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THE A EN El D
nee fera caerulea domuit Germania pube
parentibusque abominatus Hannibal,
impia perdemus deuoti sanguinis aetas,
ferisque rursus occupabitur solum. (Epode 16.1—10)
Another generation is now being worn down by civil war, and Rome rushes to destruction
by her own might. Her neighbours, the Marsians, could not destroy her, nor the
Etruscan forces of the threatening Porsena, nor the jealous power of Capua nor the
fierce Spartacus, nor the Allobrogians, disloyal and rebellious, nor fierce Germany
with her blue-eyed youths, nor Hannibal, a curse to our ancestors. But we, a wicked
generation of accursed blood, shall destroy her, and the ground will once again become
the habitation of wild beasts.
It is essential that these outcries should be properly understood in all their
sincerity and poignancy in order for us to appreciate properly the sense of relief
and hope which Augustus brought to a war-torn world. The outcries come from
poets who had no love for the military way of life, who wished only to gain
from war the hope that it would end war: the gentle Virgil played no part in
military activities, and Horace's role in the civil wars was undistinguished and a
subject for the poet's own mild depreciation (Odes 2.7). There is every reason
to suppose that many Romans felt as Virgil and Horace did, and that when they
express their gratitude to Augustus for what seemed to be a final end to this
madness they were themselves sincere and were expressing the sincere thoughts
of many of their compatriots.
For there was not only the negative achievement (the removal of violence
and bloodshed) to be greeted with joy, but also the positive prospect of a
return to what was seen as Rome's true self, a return to the mos maiorum, the
way of life of their ancestors. This concept was coloured by romance (as we see
very clearly from the stories in the early books of Livy) and idealized into an
idyllic vision of the simple virtues, virtues of fides, pietas, religio, discipline,
constantia, grauitas. These virtues were not only embodied in the folk-lore and
early legends of Rome, but were considered to have been exemplified in the lives
of their historical heroes, men like Fabrkius, Regulus, Fabius Maximus, Cato the
Censor and countless others. In addition to this they were the kind of virtues
valued most highly by contemporary Stoics, 1 and no doubt many Romans who
(like Horace) were not ardent adherents of Stoicism would have echoed the
admiration for Stoic qualities which he expresses in his Roman odes.
Upon this resurgence of hope and national pride Augustus set about building
his social and moral policy, and indeed his political stance of restoring the
Republic fitted into the scheme. He had been able to lead the Romans out of a
period of political confusion and instability into a new security, and all his
endeavours were directed to convincing the Romans that the new order was
1 On Stoicism in the Aene'tdsee Bowra (1933-4) 8IT., Edwards (i960) I5iff.
338
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