this or that interesting side path. Yet such Idigressions would have taken the study even further afield, and the end results would thereby have become weaker and i 174 more diffused. Consequently, with very few exceptions— and they relegated for the most part to footnotes— w e have kept the main thesis in view at a ll times. The thesis is simply th is : Tibullus used techniques and themes which had become standard and even traditional in Greek and R om an literatu res. The f ir s t technique which w e singled out for analysis was the epic one of opening the ! poem with a statement of the theme and with an invocation to! isome deity. The second was the use of the middle and last ipoem s as positions of restatement and emphasis of the theme. ;To demonstrate that these techniques had been in regular use (long before Tibullus' day, w e made a rapid survey of the ! various genres, from Homeric Epic to Propertian Elegy. Then w e turned our attention to themes. Sometimes i t m ay have appeared that we were trying to prove that the only ! themes in Tibullus' elegies are divitiae and its attendant | ! themes of a v aritia, ambitio. luxuria, and su p erstitio . Not ; |so. Anyone w ho has made even a cursory study of elegiac ipoetry knows that there are m any themes, some major, some I i jminor, in a ll erotic poetry. I i | A m ong the most important are the lover, his mistress, I ■ w ho is sometimes loving, sometimes reluctant. She often has ja coniunx (or v ir) w ho must be ousted or at least tricked by the poet, and he in turn must guard against his ow n rivals . The g irl frequently succumbs to a rich lover and rejects the poet and his verses. Then there is the ianua d iffic ilis which must be serenaded by the exclusus amator. w ho lies in the cold and rain lamenting his hard lo t. In his grief and despair, he resorts to wine and witchery, to other girls and tender boys. H e laments that time is awasting, that old age and death w ill soon rob him of his joys in love. A nd on and ;on. These are themes found in every book of erotic verse. There was no need for us to discuss them here, j W hat Tibullus has done— and this is one point of the study—is to take these traditional themes of erotic poetry hnd give them motivation. To make such motivations clear and reasonable and so concrete that the reader can almost touch them, Tibullus borrowed moral themes from older poets and philosophers and used them as the cause, and occasion- i ally the effect, of the erotic themes. j This combination of standard erotic and moral themes is jTibullus ' contribution to the elegy. B y this technique he pot only made his characters and their actions more real, i more logical, even more dramatic and effective, he also i Inanaged to insert a great deal of moral instruction. This i undoubtedly pleased both Messalla and Augustus. 176 The Princeps especially must have understood and taken delight in Tibullus‘ approach to the traditional erotic themes. If he recognized the close connection between the eleg ist's use of the moral concepts and their role in iHorace's poetry, he must have fe lt that the money he had spent on literary patronage had not been spent in vain. Tibullus was an Augustan poet. Not only did he live ' and compose in the Augustan period, he also agreed with the ' I Princeps that life in the City was conducive to immorality iand un-Roman attitudes and actions . H e agreed that the simple life in the Country, where m en s t i l l held to the old ! : i R om an virtues, was preferable to the turmoil of the Capitol.j Like Augustus, the elegist deplored the worship of foreign deities, the popular beliefs in witches and black magic. Like Augustus he longed for a return to the old R om an worship of Ceres, of the Lares and Penates, and of a belief that the gods w ho created R om e s t i l l guided her des- ; tin y . I In short, Tibullus believed in tradition. H e was in- i I ; fluenced by the writings of the older Greek authors, and he ! found m any useful ideas and techniques in the poets and philosophers of the Hellenistic Age. At the same time, Tibullus profoundly loved and respected traditional R om an 177 mores. H e longed for a return to the old ways and sought to I in s till this desire in his readers. Out of this strange combination of two traditions, iTibullus emerges as a real R om an poet—and more than that, j |he is a real R om an poet of the Augustan Age. NOTES ■ ^ O r at the very earliest, a beloved, s t i l l unnamed, lappears in vv. 45-46. j ^The text used for Tibullus is that of F. W . Lenz and )G . C. Galinsky, Albii Tibulli Aliorumque Carminum Libri j iTres. 