The Historians' History of the World 05

Rome during this period began to form the literature which has come down to us; but unfortunately, instead of being national and original, it was imitative and borrowed, consisting chiefly of translations from the Greek. In the year after the end of the First Punic War (240), L. Livius Andronicus, an Italian Greek by birth, represented his first play at Rome. His pieces were taken from the Greek; and he also translated the Odyssey out of that language into Latin. Cn. Nævius, a native of Campania, also made plays from the Greek, and he wrote an original poem on the First Punic War, in which he had himself borne arms. These poets used the Latin measures in their verse; but Q. Ennius, from Rudiæ in Calabria, who is usually called the father of Roman poetry, was the first who introduced the Greek metres into the Latin language. His works were numerous tragedies and comedies from the Greek, satires, and his celebrated Annals, or poetic history of Rome, in hexameters, the loss of which (at least of the early books) is much to be lamented. Maccius Plautus, an Umbrian, and Cæcilius Statius, an Insubrian Gaul, composed numerous comedies, freely imitated from the Greek. M. Pacuvius of Brundusium, the nephew of Ennius, made tragedies from the Greek; L. Afranius was regarded as the Menander of Rome; and P. Terentius (Terence), a Carthaginian by birth, gave some beautiful translations (as we may perhaps best term his pieces) of the comedies of Menander and Apollodorus. None of these poets but Plautus and Terence has reached us, except in fragments; the former amuses us with his humour, and gives us occasional views of Roman manners, while we are charmed with the graceful elegance of the latter. It is remarkable that not one of these poets was a Roman. In fact Rome has never produced a poet.

Q. Fabius Pictor, L. Cincius Alimentus, A. Postumius Albinus, M. Porcius Cato, and L. Cassius Hemina wrote histories (the first three in Greek) in a brief, dry, unattractive style. Cincius also wrote on constitutional antiquities, and seems to have been a man of research; and a work of Cato’s on husbandry has come down to us which we could well spare for his Origines, or early history of Italy.e

FOOTNOTES

[64] [Both consular places were opened to the plebeians by the law of the tribune Genucius, passed in 342 B.C.; cf. Mommsenh and Greenidge.i]

[65] [The reduction of the comitia curiata to a mere form belongs to the fifth century B.C.]

[66] [The senators were chiefly men who had held the principal civic offices; and as these offices were monopolised by a narrow circle of wealthy families, the senatorial places must have been practically, though not constitutionally, hereditary.]

[67] [By the Publilian law of 339 B.C. (cf. p. 185) the senatorial control over the centuries was reduced to a formality. But the senate still controlled the magistrates, and the magistrates controlled the assemblies.]

[68] [In fact the tribal assembly came into existence before the comitia centuriata began to grow more popular—the tribal assembly influenced the development of the centuriate assembly in a democratic direction.]

[69] [According to some authorities, however, the comitia centuriata did not come into existence before the end of the regal period.]

[70] [Rarely were laws passed by the tribal assembly under the presidency of a consul.]

[71] [After the passing of the Hortensian Law, 287 B.C., the tribunes were no longer constitutionally bound to gain the consent of the senate to their bills; and occasionally a tribune, as Flaminius in 232 and Claudius in 218, availed himself of his constitutional freedom. Generally, however, the tribunes were ministers of the senate, and more subservient than the consuls.]

[72] When the pound of weight ceased to be the same with the pound of currency, the former was usually designated æs grave.

[73] Munire viam, was their phrase.

CHAPTER XV. THE GRACCHI AND THEIR REFORMS

TIBERIUS GRACCHUS

It appears that before the time of Scipio’s election to conduct the Numantian War, it had become a prevalent opinion that some measures were necessary to arrest the prevailing social evils. The frightful excesses of the Servile War called attention still more strongly to the subject; and in the year that Scipio achieved the conquest of Numantia a leader appeared who was endowed with courage, firmness, self-confidence, ability, eloquence, and every requisite for political success, except a larger experience and a larger share of patience and self-control.b A. H. Beesley thus vividly paints the crying evils of the Roman state: