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HISTORY OF

CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY
HARRY THURSTON PECK

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A HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY


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Lto,

A HISTORY
OF

CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY
FROM THE SEVENTH CENTURY
TO
B.C.

THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

AJ).

BY

HARRY THURSTON

PECK,

Ph.D.,

LL.D.

MEMBER OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND LETTERS

"Neia gorfe

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY


191
All righii

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Copyright, 1911,

'

By

the MACMILLAN COMPANY.


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VXORI CARISSIMAE

PREFACE
Long
experience has convinced the author that, as a

rule, classical students,

even those

who

are pursuing the

most advanced

courses, are very imperfectly informed as

to the history of the subjects upon which they are en-

gaged.

They may be thoroughly

trained

in

various
little

ramifications of Classical Philology, while

knowing
It

or nothing of Classical Philology as a whole.

seems

an anomalous thing that any university student should


proceed to his doctorate in Greek and Latin without ever

having had a conspectus of the entire


is

field of

which he

familiar with a part;

that, for example,

he should be

able to give

no

intelligent

account of the Alexandrian

School; that the significance of the Renaissance to a classicist

should not be clear to him; that Scaliger, Lipsius,

Casaubon, Bentley, Corssen, and Lachmann should be


little

more than names; and that he should have learned

nothing genetically about literary criticism, text criticism,

and

scientific linguistics.
is

Yet such
regretted,

very often the case; and though

it is

to be

it is

not a reasonable cause for censure.

There

vm
exist

PREFACE
no manuals
at the present time to give this general

information in a lucid, coherent manner, and without


losing sight of the strand

which unites

all classical

studies

and makes them parts of a splendid whole.


book
in four volumes, the publication of
is,

Grafenhan's

which was begun


Reinach's

in 1843,

of course, quite obsolete to-day.


is

Manuel

de Philologie Classique
all its

admirable as a work

of reference, but, with


it

closely

packed information,

does not form a continuous narrative.

The

treatise
is

by

Dr. Sandys, published only a few years ago,

monu-

ment

to his scholarship

and wide reading; yet the multiits

plicity of details

contained in

three volumes will not

imnaturally deter a student, unless he be a very heroic


seeker after knowledge.

The

present

work

has, therefore,

been written with

the desire to give a comprehensive and comprehensible

knowledge of how

classical studies

were

first

developed,

and

of that gradual evolution

which has made Classical

Philology a science, possessing at the

same time some


It

very distinctly

marked

aesthetic phases.

has seemed

best to mention the

names

of only such scholars as

have

helped on this evolution by adding something to the

sum
has

of

human
it

knowledge.

The

adoption of such a plan

made

possible to compress into a


all

volume of con-

venient size

that

is

essential;

while the bibliographical

references will enable the reader to pursue


tively

more exhaus-

any particular subject that has here been touched

PREFACE
upon.
It is

IX

hoped that the book may be of some pracstudents of the classics, in helping

tical service to

them
is

to

see

and understand the unity which

in their studies

too

often obscured by matters of secondary importance.

Harry Thurston Peck.

New March

York,
29, 191
1.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
FACES

Preface
CHAPTER
I.

vii-ix

The Genesis of Philological Studies


Greece

in

S-27

II.

The PrjE-Alexandrian Period


The Alexandrian Period

28-87

III.

88-129
130-191

IV.

The GRiECO-RoMAN Period The Middle Ages


The Renaissance
Division into Periods
.

V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.

192-259

260-288 289

The Age of Erasmus The Period of Nationalism The German Influence


. .

290-300

IX.

301-384
385-455

X.
XI.

The Cosmopolitan Period

456-458

Selected Bibliographical Index

461-476
477-491

General Index

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


INTRODUCTION
The
The
whole

Definition of Classical Philology Methods of Treatment


is

history of Classical Philology


intellectual

the history of the


classi-

development that springs from


of the

cal antiquity,

and

growth of those studies and

sciences that have interpreted


intellectual history of

and thrown

light

upon the

Greece and Rome.

It will trace at

once the evolution of the

classical literatures, of science

(especially linguistic science),

and

will chronicle the his-

tory of Epigraphy, Palaeography, Numismatics, Criticism,

Philosophy, Archaeology, Mythology, and Religion.

The terms "philology" and


variously used for

"philologist" have been

many

centuries.

Plato (428-347 B.C.)


<pi\6Xoyo';

was the

first

Greek writer

to

employ the words


in

and ^iXoXoyia, but he uses them and only


dialogues
in
is

no technical
in

sense,

a general way.
is

philologist

Plato's

one who

fond of talk or

who

is

much

given

to argument,

whether philosophical or not.

In Aristotle,

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


is

philology

a love of learning (Lat. studium).

During

the Alexandrian period

and

in

Rome,

the

word was often

restricted to the sense of

"a

scholar,"

"a learned man."


it

There

is

a deep significance in the fact that

was

first

so applied to Eratosthenes (276-196 B.C.), the

head of the

great library at Alexandria,

who

was, in his day, almost

the supreme type of the scientific investigator, since he

was not merely, or even primarily, a student


and
literature,

of language

but a mathematician and astronomer, a

geographer and an athlete.

He

is

one of the best ex-

amples afforded by Greece to refute the cheap gibes of


petty men,

who would have

us think that versatility

is

inconsistent with

sound scholarship.
development of the word
"philology"

The
makes

general
it,

then,

mean,

first

of

all,

a love of speech; second,

the pursuit of linguistic research; and finally, learning in


its

widest sense.

From

the

dawn
it

of the

Renaissance

down

to the eighteenth century

was

oftenest used of

linguistic studies;

but in the period

last

named. Watts,
it

an English lexicographer of the time, explained

as in-

cluding history and criticism as well as the humanities.

Thus

Classical Philology

is

the philology which relates

to the culture-studies of the

Greeks and Romans.


F.

When

the great Homeric

critic,

A.

Wolf, matriculated at

Gottingen, he inscribed himself as studiosus philologice,

and made

it

clear that he

meant by the phrase the

intelli-

gent, critical study of the

whole traditional learning of

INTRODUCTION
the past;
so that the

day of

his matriculation (April 8,

1777) has been styled "the birthday of


Classical Philology
spirit of
is

modern

philology."

opposed in every way to the


it

pedantry.

Otfried Miiller well said of

that

it

"does not

strive to establish particular facts

nor to get

an acquaintance with abstract forms, but


ancient spirit in
reason, of feeling,
its

to grasp the
its

broadest meaning, in
of imagination."
'

works of

and

There are four recognized methods of


history of Classical Philology.
(i)

treating

the

The Synchronistic or Annalistic Method, which deals

with the history by periods.


(2)

The

Biographical Method, which treats of the his-

tory in the persons of great representative scholars.


'

Since the study of Sanskrit led to the scientific investigation of the

Indo-European languages as related to one another, the new science of Comparative Philology has arisen to complicate still more the meaning of the word "philology" when simply used. The Germans, therefore, have made certain distinctions which it will be convenient for us, also, to adopt. Philology (Philologie) when not modified by an adjective is the general study of language; Comparative Philology is better styled
Linguistics {Linguistik) ;

while Classical Philology (Klassische Philo-

logie or Klassische Alterthumswissenschaft) is that

of antiquity which has just


ings of the

now been

defined.

word "philology"

at different

comprehensive study For the various meantimes, see Grafenhan, Gevol.


i

schichte der Klassischen Philologie

im Alterthum,

(Bonn, 1843);

Lehrs, Appendix to Herodiani Scripta Tria (Berlin, 1857);


interesting references given

and the

by Gudeman

in pp. 1-4 of his Outlines of

the History of Classical Philology (Boston,

1902).
v.

In a remarkable
is

passage contained in Seneca's Letters

(xviii.

30-34, Haase) there

an acute comparison between the different ways in which a philologist, a grammarian, and a philosopher, would respectively examine Cicero's
treatise

De

Republica.

4
(3)

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

The Eiodographic Method, which


by
subjects.

describes the his-

tory of philology
(4)

The Ethnogi'aphic

or Geographic Method, which dis-

cusses the philological history of a single school or nation


separately.

In
these

this

book

it

is

proposed to follow no single one of

methods

to the exclusion of the others;

but to give

a general survey of the whole subject, keeping constantly


in

mind

the need of chronological


clear the

symmetry; emphasising
each
into

and making

part which each nation or

school has played; and at the


relief

same time bringing

the individuals

whose life-work gains an added


of their personality.^

meaning from a knowledge


1

There

See Fitz-Hugh, Outlines of a System of Classical Pcedagogy (1900). is a valuable skeleton history of classical philology by Professor

Alfred

Gudeman

in his Outlines, etc.,

3d

ed.

(Boston, 1903)

and

his

more elaborate Grundriss (Leipzig and


brief Geschichte der

Berlin, 1907).

See also KroU's

Klassischen Philologie (Leipzig, 1908).

I.

THE GENESIS OF PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES IN GREECE


The
The
origins of

the Hellenic people are exceedingly

obscure, and they take us back to a remote antiquity.


fact that there

was no

generic

name

for the race

until after the time

when

the

Homeric poems were comfact.

posed

is

a very interesting and instructive

One

carmot even say that the Greeks were homogeneous; and a great deal of the most modern research has served
only to darken coimsel and to expose the fallacy of earlier
theories.

Certain

it

is

that,

during the Stone Age and

afterwards, there streamed


great waves
of migratory

over the Grecian peninsula


peoples from the northeast.

They
just

forced their
as they

way

to the southern point of the in

Morea,
in

also

found homes

southern

Italy

the Grecian islands, and a sure foothold in Asia Minor.


It
is

a picturesque hypothesis which views the

latter

country as having once been peopled by an effeminate


race of Semitic
origin,

tracing their descent

through
deities,

polyandrous mothers,

and worshipping female

among whom the Great Mother, afterwards called Cybele, was supreme. That these enervated Canaanitish shepherds should have been subsequently overcome by a
5

HISTORY or CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


virile

horde of
of ithe

conquerors from Thrace

is

another part

same ethnic theory.

These conquerors, tracing

their descent

through their fathers and worshipping the


deity,

great

male thundering

Bronton or Zeus,

were

possibly true Hellenes,


of their

and they established a

civilisation

own

in Asia,

where they ruled as an aristocracy


which they subsequently founded.'

in the states

and

cities

Yet
as

this is only

one of

many

theories,

and

it

presents
of
it

many

difficulties as it explains.
it

The importance
far

lies in

the fact that

serves to

show how very

back

into the past

we must look

for anything like a beginning

of that culture

which came afterwards to be regarded as

essentially Hellenic.

The

explorations at Mycenae

and

Tiryns and elsewhere, though attesting the antiquity of


certain of the arts, leave us
still

at a loss regarding the

racial affinities of the early Greeks.

One

is justified

in

asserting nothing

more than that the lands which became


first

subsequently Hellenized were

populated by sections

of the Mediterranean race comprising the so-called Pelasgians, the Iberians, the Ligurians,
later

and the Libyans.^

migration from the north, moving slowly southward,

overwhelmed the original inhabitants of what was destined


to be

known afterwards
Ramsay,

as Hellas, or Greece.

Professor

G.

W.

Botsford has described in a very interesting


in

manner
331;

'See
Gardner,

the Journal

of

Hellenic Studies,

ix.

and

New

Chapters in Greek History, pp. 28-34

(New York and

London, 1892).
'See Sergi, The Mediterranean Race.

Eng. trans. (London, igoi).

GENESIS OF PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES IN GREECE


the nature of this migration.'
"

They came

in

bands

which we
travelled

call tribes,

each under

its chief.

Their warriors
pikes,
chil-

on

foot, dressed in skins

and armed with


their

and with bows and arrows, while


dren rode in two-wheeled ox-carts.
their future

women and

They found

Greece,

home, a rugged, mountainous country, with


plains.

narrow valleys and only a few broad

Every-

where were dense

forests,

haunted by

lions,

wild boars,

and wolves."
nomadic

These Greeks of the Tribal Age were semisince at first they built

in their habits;

mere

huts of brush and clay, which they readily abandoned,

and they must


habitations.
line

for centuries

have shifted their uncertain

At the west
straight

of their

new country the

coast-

was nearly

and with no harbours.

"

But

those

who came

to the

eastern coast found harbours

everywhere and islands near at hand.


once to

They began

at

make

small boats and to push off to the islands.

" But they must have been astonished


for the first time strange black vessels,
their

when they saw


larger

much

than

own, entering

their bays.

These were Phoenician


city,

ships from Sidon, an ancient commercial

and

in
'

them came
'

'

greedy merchant men, with countless gauds


History of the Orient and Greece

Botsford,

(New York and London,


vol.
i.

1904).

See also E. Meyer, Forschungen zur alten Geschichte,


Hall,

(Halle,

1892);

The Oldest

Civilisation

of Greece

(London, 1901);
foil.).

and

Ridgeway, The Early Age of Greece (Cambridge, 1901,


civilisation, the fruits of

recent,

yet not fully accepted view, regards the Pelasgians as having worked

out this

which were appropriated by the true

Hellenic invaders from the north.

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

for trading with the natives.

Though

in

most respects

the Greeks were then as barbarous as the North Ameri-

can Indians, they were eager to learn and to imitate the

ways
coast

of the foreigners.

The
arts

chieftains along the east


artisans.

welcomed Asiatic

and

From

these

strangers they gradually learned to


tools

make and

use bronze

and weapons, and

to build in stone.

Contented in

these

homes, they outgrew their fondness for roving.

Skilled

workmen from
and

the East built walled palaces for

the native chiefs;


painted, carved,

artists

decorated these

new

dwellings,

frescoed,

made

vases

and polished

gems.

Those

chieftains

who were

wise enough to receive

this civilisation

gained power as well as wealth by means

of

it.

With

their bronze

weapons they conquered

their

uncivilised neighbours,

and, in course of time,


centring
in

formed
fortified

small kingdoms,
castle."

each

a strongly

The
early

contradictions which

meet us

in all accounts of

Greece make any positive

hypothesis untenable.

But they do give us an

insight into the character of the


it.

Greek genius as we have come to know

There

is

much

plausibility in the

view that these Hellenes were

racially

connected with the Celtic peoples, and that they


Restless, brave,
life

were not originally of one single stock.


mercurial, full of curiosity, their
centuries
litically,

nomadic

for

many
Po-

made them more

brilliant

than

stable.

they also afford a parallel with the Celts, in that

GENESIS OF PHILOLOGICAL STtJDIES IN GREECE

they lacked the national cohesiveness which was Roman.

Their seafaring gave them a larger outlook than the


Latins had.
unity.
It

made

for

separation rather than


it

for

On
To

the other hand,

stimulated the intellect,

and enhanced the


tion.

qualities of imagination

and specula-

the

last,

the Greeks were adventurous, ingenafter

ious, inquisitive,

and ever seeking

something new and

interesting.

The

antiquity of Greek culture explains


of Hellenic literature, the
art,

why

the oldest
epic,
is

monument
exquisite

Homeric

not a rude specimen of the poetic

but rather a bit of

workmanship,
of light

wrought out with wonderful

management

and colour and melodious sound.

It is the climax, the final masterpiece, of epic poetry.

Although the Homeric epics


tive people, there
is

tell

the story of a fairly primi-

nothing primitive in the

mode
is

of

their construction or the deftness of touch that

every-

where to be discovered in them.


Odyssey, though very

The

Iliad

and the

much

older,

assume a

fairly definite

form somewhere

in the seventh century B.C.,

when

writing

was

first

generally introduced
is

among

the Greeks.

Recent

scholarship

not indisposed to view these two poems as

representing each an organic whole, however numerous

may have been


parts.'
'

the changes which both underwent in

It

does not concern us, indeed, to determine


and

See Mass, Die Interpolationen in der Odyssee (Halle, 1904);

Brgal,

Pour Mieux Connattre Homere

(Paris, 1906).

lO

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

whether there actually lived an individual Homer.

The

student of Classical Philology regards the Homeric epic


as a starting-point from which to trace the gradual devel-

opment

of intellectual pursuits

among the Greeks within


can be tested by

that period of time

when

their history

undoubted

facts.

Before the general use of writing, there


little

could have been

to be classed under the

name

of

formal scholarship, although for fifteen centuries there

was an evolution of the


to study

arts

which scholarship endeavours

and

explain.

Before the Homeric period there

must have been thousands of poets who became masters


of the lyric,

and

after that of the epic.

We know
earliest

that
of

Greek tradition held Thrace to be the


this semi-religioiis literature, associated

home

with the names of

mythical bards such as Orpheus, Musaeus, Eumolpus,

and Thamyris.

Finally,

we know that

the centre of

cultivation shifted

from Thrace to the more genial shores


is

of Ionia,

whence came the completed epic which

as-

cribed to

Homer.

The
pose
is

chief importance of the epos for our present pur-

found in
after

its

relation to literary study, to criticism,

and even,
religion,

a fashion, to scientific speculation, to

and to philosophy.

The

part which the Iliad

and the Odyssey played

in the early period of

Greek

education was extraordinary.


the basis of
all

These poems were, indeed,

training that

was not purely

physical.

In the schools, which we know to have existed as early

GENESIS OF PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES IN GREECE


as 700 B.C.,

II

Homer was

read, not so

much

as literature,

but as an ultimate authority on


warfare,

history, politics, ethics,

medicine,
titles

and even

religion.

Questions that

involved

to lands were settled by an appeal to the


to the

Homeric poems, which were consulted according


theory of their plenary inspiration. theory
is

In the Odyssey this

in fact expressly stated.

poet

is

one who

is

inspired

by the Muses;
:

and the bard Phemius says to


but
it

Odysseus

"I am

self-taught;
all
is

was a god that

breathed into

my mind
fifth

the various ways of song."

touch of orientalism
(in

found in the notion of Demoall

critus

the

century, B.C.), to the effect that

great poets are

mad

that

is

to say, carried
belief
all

away by a

sort of divine frenzy.

Such a

accounts for the


the poets, held in
epics,

place which

Homer, the
life

greatest of

the intellectual

of Hellas.

In the study of his


other studies.

we

find the

germs of

many

Lists were

made

of the unusual words contained in them.

The

relaall

tions of the gods to each other

and to mankind were

thought to be explained by Homer.

An

apt quotation
in

from the Iliad or Odyssey would

silence

an opponent

debate, as effectually as a pointed text from the Bible

would end a controversy among the Puritans.

Indeed,

what the Hebrew Bible


the

is

to the orthodox Jews,

what

New

Testament

is

to the orthodox Protestant Chrisis

tians,

and what the Kor^n

to orthodox

Muhammadans,

this the

Homeric poems were

to the early Greeks.

12

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

reverence for Homeric learning was entertained

among

them

at the time

when

their authentic history begins.

Its strong influence affected the

minds

of

men

in later
see.

centuries,

as

we

shall

presently have occasion to


its

Even

in our

own days

existence

is

discernible in the

minutely

critical

studies

which modern scholars have

made
same
Iliad
poets,

regarding every topic that was even casually touched


It

upon by Homer.'
inspiration

may be added

that

much

of the

which was ascribed to the author of the


also attributed to the

and the Odyssey, was

minor
largely

commonly

called

the Cyclic

Poets,

who
two

imitated

Homer and

confined themselves within a certain

round or cycle of

tradition.

There were

really

cycles,

one a Mythic Cycle, relating to the genealogies of the


gods and the battles of the Titans and to cosmogony;

and the other a Trojan Cycle, based upon


nected with the Trojan War.
Cyclic

stories con-

The most
at

celebrated of the

poems were the Cypria,

one time ascribed to


Mthiopis

Homer, but
of Arctinus,

later to Stasinus or Hegesias, the

and the Nostoi

of Agias, not to

mention the

parodies by Pigres.^
'

There were likewise the so-called


the
;

See, for example,

Seymour, Life in

Homeric Age, with the bib-

liography, pp.

xiii-xvi

(New York,

1908)

and Adam, The Religious


the Chreslomatheia of
Photius.

Teachers of Greece, pp. 21-67 (Edinburgh, 1908).

^The

chief authority for the

Cychc poets

is

Proclus (41 2-485 A.D.) in the extracts preserved

by

See Welcker,

Der Epische Cyclus (Borm, 1865);

(New York, 1898); and for by D. B. Munro in The Journal

Lawton, The Successors of Homer the meaning of the word cyclicus, a paper
of Hellenic Studies (1883).

GENESIS OF PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES IN GREECE

13

Homeric Hymns, and the three works that remain to us


under the name of Hesiod
is
(c.

700 b.c), whose Theogony

the oldest

poem

that

we

possess on Greek Mythology.

When

the Greeks came to

know much more than they


of the world in

had known about the geography


they lived,

which

and when by experience they grew more

thoroughly enlightened as to other knowledge which came


to

them

in

many

ways, then they found that


literally

Homer was
inspired

not to be accepted
source of wisdom.
of the

and as a wholly

Thus

there arose a Higher Criticism


arisen a

Homeric writings as there has

Higher

Criticism of the Bible.

When

so

much depended upon


it

the understanding of a line or of a passage,


tial

was

essen-

that every one should be quite sure that the line or

the passage was correctly quoted.

Even the

variation of

a single word, or the interpolation of a single verse, might

be a matter of extreme importance.

Yet the Homeric


according to an
places.

poems were

not, at

first,

written

down

accepted text.

They

differed in

many

Parts of
festivals

them were

recited,

detached from the whole, at

and public entertainments, by the rhapsodes


claimers.

or

de-

Therefore, in the sixth century B.C., a recen-

sion of

them was necessary

so

that there

should be

standard editions of the Iliad and of the Odyssey.

That such a recension was


scarcely to

actually

carried
it is

out

is

be doubted, though to
say.

whom
it

due no one

can surely

Tradition ascribes

to the Athenian

14

mSTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


who
In
is

" tyrant," the brilliant and sagacious Pisistratus,


said to have

committed the work (about 530

B.C.)

to a
this,

commission of four learned Homeric


Pisistratus
is

specialists.'

said to have followed out a plan conceived

by

his

relative
is

and predecessor, Solon.


is

The

tradition

referred to

merely a tradition and

based only upon

the authority of later writers such as Cicero, Pausanias, Josephus, Libanius, and Tzetzes.
tion of this standard
necessarily accurate.

Therefore the
Pisistratus

ascripis

Homeric text to
It has

not

been the custom

to credit

Pisistratus with an extraordinary

number

of innovations,
is

political, social, literary,

and

artistic.

Thus, he

said

to have enforced a series of


plied the poor with cattle

sumptuary laws; to have sup-

and seed so that they might

leave Athens

and betake themselves to agriculture; to


to have regulated the

have erected beautiful buildings;


religious rites
'

and to have

instituted the superb festival

See Flach, Peisistratos und seine HUerarische Thatigkeit (Tiibingen,

1885).

The Greek grammarian Diomedes, quoted by

Villoisou,

says

that a staff of seventy (or seventy-two)

men

of letters

took part in the

work.

It has

been noticed in

modem

times that neither Herodotus

nor Thucydides nor Plato nor Aristotle,

who aU
allusion

frequently

mention
this al-

both Homer and


leged recension of

Pisistratus,

makes any

whatever to

the Homeric text.

So

significant is this omission,

that

modem

students of the subject (for example, Wilamowitz) are dis-

posed to deny that the story about Pisistratus has any basis of fact at
all.

One may hold a more moderate opinion and regard


yet with

Pisistratus

as

having rearranged the text for purposes of recitation at the Peinathenaic


festival,

no

minute consideration of

particular lines.

See

infra, p. 20.

GENESIS OF PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES IN GREECE

15

of the Greater Panathensa; to have encouraged Thespis to produce his primitive tragedies at Athens, thus pro-

moting the Drama; and to have been the


Greece to
it is

first

person in

collect

and open a

library for public use.

Hence

natural that the establishment of a standard Homeric

text should have been ascribed to Pisistratus.


it
it

In any case

does not matter whether he or some one else brought


into form.

There

is

reason for supposing that he com-

pelled the public declaimers to recite the different portions

of the

poems according

to a definite arrangement;

and
is

indeed that a recension was undertaken in his time


highly probable, since the quotations from

Homer made by
made few im-

writers prior to the Alexandrian period exhibit very slight


variations.

The Alexandrians

themselves

portant changes.

We may

be confident that our text of


with that which was

Homer
read

is

substantially

identical

five

hundred years before the beginning of the


Thus, one hundred and fifty-two passages
cited

Christian era.

from Homer are

by twenty-nine

writers after

and

in-

cluding Herodotus.

They amount

to about four himdred


less

and eighty

lines,

but they contain

than a dozen

lines

which are not in the ordinary text.^


If Pisistratus ever

made an Homeric
of the

text, it

was not
since

the only

official text

two great

epics,

we

also hear of " city editions " or " civic editions," which
'

See

Ludwich,

Die Homer-vulgola

ah

vorakxandrinisch

erwiesm

(Leipzig, 1898).

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


its

were standards each in


fact
is

own

country.'

The important
as now,

that at so early a period there should be found a


of

beginning
sources
of

Text

Criticism

in

which,

many

knowledge must have been drawn upon

chronology, history, geography, and, to a certain extent,


aesthetics,

more

especially the aesthetics of language.

It is interesting to

remember that Solon was accused

of having interpolated a line in the Iliad so as to


it

make

appear that the Athenians had taken part in the Trojan


Pisistratus

War, and that

had

inserted a line in the Odyssey

so as to bring in the

name

of Theseus, the national hero

of Athens.

We

have, therefore,
all

as

early

as the sixth

century, indications of
critics in

the

difficulties

which beset text

modern times variant

editions, errors

due to

carelessness, others

due to ignorance, and

also conscious al-

terations to suit the purpose of the transcriber.

Nor was
was

Homer

the only author whose text suffered in this way;


is

for there

story to the effect that Onomacritus

detected in altering the oracles of Musseus and that he

was punished
There
fully
is

for

it.

some significance in the legend that the

first

care-

prepared edition of

Homer was made in Athens, rather


noted

'Seven

of these " city editions " are

the Massalotic, the Si-

nopic, the Chian, the Cyprian, the Argive, the Cretan,

and the Lesbian.


All of these

The

first

four were Ionic,

and the

last three

were

.lEolic.

editions were supposed to

have been copies made from the archetype

prepared under the direction of Pisistratus.


editions"
is

The Greek term

for "city

iKddjeis

kotA

iriXeis.

GENESIS OE PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES IN GREECE

than among the Asiatic lonians, who had represented


a higher form of culture.

Athens was destined to be-

come the
it

intellectual centre of the

Greek world, though


Ionia has the credit
schools

had not yet won supremacy.


having
first

of

established

regular

with

paid

teachers for the purpose of imparting a general education.

The

teaching of which
training

we read
some

in

Homer

was, of course,
in

physical

with

instruction

music and

medicine.

The

public instruction given to youths in the

Doric States such as Sparta and Crete had very


the same character.*

much

The

Bidiaei

and Pedonomi, under


after the age of

whose care the Spartan boy was placed


seven, trained the

young

in gymnastics,

in the use

of

arms, and in choral singing.


as a

For such

literary

education

man was

expected to possess (usually only reading,

writing,

and a little arithmetic) he depended chiefly upon the

instruction which

was given by

his parents.

It is stated

by Plutarch that the semi-mjrthical Lycurgus brought


copies of the

Homeric poems to Sparta, and made a


in the Spartan schools;

knowledge of them a requirement


but
if

so, this

must have been due

to the fact that he


at

had

travelled in Asia

Minor and had introduced

home a
the
is

practice

which he had observed abroad.

Among

lonians, however, literary teaching in regular Schools

found as early as the seventh century

b.c.,

and as these

schools were then in a very prosperous condition and


'

See Monroe, Source Book of the History of Education (Greek and


Period)

Roman

(New York,

1901).

l8

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

very largely attended, they long before.


in

must have been established


27)

Herodotus

(vi.

mentions a boys' school


at the time of the in-

Chios in the year 500 B.C.;

and

vasion of Xerxes,

when

the Athenians left their


first

own

city

and took refuge at Troezen, one of the

things they

did was to arrange for their school system during


period
of
their

the

temporary
allies

exile. ^

The

Mitylenaeans
right to state

punished disloyal

by depriving them of the


B.C.,

maintain schools.

Charondas, about 650

made

provision for literary instruction in Sicily.^

The
The

teaching of literature appears to have been defirst

veloped,

of

all,

as an adjunct to instruction in morals.


exercise of boys at school,

earliest intellectual

and

probably before they had begun to attend school, was the


study of the Homeric poems.

This anticipated even the

learning of the alphabet; for the alphabet

was

first

taught

by the

ypa/ifiaTia-Ti]';,

while the Iliad and the Odyssey were

read and recited to growing boys,


learn

who were urged

to

them gradually by

heart.

But the

early apprecia-

tion of the epics

was not a

literary appreciation at all;

and to understand the prominence given to

this study,

we

must remember the

peculiar view which the Greeks took

with regard to Homer.

He was

not so

much

the great

poet, the master of heroic verse.

He was

rather a moral

teacher, an

ethical guide,
'

who drew

his characters with

Plutarch, Themistocles, lo.

'

Diodorus Siculus,

xii.

12.

GENESIS OF PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES IN GREECE

19

a conscious purpose of exhibiting in their actions the


qualities that

men

should emulate or shun.

As

late as

Horace who,
concrete,

like all

Romans, was a
same thought

great lover of the

we

find this

expressed.

" While you are declaiming at


friend Lollius,

Rome," he

says to his

" I have been reading over at PrEeneste

the writer of the Trojan War,

who

tells

us better and
is is

more

clearly

than either Chrysippus or Grantor what


is

noble and what


not."

base,

what

is

expedient and what

And farther on, " Again, as to what dom are able to effect, he (Homer) has
useful

virtue

and wis-

set before us a

model

in the person of Ulysses."

The

strenuous insistence on a thorough knowledge of


therefore due,
first

Homer was
ing.

of

all,

to his moral teach-

We
by

must remember

also that the formal education


less

given in school was


it

much

valued by the Greeks than

is

us.
is

Plato says in his

Laws

that a knowledge of

writing
to write
is

necessary only so far as to enable one barely


fast or with elegance

and read; and that to write

outside of the range of ordinary education.

There

may

even have existed, as Mahaffy suggests, a prejudice


it

against clear and regular script, because

would

recall

the writing in books which was done by copyists

who

were

slaves.

When we
is

say that a person writes " a clerkly

hand " the

remark

not altogether complimentary.

Hence,
diffi-

the average Greek probably wrote with more or less

20
culty,

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


and did not have, as a
rule,

much

occasion to use

the accomplishment.

But inasmuch as he memorised


he was the more deeply saturated

most
with

of his learning,
it.

So

it

came about that the


resulted
in

imiversal

familiarity with

Homer

very

general

criticism

of

the

Homeric poems.

As Mr. Saintsbury

well says,

" It

was

impossible that a people so

acute and

so philosophically

given as the Greeks, should be soaked in

Homer without
upon the
and thoughtful

being tempted to exercise their

critical faculties

poems."

'

Such was indeed the case;


to

men began teacher who

ask themselves whether a great moral

represented the gods as deceitful, faithless,


really a moralist at
all.

and debauched could be


wise, contradictions

Like-

and statements were pointed out which

practical

knowledge showed to be untrue.


allegorical or

Then began
his authority
life.

an attempt to give an
pretation of

a rationalistic inter-

Homer, which should preserve


it

and yet

reconcile

with the facts of

human

We
in-

find traces of the Solar

Myth

at about this time,

and

genious interpretations like those which the Rabbinical


writers have given of portions of the
is

Hebrew

Bible.

Here
not

the

beginning

of

Literary

Criticism
it

though

" literary " in the rightful sense, for

had to do

chiefly

with mere words and not the form of Homeric and other
poetry.
1

Nevertheless,

it

was a beginning; and


i.

in succeed1900).

Saintsbury,

History of Criticism,

pp.

10-12

(New York,

GENESIS OF PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES IN GREECE


ing centuries
it

21

became

aesthetic, treating literature purely


art.

as the product of conscious or unconscious


It
birth.

was

in Asia

Minor that

this early criticism


first,

had

its

The

lonians

were the

perhaps, to study
first

Homer

systematically.

They

were, therefore, the

to

reject his mythical interpretation of nature in the effort

to discover a rational and physical interpretation of

it.

They
all

inquired, "

What

is

the
this

first

principle

and source

of

things?" and with

inquiry Greek Philosophy

begins.

Before Pisistratus had undertaken to


text,

make a
Anaxi-

standard edition of the Homeric

Thales,

mander, and Anaximenes,

all

of Miletus,

and Heraclitus
life

of Ephesus, taught the intimate connection between

and matter, the one dependent on the


to
(c.

other, according

the

doctrine

known
the

as

Hylozoism.

Thus Thales

640

B.C.) believed
is

first principle
life.

to be water, since

moisture
first

necessary to

Anaximander made the


to which he gave the
all

principle
aireipov,

an unknown element

name
to be

from which by eternal motion

things

were produced.
air,

Anaximenes found the

original element

whence came everything through the processes and


rarefaction.

of condensation

On

the other hand,

Heraclitus

(c.

500

B.C.),

the last of this so-called Ionian


in all things of
fire,

School, taught the

immanence

and

the doctrine of an

eternal flux.

Pythagoras

(c.

500

B.C.)

was the most remarkable


it

of

these earlier philosophers, and

was he who developed

22 a

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

new form
first

of religion

and of philosophy, while he

was the
Greeks.

great mathematician to arise

among the
which

In

fact, as early as the

seventh century, mathe-

matics began to be

studied, (mainly geometry)

the Greeks learned from the Egyptians.

Dr. Cajori re-

marks:

'

" Just as Americans in our time go to

Germany
sat

to study, so early

Greek scholars
CEnopides,

visited the land of the


all

pyramids.

Thales,

Pythagoras ...

at the feet of the Egyptian priests for instruction.

While

Greek culture

is,

therefore, not primitive,

it

commands
mind
of

our enthusiastic admiration.


the

The

speculative

Greek

at

once transcended

questions
life.

pertaining
It pierced

merely to the practical wants of everyday


into the ideal relations of things

and

revelled in the study

of science as .science."

Thales introduced the study of Geometry into Greece

and with him begins the study

of scientific
is

Astronomy.

The attempt
matics.
life

to square the circle

as old as Anaxagoras.

All of the Ionic philosophers pursued the study of Mathe-

Pythagoras, however, stands alone.

Around the
it

and personality

of this great genius there hangs, as


all

were, a mist of tradition such as envelops


'See Allmann, Greek Geometry from Thales
to

of the

most

Euclid (Dublin, 1889);


Cajori,

Tannery, La Glometrie Grecque


Elementary Mathematics
'

(Paris, 1887);

and

History of

(New York,

1907).

An

abstract of a history of geometry in Greece, written

by Eudemus,
first

is

preserved in the commentaries

by Proclus

(412 a.d.)

on the

book

of Euclid.

GENESIS OF PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES IN GREECE

23

remarkable characters of history, from Moses to Napoleon.


Pythagoras was born in the island of Samos, but after
visiting

Egypt and the East, he

finally

made

his residence

at Crotona, in Southern Italy, where he established a


cult the

members

of which,

drawn mainly from the

aris-

tocratic class,

formed a brotherhood under the leadership

of Pythagoras.

They were bound by a vow


and philosophy.
caste;

to study his
of

theories of religion

Three hundred

them formed the highest

and they were admitted


largely

only by Pythagoras himself,

who judged them

through his knowledge of physiognomy.


thing mystic about
all this, for

There was some-

they took an oath of secrecy


" Everything
is

according to the

maxim

of their master:

not to be told to everybody."

Pythagoras taught them

temperance, self-control, and an ethical righteousness

which should make


spheres," that
universe.
is

their lives reflect " the

music of the
of the
all

to say, the order and

harmony

This principle of harmony ran through

the

Pythagorean teaching, which comprised music,


metic, geometry,
tells

arith-

and astronomy.

There

is

a story which

how

he discovered the relations of the musical scale

by accidentally observing the various sounds produced by hammers of different weights striking upon an anvil, and suspending by
strings other weights equal to those

of the respective hammers.

He

is

said to have

first dis-

covered the so-called Pons Asinorum in geometry.


Religion he taught the transmigration of
souls a

In
doc-

24
trine

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


which he had probably learned in India.
things
is

The essence
no

of

all

Number, according

to his teaching; but

existing works, bearing the


uine.

name

of Pythagoras, are genafter-

His influence among the Italian Greeks, and

wards among the Athenians, was very great; so that the


Pythagorean cult endured for

many

centuries.'

Finally,

in the sixth century, the Eleatic arose,

School of philosophy

numbering among

its

most distinguished teachers,

Xenophanes, already mentioned as having rejected the

Homeric idea
of

of

God, with Parmenides and Zeno, both

whom
The

asserted that the senses cannot teach us truth,


is

but that verity

apprehended only by the mind.^

study of nature, which began with the Ionian

School, led to the origin of another science.

Homer had

long been the basis of geographical knowledge.


statements, Hesiod
It

On

his

and the other early poets had depended.


without exaggeration that interest in
it

may be

said

geography, so far as
the seventh century,
tirely

had existed before the middle of

was spread among the Greeks en-

through the poems of Homer.

The

children in the

schools,

and the

elders

who heard

the declamations of the


cities, rivers,

rhapsodes, thus became acquainted with the


^

Gleditsch, Die Pythagoreer

(Posen,

1841);

Chaignet, Pythagore
his so-called

et

la Fhilosophie Pythagorienne

(Paris,

1873).

For

Golden

Verses, see Gottling's edition of Hesiod


berger, Die

(Gotha, 1843);

and Schnee-

goldmen Spriiche des Pythagoras (Munnerstadt, 1862). 'Windelband, History of Ancient Philosophy, pp. 46-52. Englbh

translation

(New York,

1899).

GENESIS OF PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES IN GREECE

25

and mountains of Greece, and

(especially

from the Cata-

logue of Ships) with the names of the Hellenic tribes.

But

after first-hand

knowledge had been gained by


to formulate a
so that with

travel,

learned

men began

more exact view

of

physical geography,

them the
of Miletus

science of
is

Geography began.'

Anaximander

said to

have made upon a large scale a


supposed
it

map

of the world as he
(c.

to be.

His compatriot, Hecatasus

500

B.C.),

constructed a bronze plaque or possibly a globe, ^ on which


the sphere of the earth, the sea, and the courses of the rivers

were given.

Maps

of countries, however,

had not yet be-

come important; though

descriptive notes were collected


curiosity.

from persons who travelled on business or from

In this manner the data necessary for the preparation


of

Descriptive

Geography were gradually accumulated.


were Hanno of Carthage,

To

this the great contributors

who

explored the western coast of Africa, his countryman

Himilco, and such of the Greeks as came into direct


contact with the Persians

and Egyptians.'

Hecataeus

corrected the chart of Anaximander, adding a

commen-

tary of which fragments are preserved in quotations.^

This
'

is

the

first

geographical work written by any Greek.


History of Ancient Geography (London, 1883).

See Bimbury,
irlva^

'xA^Kcoi
'

(Herod, v. 125).

See Antichan, Les Grands Voyages de Decouveries des Anciens (Paris,

i8gi);

and

infra, pp. 34-35-

Edited by C. and Th. Miiller

(Paris, 1841).

See the monograph

by

Schaffer on Hecataeus (Berlin, 1885).

26

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Writers like Anaximander and Hecatsus committed their


observations to Prose.
Until their time, poetry

had been

employed even

in

philosophical discussion an example

followed by Lucretius in later times

among the Romans.


restraints

But

descriptive geography cast aside the


still

of

metrical form, though


character.

maintaining a highly poetical


it

Only by degrees did

become true

prose,

but was

filled

with phrases and turns of expression borwriters.


'

rowed from the epic

Those who employed

it

were known as Logographi;

and presently they began

to mingle, with their descriptions of coimtries, anecdotes

and remarks not


therefore,
first

strictly geographical.

In their works,

we

find the beginnings of History,

which was at
Its
skil-

nothing more than annals very simply written.

true development comes later with Herodotus,


fully

who

combined descriptive geography with the story of

nations, interwoven also with personal observations, so

that he deserves the

name which Grafenhan has given


of Antiquity."

him

of " the
it

Humboldt

Thus
of

will

be seen that out of the study and criticism

Homer

there

came the elements


study fostered

of

many

kinds of
geo-

learning.

Homeric

mathematical,

graphical, astronomical,
it

and philosophical research,

just as

led other poets to write in imitation of their great

model.

Though Homer

gradually ceased to be viewed as

a universal teacher, yet the devotion of the Greeks, so


'

\oyoyp6,^oi.

GENESIS OF PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES IN GREECE


long given to his poetry, exercised an influence which
it

27

made

endure far beyond the time when he was held to be His great
lines

a wholly inspired writer.

had become a
His phrases,

part of every man's intellectual equipment.


his epithets, his

many gnomic

utterances, were as firmly

embedded

in the daily speech of the Greeks, as those of

the English Bible and of Shakespeare are embedded in

our own.
of

In the study of him we are to find the sources


learning.

Greek

Afterward, while forsaking him as a

guide in morals and in science,

men

still

turned to him as

a great master of language and an unconscious model


of strong yet harmonious expression.
[Bibliography.

In addition
;

to the

works cited in the preceding

chapter, see also Grafenhan, Geschichte der Classischen Philologie,


i

(Bonn, 1843)

Reinach, Manuel de Philologie

Classique,

2d

ed. 2 vols. (Paris, 1885)

Egger, Essai sur I'Histoire de la Cri-

tique chez les Grecs (Paris, 1887);

Sandys,

History of Classical

Scholarship,

i.

pp. 1-51, 2d ed. (Cambridge, 1908); Jebb,

Homer
ed.

(Glasgow, 1887);
;

Schomann, Griechische AlterthUmer, 4th

(Berlin, 1897) Browne, Handbook of Homeric Study (London, 1905)

Cara, Gli Hethei Pelasgi (Rome, 1902);


Greece,

E. Curtius, History
1868-1872);

oj

Eng.

trans.,

5 vols.

(New York,
Modern

MahafFy,

What

have the Greeks done for


1909).]

Civilisation?

(New York

and London,

II

THE PRiE-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


(500-322 B.C.)

Throughout
Asia Minor.

the sixth and seventh centuries, suprem-

acy in Greek culture had been held by the lonians of

To them

were due the

intellectual efforts

which have been described in the preceding chapter.


Hellas proper, however, both

In

Athens and
full

Sparta

had

achieved a prominence which was


ties.

of latent possibili-

The

wise and temperate rule of Solon

and

Pisis-

tratus in Athens,

and the

institutions

which at Sparta
fitted

were ascribed traditionally to Lycurgus, had


these States to play the important roles
are
best

each of

by which they

known

in

history.

Athens and Sparta were

different in almost every respect.


brilliant,

Athens was democratic,


to
intellectual
strict

and given

first

of

all

activity.

Sparta was aristocratic, subjected to a

discipline,

and caring
States

first

of

all

for

warlike power.'

These two

had been gradually acquiring control over the


which touched
their

territories

own; so that in the

sixth

century they became


'

possessed of a civilisation based


. . .

See Jannet, Les Institutions Sociales

d Sparte, 2d ed.

(Paris,

1880).

28

THE PR^-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


upon
Strength of

29

body and mind, and

ripe for the further


in them.

cultivation
It

which was to be developed

was

in the year 500, that

a darkly threatening cloud


Their

began to loom over the Greeks of Asia Minor.


proximity to Persia had always been a danger.
liberty,

Loving

they gradually resented the burden of a despotism


.fostered

which the Persians

by imposing petty tyrants


free.

upon communities which


the year 500, their
into a flame.
cities.

had been wholly

In

smouldering discontent broke out


of the Ionian

There was a general uprising

republic

was proclaimed

in Miletus.

Soon the

cities

on the Hellespont and almost the whole of Caria


in a revolt.

and Cyprus joined

An

appeal for help was

made

to the Western Greeks;

and though Athens and

Eretria were the only States to give immediate aid by

sending a small
great

fleet,

this

marked the beginning

of the

Persian

Wars which
and

constitute an epoch in the

history of Greece

of the world.

For the moment,


allies

the Ionian fleet was shattered by the Persian

from

Egypt and
(500-494

Phoenicia.

Miletus, after a siege of six years


in the

B.C.),

was taken and destroyed

madness

of a frightful vengeance.

The whole
It

of

Ionia was ravaged

with
forth

oriental

cruelty.

was then that Athens stood


race;

as the champion of the

and against her

Darius, " the great king," launched two vast expeditions


of ships

and men.

The

first

was wrecked

at

Athos.

The second came

to a disastrous end on the plain of

30

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


B.C.).

Marathon (490

One hundred thousand


The

Persians

under Datis and Artaphernes were pitted there against


ten thousand Athenians under Miltiades.
Asiatics

were routed with great


a
thrill of

loss,

and the Athenian victory sent


all

triumph throughout

Hellas.

Modern

historians believe that the exploit of the Atheit

nians was greatly exaggerated then, and that

has been

misunderstood ever

since.

Professor K. F. Geldner says,

" Probably the Greeks, after having avoided battle for a

long time,

fell

upon the Persians

as they were departing,

and

especially after their powerful cavalry


'

had already

embarked."

If the able

and energetic Darius had comwould doubtless have been


however,
it

manded
different.

in person, the result

Making

all

allowances,

was

in

effect

a victory for Athens, since the Persians abandoned


Therefore, Athens

the campaign and returned to Asia.

leaped at once to a position of great influence which was

enhanced when, ten years


Xerxes,
his

later,

the

new Persian

king,

sought vengeance.

An enormous army

under

command marched through Macedonia and Thrace,


fleet sailed forth to

and an overwhelming

Thessalonica.
suffered the
fleet

The

Spartans,

who now rushed


of

to

arms,

glorious

defeat

Thermopylae.
off

The Athenian

routed the Persians

Salamis;

while both Athenians

and Spartans united

in shattering the disordered troops

of Persia behind their fortifications at Plataea.


'

Finally,

See also Schauer, Die Schlacht bei Marathon (Berlin, 1893).

THE PRiE-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD

31

the lonians, on the same day, being encouraged by the


sight of Grecian ships, shook off once

more the shackles


thousand

of their servitude

and destroyed the

sixty

men

who remained
by Xerxes.'

out of the great host that had been led forth

The two

Persian "Wars

may seem

to have

had no

direct

relation to the history of Classical Philology;

yet in fact,
their power,

by compelling the Greeks to put forth


these splendid triumphs

all

stimulated

them

into

extraor-

dinary activity wherever the race was represented.^ a stimulation


well
is

Such
it

the result of every great war, and

may

serve

as

a vindication of

many
life

historic

struggles

which have cost so heavily in human


wasted treasure.

and

in apparently to the first

The Punic Wars


later century

led at

Rome
Civil

real flowering of Italian genius.

The

Wars which

ravaged Italy in a

ended with the golden


France was never so
under Louis

triumphs of the Augustan Age.

glorious, intellectually, as in the battle-years

XIV, and again amid the Napoleonic Wars.


struggle of

The

heroic

England against Spain made

the.

Elizabethan

Period superbly memorable in the annals of literature and


science;

and

so did her stubborn, unrelenting contest with

'

See Cox, The Creeks and the Persians


for

(New York,
activity

1897).

'Note,

example, the

remarkable

displayed

by

the

Athenians in rebuilding and enlarging their


station,

city's walls.

Men

of every

women, and even

children,

under the urgent advice

of the

mighty

Themistocles, engaged in this work, tearing

down temples and even

tombs to

afford material for the walls.

32

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

the Corsican Emperor,


alone, with a

when

at times she stood entirely

haughty confidence in her ultimate success.


scale brings into play all the energies

Warfare on a great
of

men, both physical and mental.


its

It inspires

them

alike

by

victories

and by

its

defeats.

It leads nations to

cast aside their inglorious love of ease

and

lets the fierce

joy of conflict

stir

at once the senses, the intellect,

and

the imagination.

Hence

it is

that

we

find in the Persian

Wars the

begin-

ning of a
States,

great

and splendid career for the Hellenic


all

and most of

for Athens,

which had won such

brilliant victories in the field as to rouse Hellenic pride

and to make the

city of

the violet crown the centre of

all

Hellas, in arts as well as arms.

We

must now look

for

the

rise of

men who

were really great, and for the develop-

ment
visible

of those studies
in the

which had been only nebulously


centuries.

two preceding

Certain of the

men who became famous


of Aristotle, spiration

early in this period,

which ex-

tends from the outbreak of the Persian

Wars

to the death
in-

won

their chief distinction

through the

which had come to them because of the Persian


Greece.

assault on

Conspicuous among these was the


of
all

Theban

Pindar,

greatest

the lyric

poets.

The
local

Thebans were

jealous of Athens; yet Pindar

was no

poet, but the laureate of the

whole Hellenic race; and his

exultation over the defeat of the Persians led

him

to pour

forth vivid, joyous lines, ringing with the note of patriotic

THE PR^-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


pride.

33

Because of
fine,

this, his

fellow-Thebans imposed on

him a heavy

which the Athenians paid back to him

twofold besides erecting a statue in his honour.

The mention
Poetry was
first

of Pindar leads us to note that Lyric

cultivated with conscious art

among
is

the

^olians and the Dorians.

The
and

lyric in general
it

the

most primitive form of

poetry,

must have
it is

existed in

the earliest ages, at least in a rude form, for

the spon-

taneous utterance of emotion

at

first

absolutely individ-

ual self-expression, a concomitant of the primitive dance, a


vocal expression of the " play instinct," seeking naturally
after

rhythmic movement.'

This originally expressed


is

itself

in the trochaic measure,

which

the primitive metrical

form among

all

peoples.

Then was developed


we find
in

very gradSide

ually the dactylic hexameter which

Homer.

by

side with this hexameter, however, the

lighter lyrical

movement was
and was

cultivated in song.

