be a modern forgery, it is very lucky that it higher dignity, who were, or at least desired Should agree fe exactly, in fo many little par- to be thought, poets in that time. In the ticulars, with the ancient globe of the heavens, former part of Auguftus's reign, his firft miis the Farnefe palace. Allowing Manilius's nifter for home affairs, Maecenas; and in the poem to pafs for what it pretends to be, there latter part, his grandfon Germanicus, were of is nothing remains to us of the poetical works this number. Germanicus in particular tranfof this Auguftan age, befides what I have lated Aratus; and there are fome (I do not mentioned: except the garden poem of Co- well know on what grounds) who pretend lamella; the little hunting piece of Gratius; and, perhaps, an elegy or two of Gallus.

Spence.

$3. Of the Poets aubofe Works have not AD CON come down to us.

to have met with a confiderable part of his tranflation. The emperor himself feems to have been both a good critic and a good author. in verfe too; and particularly good part of a He wrote chiefly in profe; but fome things tragedy, called Ajax.

These are but finall remains for an age in It is no wonder, under fuch encourageWhich poetry was fo well cultivated and fol-ments, and fo great examples, that poetry lowed by very great numbers, taking the fhould arife to a higher pitch than it had ever good and the bad together. It is probable, done among the Romans. They had been moft of the beft have come down to us. As gradually improving it for above two centu fer the others, we only hear of the elegies of ries; and in Auguftus found a prince, whofe Capella and Montanus; that Proculus imi- own inclinations, the temper of whofe reign, ted Callimachus; and Rufus, Pindar: that and whofe very politics, led him to nurse all ind Mater, a poem on the nature of birds, manner. The wonder is, when they had got Fontanus wrote a fort of Pifcatory eclogues; the arts; and poetry, in a more particular beats, and plants. That the fame Macer, fo far toward perfection, that they should fall and Rabirints, and Marfus, and Ponticus, as it were all at once; and from their greatcft and Peds Albinovanus, and feveral others, purity and fimplicity, fhould degenerate fo were epic writert in that time (which, by the immediately into a lower and more affected May, feems to have Ggnified little more than manner of writing than had ever been known that they wrote in hexameter verfe): that among them.

Padanos was the best comic poet then, and

Ibid.

Meliffus no bad one; that Varius was the $ 54. Of the Fall of Poetry among the

no teemed for epic poetry, before the

Eneid appeared; and one of the most efteem

Romans.

There are fome who affert, that the great

d for tragedy always: that Pollio (befides age of the Roman eloquence I have been bisher excellencies at the bar, in the camp, speaking of, began to decline a little even in for tragedy; and Varius, either for tragedy tainly fell very much under Tiberius; and od in affairs of State) is much commended the latter part of Auguftus's reign. It cerwhich of the two he wrote. Thefe laft are was wholly changed under Caligula. Hence, epic poetry; for it does not quite appear grew every day weaker and weaker, till it

; but there remain fome of fill therefore, we may date the third age, or the

fcribed in his own Pharfalia, who, in paffing the defert fands of Africa, was bit by a ferpent, and fwelled to fuch an immoderate fize,