3rd ed. (Leiden: B rill, 1971). Consequently, no jattention has been given to such matters as the transposi tio n of vv. 25-32 in Elegy 1 which Postgate adopted in his iLoeb edition. The actual order of the lines in this poem jhas no effect on the central theme. j 3 I The traditional invocation, however, does not appear, , jnor, for that matter, does Tibullus address his patron Mes- I jsalla in the opening passage. Like Delia, Messalla is given! ja subordinate role and is not mentioned until v. 53. O n the! jother hand, whether i t is coincidence or not, the opening | I lines of Tibullus contain a strikingly long series of sub junctives, m any of vfaich are optative subjunctives. Each of; |the f ir s t ten lines either contains this verb form or has jone from a previous line controlling the construction. Nor ; |is the sequence broken—rather i t becomes more extended—if i jw e follow Postgate and insert vv. 25-32 after v. 6 . Then, to continue the argument, in vv. 11-14 he stresses his religious attitude and his devotion to the rus tic deities, and finally in v. 15 he makes a direct appeal to Ceres. There is no intention here to suggest that Tibul- jlus has constructed these lines to include an invocation, jfor he does not ask Ceres to aid him in his composition. jYet the fact remains that in place of the traditional invo cation w e have a long prayer which ends with the poet in- ! jvoking a goddess of agriculture. A nd look at the next two jcouplets (vv. 17-20), where both Priapus and the Lares are 178 179 mentioned. There m ay be no formal invocation, but divine guidance is nevertheless present in the poet's prayers. ^For the sake of convenience the chief male character ;in these poems is called "Tibullus" instead of "the fic tional lover" or some such phrase. This lover is, however, a fictional character created by the poet to f i t in with the 'equally fictional worlds which he sets before us. For a different view of this point see J. P. Elder's a rtic le I "Tibullus : Tersus atque Elegans" in J. P. Sullivan's C riti cal Essays on R om an Literature: Elegy and Lyric (Cambridge: 'Harvard Univ. Press, 1962), pp. 85 ff. 5See Elder, pp. 78 ff. ^Apuleius ( Apol. X ) seems to have begun the tradition •that Delia was the poetic nam e for a real mistress named jpiania. M uch has been written on this matter, but the I temptation is strong to argue once again that Apuleius was almost certainly wrong. It is surely more than coincidence jthat both Propertius and Tibullus, composing at almost the jsame time, chose an epithet of Artemis-Diana for the nam e iof their mistress. In Propertius' case, Cynthia seems to ! Ihave been associated in the poet's mind with the moon, as ;Edward N. O'Neil ("Cynthia and the Moon," CP. 53 [1958], 1- 8 ) has argued. In Tibullus' poetry the g irl is a part of Ithe lover's rustic life . W hat better name, therefore, could; iTibullus give the g irl than an epithet of the goddess w ho ;w as most closely associated with fields and flocks? A nd jwhat about Nemesis in Book II? Once the lover realized that ithe g irl represented not his ideal of love and peace and jcontentment in the country but rather luxury and greed (cf. il l .3.51 and I I .4.29), once he saw that his passion for her |w as leading him dow n the path to excessiveness, he changed iher nam e to Nemesis, an epithet of Artemis-Diana which re- iflects the darker side of this goddess. Delia and Nemesis lare, in short, the same g irl (cf. Baca, "Delia and Nemesis |in the Corpus Tibullianum"). They are the same g irl but as (seen through the eyes of a lover w ho hopes for a simple life iand through the eyes of a disappointed and disillusioned m an: •w h o realizes that his hopes have been in vain. j I Yet the most famous use of this image appears after ;Tibullus' poem in Ovid's Amores 1.9, the well-known M ilitat jomnis amans . 180 Q Whether i t was deliberate on Tibullus' part or just one more coincidence, the seemingly tenuous connection be tween luxuria and the Exclusus Amator theme becomes the chief theme of the second elegy. 9E.g., 1.3.23-32; 1.6.21-22 and 45 f f .; and with a special significance 1.7.27. j 10E.g., 1.2.41 f f .; 1.5.41 f f .; 1.5.59 f f .; 1.8.17 ff. 11E .g ., 1.2.56; 1.2.97-98. •^There are m any sim ilarities in the two poems, but 'perhaps the most significant occurs in 1.10.51 ff. where 'Tibullus gives us a vignette of life in the country and in particular at a rustic celebration for a R om an deity. Here is a scene where the Veneris . . . bella calent (v. 53) in- jnocently and appropriately; where a l i t tl e too m uch to drink is no disgrace, and where lovers 1 quarrels are carried on moderately. The repeated word satis (vv. 61-63) sum s up a ll th at Tibullus wants and hopes for from a life in the coun try . 13 For a brief but helpful discussion of this technique ;in Tibullus' poems, see Elder, p. 101. A s Elder himself says, any reader w ill find others. Every poem abounds in such verbal echoes both within and between poems. Someone could do worse than collect and evaluate the uses of such repetitions in Tibullus. ■^H. Musurillo entitles his discussion of the fifth elegy "Furtivus Amor: The Structure of Tibullus 1.5," T A P A . 101 (1970), 387-399. Though the subject is far too complicated for us to handle here, i t appears likely that Tibullus also used these two poems, and especially 1.5, to anticipate new themes and variations on old themes as they appear in Book I. For ex ample, gloria (1.5.2 and 1.6.3) appears at I I .1.34; custodes 1(1.6.10) appears at I I .1.75 and again in the f ir s t Nemesis- poem at I I . 3.73; canis (1.6.32) has the same general conno tation at I I .4.32-34; and most important of a ll, rura colam 1(1.5.21), which is in tune with the rustic atmosphere through m uch of Book I, becomes a major theme in Book II and as such is the subject of an extensive treatment in I I .1 and especially in vv. 37-66 (or even 78). The same theme opens 181 II.3: Rura m eam , Cornute, tenent villaeque puellam: Ferreus est, heu heu, quisquis in urbe manet. and ferreus its e lf is an echo of 1.2.67 and 1.10.2. The lis t could be extended indefinitely, but these few examples should be enough to show that Tibullus used the technique of I repetition and echo not only to tie together individual ipoem s but his two books as well. •^This paradox reminds one of Catullus ' dilemma in his : eighth poem: at tu. Catulle, destinatus obdura. ^ ■ 6See Elder, pp. 95-103 and Kirby Flower Smith (The ( Elegies of Tibullus: The Corpus Tibullianum Edited with Introduction and Notes on Books I. II. and IV.2-14 [N ew York: American Book Co., 1913]), pp. 47-48 for outlines and discussions of this poem. Hereafter referred to as Smith. ■^Since the arrangement of the poems in the book has I l i t tl e or no chronological significance, w e can perhaps (consider the lover's affair with Marathus as s t i l l another lattempt to escape Delia 1 s bondage. j l f t i “This idea seems to explain the reference in vv. 35- 36 : Haec mihi fingebam quae nunc Eurusque Notusque Iactat odoratos vota per Armenios. where odoratos . . . Armenios clearly refers to the perfumes ;and finery of the East. There is a parallel to this idea in jthe Tibullan corpus, I I I .8.18, not a Tibullan poem but s t i l l |an apt p arallel. Smith (p. 297), as often, completely misses the point. H e sees the "geographic error" here and says : "N o travellers taking passage at R om e with either Eurus or Notus in its specific sense would ever reach Ar menia ." 19 i H e seems to have used the same technique in Book II jw hen he devotes the whole of Elegy 5 to praise of Messa- .linus . 