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

EXPLANATORY NOTES. ON ROMAN SATIRE. 421
np every year to Ceros and Bacchus as the first fruits of the season. This
was termed Satura or Satira, the word lanx being understood. In like
manner, a law containing several distinct particulars or clauses was denominated
Xea: Saiura. From these examples, the peculiar meaning of
the term Satira, in the case of Ennins, will be clearly perceived.
After £nnins came Pacuvius, who took the former for his model. So
few fragments, however, remain of his writings, as to render it impossible
for us to &rm any definite opinion of his satirical productions. " liUcilius
succeeded, and effected an important change in this species of composition,
by giving the preference, and in some instances exclusively so, to the
hexameter verse. From the greater air of regularity which this altera-
tion produced, as well as from the more didactic form of his pieces, in their
aiming less at comic efiect than those of Ennias, and more at the improvement
of others by the correction of vice, Lucilins, and not Ennius, was regarded
by many of the ancients as the father of Satire. After his time,
the hexameter versification came to be regarded as the proper garb for
this species of poetry, and the word Satire passed from its primitive signification
to the meaning given it at the commencement of these remarks,
and which has been also retained in our own days.
The finishing hand to Roman Satire was put by Horace. Thus far he
has been viewed as the great master of Roman lyric poetry, whether
amatory, convivial, or moral. We have still to consider him as a satiric,
humorous, or familiar writer, in which character (though he chiefly valued
himself on his odes) he is more instructive, and perhaps equally pleasing.
He is also more of an original poet in his Satires than in his lyric compo-
sitions. Daniel Heinsins,, indeed, in his confused and prolix dissertation,
"De Satira Horatiana," has pointed out several passages, which he
thinks have been suggested by the comedies and satiric dramas of the
Greeks. If, however, we except the dramatic form which he has g^ven
to so many of his Satires, it will be difficult to find any general resemblance
between them and those productions of the Greek stage which are
at present extant. / Satire had remained, in a great measure, uncultivated
St Bflme since the time of Locilins, who imitated the writers of the Greek
comedy, in so far as he unsparingly satirised the political leaders of the
state. But Horace did not live, like the Greek comedians, in an unrestrained
democracy, nor, like Lucilius, under on aristocracy, in which
there was a struggle for power, and court was in consequence occasional-
ly paid to the people.
Satire, more than any other kind of poetry, is influenced by the spirit
and manners of the age in whioh it appears. These are, in fact, the aliment
on which it feeds ; and, accordingly, in tracing the progress which
had been made in this species of composition, fiom the time of Lucilins
till the appearance of that more refined satire which Horace introduced, it
is important to consider the changes that had taken place during this inter-
val, both in the manners of the people and the government of the coontry.
The accumulation of Wealth naturally tends to the corruption of a land.
But a people who, like the Romans, suddenly acquire it by war, confiscations,
and pillage, degenerate more quickly than the nations among whom