fall of the Roman poctry. Auguftus, whatever his natural temper was, put on at leaft a mildnefs that gave a calm to the ftate during his time: the fucceeding emperors flung off" that he was loft (as he expreffes it) in the the mak; and not only were, but openly tumors of his own body." Some critics appeared to be, rather monsters than men. have been in too great hafte to make QuincWe need not go to their hiftorians for proofs tilian fay fome good things of Lucau, which of their prodigious vilenefs: it is enough to he never meant to do. What this poet has mention the bare names of Tiberius, Cali- been always for, and what he will ever deferve gula, Nero. Under fuch heads, every thing to be admired for, are the feveral philofophical that was good run to ruin. All difcipline in paffages that abound in his works; and his war, all domeftic virtues, the very love of generous fentiments, particularly on the love liberty, and all the tafte for found cloquence of liberty and the contempt of death. In and good poetry, funk gradually; and faded his calm hours, he is very wife; but he is away, as they had flourished, together. In- often in his rants, and never more fo than ftead of the fenfible, chatte, and manly way when he is got into a battle, or a storm at sea: of writing, that had been in ufe in the former but it is remarkable, that even on those ocage, there now rofe up a defire of writing cafions, it is not fo much a violence of rage fmartly, and an affectation of thining in every as a madness of affectation that appears most thing they faid. A certain prettiness, and strongly in him. To give a few inftances glitter, and luxuriance of ornaments, was of it, out of many: in the very beginning what diftinguifhed their most applauded wri- of Lucan's ftorm, when Cæfar ventured to ters in profe; and their poetry was quite loft cross the fea in fo fmall a veffel," the fixt in high flights and obfcurity. Seneca, the ftars themfelves feem to be put in motion." favourite profe-writer of thofe times; and Then "the waves rife over the mountains, Petronius Arbiter, fo great a favourite with and carry away the tops of them." Their many of our own; afford too many proofs of next step is to heaven; where they catch the this. As to the profe in Nero's time; and rain" in the clouds:" I fuppofe, to enas to the pots, it is enough to fay, that they creafe their force. The fea opens in feveral had then Lucan and Perfius, inftead of Virgil places, and leaves its bottom dry land. Alland Horace. the foundations of the universe are shaken; and nature is afraid of a fecond chaos. Hist little fkiff, in the mean time, fometimes cuts along the clouds with her fails, and fometimes feems in danger of being ftranded on the fands at the bottom of the fea; and must inevitably have been loft, had not the form (by good fortune) been fo ftrong from every quarter, that the did not know on which fide to bulge first.

$55. Of LUCAN.

Spence.

Perfius and Lucan, who were the most celebrated pocts under the reign of Nero, may very well ferve for examples of the faults I just mentioned, one of the fwelling, and the other of the obfcure ftyle, then in fashion. Lucan's manner, in general, runs too much into fuftian and bombaft. His Mufe has a kind of dropfy, and looks like the foldier de

When the two armies are going to join

battle

battle in the plains of Pharfalia, we are told, | The three emperors after him were made in that all the foldiers were incapable of any fear an hurry, and had fhort tumultuous reigns.

for themfelves, because they were wholly taken up with their concern for the danger which threatened Pompey and the commonwealth. On this great occafion, the hills about them, according to his account, feem to be more afraid than the men; for fome of the mountains looked as if they would thruft their heads into the clouds; and others, as if they wanted to hide themfelves under the valleys at their feet. And these disturbances in nature were univerfal: for that day, every fingle Roman, in whatever part of the world he was, feit a ftrange gloom fpread all over his mind, on a fudden, and was ready to cry, though he did not know why or wherefore. Spence.

$56. Of PERSIUS.

Then the Flavian family came in. Velpafian, the firft emperor of that line, endeavoured to recover fomething of the good taste that had formerly flourished in Rome; his fon Titus, the delight of mankind, in his short reign, encouraged poetry by his example, as well as by his liberalities: and even Domitian loved to be thought a patron of the mufes. After him, there was a fucceffion of good emperors, from Nerva to the Antonines. And this extraordinary good fortune (for indeed if one confiders the general run of the Roman emperors, it would have been fuch, to have had any two good ones only together) gave a new spirit to the arts, that had

long been in fo languishing a condition, and Perfius is faid to have been Lucan's fchool-again, once more among them. Not that made poetry revive, and raise up its head fellow under Cornutus; and, like him, was there were very good pucts even now; but brad up more a philof pher than a poct. He they were better, at leaf, than they had been has the character of a good man; but fcarce under the reign of Nero. deferves that of a good writer, in any other

writings are very virtuous, but not very poc-| dical. His great fault is obfcurity. Several

Ibid.

