The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age: Virgil Part 15

In the one case we recognise the man, born into the equal relations of an aristocratic Republic, who knows of no social superior in the world, and is attracted to him whom he honours by his dedication solely by the charm of friends.h.i.+p. In the other case, though the affection may not be less sincere, there is the unmistakeable note of deference to a social superior.

The difference between the position which the two poets occupied and of the times in which they lived is still more manifest in the selection of the person whom they each fix on as the object of their reverential homage. Though the poem of Lucretius is inscribed to Memmius, it is really dedicated to the glory of Epicurus. His image presides over the ma.s.sive temple raised to the Power of Nature. He is the great benefactor of the world, exalted by his service to mankind, not only above all living men, but above those whom the popular religion had in early times elevated to the rank of G.o.ds-

deus ille fuit, deus, inclyte Memmi.

In every book of the poem his praises are repeated in language of enthusiastic devotion. In the poem of Virgil the living Caesar occupies the place of a tutelary deity-

In medio mihi Caesar erit, templumque tenebit.

He is ranked above all living men, and above the great men of the past by whom Rome had been saved from her enemies: he is addressed as the immediate object of care to the native G.o.ds of Italy, and as destined after death to rank among the ruling powers of Heaven. Something is said in his honour in every book of the poem. The lines near the end,

Caesar dum magnus ad altum Fulminat Euphraten bello, victorque volentis Per populos dat iura, viamque adfectat Olympo(331),

seem intended to leave the thought of his actual greatness as the abiding impression on the mind of the reader; as the concluding lines of the Invocation seem intended to make his presence felt as that of its inspiring deity. While we cannot doubt that the admiration expressed by Lucretius is the sincere and generous tribute of genius acknowledging a great debt and unconsciously exaggerating the n.o.bleness of its benefactor, it is impossible to determine how far Virgil's language is the expression of sincere conviction, and how far it is dictated by the necessities of his position.

But it is in their invocations of a Superior Power to aid them in their task that we recognise the strongest contrast between the philosophic poet, who, while denying all supernatural agency, is yet carried away by his imagination to attribute consciousness, will, and pa.s.sion to the great creative Power of Nature,-the source of all life, joy, beauty, and art,-and the 'pius vates,' influenced by the religious sense of man's dependence on a Spiritual Power, deeply feeling the poetical charm of the old mythology, and striving to effect some reconcilement between the fading traditions of Polytheism and the more philosophical conceptions prevalent in his time. Lucretius for the moment adopts the symbolism of ancient mythology, and probably the actual figures of pictorial art (which elsewhere he speaks of as a great source of human delusion), to impart visible presence, colour, and pa.s.sion to his thought; but he leaves no doubt on the reader's mind that his representation is merely symbolical.

Virgil, on the other hand, appears in the opening lines of the Georgics to attribute a distinct personality to the beings of that composite Polytheism which had gradually grown up out of the union of Greek art and Roman religion, but which it is difficult to comprehend as having any real hold over the minds of men who had received any tincture of Greek philosophy. In the divine office which he a.s.signs to Caesar he adopts the latest addition to this eclectic Pantheon; and this new divinity he introduces in the midst of the old G.o.ds, just as he fancifully introduces Gallus in the Eclogues amid the choir of Apollo and the Muses.

But in the Eclogues there is no feeling of doubt in our minds that the representation is purely fanciful. The strain in the Georgics is altogether too serious; the juxtaposition of Caesar with the G.o.ds of Olympus and the protecting deities of the husbandman is too carefully meditated to admit of our supposing the lines from 'Tuque adeo' to 'adsuesce vocari' to be intended to be taken as a mere play of fancy. We cannot think of Lucretius, perhaps not even of Cicero, reading Virgil's Invocation, and especially the concluding lines of it, without a certain feeling of scorn. We cannot help asking how far could the pupil of Siron, the student of Epicurus and Lucretius, the enlightened a.s.sociate of Maecenas, Augustus, Pollio, Horace, etc., attach any serious meaning to the words of this Invocation. How far was he simply complying with an established convention of literature? how far using these mythological representations as symbolism? how far was he identifying himself in imagination with the beliefs of his ideal husbandman?