Elegiac

and Iambic

Poetry forms a transition from epic to lyric composition,


so

known

to

the

lonians.

Purely

l)Tical or

Melic Poetry, which was verse intended to be sung to a

musical accompaniment, was not Ionic, but


artistic

first

received

shape from Terpander of Antissa in Lesbos as

early as 700 b.c.


(later imitated

In the ^olic

lyric,

Alcaeus of Mitylene

by Horace), and

his

contemporary, Sappho,

gave

it

a complete and

varied form.

So the
and Peck,

jovial

poems
(New

>See

W.

Scherer, Poetik (Berlin, 1888);

lAierature

York, 1908).

34
of

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY Anacreon


(550
B.C.)
it

were

composed

earlier

than
raised

Pindar's time.
choral poetry to

Yet
its

was Pindar, a Dorian, who

highest form at the time of the Persian

Wars, together with Simonides and his nephew, Bacchylides.'

The

splendid

victories

of

Hellas

over

its

eastern
to

foes led Herodotus

of Halicarnassus in Asia

Minor

write his remarkable narrative in nine books at a date

which
middle

is

uncertain, but which


of

must have been about the


Herodotus,
a
great

the

fifth

century B.C.

traveller,

a keen observer, a collector of interesting facts,

has been styled " the Father of History."

We

have seen,

however, that history of a sort had been written by the


Logographi.^
annalistic
It

was Herodotus who


in

cast aside the dry


is

form and wrote

a prose style that

at
it

once simple, attractive,


retains

and highly picturesque,


This

for

a deep tinge of poetic colouring.

genial,

learned,
his

and yet pleasing writer took


Persian Wars.
It

for the subject of

history the

is,

indeed,

a great

prose epic of the conflict between Hellas and the East,


as the
first
is

sentence of the

first

book shows:

men may

" This

a publication of the researches of Herodotus

of Halicarnassus, to the

end that the deeds of

not be obliterated by time, and that the great and won'See Mattel, Die griechischen Lyriker (Berlin, 1892); and the introduction to Smyth's Greek Melic Poets
'

(New York,

1900).

See p. 26.

THE PR^-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


derful achievements wrought both

35

by Greeks and by bar-

barians

may

not be divested of their glory

and,

more-

over, to explain the cause

which led them to wage war

upon each

other."
of Mity-

Contemporary with Herodotus was Hellanicus


lene, of

whose works only fragments remain.

Though he

lived to a very old age, dying in 406 B.C.,

he had none of

the literary charm of the

new

prose.

Nevertheless, he

was the
logical

first

writer to introduce something like a chrono-

arrangement into the traditional records of history


his views regarding

and mythology; and

them were

ac-

cepted for more than a century after his death.


likewise
records,
service

He
His

was a profound student


though having
to
little literary

of Genealogy.
value, were of

much
of

the

later

historians;

while

the

notes

Herodotus made

during his extensive travels were a rich

mine

for writers

on Descriptive Geography,

Just as the Persian


so the Peloponnesian
greatest historian

Wars had

given Herodotus a theme,

War

(431-404 B.C.) inspired the

who

has ever written.

This was Thu-

cydides (471-

c.

399

B.C.),

an Athenian who wrote a history

of this epoch-making

struggle

waged between the two

leading States of Hellas for the supremacy of the race,

it

Athens and her


allies

allies

on the one

side,

and Sparta and her

on the

other.

Thucydides was a

man of

wealth and

character.

His

fine intellect

had been

cultivated until

became an instrument of remarkable power, delicacy, and

36
finish.

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

He had

on the one hand the

scientific

spirit,

and on the other hand an almost unrivalled


expression.

gift of literary

When
all

the war broke out, he was forty years

of age, with
thus,

his faculties at their very highest;

and

most

naturally, the history


*

which he produced in
it

eight books
session
for

has become what he desired


all

to be, a pos-

time

(/crij/ia

e9

aei).

Herodotus

had was

written with great

charm

of style.

His narrative

illumined by anecdote

and the narration of curious

facts.

He was

a prose poet.
judicial

Thucydides, on the other hand,


with
a

combined
eloquence.

impartiality

manly, moving

Lord Macaulay

said that his prose

was the

finest prose that

has ever yet been written by any man;*

and

this in spite of

what to the modern mind seems often


His impartiality
is

to be extreme obscurity.

the

more

remarkable in that he was writing contemporaneous history,

and that he was himself an Athenian and took part

in the war.

To

quote Dr. F. B.

Jevons:

" There

is

hardly a literary production of which posterity has entertained a more uniformly favourable estimate than the
history of Thucydides.
his undeviating fidelity

This high distinction he owes to

and

impartiality as a narrator;

to the masterly concentration of his work, in which he

'The eighth book


work
of

is

incomplete and

is

by some regarded

as not the

Thucydides himself.
also said of himself that while

'Macaulay

he might perhaps dare to


writer,

believe that he could equal the prose of

any other

he would never

attempt to rival the seventh book of Thucydides.

THE PRiE-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


is

37

content to give in a few simple yet vivid expressions


it

the facts wliich

must have often taken him weeks


collect,
sift,

or

even months to

and decide upon; to the


in

sagacity of his political

and moral observations

which

he shows the keenest insight into the springs of


action
rivalled

human

and the mental nature


descriptive

of
. .

man;

and

to his un-

power.
the

Thucydides when he
thereby
deliberately

undertook to record

present,

elected to confine himself to efficient causes.

This

pref-

erence for efficient causes and for scientific history, in the


best sense of the term,
is

intimately connected with the

positive nature of his history

that

is

to say, with his

perpetual endeavour to record facts and to distinguish

them from

inferences

drawn from

facts."

The utmost
this respect

efforts of

modern

criticism

have been unIn


It is

able to shake the wonderful structure of his history.

he

is

to be compared with Gibbon.

interesting to note that while

Niebuhr

is

popularly said

to have

first

established the scientific principles of histori-

cal investigation,

Gibbon anticipated Niebuhr

in practice

just as

he himself had been anticipated by Thucydides


before.*

more than two thousand years

A
'

contemporary of Thucydides, Xenophon, who was


foil.

See Muller-StrUbing in the Jahrhuch fur Philologie, cxxxi. 289


to his edition of Thucydides, vol.
i.

and Classen's Introduction


(Berlin,

2d ed.

1897);

Forbes, The Life and Method of Thucydides (London,

1895);

and Jevons,

History of Greek Literature, pp. 327-348

(New

York, 1897).

38
also

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


an Athenian,
is

the third great historian to give lustre

to the Prae-Alexandrian Period.


in

Serving as a mercenary

a Greek force raised by C)Trus the Persian, he recorded a work which continues
for the sim-

his experiences in the Anabasis,

to

be read in our secondary schools both

plicity

and vivacity of

its

narrative,

and

for the

facts

observed by Xenophon and faithfully recorded in the


seven books which
historian
is

make up

the work.

Xenophon

as an

inferior to

Herodotus and Thucydides, but


persistent popularity

he

is

an admirable

writer, as his

well shows.

Besides the Anabasis, he wrote a history of

Greece (Hellenica) which practically completed the unfinished

work of Thucydides, unlike

whom

he wrote

with a strong bias, in violent contrast with the stem impartiality of his predecessor.^

Xenophon did not

confine

himself to historical writing, but composed treatises which

had

to

do with

Political Science (the

Lacedamonian

Polity,

the Cyropadia, and

On

the

Athenian Finances) as well

as quasi-ethical monographs, the most famous of which


is

the Memorabilia of Socrates.

Xenophon

writes in a

dialect

which

is

not purely Attic, owing to the fact of his

long and frequent absences from his native country.^

In the histories of Thucydides and Xenophon there are


introduced set speeches, conventionally supposed to have

been delivered by generals to their troops, by statesmen


'

See A. Holm, Griechische Geschichie; Eng. trans. (London, 1894-99). See Alfred Croiset, Xenophon, son Caractere
et

'

son Talent (Paris,

1873).

THE PI^E-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


to deliberative assemblies,

39

by ambassadors and by dema-

gogues.
records.

These speeches do not pretend to be authentic

They

are inserted partly to enliven the narrative


it

by interspersing
ticularly to

with personal touches, and more pareffectively

sum up

and within a short compass

the opinions or arguments which the speakers might have

been supposed to hold and to

utter.

They

are true in

substance though not authentic in form.

Their occurfifth

rence in historical writing shows that, during the


century. Oratory

had become an

art.

Of

course, a certain

kind of oratory, rude and extemporaneous, must have

been known far back in the prehistoric period, since


oratory
is

one of the accomplishments which make for

statesmanship.

The

primitive chieftain undoubtedly haarose.

rangued his followers when occasion


poetry of
verse.

Even
in

in the

Homer
this

there are speeches set

down

hexameter
Professor

But

imtutored oratory was,


it,

as

Sears

describes

merely
it

" protoplasmic

eloquence."

The

psychological basis of

was not understood.

The
and

graces of external form were not yet taught by precept.

Such power as oratory had, came from strong

feeling

the gift which some possess of swaying the minds and

imaginations of their hearers by communicating to them

something of their

own

passion.

By

the end of the sixth


to recognise that
is

century, however, educated

men began

the gift of eloquence, the end of which

persuasion,

could be acquired; so that in a philosophical treatise by

40

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


is

Diogenes of ApoUonia there

found embodied, "

like

trilobite in limestone," the following rhetorical injunction,

" It appears to

me

that every one

who
In

begins a discourse

ought to state the subject with distinctness, and to


the style simple and dignified."
'

make

fact,

the Greeks,

who

were essentially a nation of talkers, expected the

account of a man's actions to be accompanied and explained by his spoken words, so that
his intellectual
all

might judge of
it

and moral character.

Hence

was that

at

the time of the Persian Wars, eloquence

came

to be highly

valued as indispensable to the statesman, the diplomat,

and the commander

of,

armies.

Oratory,

or,

to use the

Greek term. Rhetoric

{pr^TopiKrj),

thus arose, comprising

both the practical and the theoretical art of speaking.


earnestly

So
last

was

it

cultivated that
Its

it

came

to

be called at

" the art of arts."

development was one of the steps


rise of

which accompanied the decline of poetry and the


prose.

Just as the

lyric

supplanted the epic, and pictur-

esque prose narrative was gradually preferred to poetry, so


oratory

still

further

remove from purely imaginative


literature with practical

composition
life.

helped to assimilate

Its rapid

growth was due, of course, to the spread

of

democracy by which the government of the State begift of

came the

the assembled people.

To

dominate the

reason, the impulses,

and the prejudices of the people were

at last the chief functions of the art of oratory.


'

See Sears, The History of Oratory, ch.

i.

(Chicago, 1903).

THE PR^- ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD

41

Already for the training of legal and judicial pleading,

a definite though imperfect system had been set


Cicero
*

forth.

ascribes

it

to the Sicilian Greeks,

who were famous The

in antiquity for their ready wit, their love of highly coloured

language, and their passion for subtle argument.


first

manual professing
is

to instruct

men

in the art of per-

suasive speaking

said to have been written

by Corax

of Syracuse in Sicily early in the sixth century b.c.


this date

With

then begins the formal development of the art of

Rhetoric.

Corax opened a school

at Syracuse in

which

he taught the principles laid down in his Te'^vv;


his pupil, Tisias, of

and

whom

little

is

known, made some


Gorgias of Leontini

additions to the rules of Corax.^

(485-380

B.C.),

probably a pupil of Tisias, carried the study

of rhetoric to Hellas proper, whither he went as an

am-

bassador to ask for protection against the encroachments


of Syracuse.

From
in the

that time he had a residence in Athens


city of Larissa in Thessaly,

and another

winning

widespread fame both as a public speaker and as a practical teacher of rhetoric.

So far as any evidences remain of


it

the teaching of Gorgias,


to a highly artificial
'

seems plain that his rules looked


style of oratory.'

and meretricious
five parts:

Brutus, 46.
rules divided

'These
tive, (3)

an oration into

(i) proeta, (2) narra-

arguments,

(4) subsidiary

remarks, and (5)

peroration.

Both
ei/cis,

Corax and Tisias made much


that
is

of

the value of what they called

to say, the semblance to truth

which in an oration makes the

whole of an argument appear plausible and therefore possesses an appeal


to man's sense of
'

what

is

just

and

right.

Two

orations ascribed to

him

are extant.

See Blass, pp. 44-72.

42

HISTORY or CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Studied antitheses, a profusion of simile and metaphor,


apostrophe, and other figures, together with a carefully

balanced rhythm, must have

made

his

most

finished elo-

quence resemble the so-called Euphuism of John Lyly and


his fellow-Elizabethans.

It was, in fact,

a foreshadowing

in

Greece

of

the so-called Asiatic style of eloquence

adopted in later times by some of the


Athens, however, a
vailed.
less

Roman

orators.

At

affected

mode
century

of eloquence pre-

There were great orators who were conspicuous


fifth

during the middle of the

B.C.,

and whose
little

manly, noble eloquence (the Attic style) gained


teachings such as those of Gorgias.

from

the noblest statesman whom was a period of great splendour. PeriGreece produced
The Age
of
Pericles
cles

adorned and enriched the

city

with the wealth con-

tributed

by the

allied

States.

Athens to him meant

Greece just as Paris to the French people has long meant


France.

Under

his

patronage, Greek

architecture

and

sculpture reached perfection.

He

planned the Parthenon,

the Erechtheum, the Odeon, and


public edifices.

many

like magnificent

He

encouraged literature as well as the


the centre of a splendid group, in
iEschylus,

other arts.

He was

which were Thucydides,


des,

Sophocles, Euripi-

Anaxagoras, Zeno, Protagoras, Pindar, and the great

sculptors Phidias

and Myron.

Athens was

brilliant

with

gorgeous festivals and crowned with the laurels of military


glory.

The

noblest figure of

all

was

Pericles

himself.

THE PR^-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD

43

Though Thucydides
high

'opposed him, he generously records

the fact that Pericles never did anything unworthy of his


position,

that

he neither flattered the people nor


all his

oppressed his private enemies, and that with


limited

unin-

command

of public money, he
is

was personally

corruptible.'

Gorgias

said

to have
first

instructed both

Pericles

and Thucydides, but the

Athenian to apply

the rules of rhetoric practically in speaking before the public


assemblies and the courts

was Antiphon (480-41 1


models

b.c.)

He

was

also the first to publish speeches as If

for rhetoriinter-

cal study.

we examine

these

and the orations

woven

in the history of Thucydides,

we
is

find that they


fatal to effective

exhibit a certain self-consciousness


oratory. grace,

which

Lysias (458-c. 378 B.C.) shows purity of style and


is

though he

lacking in energy.

Isocrates (436-338
artistic oratory,

B.C.) is rightly

regarded as the father of

properly so called, and by his mastery of style he has influenced oratorical diction throughout
'Lloyd, The Age of Pericles,
Pericles (London, 1891).
2

all

succeeding ages.^
and Abbott,

vols.

O^ondon, 1875);

Isocrates (Milton's

"Old

Man
it.

Eloquent" and Cicero's "Father

of

Eloquence") was perhaps as well known for his rhetorical teaching as


for his practical application of

He

wrote speeches to be delivered


of 1000 drachma2, or

by

others,

and he gave instruction at the rate

about

$250, for a course of lessons, and he often

had a hundred pupils at a

time, yielding a revenue equivalent to $25,000.

The king

of

Cyprus
set

paid him 20 talents (about $22,000) for a single oration.

These

speeches were not merely delivered once, but were copied and read

wherever Greek was understood.

On

the other hand, he would some-

times spend from five to ten years in perfecting one of these show pieces.

44

mSTOEY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


spoke with ease, adapting the language of the people

He

to his

own

usage; his periods were flowing and rhythmical;


instinctive

and he had an

knowledge of everything which


It is

tends to the possibilities of harmonious language.


said that Cicero was a deep student of Isocrates.^
It

was not

until near the close of the Prae-Alexandrian

Period that the most magnificent representative of Greek


oratory arose in the person of Demosthenes.

He comthe art

bined the persuasiveness of Lysias, the

animation and

boldness of Thucydides, and he understood well


of

speaking in
like

short,

terse

sentences which

would go

home

arrows to the minds of an assembled multitude.

His superb oration


absolute mastery of

On
all

the

Crown shows not

only an

the resources of rhetoric employed

with great intellectual power, but also patriotic fervour

and that

sincerity

which belongs
insisted.^

essentially to the

et/co'?

upon which Corax had


So much
that

of the teaching in Greece was given orally


find in this circumstance

we may perhaps

an explana-

tion as to

why

the oldest rhetorical text-book


of the

now

in

existence belongs to the middle


B.C.

fourth

century

Corax, already mentioned, had merely discussed the

divisions of

an oration and the manner of presenting

its

arguments.

In the manual written by Anaximenes (who,


of criticism

by the way, wrote nine books


Jebb, Attic Orators,
'
ii.

on Homer), the
and

'See Blass, Attische Beredsamkeii, 2d

ed., 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1898);

pp. 1-34, 2d ed. (London, 1893).

See Butcher, Demosthenes, preface to last ed. (London, 1903).

THE PR^-ALEXA2SrDRIAN PERIOD


subject
is

45

treated practically rather than philosophically.

Anaximenes taught rhetoric to Alexander the Great, who


for his sake spared the city of

Lampsacus, though
is

it

had

sided with the Persians.

This manual, which

dedicated

to Alexander, was, until the last century, included

among

the works of Aristotle and generally ascribed to him,

though with considerable doubt.


his treatise

In 1828, L. Spengel in

on the

rhetorical writers prior to Aristotle'

conclusively proved the

work

to be that of Anaximenes.

The author
gories:
(i)

divides oratorical discussion into three cate-

Forensic,

(2)

Deliberative,

(3)

Declamatory.

This threefold division was accepted by the ancients from


that time.

The manual

gives excellent advice as to the

proper arrangement of the members of an oration, with

some further
brief

technical details.

The

book, however,

is

and

its

treatment of the subject very meagre.


with a
full

The

first scientific treatise

analysis

and a
is

comprehensive grasp of both theory and practice

that

of Aristotle in his Rhetorica, divided into three parts or

books.

As

this

is

the most important work on rhetoric


its

produced in ancient times, a short account of


development

plan and
of

may be

given here.

The

great point
is

departure in Aristotle's discussion of rhetoric


his view of
its

found in

functions.

Rhetoric to him

is

not the art


It
is

of ornamenting and beautifying discourse.

not
the

merely persuasion.
'

It

is

rather the

discovery

of

Published at Stuttgart, 1828.

46
possible

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

means

of

persuasion.

Hence,

rhetoric

is

the

counterpart of Logic, and the principles of logic enter into


its

laws as an essential part of them.


:

The

uses of rhetoric

are

(i)

the

means by which truth and


and
injustice;

justice

may

rise

superior to falsehood

(2)

the

means
(3)

of

persuasion that are suited to popular assemblies;

the
dis-

means

of seeing both sides of a case

and of thus

covering the weakness of an adversary's argument;


(4)

and
all

the means of defending one's

own

case against
it.

possible attacks that

can be made upon

The means
natural, " in-

of persuasion he sets forth as follows:


artificial

(i)

" proofs, such as the sworn testimony of witetc.;

nesses,

documents,

and

(2)

artificial proofs,

which

are either (a) logical, involving demonstration

by argu-

ment; or

else (b) ethical,

when the weight


confidence in his

of a speaker's
hearers,

own

character

inspires

and

emotional,

when he works upon the

feelings of his listeners

by appealing to
proof, he says,

their sympathies or prejudices.

Logical

depends upon the principle of giving " a

syllogism

from probability."

Of

the

nature of such
topic or general

syllogisms he distinguishes the

common

head, applicable to

all

subjects,

and the

special topic

drawn

from special
Following

arts, gifts, or

circumstances.
of
(i)

division

Anaximenes,

rhetoric

was

divided into three kinds:

Deliberative Rhetoric, which


is

has to do with exhortation or persuasion and

concerned
(2)

with future time as to expediency or inexpediency;

Fo-

THE PRffi-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


rensic Rhetoric,

47

relating to

accusation or defence and

concerned with time past as to justice or injustice;


(3)

and

Epideictic Rhetoric,

relating to

eulogy or censure,

and usually concerned with the present time and as to


honour or
rhetoric
distress.

The

first

two books
i.e.

of Aristotle's

deal

with

invention,

the discovery of the


relates to expres-

means
sion

of persuasion.

The

third

book

and arrangement.

Under the

latter

head he treats

of the art of delivery, considering verbal expression in

which

is

included the use of metaphor, simile, and terse

gnomic

sayings, of the

rhythm of sentences, and


(i)

of Style.

As
(2)

to style he notes four varieties:

the purely literary,


(4)

the controversial,

(3)
is

the

political,

and

the forensic.

Aristotle's Rhetoric

the most exhaustive, analytical,

and

scientific treatise

on the subject that has ever been


as

written.

It

is,

however,

has

been truly

said,

the

philosophy of rhetoric rather than rhetoric that he discusses.

His

mind was

intensely

analytical

and

was

always seeking for ultimate causes;


field

so that even in this

he

is

forever verging upon the sphere of the meta-

physical.

The

great importance of the treatise

is

that

it

prepared the way for Aristotle's Dialectic or Logic, which


in turn furnished

many

of the distinctions and classifica-

tions, destined afterward to be used in a different relation

by the

originators of

Formal Grammar.
by

Aristotle himself regarded rhetoric as standing side

side with logic, since each relates to the process of insur-

48

HISTORY or CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

ing conviction.

The

orator

must be a

dialectician

if

he

would reach the highest excellence


dialectician,
effective

in his art;

and the
most

on the other hand,


a

will

make

his logic

through

command

of

the arts

of oratory.

Hence

Aristotle's rhetoric is really

a dialectic science.

In

his Organon, after he has set forth his system of logic,

he develops the methods by which


edge.

man

arrives at

knowl-

He

discloses the laws of thinking

and the modes

of cognition

from a study of man's faculty of coghition,

striving to gain

an

insight into the nature

and formation

of evidence

and conclusion.

In the course of this inquiry

he

tries to classify all possible objects of

human knowlare: (i) sub-

edge under definite heads.

In so doing, he drew up his

famous ten Categories


stance,
(6)

(^^(EtficaOTerato).

These

(2)

quantity, (3) quality, (4) relation, (5) place,

time, (7) situation, (8) possession, (9) action, (10) suffer-

ing, that is to say, passivity.*

The mere enumeration


we
them
find

of

these categories serves to

show how intimately they are


in our

connected with the classification that


formal grammar.
totle

Because, in setting

forth, Aris-

provided a terminology and a framework for the


in

Alexandrian and other grammarians


period, he has

the

following

been spoken of as the source in which


origin.^
(i) substance, (2) at-

both criticism and grammar find their


These ten categories are
tribute;

really reducible to two:

or (i) being, (2) accident.


Cassius,
liii.

'Dio

p. 353;

Reiske (294 R).

Aristotle's Rhetoric
vols.

is

edited separately with notes

by Cope and Sandys, 3

(Cambridge,

THE PR^-ALEXANDEIAN PERIOD


Rhetoric,

49

language study, criticism, literary training,


all

and philosophy were

popularised by a class of teachers


{ao^iaral)

who became famous under the name of Sophists


Originally the

name

Sophist was given to any one

who

professed a particular knowledge of

some

special subject;

but about 450


educated
travelled

B.C.

it

was primarily applied

to well-

men who had


a
tuition

the gift of ready speech and

who
in

from place to place lecturing and teaching


fee.

return

for

They were the middlemen


to untrained

of learning

and made

intelligible

minds a

good deal of what was


writers

set forth

more profoundly by original


their counterpart in the

and

thinkers.

They have

peripatetic lecturers

who

traversed the United States from

1830 to i860, making addresses before " lyceums," and in


the university extension teachers of the last two decades.

Some

of

them were men

of great ability, such as Gorgias

of Leontini, already mentioned;

and Protagoras, a
the
is

brilliant

teacher of rhetoric in Athens,

who was

first scientific

individualist, taking as his motto "


all

Man

the measure of

things," that

is

to say, every
is

man must

be

his

own

standard of truth, since truth


absolute.

only relative and not

There was

also Prodicus of Ceos,

who

lectured
right

on

literary style {opOoeireia), laying great stress

on the

1877);

and

Zeller,

Aristotle

(London, 1897).

On
les

the rhetoric of the


1835);

Greeks, see Gros, Etude sur la Rhetorique chez


Perrot, Les Pricurseurs de Demostkene

Grecgues (Paris,
1873);

(Paris,

Girard, Eludes

sur I'^loqumce (Paris, 1847); and Bascom, The Philosophy

of Rhetoric

(New York,

1888).

50
use
of

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


words
{le

mot

juste).

Hippias

of

Elis

was

another famous Sophist.

He was
versed in

a
all

man

of prodigious

memory and profoundly


so far been developed.
his audiences

the learning of the

day, so that he attempted literature in every form that had

He

piqued and rather shocked


is

by attempting to prove that law


since
it

an

evil

and should not be obeyed,

forces

man

to

do many

things which are contrary to his nature.

In this he was
of

one of the
our day

first

representatives of

what the higher slang


temperament."
versatile,

describes as " the artistic

Such Sophists as these

brilliant,

eloquent,

and ingenious
thought.
of Athens.
sation.

had

an immense influence on

popular

Their society was courted by the leading

men

Even

Pericles took pleasure in their conver-

Greatest of

them

all

was

Socrates,

though he

professed to despise the Sophists as a class

and believed

himself to be other than a Sophist because he took no

money

for his teachings,

which were given in a desultory,

conversational

fashion.

From

Protagoras

and Gorgias

and Hippias, the Skeptics derived their doctrines; but


Socrates stands forth as the most inspiring philosophical

teacher of any time.

From

his

immensely suggestive talk,

Plato drew his inspiration, as did Aristotle

from

Plato.

Socrates gave an entirely

new turn

to philosophic teaching.

Before his time philosophy had been physical; after Socrates


it

became metaphysical and

ethical.

Just as the early

lonians had sought for a material origin of the universe,

THE PRiE-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


SO Socrates thrust aside
all

speculations of the kind

and
"

asked the epoch-making question, "

How

shall

man

live?

The answer
Plato and by

to this question
Aristotle,

was sought not merely by

but afterwards by the Epicureans

and the

Stoics, the

Cynics and the Eclectics.

It should

be remembered, however, that, on the whole,

the Sophists as a class were rightly held in disesteem.

The
make

majority of

them were mere


and

smatterers, glib

and

shallow, perverting the truth,

willing for a price to

the worse appear the better reason.

In the end,

the later Sophists were nothing but smooth talkers, some-

times delighting in mere technicalities, which took with

them the
repute.^

place of reason, so that they

fell

wholly into

ill

But

it

was the Sophists

of the fifth century

who

gave a special impulse to the theoretical study of language.

Eemembering the importance


philosophical principles of

of rhetoric

and the quasi-

men

such as Protagoras and

Hippias,

it

is

not strange that there should have arisen

an immense amount of discussion regarding language, from the desire to discover the laws
of thought

through a

discovery of the laws which govern the expression of that

thought in

human

speech.
as

The

fact that

Language Study began


is

an adjunct to

the study of philosophy


plaining
'

immensely important as ex-

two

interesting facts,

the

fact that the purii.

On

the Sophists, see Benn, Greek Philosophers, ch.

(London, 1883);

Schanz, Die Sophisten (Gottingen, 1867); and Uebenveg, Geschichte der


PMlosophie,
i.

gth ed. (Leipzig, 1907).

52
suit

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

was conducted

in

a way so unlike that of the scienfact that a long time elapsed


scientific

tific linguist;

and the other

before the development of

grammar.

The

phi-

losophers were at

first

concerned only with the meanings


with their forms, their external

of words, and very

little

relations to each other, or their arrangement and govern-

ment

in

a sentence.

They

strove

rather to

dig

down

into the

very heart of language, to find out what lay

behind the sounds, and to penetrate into the working of


the minds that gave

them

currency.

Why

was a
one

certain

combination of

letters the representation of

idea, while

a certain combination of other letters stood for the representation of a different idea?
relation
of

In general, what was the

sound to thought?

These

questions

and

others like

them

first

attracted the philosopher to the

study of language, while they are the very last and most

remote problems to interest the modern


Hence,
for
its
if

scientific linguist.

the ancients had begun to investigate language


sake, they

own

would have created Grammar; but

as they took

up the subject merely as a means to another

end and from the standpoint of psychology, they invented


Etymology.
It
is,

of course, to

be understood

also that even the

most enlightened
researches

of the

Greeks in their most earnest


study of their

never went beyond the

own
of
all.

language.

They

scarcely even recognised the speech

other peoples as entitled to be called language at

THE PR^-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD

53
is

The
more

Hellenic contempt for the non-Hellenic


strikingly displayed

nowhere
all

than

here.

To

the Greeks

foreigners,

and even

their

own kindred who spoke un-

familiar dialects, were styled "

dumb

" {dyXwa-a-oi)

The

contemptuous term ^dp^apo^


of the

is

merely another expression


talked.

same

feeling.

It

was only the Greeks who


like

Other people chattered

the birds of the


forest.

air,

or Jab-

bered like the beasts of the

Thus the

Carians,

the Thracians, the Illyrians, the Phrygians, and even the

Macedonians were said to speak " barbarian " tongues.' Demosthenes


called Alexander the Great a "barbarian."
in

This feeling also operated


of

keeping back the development


sense.

grammar

in its

modern

As a

rule,

no Greek
learned in

studied foreign languages.

His

own tongue he

childhood and he

felt

no need of instruction

in that.

As

for the jargon of alien races, he despised

both them and


is

those

who spoke them.

Themistocles,

who

said to have

spoken Persian very


exception.
ers

fluently, stands out as

a conspicuous

For a long time there were no language teachof language

and no study

from the standpoint of formal

grammar.

Persons

who

in ancient times acted as inter-

preters between Greeks and non-Greeks were either children

of

mixed parentage, speaking both

their fathers'

and

their

mothers' tongue; or else they were foreigners

who

studied

Greek

for the express purpose of serving as interpreters.


for the services of

There was, indeed, a steady demand


'

Strabo,

vii.

321; xiv. 662.

54
such men.
est

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


Herodotus nowhere implies even in the remotof the languages spoken in the
visited.

way that he knew any


countries that

many

he

In one passage

'

he

speaks of caravans of merchants in the region of the

Volga as needing seven interpreters


seven languages.

{epfi7]vei<;)

speaking

At a very much

later

period,

when

Alexander the Great penetrated India and questioned the

Brahmins on the subject of

their religion, the

conversa-

tion had to be carried on through a

series of interpreters.

The

Greeks, in fact, displayed an amusing naivete in their

astonishment at finding so
Greek, but
ease.
tical

many

people

who knew no
so

who spoke barbarian tongues with

much

They

were, in fact, apparently not gifted as pracfor

linguists;

even after Latin was the language


they seldom learned to speak
^

of their

own

rulers,

it

well.

Thus Plutarch

says

that he found

it

impossible to master
its

Latin, and that one needs to begin

study

when

very

young.

Strabo notes that historical treatises composed

in foreign languages

were inaccessible to the Greeks and

never read by them.'

On

the other hand, at an early period there

is

mention

of foreign scholars

and

writers

who

acquired an excellent
(in

command of

Greek,

men like

Berosusthe Babylonian

the

fourth century b.c.)


in

and Manetho the Egyptian, who wrote


their respective countries
iv. 24.
^.

Greek the records of


'

annals

Herodotus,
Strabo,

^ 3

Plutarch, Demosth.
ii.

4, 19.

THE PR^-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


which the Greeks regarded with a supercilious

55
indifference.

There

is

absolutely no hint in any ancient writer that any

of these foreign languages might be related to the Hellenic


dialects.

The

idea

would

have

seemed

preposterous
nearest apis

even to the most enlightened Greek.

The

proach to the suggestion of such an idea


Plato's dialogue, the Cratylus,
similarity

found in

where Socrates notes the


for

between the Greek and Phrygian names


objects.

certain

common

But though Plato

is

evidently

here upon the verge of a discovery that was


in the last century,

made

only

he failed to see the importance of the


set

fact
for

which he had
it

down, and chose rather to account

on the theory that the Greeks had borrowed a few

words from the Phrygians.


that of

That

his

own language and


nor did so keen

a " barbarian " people

had a common source

seems never to have occurred to him;

an observer as Aristotle perceive in languages " the law

and order which he


nature."

tried to discover in every realm of


that, as the

Hence,

it

came about

Greeks were

naturally slow in acquiring foreign tongues, as they

had a

supreme contempt for other languages than their own, and


as they entered on the investigation of the subject from a

purely philosophical and psychological point of view, the


first

stage of language study reached by

them was the

theoretical rather than

the empirical.

The Greek word

'Kdyo^

means

at once the

spoken word,
of that word.

and the reason which prompts the utterance

56

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


illustrates

This duality of meaning both symbolises and


the
spirit in

which the Greek philosophers approached the

study of language.

They wished

to determine

(i)

whether

the word and the thought had a necessary relation;


if

and

so,

(2)

what that

relation was.

Naturally enough, two

opposing views were soon formulated by two philosophical


schools.

The

Heracliteans

'

believed

that

because

all

truth

is

derived from language, language rests


basis.

upon an

immutable

Words

are either perfect expressions

of things or else they are only inarticulate sounds.


is

That
it is

to say, a
at

name must be

either a true

name

or

no

name

all.
it

Between every name,


signifies,

therefore,

and the

thing which
virtue of

there

is

a natural harmony by

which each word

in itself inevitably expresses

the innermost nature of the thing named.

The

Heracli-

teans thus held that language arose by nature


vofjLa).

{<f>v(Tei

or

The

Eleatics,^

on the other hand, regarded words


that the

as given to things arbitrarily;


like the

names

of things,

names

of slaves,

might be altered at pleasure;

and

that, in consequence,

no

light is to

be thrown on

mental processes or on the nature of thought,


ing the forms in which
it is

by study-

expressed.

One

of the Eleatics,
after the

a Megarian, Diodorus,
junctions, thinking to

named

his slaves

con-

show thereby the absurdity

of the

Heraclitean
'

doctrine,

which

recalls

Dr.

Johnson's

I.e. I.e.

the followers of Heraclitus of Ephesus, about 500 B.C.

'

the followers of Xenophanes and Parmenides of Elea.

TE& PRjE-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


famous
refutation of

57

Berkeley's

idealism.

Language,

therefore, according to the Eleatics, arose


(decrei

by convention

or

a-vvdrjicn).

This controversy has an interest far greater than any


merely
strikes
linguistic

discussion

could

possess.

It

really

down

into the

most profound

recesses of the hu-

man

mind.

It grazes the borderland of a

philosophical

question that has puzzled metaphysicians ever since

men

began to

reflect

upon the mystery

of their being,

question that has never been solved and that, humanly


speaking, admits of no solution.
in the scholastic period of the It
is

the question which

Middle Ages was known


It is

as the question of Realism and Nominalism.

the

question which, in after times, appeared as the question


of the

Freedom

of the

Human

Will.

Its discussion

by

the ancient philosophers led to the investigation of language.

As

it

was claimed that language corresponds


just as sensation
it,

naturally

and inevitably to the thought,

corresponds to the object which excites

the

first

in-

quiry which philosophers set before themselves was this:

What

is

language?
asserted

Heraclitus

that

language

is

the

immediate

product of a natural power which assigns to each thing


its

proper designation as a necessary element of the thing's

existence.

Names, he

said, are like the natural,


i.e.

not the

artificial images of visible things,

they resemble the

shadows cast by

solid objects, the

images seen in mirrors,

58

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


still

the reflected sun in


true

water.

"Those who

use the

word do

really

and

truly

name the

object, while those

who do
is,

not, merely

make an unmeaning

noise."

That

words are the immediate copies of things, produced by

nature herself, not due to any subjective influence or

human
ness
is

caprice,

but corresponding to

realities

by objecfit-

tive necessity;
(opOorr]';)

they have an abstract propriety and

and an

intrinsic force

and meaning.

This

the extreme statement of the Heraclitean doctrine which


so as to

was afterward modified by Epicurus

make

the

objective necessity, referred to above, a physical, organic


necessity.

Against the Heracliteans, the Eleatics defended their


thesis that
trarily

names

are given

and were always given

arbi-

by men who might with perfect propriety change


about.

them

Democritus
Heraclitean

propounded
view,
/cXet?
(i)

four

arguments
of

against

the

The

argument

Homonymy.
a collar-bone.
lutely

For instance,

means both a key and

Now

a key and a collar-bone have absohence,


if

no

relation to each other;

Kkek be the
it

inevitable

and natural name

for

one of them,

certainly

cannot be equally the inevitable and natural


the other.
(2)

name

of
is

The argument

of

Polyonymy.

A man

called avdpwiTO'i, or f^epo^jr, or


in

fipor6<;.
all

These terms are


three be the nec-

no way

alike;

how then can they

essary

names

of the one object?

(3)

The argument

of

Change, as when Aristocles comes to be called Plato.

THE PI^E-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


(4)

59

The argument
<^j00j^etv

of Missing Analogy, as

when we have

the verb

formed from ^/joVt^ct-w, while from Swatoo-WT;


Siicaiocrvvelv.

we

find

no such verb as
it

In general

may be

said that the Heracliteans

num-

bered among their followers the majority of the ancient


philosophers, though Aristotle stands out as a great exception.

He, with his

dislike of anything mystical,


real,

and

with his practical hold on the

was an uncompromisand held that language


conviction
of

ing opponent of the natural theory,

depends on the

common argument and


all

men,

words
all

having no meaning at
their

in themselves,

but having
use them.

meaning put

into

them by

those

who

They

are

mere counters, whose value depends

wholly upon the assent of mankind.


It

was

evident, of course, to the Heracliteans them-

selves, after

little

study, that their claims could not be


it

made good

in

language as

actually existed;

for they

could not show

in the case of

many words any

essential

connection with the objects described by them;

and

it

was

also evident that

words had greatly changed since


first

the time
cussion

when they were

coined.

Hence, the

dis-

was put back from words

as they were then, to


this led to speculation

words as they had once been; and


as to the origin of language.

Setting aside the original

notion that

it

was

directly created

by the Deity, men

sought to show in what manner


If

it first

came

into existence.

word and object be

related,

what

is

the nature of the

6o
relation?

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


If

the original
in

name was
it

appropriate to the

thing

named,

what way was

appropriate?

The

general drift of opinion answered this question in favour


of the " onomatopoetic " theory, not in
its

crudest form,

but in the form in which


times by

it

has been defended in modern


his pupil

men

like

Heyse and

Steinthal,

and
of

cautiously by Whitney and by

Paul.'
(x.

passage
75)

Epicurus cited by Diogenes Laertius


fairest

gives the
this

and most temperate expression of what

view

meant:
"

Words

in the beginning did not originate

by express

agreement; but by the very nature of men, in the case of

each people, experiencing peculiar feelings and hearing


peculiar ideas, they expelled the air accordingly, thus ex-

pressing

different feelings

and ideas

differently, just as

people differed in location and surroundings."

This

is

in reality the theory of Heyse.

So Lucretius^

argues that speech arose from the impulse of things, just


as

children

who cannot
is
it,

speak, begin to gesture.

And

what wonder
ings

he

says, that

men mark

different feel-

by

different

sounds of the voice?

Even dogs and

horses and gulls and crows in the


ing
'

same way express vary-

moods and

passions.

Heyse, System der Sprachmissenschaft, edited by Steinthal (Berlin,


Steinthal, Gesckichte der Sprachwissenschaft bet den Greichen
2 vols.

1856);

und

Romern,

2d ed. (Berlin, 1891); and Whitney, The Life and Growth of Language (New York, 1880); id. Language and the Study of Language, 4th ed.
'

(New York,
foil.

1884).

Luaetius, v. 1028

THE PR^- ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD

6
its

The whole
nature

of
its

the ancient teaching on language,


origin,
is

and

summed up and
by
far the

digested in

that wonderful dialogue of Plato's which bears the


of Cratylus.

name

This work
linguistic

is

most profoundly
antiquity
insight.

philosophical

discussion that

proIt

duced,
is

full

of

deep truths and searching

not too

much

to say that no treatise on language before


is

the last century

worthy of comparison with

it.

Yet

its

importance has been only half appreciated by many, owing to the vein of

humour

that runs through


its

it,

and the

playful tone that characterises


sages.

most remarkable pasit

Some

scholars have even regarded

as purely a

piece of philosophical fun, a Platonic extravaganza

meant

only to
study.
it

make a mock
This view
is

of the whole subject of language

wholly untenable, and whoever holds

misses one of the most striking proofs of the greatness


It
is

of Plato.

precisely in the

mode

of treatment that

he has chosen to adopt, and because he has half hidden


his

deepest truths beneath a


is

veil of

humour, that the


Plato had re-

argument of the Cratylus


flected long

so remarkable.

and

seriously

upon the nature and phenom-

ena

of

human

speech; he had satisfied himself of

many

things of which his contemporaries had no conception; yet

when he came
tions

to gather together the results of his reflechis facts,


it

and to mass
still

was evident

to

him that

he was

far

from having attained a complete philoso-

phy

of language.

There were

still

too

many

things

left

62

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

unexplained, too
prefers to refrain

many

lacunae in his fabric.

Hence, he

from dogmatic statement.

He

will

not

claim to have a well-rounded and complete system; and,


therefore,

he

elects to treat the subject with a light touch,

to speak modestly

and with caution, and to

let his

own

observations
suggestions

fall

casually into the

mind

of his reader as

and incentives toward further


is,

speculation.

His

really serious spirit

therefore,

subordinated to a

humorous treatment,
as
it

so that in

the Cratylus

we

have,

were, a giant at play.

It gives us, in a

way, the

chips and shavings of his mental workshop, yet the chips

and shavings are those

of one

whose dust-heap contains


men.

more pure gold than the

treasuries of other

The
enes,

Cratylus

is

a dialogue between Socrates, Hermog-

and Cratylus.

Hermogenes

is

a disciple of the

later Eleatics,

and Cratylus a

sincere believer in the phi-

losophy of Heraclitus.

They have been arguing about


upon Socrates

names, and as each represents a point of view diametrically opposed to that of the other, they
share in the discussion.
of the subject,
call

to

He, as usual, professes ignorance

and then by questions draws out from each

of his friends their respective theories.


to them, Socrates criticises each,

Having

listened

and

in his turn enters

upon some speculations


most suggestive

of his

own

in a half-playful yet

discourse.

Just as between Realism and

Nominalism, Conceptualism stands as a compromise, and


just as

between the doctrine of Predestination and that

"

THE PRjE-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


of the

63

Freedom

of the Will stands out Determinism, so the

views advanced by Socrates represent a

mean between

the

" natural " theory of Heraclitus and the " conventional theory of the Eleatics.

Language, he
for
it

says,

is

natural,

and

it is

also conventional,

has in

it

elements that are natural and those that are


It is originally a

conventional.
first of all,

work

of art, for

names

are,

imitations of sounds, vocal imitations.

Yet vocal

imitations, like

any other copying, may be most imperfectly

executed,

and

this imperfection
is

may
is

involve the element of

chance.

For there

much

that

accidental or exceptional
their early

in language.

Some words have had

meaning so

obscured that they have to be helped out by convention.


Yet,
still,

the true

name is that which has a natural meaning.


and chance,
all

Thus,

nature, art,

enter into the formation

of language,
it

and they are so

closely intertwined as to

make

often impossible to separate them.

So far as we

may

hope, however, to discover the natural element and judge


of
it

as derived from art

and accident, we can do so only


In the
first place,

by applying to words a

strict analysis.

many
pound.

words, perhaps

most words, are

in their present

form, not primary words, nor even simple words, but com-

These we must

first

resolve until

we

reach the
are not the

simple forms.

But the simple forms themselves

primary ones, for these have been altered by time.

Hence,
which which

we must

in the

end resolve words into the

letters

compose them, because

these, or rather the sounds

64

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


This was well known
that the

they denote, must have a meaning.


to the
first

makers of language.

They observed

sound of a denoted vastness and length; that p expressed


motion as
in peco, po-q,
rp6iJi,o<;,

pv/jL^em (" whirl,")

because

in uttering that

sound the tongue was most agitated and


yjr,
(j),

least at rest; that

a;

and f required a great expendin imitative

iture of breath

and were therefore used


o-eKx/Ao'?,

words

such as

^eeo

("seethe"),

and

in general

when the
of

thought of
\, in

air is involved; that

the limpid

movement

whose pronunciation the tongue


letter

slips along,

enables

that

to

express
;

smoothness

as in Xeto?, Xiirapov,

fDoXK&Se'i

(" gluey ")

that the sound of 7 detained the

slipping tongue so that

when
is
;

united with X, there

is

given
in \t

an impression of what
axpo'i,

glutinous

and clammy, as

yXvKm,

'yXoitoSr]<;

that

i',

being " sounded within,"

gives the notion of inwardness; while o suggests roundness.

Thus the first language makers impressed thought on names


by a principle of
a deaf and
clear,

imitation.

Gesture

is

the

method which
his

dumb

person would use to


is

make

meaning

and language

only vocal gesture, the gesture of


in

the tongue.

Yet though thought was stamped on words

their genesis, the lesson that


is

we may

learn

from words

not philosophical or moral; for the use of words varies


It

indefinitely.

may be

metaphysical, accidental, conven-

tional, or in some other

way

secondary, and so

may have

no

real relation to the

thought or feeling of the speaker at

the time.

THE PRiE-ALEXANDEIAN PERIOD


Such
is

6$

an outline of the Platonic views on language as

set forth in the Cratylus.

They embody

all

that

was best
and

and most

rational in ancient linguistic speculation,

contain principles that philologists have not yet rejected.


Plato, in fact,
is

the

first

to

draw attention to the

distinc-

tion between simple

and compound words.

In his men-

tion of the Lautgeherden, he

makes an immense advance


and
in speaking of the

in the physiology of language;

similarity of certain foreign

words

to the corresponding

terms in Greek, he approaches the very verge of a great


discovery.
is

His

classification of the letters of the alphabet

very

much

that which the most

modern phoneticians

agree to follow.
letters, or

He

it is

who
,

separated them into voiceful


voiceless letters, or conso-

vowels

((ftcovi^evTa)

and

nants
vowels

{d(j)a)va).
{r]u-Ci^(ova,

The
\,
jx,

letters
V,

he

subdivides into semi-

p, a)

and true mutes (d^doyya).


is

The

really

humorous part of the Cratylus

that in which

Socrates burlesques the extraordinary etymologies of the


Sophists, pouring forth a flood of conjectures on the

com-

position of the words which his listeners suggest to him,

and playing havoc with


"

all

phonetic order and system.

You

know," he says, " that the original form of the


is

word

always being overlaid and bedizened by people

sticking

on and stripping off

letters for

the sake of euphony,

and twisting and turning them


this

in all sorts of ways;

and

may be done for ornament or. it may time." And so in restoring the original

be the result of
form, he gives

66

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

himself a free

hand and
and

alters

and syncopates and apoco-

pates and extends

stretches until

Hermogenes

in a

sort of half -skeptical admiration cries out, " Well, Socrates,

you
is

have knocked them to pieces manfully."


because
derives
it is

Aid'qp

aeiOerip

" always running " about the earth;


exovorj
(" possession of

Texvq he

from

mind

")

and says " you have only to take away the


tween the
the
is
5?,"

t, insert o

be-

3.nd the v,

and another

between the v and


says, "

upon which Hermogenes very naturally

That

a pretty tough etymology."

Every one should read the Cratylus because in


parts
its
it

its

serious

abounds

in singularly acute speculations;

and

in

lighter passages it affords us

an excellent notion of the


fifth

absurdities

of the

word-mongers of the

century.^

Many,

in fact,

were the vagaries of the Sophists in their

guesses at etymology and at the principles of language-

making; and

it

was not only among the philosophers and


it

quasi-philosophers that this sort of thing prevailed, but


is

seen equally in the writers of pure literature,

who

in this

followed the prevailing fashion.


interest,

As a matter
this

of general

one should note that

etymologising craze
It

was something more than a mere


manifestation of a very

fad.
trait,

was simply one


quickness of
itself

Greek

imagination which from the earliest times reveals


linguistically in

an almost childish fondness

for playing

upon words,
'

for paronomasia, for punning.

This

is,

in

See Jowett's translation of the Cratylus in his Plato, and especially

the Introduction to the Dialogue in question (2d ed., Oxford, 1893).

THE PE^-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


reality,

67

an priental

trait,

as the

Hebrew

Scriptures attest,
trifling.

and was never regarded as undignified or


just as in the

Hence,
fifty of

book

of Genesis alone

we

find

some

these pseudo-etymologies, chiefly in plays upon proper

names, so we find the Greek poets, from Homer down, seeking analogies

and hidden meanings

in

words and names.


oSva-a-ofiai

Observe Homer's explanation of Odysseus from


(Od. xix. 406); of At^, ^ irdvTa'i aarai eXe^v? and iXe^atpo/iai {Od.
xix.
{II.

xix.

91); of

562

foil.).

The

great

pun

of

^schylus on the name of Helen,

'EXeVjj eXeVa?
classic in

eXavSpwi eXeTTToXt?, {Ag. 689) has become


lish

Eng-

through Peele's imitation

(in

Edward

I.)

" Sweet Helen,

Hell in her name, but heaven in her looks;"

and

in the

most

tragic scene of the


together.'

same play

(1040, 1049)

two puns are found

It is probable that this


.also its

playing upon proper names and

dignity depended

upon

the general belief in the so-called Onomantia, or de-

duction of omens from names,

which both Greeks and

Romans

believed in so devoutly that Leotychides pledged

the Samian people to a great expedition merely because

a perfect stranger
Hegesistratus.^
'Euripides

who urged

it

happened to be

called

was

called

rpayiKbs irviwKSyos.

Cf.

^sch. Prom.

