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POST-AUGUSTAN POETRY

From Seneca to Juvenal

By

H.E. BUTLER, Fellow of New College

PREFACE

I have attempted in this book to provide something of an introductionto the poetical literature of the post-Augustan age. Although few ofthe writers dealt with have any claim to be called poets of the firstorder, and some stand very low in the scale of poetry, as a whole thepoets of this period have suffered greater neglect than they deserve.Their undeniable weaknesses tend in many cases to obscure their realmerits, with the result that they are at times either ignored orsubjected to unduly sweeping condemnation. I have attempted in thesepages to detach and illustrate their excellences without in any waypassing over their defects.

Manilius and Phaedrus have been omitted on the ground that as regardsthe general character of their writings they belong rather to theAugustan period than to the subsequent age of decadence. Manilius indeedcomposed a considerable portion of his work during the lifetime ofAugustus, while Phaedrus, though somewhat later in date, showed asobriety of thought and an antique simplicity of style that place him atleast a generation away from his contemporaries. The authorities towhose works I am indebted are duly acknowledged in the course of thework. I owe a special debt, however, to those great works of reference,the Histories of Roman Literature by Schanz and Teuffel, toFriedländer's Sittengeschichte, and, for the chapters on Lucan andStatius, to Heitland's Introduction to Haskin's edition of Lucan andLegras' Thébaïde de Stace. I wish particularly to express myindebtedness to Professor Gilbert Murray and Mr. Nowell Smith, who readthe book in manuscript and made many valuable suggestions andcorrections. I also have to thank Mr. A.S. Owen for much assistance inthe corrections of the proofs.

My thanks are owing to Professor Goldwin Smith for permission to printtranslations from 'Bay Leaves', and to Mr. A.E. Street and Mr. F.J.Miller and their publishers, for permission to quote from theirtranslations of Martial (Messrs. Spottiswoode) and Seneca (ChicagoUniversity Press) respectively.

H.E. BUTLER.

November, 1908.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

THE DECLINE OF POST-AUGUSTAN POETRY

Main characteristics, p. 1.
The influence of the principate, p. 1.
Tiberius, p. 2.
Caligula, p. 4.
Claudius, p. 5.
Nero, p. 6.
Decay of Roman character, p. 9.
Peculiar nature of Roman literature, p. 10.
Greatness of Augustan poets a bar to farther advance, p. 11.
Roman education: literary, p. 12;
  rhetorical, p. 14.
Absence of true educational spirit, p. 16.
Recitations, p. 18.
Results of these influences, p. 19.

CHAPTER II

DRAMA

i. THE STAGE.
Drama never really flourishing at Rome, p. 23.
Comedy, represented by Mime and Atellan farce, p. 24.
Legitimate comedy nearly extinct, p. 25.
Tragedy replaced by salticae fabulae, p. 26;
  or musical recitations, p. 28.
Pomponius Secundus, p. 29.
Curiatius Maternus, p. 30.

ii. SENECA: his life and character, p. 31.
His position in literature, p. 35.
His epigrams, p. 36.
His plays, p. 39.
Their genuineness, p. 40.
The Octavia, Oedipus,