To answer these questions we must endeavour to realise the very composite character which the Pagan religion, the acc.u.mulation of many beliefs from the earliest and rudest fancies of primitive times to the studied representations of Greek art and the later symbolical explanations of philosophical schools, presented to men living in the Augustan Age. In this Invocation and in the body of the poem we can trace three or four distinct veins of belief, existing together, without producing any sense of inconsistency, and combining into a certain unity for the purpose of artistic representation.

Religion in the Augustan Age presented a different aspect to the dwellers in the town and in the country; to the refined cla.s.ses whose tastes were formed by Greek art and poetry, and to men of the old school,-senators like Cotta or antiquarians like Varro,-who sought to conform to the ancient Roman traditions; to students of philosophy, who either, like the Epicureans, denied all Divine agency, or like the Stoics, resolved the many divinities of the popular belief into one Divine agency under many forms. The peculiarity of Virgil's mind is that his belief, at least as expressed in his poetry, was a kind of syncretism composed out of all these modes of thought and belief. Like Horace and Tibullus, he sympathises in imagination with that rustic piety which expressed the natural thankfulness of the human heart for protection afforded to the flocks and the fruits of the field, by festivals and ceremonial observances like the Palilia and Ambarvalia, by sacrifice of a kid to Faunus, or offerings of flowers and fruit to the Penates. The feelings connected with this vein of belief as they are represented in the poetry of the Augustan Age,-

Faune nympharum fugientum amator, etc.,-

and again in Tibullus,

Di patrii, purgamus agros, purgamus agrestes, etc.,-

of a happy and generally of a genial and festive character, and not altogether devoid of such elements of simple piety as find expression in the

Caelo supinas si tuleris ma.n.u.s, etc.,

of Horace. Poetical sympathy with the beliefs and picturesque ceremonies of the peasants among whom they lived enhanced the real enjoyment derived from their country life by men of refined feeling like Horace and Tibullus. But Virgil's feeling in regard to the religious trust and observances of the country people appears to be stronger than mere poetical sympathy. He sees in them a cla.s.s of men more immediately dependent than others on the protection of some unseen Power, and thus forced, as it were, into more immediate relation with that Power. The modes in which they endeavoured to gain the favour of that Power or to express their thankfulness for its protection were probably among the influences which had moulded his own early belief and character in his Mantuan farm. In the prayer

Dique deaeque omnes studium quibus arva tueri(332),

as in the later exclamation,

Fortunatus et ille deos qui novit agrestes(333),

he is identifying himself in imagination with a living mode of popular belief, and one to which he may have been attracted by his early a.s.sociations as well as by poetical sympathy.

But the Invocation recognises the creations of Greek art along with the ruder and simpler objects of Italian wors.h.i.+p. The 'Fauni Dryadesque puellae' a.s.sume to Virgil's fancy the forms of Greek art and poetry. The legend of Neptune producing the horse by the stroke of his trident suggests the attributes of ??se?d?? ?pp???, not of the Italian Neptunus.

It is not the Roman Minerva, but ? ??a???p?? ????a, who is a.s.sociated in poetry and legend with the olive,-

F?te?' ??e???t?? a?t?p????

??a???? pa?d?t??f?? f????? ??a?a?.

He calls upon Pan to leave his native groves and the woodland pastures of Lycaeus, just as Horace describes him as pa.s.sing nimbly from his Arcadian haunt to the Sabine Lucretilis. These G.o.ds, nymphs, and satyrs of an alien belief were now to Romans as to Greeks the recognised materials which art and song had to shape into new forms. In the vigorous prime of Greek poetry, so late even as the age of Sophocles and Herodotus, there was a real belief in the personal existence and active agency of these supernatural beings. This real belief first gave birth to, and was afterwards merged in, the representations of art. Art, which owed its birth to religious sentiment, superseded it. But after a time and under new conditions the strong admiration for the beauty or significance of the objects represented in art produces a strong wish to revive the belief in their reality; and in minds peculiarly susceptible of such influences the wish tends to fulfil itself.

Probably Virgil himself would not have cared to probe too deeply the state of half-belief in which his heart and mind realised the bright existence and kindly influence of beings consecrated to him by the most cherished a.s.sociations of living art and the poetry of the past. Even Lucretius, while sternly rejecting all belief in their existence as absolutely incompatible with truth, feels from time to time attracted by their poetical charm. Horace, we can see, from the absence of anything in his Satires, or Epistles, implying a real belief in the G.o.ds of mythology, keeps his literary belief apart from his true convictions. In the case of Virgil, it is not possible, at all events for a modern reader, distinctly to separate them. The power of the old mythology over the fancy and the weakness of scientific thought in ancient times to overthrow that power is nowhere more visible than in his poetry.