86,

Ajax, S74 and in German, Lersch, Sprachphilosophie, 87s, 742, 11-17 (Bonn, 1841) Sturz, De Nominibus Graecis, in his Opusc. iii. Myths seem to have been built upon the basis p. 78 (Leipzig, 1825).
718;
;

of false etymologies, as Xais


2

and

Xaas.

Herod,

ix.

gi.

68

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


as the Greeks of this period etymologised,

Much

how-

ever, there is little

evidence that they went so far as to


itself

deal with the general subject by

and

for its

own

sake.

Such
oras

treatises as those of

Gorgias

On Names,

of Protag-

On

Elocution, of Prodicus

On

the Propriety of

Names,

and of Licymnius
to the rhetorical

On
and

Phrases are more properly referred


oratorical teachings of these

men

regarding which something has already been said.


nius,'

Licym-

however, did note and partly discuss and classify

synonyms, root-words, compounds, and cognates.

This

may
the

be taken roughly as standing on the border-land of

first

two periods

in the history of Classical Philology,

and as having shown some appreciation of formal grammar.

So far as the Prae-Alexandrians came to any etymological

agreement,

it

was

in generally admitting that three

principles are involved in the

development of words:
already discussed;

(i)

the principle of Imitation

(Mt'^ijo"'?),

(2)

the principle of Metaphor (MeTa^opd), by which words


lose their primitive

meaning and are gradually extended

in their application, as
is

when

the word " head " or " foot "

applied to a mountain, or

when we speak

of a man's
(3)

thought as "bitter," of his voice as " sweet ";


ciple of Antiphrasis (AvTi(ppaa-L<;) of

the prin-

which the ancients

made much, and which they


'A
Sicilian teacher of

also called the


also wrote

making

of

Polus

who

a treatise on rhetoric.

See Schneidewin in the Gottinger Gel. Anzeiger for 1845.

THE PR^-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


words Kark
opposites.
is

69
their

evavrlaxriv, or the

naming of things by

The
is
is

philosophical principle on which this last

based

a sound one

i.e.

that of two antithetical

ideas,

one

apt to suggest the other, as light suggests

darkness, truth suggests falsehood,

and

so on; but the


It

etymological application of
to have occurred to

it

was grotesque.

appears

them because

of certain well-known

euphemisms, as when, for example, they found the Furies


styled Eumenides, " the

well-disposed."

They

also

ob-

served in Irony (Elpcoveid) a similar principle;


fore,

and thereis

putting the two together, they inferred that there

something in the
objects

human mind which


their

instinctively describes

by

recalling

opposites.

Hence, they ex-

plained

many words on
calum from

this hypothesis,' just as the later

Latin etymologists derived aridus from apBevecv, bellum

from

bellus,

celare,

and, above
is,

all,

the famous

lucus a non lucendo, which last

however, a perfectly

correct etymology, though the ancients misunderstood the

manner

of

its

derivation.

It will

be seen from the preceding pages that language


the Greeks at this time consisted mainly in

study

among

ingenious guesswork and in large and loose speculations.

As

yet there

was no such thing


ypd/MfiaTa

as

Grammar

in the later

sense.

The word

meant " the

letters of

the
of

alphabet";

'^paixiiana-Tri';

was an elementary teacher

reading and writing,


'

beginning with the alphabet.


et

See Lobeck, De Antiphrasi

Euphemismo.

(s.

n.

1.

n.)

70
tile

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


found in Attica^ has syllables scratched upon
<yap, Sep
it

{ap,

0ap,

and the
later,

like,

which show that spelling was

taught and,

reading.

But the word grammaiicus

{ypafj.p.ariKd';) , at

the time of which

we

are speaking, did

not mean a grammarian, but simply a person of ordinary


education,

that

is,

one who was able to read and write.

Nevertheless, as already suggested, a nucleus

had been

formed around which grammatical teaching in our sense


of the

word was soon to be developed. Etymology was a


subject
of
discussion.

favourite
(c.

Protagoras

of

Abdera

411 B.C.) was the


also genders.^

first

to distinguish grammatical

moods

and
tise

Prodicus of Ceos had written a treais

on synonyms; while Plato

regarded as having recog-

nised two distinct parts of speech, the

noun

(ovofia)
it

and

the verb

(prjp-a);
is

but the distinction which


strictly

draws be-

tween them

not

a grammatical, but a logical, dis-

tinction, corresponding to the difference

between subject
Aristotle,

and

predicate.
also goes

The

true distinction
further

is

made by

who

much

and mentions conjunctions


it

{a-wBea-ixoc),

a term loosely used by him, since

includes

every kind of connecting particle.


'

The term apdpa he

Roberts, Greek Epigraphy, p. 170 (Cambridge, 1887-1905).

Protagoras classified modes of expression as question, answer, prayer,

and command.
natural and not
all

In the matter of gender, he divided nouns as either

masculine, feminine, and neuter, this classification being, like our own,
artificial.

All

male creatures were regarded as masculine,


all

female creatures as feminine, and


uses the term 7^1-05 which

inanimate things as neuter.

He

was afterward adopted by the grammari-

ans in the sense of "gender" (Lat. genus).

THE PR^- ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


used in an indefinite way of both pronouns and

71
articles.

He

distinguished between tenses,

and

classifies

verbs as

not only "active" and "passive," but those which are

known

to us as "neuter"

and

"deponent."

He

has

something to say of punctuation, though he mentions only

one punctuation mark


first

a short mark placed beneath the


This he
it is

word

of the line which ends a sentence.

called vapaypaipi^,

and

the origin of our word " para-

graph," applied to a long sentence or to a number of

connected sentences.
totle gives

It

is

further to be noted that Aris-

names

to subject

and

predicate.

All these disthis

tinctions

form no part of grammatical doctrine, since

did not as yet exist; but they were at the time logical or

metaphysical in their essence.

Later, the Stoics and the

Alexandrian scholars narrowed the definition of grammar


(^

T^X^V

jpafj,iMaTLKi])

and our modern meaning


its

of the
still

word became familiar even while


survived.

wider significance

Literary Study

was now imdertaken from the stand-

point of cBsthetics, and Literary Criticism became


scientific.

more

The

period which immediately followed the


richest

Persian

Wars was the

and most

fruitful

in the

intellectual history of Greece.

The poems
lines

of

Homer had
set forth in

been regarded as containing in their

something superis

natural and almost divine; and this feeling

the Ion of Plato.


inspiration

But popular

belief also held that

Homer's

was passed on from him to the great poets who

72

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

were his successors, just as certain branches of the Christian

Church assert the doctrine of an Apostolic Succession.


lyric poets

Thus the

shared in this general reverence, and

the great dramatic poets were ennobled by popular tradition.

We

have seen that some rude form of tragedy was

said to have originated with Thespis,

by

Pisistratus to present his plays

who was encouraged The great at Athens.

tragedians, jEschylus, Sophocles,


their masterpieces

and Euripides, produced

almost contemporaneously.

Comedy
its

(invented by Susarion) began to thrive and found


brilliant

most

exponent

in

Aristophanes
less

(444-388
its

B.C.).

A
less

newer form of comedy,


personal in
its

harsh in

criticism

and

allusions,

was presently developed

first

by

Aristophanes himself
fected

(Middle
(b.

Comedy) and was

per-

by Menander

342

b.c.) in the

New Comedy.

All these plays, both tragedies

and comedies, were proAthenians, and prizes

duced at the great

festivals of the

were given according to the decision of the people.^

The

study of rhetoric and oratory, the popularity of the Drama,

and the exceedingly great

intelligence of the

Greek mind

led at once to a careful study of the


in prose as well as poetry.

most famous works

Such study inevitably took


discusses a

the form of exegesis, as

when Plato

poem, of

Simonides in the Protagoras, taking up the questions as to


the meaning of certain words in the poem; then as to the
'

So at

first.

Afterwards, the prizes were awarded

by a committee

of

five judges

chosen

by

lot.

THE PR^-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


consistency of Simonides;

73

and

finally,

a long disquisition
:

on the poem as a whole.

Thus

says Socrates

"

great

deal might be said in praise of the details of the poem,

which

is

a charming piece of workmanship, and very

finished,

but that would be tedious.

I should like,

how-

ever, to point

out the general intention of the poem."


proceeds to do so at considerable length.

And then he
This
is

essentially exegetical treatment

and belongs to the


In the Republic
Aristotle in his

science of Hermeneutics, or exposition.

we have Esthetic Criticism.


Poetica

But

it

was

who produced a work

of true aesthetic criticism,


is

which, though brief and unfinished,

so full of suggestion

and profound thought as to make it to-day perhaps the most


widely studied of
all

his

numerous

writings.'

Professor

Butcher

calls attention to

one feature of the

treatise

which
art.

emphasises an important fact in the study of Greek

He
"

says:

distinction
fully

The
we

between

fine

and

useful art

was

first

brought out
art

by

Aristotle.

In the history of Greek

are struck rather by the union between the


It

two
loss

forms of art than by their independence.


for art

was a

when the

spheres of use and beauty

came

in practice

to be dissevered,
rative,

when the

useful object ceased to be decolife

and the things of common

no longer gave de-

light to the
'

maker and

to the user.

But the

theoretic

See Butcher, Aristotle's Theory of Poetry and Fine Art (London, 1902).
critical text
its

This volume contains a

and a translation

of the Poetics, with

a most admirable discussion of

teachings and their meaning.

74
distinction

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


between
fine

and useful

art

needed to be

laid

down, and to Aristotle we owe the


fine art as

first

clear conception of

a free and independent activity of the mind,

outside the

domain both

of religion

and

of politics, having

an end
ment."

distinct

from that of education or moral improve-

A famous passage in the Poetics is that which refers to the


doctrine of "purgation" (^Kadapa-vi).

Plato had said of

tragedy that

it

satisfies

"the natural hunger for sorrow

and weeping,"' and that "poetry feeds and waters the


passions instead of starving them."
ish the poets

Thus he would banAristotle,


kill

from

his ideal State.

on the other

hand, " held that

it is

not desirable to

or to starve the

emotional part of the soul;

and that the regulated indul-

gence of the feelings serves to maintain the balance of our


nature."
Professor Butcher, summarising an explanation
J.

put forth in 1857 by

Bernays, says that katharsis

is

medical metaphor and "denotes a pathological effect on


the soul, analogous to the effect of medicine on the body."

The

thought, as he interprets
excites the

it,

may be

expressed thus:

Tragedy

emotions of pity and fear


all

kindred
feelings

emotions that are in the breasts of

men

and by the
The
. . .

act of excitation affords a pleasurable relief.


called forth

by the

tragic spectacle are not, indeed, per-

manently removed, but are quieted for the time.


stage, in fact, provides a harmless
'

The

and pleasurable outlet

Republic, a. 606.

THE PR^-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


for instincts

75

which demand

satisfaction,

and which can

be indulged here more


It
is

fearlessly

than in

real life.*

popularly supposed that the doctrine of the Three


is

Dramatic Unities This


is

set forth in the Poetica of Aristotle.

not

strictly true,

however, since Aristotle definitely


of action,

demands only the unity

namely, that " within

the single and complete action which constitutes the unity


of a play," the successive incidents should be connected

together by the law of necessary and probable sequence.

One may

read into the treatise a suggestion of the unity of

time and the unity of place; yet these were not actually
formulated until the sixteenth century by Castelvetro, an
Italian editor of Aristotle.^

The Greeks

of Aristotle's time regarded tragedy as the

highest form of literature.

Certainly to

them

it

was

more moving and more profound


life

in its interpretation of

than even the

epic.

We
arts.

must remember, however,


it is

that the

drama

is

more than

literature, since

literature

blended with
painter's
there,
living

all

the other

The

dance, the song, the

colouring,

and

instrumental

music, too,
is

are

and the

effect of

animated sculpture

found

in the

men and women who


is

impersonate the characters.

Hence the acted drama


but
'

not literature pure and simple,


the
arts.'

it is

a melange of
cit.

all

Butcher, op.

pp. 227-228.
Literary Criticism in
the

'

See

Spingarn,
1908).

Renaissance,

pp.

90-101

(New York,
3

Peck, Literature, pp. 22, 28

(New York,

1908).

76

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

One
now
cus

dwells

upon

Aristotle's Poeiica,

because

it

is

the

most remarkable specimen of


possess.

aesthetic criticism

which we

But

criticism of various kinds

was

to be

found

in other writers,

and

especially in Heraclides Ponti-

(fl.

340

B.C.),

who came
is

to Athens, where he studied

under Plato.
jects

He

said to have written

upon many sub-

philosophy, mathematics,
we have a
of political science.
(b.

music, history, politics,


treatises

language, and poetry.

Only fragments of these

remain, though

synopsis of one of his books

on the subject

There was also Theoleft

phrastus of Lesbos

372

B.C.)

who has

fragments of
Style.

two works, one


the second he
solecisms.'

On Comedy and
is

the other

On

In

said to have treated of metres

and of

Much

criticism

must have been given


and
in the

orally

by the

Sophists in their lectures;

dramas themselves
This was
all,

by the playwrights in their


especially the case

hits at

one another.

with comic poets,


of

above

Aris-

tophanes,

who was fond


It
is

gibing at Euripides

and of

praising .^Eschylus.

said that a whole passage of the

Telephus, by Euripides,

was subsequently omitted because


of
it.^

Aristophanes had
criticism
is

made such game

Another form of

to be found in the parodies of serious works.


et

'See Voss, De Heraclidis Pontici Vita

Scriptis

(Rostock, 1897);

and the
'

dissertation

by Rabe on Theophrastus (Bonn,

1890).

See Egger, Histoire de la Critique, pp. 45-70.

Later Antiochus of

Alexandria wrote a book on the poets

who were

criticised in the

Middle

Comedy.

See Atheuasus,

xi.

p. 232.

THE PR^- ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


Even the
heroic poetry of

77

Homer and

of the Cyclic writers


is,

became a subject

of burlesque.

There

in fact, scarcely

anything more characteristic of the later Greeks than the


extent to which parody prevailed.
critical spirit

It indicates

how

far the

was supplanting the

creative;

for while

few

can create, any one can ridicule that which has been
created.

In the
in the

fifth

century, the mock-heroic

was represented
and Mice,

Batrachomyommhia, or
It

Battle of the Frogs


is is

ascribed to one Pigres.


direct

not in

itself,

however, a

parody any more than

Pope's Rape of the Lock

but

like that, it

may be

called pure literature.

With Hege-

mon

of Thasos, however, true Parody begins.

Hegemon
a play to

directly burlesqued the epic

Gigantomachia

in

which the Athenians were hstening when the news came to

them that

their Sicilian expedition in the

Peloponnesian

War had
parodist

been

utterly

destroyed.'
(c.

A
380

more audacious
B.C.),

was Matron
to burlesque

of Pitana

who was

the

first

Homer.

From him we have a


lines of the Odyssey.^

fragment which mocks the opening

The

first line
it

shows that
reads:

this

parody was of a gastronomical

nature, for
AetTTva
[JLoi

IcrireTe, Moi!<7a,

TroXvrpoi^a Kai /joXa jroXXd


filling

Sing to me, Muse, of the feasts that are

and many in number!

The
' ^

philosophers were parodied by


i.

Timon

of Phlius,

Athenseus,

p. s;

iii-

p. 108.

Athenaeus,

iv.

pp. 134-137, and Moser, Ueber Matron den Parodiker


vi.

in

Daub and

Kreuzer's Studien,

pp. 293

foil.

78

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


as the Sillographer,

known

whose

silli

(a-iWoi)

'

guyed

the teaching of the dogmatic philosophers in epic verse.

The
gave

classic

tragedy was burlesqued, though at a later


(or Syracuse) in plays which

period, by Rhinthon of Tarentum


rise to

the so-called
rire.

mock tragedy
must be

(iXaporpayaiSia)

or la tragedie pour
ironical spirit

It

said also that a certain

appears in a collection by Aristotle of ques-

tions intended to point out absurdities in

some of the

inconsistencies or

Homer

(II/JoySX^/iaTa).
latter part of this

There are evidences that during the

period a good deal of confusion existed in the texts of stand-

ard authors.

It is

known

that Aristotle himself edited a

special edition of

Homer

for the use of his pupil,

Alexander
edition."
B.C.),

the Great,
It is

an edition

known

as " the casket


(c.

also a

tradition that

Lycurgus

350

the

Athenian (not to be confounded with Lycurgus the mythical

Spartan

legislator), erected

bronze statues to the three


Sophocles,

great tragic poets, ^schylus,

and Euripides,

and caused authentic copies

of their plays to be

made and

preserved in the public archives.

These copies were made


Concerning
fact

after a careful collation of the actors' copies. this recension, however, very little is
itself is significant.^
'Literally "Squints."

known, though the

Even

if

the State codex prepared by


"It's a

Cf. our theatrical slang,

scream!"

See Paul,
etc.
'

De

Sillis (Berlin, 1821);

Delapierre,

La Parodie
etc.

chez les Grecs,

(London, 1871), and Carroll, Aristotle's Poetics,

(Baltimore, 1895).
tlie

Wilamowitz, in Hermes, xiv. 151; and


Euripides (Berlin, 1889).

id..

Introduction to

Hera^

kles of

THE PI^E-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


Lycurgus was only a careful exemplar and not very
cally

79
criti-

made,

it still

remains a work of great importance in

the history of Text Criticism, because

down

to the time of

the Alexandrians,

it

remained a standard edition and was


It

held in great esteem.


really did
rest

seems probable, however, that

it

upon a

critical basis, since there

was no

lack of editions, nor could an arbitrarily chosen text have attained to so


critical

much

authority.

Granting also that the


existed,

comparison of manuscripts had not long

there were certainly autographa preserved in the families


of

the tragic

poets.

Furthermore, there was an

orig-

inal

codex in each instance, an assertion that cannot be


regarding the Homeric text.
still

made

The

original

codex,
errors,

however carefully copied, must

have contained

and may have been supplied with marginal notes

after

being compared with the version used by the actors in the


theatre.
for,

More than

this,

however,

it is

impossible to say;

regarding the methods of recension, no actual evidence

survives.

Attention was

much

earlier given to
it

Music than to the

other arts, and the study of

had a

scientific character.
title

Many treatises
earliest

are spoken of with the

Tlepl Mov(nicrj<!,

though none of them have descended to our times.

The

known

writer on music

was Lasus

of Hermione,

a contemporary of Xenophanes and Simonides, and said


to have been the teacher of Pindar.

He

is

a figure of
in

importance in the history of Greek music, introducing

8o

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

the dith3T:amb a
giving to
it

much

greater freedom of
flutes,

rhythm

in music,

an accompaniment of

and adding to the

number

of voices.

By some he was numbered among the


The Pythagoreans were
espe-

Seven Sages of Greece.'


cially

devoted to music,

among them, the famous Archytas


treatise with the title 'ApixovMov.

of

Tarentum, who wrote a

In the case of

many

of the writings that have descended to


it

us by report only,

is

impossible to be certain of their

exact subject, inasmuch as poetry and music were so closely


allied that the

name MovaiKr) was used indifferently of either.

The

only important treatise, written perhaps in the Alex-

andrian Age, of which

now we have any

portion,

is

that

by Aristoxenus styled
still

'ApfioviKo, I.TOi'^eia, of

which there

remain some fragments, edited by Saran.*


of classical music

The foundation
ascribed by
(c.

among the Greeks was


Greek
of

them

to Terpander, an iEolian
is

Lesbos

675

B.C.),

who

said to have given the lyre seven

strings instead of four; curate.

but this statement

is

certainly inac-

Pausanius' says that Terpander merely added

four strings to the seven that already existed on the lyre.

Flute-playing was

still

older,

but was not scientifically


(c.

studied until the time of Sacadas of Argos

580

B.C.).

The

vocal music of the ancients differed from

modern

music in that part-singing


'

was unknown, there being only


and Diog. Laert.
i.

See Athenaeus,

viii.

p. 338,

42.

'Edited by Saran (Leipzig, 1893).


' iii.

12. 10.

Terpander

first set

poetry to music.

THE PR^-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


a
difiference of octaves, as

8
in the

when men and boys sang


in the

same chorus.

Another difference was

modes, which

were distinguished from each other by the place of the


semitones in the octave.
therefore, as against the

Greek music had seven modes,

two modes (major and minor)


These seven modes got

with which
their

we

are acquainted.

names from the three

great divisions of the Greeks

(Dorian, ^olian, and Ionian) and from the Asiatic peoples


(Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, and HypoIydian).i

The musical
tinct

notation used by the Greeks had two dis-

systems of signs, one for the voice and the other

for the instrument.

Those

for the voice

were taken from

the Ionic alphabet; while the instrumental notation was

derived from the

first

fourteen letters of an older alphabet

which retained the digamma, besides an ancient form


of iota,

and two forms of lambda.

Only a few specimens


to us, the

of

Greek musical notation have come down


being a

last

hymn

to Apollo

found at Delphi in 1893


of

carved

upon the fragments

a stone.

It

has been
is

reconstructed by Oscar Fleischer, whose

theory

that

" Greek melody emanated from the words, while rhythm


'

See Engel, The Music of the Most Ancient Nations (London, 1866);
et

Gevaert, Hisloire

Theorie de la Musique dans I'Antiquiti (Ghent, 1881);

Westphal, Die Musik des griechischen Alterthums (Leipzig, 1887);

Monro,

Modes

oj

Ancient Greek Music (Oxford, 1894);

Henderson,
in

How Music

Developed

(New York,

i8g8);

and Gleditsch
ii.

Iwan Muller's Hand3d


ed.

buck der classischen Alterthumswissenschaft,

3,

(Munich, 1901).
Short History of

For a simple account of early music, see Untersteiner,


Music, pp. 13-4S

(New York,

1902).

82

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

and metre were given by the musical accents of the


words."
greatly
1

Greek music was introduced

at

Rome and was


entertainments

admired.

Nero

gave

public

resembling modern concerts, and Domitian (86 a.d.) built


a large
structure,

which he called the Odeum, for the

musical exercises that were held there under his direction.^

Greek painting reached

its

highest development at the


earlier fresco-painting

same time with

sculpture.

Even

had been borrowed from the Egyptians, and vase-painting which

we can

trace through existing remains, shows us

how continuous was


century B.C.

the development.

One may

believe

that the graphic art in Greece began as early as the eighth


;

and Eumares of Athens began

to distinguish

the sexes in his paintings, probably by the use of various


colours,

since

heretofore artists

had worked

in

mono-

chrome on walls or whitened

tablets of clay.

But

the

greatest painters were

those

who appeared

soon after the Persian wars.


called the discoverer of

Polygnotus of Thasos was


art,

the

taking subjects from

mythology (460

B.C.).

His contemporaries treated events of

recent history, decorating the public buildings and temples.

Polygnotus used only four colours

black, white, yellow,


the
scene-painter,

and red
ence
in

yet

gave variety to his painting by the differ-

shading.

Soon afterward

^See Fleischer, Die Reste der altgriechischen Tonhunst (Leipzig, igoo).


'Little

can be learned about music from

Roman

writers,

such as

Martianus Capella and Boethius, since they merely copy what they
learned from the Greeks.

THE PR^-ALEXANDKIAN PERIOD

83

Agatharchus of Samos, discovered new principles of perspective

and shading, on which subjects he wrote a book.


of

His methods were followed on panels by ApoUodorus Athens and others.

The
who

school which he founded


it

was

usually called the Ionic School, and


great rivals, Zeixxis,
truth,

comprised the two

copied nature with wonderful

and Parrhasius of Ephesus.

Encaustic painting

was perfected by
" Black
bull
in

Pausias, in the fourth century, and his


as

Ox" was
modern

famous in antiquity as Paul


Great
skill

Potter's

times.

was attained by

Apelles of Ephesus, whose work was very graceful.

We

have scarcely any remains of Grecian paintings of the


classical

age except those which are found upon the tombs,

usually Etruscan, and often copied from Greek models.^

Gem-cutting was learned from the Greeks by the Egyptians,

but

it

cannot be said that the Greeks greatly imtheir models.

proved upon

For cutting gems they used a

sharp stone (obsidian) or a minute metal disk worked by a


drill

which cut the deeper parts of the pattern.


sort of

The

tools

were charged with a


cared
little

emery powder.^
scarabs,

The Greeks
on

for

the

Egyptian

and preferred

cameos made

of onyx, the figures standing out vividly

a dark background.

The

oldest

Greek jeweller whose

See Woltmann and Woermann, A History of Painting. Eng. trans. (New York, 1901) Ghaxd, La Peinlure Antique {Vaxis,, i&g^) Cros and
; ;

Henri,

VEncaustique

(Paris,

1884)

and Bockler, Die Polychromie in

der antiken Sculptur (Aschersleben, 1882).


2

Pliny, //. iV. xxvii. 76.

84

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


to

name has come down


the

us

is

Mnesarchus, the father of


(c.

philosopher

Pythagoras

600

B.C.)-

The most

famous master

of gem-cutting in

Greek times was Pyrgo-

teles in the fourth century B.C.

He was

the only artist


like-

whom
ness.

Alexander the Great would allow to cut his


It

may

be added that not until later times did the


stones

love

of

precious
passion.^

such as pearls and

emeralds

become a

The

Prae-Alexandrian Period

may be

viewed as end-

ing with the d6ath of Aristotle (322 B.C.)

and the complete

domination of Greece by the Macedonian kings.

The
of

supremacy of Macedon,

in fact,

marks the decadence

what had been most


the

original

and

striking in the genius of

Greeks, whether

political,

literary,

or philosophical.

The

history of this period reveals in Greece the gradual

development and decline that have been repeated in the


history of every other nation since the world began,

when-

ever that history has extended over a sufficient time to


give play to the
forces.

same

creative

and the same destructive


at first a

So in Greece

we
its

find

vigorous

and

quick-witted people, in

formative period, cherishing a


intelligible
less as

comparatively simple
literature that springs

and

faith,

and with a

up

the result of conscious

art
'

than as the spontaneous outpouring of native genius,


See Middleton,

The Engraved Gems

of Classical

Times (Cambridge,

1891);

Murray,
;

(London, 1892)
tBology, ch. vii

Handbook of Greek Archaology, pp. 40-50, 146-173 and Fowler and Wheeler, A Handbook of Creek Arch1909).

(New York,

THE PRjE-ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


seeking to give
fit

8$

expression to

tlie

national aspirations.

Gradually the notion of formal art and formulaic teaching


is

implanted in men's minds.

Schools

arise,

and what

the few have done before from natural prompting, the

many

learn to do according to rule and precept.


" Most can raise the floweis

now

For

all

have got the seed."

The

first result

is

to develop to the full the powers of


is

men

of genius.

There

a happy blending of the old

creative gifts,

and of the old freshness and spontaneity,

with the power that comes from training and from the

condensation of accumulated experience into definite

rules.

The Greek mind,


all

thus stimulated and developed, attacks

of the great problems that confront


intellect.

and challenge the

human

The

philosophy of language, the sources

of style, the arts of expression, the theory of government,

the laws of thought, the constitution of the universe, and

the nature of the gods themselves, are


lessly

all

explained fearits

and often with an acuteness that has never found

parallel.

But the
its

limitations

of the
efforts

mind

are

at last

reached, and
nescience;

most earnest

appear to lead to

so that Greece in the sphere of government


in philosophy with negation, in

ended with despotism,

religion with scepticism.

The Greek
in

genius in

its later

struggles
exquisite

can best be described

Matthew Arnold's

words as " a beautiful and


its

ineffectual angel beat-

ing in the void

luminous wings

in vain."

86

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

There

is

some truth
is

in the belief that a general


fatal to originality,

and highly
it

developed culture

because

inevi-

tably leads to established standards

and thus makes everytakes the

thing conventional.

A
is

dead

level of excellence

place of a few striking manifestations of creative power.

The

average
is less

man

more

intelligent,

but the exceptional

man
exist.

original, until at last exceptional


intellectually

men no more
and reduces

Society becomes

hlase

everything to formulas.
are slaves to

Creators give place to critics


call "

who
not

what they

good form."

But

it is

consistent with good


astic

form to be imaginative and enthusiis

and

original.

This

held to be eccentric.

Thus

in
is

a highly civilised community the whole drift of thought

toward the commonplace; and thus in the


the speculative and idealistic systems give

later philosophy,

way

to a sort of

mild eclecticism that does not go very far beyond the practical

questions which relate to the


is

life

of every day.
its

The

epic

supplanted by the drama with

many

meretri-

cious allurements.

In the drama

itself

the intense and


first

powerful tragedies of ^schylus and Sophocles are


thrust aside

by the rationalistic and rather cynical plays of

Euripides,! until tragedy gives


ing

way to
its

the elegant and amusits

comedy

of

Menander, with
it

urbane dialogue and

realism,

which takes

out of the realm of pure poetry.^


and pp. 237-60
the

^Set WtTxaXX, Euripides


(Cambridge, 1895)
;

the Rationalist, \nXroA\uzi\on.

and Decharme, Euripides and


Eng. trans.

Spirit

0} his

Dramas, pp. 74-92.


'

(New York,

1906).

Horace, Sat.

i.

4,

46-47.

THE PILE-ALEXAISTDRIAN PERIOD

87
the creative

The

Prse-AIexandrian

Age

ends, then,
critical.

when

impulse had largely yielded to the


for serious

What remained

men,

therefore,

was not

to attempt anything

new, but rather to study what had already been produced

to
came
lateral

analyse, to criticise,
into especial

and to

classify.

Thus

there
col-

prominence the sciences that are


literature

and subsidiary to

and

linguistic study

hermeneutics,
granmiar.
[Bibliography.
chapter, see

lexicography, text criticism,

and formal

In addition to the books already cited in


and Athenaeus, English

this

the anecdotal works of Diogenes Laertius, English


translation

translation (London, 1853),

(London, 1854); together with Saintsbury, A History of Criticism, i-j PP- 3-S9 (New York, 1900); Jebb, The Growth and Influence of Classical Greek Poetry (London, 1893) Haigh, The Tragic Drama
;

of the Greeks (Oxford, 1896); Denis,


(Paris, 1886); Croiset,

La Comedie

Grecque, 2 vols.

An

English translation
Poetry:

(New

Abridged History of Greek Literature, York, 1904); and Courthope, Life in

Law

in Taste, pp. 37-221 (London, 1901).]

Ill

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


A.

The Alexandrian School

In the year 306 b.c, Demetrius Phalereus, statesman,


poet, philosopher,

and
left

orator,

having been sentenced to

death at Athens,

Greece and passed over the sea to


It

the infant city of Alexandria in Egypt.


twenty-five

was exactly

years

from the time when Alexander the

Great, had, with his


of the city to

own hand,

traced the general plan

which he gave his name and as to which


it

he issued the most peremptory orders that

shovild

be

made the

metropolis of the entire world.

The commands

of a king cannot give enduring greatness to a city; but

the natural advantages of Alexandria were such that a


great

commercial community, when planted there, was

sure to live

and

flourish

throughout succeeding ages.

Alexandria lay upon a projecting tongue of land, so


situated that the whole trade of the Mediterranean centred
in
it.

Down

the Nile there floated to

its

wharves the
treasures

wealth of barbaric Africa.

To

it

also

came the

of the East, carried over vast spaces

by caravans

silks

from China, spices and jewels from India, and enormous


masses of gold and
silver

from lands of which the names

were scarcely known even to contemporary geographers.


88

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


In
its

89

harbour were the vessels of every country, from

Asia in the East, to Spain and Gaul and even Britain in


the West.

To

the outward eye, Alexandria was extremely beautiful.


its

Through

entire

length

ran two great boulevards,


diversified

shaded by mighty

trees,

and

by parterres of

multicoloured flowers amid which fountains splashed and


costly

marbles gleamed.

One-fifth of the whole city

was

reserved for the Greek kings

who succeeded

Alexander,
it,

and was known


long,

as the Royal Residence.

In

before

were the palaces of the reigning family;

and there

were, besides, parks and gardens, brilliant with tropical


foliage

and adorned with masterpieces of Grecian and

sculp-

ture, while sphinxes

obelisks gave a suggestion of


his

oriental

strangeness.

As one looked seaward,

eye

beheld, over the blue water, the rocks of the sheltering


island. Pharos,

on which Ptolemy

II.

reared a pyramidal

lighthouse of marble four hundred feet in height at a


cost of eight

hundred

silver talents ($940,000),

and

justly

numbered among the


the time
tained

seven wonders of the world.

At

when Demetrius took

refuge there, the city coninhabitants,

more than one hundred thousand


life.

and

was humming with

Its people

were

alert, energetic,

proud of Alexandria's
future.

distinction,

and ambitious

for its

Dinocrates,
its

its

designer,

had planned
it

it

with a

sublime belief in

destiny, giving

a circumference of
its

more than

fifteen miles,

and

foreseeing already

coming

QO
splendour.

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


Ptolemy
title

Soter,

who was

just

about to assume

the style and


tions

of a king,
ideas.

was a man of large concep-

and

liberal

His mother had been a con-

cubine of Philip of Macedon, so that Ptolemy was believed


to be half-brother to the great Alexander, under

whom
great

he had served vyith conspicuous success in Asia.


soldier

and a consummate statesman, he was


in his love of art

also a true

Greek
fact,

and science and

literature.

In

he had himself written a narrative of the wars of

Alexander.*

He was

still

carrying on a campaign against


its

Antigonus; but the contest was nearing

end, and

al-

ready Ptolemy was turning his thoughts to magnificent


designs for enhancing the glory
capital.

and splendour of

his

It

was the psychological moment


All the conditions
rich,

for

some remarkable

achievement.
able.

were absolutely favour-

Here was a

populous,

and youthful

city,

possessing the Hellenic traditions of intellectual greatness,

yet growing
Hellas.
ised

up

in a

world that was broader than

little

Its people

were receptive to new


civilisation far older

ideas, liberal-

by contact with a
itself,

than that of

Greece

and

filled

with an intense desire to gain at

once, not only the commercial,

but the intellectual su-

premacy of the world.

The

first

Greek king of Egypt

'This narrative was largely used by Arrian in preparing his chief


work, the Anabasis of Alexander.

The fragments

of Ptolemy's

work

can be found in the Didot edition of Arrian (Paris, 184S).

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


possessed practically unlimited resources.

91

He was

gifted

with a trained intelligence and taste, and inspired with a


splendid enthusiasm for
all

that was noble and refining.

The

suggestion alone

was needed to employ these unusual


that should

opportunities in a

way

be worthy of their

inherent possibilities.
exiled Athenian,

Such a suggestion came from the

Demetrius Phalereus.

Demetrius himself was a

man

well fitted to influence

even so independent a ruler as King Ptolemy.

among

the last of the Attic orators of

He was distinction. He
hundred
in

had governed

his native city so ably that three

and ninety statues had been erected by the Athenians


his honour.

He was

also a highly cultivated scholar, the

schoolmate of Menander, and a pupil of Theophrastus,

who succeeded
School.

Aristotle at the

head of the Peripatetic

To him was due

the revival of Homeric recita-

tion by the Rhapsodes, after these had fallen into disuse.

He was
Iliad

himself the author of two books relating to the


relating to the Odyssey, supposed to have

and four

dealt with text criticism.


fitted

No

one could have been better

than he to advise the king in whatever related to


There-

any project for the advancement of learning.


fore,

one

is

not surprised that to him

is

ascribed the sug-

gestion which soon rendered Alexandria the intellectual


capital of the world

and profoundly influenced the sub-

sequent history of Greek and

Roman

learning.

The

im-

mediate fruits of his wise counsel were two

the

estab-

92

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

lishment of a great

Museum

(to Mvcrelop),

and

also the

foundation of the famous Alexandrian Library.'

An

account of the

Museum

is

given by Strabo.^
in the

It

was attached to the royal palace


quarter of the
city,

most beautiful

overlooking the harbour, and surporticos,

rounded by lawns,
art.

and marvels of decorative


its

It

contained an

observatory for
library,

astronomers,

laboratories,

a selected

and a great

hall

which was

practically a theatre of magnificent proportions arranged

as a public lecture room.

In a second

hall,

the scholars
all

who were drawn

to

the

Museum from Museum

countries

dined together, like the master and fellows of an English


college.

Attached to the

were botanical and

zoological gardens.

The
so

object of the whole institution


research.

was

to

encourage

original

At

first

there

was no teaching,

that

the

Museum

bore a strik-

ing resemblance to the Carnegie Institution in


ton.

Washing-

Later

it

became

in essence

a great university in
specialty,

which the professors lectured, each on his own


to students

who numbered

at one time as

many

as four-

teen thousand.

The

professors were primarily under the

supervision of principals

whom we may
while the

call

deans, chosen
of the

by the whole body;


'

administration

Athenaeus, v. p. 203.
Strabo, xviii. p. 794.

See also Parthey, Das Alexandrinische


i.

Museum

(Berlin, 1838); Ritschl, Opuscula,

pp. 1-70, 123-172, 197-237; Weniger,

Das Alexandrinische Museum


Greece, pp. before the

(1895);

Walden, The Universities

0} Ancient

48-so (New York, 1909); Graves,

History of Education

Middle Ages (New York, 1909).

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD

93

Museum was

in the

hands of a

priest appointed

by the

king and in later times by the

Roman

emperor.

The

expense of the whole was borne by the public treasury.

The second Ptolemy grouped


faculties

the lecturers under four


Literature,

representing,

respectively,

Mathe-

matics, Astronomy,

and Medicine, corresponding to the


Pure

modern
Science,

divisions of Philosophy, Applied Science,

and Medicine.

The
ever,

administrative head of the


all

Museum was

not,

how-

charged with

the functions of an American uni-

versity president

or chancellor.

We
it

find in Alexandria

a practical division of duties such as has been proposed


in very recent times,
single

became

seems impossible

for

man

to be at once the administrative


university.

and the edueducational


in

cational

head of a great

The

head of the University at Alexandria was the person

charge of the great Library, which sprang up side by


side

with the

Museum,

and was
from

necessitated
all

by

it.

The second Ptolemy


which,
as

collected

parts of Greece
of

and Asia an immense number of manuscripts, some


already
said,

were stored in the Museum,

while the rest were housed separately in another building

known

as the Serapeum.

Foreign books were also pur-

chased and translations of them were added to the Library.'

The
'

Septuagint version of the Old Testament


first

is

said to

Callimachus, the second librarian, was the

to introduce a

num-

ber of Egyptian and

Hebrew manuscripts.

94

HESIORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


Galen mentions the fact that the
Sophocles,

have been thus made.

autographa or original copies of ^Eschylus,

and Euripides were purchased


believed at the time of
its

for the Library,

which

is

greatest

fame to have contained


six

between

five

hundred thousand and


before

hundred thousand

volumes/
were some

Even
fifty

the

death of Demetrius there


its

thousand volumes on

shelves.

Private

collections such as that of Aristotle

were purchased, as

well as rare editions


It

and

especially authoritative copies.

can readily be seen

how

the existence of an endowed

school side

by

side with a library of such magnificent pro-

portions would quickly foster the systematic and orderly

study of

many

subjects that
individuals,

had previously been taken


working independently and

up

at

random by

often with very unsatisfactory and inadequate materials.

At

last, in

every sphere of learning, a large body of highly

trained men,

provided with every

facility

for

research

and freed from any pecuniary anxiety, could labour without haste and without
rest,

apportioning their work so

as to bring into play the peculiar talents of each,

and

accumulating a great mass of data

of
it

facts,

results,

and

principles,

which each succeeding generation found

classified for its use

and to which

in

turn

added.

Hence,
spirit

at once a great development of the scientific


'

in

See Ritschl, Die Aleocandrinischen Bibliotheken (Breslau, 1838);


(Berlin, 1882);

Birt,

Das Antike Buchwesen


ch.

Geraud, Les Livres dans VAntiquite,

X (Paris, 1840); Castellani, Ddle Biblioteche ndl' AntichiUi (Bologna,

1884).

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


every
direction

95

followed

almost immediately upon the


Library and what
is

establishment of the

Museum and

roughly and somewhat inaccurately styled the Alexandrian School.

There were,

in fact, several distinct out-

growths from the Alexandrian researches and training,

but there was no " school " at


that word

all

in the sense given to

when we speak

of the Ionic School,

or the

Pythagorean School, or the Stoic School.


these a
tain

In each of
cer-

number

of able

men were

all

dominated by

common

philosophical

principles

and ideas

and

holding fast to a

common

theory.

But

at Alexandria
lived

such was not the case.


together in the

The

learned

men who

Museum had no
common.

single philosophy
activities
all

and

held no theory in

Their

took the
of

most diverse

direction.

The
far

only thing that

them

possessed together was

a love of science

and

of scientific

methods.

It

would be

more proper

to speak of the

" schools " at Alexandria, since there were really

many,

school of mathematics,

a school of astronomy, a

school of medicine, a school of philosophy, a school of


literature,

a school of grammar and


criticism.*

linguistics,

and

finally,

a school of textual

Yet these
'

different schools

had one

characteristic
1845);

so

See

St.

Hilaire,

De

I'Ecole

d'Alexandrie

(Paris,

Simon,

Histoire de I'Ecole d'Alexandrie, 2 vols. (Paris, 1844-45);

and Vacherot,
Kings-

Histoire Critique de I'Ecole d'Alexandrie, 3 vols. (Paris, 1846-51).


ley's

Alexandrian Schools (Cambridge, 1854)

is

disappointing and re-

lates only to the philosophical side.

g6
far in

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

common

as to give a sort of family likeness to

all

the productions of the Alexandrian scholars, and thus in

some measure to
"school."

justify us in speaking of the

Alexandrian

Just as the writings of the earlier

Greeks

exhibit a certain instinctive originality

and freshness of

thought, so the writings of the Alexandrians are steeped


in erudition.

They

smell of the lamp.

Before
is

all

else,

they are learned productions;

and

this

the trait that


their hands.

belongs to every single work that


It
is

came from

seen no less in their literature than in their science.


writer has very aptly said:

A German

"It

is

as though

the great library strove to reproduce


vidual work."

itself in

each indi-

Therefore
of

we

find the Alexandrian Poetry,

such

as that

Callimachus,

Aratus,

and Apollonius,

suggesting to the reader at every turn a learned treatise.

So Philetas of Cos

(c.

300

B.C.),

though a writer of
It

elegies,

died from overwork in scientific study.


deed,

was

he,

in-

who made

the

first

attempt at an Homeric lexicon


the mathe-

{"AraKTa, TXaxTaaC)}

The astronomers and

maticians were morbidly anxious about the rhetorical and

grammatical merits of the language in which they wrote


of the equinoxes

and the

ecliptic, or

the solution of the

quadratic equation.

So, again, the geographers

and

his-

torians supplied their treatises with archaeological notes.

And

thus, at

first,

even the most abstract lectures were

given in verse.
'

It

was an age

of encyclopaedic scholarfoil.

See Couat,

La

Poesie Alexandrine, pp. 68

(Paris, 1882).

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


ship;

97

and

it

tinges the Alexandrian


treatises

epics

and dramas

no

less
is

than the

on grammar and lexicography.


Influence,
felt

This

what

is

meant by the Alexandrian

at

an influence that was afterward so powerfully

Rome, where

it

reproduced

itself in

the writings of Varro,

the polymath, no less than in the lines of Vergil, the most

learned of
It
is

all

the Latin poets.

precisely because the

whole tendency of the Alex-

andrians was toward reflection and research that their

work

in pure literature

was

of slight aesthetic value, being of imagination,

formal, pedantic,

and void

and that

their

philosophy was marked by a learned eclecticism.

The
and

highest philosophy, like the noblest literature, demands,


in addition to

mere

learning,

an

intellectual subtlety

genuine inspiration.

But the study

of mathematics, of

mechanics, and of physics was


respects so sure in
scientific
its results

now

fruitful,

and

in

many

as to be the admiration of

men

to-day;

while no one can overestimate the

enduring value of that systematic labour in the study of language (lexicography and grammar) and in the criticism
of texts.

So

far as literature

is

concerned, the Alexandrians were

at their best in collecting

and preserving what had come


centuries.

down
added

to

them from the preceding

What

they
of of

of their

own was
merit.

vast in
Little

amount and devoid

any great esthetic

more than the names

the Alexandrian writers of epics and lyrics and dramas

98
are

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

known

to-day.

Here and there a few fragments

tell

of vast

volumes which were read and even admired at

Alexandria, but which were either so obscure in their

treatment or so technical in their themes as to deserve


the oblivion that has

come upon them.

On
rian,

the other hand, the Alexandrians reduced criticism


of style to

and the study

an exact
(c.

science.

The

first libra-

Zenodotus of Ephesus
lyric

300

B.C.), collected

the epic

and

poets

Lycophron
.lEtolus,

of Colchis, the

comic poets

and Alexander of
librarian,

the tragic poets.


(c.

Callimachus of Cyrene

275

B.C.),

The second made a

catalogue of the Library in one hundred and twenty books

which

may

be said to have laid the foundation for a

scientific

study of Greek literature.


(c.

The

third

librarian,

Eratosthenes of Cyrene
treatise

200

b.c.),

wrote an admirable

on geography and another on the Old Comedy,

in at least twelve books, bringing to bear


ject

upon the subtaste.


(c.

a wealth of knowledge and excellent

The
B.C.),

fourth librarian, Aristophanes of Byzantium

200

has been styled "the greatest philologist of antiquity."


It is

he

who

is

said to have invented the accents


in writing Greek,

which

are
of

now employed
punctuation.

and

also a system
critical

Likewise

he suggested

signs

{a-rjfj,eia)

and used them

in his editions of

Homer, Hesiod,
writers.

of the three great tragic poets,


It
is

and other famous

claimed also that he wrote the Hypotheses or con-

densed plots to the greater dramatists, with notes and

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


aesthetic criticisms.^

99
is

Most important

of all

his estab-

lishment of what have become


or
lists

known

as "the

canons "

of the very best authors of Greek antiquity.

Ths

Alexandrian Canon^ was prepared with the greatest care,

and

it

represents the matured and final judgment of the

Alexandrian students of literature as to those names of

Greek writers whose works embodied the very highest


excellence in their especial spheres,

and who were thought

to be models for

all

future authors.

The
Poets,
(2) (3)

details

of the

Canon

are

as

follows:

(i)

Epic

Homer, Hesiod, Pisander, Panyasis, Antimachus.


Poets,

Iambic

Archilochus,
Alcaeus,

Simonides,

Hipponax.

Lyric Poets, Alcman,

Sappho, Stesichorus,
(4)

Pindar, Bacchylides, Ibycus, Anacreon, Simonides.


giac Poets,
(5)

Ele-

Callinus,

Minnermus,
Class),

Philetas, Callimachus.

Tragic

Poets
Ion,

(First

^schylus,
(Second

Sophocles,
Class,

Euripides,

Achaeus,

Agathon.

or

Tragic

Pleiades),

Alexander the ^Etolian, Philiscus of

Corcyra, Sositheus,

Homer

the Younger, ^antides, Sosi(6)

phanes or

Sosicles,

Lycophron.

Comic Poets (Old

Comedy), Epicharmus, Cratinus, Eupolis, Aristophanes,


Pherecrates,
Plato.

(Middle

Comedy),

Antiphanes,

'

See Gudeman, Outlines of the History of Classical Philology, 3d

ed.,

pp. 11-13 (Boston, 1902), and infra, pp. 100-102.


^

The word canon

{Kaviiv)

meant

originally

a reed, and then a car-

penter's rule;

so that, in a figurative sense, the

whatever served as a model or norm.


really

word came to denote The Canon Alexandrinus is


seen in the text above.

made up

of several canons as

may be

ICX)

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Alexis.
lus,

(New Comedy), Menander,


(7)

Philippides, Diphi-

Philemon, Apollodorus.

Historians, Herodotus,

Thucydides, Xenophon, Theopompus, Ephorus, Philistus,

Anaximenes,
Orators),

Callisthenes.

(8)

Orators

(the

ten

Attic

Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, Isasus,

^schines, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Hyperides, Dinarchus.


(9)

Philosophers,

Plato,
(10)

Xenophon, ^schines,
Pleiades

Aristotle,

Theophrastus.

Poetic

(seven

poets

of

the same epoch with one another),


Aratus, Philiscus,

ApoUonius Rhodius,

Homer

the Younger, Lycophron, Ni-

cander, Theocritus.

This Canon was

felt

to be necessary owing to the great

multitude of books that began to appear in the Alexandrian


Age.
of

There was a certain apprehension


prevail

lest

the weight
of
real

numbers should
and
lest

against the

claims

merit,

the great classics should be lost in a flood

of innovation.

The Canon was

intended to serve and

it

did serve as a standard of comparison by which ary productions must


purity of style and
sion.

all liter-

be judged;

and thus

it

preserved

some

definite laws of literary expres-

From

the standpoint of our

own

times the estab-

lishment of the Alexandrian

Canon wrought both good

and harm.

It

undoubtedly led to the preservation of

some

of the greatest

works of antiquity; but

it

also led

to the loss of other works that

would be of inestimable
philologist.

value to the

modern

classical

These

latter

works were allowed to perish just because they were not

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD

lOI

included by the Alexandrian critics in their authoritative


list.

The mere
was

fact that such a clearly defined standard

existed,

also, doubtless,

an injury to the most

gifted

writers of the following centuries.

It fostered a spirit of

imitation

and discouraged the

free play of their talents

by compelling them to a
sors

sort of conformity with predecesdifferent

whose genius and temperament were of a very

type.'

Of

original composition

under the head of pure


is

litera-

ture, the

most

interesting genre
is
it

found

in the Idylls of

Theocritus, whose time


of this period as to
fair

so well within the early days

make
as

doubtful whether

it is

wholly
poets

to class

him

an Alexandrian.

The

lyric

come next

in order of merit, the best of

them being Cal-

limachus, of whose work, however, only a few h)Tnns and

fragmentary passages and epigrams remain.

It

may be

said that in the writing of epigrams the Alexandrians were

very felicitous, as might have been expected from those

who

so carefully studied the art of expression

and who
style.

were always striving after neatness and precision of

The dramatic works composed


wholly
lost.

at Alexandria are

now

Of

the epics, two famous specimens remain,

the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius,


andra
'

and the Alexdull,

of

Lycophron.

