The History of Roman Literature Part 40

77. How did the study of Greek literature at Rome affect the vocabulary and syntax of the Latin language?

78. The influence of patronage on literature. Consider chiefly with reference to Rome, but ill.u.s.trate from other literatures.

79. Are there indications that Horace set before him, as a satirist, the object of superseding Lucilius?

80. Compare the relation of Persius to Horace with that of Lucan to Virgil.

81. Account for the imperfect success of Varro as an etymologist, and ill.u.s.trate by examples.

82. What is known of Nigidius Figulus, the s.e.xtii, Valerius Sora.n.u.s, and Apuleius as teachers of philosophic doctrine?

83. Sketch the literary career of the poet Accius.

84 What were the main characteristics of the old Roman oratory? What cla.s.sical authorities exist for its history?

85. Prove the a.s.sertion that jurisprudence was the only form of intellectual activity that Rome from first to last worked out in a thoroughly national manner.

86. Compare the portrait of Tiberius as given by Tacitus, with any of the other great creations of the historic imagination. How far is it to be considered truthful?

87. At what time did abridgments begin to be used at Rome? Account for their popularity throughout the Middle Ages, and mention some of the most important that have come down to us.

88. What remains of the writers on applied science do we possess?

89. Is it probable that the great developments of mathematical and physical science at Alexandria had any general effect upon the popular culture of the Roman world?

90. What are our chief authorities for the old Roman religion?

91. Account for the influence of Fronto, and give a list of his writings.

92. Which are the most important of the public, and which ef the private, orations of Cicero? Give a short account of one of each cla.s.s, with date, place, and circ.u.mstances of delivery. How were such speeches preserved?

Had the Romans any system of reporting?

93. A life of Silius Italicus with a short account of his poem.

94. Who, in your opinion, are the nearest modern representatives of Horace, Lucilius, and Juvenal?

95. In what particulars do the alcaic and sapphic metres of Horace differ from their Greek models? What are the different forms of the asclepiad metre in Horace? Have any of the Horatian metres been used by other writers?

96. Enumerate the chief imitations of Ennius in Virgil, noting the alterations where such occur.

97. Point out the main features of the Roman wors.h.i.+p. (See index to Merivale's _Rome_, s. v. _Religion_.)

98. Write a life of Maecenas, showing his position as chief minister of the Empire, and as the centre of literary society of Rome during the Augustan Age.

99. Donaldson, in his _Varronia.n.u.s_, argues that the French rather than the Italian represents the more perfect form of the original Latin. Test this view by a comparison of words in both languages with the Latin forms.

100. Give a summary of the argument in any one of the following works:-- Cicero's _De Finibus, Tusculan disputations, De Officis_, or the first and second books of Lucretius.

101. State the position and influence on thought and letters of the two Scipios, Laelius, and Cato the censor.

102. Give Caesar's account of the religion of the Gauls, and compare it with the _locus cla.s.sicus_ on the subject in Lucan (I. 447). What were the national deities of the Britons, and to which of the Roman deities were they severally made to correspond?

103. Examine the chief differences between the Ciceronian and Post- Augustan syntax.

104. Trace the influence of the study of comparative philology on Latin scholars.h.i.+p.

105. "Italy remained without national poetry or art" (Mommsen). In what sense can this a.s.sertion be justified?

106. What pa.s.sages can you collect from Virgil, Horace, Tacitus, and Juvenal, showing their beliefs on the great questions of philosophy and religion?

107. Examine the bearings of a highly-developed inflectional system like those of the Greek and Latin languages, upon the theory of prose composition.

108. To what periods of the life of Horace would you refer the composition of the Book of Epodes and the Books of Satires and Epistles? Confirm your view by quotations.

109. What is known of Suevius, Pompeius Trogus, Salvius Julia.n.u.s, Gaius, and Celsus?

110. Who were the chief writers of encyclopaedias at Rome?

111. How do you account for the short duration of the legitimate drama at Rome?

112. Who were the greatest Latin scholars of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries? In what department of scholars.h.i.+p did they mostly labour, and why?

113. Enumerate the chief losses which Latin literature has sustained.

114. Who were the original inhabitants of Italy? Give the main characteristics of the Italic family of languages. To which was it most nearly akin?

115. Ill.u.s.trate from Juvenal the relations between patron and client.

116. Contrast briefly the life and occupations of an Athenian citizen in the time of Pericles and Plato, with those of a Roman in the age of Cicero and Augustus.

N.B.--Many other questions will be suggested by referring to the Index.

FOOTNOTES

INTRODUCTION

[1] Quint. I. 5, 72. The whole chapter is most interesting.

[2] How different has been the lot of Greek! An educated Greek at the present day would find little difficulty in understanding Xenophon or Menander. The language, though shaken by rude convulsions, has changed according to its own laws, and shown that natural vitality that belongs to a genuinely popular speech.

[3] See Conington on the Academical Study of Latin. Post. Works, i. 206.

[4] See esp. R. II. Bk. 1, ch. ix. and xv.