But there was another mode of Greek influence acting on the educated minds of Rome, stronger than that of the ancient mythology. That influence was the religious speculations of the various philosophical schools(334).

There was, on the one hand, the Epicurean acceptance of an infinite number of G.o.ds dwelling in the 'Intermundia,' enjoying a state of supreme calm, apart from all concern with this world or the labours and pursuits of men.

They might be objects of pure contemplation, and pious reverence to the human spirit; but they were capable neither of being propitiated nor made angry by anything that men could do. The Stoic doctrine, on the other hand, recognised the incessant agency and forethought of a Supreme Spiritual Power over human life. It accepted the stories and beings of the traditional religion, but explained them away. The various deities wors.h.i.+pped by the people are the various manifestations and functions of this one Supreme Spiritual Power, whether called by the name of Zeus, or by the abstract name of Providence (p?????a). This is the Power addressed in the famous hymn of Cleanthes, and that appealed to in the familiar t??

??? ?a? ????? ?s?? of Aratus. It is part of Virgil's eclecticism to combine the science of Epicurus with the theology of the more spiritual schools. The Supreme Spiritual Power in the Georgics is generally spoken of under the t.i.tle of 'Pater.' It is noticeable that the word Iuppiter is used either with a purely physical signification, as in

Iuppiter umidus austris- Et iam maturis metuendus Iuppiter uvis-

or as in the phrases 'sub Iove,' 'ante Iovem,' in reference to the stories of the ancient mythology. Even in this Invocation, the object of which seems to be to a.s.sign function and personality to the G.o.ds of Olympus and of Italy, the influence of the Stoic theology was recognised in ancient times in the identification of the sun and moon-'clarissima mundi lumina'-with Liber and Ceres(335). The rhythm of the lines 57 can leave no doubt whatever as to this identification, notwithstanding the appeal to Varro's example, who distinguishes the various deities whom he invokes. It is characteristic of Virgil's art to introduce such a variation in any pa.s.sage which he imitates, and also to suggest a thought which he does not distinctly develope. In the lines 9596,

neque illum Flava Ceres alto nequiquam spectat Olympo(336),

he reproduces a thought which Callimachus had expressed in his hymn to Artemis(337)-

??? d? ?e? e?e?d?? te ?a? ??a?? a???ss?a?

?e????? e? ?? ?????a f??e? st????(338).

The 'flava Ceres' of Virgil's description seems to call up before our mind a picture of the harvest-moon looking down on the corn-fields of the prosperous husbandman.

The national religion of Rome was something distinct both from the rustic Paganism of Italy, and from that aesthetic amalgamation of Greek and Roman beliefs and that semi-philosophical rationalism which art and literature made familiar to the Romans of the Augustan Age. The great symbol of that national religion was the Temple of Jove on the Capitol(339).

That religion was based on the idea that the wide empire and eternal duration of Rome had been appointed by Divine decree. As distinguished from the national religion of Greece, which expressed itself in new and varied forms of art, Roman religion was one which adhered to ancient rites and expressed itself in the pomp of outward ceremonial and other impressive symbols. It acted on the imagination through the sense of vastness, pomp, stateliness, and solemnity; that of Greece through the sense of life, joy, beauty, and harmony animating its ceremonial and embodying itself in its symbols. The objects of Roman wors.h.i.+p were almost innumerable. In addition to the greater divinities which it shared with the Greek wors.h.i.+p, and besides the various native divinities common to it with the religion of other Italian races, Roman religion had erected temples to various abstract qualities, such as Peace, Faith, Concord, and the like. This tendency to multiply their deities, to deify mere abstractions, and to recognise a distinct deity as presiding over every common act and process of life, weakened or destroyed the sense of the personality of the G.o.ds, and thus indirectly promoted that advance to Monotheism which philosophy had made in a different direction. While the Greeks conceived of each local G.o.d or hero as a distinct person, endowed with his own human qualities and his own visible shape, and thus naturally adapted for the representations of dramatic poetry or plastic art, the Romans wors.h.i.+pped rather one Divine impersonal power with many attributes and functions. The need which the popular imagination feels of some personal embodiment of the idea of G.o.dhead probably explains the readiness with which, in the dissolution of older faiths, the wors.h.i.+p of the Emperor became the chief symbol of the national faith.