The

first

is

inordinately

See Usener, Dionysii Halic. Librorum de Imitatione RdiquicB (Leipzig,


Steffen,

1899);
zig,

1876);

De Canone qui Dicitur Aristophanis et Aristarchi (LeipHartmann, De Canone Decern Oratorum (Gottingen, 1891);
op.
cit. i.

and Susemihl,

pp. 44S. 484;

ii-

674 foU- 694-697.

I02

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

heavily charged with ponderous learning,


parts Hke a dictionary of antiquities.
its

and reading

in

As

to the second,

obscurity passed into a proverb even in ancient times.


truly typical of the age are the so-called "didactic

More

epics" of Aratus on astronomy and meteorology (after-

wards translated into Latin by Cicero), and that of Nicander of Colophon on cures for poison and the bites of

venomous
of the

creatures.

As time went

on, the literary

work

Alexandrians became more and more pedantic

and
until

far less
it

imbued with the


to an end not
far

spirit

of pure literature,

came

from the beginning of the

Christian era.^

The
by

Alexandrian Philosophy was always characterised


It

eclecticism.

originated

nothing.

The most
any
rate,

interesting school that arose in

Egypt

after the Library

became
due

established

was Jewish or

was, at

largely to the influence of Jewish rabbis


their religious teaching, so as

who began
admit
into

to widen
it

to

some

of the philosophical conceptions of

the earlier

Greeks.
in

The

result

was a body

of semi-religious doctrine
superficially har-

which philosophy and theology were

monised.

The most

elaborate

expounder of this har-

mony was

Aristobulus, an Alexandrian

Jew

(c.

i8o

B.C.)

whose commentaries on the Mosaic Books, dedicated to


Ptolemy Philometor, sought to show that the main teach'

Suidas called

it

a "poem of shadows."

The

scholia

by Tzetzes are

however, very valuable.


'

See Couat,

La

Poisie Alexandrine (Paris, 1882).

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


ings of

103

Greek philosophers,

especially those of Plato

and

Aristotle,

were derived from the Pentateuch.

Three cenbegan to
but the

turies later,

when the

influence of Christianity

be

felt,

Neo-Platonism was thereby modified;


were
hostile

later

Neo-Platonists

to

Christianity;

and

their system, in the

hands of lamblichus and Julian the

Apostate, was set forth as a substitute both for Christianity

and the older pagan faith>

In the Pure and Applied Sciences, the achievements of


the Alexandrians
classical
lie

somewhat beyond the


It

strict limits of

philology.

may, however, be well to enu-

merate some striking results which were attained.


comprise the measurement of the sun and
tarchus
treatise

These
Aris-

moon by
first
;

of

Samos (310-250

B.C.);
(c.

the

systematic

on geometry by Euclid

300

B.C.)

the develop-

ment

of the geometry of three dimensions


first

by Archimedes

(287-212 B.C.), as well as the

application of mathescholar;

matics to hydrostatics by the


scientific treatise

same

the

first

on conic sections by Apollonius of Perga

(260-200 B.C.); the working out by Eratosthenes (275-194


B.C.) of

what was

later called the

Julian Calendar;

the

determination of the true length of the solar year (within


six

minutes) by Hipparchus

(c.

160

B.C.), after

whom
time

no
of

real

advance in astronomy was made

until the

Copernicus,
'

some
cit.;

sixteen

hundred

years

later;

the

See Kingsley, op.

and Whittaker, The Neo-Platonists (Cambridge,

igoi).

I04

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

invention of trigonometry, also by Hipparchus;

and

finaly,

the construction of the fire-engine, the steam-engine, the


nickel-in-the-slot machine,

and many curious mechanical

toys

by Hero

(c.

125 B.C.), to

whom

have also been ascribed

writings

on the solution of the quadratic equation and

the introduction of algebra.'

As Aristophanes was

essentially the

great (f>iX6Xoyo';

among

the Alexandrians, so Aristarchus was essentially


all

the great KpiTiK6<; of

antiquity.

Born

in

Samothrace,

he was a pupil of Aristophanes at Alexandria, where his


stupendous labours as a
afterwards,
critic of literature

made

his

name
with

and

even to this day, proverbial.


its

It is

him that

text criticism reached

highest development

until recent times.


It is evident that the literary

study of an author, pur-

sued in a thorough and systematic way, will soon result


in questions relating to the integrity of the text, especially

when the author has been long dead and when there
variant versions from which one has to choose.

exist

It

has
pre-

already been
viously

shown that something had been done

toward the criticism of the Homeric texts and also


This work was
inquiry

the texts of the great dramatists.

now
and
on,

taken up at Alexandria in a
with ample means for
'See Berry,
its

spirit of scientific

prosecution.

As time went
(London, 1899);

Short History of Astronomy

Ball,

Great Astronomers

(New York,
Cajori,

1899);

Ball,

History of Mathematics

(London, igoi);

History of Mathematics

(New York,

1906);

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


a definite School of Criticism was established.
librarian,

105

The

fiirst

Zenodotus of Ephesus,

may be

regarded as the

founder of this school.

The

fact that his duties

were

partly those of a cataloguer, purchaser,

and

classifier led

him to look with

especial interest

upon the work

of

mak-

ing collections, so that one finds

him preparing a

sort of

corpus of the epic and lyric poets and elaborating the

Homeric glossary of Philetas

into a

more ambitious work.


called the

He
very
It

also put forth


first scientific

an edition which may be

edition of both the Iliad

and the Odyssey.

was published
is

shortly before the year 274 B.C.

Hence

Zenodotus

called hiopOmTri'i,

and

his

work the

Biopdma-a,

or Recension.

In preparing the text of Homer, Zenodotus introduced


four kinds of corrections:
(i)

Elimination, the complete

omission of certain lines that he regarded as absolutely


spurious;
(2)

Query, the marking of certain


still

lines as very

doubtful, though

not so doubtful as to justify their


Transposition, the rearrangement
(4)

omission altogether;

(3)

of the order of certain lines;


Fink,

Emendation, the subHankel, Zur GescMchte

History of Mathematics (Chicago, igoo);

der Mathematik
treatise

im Alterthum und

Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1874);

and the

on Hiero's ingenious mechanical toys with drawings


Greenwood, Pneumatics (London, 1851).

to illustrate

them
was

in

in reality

an invention

of the Egyptians.
B.C.,

As The

to algebra, this
first

treatise

on

algebra dates back to the year 1700


scribe,

when Ahmes, an Egyptian


edited

copied part of an algebraic work written eight hundred years

before his time.


(Leipzig, 1877).

The book

of

Ahmes has been

by Eisenlohr

I06
stitution of

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

new

readings for the old/

As was

natural in

a lexicographer, he paid great attention to the vocabulary


of

Homer, and

his corrections
side.

appear to have been

made

chiefly

upon the verbal

His proof of what could be

done by a minute

study of

word and phrase began a new


in

era of philological study,


distinct

and one

which language, as

from

style, received

a very close attention.

The

processes of text criticism

now began
Homer.

to be extended to

other texts than those

of

We

have

already

mentioned the great edition of the tragic poets by Alexander iEtoIus,

and the

edition of the comic poets

by

Lycophron.

The

TlivaKe;

of

Callimachus,

previously

spoken

of,

were really more than a catalogue of the books

in the Alexandrian Library, since they contained critical

observations on the genuineness of each volume, an indication of the


ing
its size.^

first

and

last

word of

each,

and a note regard-

This was essentially Bibliography employed

in the service of criticism.

The
studies
treatise

third librarian, Eratosthenes, of

whose

scientific

something

has been

already

said,

compiled a

on the Old Comedy

in not less

than twelve books.


time, not only a

In

it

he seems to have given for the


critical

first

complete and
ject

treatment of the language and sub-

of the comedies,

but also an exhaustive

series

of

excursus on such themes as were of collateral interest and


'

Examples
iii.

of his corrections
foil.

may

be found in H. F. Clinton's Fasti

Eellenici,
'

pp. 491

(Oxford, 1824-1834).
et

See Egger, Callimaque

VOrigine de la Bibliographie (Paris, no date).

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


importance,

107

e.g.

the structure of theatres, the scenic

apparatus, the actors, the costumes, the different kinds


of elocution,

and, in fact, everything pertaining to the

general subject.*

His successor, Aristophanes of Byzantium, availed himself fully

of the material which

was now at hand.

The

Alexandrian Library had already existed for an entire century,

and

it

had been thoroughly

sifted,

arranged, and

classified, so

that there was needed only a great

mind

to

put

it

to the best possible use.

Much had

already been

done

toward the

establishment of some principles of


failures

criticism;

but the results of previous successes and


utilised to the full,

were now to be
liberal
spirit.

and

in

a broad and

The whole

sphere of Greek literature beof Aristophanes;

came a

field

for the labours

and

in

taking upon himself so heavy a task, he set to work in a


spirit of catholicity.

His criticism was not wholly verbal,

nor was

it

even wholly diplomatic,

that

is,

criticism

based upon the comparison of manuscripts.


of these,

It

was both
senti-

and

it

was

inspired

and tempered by the


sorts.

ment

critique.

His

errjfjLela

were of various

Ten

of

them were known


of Aristophanes.

as the Sea irpoaaiBCai, or ten

markings

These were the two breathings, the three

accents,^ the two quantity marks (the long and the short),
'

The fragments

of his writings will be

found in Berhardy, Eraios-

thenica (Berlin, 1822).

^Breathings and accents, however, were not regularly written in

Greek manuscripts

earlier

than the seventh century a.d.

Io8
the

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

mark

of separation inserted between words where the

point of separation might not be obvious, the hyphen (a

curved
as in

line

drawn under the

letters to
finally,

show the connection,


the apostrophe used
It

compound words), and

either to

mark

elision or the

end of a foreign name.

was
p.

regularly written after a

word ending

in k, x> 1. "^t or

When

a double consonant was found in the middle

of a word,

an apostrophe was placed above the


letters.

first

or

between the two

Besides these, Aristophanes also

made The

use of the full


its position.

point or period, whose value depended

upon

The

high point was a

full stop.

point on the line

was a semicolon.

The

point in a middle position

was a

comma.

The

last

disappeared from use in the ninth


it

century a.d.,

when

was replaced by the mark which we

now

call

a comma.
critically

Aristophanes also edited


texts.

a great

number

of

He

prepared a supplement to the catalogue of

Callimachus;
given;

he

helped

compose the

Canon already
first

he wrote a treatise on metres, and also the

scientific

work on

lexicography, of which about one hunstill

dred fragments are

preserved.^
critical

We

need not dwell in detail upon the

methods

of Aristophanes, since they can

be much better seen in

the work of his remarkable pupil and associate, Aristar'The fragments


of Aristophanes are edited

by Nauck, AristophanU

Byzantii Fragmenta (Halle, 1848).

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


chus of Samothrace
(c.

IO9
is

217-145
critic,

B.C.).

He

the best

type of the Alexandrian

since he confined himself

to the single field of criticism and did not seek to be


as a polymath.

known

He

first

completed the general terminolsetting forth the eight parts of


participle,
article,

ogy of formal grammar,


speech

noun, verb, pronoun, adverb,

conjunction, and preposition.'

Aristarchus finally determined the fixed critical principles that

were to be applied in establishing the correct

text

of

an author.
of

These principles he employed


Alcseus,

in

editions

Archilochus,

^Eschylus,

Sophocles,

Aristophanes, Hesiod, Pindar, and especially the Homeric

poems, of which he published two great

editions, writing
It

notes on special points together with commentaries.


is

in the editions

(e/cSoo-et?)

that one can best judge of

his ability as a critic, since in

them the

difficulties

were

far the greatest because of the long lapse of time, because

of the large
variations

number

of manuscripts,

and J^ecause

of the

due to the preceding

recensions.

There were

political interests involved in

many

of the changes

made

in the

Homeric

text, precisely as

some earnest theologian

must have made


Testament to
'The
speech.
i.

the famous interpolation in the

New
of

establish the doctrine of the Trinity (i John, was not recognised by the Greeks as a part

interjection
It

came
20).

into formal

grammar with
cited

the

parts 4.

The Alexandrians claimed


and they
all.

Roman teachers (Quint. that Homer recognised the


of the Iliad
(i.

eight parts of speech,


xxii. sq)

two passages

185 and

each of which contains them

110
V.

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


It

7).*

was probably because


and

of his

knowledge of these

interpolations

of the reasons for them, that Aristar-

chus approached the work of recension in a sceptical


spirit like

that of F. A.

Wolf

in later times.

His main

purpose was to rid the text of the additions and corruptions of the three preceding centuries.
It is interesting

to note the details of his system, which can best be seen

by taking up some of the concrete examples preserved


us in the Venetian scholia.

for

The examination
five processes:
(i)

of

an author by Aristarchus involved


(2)

the arrangement of the text;


(3)

the

determination of the accents;


forms;
(4)

the determination of
allusions, etc.;
all

an explanation of the words,

and

(5)

/Jicri9,

or criticism proper, including

questions

of authenticity

and the

final

judgment that
as a whole.

is

to be passed

upon the author and


In carrying out
employs
ecessors,
theirs
all

his

work

his

work

as a text critic, Aristarchus

the sources of information used by his predspirit far

but always in a

more

scientific

than

had been.

Thus,

like

Zenodotus, he studies the

Homeric use

of words, holding with

him that a knowledge


of the

of the substance

must be based upon a knowledge

language.

Yet he does not confine himself to the archaic,


He, as an "analogist,"
^

rare, or foreign words.


'

considers
;

ed.

1833 3d Ludwich, Aristarchs Homerische Textkritik (Leipzig, 18841885); Jebb, Homer, pp. 91-98 (Glasgow, 1887).
1882);
'

See Lehrs,

De

Aristarchi Studiis Homericis (Konigsberg,

Infra, pp. 119-120.

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIQD

III

these as being less important, from the very fact of their


rarity,

than the words and phrases that lend colour and

individuality to the

work as a whole and which,


Homeric
sense.

since they
So, for ex-

are familiar, give a clue to the

ample, Aristarchus remarks that in Homer, &Be always

has the meaning " thus " and never " here " or " thither ";
that ^dXkeiv refers

always to the hurling of missiles,

while ovrd^eiv
quarters
is
;

is

used of striking or wounding at close


has the sense of "flight"; that
in
ttoVo?

that

</)o'/3os

employed

especially

reference

to

combat;

that

'OXu/oiTTos

in the Iliad

means the

actual mountain,

and

so on.

This careful study gave him a standard of usage


called

when

upon to decide between two

conflicting readfor in such a

ings in

two manuscripts

of equal value;

case he gave the preference to the reading that

was the

more consistent with the general usage of the poet (rb


edifiov Tov 'KOL-qrov).

Again, in establishing his text, he ascribed great weight


to

manuscript authority,

just

as Zenodotus

and

Aris-

tophanes had done before him; but Aristarchus exhibits

an acuteness and system


scripts
sors.

in his classification of the

manu-

not

to

be foimd in the work of


have grouped

his predeces-

He

seems to

them generally

in

" families," and to have determined both by compari-

son and by the internal evidence of a codex


the establishment of a canon.
editions," the

its

value in

Thus we

find " private

work

of individual editoirs;

"city editions,"

112

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


State supervision;
'

made under
among
rate

and " popular

editions,"

which he distinguishes those that are


fairly accurate.

more inaccu-

and those which are

That Aristarchus made no such minute


subdivisions
of

divisions

and

manuscripts

in

their

" families "

and

" groups " as are found in the work of modern


texts like that of Horace, for example,
is

critics in

due to the impor-

tant fact that in his time the variants in


variants of words

Homer were
and addiThis

and particular

verses;

while the limits

of divergence being very narrow, the omissions

tions were of a comparatively unimportant kind.

implies a
text,

common

basis of tradition,

embodied

in a vulgate

possibly that of the Pisistratidean recension.

The

better
otus,
lines.

judgment of Aristarchus, as contrasted with Zenodis

seen in his tre&,tment of the so-called formulaic


line

This repetition,

for line,

was too much

for
it,

Zenodotus,

who

rejected the frequent appearance of

for instance, in the Iliad, where the " baneful

dream

" of

Zeus to
book.

Agamemnon
Aristarchus,

occurs three times in the second

however,

rightly

saw

in

this

the
let

naif redundacy of the primitive story-teller, and so he


it

stand.

On

the whole, though Aristarchus was sceptical,


averse to altering his text
;

he was very

much

and

for this

conservatism he has been censured in modern times, for


instance,

by Wolf and Lehrs.

Aristarchus questioned and

doubted, but he did not often introduce an emendation.


'

See p. 15.

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


In his
critical

13

work he employed various


of these were

signs (arjjieia).

The most important


(i)

The

o^eXd'i or spit, -, to indicate that

a line was

spurious.

Such lines were said to be " athetised " (aOerelv)


is still

This obelus
(2)

used in
8-,

critical texts

by German
-j
,

scholars.

The

hiirXr),

or

>

<j

or

used either for

exposition, to call attention to

some

especial point, or to

mark a word which


the construction
(3)
is

is

used only once, or to indicate that

the same as in Attic Greek.


fj-,

The
The

dotted dipl6,

to

denote that the reading

adopted by Aristarchus differed from that of Zenodotus.


(4)

asterisk,

*, to mark a genuine formulaic verse

as distinct from one regarded by

him as

spurious.
in

If the

repeated verse was spurious,

it

was marked

one of the

two places where

it

occurred, with the asterisk or the


line.

obelus prefixed to the


(5)

The

antisigma, D,

and the stigma,

r,

were used

together to denote repetitions of the same idea.'


stigma, alone, denoted only suspected spuriousness.
interesting to

The
It is

know
of

that out of the 15,600 lines of the


athetised.

Iliad

and the Odyssey, 1160 were


criticisms
in

The

Aristarchus

were not, apparently,

embodied
"

any one great standard work, but were spread


Iliad, viii. 53S-S37.

For instance,

was marked, and so was passage


critical signs see

538-541, because the last-named verses seemed to repeat the sense


of the former.

For the best account of these


foil.

Gardtop.
cit.

hausen, Pal'dographie, p. 288


ip.

(Leipzig, 1899)

and Susemihl,

432

foil.

114

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

over a great quantity of monographs, marking each the

development of a new hne of research or the statement


of a

new

principle.

Hence

it

is

that his critical

work

never was canonised in one single standard text.


also, it is

Hence,

so difficult to distinguish

what

is

the work of

Aristarchus

himself

from that which belonged to the

Aristarchean School,

to

the great

number

of students
difficulty,

and scholars who carried out


in fact,

his ideas.

This

was

felt

even in ancient times, as in the Augustan

Age; and
tain

we

find

Didymus Chalcenteros
of

trying to ascer-

what readings
this only

Homer were approved by


we have down

Aristarchus

and
The
work

about a century after his death.


of the critical

imperfect knowledge that

of Aristarchus as a

whole

is

due to the roundabout


to us.

way

in

which notices of

it

have come

Didy-

mus, just mentioned, collected the Homeric writings of


Aristarchus.

Aristonicus of Alexandria, a contemporary

of Didymus, wrote a treatise

on the

critical signs

employed
with

by Aristarchus
this matter,

in his text work;

and

in connection

incidentally quoted the

arguments relating

to the verses
B.C. 1 60,

marked with these

signs.

About the year

Herodianus wrote a
of the

treatise

on the accentuation
Nicanor about the

and prosody

Homeric poems.

same time improved a work on Homeric punctuation.

Now

between the years 200 and 250 a.d. some unknown

scholar

made an epitome

of these four writers

Didymus,
a way

Aristonicus, Herodianus,

and Nicanor

in such

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD

115

as to form a continuous critical commentary on the Homeric


text.

The Epitome

of the

Four Treatises
and
in

(usually spoken

of simply as " the Epitome,"

Germany

as the

Viermanner

Scholien)/

was

in the tenth

century a.d.

copied into the margin of a codex of the Iliad.

This

Codex

is

the very famous Codex Venetus


in the Library of St.

of the Iliad,
It con-

No. 454,
tains
(i)
its

Mark

in Venice.

the

Epitome, undoubtedly somewhat altered

from
(2)

original form, as the language, etc., shows;

and

other scholia.

This MS.

is

almost the only source

from which we can get any


of the views of Aristarchus.

definite

knowledge in

detail

It is also the only

MS.

pre-

served in which the critical signs of Aristarchus are employed.

The

scholia of this

Codex were

first

edited

by

Villoison in 1788.'

Text

criticism in antiquity reached its highest point with

Aristarchus.
ability

His

followers

were often

men

of

great

and indefatigable industry, but their attention seems

to have been directed

more minutely

to verbal,

i.e.

gram-

matical criticism, and to have become narrower and more

pedantic as time went on.

The Alexandian

School was,

in fact, essentially a school of

grammatical scholarship,

accurate, careful,

and deeply learned, but with perhaps

too great a fondness for regularity, for strict rules, and a


sort of Procrustean willingness to secure absolute uniformity in
'

language and in

its

laws by crushing out that

idio-

See Hubner's Encyclopadie, pp. 37-40 in the second ed. (Berlin, 1892).

Il6

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


is

matic freedom of both form and expression which


essential attribute of a living language.

the

After Aristarchus,

who

died about

143

B.C.,

critical

studies were continued at Alexandria

by

his successors,

among whom may be noted Hermippus


writer of

of Smyrna, a

biographies,

much drawn upon by


who wrote
of

Plutarch;

Apollodorus of Athens,
chronology from the

in trimeters, a
B.C.,

work on

fall

Troy to 1444

and a com-

mentary on the Homeric catalogue of the


wise composed a treatise

ships.

He

like-

On

the

Gods in twenty-four books

which was a treasury of minute and curious information


" freely

and extensively pirated by

later writers."

The

successor of Aristarchus
his

was Ammonius, who had been

pupil;

and

after
(c.

him came Didymus Chalcenteros


B.C.

of
to

Alexandria

65

-c.

10

a.d.),

who

is

said

have written nearly four thousand books, lexicographgrammatical, exegetical, and archaeological.'

ical, critical,

About the year 75 b.c. there appeared anonymously a great manual of mythology the first of its kind from

which

many

of the later writers

drew

extensively.

One
The

should also speak of the grammarian Tryphon, and the com-

mentator Theon who lived in the


Alexandrian School grew
less

first

century a.d.

and

less

important after the


part of the Library

middle of the

first

century b.c.

A good

was destroyed during the

siege of Alexandria

by Julius
of

'See Blau, De Aristarchi Discipulis (Jena, 1883);


the fragments of

and the edition

Didymus by Moritz Schmidt

(Leipzig, 1854).

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


Caesar (47 B.C.). Later,

I17
the Great gave
in

when Theodosius

his consent to the destruction of all the

pagan temples

the

Roman Empire

(389 a.d.), a

mob

of fanatical Chris-

tians demolished the temple of Jupiter Serapis,

and with

it

a large portion of the Library.

From this time, Alexandria,


exist;

as a centre of learning, ceased to

and when the

Arabs

in 641

took the

city,

they merely completed a work


for centuries.

of devastation that

had been going on

[Bibliography.

See, in addition to the

works already

cited,

Susemihl, Geschichte der griechischen Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit,


2

vols.

(Leipzig,

1891-1892);

Bernhardy, Geschichte

der griechischen

Litteratur,
et

sth ed. (Halle, 1877-1892);

Renan,

Milange d'Histoire
427-440
(Paris,

de Voyages dans I'AntiquiiS, pp. 389-410,

1898);

and the

special biographical
foil.);

articles in

Pauly's Real-Encyclopadie (Stuttgart, 1893


History of Classical Greek Literature, vol.
i.

also Mahaffy,
foil,

pp. 35

and

vol.

ii.

pp. 427-438

(New York,

1880).

B.

The Pergamene School and Other Centres


OF Learning
School at Alexandria had for a long time attracted
at once

The
those

who were

men

of genius

and of profound
however,
it

learning.

After the

death

of Aristarchus,

tended to become more and more a gathering-place for


near-sighted critics to

whom formulas were more


symmetry

important

than

facts.

To them
and

a rule of grammar or a paradigm


in

was

sacred,

their reverence for

language

was carried so far as to provoke an inevitable opposition,

Il8

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


last in

which was organised at

the famous School at Per-

gamum. which
Alexandrians.

arose to meet and assail the theories of the

Pergamum was an
in the

ancient town, about


It

fif-

teen miles from the coast of Mysia in Asia Minor.'


ruled

was

by a dynasty founded
B.C.

Alexandrian Age; and


of the arts

in 263

Eumenes

became a patron

and

sciences, inviting philosophers

and sculptors to

his court,

among them being


the Middle
losopher Lycon.
I,

Arcesilaus,

who had
and

first

presided over

Academy

at Athens,

the Peripatetic phiAttalus

The
the

successor of
of king,

Eumenes was

who assumed

title

won

victories over

the

invading Gauls, and then began to gather the books for the

Pergamene Library that was to


andria.

rival

the collection at Alexlike that in

He

laid out

grounds for an academy

Athens, and sought the friendship of philosophers, historians,

and mathematicians.^

The

king himself conde-

scended to authorship, though his taste was more for


sculpture.

His victories over the Gauls were

commemoDying

rated in a set of magnificent bronzes.


these in marble
is

copy of one of
as "the

the famous figure

known

Gladiator," but

more

properly " the

Dying Gaul," and


at

now

preserved in the Capitoline

Museum

Rome.

Of

the artists

whom
for

he patronised, one recalls especially

Antigonus of Carystos,
'

who wrote on
is

art

and likewise
Pergamum,

The name
it

parchment (pergamena)

derived from

where
'

was

first

made.
of

It

was to King Attalus that Apollonius


Sections.

Perga dedicated his work

on Conic

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


on natural phenomena.

19

Pergamum was adorned


rose

with a
it

splendid buildings, above which

the Acropolis,
as

thousand

feet

above the sea

level,

and protecting,

were, the court of the goddess Athena, a vast quadrangle

bounded by colonnades and adorned by majestic


of

statues
of

Homer, Herodotus,

Alcseus,

and other great writers

the past. the kings

These and similar works were carried out by


of

Pergamum

until

in 133

b.c.

Attains III

bequeathed his entire realm to the

Roman

people.

The

scholars of

Pergamum

were, on the whole,

more

varied in their interest than those of Alexandria.


Stoics controlled

The

the teachings,
(c.

and the

real

founder

was Crates

of Mallos

168 b.c),

who became

to the Per-

gamene School what Aristarchus was

to the Alexandrian.

Aristarchus reverenced rule in language, while Crates based


his teachings

upon exception; and the catchwords which

represented the distinction were avdXoryia and avcofjiaXia}

Crates and his followers regarded the mere verbalists of

Alexandria with a species of contempt.


text criticism,

He

held that

and

especially the text criticism of

Homer,

Crates derived the expression &vu/ia\la from the treatise of Chrysip-

pus,

On Anomaly.

The fragments

of

Crates with a commentary on

them will be found in Wachsmuth, De Craiete Mallota (Leipzig, i860); and on the Pergamene School see Wegener, De Aula AUalica (Copenhagen, 1836). For some discussion on Analogy and Anomaly, see
Aulus
Gellius,
ii.

5,

where reference
est

is

directly

made

to Aristarchus
. .

and
est

Crates.

"'AvuXoyla

similium similis dedinatio;


consuetudinem
cit.
i.

.ivuiiaX ta

inmqualitas

decUnationum

sequens."

On Analogy and

Anomaly,

see also Sandys, op.

pp. 156-158.

I20

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

ought to embrace the whole mass of problems


physical, mythological,

historical,

and philosophical

suggested

in

the Homeric poems.

He saw
and

in the text, allegories

and

allusions to the cosmical


Stoics.

astronomical theories of the

In

fact,

he regarded

Homer more

as a teacher

than as a poet, placing his SiBaa-Kokia before his ^v'^^ay coy la.

The importance

of this view of Crates

is

found

in the fact

that because of his desire to read into the text the allegories

which he saw there, he was led to propose a large


of conjectural emendations in
full

number

which the principle Thus,

of anomaly gave

play to his ingenious mind.

while Aristarchus represents cautious diplomatic examination of the text

and a reluctance to

alter

what he

finds in

it.

Crates
the

is

the type of the brilliant conjectural emendator,

Bentley of antiquity.

Only fragments have come

down
tary

to us of his writings; but they include a


epics,

commen-

on the Homeric

on Hesiod, Euripides, and

Aristophanes;

a catalogue of the Pergamene Library like

that which Callimachus

made

of the Library of Alexandria; It

and a work on the Attic

dialect in at least five books.

may be

noted, en passant, that Crates laid the foundation

of the study of

grammar

at

Rome,

to which city he

was

sent as an ambassador in 157 b.c.^

His most important


flourished in the

successor
first

was Demetrius Magnes, who

century B.C. and

who wrote on synonyms

together

with some biographies.


'See infra,
p. 157.

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


It

121

might well be assumed that Athens should have been

the seat of a great institution of learning; indeed the case.


it

and such was


Pericles,

So

far

back as the time of


school of

had been

called
it

"the

Greece,"

and even

in its decadence

long kept the

fire of

learning bright.

Both before and immediately


Christian Era,
it

after the beginning of the

contained an organised faculty of accom-

plished professors

who

lectured to students from

all

parts

of the civilised world.


result of

The

University at Athens

was the
organ-

two previously
the
(j)T}poi,

existing

institutions the

isation- of

and the schools

of the philosophers

and

Sophists.

The Ephebi,

or free Athenian youths, were

in early

times enrolled into a corps that was primarily

intended for the defense of the State.

They were educated

both physically and mentally, and they formed the nucleus


of

what became the student body


changes in the constitution of this
for its transformation

of

the

university.

Two
way

body prepared the

from a quasi-military organisa-

tion to a university.
(i)
all

These changes were:

Not
to Athenians

The

neglect of the principle of compulsion.

were enrolled, but only those


(2)

who

chose.

Membership was no longer confined

or even Greeks.

These changes

left

a body of young men, organised and

regularly enrolled, free to follow such a course of training

as best suited their inclinations

and

capacities,

and ready

to be turned to any line of study that

had the advocacy

122

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

of brilliant, energetic,

and popular men.


the
influence

The

schools of
for

the

philosophers

supplied

necessary

completing the change from a military college to a great


university.

Four schools of philosophy had

since the time of the

Macedonian wars been

flourishing

at

Athens.

These

were the Academic or Platonic School, the Peripatetic


or Aristotelian School, the Stoic School,

and the Epicurean.


its

Each

of these schools

from the time of


sufficient to

foundation had

received an

endowment

maintain and per-

petuate

it.

Plato had purchased a small garden near the

Eleusinian

Way,

in the grove of

Academe,

for three thou-

sand drachmas.

His philosophic successors, Xenocrates


in the

and Polemon, continued to teach

same

spot;

their

wealthy pupils and the friends of learning added to the

grounds and bequeathed suf&cient funds for the support


of the philosopher,

and thus

practically

endowed an acato his successor,

demic

chair.

In

like

manner, Aristotle

left

Theophrastus, the valuable property near the Ilyssus;

and Theophrastus,

in the will

whose text has come down to

us in Diogenes Laertius,^ completed the permanent endow-

ment

of the Peripatetic chair.

So Epicurus

left his

prop-

erty in the

Ceramicus to be the nucleus of an endowment

for his school,^

and the

Stoics

were probably

in like

manner
of phi-

made

independent.
' '

Around these four schools


V. 2. 14.

Diog. Laert. xx. 10.

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


losophy,

1 23

which, being

endowed,

taught gratuitously, a

multitude of teachers of rhetoric,


logic,

grammar,

hterature,

physics,

and mathematics

clustered.

The world

soon learned to think of Athens as a great seat of learning

and

culture, brilliant

and renowned.

Students flocked to
It

her from every quarter and country.

appears to have

been necessary to become enrolled among the Ephebi,


but the scholars selected for themselves their
tors,

own

instruc-

and attended such


of these students

lectures

as they

chose.

The

number

became enormous.

Theophras-

tus alone lectured to as

records

show the

many as two thousand men. The names of many foreign students, some of
From
later sources

them being

of the Semitic race.

we

learn that matriculation took place early in the year; that

the students wore a

gown

like that of

the undergraduates

at the English universities; that they pursued athletic sports

with

much

ardour;
for

that at the theatre a special gallery


certificates of

was reserved

them; that

attendance at

the courses of lectures were required; that they were under the general direction of a president; that fees were exacted
in the

shape of an annual contribution to the university


that breaches of discipline were punished, as

Library;
at Oxford,

by

fines;

that the relation between student and

professor was very close, so that for a student to cease to

take a course was very cutting;

and that the students


"

themselves " touted " for the professors.

Most

of the

young

enthusiasts for learning," says Gregory Nazianzen,

124

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


partisans of their professors.

"became mere
all

They

are

amciety to get their audiences larger

and

their fees

increased.

This they carry to portentous lengths.

They

post themselves over the city at the beginning of the year;


as each

newcomer disembarks he

falls into their

hands;

they carry him off at once to the house of some countryman


or friend

who

is

best at trumpeting the praises of his

own

professor."

Private tutors

((f>v\aKe<>)

were often employed.

They

looked over the students' notes, "coached" them on the


subjects in which they were

most

interested,

and helped

them

at their exercises.

At the end of the year there

seems to have been an examination.

Freshmen seem to have been subject to a

sort of hazing.

Gregory, in a funeral address over his friend Basil, recalls

some
find

of the

memories of

their sport with freshmen.

We

one of the professors, Proasresius, asking his class

not to haze a new student, Eunaphius, because of his


feeble
health.

Sometimes the

inferior

officers

of

the

university were subject to similar annoyances,

and Liba-

nius

tells

of one of the tutors

who was

tossed in a blanket.

There were likewise other famous schools given over to


the higher education in the East and in the West,
chines, the great rival of

.^s-

Demosthenes,

is

said to

have

founded a school for oratory in the island of Rhodes, and


there were famous teachers in Lesbos.

Tarsus, in Asia

Minor,

had

faculties

representing

all

the branches of

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


humanistic studies.
rivalled even

I25

In

like

manner, MassUia (Marseilles)


it.

Athens and drew students away from

The

further development of

endowed education

will

be

spoken of as belonging more particularly to the Graeco-

Roman
there
is

Period.'

After the time of

Didymus

Chalcenteros, already noted,

nothing in the history of text criticism among the

Greeks that needs especial mention.

As men

of genius

became

rarer,

formal grammar, lexicography, and the

epitomising of earlier writings occupied the time of those

whose minds were

satisfied

with the purely mechanical

phases of scholarship.

To

this later age

we owe the

great

collections of Scholia that

have come down to us from

the codices of classical authors


(i)

and that are important

because of their value in determining the true reading of


(2)

the classical texts; and

because in

many

cases,

by

reason of the blunders of subsequent

scribes, they

have

sometimes slipped into the text


source of learned controversy.
glosses

itself,

there to

become a

A
will
it

note on the ancient

may be

of

some value
This

for reference in speaking of

text criticism hereafter.

necessarily anticipate
is

a portion of the narrative; but


this place.
'

best considered in

See Capes, University Life in Ancient Athens (London, 1877);

Ma-

haffy,

Old Creek Education

(London,

1882);
;

Eckstein,

Lateinischer

und

Griechischer Unterricht (Leipzig, 1887)

Wilkins, National Education

in Greece in the Fourth Century before Christ (London, 1873);


first five

and the

chapters in Walden, The Universities of Ancient Greece

(New

York, 1909).

126

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


(y\S)cr<Ta)

A gloss
that
viii.

was, in the language of the Greek critics


in the text
II.

and grammarians, the name given to a word


required
527.

explanation,

e.g.

KopeeraKpop'^TOv^ in

In course of time, ordinary words

obsolete or

may

acquire a

new shade

of

may become meaning, or may


As these

be employed in a technical and peculiar sense.

words would require a

special explanation for the benefit

of the general reader, the


such.

name

yXaxrcra

was given to

all

Thus, Plutarch speaks of the words which belong

to the purely poetical language, and those that are purely


local, as

yXmrrai {De Audiendis

Poetis, 6).

Galen applies

the term to the obsolete medical expressions of Hipparchus.


Aristotle

uses

it

of

provincialisms

{Poet.

21.

4-6).*

Quintilian
to voces

employs the synonymous term yXcoaarfiiara


usitatas
(i.

minus

8.

15;

cf.

i.

1.

35).

Originally

the word that needed explanation was simply defined

by writing
(oVojtia

its

simpler synonym, the word in

common
i.e.

use
it.

Kvpiov, Arist.), in the

margin of the text beside


pair of words,

Then
word

the term

jXaicra-a

meant the

the

in the text

and

its

explanatory word in the margin,

the two being viewed as constituting a whole. the explanation alone was called yXaxra-a.
glosses begins the history of lexicography
;

Ultimately

With these

but the glosses

soon ceased to be purely lexical and became encyclopaedic


in character,
'

geographical,
iii.

biographical, historical,

or
find

Cf. id. Rhet.

3.

^.

As

early as the fifth century b.c,

we

glosses
treatise

spoken

of,

since Democritus of

Abdera

(c.

410

B.C.)

wrote a

on them

(Tlepl T\w<r(r4uv).

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


philological, according to the

27

purpose or the tastes of the


these

glossographer.

The
of

chief

of

glossographers
of Cos,

we
and

have already mentioned,


Aristophanes
Herodianus.'
collected

Philetas

Zenodotus,
Crates,

Byzantium,

Aristarchus,

In

later times, the glosses

were regularly

and arranged as running commentaries on the

language of the text,

the best-known
Magnum.
is

collectors of these

being Hesychius, Photius, Zonaras, Suidas, and the compiler

of

the Etymologicum

In

its

developed

meaning, the word " gloss "

to be understood in the

same sense as scholium.


to us with the author's

Very few scholia have come down

name

attached; but such as exist


lines

are usually written


of a codex

upon the margin or between the

and copied from the work of the

earlier scholiasts.

The

scholia generally bear evidence of having been written


later

much

than the date when the codex

itself

was

written.

Scholia in the margin are

known

as glosses

marginales;
glosscB inter-

those written between the


lineares?

lines are called

Something must be said here of the study of Art

among

the Greeks.

So far as any evidence remains, their

early writings
in

on

this

theme must have been very limited


There
is

extent so far

as they concern aesthetics.

'Athenaeus, writing about the year 250 A.D., alluded to thirty-five


glossographers.

^See Matthai, Glossaria Graeca (Moscow, 1774-I77S);

list

of

the

most important (Gk.)


Cf. also

scholia is given

by Gudeman,

op. cU. pp. 20-21.

Hubner, Encydop. pp. 37-40, 2d ed.

(Berlin, 1892).

128
scarcely a of

HISTORY OT CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


mention of any formal discussion on the history
sculpture,

architecture,

painting,

or

music.

The
an

historians,

and

also the philosophers, merely give, in

incidental way, detached


art, artists,

and inadequate suggestions as to


art.

and works of

As

in literature, so in music,

the Greeks of the Pras-Alexandrian


selves

Age devoted themPhilostratus

more to creation than to


first

criticism.

remarks, however, in the


Sophists, that Hippias
(c.

book

of his Lives of the

420 B.C.) of Elis was wont to

dispute on the subject of painting and sculpture; and that

Democritus of Abdera wrote a work on painting from the


living

model

(Jlepi Zayypaipia^)

Other

treatises, of

which
writ-

we know, were

practical in their character


artists,

and were

ten by artists for

regarding the

"canon"

or mathe-

matical demonstration of those proportions which produce

beauty in the

human

form.'

There

are,

however, acute

criticisms of painting scattered

throughout the writings of


of the Alexandrian Period,
aesthetic.

Aristotle;

and by the beginning


criticisms

we come to
dotes

which are not technical but


first

Thus, Duris of Samos was among the

to collect anec-

and aphorisms with regard to

painting.

Many

representatives of the Peripatetic School busied themselves

'The
B.C.

first

of these canons

was that

of Polyclitus in the fifth century

After Polyclitus,

came many
and graphic

to write

upon the technical

side of

sculpture;

but not until after Aristotle was there much written on the
arts.

aesthetics of the plastic

Vitruvius in the preface to his

seventh book names a number of writers


the principles of artistic symmetry.

who concerned themselves with

THE ALEXANDRIAN PERIOD


in the

29

same way.

As a

rule, the

artists

themselves

men who
lar,

understood sculpture and bronze casting

were
of

the authors of these treatises.

At Pergamum,

in particu-

much

attention
it

was paid to

sculpture, as

we have
Ten

already seen, and

was there that the Canon


to

Sculptors
drian

'

was probably drawn up


of the

match the Alexanof our informa-

Canon

Ten

Orators.

Most

tion with regard to these early writers


scholars,
late

comes from

Roman
from

especially

from Pliny the Elder; or

else

Greek writers such as Strabo and Pausanius and

Lucian.^
'

Quintilian,

xii.

10. 7.

"

See Jones, Select Passages from Ancient Writers Illustrative of the His;

tory of Greek Sculpture (London, 189s)

Overbeck, Geschichte der griech-

ischen Plastik (Leipzig, 1894)

and Fowler and Wheeler, Greek Archaeology

(New York,

1909).

IV

THE GRiECO-ROMAN PERIOD


Tradition
ascribes the date of the founding of
It

Rome

to the eighth century B.C.

was

long, however, before the

Roman

people either acquired or attained anything that

deserves the

name

of literary culture, polite learning, or

philological study.

Unlike the Greeks, the

Romans were

a rugged race, an inland race, apart from the magic and


the mystery of the sea.

The

small settlement along the

Tiber was pastoral and agricultural for


having
little

many

centuries,

commerce with

external peoples, dwelling

in constant

danger from formidable neighbours, against

whom

it

could prevail only by the strictest discipline and

the intensest concentration of interest.

Thus, the Ro-

mans came

to possess the civic virtues in a high degree.

Primarily, their ideal


tion,

was

efHciency, intelligent coopera-

and a love of the concrete.

Their patriciate was

formed of the fighting men.


to military science
distinctive quality

Their arts were arts relating


religion.

and statesmanship and

One

which they possessed was a wonderful


Later,

tenacity of purpose.
their

when they had vanquished

enemies throughout Italy and had builded a great

nation, the characteristics


in

which had been wrought out

them by

centuries of

toil

and

effort

were to be seen not

130

THE GE^CO-ROMAN PERIOD

I3I

only in what they created, but in what they took from


others

and transmuted

into something that

became almost

purely Roman.'

By

the fourth century b.c. they were reaching the point


literature of their

where a

own was beginning down

to display

an evolution quite independent of any impulse from without.

Their annals were set

in simple prose.

Their
It
is,

laws were expressed precisely and with clearness.

indeed, quite characteristic of the difference between the

Greeks and the Romans have been


set to learn

that

Greek children should

by heart long passages from the

Homeric poems, while


to memorise the

Roman
of the

children were compelled

Laws
sung

Twelve Tables.

Yet there com-

were at

Rome

at least the beginnings of


in artless rhythms.

poetical

position in lyrics
at

Lyric Poetry

Rome was
the

first

found, not as an exotic, but in the

nenicB,

spells,

the charms, the lullabies that were

crooned over little children,

and

in other songs that

were

chanted to the accompaniment of the dance.^

native

Drama

sort of

extemporaneous comedy

was

not

unknown.

We

find even the traces of a gradual drift


Italicus to the

away from the ancient versus


'

more regular
and Weise,
the folkLiterary

See Pais, Ancient Legends of


;

Roman

History, Eng. trans., pp. 1-59


;

(New York, 1905) Michaut, Le Ginie Latin (Paris, 1900) Charakteristik der lateinisckcn Sprache (Leipzig, 1905).
2

See the pages on very early Latin

poetry, the priestly literature,

and the

the hymns, the writings


legal

litanies,

in Duff,

History of Rome, pp. 63-89 (London and Leipzig, 1909).

See also De-

douvres, Les Latins, pp. 39-79 (Paris, 1903).

132

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


This
last,

form of the Saturnian measure.


often rude,

though

it

was

was capable
to the early

of a really artistic treatment,

and

it

was

Romans what
Nor

the dactylic hexis

ameter was to the early Greeks.


that Oratory

there any doubt

was

fairly well developed, since oratory, as

has been rightly said, belongs to " the literature that tends
to

statesmanship."^

Eloquence was necessary for the

senator, or the popular leader,


for the

and

it

was necessary

also

commander

of

an army

in the field.

Therefore

we can reasonably

assert that even

had Rome not come


would
still

into contact with Hellenic influences, there

have been created, slowly, but quite surely, not only a


literature

but a learning, absolutely

Roman

both in form

and content.^
There had been some desultory relations between the

Romans and
pania the

the Greeks farther back than

is

recorded by

authentic history.

From

the Chalcidian Greeks of


their Alphabet.'

Cam-

Romans had borrowed

From

the Etruscans also the


'

Romans had

acquired certain

The

earliest

dates formal

Roman oration written out for publication almost anteRoman poetry. It was delivered in 280 B.C. by Appius
for at least

Claudius against the terms of peace offered by Pyrrhus, and was read and
studied at
'

Rome

two

centuries.

See Sears, op.

oil.,

p. 94.

See Ihne, Early

Rome (New York,


ii,

1902);

Mommsen, A

History of

Rome (Eng.

trans.) vol.

pp. 23-315

(New York, 1903-05); and the

early chapters of Bernhardy, Grundriss der romischen Litteratur, 5th ed.,

(Brunswick, 1875).

^See Lindsay, The Latin Language, pp. 1-12 (Oxford, 1894); Peters,

"Recent Theories of the Alphabet," in


Society (1901);

vol. xxi.

Journal of the Oriental

and Clodd, The Story

of the Alphabet

(New York,

1903).

THE GR^CO-ROMAN PEMOD


religious beliefs

133

and practices

as well as arts.

But when

the

Roman arms
came a

advanced southward and began to con-

quer the Greek


there

cities of

Magna

Graecia and Sicily, then

direct contact with Hellenic culture.

This

was

in the early part of the third century B.C.

At that

time, the

Romans,

in

their

war with the Greek king

Pyrrhus, overran the luxurious towns of southern Italy

and seized the

rich

and splendid

city of

Tarentum.

The

knowledge which thus came to them of the magnificence


of Greece
diers,

was a

startling revelation.

To

the rough
art,

sol-

and

rustic cultivators of
literature

Latium, Greek

Greek

science

and Greek

and learning became


Little

realities

to fascinate and to encourage imitation.

by

little

there sprang up in

Rome

a sort of

Graecomania compar-

able with the Etruscomania of the later imperial age and

with the successive Gallomania and Anglomania of our

own
the

country in the last century.


language, and

The Romans

learned
it

sister

many

of

them spoke and wrote

in preference to their

own; while men

of genius adapted

the

still

rude Latin tongue to the varied forms of Hel-

lenic literature.

Not long

afterward, the First and Second

Punic Wars burst forever the bonds of

Roman

isolation.

Because of them the


that was not

Roman

people gained an outlook

Roman

merely, nor even Latin and Italian,

but

in the

end broadly cosmopolitan.

As by a

flash,

Rome

saw

at once

what high

civilisation

and exquisite culture

really

meant.

In a single generation, Greece gave to

134

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


the treasures which she had been garnering for

Rome

centuries.

The

effect

upon the whole subsequent developpeople was profound and lasting.


significance of

ment of the

Roman

The

ablest

minds among them grasped the

the revelation.

Men
of

like the Scipios


life.

and the Metelli wel-

comed the graces


called

By

this

time there was a so-

Greek
of

set

which grew

in influence, despite the gibes

and sneers

Cato and other partisans of the ancient order.

In time, thousands of captive Greeks, including

men

of the highest attainments, were scattered over Italy as

hostages,

ambassadors, and teachers.


evidence of Hellenic Influence
is

The

first

probably to
(c.

be found in literature when Livius Andronicus

250

B.C.),

by birth a Greek, was brought as a


after receiving his freedom,
his native language. It

slave to
living

Rome, and,
by teaching

made a

was he who translated the Odyssey

into Saturnian verse.

It

was a rude and uninspired piece


it

of work, yet for generations

remained a schoolbook for


B.C.

Roman
the
first

boys and
of

girls.

In 240

he set upon the stage

many dramas which he

laboriously constructed

after Grecian models.

He

likewise attempted lyric poetry,

being commissioned by the State to write a


of Juno.^
'

hymn in honour
citi-

Gnaeus Naevius, who was freeborn and the


ed.,
i,

See Ribbeck, GeschkUe der romischen Dichtung, 2d

p. 15 foil.

(Leipzig, 1897-1900);
.

and Mommsen, History of Rome, Eng.

trans.,

ii,

p.

498 (New York, 1903); the chapter in Mackail's Latin Literature (New

York, 1907); and that on


ship,

"The

Earliest

Italian Literature" in Nettle-

Essays in Latin Literature (Oxford, 1883).

THE GILECO-EOMAN PERIOD

I35

zen of a Latin town in Campania, really marks the begin-

ning of Latin literature.

He was no

foreign sycophant, but

had the independent

spirit of his race.

He

wrote much,

adapting often from the Greek, but also producing dramas

based upon

Roman

history.

In these and elsewhere he

did not hesitate to attack the most powerful patricians,


especially the Metelli.

For

this, in

the end, he was impris-

oned and banished and died


a

in exile.

He

was, in truth,

Roman

of the

Romans.

He

clung to the native Satur-

nian verse, and in his Punica, writing of the First Punic

War, he introduced that legend which


iEneas with

links the

Trojan

Roman

history.

Thus, he was the precursor


read,

of Vergil, for his Epic

was long

and parts

of

it

are

embedded

in the

Mneid}

To

Naevius are also due the

beginnings of Satire, whereof Quintilian long afterward

remarked that

" satire, indeed,

is

wholly ours."

