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POETRY
is characteristic of the classicizing poetry of late antiquity, and in particular
its declamatory tone. The digressions, which were traditional in the genre,
are mainly in the form of speeches and descriptions, and the descriptions
often turn into rhetorical soliloquies.
The poem in the form in which we possess it begins with an address to the
reader on the greatness of Rome (I.I—46) and a long speech of farewell by the
poet to the city, in which most of the traditional topics of the laudes Romae
are rehearsed (1.47—164), and goes on to recount day by day the stages of the
journey by sea from Portus Augusti (Porto) via Centumcellae (Civitavecchia),
Portus Herculis (Porto Ercole), Faleria, Populonia, Vada Volaterrana, Portus
Pisanus, to Luna, at which point the text breaks off. The description of each
stage is accompanied by references to friends of the poet connected with the
places passed or visited, and to their historical associations, as well as by personal
reflections of the poet. The most noteworthy of diese are his attack on
the Jews (1.383—98), his invective against the monks of Capraria (1.439—52),
his account of the life and virtues of his father (1.575—96), and his attack on
Stilicho for 'betraying the secret of empire' and allowing Alaric and his
Visigoths into Italy (24CMS0). These varied disgressions are designed to break
the monotony of a necessarily repetitive narrative.
Rutilius has been generally held to have been a pagan, though a few scholars
have argued that he must have been a nominal Christian. Be that as it may, his
poetic persona stands firmly in the classical literary tradition and shows no
sign of Christian ideas or expressions. Rutilius combines a sometimes moving
reverence for ancient Roman tradition with an optimism concerning the future
"which takes in its stride Alaric's recent sack of Rome and the devastations of
the Visigoths and the Bagaudae in his native Gaul.
Rutilius' predominating stylistic feature is parallelism and antithesis, often emphasized
by patterns of alliteration or assonance. There is little enjambment between
couplet and couplet, and few long periods. He has a gift — which recalls
Juvenal — for expressing traditional and conventional ideas in striking phrases.
Some of his verses are among the most memorable in Latin literature, e.g.
Fecisti patriam diuersis gentibus unam;
profuit iniustis te dominante capi,
dumque offers uictis proprii consortia iuris
urbem fecisti quod prius orbis erat. (1.63-6)
You made one fatherland for scattered nations; it profited the uncivilised to fall under
your overlordship. In offering to those you conquer a share in your own rights you
have made a city of what was formerly the world
or Vere tuo numquam mulceri desinit annus
deliciasque tuas uicta tuetur hiems. (1.113—14)
The year is unendingly caressed by your spring, and winter yields before your charms
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