So far as the conceptions of the national religion of Rome, which have a powerful influence on the action of the Aeneid, enter into this Invocation, it is in the recognition of the divinity of Caesar. But here he is a.s.sociated with the rural G.o.ds, who listen to the prayers of the husbandman, rather than, as elsewhere both in Horace and Virgil, with the majesty of the Roman State. The pa.s.sage probably, as is suggested by Ribbeck, owes its origin to the decree of the Senate in 36 B.C.,-after the naval victory gained by Agrippa over s.e.xtus Pompeius,-by which the wors.h.i.+p of Caesar, 'inter munic.i.p.ales deos,' was established. There is probably no pa.s.sage in Virgil, scarcely any in Latin poetry, which must strike the modern reader as so unreal as this, or so untrue to the actual convictions of educated men. There is none in which the language of adulation appears so palpably, or in which the love of mythological allusion, as one of the conventional ornaments of poetry, appears to exercise so unfortunate an influence on the truthful feeling of the poet. It seems strange that a man of the commanding understanding of Augustus should have derived any pleasure from the supposition that he might become the son-in-law of Tethys, from the statement that the glowing Scorpion was already beginning to make room for him in the sky, or from the appeal made to him to resist the ambition of supplanting Pluto as the future ruler of Tartarus. In contrast with this state of feeling we learn to respect the masculine sense and dignity with which Tiberius disclaims the attribution of divine honours: 'I, Conscript Fathers, call you to witness and desire posterity to remember, that I am but a mortal, and am performing human duties, and consider it enough if I fill the foremost place(340).' But though it is not possible that the lines from 'Tuque adeo' to 'adsuesce vocari' should ever appear natural to us, or that we should ever read them without some feeling that they are unworthy of the manliness of a great poet, we may yet recognise some symbolical meaning in them beyond the mere expression of overstrained eulogy. In such expressions as

Auctorem frugum tempestatumque potentem(341),

Virgil a.s.sociates the idea of the power of Caesar with the main subject of his poem; and probably, as is pointed out by Ribbeck, he suggests the thought of the dependence of Rome and Italy for subsistence on the vigilance of their ruler(342). In the mention of Tethys there is a reference to recent naval successes; and in the 'tibi serviat ultima Thule' there may be an allusion to the contemplated expedition to Britain, and certainly, as in so many other pa.s.sages of the poetry of the age, there is a recognition of the wide empire of Rome. In the lines

Anne novum tardis, etc.,

we recognise the idea which connected the apotheosis of Julius Caesar with the appearance of the 'Iulium Sidus' (see Ecl. ix); while the lines

Nam te nec sperant Tartara regem, etc.,

read in connexion with those at the end of Book I,

Hunc saltem everso iuvenem succurrere saeclo Ne prohibete, etc.,

are evidently prompted by the conviction that the well-being and security of the world are dependent on a single life.

In this apparent acceptance of new and old modes of belief,-in this neopaganism of art,-it is difficult to say how far we are to recognise the representations of fiction, conscious that it is fiction, as in the mythological art of the Renaissance, or how far we are in the presence of a temporary revival of a faith which satisfied a simpler time, in inconsistent conjunction with incompatible modes of modern thought.

Probably not even the poets themselves, and least of all Virgil, could have given an explanation of their real state of mind. The dreams of an older faith were still haunting them, though its substance was gone. The traditions of the Greek mythology survived, endowed with what, in the absence of any new creed, might seem immortal life, in the pages of poets, and in the paintings and other works of art which afforded a refined pleasure to educated men. The national faith of Italy and Rome still kept the outward show of life in many visible symbols, and still retained a hold over the ma.s.s of the people. The herds and flocks were still believed to flourish under the kindly protection of Pales and Faunus. The festive pleasures of country life at the harvest-home or the vintage season were enjoyed on old religious holidays, and formed part of ceremonies handed down from immemorial antiquity. The pomp and ceremonial of what was peculiarly the Roman wors.h.i.+p still met the eye on all great occasions within the walls of the city:-

Hinc albi, c.l.i.tumne, greges et maxima taurus Victima, saepe tuo perfusi flumine sacro, Romanos ad templa deum duxere triumphos(343).