Not

only

did Nsevius use the native Saturnian verse, but he held


fast to the

Roman love

of alliteration
^

and

repetition

which
died

were distasteful to the Greek poets; he


left

so that

when he

behind him a mass of literature which was neither

Greek nor imitated from the Greek, but was rather


in spirit

Roman
him

and
if

in

form.

He and
never
on the

those
felt

who

followed

prove that
'

Rome had
i,

the deft touch of the


satire, Nettleship, Lectures

Quintilian, x,

93.

Also,

Roman

and Essays (second series), pp. 24-43 (Oxford, 1895).

^On
et

alliteration, see

Botticher,

De

Alliterationis

apud Romanos Vi
The Use of

Usu

(Beriin, 1884);

and on dynamic

repetition, Abbott,

Repetition in Latin (Chicago, 1902).

136
Hellene,
it

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

would

still

have given birth to prose and verse


Professor Duff has rightly said,

worthy of a great nation.


in

speaking of this

Roman strain, which is never missing:


is

This native Kterature, then,

often cumbersome,

and as yet
less

lacks the highest distinction of style

and grace, but

is

no

often

solemn and dignified


ful

it is

always masculine.

However power-

and

brilliant the

incoming Hellenic influence, these pre-Hellenic


not be disdained as feeble and discon-

products of

Rome must
this early

nected with the literature that was to foUow.


create;

Impotence cannot

and

work had

issue.

It contained the
it

germs

of later success.

Genius cannot be borrowed:

can be modified
the loan
its

and developed.
own.

Above

all, it

can borrow, and

make

That was the case with Rome.

In truth, no nation possessing the power of growth,

endued with energy, and able to make


remain
in its literature a
it

history,

can long

mere

imitator.
itself,

In a thousand
conquering
its

directions

must

strike

out for

own

difficulties, fulfilling its


its

own
own

ambitions, and achieving


character.
Since, then,

great things which alter


literature
is

a mirror to reflect this character and


allied

the

achievements that are

with

it,

'

it

will

soon

reflect

the interplay of myriad forces, the presence of innumerable cross-currents, the perpetual shifting
of the golden sands of thought.
in leading-strings,

and changing
it

For a while
it

remains

but after a time

will evolve its

own
Let

masterpieces and will work


us take an example from

them out

in its

own way.

modern times and compare

the literature of England with that of the United States.


Duff, op.
cit.,

p. gi.

THE GRyECO-ROMAN PERIOD

I37

The language of the two nations is the same, but Americans were at first too much cumbered with material affairs
to attempt in any serious

way

the literary

art.

They read
had

English books or they imitated them in a pathetically

humble
shaken

fashion.
off
its

But

in time,

after the Republic

political

bonds and had developed new


began to show that
It
it,

interests of its

own,

its literature

too,

was attaining independence.


it

found new themes

and
first

had new modes

of treating them.

One

sees the

departure from the English model in Irving and in


After that, and

Cooper.

when the young nation had grown


there arose authors such as

conscious of his

own power,

Emerson and Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Bret Harte, Clemens,

Howells and a score of others who were American


all

to the very core in

they wrote.

And
little

so in

Rome

the imitative period lasted only a very


feeble,

time.

In the

creeping,

childish

sense,

it

ends with

Gnaeus Naevius,
full

and soon afterward there


whose technique

bursts forth into

flower a literature

came from

Hellas, but

whose
in

spirit

and character were

Roman.

Latin literature,

fact,

was revolutionised

by two men, both


gave to Latin the

of Italian birth,
initial

who by

their genius
it

impulse which freed

forever
earlier

from any

slavish subservience to the Greek.

The

language in which Livius Andronicus wrote his stumbling


measures, and which even Naevius used clumsily, though

with

force,

lacked that lightness and mobility which would

138

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


it fit

make
also

for poetry

and

for the finest prose.

It lacked

an ampler and

fuller

vocabulary which should give

both to the poet and to the prose writer a more varied


instrument of expression.
c.

It

was Quintus Ennius (239fit

172 B.C.)

who made
it

the Latin language


(c.

for noble
B.C.)

poetry;

and
it

was Titus Maccius Plautus

254-184

who gave
in a later

a wealth of new words, which, to be sure, in

his time did not all

win general acceptance, but which


approval of the
still

century received the

greater master, Cicero.

Like Livius Andronicus, Ennius was a teacher;


like Livius,

and
his

his personal influence

helped to

make
also

literary innovations successful,

a circumstance
shown
and example.
of the

due

to the tact

and

linguistic skill

in everything

he did.

Ennius held precisely the position in the


to give weight to his teaching

Roman world He had


young nobles

personally trained in letters

many

who were

taking their places at the head of the State.

He was
Cato,

the intimate friend of several of the Scipios, and

he has been said to have taught Greek even to the Elder

who was famous

for his hatred of

all

that

was

Greek.

Ennius was himself a

man

of

most engaging

personal qualities, well-read, genial, courteous, and refined;

and with these natural


carried forward the

gifts

and

artificial

advantages, he

work

of

Naevius.

His sensitive ear

and correct
verses

taste rebelled against the


first

heavy and lumbering

which were at

his

models and which were the

THE GE^CO-ROMAN PERIOD

I39

best that could be written under the limitations of the

language as

it

had hitherto been used

for literary purposes.


it

He set himself
lightness, the

the task of infusing into

some

of the

Greek
grace.
:

Greek smoothness, and the Greek

The

greatest obstacles in the

way

of this were

two

first,

the obstinate adherence by his predecessors to the natural


or word-accent, which kept the verse on the level of prose;

and second

(partly because of this accentual limitation),

the extraordinary number of long syllables.'

He now
With

attempted an experiment that was destined to give to

Roman literature much sagacity he


in

not only stateliness but


refrained from

style.

making any innovations


There,
tradition

iambic and trochaic poetry.

had

already established a usage which he did not care to

combat; but he turned to an entirely new kind of verse

and to a new theme, which might


a new system of Prosody.

justify

and render natural

It has

been a mooted question whether the dactylic


at all in Latin before the time
literary

hexameter had been used


of Ennius.

There

exist

no

remains of such verse


According to

that

can be confidently called genuine.

Varro, Plautus wrote his


it

own

epitaph in hexameters, but


it

cannot be shown that he did

earlier

than the composi-

tion of the great epic of Ennius


called

the Annales.
in

The

so-

Marcian Oracles were possibly

hexameters, though

the quotations given by Livy do not justify this view.


'

Yet

Horace, Ars Poetica, 2S9~26o.

140
even
this
if

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

some few stray attempts had been made

at imposing

metrical

form upon Latin, certainly no extended


in
it;

literary

work had ever been written


had the
field,

and Ennius,

in writing the Annates,

field entirely to himself.

As

it

was

distinctly a

new

such changes as he might

make

in the

matter of forms and measures and quantities


less criticism

would arouse

than

like

changes in a more

familiar sphere.

The

alterations that he effected

by

his

own example may be roughly summarised


(i)

as follows:

A A

fairly

frequent use of a metrical accent as distin-

guished from the natural, colloquial accent of a word.


(2)

diminution in the number of varying quantities.


all

Ennius regarded as short nearly

the syllables as to
as, for instance,

which there had previously been any doubt,


mus&,
(3)

pairS.

Thus

dactyls were

made

possible

and

easy.

By way

of compensation he regarded

all

vowels
liquid)

that stood before two consonants (not a


as being long
(4)

mute and a

by

position, after the rule of the Greek.

The

elision of a final vowel, or of

a syllable ending
little

in

before a vowel.

Ennius himself also made

account of a

final s, in this following

the pronunciation

prevalent at that period and long after.'


'

Birt, Historia

Hexametri Latini (Bonn, 1876);

Miiller, Greek

and

Latin Versification, Eng. trans. (Boston, 1895);


altrSmischen Metrik (Leipzig, 1890);
(Paris,
Plessis,

Klotz, Grundziige der


et

Metrique Grecque
(Berlin,
ii.

Latine

1889);

Westphal, Allgemeine Metrik

1892);

and the

treatise by Gleditsch in Iwan Miiller's

Handbuch,

Compare also Havet,

De

Saturnio Latinorum Versu (Paris, 1880); Thurneysen, Der Saturnier


1885);

(Halle,

and du

Bois, Stress Accent in Latin Poetry, pp. 24-74

(New York,

1906).

THE GR^CO-ROMAN PERIOD

141

These changes seem comparatively simple, yet they were


sufficient to alter radically the

whole structure of Latin

verse.

The number

of doubtful vowels which were

now

converted into short ones gave to the language of poetry


that ease and lightness which are to be found in later

dramatic compositions.

Whatever was done by succeed-

ing writers in giving mobility to the language,

was done
first

wholly because of the example which Ennius


in relieving

set

the heaviness of verbal structure.


his changes, there

After he

had made
syllables

all

were

still

left

many

long
it

which Lucretius, and Vergil

after him,

found

expedient to shorten.

But

it is

because of Ennius that the

language of Latin poetry has definiteness and form, that


it

became better

fitted for
it;

the use of those

who were

further

to polish

and enrich

while,

on the purely

literary side,

he
fall

set

a very high standard below which no writer could


receive

and hope to

an equal share of honour.

Ennius, as already said, was a great innovator in form

and

style.

He was

not a creator of language, in spite of

the praise given him by Horace.^

There remain to us

about twelve hundred fragments of the different writings


of Ennius;

but

in all of

them

there are to be found only

twenty-two words that are peculiar to him, while in 430


lines of a writer like Pacuvius,

who

prided himself upon

his conservatism, there are

thirty-three aTra^ elprj/ieva.


see

From this comparison one can


'

how

little

Ennius prob-

Horace, Ars Poetica, 54-56.

142

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


the vocabulary of the language.
it

ably added to

The

verbal enrichment which


source,

needed came from another


first

and one which would at

sight

have seemed a

most unlikely one.


It is

in Titus
all

Maccius Plautus that one

finds, after

surveying

literature, ancient

and modern, the


of course,

closest

parallel to Shakespeare,
essential differences,

modified,

by many

but on the whole true enough to be

very striking.
origin

Like Shakespeare, Plautus was of humble


of a country town.

and the native

Like Shake-

speare's, his education


sort

seems to have been chiefly of that

which comes from association with

men

rather than

with books.

Like Shakespeare, he was at

first

a subordi-

nate, attached to a theatre; then a


ised old plays;

hack writer who modern-

and

finally,

a dramatist

who apparently
in

wrote with

little

care for fame, but with the thought of his

audience always before his mind.


Plautus wrote resembles in

The age

which

many ways

the age of Eliza-

beth and James.

There was

in the air the stirring of

an

adventurous
of
its

spirit.

The

nation was awakening to a sense

own power, and

entering

upon an era

of conquest

and supremacy.
mercurial temper

Rome was
of

touched by something of the


just

Greece,

as the

England of

Shakespeare displayed
ness of France.
in battle, just as
fleets of Spain.

much
too,

of the gayety

and

reckless-

Rome,

was facing the Carthaginians

England was confronting the armies and

The

victory of Duilius off Mylae,

and the

THE GR/ECO-ROMAN PERIOD


defeat of the

I43
Sicily,

Armada by Drake,

the conquest of

and the colonisation of the


its

New

World,
stirred

these, each in

own time and

in its

own way,

Rome and Engand po-

land to their depths.


litical

There was an

intellectual

quickening which stimulated both the

Roman and

the English people to look with favour upon whatever

was new,

original,

and strong.

If the people

for

whom
if

Plautus

and

Shakespeare

wrote were

much

alike;

the ages in which they lived were

not dissimilar, so the cast of mind and the richness of


intellectual

endowment

of these

two great masters

of

language have a kinship of their own.'


of course,

The

differences,

are

all
is

immensely

in

Shakespeare's favour.
spirit of

In Plautus there

nothing of the

pure poetry

which breathes through almost everything that Shakespeare


wrote.

His tone

is

many

degrees lower.

The

fact that

he wrote comedy

alone, while

Shakespeare composed

immortal tragedies as well;


types

the occurrence of the same


the

the

foolish old

man, the austere old man;

swindling slave, the faithful slave;

the loose young man,


lying,

and the

precise

young man; the

foul-mouthed

courtesan, and the inexperienced, affectionate meretrix;

the parasite, and the bullying soldier,

all this repetition,

despite the writer's extraordinary inventiveness

and

vigour,

becomes monotonous and perhaps makes us


'

feel that

we

See, in general, Ribbeck's


i

comments

in the first

volume of

his Romische

Dichtung,

(Leipzig, 1897-1900).

144

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

have been tarrying too long among the slums of the ancient
world.

Very much, however,

of this absence of

what

is

elevating

and

refined,

much

of its coarseness

and

vulgarity,

were imposed on Plautus by the conditions under which he wrote.

Forbidden to touch upon


fate of Nasvius, with

Roman

topics,

and

warned by the

an audience that did

not yet contain the well-bred portion of the community,

and being thus

practically

forced

to

model

his

plays
criti-

upon the
cise

New Comedy
severely.

of the Greeks, one

must not

him too

Plautus was working in a harness

which sorely hampered him.


ities

Then, too,

his

own

sensibil-

were not

nice.

He had

been himself a slave and he

had consorted with other

slaves;

and never,

like

Eimius

and Terence and Shakespeare, was he a prot^g6 of the


great.

He saw

only one side of

life,
it

and that the

side

which verges on the gutter.


audiences most of
the stage.
all

And

was

this side that his

delighted to see reproduced

upon

Hence we must compare Plautus not with

Shakespeare as a whole, but with those portions of Shakespeare where the themes and the motives of the

two

dramatists are similar.


said that Plautus
is

Judged

in this

way,

it

cannot be

inferior.

His buffoons, his hypocrites


richly

and sharpers and

slaves

and courtesans are as


life

humorous and doubtless quite as true to


as

in their

way
is

those

whom
John

Shakespeare drew.
FalstafE
is

Pyrgopolinices
Latin.

merely Sir

turned

into

Megar-

onides in the

Trinummus

the twin brother of Polonius,

THE GILECO-ROMAN PERIOD

I45

while the Dromios of Shakespeare are actually taken from

the MencBchmi of Plautus.

But

it is

not from the

literary,

but from the

linguistic,

standpoint that
is in

we have now
if

to look at Plautus;

and

it

his language,

anywhere, that Shakespeare finds his

rival.

After studying Plautus carefully,


of the

we

are conscious

more and more

enormous debt which the Latin

language owes him.

He

alone,
it

by

his

individual

and

unaided genius, transformed

from an awkward, cramped,


fit

ungraceful dialect into an instrument of speech


expressing a wide range of
clearness

for

human thought

with ease and

and

precision.

Plautus was a great language-

maker, and not merely an improver.


caught at an idea, but flung
priate verbal form.
If
it

His fancy not merely

out at once into an appro-

he had not the word he wished,

then he

made

the word;

and when he had made

it,

it

was, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, the very word

which the language lacked, so that

it

fixed itself firmly in

the vocabulary of the people, and remained there because


it

was an actual

necessity.

Plautus as a word-maker
boundless as his

seems inexhaustible.
wit.

His

fertility is as

No

Latin writer except Apuleius, three centuries

afterward, ever coined so

many

words.

The comparison

of Plautus with Apuleius shows exactly where the great-

ness of the former

lies.

Apuleius coins words from mere

eccentricity or because he will not take the trouble to find

the fitting ones.


L

Plautus strikes out a

new

phrase, a

146

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


because the

striking combination, a picturesque epithet,

existing vocabulary

is

too poor to furnish an equivalent.

To sum

it

up in a sentence, the invention of Plautus proves


the invention of Apuleius

the poverty of the language;

proves the poverty of the writer.

Plautus

is

the one who, in this period of transition,

doubled the capacity of the Latin language.,


that he invented were

The words

made by him

instinctively, accord-

ing to the various formulae which


scribed^ with so

Horace afterward deadditions which he

much

insight.

The

made
(i)
(BIkt))

to the Latin vocabulary fall

under various heads:


e.g.

Words borrowed
,

directly
;

from the Greek:


;

dica

dapsilis

(Sai/rt\7j?)

dulice {BovXikco';)

euscheme

(eiiaxvfJ'a)';);

logos (X0709); sycophantio {avKot^avTeco); tar;

pessita
(2)

(T/saTreftrrj?)

etc.

Comic words,
e.g.

chiefly

patronymics and long com-

pounds:

Virginesvendonides, the son of a pander,


flitch of

and, comically again, pernonides, " a


scribed majestically as the son of a
talosagittipelliger.

bacon " de-

ham.

So, again, scu-

There

is

very

little

doubt that Plautus

here in a semi-comic

way

tried to

do what the learned


is,

Pacuvius seriously attempted,


Latin of compound
Pacuvius.
(3)

that the formation words, but Plautus as did


failed

in

New

words formed

after the analogy of other

words

near which they stand in the text, or which suggest them:


'

Horace, Ars Poetica, 46-72.

THE GR^CO-EOMAN PERIOD


e.g.

I47
sicelicisso sug-

perenticida suggested

by

parenticidi;

gested by atticisso;

and recharmido and decharmido sug-

gested by charmido (from Charmides).


(4)

Compound words

freely

made and
e.g.

generally there-

after adopted into

the language:

opiparus, parci-

promus, pauciloquia, salipotens, stuUiloquentia; and even


better, opimitas, mendicitas, minatio, moderairix, oratrix,
perdisco,
perlibet,
etc.

Words

of this

class are

either

based upon existing words and modified to give a different shade of meaning, or they are invented of necessity:
e.g.

osor, perplexibalis, pollentia, trahax, etc., or else they are

verbs boldly formed out of existing nouns and adjectives:


e.g.

paro, parasitor, pergrcecor, scortor, sororio, etc.

It will

be seen that Plautus enriched the language with

words

for

common

use.

His

word-formations

were

brought about with that unerring judgment which makes


the

new word, from the

very

moment when
If
it

it is

uttered,

seem Latin and utterly indigenous.


word,
it is

be a Greek
If
it

so modified as to take on a Latin form.


it

be a new word,
already existing.
sense, this

is

formed upon the analogy of words


it

If

be an old word used in a new


given
it

new

sense

is

where the context makes


Plautus
followed
is

the

new

sense absolutely plain.

the

first

of

language-makers.

Those who

him employed

his methods though they wrote for the learned.

Thus
to

T. Lucretius Carus, in the

first

century

B.C.,

gives

Roman

literature

a philosophical terminology so far as he

"

148

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


it

needed
Cicero

in setting forth the teachings of materialism.'


later enlarged the philosophical

still

vocabulary by
the.

coining words to express thoughts for

which

Latin

language then had no

equivalent.^

When

Christianity

began to spread over the Empire, African writers such as


Tertullian

and Augustine and

St. all

Jerome introduced a
fashioned their words

theological vocabulary ; but they

on the principles which Plautus

in the early

days of Ro-

man

culture

had grasped by
is

instinct.'

Apuleius, with his


litera-

fantastic

combinations,
as

the Carlyle of Latin


said before,
is

ture, while Plautus,

was

the

Roman

Shakespeare.

Thus the Latin language and the Latin

literature de-

veloped side by side, in a growth that was steady and


continuous.
vius,

The drama was

enriched by Marcus Pacu-

who

represents a succession of the

work

of Ennius.
is

His doctrina, for which he was so famous in antiquity,


seen in his attempt to
tical carefulness,
'

make

long compounds, in his syntac-

and

in his introduction of philosophical


coitus,

See such words as corpus in the sense of "matter";

and glomeraSee

men, "a mass''; corpusculum, or principium, or primordium, each meaning

"an atom"; sensus =

oXaBriais;

rerum summa, " the universe."

To\le,DeArtis Vocabulis Quibusdam Lucretianis (Dresden, 1866); Merrill's


Introduction to his Lucretius, pp. 42-47

(New York,

1907);

and Reiley,

The Philosophical Terminology of Lucretius and Cicero (New York, 1909).

^Note such words as


See Reiley, op.
cit.

ratio (Kiyos) , qtialitas

{iroiiTris) , species

{etSoi).

'See Schmidt, De Latinitate Tertulliani (Erlangen, 1870); Condamin,

De TertulUano
Cooper,

Christiana
in the

Lingua

Artijice

(Lyons,

1877);

and
1895) .

Word Formation

Roman Sermo Pkbeius (New York,

THE GE^CO-ROMAN PERIOD


speculation after the

I49

manner

of Euripides.

Then

there

follow Lucius Attius, with a

much more

original

mind, and

proba;bly the greatest of all

Roman

writers of tragedy;

and the young African, Publius Terentius (185-159 b.c),

who composed comedies which


most admirable.
polished

in their

own manner

are

He

gives us, in fact, the urbane


all

and

comedy

of the drawing-room,

with singular
of character.

refinem.ent

and a remarkable appreciation

Later, the legitimate

drama

declined,

and mimes took the


in these

place of tragedy and comedy.

Yet even

mimes

as, for instance,


is

those of Publilius Syrus and Decimus

Laberius, there
practical

the true

Roman

sententiousness, shrewd

wisdom, and abundant humour.'

Attempts were
in its ear-

made
lier

in the

Augustan Age to revive the drama

form, but of these attempts

we have no

remains, as

we

have of the tragedies of the younger Seneca written in the


time of Nero and influencing the dramatists of France and

England

in recent centuries.

Ennius had invented a form


It

of satire as a sort of literary miscellany.

was taken up
from

with

much

force

and

fire

by Gaius

Lucilius,

whom

Q. Horatius Flaccus developed a genial form of poetical

composition in hexameter verse, in which he pointed out

good-humouredly the

follies of his

contemporaries.

After

him, Aulus Persius Flaccus, a rather prim and bookish


youth, imitated Horace without his first-hand knowledge
'Otto, Sprichworter der Romer (Leipzig, 1890);
Proverbs (Baltimore, 1902).

and Sutphen, Latin

150
of
life;

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


while later
still,

Decimus Itinius luvenalis converted

satire into

a whip of scorpions, and lashed the hideous

vices that

he saw about him, infusing into his lines a cer-

tain grim irreverence which has led


first

him

to be styled the

exponent of American humour.


influence

The Greek

was responsible

for

what we have
In 155
B.C.,

of philosophical writing

among

the Romans.

Carneades, a vehement and rapid speaker, representing


the

New Academy, with

its

essential scepticism,

came upon

a diplomatic mission to

Rome from Athens.


The

While there,

he publicly discoursed with eloquence and subtlety on the


advantages of
justice.

next day, with equal elo-

quence, he refuted

all his

arguments of the day before.


demonstration of his belief

This was,
that

in fact, a practical
is

human knowledge
applause, but he

uncertain and that

we have

no absolute standard

of truth.

His orations won him

much

was

sent back to Athens without

loss of time, as

being one whose tenets were essentially

immoral.

Nevertheless,

from

this

time,

philosophy
disciples

especially that of the ethical schools

found
Roman

and

expounders among the Romans.'


gave to the world nothing that
is

philosophers

new; yet we owe to such

writers as Lucretius the Epicurean, to Cicero the Aca'

See Vsenei, Epicurea (Leipzig, 1887);

Martha, Le Poeme de Lucrece,

4th ed. (Paris, 1885); Tliiaucourt, Les Traitis Philosophiques de Cic&ron


et

Lews

Sources Grecques (Paris, 1885)


1893);

Zeller, History of Eclecticism,


i

Eng.

trans.

(London,

Lecky, History of European Morals,

(New

York, 1884); and Binde, Seneca (Glogau, 1883).

THE GR^CO-ROMAN PERIOD

151

demic, and to Seneca the pseudo-Stoic, a body of literature

which

is

both interesting in

itself,

and valuable

as supply-

ing a knowledge of those


lost.

Greek

treatises

which have been


is

Lucretius,

in
all

particular

(96-55 B.C.),

perhaps

the greatest of

the

Roman

poets in originality, in

power, and in the peculiar appeal which he makes to the


inherent materialism of millions, even at the present day.

His technique
fect;

in his use of the


-writer

hexameter

is still

imper-

but the genius of the

and

his passionate spiristyle

tual melancholy
in

overcome defects of

and make him

some

respects a

model even

for Vergil

and the cloyingly

exquisite Ovid.

Epic poetry was continued from the rough Saturnian


in

which Nasvius wrote

his

Punica

until

it

culminates in

the splendid national poem of the ^neid a marvellous

mosaic of
literature,

all

that was finest in both Greek and


P. Vergilius

Roman

woven together by

Marc with con-

summate skill.

Later, the Spaniard, Lucanus, composed in

the Pharsalia an epic of almost contemporary events,


following the model of Nsevius and Ennius, but suc-

ceeded only in writing brilliant

lines

which have added

largely to the world's collection of epigrams.

The
among

epic

on a Grecian theme, and known


Statius,

as

the

Thebais,

by
the

marks the end

of serious epic poetry

Romans.'
Lyric poetry in native rhythms, as already said, ante'

See Gubematis, Storia detta Poesia Epica (Mflan, 1883).

152
dates

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


Hellenic
influence,

though of course

this

early

poetry was informal.

But we have already noted that

Livius Andronicus composed a set lyric in honour of Juno


at the request of the State.

However,

this

attempt was

unfruitful, since the Latin language

was not yet adapted

for lyric composition that could vie with that of the Greeks.
It

was not

until the

time of Quintus Valerius Catullus that

we

find lyric

poetry in Latin; for Catullus, an Italian to

the core, poured forth in sapphics and easy metres the wild
longing
of

heart

surcharged with
,

intense

emotion.
train-

In

many

respects Catullus
lyrics

was an Alexandrian by

ing;

but in the

addressed to Lesbia, his tortured

mingling of love and hate are so free from the pedantry


of Alexandrianism as to
of Gabriele d'Annunzio.
infinite grace, dignity,

make him seem


With no such

the predecessor

passion, yet with

humour,

wit, or melancholy, accord-

ing to his subject, Horace followed Catullus,

and to-day

must be

styled the greatest master of lyric verse


for

among

the Latins;
difficult

he managed with perfect ease the more


lyrists,

measures of the Grecian

and remained

less

Alexandrian and more truly


Elegiac verse

contemporaries.

Roman than any of his in Rome was especially

represented by Ovid, and Propertius, and Tibullus,


temporaries, or nearly so, of Horace.^
'

con-

See Ribbeck, op.


Sellar,

cit.

i;

and
also

The Roman Poets of

Werner, Lyrik und Lyriker (Leipzig, 1890) the Augustan Age (Oxford, 1892), Cf.
(Paris, 1843);

du

Mfiril, Poesies

Populates Latines

and Weissenfels,

Horaz

(Berlin, 1899).

THE GRiECO-EOMAN PERIOD

1 53

Roman
(234-149

prose begins practically with Cato the Censor


B.C.)

soldier,

statesman, orator, farmer, and


science,

also writer;

for he

produced works on military

on

agriculture,

and what would to-day be

of vast interest

to us, a treatise entitled Origines,^ in which he discussed

the history, antiquities, and language of the

Roman people.
Practically

Some slighter treatises of his relate we have

respectively to medicine,

to epistolary composition, and to anecdotes.


all

that

left is

the

little

monograph, De Re Rustica,

a practical handbook on the management of a farm. Other Romans at a comparatively early period wrote the
annals of their

own

country, but they employed the Greek

language until the time of Cato.


with
its

This form of narrative,


attractive to the

patriotic background,

was very
and

Romans;

so that, after Cato

his contemporaries,

we
and

find History written

by Varro,

Atticus, Hortensius,

Cicero himself, whose two famous contemporaries, Julius


Caesar and G. Sallustius, reached a very high degree of

eminence.

Sallust, indeed,

may be

thought to challenge

Thucydides,

whom
After

he imitated, just as Titius Livius, in

the Augustan Age, wrote almost as delightfully as had

Herodotus.
works,
the

him

Tacitus, in his

two remarkable
brought
for after
his-

Annates and

the

Historic^,

torical writing to a climax of excellence;

him
on

we

find

only

biographies

like

that

of

Suetonius

'The fragments
denburg, 1858).

are collected in a

commentary by Bormann (Bran-

154

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


or
else

the Twelve Caesars


sketches.'

epitomes and fragmentary

In their prose-writing the Romans developed,

first

among western
later Greeks.

peoples, prose fiction in the

form of the

novel and romance, in which they were imitated by the

But while the Greeks

in fiction

were almost

always prolix and unreal, the Romans, as might have

been expected from their love of the concrete, struck out


at a single blow, as
it

were, the realistic novel in the so{d.

called Satira of Gaius Petronius derfully


in its

66 a.d.) which
,

is

won-

modern

in its treatment of character as well as


life

sound criticism of
remains, yet
it

and

learning.

Only a portion

of

it

is

one of the choicest fragments of

ancient literature as well as a clew to

much

that would

otherwise be obscure in the

life

and language of the com(second century a.d.), of

mon

people.

Lucius Apuleius

Medaura
fiction in

in Africa, represents better the earlier

form of
as Mi-

which short

stories (generically

known
plot,

lesians), are strung together


'

by a thread of

but are

toricorum

The fragments of the Roman historians are collected by Peter, HisRomanorum Fragmenta (Leipzig, 1883). See Ulrid, treatise on
of

the general characteristics

ancient history (Berlin, 1833);

Gerlach,

Die Geschkhtschreiber der Rdmer (Stuttgart, 1855); and the introduction


to

biography

Mommsen's history (New York,

of

Rome. On biography,
Wiese,

see West,

Roman Auto-

1901);

(Berlin, 1840);

and Suringar,

De Vitis Scriptorum Romanorum De Romanorum Autobiographis (Leyden,


is

1846)

Much

biographical material

found in the form of

letters

especially those of Cicero, Pliny, Seneca, Sjrmmachus, St. Jerome, St.

Augustine, and Cassiodorus.

See Roberts, History of Letter-Writing

(London, 1843).

THE GILECO-ROMAN PERIOD


not as yet woven into anything
form.
It
is

55

like

a definite unity of

odd that these two

writers are practically

the only ones

who

in

Roman

literature

have

left

behind
of

them anything
number

like

completed works.
later,

The Greeks

the same period as Apuleius, and


vast
of romances,' a

poured forth a

number
is

of

which have been

preserved.
dorus,

The

best of

them

the Mthiopica by Helio-

composed

in the fourth century,

and the curiously

symbolistic novel,

Daphnis and

Chloe.

The author
from

of

the latter
influence

is

unknown, but the book has exercised a strong


fiction
St.

upon modern prose

Pierre

to fimile Zola.

collection of imag'nary letters written

by Alciphron, a Greek sophist

of the second century a.d.,

give us very piquant pictures of

Bohemian

life in

Athens.

In addition to these various forms of pure

literature,

there were written Epigrams of which the master in Latin


is

Martial, though the

Romans seem

to have relished no

less

the pointed lines of Plautus and Horace and Lucan

in poetry,

and the sententious aphorisms of Seneca and

Tacitus in prose.^
'

These accorded
Roman

well with ;he spirit of


Dunlop,

See Chassang, Histoire du

(Paris, 1862);

History
la Grhce

of Fiction, last ed. (London, 1896);

Salverte,

Le Roman dans

Ancienne

(Paris, 1894);

Warren,

History of the Novel

Collignon, Etude sur Petrone (Paris, 1892);

the Introduction

(New York, 1895); by Hildeto


igoS).

brand to
'

his edition of Apuleius (Leipzig, 1842);

and the Introduction

Peck's translation of the Cena Trimalchionis, 2d ed.

(New York,

See Booth, Epigrams Ancient and Modern, 3d ed. (London, 1874)


coarse epigrams directed against the emperors,

and for the rough and rather

see Bernstein, Versus Ludicri in CcMares Priores (Halle, 1810).

156

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

homely wisdom that was to the Romans what speculative


philosophy was to the Greeks.

So comedy of the farcical

type and the cynical shrewdness of the

mimes were

pre-

fered to tragedy at almost every period of

Roman culture.
Romans
In
literature.

The

truth

is

that only on the surface were the


in

ever Hellenised either

language or in

language, highly educated

men

wrote

in

the so-called
of the
their
less

sermo urbanus, corresponding to the


Castilians.

esiilo culto
life,

In the easy converse of daily

among

friends

and intimates, they used a much looser and

formal sort of Latin


letters,

the

sermo cotidianus of Cicero's


in

for example.

The man

the street spoke the

sermo

plebeius,

which was nothing more than the older

Latin which had at one time been current everywhere,

but which
boleth of
exquisitely

now was
wrought

held by the literati to be the shib-

ignorance.^

As

to literature, ornate orations,

lyrics,

learned epics, and carefully

penned

histories

have come down to us bearing the impress

of Grecian models;

but we know that for the people at

large there existed


tions,

an immense mass of popular composi-

sometimes transmitted orally and sometimes not

nursery songs, lines sung by children at play, the

tri-

umphal chants

of the

common
and

soldiery, as well as fables,

familiar letters, riddles,

acrostics.

Against Terence

we must
'

set Plautus;
cit.,

against the epic of Vergil

we must

See Cooper, op.

Introduction; Olcott, Studies in the

Word Forma-

tion of the Latin Inscriptions

(Rome, 1898);
op.
cit.

Grandgent, Vtdgar Latin

(Boston, 1908)

and du M&il,

THE GILECO-ROMAN PERIOD


set the satires of

57

Horace and Persius; against the


set

stately

prose of Cicero

we must

the slangy and ungrammatical

and yet

vivid jargon

which flew back and forth between

Trimalchio's guests.^

Again,

Roman taste

is

seen in the choice of those literary

forms which were regarded as most admirable.

The

Greeks might hold tragedy to be the noblest form of


composition, but the

Romans gave the first

place to oratory

and

history, while they enjoyed the epic only because (as

in the case of the

Mneid)

it

ministered to their pride of

nationality.

If

we look at their philological studies, we shall


As
early as 159 B.C. there

see that they gave the preference to such as were of a practical character.

came

to

Rome
said,

Crates, the

grammarian from Pergamum,^ and, as

during his stay he excited

much

interest in theoretical

grammar and

linguistic studies generally.

Even

earlier

than this time essays had been written on the ancient


literature, partly to allusions.'

explain

its

meaning and partly

its

After Crates there was

much

attention paid

to etymology, and in fact, two schools arose, one deriving

Latin words from Greek, which was the practice of Hypsi1

See Petronius, chs. 27-78, translated as Trimalchio's Dinner

by Peck,

2d ed. (New York, 1908).


^

Supra, p. 120.
Attius

'Lucius

wrote

history

of in

Greek and

Roman
of a,
e,

poetry

(Didascalica),

and made some reforms and


y,

Roman

orthography, abandon-

ing the use of the letters z

and denoting the quantity

and u

by doubling them when they were


other Italic dialects.

long, thereby imitating the usage in

See Boissier, Le

PoUe

Attius (Paris, 1857).

IS8
crates
(c.

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


loo
B.C.),

and the other explaining everything


itself.

on the basis of Latin


school
is

The

great

name

in the latter

that of M. Terentius Varro (116-28 B.C.), a

man

of prodigious erudition,

which caused him to be styled Varro was one of

"the most learned of the Romans."


the great scholars of
all

time, to be

compared with EraGreeks, with Scaliger

tosthenes and Aristarchus

among the

and Lipsius

just after the Renaissance,

and with

Momm-

sen in very recent years.

Before giving any account,

however, of his philological labours, an incident should

be mentioned, the influence of which has continued to


the present day.

In the year 80

B.C. there

a roving scholar, a native probably of

Rome Alexandria. He
came
to
at

had been trained both

in his native city

and

Pergamum.
each

He had
school,

listened to the disputes of the linguists of

and was

well versed in
is

all

their doctrines.

This

person,

Dionysius Thrax,

an admirable type of the


creative

middleman who stands between the


the
as

mind and
grammar,

mind that is entirely receptive.


already seen,

Until his day,


so

we have

was not

much an

art in itself

as an adjunct to logic and philosophy.

Dionysius Thrax

made
was

digests

of

the lectures which he had attended,

putting

down

the results in a didactic manner.

This

precisely

what most appealed to the

Roman mind
One

something

definite, concrete,

and dogmatic.

treatise

of Dionysius, his
ciples

Te^v
it

TpafinariK'j, set forth certain prinfirst

which made

the

treatise

on Formal Grammar.

THE GRjECO-ROMAN PERIOD


Translated into Latin,
it

59

became a standard text-book,


to us the technical terms of

and from
formal

it

there have

come
in

grammar employed

modern languages. ^
this

A Roman
many

contemporary of

Greek grammarian was


have notices in

L. JElias Praeconinus Stilo, of

whom we
the

of the later writers, although even fragments of his

writings do not remain.

He was
and

first

Roman
of

to

deserve the

name

of philologist.

He was

knightly
gift

rank, an aristocrat
of natural oratory;

by

birth

training,

and had a

though he sought no

political oflSce,

and merely wrote orations


of the
scholar,

for his friends, after the fashipn

Greek

orators.

He was

a type of the patrician

and had the true

patrician's taste for antiquarian

knowledge.
authority
in

Therefore he came to be a profoundly learned


relating to ancient Latin, both

upon ever)^hing

the matter of antiquities and in the usages of the earlier


Cicero styles

language.
'

him " most learned


The Armenian

in

Grecian

In the fourth century the book was translated into Armenian, while
version has given

the original was somewhat curtailed.

us back five more chapters than any of the later Greek manuscripts contain.

See the edition by Uhlig (Leipzig, 1883);

and the French trans(Paris,

lation

by

Cierbied,
cit. i.

MSmoires
p.

et

Dissertations

1824).

Cf.

also
cit.

Grafenhan, op.

402

foil.,

and the accoimt

in Steinthal, op.

A list
may

of these grammatical terms in Greek, with their Latin equivalents,


the History of Classical Philology,

be found in Gudeman, Outlines of


Thus, we have
8j'o/ia

3d ed. pp. 30-32.


"case"; XP^""'

= iempiis,

"tense";

= oie, ''noun"; avlvyla = amjugatio,

tttQitis^ casusi

"conjugation";

genus, "gender"; fyxXuris

= rnodus,

son"; dpidfu)i= Humerus, "number."


pear in Greek,
it

was

first

called

"mood"; wpoaSnov = persona, "perAs the ablative case does not ap"the Latin case" {casus Latinos), and by

Quintilian, ablativus.

l6o
literature

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


as well as in Latin," while his pupil, Varro,
litteris

speaks of him as

ornatissimus memoria nostra.


of the

He was
likely

undoubtedly the

first

Romans who had any


It

claim to be regarded as a classical philologist.

was very

he

who took up

the teachings of Dionysius Thrax

and applied them to Latin, thus becoming the First of


the

Roman Grammarians.

Likewise, he wrote

commen-

taries

on such ancient works as the Carmina Saliorum and

on the Twelve Tables.

Gudeman

believes that he even


critical signs;

prepared an edition of Plautus with


this last there
is

yet of

no

direct evidence.

His greatest fame comes from the fact that he was a


teacher of Marcus Terentius Varro, the most learned, the

most

indefatigable,

and the most


In a

prolific of

any

Roman
to

scholar

who

ever lived. " Varro

later century St.

Augustine

says of him:
feel surprised

had read

so

much

that

we ought

that he found time to write anything;


that

and

he wrote so

much

we can hardly
all

believe that

any one
In
fact,

could find time to read

that he composed."

he wrote at least

six hundred.*

Varro was, however, no mere recluse.

He commanded

a squadron in the war against Mithradates; he served as a general of

Pompey

in Spain,

and though he was comhe escaped him-

pelled to surrender his troops to Caesar,


self

and remained steadfast to the


So Auson. Prof. Burd, xx.
20.

aristocratic cause until

'

Cf

Boissier, Etudes sur

M.

T. Varron

(Paris, 1861).

THE GR^CO-ROMAN PERIOD


the
final battle at Pharsalus.

l6l

Since resistance to the dic-

tator

was then

useless,

Varro returned to Rome, expecting

perhaps to be put to death.

But the high-minded


and wished
to

Caesar,

who was himself a


ship, received

scholar,

promote scholar-

Varro most graciously, and gave him the

agreeable task of founding a great public library in Rome.'

This was the more pleasing, since Varro's own splendid


private library

had been destroyed

in the Civil

Wars, just

as his beautiful villa at


defiled

Casinum had been plundered and


scene which Cicero has depicted

by Antony, a

with almost hideous realism in his second Philippic oration.

Out
cause

of Varro's encyclopaedic works, not

many

remain,

partly because they were too numerous, and partly beit

was the habit

of

Roman

scholars to condense

and

abridge long works, taking from them whatever seemed

most

interesting.

It

is

for this reason that


in the

we have

the

most valuable part of Livy only

form of an epitome;
lost,

that the greater portion of Petronius has been


that
of

and
re-

Varro's

six

hundred or more works there

main
*

to us only his treatise

on husbandry {De Re Rustica),

Suetonius, Julius, 44.

Varro never completed the task which had


first

been assigned him.

The

pubUc hbrary was opened by the private

munificence of Asinius PoIIio (34 b.c).


of

At

last, five

imperial hbraries,

which two are the most celebrated,

first

that founded

by Tiberius
all,

and famous

for its complete collection of State papers

and public docusince

ments, and the Bibliotheca Traiana, the most magnificent of

most of the books


(Boston, 1889).

in

it

were written or inscribed upon thin leaves of ivory.


in the Light of Recent Excavations, pp. 178-205

SeeLanciani, Ancient

Rome

1 62

HISTORY OP CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

a number of quotations and references scattered throughout the pages of Latin literature, and
finally,

a very

much

corrupted collection of six books taken from his great


treatise

on the Latin language

{De Lingua Latino)

about one-quarter of the whole.^

him

his highest reputation


it

The book which gave among the ancients, who con-

sidered
truth,
it

his masterpiece, has practically perished and, in

probably did not survive the end of the sixth cen-

tiu"y A.D.

This was his Antiquitatum Libri, divided into

forty-one books,

and crowded with the vast knowledge

which

its

author had acquired by years and years of

patient reading

and research.

To be

noted also are his

Sententim, a collection of pithy sayings,

much quoted

in

the Middle Ages, and his Saturcs written in a mixture of

prose and verse (Menippecs).


It is the treatise

on the Latin language


to Cicero) that
itself
is

(one part of
interesting,
still

which was dedicated

most

both because of the subject

and because we
treatise

possess a portion of the book.

The

seems to

have been arranged in three great

divisions.

The

first

seven books dealt with the origin of words and phrases,

and was,

in fact, a history of the

Latin language largely

from the point of view of

etymologists.''

The

next six

books were grammatical,' relating


'Edited by A. Spengel (Berlin, 1885).

chiefly to the

forms and

'Supra,
'

p.

146

foil.

In these books Varro examines the natural and arbitrary divisions in nouns and verbs. Words are " naturally " divided according to analogy, and " arbitrarily " divided according to anomaly.

THE GR^CO-ROMAN PERIOD


inflection of

1 63

nouns and verbs, since Varro regarded these

as the only two real parts of speech

in

this
last

respect

resembling the Semitic grammarians.

The

eleven

books have

to

do with the laws of syntax

{ut verba inter


still

se coniungantur) .

The

six

books which we

possess
re-

are, as is seen above, partly etymological

and partly

lating to inflections.

They

give us incidentally a great

deal of information about curious points of ancient usage


at

Rome, and Varro shows wisdom

in not attempting to

derive the vocabulary of his language from the Greek.

On
that

the other hand, he etymologises entirely

by

ear, so

many

of his derivations are as absurd as those which


in the

were prevalent

Middle Ages.^

This monumental work, even in the scanty fragments

which remain

to us, has always

been studied with great


(v-vii).

profit, especially the purely lexical portion

Its

arrangement

is
it

not alphabetical,
are taken

but the words that


their

Varro treats in

up by groups based upon

association with one another.

Thus

the author begins

the fifth

book

(after

a short introduction) with names re-

lating to places, discussing first the

word

locus

and

its

derivatives locare, locarium,

and

so forth, following this

by

a division of places in heaven


to the former,

and places on

earth.

Turning
1

he regards caelum as the


is

antith-

Thus Varro says that

canis

derived from cano because dogs give

signals (canere) at night;


cero),

that stags are called cervi from gero (quasi

because they carry huge antlers;

and that

dives is

from divus,

because a rich

man

is like

a god in wanting nothing.

164
esis to

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


terra

and

its

partial

synonym humus, which sugand other words


relat-

gests humor, humidus, udus, sudor,

ing to moisture, as puteus (a well), lacus, palus, stagnum,


fluvius, jlumen, stilUcidium, amnis.

The sound

of

amnis

suggests to

him

the

place-names, Interamna, Antemnae,

and Anio.

Because the Anio empties into the Tiber, he


Tiberis.

discusses the etymology of

And

so one

word

suggests another, and he takes each of


it,

them and

defines

giving the etymology


in

and

citing

from both poets and


various uses of the

prose-writers

illustration of the

word or name

in question.

In

this

way we
K.
the

receive the

impression of a familiar, off-hand lecture, and such seems


to

have
set

been
forth

his

intention

though
in

O.

Miiller

has

an hypothesis that

De Lingua

Latina

we have

only the rough unfinished notes of a book

rather than the

book

itself in its

completed form.^
ety-

Whatever one may say of Varro's rather childish


mologies, he does give the explanation which the

Romans
and the

themselves were wont to hold as to the origin of certain

words.

But

his citations

from authors now

lost,

occasionally full explanations which he gives of matters


of usage and law, are a source of information to which
scholars will always resort. position as the

On

such matters, Varro's


his

most learned of the Romans gives

utterances the weight of unimpeachable authority.


1

It

may be

that Varro published an epitome of the work in nine

books.

See Roth, Leben Varros (Basle, 1857).

THE GILECO-ROMAN PERIOD


Especially important
since
it

165

was

his labour as a critic of texts,

resulted in the establishment of a Plautine

Canon.

It is the

one instance of such a canon created among the


lasting to the present time.
to

Romans and
with

In his treatise

on the comedies of Plautus, he appears

have discussed

much acumen
name
As

the question as to which comedies

bearing the

of Plautus were genuine


is

and which
of such

were spurious.
plays

well known, the


great,

number

had become very

owing

to the fact that the

name

Plautina was used as a generic term for a certain


^

type of fahula palliata;

and because the plays of Plautus


of another writer, Plauall,

had become confused with those


tius.

Hence

Gellius says that, in

130 comedies were

generally styled "Plautine."


true from the false

To

the separation of the


set himself to

among

these,

Varro

work,

using both the traditional information that had descended


to his time, lated, .of

and

also the texts

which he compared,

col-

and

criticised

with great acuteness.

The number The


general

genuine plays he set at twenty-one.


is

acceptance of his dictum

seen in the fact that of the

whole

list

of 130, only the twenty-one fabulae Varronianae


to

have survived

modem

times,
lost

one of them, the Vidularia,

having been practically

during the Middle Ages.^


in

Glossography
1 2

flourished

Rome,

though

it

was

Gellius,

iii.

3.
ii.

See Ritschl, O^MSCMia,


;

(186S);

Neue

Plautinische Excurse (Leipzig,

1869)
189s).

and on the

lost Vidularia,

Leo,

De

Vidularia Plauti (Gottingen,

1 66

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

almost wholly of a lexical and grammatical character.

During the Ciceronian, Augustan, and

Silver

Ages

it

served to explain and illustrate the meaning of archaic

Latin and also the plebeian form of speech.


tinguished glossographers Prasconinus Stilo
lius Opilius created

The

dis-

and Aurestudy of

scientific

basis for the

the Latin language by going back to the oldest records

and studying them.

The

results of their

work and

that

of their contemporaries

have in
{e.g.

many
to

cases

come down

to

us in

special

glossaria
others),

Plautus, Terence,

Vergil, Sidonius,

and

from seven of which Cardi-

nal Mai, in the nineteenth century, compiled his great

Glossarium Vetus.^

Roman grammarians and

critics early
(c.

began
B.C.)

to edit

Latin texts.

M. Antonius Gnipho

114

published commentaries on the Annales of Ennius.

Cicero (or his brother Quintus) published an edition


of Lucretius.^
It is

unfortunate that no exact details concerning the


criticism of texts have

Roman Roman

come down

to us.

Most

scholars appear to have confined themselves to

the writing of marginal glosses.

They

distinguish the

various processes:

emendatio, distinctio, and adnotatio,


of notes, these notes

which

last

word means the adding

being sometimes brief signa, and sometimes brief com^See Lowe, Prodromus Corporus Glossariorum Latinorum (Leipzig,
1876).
'

See Munro, Lucretius, Intr.

ii.

pp. 2

foil.

THE GILECO-ROMAN PERIOD


mentaries in the modern sense of the word.

1 67

Suetonius

wrote a treatise on these notes, part of which has come

down

to us written in Greek.

He

mentions twenty-one
of the

critical signs, chiefly variations

and combinations

obelus, asterisk, dipl6, antisigma,

and point (punctum)

yet they appear to have been used less for textual than
for aesthetic for

and

literary criticism {Kpuyii or distinctio),

which there were

also other

symbols that Suetonius

merely mentions without


critics
is

describing.^
subscriptio,

To
of

the

Latin

due the so-called


the

which one

hears a good deal in


subscriptio
is

study of

manuscripts.

A
fol-

a note added to a manuscript.

It usually

begins with the word legi (also recognovi, contuli),

lowed by the name of the

reviser,

with the date, place,

time, circumstances, or other details regarding the revision.

This revision

indicated

by the subscriptio

is

usually not a critical recension of the text, but only a


sort of proof-reading,
i.e.

a guarantee of the correctness

of the copy from an original.^


It is to

be noted that the

Romans

paid considerable

attention to Epigraphy.
'

Inscribed stones on which the


of these is of

E.g. notae simplices. addition.


It

One
is

some importance

as being

distinct

the sign

h, called alogus, and marks an


such as the aequore iusso Aen.

anacoluthon, or a
X. 444, so

difficult expression,

marked by Probus.
are found in manuscripts
of

^ Subscriptiones

aU

the

best

Latin

writers, including Caesar, Cicero, Vergil, Horace, Livy, Persius, Martial,

Quintilian, Juvenal,

and Mela.

