The works of Horace : with English notes, critical and ... - Cristo Raul

Lli'E OP HORACE. XXVII
the tine old Roman legends spoke not in tlieii' full grandeur to hia
oar. The fragments of the Annals, which relate the exploits of Roman
valor, are by no means his most poetic passages ; in almost all
his loftier flights we trace Grecian inspiration, or more than inspira-
tion. If it be true that the earliest annalists of Rome turned theii
old poetry into prose, Ennius seems to have versified their tame history,
and to have left it almost as prosaic as before. It may be
doubted, notwithstanding the fame of Varius, whether there was any
fine Roman narrative poetry till the appearance of the ^neid. But
Lvoretius had shown of what the rich and copious, and, in his hands,
flexible Latin language was capable ; how it could paint as well as
describe, and, whenever his theme would allow, give full utterance
to human emotion. It is astonishing how Lucretius has triumphed
over the difficulties of an unpromising subject, and the cold and un-
poetio tone of his own philosophy. His nobler bursts are not surpassed
in Latin poetry. Notwithstanding the disrepute in which
Cicero's poetic talents have been held, there are lines, especially in
his translation of Aratus- which, by their bold descriptive felicity and
picturesque epithets, rise above the original. Lucretius was dead
before Horace settled at Rome, and so, likewise, was the only other
great Roman poet who has survived (excluding the dramatists), Ca-
tullus. Notwithstanding their grace, sweetness, and passion, the
lyric poems of Catullus do not seem to have been so pleasing as
might have been expected to the Roman car. His fame and popularity
rested chiefly on his satirical iambics. His lyrics are men
tioned with disparagement by Horace, and are not noticed by QuintUian
; yet in his happier moments, what Latin poet equals Catul-
lus ? Even if more of his poems than we suppose are translations,
some of them, which we know to be translations, have all the fire
and freedom of original poetry. If the Atys be but a feeble echo
)f a Greek dithyrambic, what must the dithyrambics of Greece have
been?
When Horace returned to Rome, Virgil and Varius, with Asinius
Pollio, the statesman and tragic writer, were the most celebrated
names in Roman poetry. These two great poets soon admitted the
young Horace to their intimacy. * The fame of Varius, as an epic
poet, does not appear to have been recognized even by his Roman
posterity. Quintilian speaks of his Thyestes with the highest praise,
as worthy to be compared with the noblest Greek tragedies ; he does
not mention his name among the epic writers. Varius, it should
seem, wrote fine verses on the events and characters of the times ; a
poem on the death of Cissar, and a panegyric on Augustus. That
kind of poetry obtains high reputation in its. own day, but loses its
interest with the events which it celebrates. Tet of the few epic
lines of Varius which survive, all show vigor and felicity of expres-
sion, some great beauty. The Eclogues of Virgil appeared in theii
collective form about the same time with the earl-est publication of
Horace, .his first book of Satires. But Virgil had already aoquii^d