§ 57. Of SILIUS, STATIUS, and Vale

RIUS FLACCUS.

once attempts to foar throughout his whole

This period produced three epic poets, have endeavoured to excufe or palliate this whofe works remain to us; Silias, Statius, Irved in; and the neceffity a fatirift then lay been frightened at the high flight of Lucan, mder, of writing fo, for his own fecurity. keeps almost always on the ground, and scarce This may hold as to fome paffages in him: Eat to fay the truth, he feems to have a ten- work. It is plain, however, though it is dency and love to obfcurity in himfelf; for low; and if he has but little of the fpirit of it is not only to be found where he may speak | poetry, he is free at least from the affectation, of the emperor, or the ftate; but in the ge- and obfcurity, and bombaft, which prevailed reral course of his fatires. So that, in my fo much among his immediate predeceffors. tafcience, I must give him up for an obfcure Silius was honoured with the confulate; and writer; as I fhould Lucan for a tumid and lived to fee his fon in the fame high office.

fwelling one.

Such was the Roman poetry under Nero. and ftatues; fome of which he worshipped;

He was a great lover and collector of pictures

Н

especially

efpecially one he had of Virgil. He used to games; as he had formerly done himself.offer facrifices too at his tomb near Naples. Valerius Flaccus wrote a little before Statius. It is a pity that he could not get more of his He died young, and left his poem unfinished. fpirit in his writings: for he had fcarce We have but feven books of his Argonautics, enough to make his offerings acceptable to and part of the eighth, in which the Argonauts the genius of that great poet.-Statius had are left on the fea, in their return homewards. more fpirit, with a lefs thare of prudence: Several of the modern critics, who have been for his Thebaid is certainly ill conducted, fome way or other concerned in publishing and fcarcely well written. By the little we Flaccus's works, make no fcruple of placing have of his Achilleid, that would probably him next to Virgil, of all the Roman epic have been a much better poem, at leaft as to poets; and I own I am a good deal inclined the writing part, had he lived to finish it. As to be feriously of their opinion; for he feems it is, his defcription of Achilles's behaviour at to me to have more fire than Silius, and to be the feaft which Lycomedes makes for the more correct than Statius: and as for Lucan, Grecian ambaffadors, and fome other parts I cannot help looking upon him as quite out of it, read more pleafingly to me than any of the question. He imitates Virgil's lanpart of the Thebaid. I cannot help think-guage much better than Silius, or even Staing, that the paffage quoted fo often from Juvenal, as an encomium on Statius, was meant as a fatire on him. Martial feems to ftrike at him too, under the borrowed name of Sabellus. As he did not finith his Achilleid, he may deferve more reputation perhaps as a mifcellaneous than as an epic writer; for though the odes and other copies of verfes in his Sylvæ are not without their faults, they are not fo faulty as his Thebaid. The chief faults of Statius, in his Sylve and Thebaid, are faid to have proceeded from very different caufes; the former from their having been written incorrectly and in a great deal of hafte; and the other, from its being over corrected and hard. Perhaps his greateft fault of all, or rather the greateft fign of his bad judgment, is his admiring Lucan fo exravagantly as he does. It is remarkable,tributed to authors as far diftant as the reigns' that poetry run more lineally in Statius's family, than perhaps in any other. He received it from his father; who had been an eminent poet in his time, and lived to fe his fon obtain the lawgel-crown at the Alban

tius; and his plan, or rather his ftory, is certainly lefs embarraffed and confused than the Thebaid. Some of the ancients themfelves fpeak of Flaccus with a great deal of refpe&t; and particularly Quinctilian; who fays nothing at all of Silius or Statius; unlefs the latter is to be included in that general expreffion of feveral others,' whom he leaves to be celebrated by pofterity.

As to the dramatic writers of this time, we have not any one comedy, and only ten tragedies, all published under the name of Lucius Annæus Seneca. They are probably the works of different hands; and might be a collection of favourite plays, put together by fome bad grammarian; for either the Roman tragedies of this age were very different, or thefe are not their beft. They have been at

of Auguftus and Trajan. It is true, the perfon who is fo pofitive that one of them in particular must be of the Auguftan age, fays this of a piece that he feems refolved to crv up at all rates; and I believe ont fhould do

ΠΟ

Of all the other poets under this period, there are none whofe works remain to us, except Martial and Juvenal. The former flou-hatred of vice, with fome very fine and high rifhed under Domitian; and the latter under Nerva, Trajan, and Adrian.