See Haase,

De

Lat. Cod.

MSS.

Sub-

scriptionibus (Breslau, i860).

l68

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


their public

Greeks preserved

documents were stored in

the temples of every Hellenic city,

and records were

hewn upon
ally written

the walls and pediments and altars, so that,

as Hiibner says, " the history of a

Greek

city

was

liter-

upon her

stones."

These inscriptions were

frequently cited as documents by the

Greek orators and

afterward by the historians, but

it

was not

until the

Alexandrian Age that regular collections of them were

made by

such scholars as Philochorus (300 B.C.) and


B.C.),

Polemo (200

who was nicknamed


B.C. until

a-TrjXoKOTra^ be-

cause the study of inscriptions was a passion with him.

At Rome from about 50

200 a.d. they are

quoted by the orators and historians, and studied by

some
cus,i
legal

of the

grammarians, such as Varro, Verrius Flacof Berytus


;

and Probus ^

while they are collected for

purposes by the writers on

Roman
(c.

jurisprudence.

Passing over Ateius Prsetextatus


called philologus^ aiid

29 B.C.),
(3

who was
the
annalist

Asconius Pedianus

a.d.),

well-known commentator on Cicero, and


Fenestella (19 a.d.),

the

we come

to the

next great name,


(c.

which

is

that of

Marcus Verrius Flaccus

10 B.C.), tutor

to the children of

Augustus, and a scholar


in

who

deserves

especial

mention for his rank

both philological study


Verrius Flaccus
first

and the general history of education.

may

fairly

be described as the compiler of the


^Ibid.

Latin

'//ro, p. 169.
^

Suetonius, Gram. 10.

THE GRiECO-ROMAN PEIUOD


lexicon ever written, though perhaps
truly called
it

1 69

might be more

an encyclopasdia.

Its title

was De Verborum
It

Significatu, written in

more than twenty-four books.


it

was a

lexicon because

defined and illustrated by citations

the words of the Latin language in their alphabetical


order. It

was an encyclopaedia because

it

gave information

on innumerable

topics concerning history, antiquities,

and

grammar, and with exhaustive and elaborate quotations


from every
class of writers

poets, jurists,

and

historians,

as well as from ancient legal dociunents, rituals, and

sacred formulas.

This great work

in its original
it

form

is

now

lost.

In the second century a.d.

was abridged by

a grammarian, Pompeius Festus, in an arbitrary fashion

which allowed only one book

to

each of the

letters of the
itself

alphabet, and this abridgment

by Festus was

com-

pressed into a

still

briefer epitome

by the monk Paulus

or Paul Wamefrid, usually spoken of as Paulus Diaconus.

The epitome by
A.D.), is

Paulus, dedicated to Charlemagne

(c.

800

now

the principal source of our knowledge of

the original treatise; but

many

fragments of the notes by

Festus remain, while Gellius here and there cites extensive passages at first

hand from

Verrius.

These show

how
were

the original treatise was mutilated both by Festus

and by Paulus.^

Yet badly as the remains of Verrius


most valuable source

treated, they are perhaps the

of information remaining for the study at second hand of


*

All the remains have been edited by Thewrewk de Ponor (Prague, 1 891)

170

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

archaic Latin
of

and

for curious information

on the subject

Roman
Verrius

antiquities.^
is

to

be remembered for another thing


first

his
the

system of education, which for the

time

among

Romans appealed

to

spirit of

emulation and ambition

rather than to the dread of punishment.

In teaching,

Verrius offered prizes for proficiency in study, and laid


stress

upon the reward of merit rather than upon the

chastisement of neglect and ignorance.^


It

was

at this time, after the beginning of the first cen-

tury of our era, that the

Greek and

Roman
field.

learning be-

came

so blended as to

be

thereafter, in the sphere of the

higher studies, substantially a single

Henceforth

all

Romans
and with
largely

of cultivation were not only familiar with


its literature,

Greek

but the Greek world had become

Romanised

in its institutions to

and

in

many

of

its

customs.
that

Greeks flocked

Rome

in

such great numbers

we

find Juvenal, a little later, complaining that the

Roman

capital

had become a Greek

city.

Both languages
in

were spoken side by side; Romans wrote in Greek or

Latin as they chose; the pages of their most familiar and


intimate compositions (the letters of Cicero, for example)

were studded with Greek phrases and allusions;


the Greeks, though they never took so kindly to the

while

speech, busied themselves in reading


>

and writing

Roman Roman

See the chapter on Verrius Flaccus

by Nettleship

in his Essays in

Latin Literature, pp. 201-247 (Oxford, 1885).


*

Suetonius, Gram. 17.

THE GRiECO-ROMAN PERIOD


history

1 71

and

in the scientific study of

Roman

institutions.

Dionysius of Halicarnassu

wrote of the archaeology of

Rome.

Plutarch, that

remarkable
in

master of
lives

literary

portraiture,

found

parallels

the

of

Greeks

and Romans, and

in his

Ama

'Pfofia'iici]

investigated the

meaning of Roman customs.

One

of

the

best-known

Roman
quillus,

historians

and

scholars, Gaius Suetonius


in

Tran-

composed partly

Greek and partly

in Latin his

learned summaries of the usages of both peoples.^


intellectual

The

unity of Hellas and

Rome became
now
finally

clearly

visible in the

system of education
as
it

accepted

by the Romans, uniting

did the early theory of

the Latin people with that of the

more highly

intellectual

Greeks.

As Roman thought and

literature in this period


it

grew more and more academic,

is

proper here to

summarise the principal features of the Graeco-Roman


Educational System, as giving a general conspectus of the
progress of learning in the ancient world.

The Roman
part of
'

training, as a whole,

a Greek structure on a Latin


it is

may be described as foimdation. The elementary


scientific

native
is

the

more purely

part of

it is

Suetonius

best

known

for his biographies of the

Twelve Caesars
of imprecations

yet he wrote

many

treatises, chiefly

on antiquarian subjects, such as the

names of

articles of clothing, the origin

and early import

and words
ments

of abuse,

an account

of celebrated courtesans, a

manual

of

court etiquette, and a collection of miscellanies in ten books.


of these lost treatises are edited

The

frag-

by

ReifFerscheid (Leipzig, i860).


in Greek.

It is not

known which

See the preface to

them were written in Latin and which the edition by Roth (Leipzig, 1886).
of

172
foreign.

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


This represents, of course, the history of
i-n

Roman

education,
the

which simpler forms were developed before


felt

Greek influence had been

at

Rome;

while the

scientific features

were introduced after the time of Livius


In other words
(to

Andronicus and Ennius.

use

modem
The
called

terms), the common-school system at

Rome was Roman;

the secondary and higher education were Greek.

very

names given

at

Rome

to the three classes of teachers

were most

significant.

The

elementary teacher

is

by a Latin name
both classes

(Jitterator

or magister liUerarius)
titles

while

of advanced teachers had


rhetor).

borrowed

from the Greek (grammaiicus,

In early Rome, education was regarded as important,

though

it

was not obligatory by


Greek
States.

law, as

it

was

at

Athens

and

in other

Schools were

few.

Most
itself

fathers taught their

own

sons at home.

This in

implies that the teaching


tarian character.

was very simple and

of a utili-

Reading, writing, arithmetic, and the

memorising of the Twelve Tables comprised nearly everything that


these
B.c.^

was taught

in

the elementary schools after


in the fourth or fifth century
^

had been established


Plutarch's statement

that Spurius Carvilius

was must

the

first

person to open a school at

Rome

(231 B.C.)

be understood as referring to the secondary schools alone. In the elementary schools the course, as stated above,
'

Livy,

iii.

44

v.

44

vi. 25.

'

Quaestiones Romanae, 59.

THE GR^CO-ROMAN PERIOD


was one
of reading, writing,
attractive at first

1 73

and arithmetic.
ivory letters
oil

Reading

was made
devices.

by using

and other

Writing lessons were given

wax

tablets ruled

with

lines.

Arithmetic was regarded as extremely imit

portant, though

was not pursued much

further than

addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.


stress

Great
of a

was

laid

on mental arithmetic, which consisted on the


;

rigid drill

in calculation

fingers

up

to

sums of

four and five places of figures

while complicated prob-

lems were solved by means of the abacus or calculating


board.
Fractions were viewed as
very
difficult.

The

Roman

system of reckoning was originally duodecimal


,

(by twelves)

but later decimal (by tens)

Boys of wealthy
were sent
in

families, after finishing their elementary studies,

to the

grammar

school,

where they received instruction

the

first

principles of a liberal training {eruditio liberalis)}

The
to

chief object

which the grammaiicus had

in

mind was

impart a thorough knowledge of the Greek and Latin

poets, this

knowledge covering not only purely

literary

discussions of style

and metre, but


topics,

also the subject-matteir,

such as
ethics.^

historical

geography,

mythology,

and

Long passages

of favourite authors were learned


also practised.

by
the

heart,
first

and writing verse was

Late

in

century B.C. there were added the subjects of

music and geometry.'


'

Cicero, Tusc.

ii.

11, 27.
i.

' '

Cicero,

In Verrem,

18,

47

Quintilian,

i.

4.

Seneca, Epist. 88, 9

Suetonius, Tib. 3.

174

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

History and geography were, as time went on, more

and more valued as a part

of a liberal education.

We

have seen that even about the beginning of the Alexandrian Period, Descriptive Geography took definite shape

and form.
sailed

It

was then

that Scylax, a Carian Greek,

down the Indus and around through the Indian


the

Ocean and
voyage.

Red

Sea, occupying thirty


is

months

for the

His name

attached to a so-called Periplus,

which, however, could not possibly have been written by


him.'

little later,

Eudoxus

of

Canidus proved matheof

matically the

spherical

shape

the earth,

and

first

divided the globe into five zones.

The campaigns

of

Alexander the Great laid the western and southern parts


of Asia

open

to

Greek research.

Physical geography
in their commercial
it

was developed by the Ptolemies


expeditions;

and

all

geographical knowledge, so far as


skill

then existed, was used with scientific


andrians, such as Eratosthenes,

by the Alexof Nicaea,

Hipparchus

and Posidonius of Apamea (90

B.C.).

We

have only frag-

ments, however, of most of these geographers.


great and enduring
(c.

very

work

is

that of Strabo of

Amasia

20 A.D.), which combines descriptive geography with

ethnology.

To what the Greeks had knowledge of the Roman conquests.


work
is

learned he added

And though
on
the

his

historical

lost,

his

treatise
is

geography

(Trjwypa^iKa) in seventeen books


'

most complete
cit.

See the edition by Fabricius (Leipzig, 1883); and Antichan, op.

THE GRiECO-ROMAN PERIOD


geographical treatise of antiquity.
It is, indeed, It
it

175
very far
to

from a dry and monotonous screed.


read,

was meant

be

and

it

is

very readable, so that

has been called

a sort of

political or historical

geography.

Napoleon

caused

it

to

be rendered into French, with notes.' During

the wars in Gaul and the East,

maps

(tabulae)

were

prepared at
all

Rome and
Roman

displayed in the porticos, where

could see them and understand the despatches which


the

came from

armies.

M. Vipsanius Agrippa,

by order of Augustus Caesar, made a great map, on

which were indicated the distances between important


places throughout the
the origin of

Roman

Empire.

This

map was
greatly to
in

modern maps, and contributed


It

our knowledge of Topography.

was often copied

whole or in part, and from


Itineraria, or

it

were made the so-called

maps intended

for particular expeditions.

The most
date

interesting of such

now

in existence is the soIts

called tabula Peutingeriana,


is

preserved in Vienna.

about 250 a.d., and


originally

it

consisted of twelve slips of


all

parchment which

marked out

the world as

known to the Romans. At


of a part of Kent.^

present the pieces which should

contain Spain and Britain are lost with the exception

Rivalling
1

Strabo in science

but not equalling him

5 vols.

(Paris, 1805-19).

See the Introduction by Tozer to his

English edition of selections (Oxford, 1893).


'

For a representation

of this geographical curiosity, see the Atlas

Antiquus of Justus Perthes (Gotha, 1893).

176

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


the Alexandrian
lists (c.

in interest or breadth of knowledge,

astronomer, Claudius Ptolemaeus,


of places, with their latitude

made

150 a.d.)
atlas

and longitude, and an

the

first

known which shows the Indian Ocean as a


After this time there
is

closed sea.

nothing novel in

geography and
Pausanias
(c.

topography except the great work of


175
of
a.d.),

who

wrote

an

itinerary
is

(n6/>t7j77?a-i?)

Greece in

ten books,i which

an

invaluable

study of Hellenic topography.

Pomponius

Mela, a native of Spain, composed a clear and concise

account of the world as


time.^

known
the

to the

Romans
a

of his

At

the
of

end

of

Graeco-Roman

Period,

Stephanus

Byzantium

compiled
is

geographical

dictionary, of which the

substance

taken from older

and better writers; and

in the sixth century, one

Cosmus
time

described India in a book where occurs for the


the

first

name

of

China {Sinarum Regnum).

After completing his studies under the grammaticus, a

Roman was
cation.
scientific

held to have received a fairly complete eduspecial

But such as were desirous of more

and

teaching had their choice between the schools of

the rhetors
1

and the

universities

at Athens,

Rhodes,

Translated with a commentary

by

Frazer, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1898).

^SeeFrick, Pomponius Mela und seine Chorographie (Leipzig, 1880). The remains of the minor Greek geographers are edited by Miiller, 2
vols.

(Paris, 1882); those of the

Latin geographers by Reise (Frankfort,

1878).

For a study of early cartography, see Nordenskjold,

Pen^te

(Stockholm, 1897).

THE GILECO-ROMAN PERIOD


Alexandria, or Pergamum, or Massilia.^
the rhetors were

1 77

The
as

schools of

more immediately
fit

directed to rhetorical
life

teaching so as to

the student for public

an orator
prose,

and statesman.

Here was taken up the study of

beginning with the simple narratio, passing on to the


declamatio or suasoria, and ending with the controversia,

which had

to

do with
life.

legal points

and complicated queswas nothing


to

tions of practical

In

all

this there

appeal to that numerous class of students who, setting


aside any political or legal ambition, desired to cultivate

as specialists the field of the natural sciences, of pure

mathematics, of medicine, of philosophy, or of


If these persons

linguistics.

remained

in

Rome, they could

carry on

their

work only by employing

at great expense the services

of

a private instructor in the person of some learned

Greek.^

Thus

Cicero,

when a

boy, had in his father's


the celebrated

house various Greek

tutors,

among them

Archias of Antioch, while only one of his masters (Quintus

^lius) was a
'

Roman bom.

Later, he studied under

See supra, pp. 88-1 25. See Saalfeld, Der Hellenismus in Latium (Wolfenbiittel, 1883)
;

'

Eck-

stein, Lateinischer

und

Griechischer Unterricht (Leipzig, 1887)


;

Compayr6,
Clarke, The
op.
cit.

History of Paedagogy, English translation (Boston, 1886)

Education of Children

at

Rome (New York,

1896)

and Munroe,

Petronius satirises the ineffectiveness of private instruction (1-4)

when

the teacher was dependent on the good-will of the student, and therefore let
fool

him choose advanced studies prematurely. " Now as boys they away their time in the schools, as young men they are jeered at in
is still

the forum, and what

more

disgraceful, the thing

which they have

learned wrong they are ashamed to admit

when they grow up."

178

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Philo the Academic, while he learned rhetoric from Apollonius

Mob

of

Rhodes and trained himself

in close thinkto

ing under Diodotus the Stoic.

Then he went

Athens,

where he attended the lectures of Antiochus and subsequently heard the chief philosophers and rhetoricians of
Asia.
It

was

his practice every

day

to

declaim in both
to acquire

Greek and Latin with other young men, so as


fluency

and

style.

At

this

time he seems to have given

serious attention to only

one of his own countrymen, the

great lawyer, Scasvola.

The Roman
the
c.

theory of education was fully set forth in

first

century a.d.

by M. Fabius Quintilianus (35-

97

A.D.),

a very cultivated Spaniard

who

lived

and

taught at

Rome.

This was, indeed, the so-called Period

of Spanish Latinity, represented not only

by Quintilian

but by the two Senecas,^ the epic poet Lucan and the
epigrammatist Martial.

In this

same century, indeed,

Rome had
who was
in twelve

its first

foreign emperor in the person of Trajan,

a Spaniard,

bom near

Seville.

Quintilian's

work

books

is

entitled Institutio Oratoria.

It gives

his view of the complete training of

an

orator, beginning

with early childhood.


as to the

He makes
in

it

evident that to him,


is

Romans

generally, oratory

the supreme art.

The

orator

must be trained

grammatical studies, he
skilled in all the arts

must be a master
1

of language

and

The Elder Seneca was a


pen a number

professional rhetorician,

and we have from

his

of suasoriae

and
J.

controversiae,

which are edited by

Kiessling (Leipzig, 1872),

and H.

MUller (Prague, 1887).

THE GR^CO-ROMAN PERIOD


of persuasion; but he

79

must

also

be much more than

this.

He must be

deeply versed in the learning of his time, in

the history of his

own

country, in philology, in law, and

in science, in order that as

an orator he may draw upon


ornament,
of exalted
it

an inexhaustible store of

illustration, allusion,

and anecdote.
character, for

Finally,

he must be a
is

man

no oratory

truly effective unless

is

imbued with moral earnestness and absolute

sincerity.
first

"The

perfect orator

is

the perfect
is

man."

The

book

of Quintilian's treatise
it,

peculiarly interesting because in

speaking of the early grammatical training of a child,

he discusses minutely the alphabet, the parts of speech,


word-changes,
spelling,

punctuation,

barbarisms,

sole-

cisms, analogy, the influence of custom,

and

at last ety-

mology.

All these things

he

illustrates

by a number

of

examples and anecdotes, which have been

to later genera-

tions a treasure-house of curious facts regarding the Latin

language. Throughout the book the tone

is

very

modem,

and some of

his precepts

lie

at the very foimdation of

modem
ment

teaching.

Thus, in speaking of corporal pimishhe says very sensibly


suffer corporal
:

in school,

this

"That boys should


custom be common,
it is

punishment, even though


;

I can scarcely allow


fit

in the first place, because


;

disgraceful

and a punishment
if

only for slaves

and

in the

second place because,


to be affected

the disposition of a

boy

is

so base as not
like the

by

reproof, he will
;

become hardened,
finally, if

worst

of slaves, even to lashings

and

a person
will

who

regularly

has charge of his tasks be with him, there

be no need of any

l8o

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


. .

such punishment. with blows,

Moreover, after you have cowed a boy


to treat

how

are

you

manhood when no such


even more
difficult studies

threat

can

him when he grows to early be employed, and when

must be pursued?

Add

to these con-

siderations that

many

things often occur to boys while being


likely afterward

whipped which are unpleasant to mention and


to cause

shame under the sway

of pain or terror.

Such shame
others,

enervates and depresses the

mind and youths then avoid


^

because they have lost their self-respect."

Note

also the following brief

dictum
by

and who
is

" Give cast

me

a boy
fails.

who

is

stimulated

praise

downRea

when he

His powers must be cultivated under the in-

fluence of ambition.

Reproach wiU sting him to the quick.


In such a boy I
shall

ward wiU

incite him.

never fear any


It
is

indifference; nor

wiU a love of play in boys displease me.

sign of vivacity,

and I cannot expect that one who


be eager in his
is

is is

always duU
indifierent
. .

and

spiritless will

studies,

when he

even to that excitement which

natural to his time of hfe.^

Therefore, as early as possible, a child

must he taught that he should

do nothing in a harum-scarum way, nothing dishonestly, and nothing without self-control.


of Vergil
: '

We must always keep in mind the maxim


is

So important

habit in the case of the very yoimg.' " *

The Tenth Book sums up


criticism

Quintilian's general literary


carefully

of

the

Roman
the

authors,

comparing
This com-

them with the


parison has

writers of like genres in Greek.

made

book much read


is

for the criticism,

not being that of a

bom Roman,
3, 14.

temperate, impartial,
Its con-

and written with a certain mellowness of tone.


1 ^

Quintilian, Inst. Oral.

i.

'

work and no play makes Jack a Adeo in teneris consuescere multum est.
Cf. "All

dull boy."

THE GILECO-ROMAN PERIOD


elusions are essentially those of

l8l

modem

times.

Thus he

places the
of

Roman epic poets not far behind the epic poets Greece, the Roman orators such as Cicero practically
level

on a

with the great orators of Athens, and he regards

satire as

an independent creation of
is

Roman

genius.^

His

own
spirit

style

marked by

that

tempered epigrammatic

which was

characteristic of the time.


is

Thus he

says,

"Though ambition

in itself

fault, it is still often the

source of achievement."
experience counts for
to

"In almost every undertaking,


theory."

more than

"He
is

is

equal

any task who believes himself to be equal to it."


is

" Noth-

ing

trifling in

our studies."
erases."

"The pen

often most
to

useful

when

it

"We

do not come

write

well

by writing

quickly, but

we come
"It a

to write quickly

by

writing well."

"An

evil

speaker
is

dififers

from an

evil

doer only in opportunity."

full

heart and mental

power that make men eloquent."

more famous

piece of literary criticism had already


B.C.)

been written (about 20

by Horace, and
to
its

it

became
as

known
Ars

to

scholars,
It
is

though not

author,

the

Poetica.

written in the discursive fashion


is full of

which Horace loved; and

brilliant lines

which

embody

the

wisdom

of a skilled writer

and accomplished

man
1

of the world.

Such, for example, are the following

sentences and phrases.

Each

of

them contains a world


Book by

See Peterson's edition of the Tenth Book, with his introduction


;

(Oxford, 1891)
(Paris, i8go).

and a separate

edition of the First

Fierville

1 82

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


keen observation, and some of them belong to the
:

of

language of universal criticism

dicere.

Purpureus adsuitur pannus.


Difficile est proprie

communia

Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

Ne
Ut

pueros coram populo

Medea

trucidet.

Scribendi recta sapere est et priacipium et fons.


pictura poesis.

Nescit vox missa reverti.

Dr. O.

W. Holmes once
full of brittle

said of

Emerson:

"His

paragraphs are

sentences which break apart,


like the

and are independent units


colony."

fragments of a coral
also
full

The poems

of

Horace are

of these

"

brittle

sentences " and, taken together, these sentences


the body of his doctrines.
is ill-knit;

crystallise

The Ars

Poeiica
it is

lacks proportion and

but the essence of

an injunction to hard labour on the part of the


letters, to

man

of

much

reading, to self-criticism, and to a deep


life.

knowledge of human
merely a declaimer
with things.'
^This

Without these the poet

is

who

deals with words rather than


is

Very much the same thought


of

elaborated
times by the

poem

Horace has been imitated in


his

modem

Italian scholar,

Gerolamo Vida, in
;

De

Arte Poetica, written in the

sixteenth centiiry

by Boileau

in his Art Poliigue (1674);

by Alexander

Pope in
but

his

Essay on Criticism (1711); and by Lord Byron in his clever


Hints from Horace. See Cook, The Art of Poetry (Boston,

less serious

1892),

and Weissenfels

(Gorlitz, 1880).

The

best

edition of the
p. 180.

Epistles

Analyse der Ars Poetica commentary in English is by Wilkins in his of Horace (London, 1885). Cf. also supra,
Aesthet.-kritische

THE GILffiCO-ROMAN PERIOD


by Persius Flaccus,
in the first of his satires,

183

which

ridicules the artificial character of the literary language


of the day.

Quintilian was a winning, graceful writer; he was also

a student of language, and a

critic

of literature.

The

period in which he lived and taught saw


tractive writers,
in the

many

other at-

and

it

saw

also the pursuit of linguistics

form of grammar, and likewise an abundance of


literary

soimd

criticism.

His contemporaries were the

Spaniards already mentioned, and likewise Tacitus, the


historian,

both

Plinys,

Petronius,

Persius,

Juvenal,
teacher of

Statius, Silius Italicus,

and Suetonius.

The
(c.

Quintilian himself, Q.

Remmius Palaemon

35-70 a.d.),

was perhaps the

first

author of a school grammar in the

modem
his rules

sense.

He

distinguished four declensions,


c.

and

Ars Grammatica (published


which were more
rigid

70 a.d.)

contained

and

less elastic

than those of

the early

Roman

grammarians.

Bom

a slave, originally

a weaver by trade, and noted for his most disreputable


character, he

was nevertheless extremely popular


of
his

as

teacher because

remarkable memory,
gift for serving

his

glib

speech, and his truly


in set formulas.^
*

Roman

up knowledge

See Marschall,
;

De

Q.

Remmii Paimonis Libris Grammaticis


Gram.
23.

(Leipzig,

1887)

also

Suetonius,

Cf.

Nettleship's

study of Latin
series,

grammar among

the

Romans

in Lectures

and Essays, 2d

pp. 145-

171 (Oxford, 189s); and K. Schmidt, BeitrSge zur Geschichte der Gram-

matik (Halle, 1859).

184

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Teachers of grammar became very numerous during

and

after the time of Quintilian,

and the remains of

their

treatises

have been collected into seven volumes and a


It

supplement by Keil.^

may be

said,

however, that only

a few of these so-called grammarians have any genuine

knowledge of their subject.

They copy from one

another,

and

this

copying displays not only their lack of ethics, but

their lack of knowledge.

Some

of the later

grammarians

do not even understand the teachings which they copy.

Remmius Palsemon

is

mainly responsible

for

having

made
the

Vergil the centre of scholastic instruction for the

Roman
first

world, just as

century a.d., the

Homer was for the Greek. After Roman grammarians show little
Their manuals (known as
artes)

independent research.

were merely school-books relating

to the simplest rules of

orthography, syntax, and prosody.


of

Such are the works

Marius Victorinus, Servius, Charisius, Diomedes, and


this last scholar

Terentianus Maurus,
tion to metres.

devoting his atten-

Two

granunarians stand out with deof

served prominence.

One

them

is jfElius

Donatus, who
St.

lived in the fourth century of

our era and was one of

Jerome's

teachers.

Apart

from his

commentaries

on

Vergil and Terence,

Donatus wrote a

treatise {Ars Ifonati

GrammaiiccB) in two parts.

The

first

part

is

called

Ars

Minor and

in

it

he

treats only of the eight parts of speech.

In the other, called Ars Maior, he discusses


'Keil, Grammatici Latini (Leipzig, 1853-1880).

grammar

THE GR.ECO-ROMAN PERIOD


more
elaborately.

185
of as

The book was


it

so

much thought

a practical

treatise, that

was continuously used down


(in

through the Middle Ages, and the word Donatus

Chaucer "donat") came

to

be synonymous with the word

"grammar,"
dictionary,

just as in English in

"a Webster" means a

and as

French un Bottin means generically

a city directory.^

The
merits

other

Roman grammarian whose work


of

has

many
taught

was Priscianus

Constantinople,

who

Latin there in the sixth century a.d.

After compiling a

number

of small grammatical treatises, he published the

most complete and systematic Latin grammar that has

come down

to us

from antiquity.

It

is

called Institu-

tiones Grammaticae,
Its

and

is

divided into eighteen books.


to its full quotations
it

importance

is

largely

due

from

ancient literature.^
scholar

An

epitome of
(c.

by the mediaeval

Rabanus Maurus

776 a.d.) vied with the work

of Donatus throughout the Middle Ages.^


principles of

For the general


on ApoUonius

grammar, Priscian drew

largely

Dyscolus, of Alexandria,''
tific

who was

the founder of scien-

syntax

(c.

140 a.d.) and of

whom

Priscian himin technical

self said that

he was the greatest authority


cit.

' '

See Keil, op.

iv,

and Grafenhan,

op.

cit. iv.

p. 107.

He

quotes especially from Plautus, Terence, Cicero, Sallust, Vergil,

Horace, Ovid, Lucan, Persius, Statins, and Juvenal;

and

less

freely

from Cato, Ennius, Lucretius, Catullus, and


'

Cassar.

See infra, p. 229. See Skrzeczka, Die Lehre des ApoUonius Dyscolm (1869).

1 86

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


in this respect his

grammar, though

son ^lius Herodianus


dedicating to

was undoubtedly a formidable

rival,

Marcus

Aurelius a work on prosody in twenty-one books.

The
more

grammar

of Priscian

was

so often
it still

copied that
exist.

than a thousand manuscripts of

Contemporary with Quintilian was M. Valerius Probus


Berytius,

who has been

called

"the greatest

Roman

phi-

lologist"; but like

many

of the later Latin scholars his


the field of text-criticism,

work was almost


with

entirely in

critical signs, as for instance

upon

Vergil, Horace,

Terence, Lucretius, Persius.

He

likewise wrote a treatise


later

on these symbols.*

It

will

be observed that the

grammarians were not of


Thus,
Quintilian

Roman

or of Italian birth.

was a Spaniard;

Probus a Syrian;
a native of

Suetonius probably a Spaniard;

Priscian

Caesarea in Mauretania, though he lived mainly in Constantinople.

This plainly shows us that


After

Rome was no
the

longer

Roman, but cosmopolitan.


its

Spanish

Period of

literature

came

the African Period, repreas Apuleius, Fronto,

sented by such well-known

names

TertuUian, and perhaps Aulus Gellius.


of the Ciceronian and Augustan Ages

The golden Latin


had changed
to

the"silver" andlaterto the "bronze" Latinity. Thesmall

group of those who had

set the fashion in

language at

Rome
rately,

were imitated painfully enough, yet quite inaccu-

by

writers of foreign birth.


:

Of 'this Dr.

Cooper has well said


'

F. T.

Steup,

De

Probis Grammalicis (Jena, 1871).

THE GR^CO-ROMAN PERIOD


"There was a growing proportion
surveying, medical
of writers

187
on
architecture,
etc.,

and veterinary
to;

topics,

gastronomy,

whose

attainments were too meagre to enable them to write correctly,

however much they wanted

and

their

works naturally contained

a strong colouring of plebeian vocabulary.

An important influence
class of writers

was

also exerted

by the no

less

munerous

whose

birthplace

was outside

of Italy,

and whose speech,

in spite of

education and long residence at the capital, retained, to a varying


degree, traces of their aUen origin.

Even Livy, born


than

in northern

Italy, incurred censure for his Patavinitas.

Under the Empire, the

provinces became even more

fertile

Rome

itself in

the pro-

duction of

men

of genius;

Spain and Africa especially became

the centres of veritable schools of literature, possessing marked


characteristics,

which reacted strongly upon the

literature

of

Rome."
It is

because the people

who had received Roman

citizen-

ship,

though

bom

and

living outside of Italy,

were anx-

ious to acquire a correct use of the Latin language, that

many grammarians. The very last of them is the Spaniard Isidorus, who died about 636 a.d. He had been Bishop of Seville, and was a man of very wide readwe
find so
ing,

an eloquent speaker, and one who had been trained

in the ancient learning as well as in that of his

own

time.

He

never visited

Rome

imtil nearly

twenty years before

his death, whither he went to confer with Gregory the

Great.

His grammatical writings are two

in

number,

relating to the distinctions

and the proper use of words.

He
1

likewise wrote a collection of glosses, beside


See Cooper,

numerous
Introduc-

Word Formation

in the

Roman Sermo

Plebeitis,

tion,

XXXV (New York, 1895).

1 88

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

treatises

on

historical

and theological

subjects.

With

him ends

the production of

grammars

that

show any But

original research or that represent original sources.


just as foreigners desired to

know

the rules of the language

which

their masters spoke, so they also liked to


all sorts

inform

themselves on

of subjects relating to the earlier


series

Roman
paedists

history.

Hence we have a
the

of Encyclo-

who supplemented

work

of the grammarians.
first

Varro, already mentioned, was the

of these,^

and

from him many succeeding writers borrowed.


Pliny

The Elder

(23-79 A.D.)

in his

Historia Naturalis had got


information,"

together an enormous mass of "general

ranging from prescriptions for the sick, to jewels worn by


fashionable
lius

women.

In the second century, Aulus GelAtticae in twenty books,

wrote his

Nodes

on every
his-

possible sort
torical,

and

legal,

of subject philosophical, grammatical, drawing upon many sources that are


to us.^

now unknown
of these scraps
instance,

One may

get an idea of the variety


topics ;
as, for

by a

citation of

some of the
at

"The

fact that

Women

Rome

do not Swear
It
is

by Hercules nor
Disgraceful to be
Bitterly

Men

by Castor";

"That

More

Damned

with Faint Praise than to be


the

Rebuked";

"Why

Stomach

is

Relaxed Be-

cause of Sudden Fear";

"Concerning King Alexander's

Horse which was Called Bucephalus";


*

"Concerning the

Supra, p. 158.
See Ruske,

'

De Avli GelUi Noctlum Atticarum Fontibus

(Breslau,

1883).

Best edition of the Nodes by Hertz (Leipzig, 1886).

THE GRiECO-ROMAN PERIOD


Ancient Sumptuary Laws";

1 89

"Whether Xenophon and

Plato were Jealous or Ill-disposed


" Concerning the

Toward Each Other";


of the Porcian

Race and Names

Family"

"The Force and


treatise

Derivation of the Particle Saltern."


is

Mainly grammatical, but partly encyclopaedic,

the

by Nonius Marcellus, an African,

in the fourth
all

century.

He

copied from earlier writers, and most of

perhaps from Aulus Gellius.


least original,

His book, though not in the


its

has a value of

own

for

what he has

preserved in
illustrated

it.^

Similar works of easy erudition

may be

by

St.
c.

Jerome's

translation of the Chronicle of


it

Eusebius (264-

340 a.d.)^ with additions which bring

down

to the year

378 a.d., and in the same century the


senator,

very interesting medley by the Graeco-Roman

Macrobius, whose Saturnalia in seven books

is

crammed

with interesting though by no means authentic anecdotes

and conversations, together with jokes and


cism.

bits of criti-

The form

of the whole
is

is

copied from the Banquet

of Plato,

and the substance

derived from

many

a source.'
fact that

lively turn is given to the Saturnalia

by the
last

it is

cast in the

form of

table-talk.

The

and almost
and

'

De Compendiosa

Doctrina, edited

by L. Muller

(Leipzig, 1888),

Lindsay, (Leipzig, 1903).

See Nettleship, LeUures and Essays, pp. 277-

331 (Oxford, i88s).


'

St.

Jerome's rendering of the Scriptures into idiomatic Latin gave

following generations a chance to study the plebeian speech.

See Wissowa,

De Macrobii Satumalium

Fontibus (Breslau, 1888).


is

Text edition by Eyssenhardt (Leipzig, 1893). There of the Saturnalia into French by de Roson (Paris).

a good translation

igo

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


is

the greatest of these encyclopaedic works

that of

Isi-

dorus, called Origines, in twenty books,

an

immense

survey of
fact that

all
it

knowledge.

Its

title

is

derived from the

professes to give explanations of the various


it

subjects of which

treats.

It is in reality

nothing but a

compilation;

yet this

and

his

other similar work,

De

Naiura Rerum, were widely read throughout the Middle


Ages and furnished many a hint for those who put together
the Gesta

Romanorum.^

It is astonishing

how wide was

the reading of Isidorus.


his

As Bishop

of Seville he allowed

monks

to

read nothing of the pagan compositions

except the grammarians; but he himself raked the literatures of Greece

and Rome, picking out with almost a was


diverting.

journalistic sense whatever

He was

a great

lover of books, having in his library fourteen large bookcases, while his walls displayed the portraits of twenty-

two

favourite

authors.
in

Isidorus
sixth

was one
still

of

the

few
a

ecclesiastics

who

the

century
in

retained

knowledge of Greek.

With him,

fact,
its

the Grsecoend.

Roman
West
of

Period had

more than reached


to

The

Europe was yielding

new

masters, Gauls and

Goths, and Visigoths, and Germans; and the Dark Ages


had, in fact, begun.
[In addition to the other see Boissier,
'

works cited in the present chapter,


(Paris, 1891)
;

La Fin du Paganisme

id.

La

Religion

See Dressel, De Isidori Originum Fontibus (Turin, 1874), and infra,

pp. 224, 225.

THE GILECO-ROMAN PERIOD


Romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins
Genie Latin (Paris, 1904)
;

IQI
;

(Paris,

1906)

Michaut, Le

Hardie, Lectures on Classical Subjects

(London, 1903) ; Duff, A Literary History of Rome, pp. 664-670 (London, 1909) ; Teuffel-Schwabe-Warr, A History of Roman Literature, ii. (London, 1892) Kortum, Geschichtliche Forschungen
;

(Leipzig, 1863)

Zingerle,

Zu

Spatern Latein. Dichtern (Innsbruck,

1873) ; Arbenz, Die Schriftstellerei in


1877)
;

Rom zur Zeit der Kaiser


trans., pp.

(Basle,

Nettleship, Transactions of the Oxford Philological Society

for 1880-81; Boissier,


;

Roman Africa, Eng.

238-289

(New

York, 1899) Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, 8 vols. (Oxford, Curteis, A History of the Roman Empire from 3751880-1899) 800 AM. (London, 1875) Suringar, Historia Critica Scholiastarum
; ;

Latinorum (Leyden, 1834-5); Norden, Die Antike Kunstprosa. (Leipzig, 1898) Church, The Beginning of the Middle Ages (Lon;

don, 1895);

and Bemont and Monod's Mediceval Europe, pp.

33-124, Eng. trans.

(New York,

1906).]

THE MIDDLE AGES


A.

The Monastic Learning


Middle Ages
is

The gloom

of the

foreshadowed in the

general vitiation of literary taste which began to be noticeable as early even as the second

and

third centuries a.d.


(i)
(2)

The immediate

causes of this decline are two:

the the

cosmopolitanism of the later


spread of Christianity.

Roman Empire; and


as soon as
it

Rome,

had

fairly

secured the mastery of the whole world, ceased, in the


course of a single century, to be

Roman.

The

capital

became a great gathering-place


and language. "has turned
its

for

men
^

of

every rank
Juvenal,

"The

Syrian Orontes,"

says

course into the Tiber."


knights,
its

Rome's merpro-

chant-princes,

its

senators,

its jurists, its

vincial governors,

and

at last even its emperors,

were

Greeks,

Gauls,

Spaniards, Africans,

almost

anything

but Roman, or even Italian.

Briinner has

shown almost
Empire

conclusively that the whole history of the Later


is

the history of a continuous struggle between the Gerfor the control of the

manic and the Iberian elements


government.
iii.

62.

192

THE MIDDLE AGES


In no sphere of activity
apparent than in
A.D.,
literature,
is this

I93

cosmopolitanism more

when,

after the second century


its

and even

earlier,

one finds the great names of

masters to be the names either of Spaniards, or Gauls, or


Syrians,

or

Sicilians,

or Africans.
literature
all

The

result
itself

of this

denationalising of

Roman

showed

before

very long in the neglect of


literary traditions.

that

was best

in the native

Not only Ennius,

Plautus, Terence,

Lucretius; and Varro ceased to be read;

but even Vergil,


It
is,

Horace, and Ovid were regarded as old-fashioned.

indeed, evident that Gauls and Spaniards and Africans,


learning Latin as a foreign language, would be unable to

appreciate the niceties of diction, the exquisite appropriateness of phrase and epithet, and the

more

delicate

cadences and rhythms that mark the work of the highly


trained writers of the Golden

Age

of Latin literature.
it

Prosody was the


always an
educated,

first

to

suffer,

since in Latin

was
un-

artificial

thing and largely foreign

to the

who more

readily caught the accented beat of


alliterative jingle of the

the Satumians or the triumphalia.

carmina

Hence, as early as 250


his

a.d.,

we
in

find

Com-

modianus writing
that

Carmen Apologeticum
syllabic

hexameters

frankly discarded

quantity

and accepted and


it is

accent as the basis of his metrical system;


likely that very

un-

many

of his readers

knew

the difference.

The language

itself also

suffered in the

mouths and on

the pens of foreign writers.

Prepositions govern what-

194

HISTORY or CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

ever cases appear to be most convenient.


heteroclite with surprising facility.

Nouns become

Conjugations change

places

and there

is

a wild dance of genders.

Of

course
far

these extreme breaches of

morphology and syntax are

from universal; but the nicer distinctions of the language


were
lost to the perceptions of
it

both readers and writers.


having been blunted

Hence

was

that, the sense of style

and destroyed, the second and third centuries studied


the rhetoricians, and read not so

much
It

the great writers of

Rome,

as abridgments of them.

was an age of epitomes,


extracts;

of condensations, of scrap-books
florilegia

and elegant

of

and

spicilegia.

This explains why so many of

the most valuable productions of the earlier centuries have

not come
preserved

down
in

to us at all;

and why others have been


abridgments

meagre abridgments, or in
Such were the

of abridgments.

treatises in

Greek by
is

King Juba

of Mauretania,

whose @eaTpiKr} 'linopia

now

lost,

though

much

used by Julius Pollux, in his

'OvofiacTTiKov,

a dictionary in ten books arranged by

subjects; Hephaestion, a writer of a


forty-eight books, all
lost,

work on metres

in

though his

them

survives;

Valerius
;

Harpocration,

own epitome of who wrote a

lexicon to the ten orators

Herennius Philon of Byblos

(sometimes called

"Philobyblos"), whose books were


;

mainly
five

lost

except in one

and Pamphilius, whose ninety-

books on glosses were epitomised until they were


five.

only

THE MIDDLE AGES

1 95

The

spread of Christianity was perhaps even a more

important factor in blotting out a taste for literature and


destroying the literary records of the past.
failure to appreciate
.

The

general

and admire what was

fine in the

productions of the preceding centuries was only a negative


injury.

The

teaching of the Christians, on the other

hand, was aggressively and offensively directed toward


their destruction.

In the early days of the Church, Chris-

tianity spread chiefly

among

the ignorant,

who

not only

failed

to value

what was
dislike

aesthetically precious,

but

felt

that suspicion

and

which the vulgar always exhibit


Later,

toward what they cannot imderstand.


of education and culture

when men
St.

men

like St.

Augustine and

Jerome

appeared,

they regarded the writings of the


their influence,

pagans as thoroughly pernicious in


the

all

more because they could themselves appreciate


and power.
St.

their

attractiveness

Jerome was,

in fact, a scholar

and thoroughly

familiar with classic literature;

and

this

was even made the basis of an accusation brought against

him by

his fellow

Christians.

He was

at last openly

charged with defiling his works with quotations from

pagan authors; of having employed monks


writings of Cicero;

to

copy the

and of having even on one occasion

polluted the minds of

some

children at Bethlehem

by
tells

explaining to them various passages of Vergil.^

He

us in

one of his Epistles


'

how he was

rebuked in a

Epist.

hx

adv. Rufinam, I. ch. ssx.

196

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


for his guilty admiration of Cicero, being

dream

borne
"being

in the night before the throne of Christ, accused of

a Ciceronian rather than a Christian," and scourged by


the angels so that

when he awoke

in

the morning his

shoulders were covered with bruises.^


(the

Pope Gregory I
Vienna, for

Great) rebuked Desiderius, Bishop of

having taught the classics and thus "mingled the praises


of Jupiter

and Christ

polluting the
^

mind with

blas-

phemous

praises of the wicked."

It

was believed and

taught that the writers of the classics were burning in


hell.

In such monasteries as

still

kept any of the manusilence

scripts of the secular literature,

and where vows of

were imposed,

it

was customary when any monk wished


it

a copy of Vergil, Horace, or Livy, to indicate

by

scratch-

ing his ear like a dog, this being the animal

whom

the

pagan writers were supposed

to resemble.^
fiercer type,

With men of a
Tertullianus

sterner

and

and

fanatics like

Montanus, the
its

zealots like

whole

mass of pagan
demned.
block;
its

literature

was sweepingly and savagely con-

Its

philosophy was a snare and a stumbling-

history lies

and slanders;
its

poetry licentious

and obscene; the mythology of

graceful fables, a plain

enticement to the worship of demons.


'

Tertullian in a

Epist. xxii.
ii.

'Lecky, vol.

p. 201.

Maitland, Dark Ages, p. 403. (London 1853).

Because of their hos-

tility

toward the

classic writers, Julian the

Apostate forbade Christians


the schools.

to teach rhetoric

and grammar

(classics) in

THE MIDDLE AGES


fiery

I97

passage of his

De

Spectaculis denounces the gods of

the mythologues as devils, the worship of

them

as devil-

worship, and the prose and verse that celebrates them


as devil-literature.

This was the age when asceticism


life

suddenly burst into

to teach

men

that salvation in

the next world was incompatible with comfort in this;


that the enjoyment of the beautiful in literature and art

was

of the flesh;

and that squalor and

filth

and

intellectual

ignorance paved the

way

to

a heaven beyond the grave.

To
ture
of

the early ascetics, the refined pleasure of pure litera-

was

as dangerous

and

little less

sinful than the love

women.

Hence, we find

St.

Anthony, the foimder of


Hence, an-

monasticism, refusing to learn the alphabet.


other priest,

who was famous

as a linguist, voluntarily im-

posed upon himself the penance of silence for thirty years;

and another who found

in the cell of a brother

monk

few books, reproached him with having defrauded of their


property the widow and the orphan.
pernicious,
All learning

was

and

it

was the boast


et

of St. Benedict to be

described as nescius

indoctus.

"It

is

the duty of a
to teach."

monk,"

said St. Jerome, "to

weep and not

Literature, in fact,
tians as

was

in the

minds of the early Chris-

much

associated with the cult of paganism as


suffered alike as soon as the Christians

was

art ;

and both

gained control of the civil power.

The images

of the

gods were mutilated and broken

the most famous master-

pieces of ancient art were destroyed because

they de-

1 98

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

picted subjects from the classic myths; and so, the rolls of

papyrus and vellum which contained the writings of the

myth-makers shared a similar

fate.

It

was an

anticipation

of the Puritan frenzy of the sixteenth


centuries,

and seventeenth

when

so

many

cathedrals were desecrated, so


destroyed,
bits,

many

paintings of the saints

and so many

priceless

carvings broken
significance

into
to the

because they gave


of

beauty and

ritual

the

Catholic

Church.

The same

species of fanatical frenzy

marked
rolls of

the course of the early Christians.

Innumerable

papyrus covered with copies of the great masterpieces of

Roman

literature

were used for wrapping goods.


their original texts

Parch-

ments were scraped of

and used again


libraries

(palimpsests) for religious writings.

The

that

contained them were pillaged by mobs.

In 389 (or 391)

under Theodosius, that part of the Alexandrian Library

which then stood

in the

Serapeum was sacked, and the

books partly burned and partly scattered.


Nisibis

The

library at

and the greater one of 100,000 volumes


;

at

ConI

stantinople were both burned (477)


(c.

and Pope Gregory

600)

is

said to have allowed the noble Palatine Library

at

Rome
1

to

be destroyed.^
is

This, however,

only traditionally reported.

The

favourite say-

ing of Gregory was that "the oracles of


of

God

are greater than the rules

grammar"

and he

is

discreditably distinguished for his zeal in burn-

ing the manuscripts of Livy because they ascribed so

Draper, Hist. 0} the Intellectual Development of Europe (New York, 1899); Lecky, ii. 201 ; Guingerig, Eist. Littiraire
de
I'ltalie,
i,

heathen gods.

See

much power

to the

pp. 29-31.

THE MIDDLE AGES

199

Other causes than the two already mentioned greatly


diminished the world's supply of books and rendered

more

difficult the

renewal of that supply.

The

separation

of the Eastern from the Western

Empire had had a very


and preservation from

unfavourable

effect

upon the
it

collection

of books, dividing, as

did, the learning of the East

the learning of the West.


to

The Roman
in

librarians ceased

collect

works written

Greek, and the Byzantian


cared
it

librarians,
literature,

who had never now


felt

much about Roman


whatsoever.
Finally,

no

interest in

the conquest of Egypt by the Arabs in a.d. 641, destroyed


at a

blow what
off

still

remained of the Alexandrian

libraries

and shut

from Europe the supply of papyrus upon

which the makers of books depended.


All these facts

must be considered

in accounting for

the loss of so

many works
to

of classical literature

whose

re-

nown ought

have preserved them, and also for the

comparatively few manuscripts of early date that are

now known

to exist;

the neglect of good literature, the


hostility

growing ignorance of the people, the

of the

Christians to classical learning, the destruction of books

and

libraries,

and the barbarisation of the Empire.

In

the sixth century, one might, amid the deepening social

and

intellectual darkness of the

Western World, have

felt

safe in predicting that the literary splendour of Greece

and

Rome would

soon be only a faint and dying memory,


fact.

never again to be quickened into a living

That

this

200

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


actually not the case
is

was

in a very large degree

due

to

the energy, the influence,

and the example

of a single

man.

Early in the sixth century occurred an event which in


itself

would seem

to

have no possible connection with the

history of classical philology or the preservation of classical


learning,

and yet which was,

in fact,

one whose importance

to the student of palaeography

can scarcely be exaggerated.

About the year

529, one Benedict, a native of Nursia,

foimded the order of monks that took from him the


of Benedictines.

name

Monachism had already


in the Eastern

arisen

and had

an extraordinary vogue

Empire, having
rapidly that his

begun with
first

St.

Anthony and spread

so

disciple,

Pachonius, lived to see himself the head of

seven thousand followers.


find
it

Within a single century we

recorded that in the one district of Nitria, in the


less

Egyptian Delta, there were no

than

fifty

monasteries.^

Yet

in the East, almost

from the beginning, the system

was notorious
class of

for its gross abuses.

There sprang up a
lived in small

monks

called Sarabastse,

who

com-

munities,

and frequently wandered about the country,

leading in

many

cases a

life

of idleness

and open

profligacy.

Even

in the monasteries,

the want of any well-defined

regulations left the door


practices

open

to all sorts of licentious

which tended

to bring the

whole institution into


Christian Church in

contempt and scandal.


'

In
des

fact, the

See

Mohler,

Geschichte

Monchthums (Regensburg, 1866-68)

Harnack, Das Monohthum (Giesen, 1895).