20 For a recent and important analysis of 1.7 see Julia H. Gaisser, "Tibullus 1.7: A Tribute to Messalla," CP. 66 (1971), 221-229. M uch of the discussion here is based upon her a rtic le . Hereafter referred to as Gaisser. 182 21 O ne cannot help thinking of Juvenal's description of such a pom pa and triumph in Sat. 10.36-46. The s a tiris t uses the ceremony to exemplify the pride that can corrupt. The praetor w ho is the object of attention in this scene is accompanied by Quirites. / defossa in loculos guos sportula fecit amicos (vv. 45-46). In other words, the praetor uses his wealth to buy friends, to acquire added ostentation, and to corrupt the old R om an ideal of am icitia. Tibullus seems almost to have the same sort of situation in mind (and more I than a hundred years earlier) when he stresses Messalla's | composure and restrain t in such a ceremony. For a discussion of Juvenal's passage see J. E. B. Mayor's commentary to the passage in Thirteen Satires of I Juvenal (London: Macmillan and Co., 1886), II, 76-81, and ithe m any references which he gives . ’ 22P. 222. 22See Plutarch, Isis and Osiris. Chap. 36 (365 B), etc.; ;If any proof is needed of the identification of Dionysus and! ■ Osiris, see chapters 34-35 (364 D-365 B), etc. For a dis cussion of this passage in Tibullus, see Gaisser, p. 225. j —-~—— — 6-228 . i 2^Even the triumphal procession of Messalla is tied 'with that of Osiris, for in vv. 43-48 the poet refers to such things as a chorus, singing, flowers of m any colors, jcrowns of ivy and gorgeous robes— and these are part of the 1 jgod's procession. To find parallels in a R om an procession lone has only to recall such passages as Ovid's Amores III. \2 .43-621 T ristia IV.2 .22 f f .; Juvenal 10.36 ff. and 11.194 f. to see that the Rom ans used the same accoutrements to deck I out their m an of the hour. 2fi A s Gaisser (p. 227) correctly points out, Tibullus :Uses his technique of repeated words to tie the two ideas ■closely together. In v. 5 the Rom ana pubes attend Mes- jsalla's triumph; in vv. 27-28 the barbara pubes sing the Ipraises of O siris. ■ I 2 7 ; For a discussion of the facts behind this reference see, for example, Smith's note to 1.7.57-58 (p. 339). 2 8 I Yet even this gesture was in obedience to Augustus' \ ' .......................................................... 183 |instructions. See Suetonius Aug. 30 and Dio Cassius 55.22. : 29 The phrase inoffensum rettuleritque pedem (v. 62) is ian allusion to superstition, for to stumble was a bad om en |for the Romans. Cf. Ovid A m . 1.12.1-6 for a humorous use of ithe superstition. i 30Verse 78 is a clear echo of 1.1.45-48 and especially ! |48. The sim ilarity both of situation and vocabulary is so jclose that placidae . . . aquae (1.2.78) seems to assure the ireading of imbre iuvanti in 1.1.48, contrary to the Lenz- jGalinsky igne iuvante. I I 31P. 52. i LIST OP WORKS CONSULTED 184 LIST O F W O R K S C O N S U L T E D Unless otherwise indicated, ancient authors are cited ifrom the texts of the Loeb Classical Library series, pub lished in Cambridge by the Harvard Univ. Press. Abbreviations used here are those listed in M . R. P. iMcGuire's Introduction to Classical Scholarship; A Biblio- , graphical Guide. 2nd ed. (Washington, D. C.: The Catholic Univ. of America Press, 1961), pp. 19-22 and in The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, ;1970); however, the la tte r's C Ph yields to the American CP. 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Creator Barrett, Ralph Conrad (author)

Core Title Tibullus I: Theme And Technique: "Di Tibi Divitias Dederunt"

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Classics

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag language, linguistics,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor O'Neil, Edward N. (committee chair), Mahl, Mary R. (committee member), Stokes, Lynn C. (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-818556

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