THE MIDDLE AGES


its

20I

early years really

found

its

greatest danger not in

the persecutions of

the,

pagan emperors and governors,


of
its

but

in the character of

many

own members.

"Men

entered the Church to escape from military service, or to

avoid burdensome municipal offices";

worn-out rakes

who had

exhausted every other form of excitement, hare-

brained enthusiasts in search of a

new

sensation, vicious
curiosity,

and depraved men and women impelled by


all

these flocked around the teachers of the

new

faith in

the expectation of a fresh stimulus to their jaded fancies.

Hence, almost immediately, arose scandals and extravagances of which the details are given by contemporary
writers.^

The

festivals of the

martyrs were at one time


licentious

suppressed by the authorities because of the

manner

of their celebration.

The

pilgrimages to Palesis

tine attracted such

motley crowds that the Holy Land

described by

St.

Gregory of Nyssa as a hot-bed of dethe Agapae, or love-feasts, often


All

bauchery.

Even
orgies.
in

became

drunken

these

evils

were

concentrated

and condensed
were often

many of

the oriental monasteries, which

filled

by men who made the profession of

Christianity only a pretext for the practice of the most


filthy vices.

It
'

was

at a time

when monachism
I. ch. xi

as then imderstood
;

See Jortin, Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, 5 v. (1751-53)

Cave,

Primitive Christianity, pt.

(London, 1687)
;

Miiller,

De Genio

Aevi Tkeodosiani
Morals,
ii,

(Copenhagen,
foil.

1797)

Lecky, History of European

pp. 149

(Am.

ed..

New

York, 1884).

202

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


fallen

and practised had

into

such disrepute, that

St.

Benedict (529 a.d.), founded his famous Order at Monte


Cassino, about halfway between

Rome and Naples.

It

was

a place destined to be of the utmost importance in the


history of classical texts

and

learning.

Benedict was a

man
of

of

little

education, but of a very spiritual mind, of an

unblemished character, and gifted with an imusual. amount

common

sense as well as of piety.

He had

been made

the abbot of a monastery of the Eastern type,


left it in

and had

disgust at the license which he found prevailing

there;

but his experience was useful in suggesting to him

the defects of
that
it

monachism

as then understood.

He saw
required
their

was not enough

that the

monks should be

to fast

and pray and sing


left to

at certain times, while

remaining hours were

idleness;

but that some rule

should be devised to give them rational

and wholesome

occupation and to provide for a stricter discipline.


this

To
rule

end he composed

in the year 515

his

famous Regula

Monachorum, which ultimately became the universal


of

monachism

in the

Western Church.
its

It is

not neces-

sary here to go into

details.

It

required continual

residence in the monastery; laid out a scheme of

manual
recog-

labour for the monk's spare hours

and above

all, it

nised the desirability of mental as well as bodily occupation,

permitting such

monks

as were qualified, to engage

in teaching

and

in copying manuscripts for the library.


is

'The date

only traditional.

Some

give

it

as 520.

THE MIDDLE AGES


St.

203

Benedict had, of course, no thought of preserving the

secular learning of the age,

and intended the

literary

labours of the

monks

to

be spent wholly upon

ecclesiastical

and

theological writings;

but he did not so specify, and

the permission given by his Rule soon received an interpretation

fraught

with momentous results

to

modem

scholarship.

In the year 540, Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus,

Roman

patrician of senatorial rank, descended from a


Bruttii, praefectus urbi to

rich

and noble family of

under four

of the Gothic kings,

and secretary

King Theodoric,

entered the Benedictine monastery of Vivarium which he

himself had founded (529), and took the vesture and the
obligations of a

monk.

Cassiodorus had been during his


of the world

public

life

not only a

man

and a statesman,

but a scholar and writer, one of the few


in the

men

remaining

Western Empire who had studied with care the


both Greece and
his

earlier literature of

Rome
tastes

and

after his

retirement to

the monastery,

remained unlife

changed, while the more ample leisure of his new

gave him far more opportunity

to cultivate

them.

His
but,

own

writings as a

monk were

purely theological;'

taking advantage of the rule which enjoined copying and


teaching,
'

he began systematically
his public life

to

train

the younger
and put forth

During

he wrote on the

liberal studies,

DeArte Grammatica, which was used as a text-book throughout the Middle Ages. See Hodgkin, The Letters of Cassiodorus (London,
a
treatise,

1886)

Church, Miscellaneous Essays, pp. 191-198 (London, 18S8).

204

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


to

monks

an appreciation of the value of the secular

literature

and

to

encourage by every possible means both

the collection and preservation of classical manuscripts

and the multiplication of them


sessed of a very large fortune,
influence

in careful

copies.

Pos-

and being a

man

of great

and energy, he laboured incessantly


life

to the

end

of his long

for this

important object, with such success

that he actually succeeded in


of his

making every great monastery


Academy," a storehouse of

Order " a

sort of Christian

classical literature,

with

its

scriptorium or writing-room

especially set apart for the copying of parchments.

More

than

this,

he

made

the Benedictine Order essentially a

learned Order, with traditions of scholarship which have

been honourably maintained to the present day.^


great a debt
is

How
and

owed

to Cassiodorus in

modern

times,

how

general had been the destruction of manuscripts that


is

were written near the time of their original composition,

seen by recalling the dates of the early codices in existence.

Thus

iEschylus,

and a part

of Sophocles, are

found

in the

so-called Laurentianus (or

Mediceus) at Florence, belong-

ing to the eleventh century.

The

oldest manuscript of

Herodotus goes back to the eleventh century, that of

Thucydides to the tenth century, and that of Plato to the


ninth century,

though
is

this is incomplete.

The

oldest

manuscript of Plautus
'

a palimpsest preserved at Milan,

See

Olleris,
;

Cassiodore, Conservatur des Livres de I'AntiquiU Latine


trans., pp.

(Paris, 1884)

Montalambert, The Monks of the West, Eng.

71-

78 (London, 1861).

; ;

THE MIDDLE AGES


and was written
tains only a few
as early as the fifth century; but
it

205
con-

odd

sheets, the other codices being as late

as the eleventh or twelfth century.

The

oldest codex of
of Lucre-

Horace belongs to the ninth century; the oldest


tius to the tenth century.

The

oldest codices of Vergil are


in

as ancient as the fourth century,

Vatican and one at


tions
'

two of them being the Florence,' having correcthis latter

made by

Asterius,

Roman consul
first

in the year
exist,

494 a.d.
cxsdex

Fragmentary papyri as old as the

century b.c.

and a

in fragments of the sixth century.


^

It

may

be interesting to mention some of the other important manuis

scripts.

Thus, of Homer, the oldest codex

the Codex Venetus

of the

tenth century {Iliad), and of the twelfth century {Odyssey); of Herodotus,


the Codex Florentinus or Mediceus in the Laurentian Library of the tenth

century

of ^schylus, a
of

Codex Laurentianus

(or

Mediceus) of the eleventh


of Euripides, a

centiury;

Sophocles, the

same codex with jEschylus;

Codex Vaticanus
tury

of the twelfth century; of Aristophanes, a


;

Codex Raven-

nas of the eleventh century of Thucydides a Laurentianus of the tenth cen;

of Plato, a

Codex Clarkianus (Bodleian)

of the ninth century

and

of Demosthenes, a

Codex Parisinus

of the eleventh century.

Of Latin

authors,

among

others

we have

of Plautus a
;

Codex Ambrosianus (Milan) Codex Bembrosias (Vatican)


Codex Parisinus
;

of the fifth century (palimpsest)

of Terence, a

of the fifth century (mutilated), the rest of the ninth century; of Lucretius,

aLeidensis of the ninth century

of Catullus, a

of the

ninth century (only a part), the rest of the fourteenth century


six

of Cicero,

Codices Parisini of the ninth century; of C^sar, a Codex Amstelo-

damensis
sini of

A of

the ninth or tenth century


;

of Sallust,

two Codices Pari-

the tenth century

of Vergil, a

Codex Vaticanus

of the fifth century


;

of Horace, a

Codex Bemensis (incomplete)

of the ninth century


xvi.) of the eighth

of Ovid,
;

a Codex Petavinas (from A. Petavius, Cy.


Livy, the Codex Veronensis (bks.
of Tacitus, a
iii.-vi.)

century

of

of the fifth century (palimpsest)


;

Codex Mediceus

of the ninth century

of Juvenal, the

Codex
a

Pithceanus (from P. Pithou) at Montpellier of the ninth century; of Martial,

a Codex Parisinus

of the ninth century

of Pliny the Elder,

206

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


facts are quite sufficient to

These

show that with

scarcely
classical

an exception the only manuscripts of the best

authors that give anything more than isolated fragments


are copies

made

later

than the

fifth

century.

Had

it

not

been for the labours of the Benedictines and of those

who

followed their example, the remains of classical literature

would have been so scanty as to give us no


of that literature

real conception

and learning

as a whole.

With

St.

Benedict must be mentioned the

Roman
friend.

patri-

cian and scholar

who

is

said to

have been his

This
(or

was Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus Boethius


Boetius) , almost the last of the

Westep Romans to

possess

a good understanding of Greek.

He

gained the esteem of

Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths,


capital in the year 5000.

who made Rome

his

Over the Goths, Boethius


countrymen found
little

exer-

cised such influence that his

oppres-

sion in the Gothic rule.

In the end, however, he was ac-

cused of treason, his property was confiscated, and after


being imprisoned, he was executed
cruelty.
titled
five
(c.

524) with terrible

While

in prison,

Boethius wrote his dialogue enIt

De

Consolatione Philosophiae.

was divided

into

books, and was written in a close imitation of the best


is

Latin models, while the poetry which

interspersed shows

palimpsest from the monastery of St. Paul in Carinthia of the sixth century
(bks. xi.-xiv.)
;

of Pliny the Younger, a


;

Codex Laurentianus (Mediceus)

of

the ninth century


(incomplete)
century.
;

of Quintilian, a

Codex Bemensis

of the tenth century of the ninth

of Suetonius,

a Codex

Memmianus or Parisinus

THE MIDDLE AGES


metrical accuracy.

207
in

For seven centuries he was held

great reverence, and even in later times his


forgotten.

work was not


a knowledge

He

is

the

first

writer

who shows The

of the Arabic (Hindu) numerals.

Consolatio found

many

translations,

among them one by King

Alfred into

Anglo-Saxon, and by Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth into


English.'

Now that

western Europe had been overrun by foreign-

ers speaking every sort of language

and

dialect,

one might

have supposed that the Latin language would have sunk


into disuse.

But

just the contrary

was the

case.

It

was
Its

the only stable language

known
and

to

men
it

of that time.

dignity and masculine brevity


intercourse between kings

made

fit

medium
it

of

princes.

Finally,

was the

language of the Church, and the Church was slowly conquering the barbarians
ancient

who had overrun

the provinces of

Rome.

Nevertheless, as the spirit

and

history of

Latin literature were unknown, merely the faintest possible


tinge of grammatical

and technical knowledge could be

imparted to students

who

tried to get a smattering of the

language for practical purposes onfy.

Even those who


knowledge of what

knew how
a boast of
'

far they

were from any

real

they were studying, gloried in their ignorance, and made


it.

Grammar was
translation
is

regarded as pedantic.
1897).

The most modem

by James, (London,
1891).

See, also,

Hildebrand, Boetius und seine Stellung zum Ckrisienthum (Regensburg,


1885)
;

and Stewart, Bo'ethius (Edinburgh,

2o8

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


its

knowledge of
able.

rules

was held

to be

somewhat

discredit-

One

of these scholars (Wolfhard in the Life of St.

Walpurgis) speaks of his

own barbarisms
is,

of style, but tells


full

the reader that his dung-heap


pearls.

nevertheless,
still

of

Gregory the Great had spoken


earlier date.

more

forcibly

at

an

"

The

place of prepositions and the


it

cases of nouns I utterly despise, for I consider

indecent to

confine the words of the heavenly prophets within the


rules of

Donatus."

priest of

Cordova uttered the same


ferocity.

thought with a vigour that verges almost upon

" Let philosophers and the impure followers of Donatus,"

he says, " ply their windy problems with the barking of


dogs and the grunting of swine, snarling with skinned
throat and bared teeth:
let

the foaming and bespittled

grammarians belch wind, while we remain the evangelical


servants of Christ."

Even

as late as the fourteenth cen-

tury the well-known anecdote of the

Emperor Sigismvmd

at

the Council of Costnitz


feeling

is

characteristic of the popular

about grammar.

In a speech against the Hussites

he had used the word "schisma" as a feminine noun, for

which he was corrected by a monk, who called out that


schisma was a noun of the neuter gender.

Whereupon the

emperor asked,

"How

do you know it?" "Because Alex"

ander Gallus says so."


"

And who

is

Alexander Gallus? "

A monk."

" Well," said Sigismund, " I


I fancy that

am the Emperor
as

of

Rome, and

my word

is

good as any

monk's."

'

THE MIDDLE AGES That the Church did not do more to keep
of learning
is

209
alive the spirit
her.

not, however, to
feel surprised

be counted against

We
The

ought rather to

that she did so much.

conditions of her existence and the difi&cult mission that

she had to perform have been very fairly

Mr.

J.

A. Symonds:

summed up by
much

" The task of the Church in the Middle Ages was not so

to

keep learning alive as to moralise the savage races who held Europe
at their pleasure.
.

After the dismemberment of the Empire,

the whole of Europe was thrown open to the action of spiritual

powers who had

to use unlettered barbarians for their ministers

and

missionaries.

To submit

this vast field to classic culture at

the same time that Christianity was being propagated would

have been beyond the strength


to undertake this teisk,

of the Chmrch,

even had she chosen


of antiquity not

and had the vital forces

been

exhausted."

The
had

worst feature of the mediaeval

spirit

was

that

it

lost the

power

of appreciating, even in the slightest

degree, the classic sentiment.

was
its

absolutely a sealed book.

To scholastics, The free air of


its

classicism

paganism,

passionate love of beauty,

abounding

life

and

viril-

ity

and colour and richness were as remote from the

conception of the mediaeval

monks

as the sunlight
is

is

remote from the conception of one who


blind.

congenitally

Whatever they studied they studied in the spirit


Their criticism was
If,

of Scholasticism.

warped and

cramped and
'

distorted by theology.

for instance, they


i.

Symonds, History of

the Italian Renaissance,

pp. 61, 62 (London,

1875).

2IO

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


it,

admired Vergil's famous Fourth Eclogue, they admired


not because
it

was

in itself a beautiful piece of verse,


it

but because they thought


birth of Christ.

a prophecy of the approaching


licentious passages of

The most

Ovid

were explained

allegorically, just as

modern commentators

have explained the sensuous Hebrew of the Song of Songs.


If they
tleties,

taught grammar, they

filled it full of

strange sub-

discovering the three Persons of the Trinity in the


in the parts of speech.

verb,

and mystic numbers

Words
God,

were even defined theologically, as when the scholastics


after defining voluntas as expressive of the nature of

and voluptas

of the nature

of the Devil,

then coined

the blended form volumtas as expressive of the

mixed

nature of man.

It is

easy to imagine what remarkable

feats of ingenuity their etymological speculations exhibit.

Nevertheless, although the Church's task

was to moralise

the barbarians, education was one of


It rejected the

its
it

chief instruments.

pagan

literature while

retained the lanafter

guage

in

which that

literature

had been written; and

paganism was thoroughly

extinct, the literature itself

was

revived and taught in the monastic and other schools

during the Middle Ages.


exactly

It is

somewhat

difficult to define

what period

of time lies properly within the medi-

Eeval age.

The

decline

began when Constantine trans-

ferred the seat of the

Empire from

Some

to

Byzantium

(Constantinople) in 330, because, after that,


lost its chief significance

Rome

itself

both

politically

and from the

THE MIDDLE AGES


standpoint
of scholarship.
Its

211

records

become more
Its ofiBcials

and more melancholy with advancing


flocked to another and a foreign
city.

time.

The emperors had


its

not only turned their backs upon


its

gates, but

upon

language and

its

civilisation.

Henceforward Rome's

population diminished.

Its temples fell into decay,


it

and

there began to brood over

the portent of destruction.


archives,

The new
visited

Caesars carried

away the

and

it

lost the

prestige of the imperial court.


it

Some

of

its

rulers never
in

at

all.

The Emperor Constantius had been

power

several years before

he saw the former capital of the


it

Empire, and then he journeyed to


barbarian prince

only at the request of a

whom
The

he was entertaining, and who was

anxious to behold the city which had once been mistress


of the
(c.

world.

historian,

Ammianus

Marcellinus,'

330 -c. 378

A.D.), gives

an

interesting account of this

visit.

Constantius himself seems to have been astonished


of

by the magnificence
"As

Rome.

the Emperor gazed upon the vast city spreading along the

slopes, in the valleys,

and between the summits

of the

hills,

he

declared that the spectacle which first


thing that he had yet beheld.

met

his eyes surpassed every-

Now his gaze rested on the

temple of

Tarpeian Jupiter,
entire provinces,

now on baths so now on the massive


now on

magnificent as to resemble
structure of the Colosseum,

mightily compact, the summit of which seemed scarcely accessible


to the

human

eye

the Pantheon, rising Hke a fairy dome,

and

its

sublime columns with their gently sloping stairways adorned


Marcellinus was himself a Greek by birth, though he
of

'Ammianus
wrote in Latin

the Latin

foreigner, often

clumsy and often

affected.

212

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

with statues of heroes and emperors, besides the Temple of the


City, its

Forum, the Forum

of Peace, the Theatre of

Pompey, the
of Trajan,

Odeon, the Stadium, and


Eternal Rome.

all

the other architectural wonders of


to the
its

When, however, he came

Forum

a structure unequalled by any other of

kind throughout the

world, so exquisite indeed that the gods themselves


it

would

find

hard to refuse their admiration, he stood as

if

in a trance, surveying

with a dazed
picture,

awe

the stupendous fabric which neither words can


rear.

nor mortal again aspire to

Being asked what he

thought of Rome, the Emperor replied that in one respect only was

he disappointed, and that was in finding that


not immortal."'

its

inhabitants were

Not

long afterward, in the reign of Honorius,

Rome

witnessed her last great imperial spectacle

when

that em-

peror entered the city to celebrate his triumphs over the

Goths

(403).

There

is

something
still

pitiful in

the attitude

of this great city,

which was

the most magnificent of

any

in the world, accepting with almost hysterical gratitude


its

the visits of curiosity which

emperors from time to time

condescended to give
ticos, its

it.

Its very beauty, its

maze
and

of porits

wilderness of marble, bronze, and gold, and

gigantic palaces gorged with pictures, statues,

jewels,

only heightened the melancholy of

its

decadence, with a
its

diminishing population
streets

now grown

too small to crowd


its

and too unwarlike to defend

walls.

It is really

then from the year 330 that we must date


,

The

Beginning of the Middle Ages.


practically

In 395 the Roman Empire

embraced the
'

entire Christian world


xvi. 14 foil.

from East

Res Gestae,

THE MIDDLE AGES


to West, and southward to the great Sahara.

213

Yet already

there were stirrings in the North and West,

among the
wave

Germans whose
toward
Italy

six tribes*

were already

rolling like a

and the western possessions of Rome. In 410,

Alaric headed the Visigoths, penetrated Greece, and later,

streaming through Italy, sacked the great city which for


eight

hundred years had never

fallen into the

hands of an

enemy.

In 415, Spain became an independent kingdom

under Teutonic invaders, the Burgundians established


themselves in southeastern France and Switzerland, and
later

were amalgamated with the new Prankish kingdom.

In 449, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes invaded and conquered Britain.

Worse than

all,

there

menaced

Italy the

savage and ape-faced

Huns

of Ugro-Finnic stock, whose

hideous customs made them seem a host of demons rather

than an army of mortal men.


long on

Yet they did not remain very


Gaul
(at

Roman

soil,

since they were routed in

Chalons) by the allied

Romans

and Teutons (451), one


having perished in the

hundred and
battle,

sixty

thousand

men

which was even more epoch-making than those of

Thermopylae and Marathon.


in the

But the Roman Empire


In 455, the

West was

destined to destruction.

Vandals

sailed across the

Mediterranean from Africa, and

plundered Rome.

In 476, the Herulian Goth, Odoacer,

became emperor

of the West, receiving a timorous consent


Franks, and Suevi.

'Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Vandals, Burgundians,

See Gregorovius, History of the City of


trans.,
i.

Rome

in the Middle Ages, Eng.

chs. iv-v

(London, 1894).

214

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


in Constantinople.

from the emperor

Thus, one

may

say

that the Middle Ages began, either with the transfer of the
capital to Constantinople in 330, or with the establishment

of Gothic

power

in Italy in 476.
is

convenient time from

which to date The End

the year 1453,

when the Eastern

Empire

fell,

and the triumphant Muhammadans poured

through the gates of Constantinople.

The

history of scholarship in the


is

Middle Ages, so

far

as concerns western Europe,

conveniently divided into

the Early Christian Period

(300-751),

the Carolingian

Period (751-911), and the Period of Scholasticism (9111476).

During the

first

of these three periods, the leaven

of civilisation
like order

was

at

work

trying to bring about something

among

the rude barbarians

who had

shattered

and mastered the Western Empire.

One

great source

of civilisation lay in the retention of the Latin language.


It

was not, as is often said, the

influence of the

Church alone

that

made Latin the chosen speech


had become
also the urgent

of the invaders as soon

as they

settled in their

new

possessions.

It

was

need of having some one

intelligible

medium
and

of

communication, a

language which Goths

Visigoths, Franks, Burgundians,

and Vandals could


All the diacast, as
it

use with the certainty of being understood.


lects

and patois

of

Germany and Jutland were

were, into the one great crucible.

They were simmering

and uniting and separating, and taking on continually new


forms and new idioms.

There was a chaos of human

THE MIDDLE AGES


speech, and amid
stable, settled,
it

215

the Latin language alone was the one

and

fit

instrument for the purpose for which


later,

men

used

it.

little

the Church confirmed this

selection;

and when, even

in the

Dark Ages, men

still

attempted to write and teach philosophy or theology, and


the elements of a learning that had been well-nigh
it

lost,

was

but natural that they should employ the only lan-

guage which they knew, and which was capable of expressing accurately

and

easily their

conceptions.

All these

reasons together, the need of a universal language, the

usage of the Church and the requirements of scholarship,

gave Latin Ytry great prominence.

It

spread from the

courts and monasteries and churches, into the mouths

and the understanding

of the

common

people, so that

it

was once more almost a genuine


proofs are not wanting.
reign of Theodosius, a
in the lingua

vernacular.

Of

this fact

In the fourth century, during the

Gaul addressed the Roman senate


rustica,

Romana

rude and rough, but


still

still

intelligible to his hearers.

There were
fifth

compositions

written in Latin during the

and

sixth centuries,

and

intended for the


in

common

people.

Fortunatus,i writing

Latin the
will

life

of Saint Aubin, says in his Introduction that

he

be careful not to use any expression that may be

unintelligible to the populace.

popular song in very

good Latin has come down to us celebrating the victory of


Clotaire II over the Saxons in 622.
'

In the same century,

535-600.

Edition by Leo and Krusch (Berlin, 1881-1885).

; ;

2l6

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


life

Baudemind composed the


reading,

of Saint

Amandus

for public

and wrote

it

in fairly

grammatical Latin.
in public

Latin

was

also universally

employed

documents and
it

public correspondence.

And

not merely was

written

and spoken as a matter of


least capable of succeeding

necessity,

but some of the

men

were

fired

with an ambition to

gain honour from


that Chilperic
exists
I.

its

use.

Gregory of Tours'^ informs us

attempted Latin verse;

and there

still

a letter written in metrical Latin by Auspicius,

Bishop of Tours, to a Count who bore the barbarous name


of Arbogastes.

The growth

of the papal

power did a great There was

deal to propagate

and protect the use of Latin.

constant communication between the Papal Court and the

newly founded States, and


of the

it

was

all

in Latin.

The bishops
of the

Church were nobles

of the

kingdoms and

Empire, and they made Latin the language of the courts.

The papal legate presided


'

over royal and imperial councils,


is

The Latin
It

of Gregory himself

interesting as seen in his History of

the Franks.

shows how even with educated

men

like himself

Latin

literature

was fading from remembrance.

He

quotes Vergil, but un-

metrically.

His citations from other Latin writers are probably borrowed.

He
ject

uses the accusative absolute

and apparently does not know that subIn him


e

and verb should be

in agreement.
;

and

are confounded
c before i
;

aspirates are practically disregarded


like s.

and he pronounces

and

See Bonnet, Le Latin de Gregoire de Tours (Paris, 1890)


in the

Monceaux,
;

Le Latin Vulgaire,

Revue des Deux Mondes (July 15, 1891)

du

Meril, Poesies Populaires Latines antSrieures au Douzieme Siecle (Paris,

1843)

Nisard, Essai sur

les

Pontes Latins de la Dicadence (Paris, 1867)


of the Latin Inscription

Olcott, Studies in the


1898'),

Word Formation

(Rome,

and Grandgent, Vulgar Latin (Boston, 1908).

THE MIDDLE AGES


and so the deliberations were
in

217
Indeed, the

Latin.

breach between the Greek Church and the

Roman Church
Church
tongue.
is

was due very

largely to the fact that the Eastern


its official

would not accept the Latin language as

The Roman Church


Hellenic grace,
its

did well in not yielding.

Latin

essentially a liturgical language.

Lacking some of the

sonorous sentences and majestic peri-

ods seem

made

for the stateliness of worship.

Of

course the mingling of Latin with the so-called bar-

barous tongues, injected into itsvocabularyalarge number


of unusual words, just as the syntax

was violently deranged.

Paratactic sentences and illiterate spelling were to be

expected, and likewise an extensive use of prepositions.

On

the other hand,

it

must be remembered that


in the

all

these

things had been

common enough
and
in

language of the

ignorant, even during the Golden Age, as may be seen plainly


in the plebeian inscriptions,

such writers as Persius


Latin of literature

and Petronius and

St.

Jerome.

The

was never
Therefore,
ity,

identical with the Latin of

men's daily speech.


steril-

when we come upon a


what should be

period of literary

we

find

called a reversion to popular

usage rather than an absolute corruption of what had


previously been refined and regular.

The

plebeian speech

comes to the surface everywhere, and sweeps away book


language.

This vulgar Latin lasted long, even

in

remote

parts of Europe, and

among

the

illiterate;

so that

Dante

calls the Sardinians " apes "

(simiae)

because of their

'

2l8

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


In like manner, so soon as

assiduous imitation of Latin.

there ceased to be any definite standard of versification,

the

nicely
out,

balanced

quantitative

system

so

carefully

wrought

from Ennius to Ovid, gives way to an accentual


is

system which

not new, but really very old

older even
Before

than the Hellenizing Period of Latin

literature.

Ennius, the populace chanted rude ditties that were rhymed

and

full

of alliteration.

After the downfall of western


is

culture, the

same

sort of poetry again

common.

Indeed,

accentual rhythm and rhyme were not estabHshed by the

Church

in the Christian

hymns; but rather did the

priestly

poets compose

hymns

in the sort of

metres that were most


of these

familiar to their congregations.

Some

hymns

are

very beautiful, and they retain their place in the literature


of succeeding ages,

such of them,
Creator Spiritus,

for example, as the

Dies

Irae,

Veni,

and Mortis Portis

Fractis, Fortis, this last

by Peter the Venerable. ^


is

A
It is

good example of semibarbarous Latin prose

given

by Drager
from a

in the Introduction to his Historische Syntax.


life

of Theodoric the Ostrogoth

(c.

454-526)

"

Rex vero

vocavit Eusebium, praefectum urbis Ticeni, et in-

audito Boetio protnlit in

eum

sententiam.

Qui mox
est, ita

in agro Cal-

ventino, ubi in custodia havebatur, misit rex et fecit occidi.

Qui

accepta corde in fronte diutissime tortus


creparent.
'

ut oculi eius

Sic sub tormenta

ad ultimum cum fuste occiditur."


1889)
;

See Duffield, Latin

Hymns (New York,


(Paris, 1847).

and du M6ril, Palsies

Latines
2

du Moyen Age

A very admirably written monograph,

full of

illuminating illustrations,

is

Clark's Studies in the Latin of the Middle Ages (Lancaster, Penn., 1900).

THE MIDDLE AGES

219

As
ity is

is

well said

by Dr. V.

S.

Clark: " Barbarism in Latinimpossible to set an exact


partly of individual

a relative term, and


its

it is

date for

beginning.

It

was a matter

writers as well as of age."

We

can find barbarisms in

Latin during the

classical

period that match precisely

some

of the barbarisms of the mediaevals.^

We

must

remember that Latin remained throughout the Middle Ages


practically the

mother tongue of

all

the professional and

official classes, for it

was the language of the Church, the

law courts, and of both religious and secular instruction.

On

the other hand,

among

the peasants,

it

gradually de-

cayed or rather, perhaps, was transmuted into the Romance


languages; so that the literary language was styled lingua
Latina, while the

common

speech was called lingua Ro-

mana.

" It

is

probably impossible to determine just when

Latin ceased to exist as a spoken language among the com-

mon people. But the question of peasant dialects, while it may be interesting from the standpoint of Romance philology, has very
little

to

do with the transmission of

literary

Latin through the Middle Ages.


with
is

What we

are concerned

the extent to which Latin was understood by people


illiterate,

who, even though

or nearly so, on account of their


life,

position in social and economic

correspond in a general
'

way

to

what we now sometimes term the reading


and small landholders, and
*

classes,'

townspeople

traders,

and the

better class of artisans

craftsmen, the

Canterbury

Supra, p. 210.

220

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


first

pilgrims of the latter half of the


centuries.
It is natural to

decade of Christian

suppose that people of this class


it

understood Latin and continued to employ


long after
it

occasionally

had ceased
'

to

be the ordinary medium of com-

munication."

Something

like

a definite learning appears during the


(c.

reign of Charlemagne

800).

This monarch's chosen

adviser

was the great mediaeval educator, Alcuin, who

Latinized his

name

into Flaccus Albinus.

He was

born at
Later,

York, where he became the head of a large school.


in Italy,

he met Charlemagne, who

said,

"Come to my court
Alcuin gladly

and teach

my

subjects the liberal arts."


first

accepted the invitation, and at


himself in rhetoric

taught the Emperor

and

logic.

To

aid

him

in his work,
.

Charlemagne established a court school (Schola Palatina)


Alcuin also founded

new

schools throughout France and


existed.

improved those which already

At Tours he

set

up

a seat of learning modelled after his


Alcuin, though imperfectly trained,
of his time
;

own

school at York.

was the greatest scholar

for, in

addition to knowing Latin fairly well, he

had a smattering of Greek and Hebrew.


are especially to be noted a Rhetoric
principles of
1

Among his works

and a Grammar, the

which are drawn and partly garbled from the


XLma.
Cf. also

See Muratori, Ant. ltd. Disserlatio

du

M6ril, Palsies

Popuiaires LaUnes, p. 264 (Paris, 1S43).

Poggio in his Bistoria Convivialis

mentions the fact that Latin was spoken by the


(1380),

women of Rome in his day and that he had learned from them Latin words that he had never
See Clark, op.
cit.,

heard before.

p. 15.

THE MIDDLE AGES


writings of Cicero.

221
ill-digested,

Both of these books are


wit, intended,

and are imbued with a clumsy


divert the scholar.

no doubt,

to

Thus, Alcuin gives an imaginary dia-

logue between himself and his imperial pupil,


Alcuin.
Charles.

What
I

art thou ?

am

Alcuin.
Charles.

See

man (homo). how thou hast shut me


a

in.

How so ?
am not the same
man.
as thou,

Alcuin. If thou sayest I

and that I

am

a man,

it

follows that thou art not a


It does.

Charles.

Alcuin.
Charles.

Alcuin.

But how many syllables has homo? Two. Then art thou those two syllables ?
;

Charles. Surely not

but

why

dost thou reason thus ?


sophistical craft

Alcuin.

That thou mayest understand


canst be forced to a conclusion. I see and understand from

and

see

how thou
Charles.

what was granted at the start,

am homo and that homa has two syllables, and that I can be shut up to the conclusion that I am these two syllables. But I wonder at the subtlety with which thou hast led me on, first to
both that I
conclude that thou wert not a man, and afterward of myself, that I

was two
Still

syllables.

more

characteristic of Alcuin's teaching

is

a part of

the dialogue in which Pepin, " a royal youth," questions

Alcuin (Albinus) as follows


Pepin.

What

is

writing ?
of history.
?

Albinus.

The guardian The

Pepin.

What is
What

language

Albinus.

betrayer of the soul.


generates language ?

Pepin.

222
Alhinus.

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


The
tongue.
is

Pepin.
Albinus.

What What What

the tongue

The whip

of the air.

Pepin.

is air ?

Albinus.

The guardian
is

of

life.

Pepin.

hfe

Albinus.

The joy

of the

happy

the expectation of death.

Pepin.

What is death ? Albinus. An inevitable event an uncertain journey


; ;

tears for the

living

the probation

of wills

the stealer of

men.

Pepin.

What

is

man ?
of death
;

Albinus.
place.

The slave
is

a passing traveller

a stranger in his

Pepin.

What

man

like ?

Albinus.
earth).

An

apple

{i.e.

because he hangs between heaven and

It will

be seen from these dialogues that while Alcuin,

like all the mediaeval scholars,


classic tongues,

knew something
Thus,

of

the

he had

lost entirely the classic spirit,

and

indeed his knowledge was rather fanciful.


true spirit of a

in the

monk, he derived

coelebs (a bachelor)

from

cesium (heaven), and then gives the sapient explanation


that a bachelor
is

one who

is

on the way

to heaven.

The

parts of an hexameter line are called pedes because the

metres walk on them.

Littera is leg-entibus-iter,

because
(a mast)

the littera prepares the path for readers.

Mdlus

has the penult long, as against mtilus (with a short penult)

because a mSlus homo does not deserve to have a long a I

The

vowels are the souls of words, and the consonants are

the bodies.

The

soul

moves

itself

and

also the body.

THE MIDDLE AGES


while the body
the consonants
is

223
soul.

immovable apart from the

Thus

may be

written by themselves, but they

cannot be pronounced when separated from the vowels.


It is reported that

Alcuin forbade any one to read the

classic poets.

So, while

he did much to prepare

for the

great revival of learning, five centuries later, his immediate


influence

was rather harmful than otherwise.


taught what
they
could,

The

cathe-

dral

schools

but even their

ablest scholars spent their time in constructing ingenious

but foolish Latin

trifles

to

show

their cleverness.

Thus

they wrote for their

own amusement what

they called

echoici versus, or lines of

poetry which read the same

both backward and forward, "serpentine verses" and


reciproci versus. '
classical writers
It is interesting to

know how many of the


Putting aside the
of Pliny,

were read at

this time.

Church
Cicero,

fathers,

we have mention by Alcuin


Statins,

Vergil,

Lucan, the grammarians, and

Horace.^

Where

the classical writers were not locked up

in bookcases, they

were sometimes paraphrased, or

else

Examples of these are found even in the


ing from Sidonius
:

classical writers, as the follow-

Praecipiti

modo quod

decurrit tramite flumen


cito deficiat.

Tempore consumptum iam


where the
'

(Epist. ix. 14.)


distich,
if

read backwards, word by word, gives a second distich.

This

list is

taken from a poetical account by Alcuin of the Library at


also

York.

One might add

from other sources Juvenal, a part of Livy,

Martial, Ovid, a part of Persius, Phaedrus, Propertius, Seneca (in part),


Silius Italicus,

two plays of Terence, Tibullus, and Valerius Flaccus.

224
centones, or

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


patchwork variations, were made from them.

Thus, the conversation between Dido and Anna {Aeneid,


iv.)
is

imitated:

Anna, dux

Mea lux,
Iste quis sit ambigo,

Quis honor, Quis color,

Voltu quis inteUigo

Ut reor, Ut vereor, Hunc nostra connubia


Poscere,

Id vere Portendunt mea somnia.


If the learned
it is

had

so

little

share of the classical spirit,

not hard to understand

how

dense was the ignorance


faint

of the uneducated layman.

The names and some


still

echo of the exploits of the heroes of antiquity


through men's minds
:

floated

Alexander the Great, as a remark-

able conqueror; Hector of Troy, as a bold knight and lover;

Helen, who set the town of Troy on


ful

fire;

Vergil, as a

powertold of

wizard

who had once gone down


vi.)
;

into hell

and

what he saw there {Aen.


ful beauty,

Venus, as a

woman of wonderflitting

these

were

all

imperfect memories

about
all

in legends,

and

fabliaux,

and

minstrels' songs,

and

confused with tales of chivalry and magic, and forming

part of innumerable stories about giants

and dragons and


faithfully

dwarfs and demons,

specimens of which are

THE MIDDLE AGES

225

preserved for us in the Gesta Romanorum,' and the Alex-

ander Saga, and faintly indicated in the Faustus-legend

and the Niebelungenlied.^

Even

in

Italy,

where one

might suppose that the great architectural works of the

Romans would have


had forgotten
it

kept their history in part

alive,

men

entirely,

and explained the Colosseum, the

Palatium, the Pantheon, and the great triumphal arches


as the

work

of

demons and

sorcerers,

much

as the

German

peasants of to-day speak of the

Roman

military works in

Wurttemberg as Teufelsmauer.
figures of

In Naples the carved

Roman

heroes,

men, and statesmen were supof these ancient structures said to have

posed to be talismans.

Many

were ascribed

to Vergil,

who was

known a
hell

spell so powerful as to

compel devils to come from


reprobates,

and
as

build for
Goliardi,

him.'

The wandering

known

went about singing half-lyrical songs celebrating

love

and wine.

Nevertheless, the Carolingian


'

Age

left

deep traces upon


written

A collection of curious anecdotes borrowed from all sources and


Most
of

them have "morals" attached to them, and they are written in almost childish Latin. Some of them in later centuries were borrowed by Shakespeare, Chaucer, Gower, and Schiller for their plots or
ia Latin.

themes.
Howells,

See the English version edited

My Literary Passions, p.
for the

14

by Hooper (London, (New York, 1895).

1894)

and

'See Engel's bibliography of the older Faust-literature (Aldenburg,


1885)
;

and

Niebelungenlied, Lichtenberger, Le
(Paris, 1891).
ii.,

Poeme

et

la

LSgende des Niehdungen


'

See Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages, pt.

Eng. trans. (London


Vergil,

and

New

York, 1895)

and Leland, The Unpublished Legends of

(New

York, 1900).

On

the Alexander-Saga, see Spiegel (Leipzig, 1851).

226

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


Alcuin^

mediaeval Europe.

may be

said to

have originated

the University of Paris;

and

his schools sent out teachers

into the far North, so that even Ireland

became an im-

portant

home

of learning, with schools

and abbeys and


manuscript of

monasteries of great repute.

The

oldest

Horace
an

(the

Codex Bernensis) .was undoubtedly copied by


in the eighth

Irish

monk

or ninth century, since on

the margin are found words written in the Erse or Irish alphabet.

But the

first

impulse toward a revival of classical study

under Charles the Great died out within the period of a


few generations.
decadence
seized
is

The immediate

reasons for this

new

partly to be found in a superstition


all

which

upon

Christendom

in the tenth century.

Men
of this

were obsessed with the belief that the world was to


be destroyed
in the

year looo.

With the horror


eyes,

approaching dissolution before their


that deepened as every

horror

day brought them nearer and nearer

to the time of the expected cataclysm,

all

learning

fell

into

absolute neglect.

It is difficult for

us to conceive of the

profound gloom that brooded over the peoples of Europe


as the thousandth year approached.
See The Life of Alcuin

Men

ceased to build
(London, 1837)
1892)
;

'

by Lorenz, Eng.
the Great the

trans.

West, Alcuin and the Rise of Christian Schools


linger,

(New York,
;

Mul-

The Schools of Charles Europe during

(London, 1877)

Rashdall, The
;

Universities of

Books and

their

Makers during
cit., i.

the

Middle Ages (Oxford, 1895) Putnam, Middle Ages, i. (New York, 1896)

and Sandys,

op.

466, 497.

THE MIDDLE AGES


houses, to buy, or to
ties
sell.

227
their domestic du-

They forsook

and betook themselves


all

to the churches

and the shrines

of the saints;

worldly interests were swallowed up in the

great dread that oppressed their souls.

When the dreadful


that

year arrived,

it

brought with

it

everything

could

heighten and intensify the universal terror.

hideous

plague broke out, the crops


to

failed, the

very seasons seemed

have been checked in

their courses.

Such imperfect

accounts as have come


as
it

down

to us of that period give us,

were, only glimpses of the fearful scenes that were

enacted,

the wailing of women, the prayers

of the priests,

the lamentations of the diseased,

many becoming mad

with

fright,

half-naked fanatics stalking through the streets


;

of cities

and invoking damnation upon the wicked while

those lost souls whose


of pardon threw off

own

sins

had driven them and with a

to despair

all restraint

sort of blas-

phemous
crime.

defiance plunged into every form of lust

and

When

the year looi was ushered


still

in,

and the

world remained

unvisited

by the angel
back

of death, a
life;

great reaction came.

Many went

to their old

but the Church, with a profound feeling of gratitude and


relief,

resolved to signalise the respite by a


to this fresh enthusiasm that the
revival of study

new

activity.

It

is

second impulse

toward a

must be

traced.

whole century, however, elapsed before much progress


of the eleventh century

had been made; but with the end


the great movement

known

as Scholasticism

was

fully

228

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


Scholasticism

under way.
than an
dialectic

was rather an
Its

intellectual

sesthetic

development.
philological.

chief

features are
re-

and not

The whole movement

volves about the philosophical question of

Realism and

Nominalism; but
wits

this discussion, while

it

sharpened men's

and made them acute

in reasoning, was, after all, little


is

better than the labour that

done

in a treadmill;

for the

schoolmen were not

free to question

anything fundamental.

The Church
and

prescribed for them a ready-made solution of

every great philosophical problem, so that the dialecticians


casuists of the

Middle Ages were only travelling


at
all,

in a

circle,

making no progress

but only vexing their souls


intellectual cage.

and beating against the bars

of

an

This

narrowness and lack of freedom became more and more


oppressive as time went on, and
to the bolder spirits of the age.

more and more vexatious

The time from the


divisible into
classical learning.

eighth century to the fourteenth

is

two periods, viewed from the standpoint of

The

first

period begins at the end of


established

the eighth century

when Charles the Great

Monastic Schools, and

made

the

first

attempt, probably in

the history of the world, to provide for a universal gratuitous primary education,

and

for

Higher Schools.

This

period

is

a short one, inasmuch as the educational establish-

ments of Charles died out within a few generations to make

way

for a

new barbarism.

The second

period begins with

a second restoration of learning under the guidance of

THE MIDDLE AGES


Scholasticism

229

a period which saw the

Founding

of the

Great Universities.

This second revival of learning was

not, however, permanent,

and the new love

of study again

decayed and was followed by the Renaissance, that final impulse toward liberal culture which forms the beginning of
all

modern educational

history.

These three

revivals of

learning, which were really revivals of classical study, were

each stronger than

its

predecessor, and each prepared the

way to some
magne and
body
of

extent for the next.


it

The

first,

under Charle-

Alcuin, though

lasted but a short time, left a

men

devoted to teaching, and gave some slight

degree of continuity down to the founding of the universities,


as Professor

West observes, "so

sheltering studies in various

monasteries and cathedrals that some of the greater schools,


thus kept
the
alive,

afterwards became natural receptacles for


life

new

university

of the next age."

The first of these

periods Just mentioned

was marked by

a more systematic study of the Latin language.


portance of grammar began

The

im-

now

to

be recognised as the

only safeguard against the absolute corruption of that


tongue.
for its

One

of the great French monastic schools took

motto the sentence, In omni doctrina grammatica


Its study
all

praecedit.

was made the

basis

and

starting-

point of

secular learning,

and the minuteness with


corrective to the

which

it

was pursued proved an admirable

slovenly carelessness in the use of Latin which

had marked

the ecclesiastical writings of the preceding centuries.

230

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

In the twelfth century three great schools survived of the

numerous establishments founded by Charles the Great,


and are distinguished
of classical learning.
at

for their influence in the preservation

These were

at

Laon, at Paris, and

Chartres.

In them a number of

famous teachers

ushered in the scholastic period and did


the forms at least of pure Latinity.

much

to

keep alive

Of

these three schools,


its

the School of Chartres


interest

is

the most remarkable because

was

less

theological

and

dialectical
it

than
its

literary,

so

much
are the

so that Poole justly says of

that

character

was
it

that of " a premature

humanism."
whose pupils
of
St.

Associated with
styled

names

of Fulbert,
in

him " Soc-

rates,"

and who died

1029/

Bernard (1091-1153);
to reason

and of Abelard (1079-1142), who boldly appealed


as against authority

and thus foreshadowed freedom

of

speech and of research, which ultimately became the watch-

word

of the nascent universities.^

In this school Bernard of Chartres composed hexameters

on the model of Lucretius, wrote a commentary


first six

on the
'

books of the Aeneid, and

drilled his pupils

Not

the canon associated with the story of Ab61ard and H61oise.

The
^

great Fulbert was bishop of Chartres.

See the biography of


Peter Abilard

St.

McCabe,
and
St. the

Bernard by Sparrow-Simpson (London, 1895) (New York, 1901) and Compayr6, Aboard
;

Origin and Early History of Universities


controversiahst

(New York,
is

1893).

Bernard, the great


of

and mystic,
of

usually called

Bernard

Clairvaux.

Bernard the writer

beautiful

hymns

is

known

as Bernard of Cluny.

The two men

were, however, contem-

poraneous.

THE MIDDLE AGES


in the forms

23

and

rules of

grammar

as he understood them,

introducing, at an early period of the course, the reading

of the classical texts.

Upon

these he

commented

freely,

besides treating

them grammatically, pointing out the


and the poetic
style,

difference between the prose

and de-

veloping his system in a

way

that suggests the enlightened


in prose

methods of a

later age.

Everyday exercises

and

verse composition were required,

and an

insistence

upon

good models marked

his teaching.

One

of his maxims,
is

which has been quoted by John of Salisbury,


of the originality of his

significant

mind

"

Among the
said,

virtues of the

grammarian
These

this is one, to he ignorant of

some things."

schools, as has

been already

formed centres

about which ultimately rose the

earliest Universities.

Any

cathedral school which boasted of the presence of a famous


teacher drew to
it

a crowd of students, such an institution

being called at

first

studium generale.

These
bulls

finally re-

ceived a sort of incorporation


charters, with the

by papal

and royal

power of perpetuating themselves by en-

dowing
where.
degree,

their graduates with the right of teaching every-

This license to teach was the origin of the academic

and as soon as the studium generale had become a


it

corporation

received the

name

of Universitas.

Perhaps

the oldest university was that of Bologna, which was

founded in 1093, while Paris had a separately organised


teaching body as early as 11 69.
sity at

Oxford became a univerlittle

about the same time

Cambridge, perhaps a

232
earlier.

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

The

oldest

German

university

is

that of Prague,

whose foundation dates from 1347.

During the whole

period of scholasticism which practically ends in the thirteenth century, while the Latin language
as a

was greatly used


its

medium of communication and while


it

general forms

were studied,

cannot be said that the classics were either

read or appreciated outside of a few centres like that of


Chartres.

The

teaching of the age was as narrow as

its

thought.

Latin was studied only as a vehicle for scholastic


It

disputation.

was spoken
little

fluently

by

all

scholars, but

the classics were very


the language

read;

while the vocabulary of

was

filled

with a swarm of new words and

expressions partly theological


legal

and philosophical, and partly

and

political.'

The

only persons

who kept who

alive the
left Italy

older classical tradition were a few Italians

and established themselves


Europe.

in various parts of

Western

Among

these were Anselm,

who became ArchJohn

bishop of Canterbury in the year 1093, and whose predecessor Lanfranc, together with

men who,
Italy.

like

of

Salisbury

and a few

of

the French scholars,

still

knew

something of the Latin of ancient

That

so

many manuscripts have

survived to us dating
is

from the eleventh and twelfth centuries,

due to no wide-

spread love of classical learning, but rather to the fact that


'

haeceitas,

Cf such words as nominalismus, materialiemus, realismus, quidditas, and see Du Cange's Glossarium ad Scriptores Mediae et Infinae
.

Latinitatis (last ed.,

1884

foil),

passim.

THE MIDDLE AGES


in the monasteries copying

233
the

was imposed upon

monks

by way of penance.

There was

also a certain pride in pos-

sessing books, irrespective of any desire to read them.

This pride was wholly the pride of the


all

collector
it is

and not
largely

at

the pride of the scholar; nevertheless, to

due

the preservation of such manuscripts as

we now

possess.

Among

these

storehouses

in

which were hoarded the

treasures of classic literature, are especially to be noted

the libraries of

Monte
Italy;

Cassino, Naples, Bologna, Milan,


Fleury,

and Bobbio
pellier,

in

Tours,

Clvmy,

Mont-

Chartres, Grenoble, Lille, Lifege, Paris, Marseilles,


in France;

and Caen

Augsburg, Freystadt, Strasburg,

Leipzig, Wiirzburg, Mainz, Konigsberg, Zweibriicken, in

Germany; Leyden, Utrecht, and Dordrecht


St.

in

Holland;

Gallen

in in

Switzerland;

Copenhagen

in

Denmark;
in

Stockholm

Sweden;

Seville

and Saragossa

Spain;

and Oxford, Cambridge,


land.'

Salisbury,

and York
to

in

Eng-

So true was the remark ascribed

Geoflfrey
(est)

of Sainte-Barbe-en-Auge:

Claustrum sine armaria


It

quasi

castrum sine armamentaria.

may

interest the

reader to see which are the oldest classical codices


extant :
1

now

bridge, 1894)

See Clark, Libraries in the Medi<Bval and Renaissance Period (CamDugdale, Monasticum Anglicanum, 8 vols. (London, 1849)
; ;

Wattenbach, Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1875) Deschamps, Wehle, Diciionnaire de Geographie d I' Usage du Libraire (Paris, 1870)
;

Das Buck

(Leipzig, 1879)

and Putnam,

op.

cit.

(New York,

1896-97).

234

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


List of Some of the Oldest Classical Manuscripts'

A
I.

Greek.
a.

Fragments

of Euripides' Antiope

and Plato's Phcsdo, 250

B.C.

(Flinders Petrie Pap5rri, ed. Mahaffy, Dublin

Academy,
known.

1890.)
h.

The

oldest specimens of a classical text

few

lines of the

XI. Iliad (ante-Aristarchean and non-

Zenodotean), 240 B.C.


c.

Louvre Fragmenta
Alcman, second to

of Euripides, second century B.C.


first

d.
e.

century, B.C. (Paris).

Iliad fragmenta (Banks, Harris), second century B.C.

/.
g.

Papyri from Herculaneum, 79 a.d. (Epicurus, Philodemus).


Aristotle.

h.
i.

Herodas, Bacchylides.

First to second century a.d.

Menander (discovered

in

Egypt, 1905).

k.
/.

Hyperides, 150 a.d. (London, Paris).


Berlin fragments of the Melanippe of Euripides, third to

fourth century.

m. Pap3T:us fragments of Isocrates, fourth century (Marseilles).


n.
0.

Codex Ambrosianus

of the Iliad (Milan).

Fifth to

Codex Vaticanus
Fragmenta

of

Dio

Cassius.

sixth
p.
q.

Eiuripides' Phaeton,

and Menander, Fragments.

century.

of Aristoph., Birds (Paris).

n. Latin.
a.

Fragments of the Younger Seneca,


lanevim).

first

century

(Hercu-

b.

Manuscript of Vergil, fourth to


ence, Vatican).

fifth

century (chiefly Flor-

c.

Fragmenta
(Orleans).

of

Sallust's Eistoria, third to

fourth century

d.
e.

Codex Bembinus of Terence, fourth to fifth century (Vatican). Codex Puteaneus of Livy, sixth to seventh century (Paris).
of the dates in this
list

'

Many

are conjectural, though agreed

upon

by

scholars.

THE MIDDLE AGES


Palimpsest.

235

Juvenal and Persius, fragmenta in codice Vaticano, third to


fourth century.

Codex Veronensis and Codex Vaticanus of Livy. Lucan (Vienna, Naples, Rome), fourth century.
Cicero's

De

Republica, fourth to fifth century (Vatican).


fifth

Cicero in Verrem, fragmenta in Codice Vaticano, Gains,


fifth

century.

century (Verona).
fifth to sixth

Platus (Codex Ambrosianus),


Gellius

century (Milan).

and Seneca, fragmenta,

fifth to sixth

century (Vatican).

Fronto, fragmenta, fourth to sixth century (Vatican, Milan).

Livy, fragmenta (Vienna),


It

fifth

century.

has been said that most of the codices preserved in

these and other libraries were, for the most part, Latin

and not Greek.


tradition,

By

the eighth century, Greek, even as a

had faded from the memory of Western Europe.

Hellenic literature

was

little

more known

at that time than

was Sanskrit down

to the

end of the eighteenth century.

The names
authors.

of

Greek

poets, philosophers,

and statesmen
in Latin

were familiar only from the mention of them

Their actual personality, their time and country,

and
find

their places in history,

were

all

a blank.

Thus we
Eunuchus

Smaragdus, a mediaeval grammarian, so ignorant of

the meanings of Greek words as to think that

Comcedia and Orestes Tragcedia were the names of authors.'


1

Almost the only exception to


in Ireland, whither

this general ignorance of

Greek

is

to be
in the

oimd

Greek was probably brought from Gaul

fifth

century.

The

Irish schools

were admirably conducted, and for a

time the country was unmolested by the dwellers upon the Continent.

While in Gaul and Germany and Italy there was continual

strife

and

'

236

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Even when a little Greek had filtered its way into the knowledge of the mediasvals they used
it

to vitiate

and render

barbarous the Latin which they wrote.

Thus, the gram-

marian, Vergilius Maro, in the seventh century (whose


preceptor wrote a
of Latin), coined

work

in

which he discusses twelve kinds


the analogy of the Greek.

new words on
(from

For example,
rex

scribere

was supplanted by charaxare, while


^/joVo?),

became

ihors

so that the mixture of


to re-

Greek with Latin and the garbling of Latin forms


semble Greek, resulted in an argot which
is

difficult to

understand and which might well have justified the theory


that there

were twelve kinds of Latin,

or, indeed, as

many
little

kinds of Latin as there were

monks who knew a


Irish

Greek.

There remains a composition by an

monk

which contains the sentence: 'Pantes' solitum elaborant


agrestes
'

orgium,' two out of the five words being Greek.

These are only a few of the quaint things that were conceived by the mediaeval grammarians,

who made even

deeper darkness out of a glimpse of daylight.

Thus we

hear of long discussions on what was the vocative of ego,

and of furious debaters rushing

at

one another with drawn


to inchoative verbs.^

swords because they could not agree as

a deepening of intellectual darkness, Irish scholars preserved the older


learning and carried
it

to

Bobbio and Pavia and


i.

St. Gallen.
!

See Cramer,

De

GrcBcis

Medii

Mm Studiis,
;

24 (London, 1849)
;

Hyde,

Literary

History of Ireland (Dublin, 1899)

Newell,

St.

Patrick, his Life

and

Teachings (London, 1890)


^ '

and Bury, Life of St. Patrick (Cambridge, Hisperica Famina, edited by Stowasser (1887).
See Sandys, op.
cit.
i.

1905).

p. 450,

with the references there given.

THE MIDDLE AGES


Another thing that interested the mediaeval
it

237
scholars, as

had the Romans and even the

Aristotelian
.

Greeks,
'

was

the so-called Liberal Arts {artes liberales)


distinct

Aristotle

made a
practical

division

between the

liberal

and the

or

technical
to

arts.

Varro and Cicero carried


culture,

over the distinction


forth nine subjects

Roman
homo).

and Varro

set

which made up the training of the


{liber

Roman
mar,
sic,

gentleman

These nine were gram-

logic, rhetoric,

geometry, arithmetic, astrology,


architecture.'

mu-

medicine,

and

The

later

Romans,

under Alexandrian
of liberal arts, and
cine

influence, sought to lessen the


it is

number

probable that they dropped medi-

and

architecture, though

we have no
of the
first

direct proof

of this.

About the beginning

Middle Ages, the


discouraged liberal

Western Church, which had at


studies

on the ground that they were pagan, gradually

came

to cultivate

them because they ministered


In
this the

to

the

higher spiritual truth.

Church was,

curiously

enough, going back to Aristotle, and even to Solon,


taught that
soul.
St.
/JLovacK'^

who

or liberal culture
(a.d.

is

the training of the

Augustine

354-430)

altered the

number

of the liberal arts, so that his category contained only


seven;

and

in this

he was followed by the famous gram-

marian, Martianus Capella, a native of Africa, but a teacher


at

Rome, where he

wrote,

somewhat

earlier

than a.d. 439,


Philo-

a sort of educational allegory called


logies et

De Nuptiis

Mercurii.
'

> Politics, viii. i.

RitscU, Opusc.

iii.

371.

238

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


is

This work
fiction as
it is

as important in the

history of prose
for
its

in the history of education;

author
tried to
story.

dragged

fiction into the service of


pill

grammar and

sugar-coat the

of philology with

myth and

Martianus

strikes out

medicine and architecture on the

ground that they are

utilitarian studies.'

In Boethius

we

find a separation of the liberal arts into

two gro"ups

first

arithmetic, geometry, music,

and astronomy, which form

what was afterwards

called the

Quadrivium
trio

while gram-

mar, rhetoric, and logic form a


as the Trivium.

which was soon known


a work upon
the

Cassiodorus wrote

liberal arts, fixing the

number

at seven

and even asserting

that this

number had a
"

mystical meaning, since he quoted

the text:

Wisdom hath

builded her house;


^

she hath

hewn out her seven

pillars."

This

classification

and

this mystical interpretation of the

number seven continue ^


and was
pupil,
is

down through
Maurus."

the writings of Isidorus,*

especially

favoured by Alcuin^ and by Alcuin's

Rabanus

This famous teacher (whose name

also written
later

Hrabanus) was

bom

at

Mainz, of which

city

he was

made Archbishop.
'

Studying under Alcuin, he compiled


pp. 332

Martianus
Prov.
ix. I.

(ed.

by Eyssenhardt,

and 336).
all

' '

Seven was a mystic number, not only among the Jews, but among

the great nations of antiquity.


in

See an interesting chapter on the subject

Hadley, Essays (New York, 1873).


*

Supra, p. 190.

'

Sapra, pp. 220-223.

His collected works are to be found in Migne's Patrologia Latina,


Cf. the

vols, cvii-cxii.

monographs by Kohler (1870) and Richter (1882).

THE MIDDLE AGES

239

an abridgment of the Latin grammar of Priscianus which

was much used throughout the Middle Ages.

He

is

connecting link in the development of classical study, as


are his

own

pupils

Rudolphus and Trithemius, who wrote

biographies of their master which can be found in Migne's


Patrologia.

Toward

the end of the

Middle Ages, there appears the

remarkable figure of Roger Bacon,' an Englishman


at Ilchester, educated at

bom

Oxford and

Paris,

and

finally

enrolled in the Franciscan Order.


find

In his writings one can

that

clearness

of vision and keenness of criticism


to scholastic teaching.

which were inimical

Bacon reaches

out and figuratively clasps hands with


times.

men

of

modern

His chief works are the Opus Mains, the Opus

Minus, and the Opus Tertium (fragmentary).


wrote

He

also

compendium on philosophy and another on


His originality gave great force
to his learn-

theology.
ing,

which was beyond that of any contemporary.

He
in a

thought much, and he set

down what he thought

vigorous style and with a certain audacity which was rare

among

his fellows.

So far

in

advance was he of others

in the sphere of physics, that in his

own

time he was reIt is likely

garded as a sort of wizard or necromancer.


that he

had a knowledge

of

gunpowder and that he had

experimented with the steam-engine as well as with a


,

number of chemical compounds.


^ c.

Taking up

his doctrines

1214-1294.

240
briefly,

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

we may

note that he

criticised

the Fathers for

spending too

little

time in studying the ancient languages,


failing to

and thus by neglect of them

understand the

wisdom

of the ancients.

Furthermore, he declared that

no perfect knowledge of the Scriptures can be had without

knowing Hebrew and Greek, or that philosophy can be


thoroughly pursued without studying Arabic'
All current

translations are inaccurate, because the" translators are not

familiar with

foreign

words and leave many of them


whereas Bacon says very acutely,

standing in the text;

that a translator ought to be familiar, not only with the

language that he

is

translating

and

also his

own

language,
relates.
at-

but likewise with the subject to which the text

These are golden words, and they deserve the serious


tention of

modem

publishers.
five

Bacon says that there are not

men

in the

Western

world who are acquainted with Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic

grammar.

He

shrewdly notes

the

difference

between

having a purely colloquial knowledge of any language and


a knowledge which
is

scientific,
is

which goes down

to the

very foundations, and which

therefore the knowledge of


insists

a philosophical linguist.

Bacon, consequently,
still

upon

grammar, grammar, and


he
is

more grammar; and

in this

the forerunner of a philological school of

modem

times.

He

criticises

even the errors of translation to be

'

Referring to the Arabic translations of Aristotle of which the originals

were practically unavailable to the Western world.

THE MIDDLE AGES


found
asters
in the Vulgate,

241

and he

hits

hard those
text.

critic-

who have

ventured to change the

He

says:

" Every one has the impertinence to alter whatever he

does not understand

a thing which he would not do

in

the case of classical poets."

Here, Bacon drops a hint

or two for the criticism of the texts of the Scriptures,


hints that were to be fruitful in the time of Valla

the

and

Erasmus.'

Bacon was by no means one who merely

criticises

worK

of others.

He showed

his interest in

grammatical

study by writing a Greek grammar, a manuscript of which,

now

in the library at

Corpus Christi College, Oxford, has

the Greek characters beautifully written and contains a


short Greek accidence ending with a paradigm of the verb
TVTTTOj.^

Greek lexicon has

also

been ascribed

to

Bacon.

Nevertheless there

was

little

Greek known

to the

scholars of that time,

and
in

at

Oxford so much of Aristotle


It is

as of

was read was read

a Latin translation.

worthy

remembrance that another Franciscan, the famous

traveller,

Raimundus

Lullius, tried to persuade, first the

Pope and then


of
1

the University of Paris, to establish a school

oriental
It
is

languages (Greek, Arabic, and the Tartar


this
.

worth noting that an Oxford scholar of


d'apres Roger

time spent forty

years in correcting and explaining the Vulgate.


Latine au xiii
s.

Cf Martin, La Vulgate
;

Bacon

(Paris, 1888)

and Gasquet

in the

Dublin Review for January, 1898.


2

Dr. Sandys observes

(o#.

cit.

i.

p. S9S) that

"Bacon's own knowledge


his time,

of

Greek was mainly derived from the Greeks of

and

it is

their

pronimciation that he invariably adopts."

'

242
dialects)
,

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHtLOLOGY


thus anticipating the great oriental schools which

thrive

to-day at Paris and Berlin.^

Bacon's opuscula,

gathered from the fragments of his minor work, are very


interesting as

showing his unusual mental

activity.

He

had a
Greek.

sort of glossary of Latin

words derived from the

He

corrects a

number

of

ing, quantity,

and etymology.

common errors in spellHe tells some anecdotes,

as, for instance, that

he himself has seen the Greek text

of the

fifty

books of Aristotle's Natural History, mentioned


p. 17),

by Pliny

(viii.

and altogether takes us back


Gellius.^

to the
is

many-sided curiosity of Aulus

Altogether he

very fairly described by Hallam in a single sentence: "

The

mind

of

Roger Bacon was strangely compounded of almost

prophetic gleams of the future course of science and the


best principles of the inductive philosophy, with a

more

than usual credulity in


time."

the

superstitions

of

his

own

MedicBvalism

is

something very
it.

difficult to

understand,

and many views are taken of

Its spirit,

when properly
and

apprehended, was certainly not a


decay.

spirit of desolation

It

sprang out of the ruins of antique greatness


cit. ii.

Rashdall, op.

p. 96.

^
'

See supra, p. 188.

There

is

an edition of Bacon's works edited by Brewer (London,

i8sg).

very excellent and comprehensive study of Bacon


;

Charles (Paris, 1861)

and a

later

is that by monograph by Parrot, Roger Bacon, sa

Personne, son Genie, ses (Euvres

et ses Contemporains (Paris, 1894). His Greek grammar was published, with notes and an introduction, by the University of Cambridge (Cambridge, 1892).

THE MIDDLE AGES


from which
it

243

drew much of

its

own knowledge, though


its

often without any consciousness of

value.

The Middle
of

Ages appear

to

some as having been wholly a time

gloom when

intellectual pursuits

were discouraged, partly

through lack of knowledge, and partly by the discourage-

ment which came from an almost savage environment,


pierced only here and there by rays of light and glints of
colour.

Yet

in reality the true

Middle Ages were very

differentfrom this description.


cess of assimilation,
tiquity

There was a gradual proof an-

by which the highest thought

was

to

be transformed into something different

and new.

So we have the blending of the pagan past

and the Christian present, combining what was beautiful


in the antique

world with what was spiritual in the Chris-

tian teaching.
us, since so

As we look

at Medieevalism

it

often shocks
in conit.

much raw

brutality

was everywhere
to

tact with that

which was in the end

master

We

seem

at first to

be standing on the borders of a dark and

almost fearful waste, from within which v/e can hear the
rending sound of continuous devastation.
give our patient study to
it,

Yet when we
that the

we grow conscious

process
nation.

is

not one of destruction, but rather of germia chilling cold, there


is
is

Instead of

something

warm and
Thus
of
it

stimulating, that

always noticeable.
rude, yet the originalityartists of

its

Art

may have been


its

has appealed most strongly to

modem

times,

while the grandeur of

Gothic architecture attains the

244

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

height of the sublime.

Even

its

Philosophy, as wrought

out by the scholastics, has been revived and has flourished


for

two centuries, not merely within the great schools of the

Catholic Church, but

among men of
As

every

mode of thought,

from Kant

to

Leo XIII.^

to the political side

the

clash of principalities
strife

and powers and the almost incessant

of kings and popes

and mercantile communities,


:

Professor J.

W.

Burgess has admirably written

On

" Men have been wont to call the Middle Ages, 'DarkAges.' the contrary, they are full of light.

In them the great questions

of the relationship of individual right to political right, of local

government to central government, and

of ecclesiastical govern-

ment

to secular government, were raised

and drawn into conscious


of

consideration.

Had

the

European empire

Charlemagne been

perpetuated, Europe might have become a second China, but would

never have been what


the

it is

viz.,

the source of the civilization of

modern world.

The

iinceasing conflicts of the


local

Middle Ages

between private right and pubKc law,

government and central

government, state authority and Church authority, were necessary


to bring

men

out from under the monotony of slavish subjection

to the artificial, external Church-state system of the Carlovingian

empire, and develop


into the

them by the antagonism

of thought

and

will

power

of producing

systems more reflected and more free."

In Letters and Learning,

we owe a

great debt to the

Middle Ages.

For a time, the fanaticism of the Early

Church destroyed much; but from the eighth century a


'

See Picavet's remarkable monograph entitled Esquisse d'une Histoire


et

GSnSrale
Perrier,

Comparee des

Civilisations Medievales

(Paris,

1905)

and

The Revival of Scholastic Philosophy (New York, 1909). See also AUbutt, Science and Medimval Thought, pp. 72, 78 foil. (London, 1895).

THE MIDDLE AGES

245

great deal was done to preserve and transmit the classical


tradition, although

by no means

in the classical

spirit.

The

use of Latin as a lingua franca, even in a corrupted

form,

made

of

it

a thread that pierced the mazes of the

mediaeval labyrinth.

One

recalls the

names of the great


his im-

hymn writers, of the great teachers, from Alcuin and


Fulda, Servatus Lupus, Walafrid,

mediate pupils, such as Rabanus Maurus, who lectured at

who was

in literature the

precursor of Dante,' John of Salisbury,

who was a mighty

figure in English classical scholarship, Joseph of Exeter,

Albertus Magnus,^

Thomas Aquinas,
himself,

his favourite pupil,

and

finally

Roger Bacon

who

stands, as

it

were,

not far from Dante in the


ing Renaissance.
classics

first faint light

of the

com-

As we have
in part

seen,

many

of the Latin

were read

and some of them

in their entirety.

Many
known

that were not read were nevertheless copied in the


scriptoria.

monastic

Of

those ancients

who were

well

(in addition

to the Fathers) are Terence, to

Horace

(who was much admired by Alcuin), Ovid,


spurious poems were ascribed, Lucan,
to

whom many

who was supposed


astrology. Statins,

be an authority on geography and

Martial, Juvenal,

who with

Persius was esteemed for his

stem morality,
the

Cicero, of course, with the younger Seneca,


Quintilian,

Elder Pliny,

Cornelius

Nepos,

Cffisar,

Sallust, Livy, Suetonius, and the historical anecdotes of


' "

See Ker, The Dark Ages, See d'Assailly, Albert


le

p.

159

(New York,

1904).

Grand

(Paris, 1870).

246

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Valerius Maximus.
Civili

The fragment

of Petronius

De

Bella

was

fairly well

known, and was used

for reading in

the schools.

Of

all

the classics, Vergil held the foremost

place largely because he

was believed

to

have been one

of the " Christians before Christ."

As
small

to the adjuncts of classical literature, there

was the

grammar

of

Donatus

and many compilations of


exist to-day
bits

Priscian's great work, of

which there

more

than a thousand manuscripts.

Sometimes

of text

were quoted in
this

illustration of the rules of

grammar, though

was unusual.^

There were

also

produced a number

of lexicons, or rather glossaries

and vocabularies.

The

mediaeval teachers used to dictate to their students wordlists

which were carefully copied and then often abridged,

corrected,

and enlarged according as they passed from one

possessor to another.

One

of these glossaries, compiled

as early as the ninth century, has

been edited with a com-

mentary, while containing also the substance of twelve


others.

Something

like

a genuine lexicon was produced


scholar,

by one Papias, the Lombard


it

about 1063, though

was

in reality a sort of encyclopaedia.

The Low

Latin

word Dictionarium did not come


' 2

into use for a long time.

Supra,

p. 184.

See the monograph on


(Leipzig, 1902).

grammar contained

in

I.

MUUer's Handbuch,

V.

i '

Gottingen, 1854.

See also the elaborate description of mediaeval

glossaries in

collection

Lowe, Prodromus Glossariorum Latinorum (Leipzig, 1876). of these glossaries was begun in 1876 by Goetz under the

patronage of the Royal Literary Society of Saxony.

THE MIDDLE AGES


Papias called his
trincE

247

own
It

dictionary,

Elementarium
in
it

Doc-

Erudimentum.

circulated

manuscript until
at Venice

after the invention of printing,

when

was issued

in 1491.

In the twelfth century an English monk,

Osbom

of Gloucester,
ary,

made an attempt

at

an etymological diction-

which he called Panorama.

About the year 1200,

Hugutio, Bishop of Ferrara, compiled a Liber Derivationum.


Eighty-six years later, the two works last

men-

tioned were used by Balbi of Genoa,


his

who based on them


with a rather

famous Catholicon, which was not only a manual of


also of rhetoric

grammar, but

and

criticism,

extensive lexicon of ecclesiastical Latin.

These were the

best dictionaries

known

to the

Middle Ages.'
the Middle Ages wholly in

Thus

far

we have regarded

their relation to the history of

Western

civilization,

from

the downfall of the Western Empire to the beginning of the


thirteenth century.
It

remains for us

to consider

here

the Eastern or Byzantine Empire (also called

New Rome)

which had

its

seat at Constantinople

(Byzantium) and

which outlived the Western Empire by more than a thousand years.

lished in A.D. 330,

The Eastern Empire was practically estabwhen Constantine made Byzantium the

capital of the whole

Roman

world; but the actual breach


in a.d. 395.
I.

between the East and West came


'

In that year
Handbuch,
i.

See the monograph on Lexicography in


;

Muller's

(Nordlingen, 1902)

De

Vit, Preface to the Lexicon of Forcellini (Prato,

1879)

Mahn,

Darstellung der Lexicographie nach alien ihren Seiten

(Rudolstadt, 1817).

248
the

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Roman Empire was

divided between the two sons of

Theodosius.
capital

Arcadius took the Eastern half, with his


while Honorius received the

at Constantinople,
half,

Western

with his capital at Rome.

The

long and

tangled history of the Eastern

Empire

is

the record of

constant

strife,

sedition, folly, treachery,


it

misgovemment,

and murder.
years.
tale of

Thus

has been neglected until the last few


called
it

Even Gibbon

" a tedious and uniform

weakness and misery."

Montesquieu sweepingly

declared that " the history of the Greek

Empire from

Phocas on was merely a succession of

revolts, schisms,
it

and

treacheries."

Taine vividly condemned

as being

" a gigantic mouldiness, lasting a thousand years."


It

has been computed that of the 107 persons


to

who

ruled

from 395

1453 (when Constantinople was stormed by

the Turks), 20 were murdered, 18 were mutilated, 12 died


in a

death, 8 died in warfare in


violence or disgrace.

monastery or a prison, 12 abdicated, 3 starved


all,

to

73 out of 107

met with

Perhaps the best excuse for the

existence of the Byzantine

Empire

is

found

in the fact

that

it

formed for centuries a barrier between Asia and


latter

Western Europe, so that the


sion

had time

to attain cohe-

and a

sort of unity of purpose, to develop a

new
repel

civilisation

and the military power necessary

to

wild hordes, such as the Saracens


shattered at

whom

Charles Martel

Tours

in the eighth century, or the

Turks who

were hurled back from Vienna

in the sixteenth century.

THE MIDDLE AGES


If

249

we

look more carefully into the history of Byzantium

in its later years,


civil

we

shall find that while religious schisms,


it

wars, and violence of every kind shook

to its centre,
spirit,

there are everywhere traces of the older

Roman

surviving and making themselves visible.


history of

Indeed, the
civil

Old Rome

is

very largely a history of


surprised that

war,

and

so

we must not be
of the

New Rome showed


from Old
;

many

same

characteristics.
oriental.

It differed
Its rulers

Rome in being far more


its

were despots

people were, as has been said of the Parisians, " half

tiger

and

half ape."

In other words, princes and populace

alike alternated between the

most
it

childish

amusements

and the most bloody

strife.^

Yet,

had the Roman power

of assimilation, and of recuperation after periods of ex-

hausting warfare.
stantine

Some

of

its

emperors, such as Consoldiers

Copronymus (741-773), were great

and

organised more effective armies than the world had yet


seen.
in Asia

The

boundaries of the Empire were extended, both

and Europe.

Again and again the administration


Against the

was reformed and commerce stimulated.


Byzantium

Hungarians, the Turks, the Armenians, and the Bulgars,


successful wars were waged.^
'

itself

was a

For a diverting account of

life

in Byzantium, see Marrast, Esquisses

Byzantines (Paris, 1874).


'

See Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the


1899)
;

Bury (Cambridge,
(London, 1890)
;

Bury,

History of the Later

Roman Empire, edited byRoman Empire

and Oman, The Story of the Byzantine Empire (London

and

New

York, 1892).

250

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


city.

magnificent

Rome on

the Tiber

was ransacked

to

make

the

new

capital deserve the title

of " Imperial."

Statues and paintings and jewels gleamed and flashed in


all its

public buildings.

Its architecture

has been styled


of

" the complete

monumental expression

Greek Chriswhich

tendom."
chose the
the
to

It

was the Greek


as
its

architectural genius

Roman dome
roof,

fundamental unit in place of


lofty piers,

wooden

and then, by using


use
it

was able

suspend the

dome and

with any kind of ground-

plan.

Domes were even


is

multiplied at will;

and

this (with

semi-domes)

characteristic of the Byzantine architecture


in the great masterin

wherever

it

can be found, especially

pieces of St. Sophia

and the Church of the Apostles

Constantinople, as well as in

many
In

churches in Russia,
fact, the

Northern
types

Italy,

and Asia Minor.

Byzantine
this
is

were Graeco-Asiatic in

their origin,

and

why

they suggest at once an Orientalism which

we can trace

in almost everything

which the Eastern Empire originated.


art,

As

for other

forms of

there are few remains of


first,

Byzantine Sculpture, partly because there existed,

an

oriental lack of skill in

drawing the

figure,

and second,
iconoclastic

because

many

of the

Greek Christians were


Fresco-painting, Mosaic,
artists

in the literal sense.

and PanelByzantium.

painting

were practised by the

of

Most
It
is

of the frescoes

and panels have now disappeared.

only from the mosaics

made

prior to the twelfth cen-

tury that

modem

archasologists

can get any good idea of

THE MIDDLE AGES


the early Byzantine painting.
greatly

251
it

We

know, however, that

influenced
it

the Christian artists throughout the

Middle Ages, and

was

felt

even in the later frescoes in the


the middle of the eleventh

catacombs at Rome.

Toward

century, the Italian States and the

Norman Kingdom
who

at

the South imported Byzantine artists in mosaic


Italian

trained

pupils

and thus spread the Byzantine influence


It is in the

throughout

Italy.

Minor

Arts, however,

which

have

to

do with decoration, such as the illuminating of

manuscripts with gorgeous colours, ivory carving, tapestry


weaving, rug-making, and the carving of cameos, together

with embossing, chasing, and enamelling the most exquisite bits of

gold work, that the

skill

of the Byzantine artists

was supreme.^
Byzantine Literattire has in
tion)
^

itself

(with one excephistorian.

very

little to

interest

any one save the


wrote

Scholars and priests of Byzantium


tracts

iimumerable

and

controversial treatises,

which have mostly per-

ished, 'as

they deserved to do.

The

Byzantine Histo-

rians

form a group of writers who busied themselves


the
history of

with

the

Eastern Empire

down

to

its

destruction

by the Turks, and there were some who


that.

kept on writing even after


siderable value.
'

Five of them have con-

These are Zonaras, Nicetas, Nicephorus,


(London, 1894)

See Texier and Pullan, Byzantine Architecture

Essenwein, Byzantinische Baukunst (Darmstadt, 1896); Bayet,

VArt

Byzantin (Paris, 1892).


=

See infra, pp. 254-257.

252

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Chalcondylas, and Procopius.

The

first

four of these

give a continuous history of the Byzantine


its

Empire from
is

begirming down

to the

year 1470.

Procopius

noted

as a collector of scandalous stories which he jotted


in his Anecdota, or " secret history."

down
was

In

it

he gives his

private notes relating to the court-life with which he

very intimate;

and the book reminds one of some of the


to us the

French memoirs which reveal

piquant sayings

and doings of the French court imder the old regime.


This book of Procopius was not published
death.
It is written in a fresh

imtil after his

and

interesting style,

and

in

consequence has been read more than almost any other


production
fifteen

of

the

Byzantine

historians.^

There

are

other writers of Byzantine history whose imited


in the

works are published with a Latin translation


Scriptorum Historic Byzantina?
Really remarkable
the codification of the

Corpus

among

the Byzantine writings

is

Roman Law made by


It

the Byzantine

lawyer, Tribonianus, an Asiatic Greek, at the


the
1

command

of

Emperor
is

lustinianus.

was a

collection of authorihis orations, the


is

For a separate edition of Procopius, including


referred to Dindorf, 3 vols. (Bonn, 1838).

reader

There

an old and
1663).

rare translation of Procopius into English

by Holcroft (London,
Fall.

The most amusing or


'

startling passages of Procopius

were transferred by

Gibbon to the footnotes


In 36
vols., edited

of his Decline

and

by Labbfe
48

(Paris, 1711;
vols,
it

reprinted at Venice in

1733)is

similar collection in

was begun at Bonn in 1828, but


were done by such distinguished

badly executed, although parts of

scholars as Niebuhr, Bekker,

and the brothers Dindorf.

THE MIDDLE AGES


ties,

253

and

to

it

we owe the

treasures of ancient jurisprudence


lost.

which must otherwise have been

The whole has been

known

since the sixteenth century as the Corpus luris

Civilis.^
It will thus

be seen that so much of the

literature of the

Eastern Empire as has been preserved was of a formal

and not very

artistic character.

Doubtless the populace

had

its

own ephemeral
left,

prose and verse, of which there are


for instance, in the so-called politici

some fragments
versus

{arixoC iroXiriKoi)

written

in

popular

metres,

and the cheap novels composed by Theodorus Prodromus


of Constantinople.

He was

imitated

by Nicetas Euge-

nianus, and there are also eleven books on the adventures

of

Hysmine and Hysminias, which

are perhaps the original

source of the world-famous story of

Don
of

Juan.*

To

Byzantine Scholarship, Classical Philology owes an

enduring debt.
originality,

The

learned

men
gift

Byzantium lacked

but they had the

of patience to

an extireless

traordinary degree.
in collecting scraps

Like the historians, they were

and fragments,
in this

in

making up excerpts

and compilations, and


rich material for

way

preserving the wealth of

modem
known

times.

Almost
it

all their

material

was derived
'

at second hand, whether

was

lexicographic,

It is

in.

four parts,

as (a) Codex lustinianeus; (J)

Pandedm

or

Digesia;

(c)

Institutiones ; (d) NoveUas, this last mostly written in Greek.

Edited by
'

Mommsen and

others.

See

Waxman, The Don Juan Legend


(April, Sept.), 1908.

in Literature, in Journal of

American Folh-Lore

254
historical,

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


or etymological.
things,

Thus Photius

(c.

820-c. 891)

wrote

many

among them two volumes which


Greek language
sent as an ambassador to Assyria

are of great service to the student of the

and

literature.

He was

and beguiled his stay there by making abstracts of 280


books,

many

of which are

now

lost.

Sometimes he varied
so that the whole,
,

his abstracts

by

criticisms

and comments
^

which

is

called

Myrohihlion

(Mvpto^i^Xiov)

gives

us a synopsis of

much

ancient and valuable literature.


its

Remarkable
historians

for

its

extent and for

preservation of early

was the encyclopaedia of history compiled by


the

one

of

emperors,

Constantinus

Porphyrogenetus
like
it

(reigned from 915 to 959).

This book was something

the Historian's History of recent times, since, while

was arranged according

to the subject-matter, its text

was

that of the earlier authors

who had

treated these themes.

An

extremely important work in the growth of Lexiis

cography

the Lexicon of Suidas

(c.

976).

This
is

is

remarkable monument
psedic.

to the erudition

which

encyclostill

The

sources

upon which Suidas drew are

only partly known; but his reading must have been


strous in
its

mon-

scope and range, as his book


It
is

is

almost mon-

strous, rudis indigesfaque moles.

a grammar, lexicon,

and geography

all in

one.

The
little

subjects are arranged in

alphabetical order, but with


'

care or
ix.

skill,

and

it is full

See Krumbacher in Miiller's Handbuch,


1

(Nordlingen, 1897),

pp.

193

foil.;

Hergenrother, Photios, 3 vols.

THE MIDDLE AGES


of serious mistakes which

255

show that Suidas was not posStill,

sessed of the critical spirit.

the

work

is

extremely

valuable because

it

contains so
else.^

much

information that can

be found nowhere

Following Suidas came loannes Tzetzes,

who was

also a

very voluminous writer, mainly of scholia; for besides his


allegories of the Iliad

and Odyssey

in ten

thousand verses

(hence Chiliades), interpreting Homeric mythology in a


rationalistic

way, he prepared a commentary to the Iliad,


left scholia to

the Pseudo-Homeric works, and has


to Aristophanes, to

Hesiod,

Oppian, and especially

to

Lycophron's

Alexandra.
to that

Here he

gives us the only clew that

we have

obscure and mystical poem.^

the

rhetoric of

Hermogenes.

He also He was fond

epitomised
of writing

the so-called versus politici?

Eustathius, Archbishop of

Thessalonica, wrote about 1175 a valuable commentary on


the Homeric
scholia

poems which

is

based upon sound Homeric

and other
pen a

excellent sources, while

we

also

have

from

his

fine preface to

a commentary on Pindar.
lost.^

The body of this


1

work itself has been


is

From the stand-

The

best edition

that of Bekker (Berlin, 1854), but see also the


cit.

Prolegomena to Bernhardy's edition, pp. 2S-9Sj and Krumbacher, op.


pp. 562-5702

Supra, p. loi. Some think that this work was written by his brother,
See Hart,

Isaac Tzetzes.
'

De Tzetzarum Nomine,

Vita, Scriptis (1880).


(Berlin,

Supra, p. loi.

His works are edited separately by Bekker

1816), the Chiliades 1840).


*

by

Kiessling (Leipzig, 1826),


cit.

and Lehrs

(Leipzig,

See Krumbacher, op.

pp. 526-536.

See Krumbacher, pp. 536-541.

The
1837).

preface to Pindar has been

edited

by Schneidewin (Gottingen,

256

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

point of pure literature, the most interesting Byzantine


writer
is

Maximus Planudes
treatise

(1260-1310).
it

Though he
more
to the

wrote scholia and a

on syntax,

is

point that he translated into Greek a

number

of Latin

authors such as Caesar, a part

of

Cicero, the sayings

(disHcha) of Cato, the Metamorphoses of Ovid,


cially the

and espe-

Heroides of Ovid, basing his translation on a

valuable

manuscript
all is

which

is

now unknown.

Most

important of

the Anthology which he compiled with


is

much
Greek

taste

and which

the younger of the two great

Anthologies.
It

This
really

one

is

called

Anthologia

Planudea.
the
first

was

based on earlier anthologies,

having been made by Meleager of Gadara about

B.C. 60.

To

it

Meleager gave the

title

'AvdoXoyia, or

"
of

The Garland."
Alcaeus,

This original Anthology was made up


forty-six other poets,

poems by Meleager himself and


Anacreon,
of the
first

including

Sappho,

and Simonides.

The poems were

all

order and were epigram-

matic in the Greek sense,


thought, either tender or

briefly

embodying a
pathetic,

single
all

humorous or

and

of

them

exquisitely polished, so that they

glowed and glinted

with light and colour.

This work was immensely popular,


to
it

and continual editions were made


centuries,

throughout the

until in the tenth century a.d.

one Cephalas

edited the

mass of poems and made

practically a

new
less

compilation.
literary taste.

Planudes did the same, though with far

Nevertheless the Planudean Anthology was

THE MIDDLE AGES


the only one

257
until the seven-

known

in

Western Europe

teenth century.

It is the basis of the

famous translation

by

Grotius.i

In 1606, Salmasius (Claude de Saumaise)


Heidelberg the older and finer
This, however, was not published
it

found

in the library at

collection of Cephalas.
for

one hundred and seventy years, when


in his Analecta;

was included

by Brunck
until there

nor was

it

critically edited

appeared the edition of F. Jacobs in 1803.^

No

skill

and no

modem

language can

fitly

and

artistically

translate these wonderful poems.

They

are the embodi-

ment
of

of

Greek genius, and they sweep the whole gamut


feeling with

human

a sureness of touch and an exqui-

site artistry that are utterly inimitable.

Another means by which Western


ified

civilisation

was mod-

came from

the Crusades, which indirectly brought


also

Western Europe into contact with the Byzantines, and


with the Turks, Saracens, and Arabs.

The First Crusade


Seventh or
last

occupied the years 1096-1099.

The

Cru-

sade began in 1270 and ended in 1272.

It is impossible

that hundreds of thousands of Europeans could have beInfra, p. 349.

In 13 vols.; revised in 181 7.


(Paris,

recent edition

is

that in Didot's

Biblioiheca

1872), while a fine critical edition

was begun by

Stadtmiiller in 1894.

See Thackeray's Anthologia Graca with English

notes (London, 1877) and Mackail, Select Epigrams (London, 1891).


Stadtmiiller has added to the Palatine collection a
brilliant

poems from
all,

ante-classical sources

number of the most down through the Byzantine

period, so that, in

not

less

than three hundred poets are repi esented.

The Heidelberg
s

collection is called Anthologia Palatina.

258

HISTORY or CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


the

come acquainted with

ways and customs and

art

and
re-

learning of older civilisations than their


ceiving impressions which they carried

own without

home with them.


have enriched Eu-

In

fact, the

Crusades are generally held to have checked

the advance of the

Muhammadans,

to

rope by promoting trade and establishing

new

industries,

by bringing into circulation great quantities of money

which had hitherto been hoarded, and by making more important the free cities of Europe.
vasive

Finally

and most perwith the higher

was the

intellectual effect of contact

culture of the Byzantines and Arabs.

Those Europeans
in the sages of

who had been fond


the East

of philosophy

found

men who were their masters, and who


far better

could teach

them even Greek philosophy


learn
it

than they could

in the schools

and

universities of their native lands.

This led

to a certain toleration,

and often

to a liberality

of thought

which verged on skepticism.

Some Crusaders
said, "

even became

Muhammadans.
^

As has been

The

roots of the Renaissance are to be found in the civiliza-

tion of the Crusades."

So
'

much

for Byzantine

and

oriental influence through-

See Wilken, Geschichte der KreuzzUge, 7 vols. (Leipzig, 1807-1832)


the Crusades,

Michaud, The History of


ler,

Eng. trans. (London, 1881)


;

Kug-

Geschichte der Kreuzzuge (Berlin, 1891)

Von

Sybel, Geschichte des

ersten

Kreuzzuges (Leipzig, 1900)


;

Archer and Kingsford, The Crusades

(New York, i8g8)


(Berlin, 1898)
lin,
;

Rohricht, Geschichte des Konigreichs Jerusalem

and

especially Prutz, Kulturschichte der Kreuzzuge (Ber-

1898).

THE MIDDLE AGES


out the Middle Ages.
It

259

was

for the

most part represented

by men

of erudition rather than of taste,

who turned

their
to

backs in large measure on the old learning in order


engage in theological controversy or
political strife.

But

they at any rate preserved the manuscripts of the true

Greeks, and they were to exercise a direct influence at a

time

when

the mist of the Middle Ages

was

dispelled in
to

Western Europe and when mankind awoke a new heaven and a new
'

what was

earth.'
cit.;
cit.,

On

the literature of the Byzantines, see Krumbacher, op.


i.

Wil-

amowitz, Euripides und HeraUes,

pp. ig3-2i9;

Gibbon, op.

and

Hankius, De Byzantinarum Rerum Scriptoribus Gracis (Leipzig, 1677).


Cf. also Sandys, op.
cit.
i.

pp. 387-439

Mr. Frederic Harrison's ByzIt is inhis Outlines of the

antine History in the Early Middle Ages, p. 36 (London, 1900).


teresting,

though inexplicable, that Dr. Gudeman in

History of Classical Philology should have devoted nearly five pages to

the Byzantine scholars of the Middle Ages, while the scholarship of West-

em

Europe

for nearly

a thousand years a page.

is

put

off

with a mere biblio-

graphic notice

filling half

VI

THE RENAISSANCE
The
Renaissance

the

most remarkable

intellectual
is

movement

that the world has ever seen

too often

regarded as being primarily nothing more than an intellectual reversion to the great

models of

classical antiquity,

as being almost exclusively


ological.

literary, artistic,

and

archas-

Yet

this is

only a narrow and imperfect view.


in Italy

The Renaissance which began

was rather a pro-

found and far-reaching revolt against the narrowness

and mental routine of mediaevalism.


of humanity in Western

It

was the waking


lethargy,

Europe from a prolonged

to burst all the fetters that ages of tiresome tradition

had

forged for

it,

and

to struggle

up

into the sunlight of intel-

lectual freedom.

It

was a great declaration

of indepenfelt in
it

dence, the effects of which were ultimately to be

every sphere of

human

activity.
it

In philosophy

over-

threw scholasticism.

In religion

paved the way directly


it

for the so-called Reformation.

In art

inspired the mas-

terpieces of Michelangelo, Rafaelle,

and

Da Vinci

in Italy,

and the great schools of painting that soon afterward


sprang up in the Netherlands and Flanders.
tecture
it

In archiIn

restored

the

beautiful
260

classic

models.

THE RENAISSANCE
politics
it

261

finally

abolished

feudalism by giving birth

to the sentiment of nationality,

and sowing the seed from


to spring.

which constitutional government was


ence
nicus
it

In

sci-

made astronomy
Galileo.
It

truly scientific through Coper-

and

invented

printing

and, by

the

employment

of the compass,

was enabled
It

to discover the

New World
ence of
this

and the Indian Ocean.

would be imposinflu-

sible to exaggerate the

tremendous and far-reaching


effects
effort
life.

wonderful movement whose

have per-

meated every department of

intellectual

and

left

enduring traces in every sphere of

modem
field

The Renaissance began


and
for our purposes

in

the

of
its

scholarship,

we need

consider

importance
of the
first

only from that particular point of view.


significant signs of the

One
is

coming change

to

be seen

in

Dante,'

who not only broke away from who


likewise wrote a

mediaeval tradition

in using the vernacular Italian verse, while taking Vergil

as his model, but

number

of treatises

in the Latin language that were the foreshadowing of the

new

spirit.

In one way, Dante does not belong to the

history of the Renaissance.

He
is

is

in

many ways

a pure

mediaeval in his sympathy with the world for which he

wrote;

yet in a large sense he

truly the herald of the


first

coming dawn.

"In him
its

the

modem mind
first

found

its

scope and recognised

freedom;

dared and did


art.

what placed

it

on a

level
'

with antiquity in

Many

1265-1321.

262
ideas,

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


moreover, destined to play an important part in the
their germinal expression.

coming age received from him


It

may

thus be truly said that Dante initiated the move-

ment

of the

modem
'

intellect in its entirety,

though he did

not lead the Revival considered as a separate


in this evolution."

movement

The Renaissance

in its first period

began

in Italy (1250-1453),

and was marked by a wide-

spread revival of interest in classic literature and classical


ideals.

Its first sign

was a passion

for the largeness


this

and

the richness of the

pagan world, and

we

see in the

vigour and magnificence of Dante's

own

verse, in striking

contrast to the dull formalism of those

who had

before his

time written for the mediaevals.^


It is a

popular error which ascribes the Renaissance

to the influence of the

Byzantine Greeks.

Some wrongly

say that after the capture of Constantinople by the Turks


in 1453,

many

scholars

and writers

fled

westward and im-

parted their learning and their knowledge of the Greek


classics to the

Western peoples, especially

in Italy.

But,
least

as a matter of fact, the Renaissance

began at

century before the

fall

of Constantinople, as can easily


brilliant career,

be seen by considering the

not merely of

Dante, but of the true protagonist of this period, Francesco


Petrarca,

whom we

shall

mention a
Italy, p. 69.

little later.

We

have

Symonds, The Renaissance in

See Federn, Dante and His Time, Eng. trans.


Scartazzini,

(New York,

1902)

and

Handbook

to

Dante, Eng. trans. (Boston, 1897).

THE RENAISSANCE
also seen that

263
in the thirteenth

Roger Bacon, who flourished

century, composed a Greek granunar and pronounced his

Greek

after the

manner

of the Byzantines.

few Greek

teachers of eminence

had been known

in Europe,^

but they

seem
small

to

have excited no great

interest outside of a very

set.

Nor was
its

the

mediasval

mind

necessarily

cramped and

culture crude.

One

could hardly say

that, after recalling

such names as those of Gregory the

Great, of Cassiodorus, Alcuin, Charlemagne, and the great


scholars

and teachers who were best known

in

France and

England.
ration

The Renaissance means


desire.
It

rather a

new

inspi-

and a new

was

essentially secular
life,

and
its

almost pagan in
thirst for

its

irresponsibility, its love of

and

mental freedom.

The

mediasvals had been" al-

most wholly under the guidance of the priesthood, and


their chief concern

had been with the mysteries of


it

faith.

Their philosophy was ingenious, but


It could split hairs

was very narrow.


finally

most dextrously, but

men grew
into
for them.

weary of the

splitting of hairs

and shook themselves


life

a realisation of what a larger

must mean

So the Englishman, William of

Ockham,

expresses the

new

feeling in a

new philosophy

of Nominalism.

Mar-

sigilo of

Padua

teaches the importance of the individual


right to think

and that the individual has a


as seems best to him.
in

and organise

Wiclif in England, and John

Huss

Bohemia, and many other independent minds organised


'

Boethius, Isidorus, Alcuin,

Rabanus Matirus, Bacon,

et al.

264

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

at their pleasure throughout Europe.

They taught
to

the

importance of the individual Christian

Christianity

and the

right of individual interpretation of the Scriptures.

A brief survey of Francesco Petrarca's activities will give


an understanding of what was actually done at the beginning of the true Renaissance.
first

It

was he who took

the

positive steps in the revival of learning.*

Possessing

the fire and the passion of a Catullus, he openly revolted

against the dimness and bareness of mediasvalism.


reverted with an almost fierce intensity to the

He
free-

pagan

dom and
ders.

spontaneity of thought.

He

travelled widely

and

visited the learned

men of France and Germany and

Flan-

He saw

a larger world than his predecessors knew,


life.

and he took a more comprehensive view of human

His poetic instinct and exquisite taste rejected the dull


writings of the scholastics with their barbarous
satires.

and clumsy and


in

For

his

own

inspiration he

went

to Vergil,

his studies he enlarged his Latin vocabulary

from the Cic-

eronian and Augustan writers.


verse,

Apart from his Italian


Its

he composed an epic

in

Latin entitled Africa.


it

subject

was the Second Punic War, and

was

received

with an enthusiasm that can


understood.

now

scarcely be realised or

But

it

recalls to us the significant fact that

one of the great motives which led


a renewal
in Italy of

to the

Renaissance was

the national spirit, so long stifled

both in

politics

and

art.

The

petty republics

and small

(1304-1374-)

THE EENAISSANCE
principalities

265

had almost blotted out the memory of the

time when the great


the world

Roman Empire had been mistress of and when Rome gave law to Spain and Gaul

and Africa and Asia Minor.

recollection of this fact


all

now

thrilled

through the minds of

Italians

and inspired
to re-

that sentiment for Italian unity which

was destined

main a

vital thing

down through
Kingdom

the succeeding centuries


it

until gradually the

of Sardinia gave

actuality

when

in 1870 the

King of a United

Italy burst through

the walls of

Rome and made

that ancient city the splenState.

did capital of a

new and powerful

As
its

to Petrarca's
is

Latin epic on the Second Pimic War,

verse

imperfect.
still

The Latin

poets of the Renaissance

period were

obliged for a long time to guess at

many

of the quantities in the words which they employed, and

they often guessed wrong; yet there are in this

poem many
which
a

splendid passages of which perhaps the most significant


of
all is

one of nine

lines in the ninth book,^

is

spirited

and

striking

prophecy of the Renaissance

itself.

One more
known

important fact remains to be mentioned.


it

To

Petrarca's mind,
texts

began

to

be apparent that the

classical

to his

world formed but a small part of the

great and splendid mass of literature that had once existed;

and he appears
ery.

to

have

set himself to the task of its recovin his travels,

Wherever he went

he searched for

manuscripts of classic authors, and with some measure of


' ix.

273-282.

266
success.

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


At Liege he discovered two new orations of
letters.

Cicero and a part of Cicero's

At Verona he found

a portion of the Institutio of Quintilian,

then practically
all

unknown.

More important

in its

way than

the rest

as a philological discovery, he recognised

and acknowl-

edged the very close relation of Latin to Greek,

a wonboth

derful achievement for the time, as strange, in fact, as the

much

later discovery of the relation of Sanskrit to

Greek and Latin.

In his old age, Petrarca, like Cato,

made an
there

effort to

master the Greek language.


in

Unluckily
capable
to

was no one

Florence at that time

who was
sent

of teaching him,

and he died without learning enough

read a copy of
Constantinople.^

Homer which had been


first

him from

Petrarca was the

true son of the Renaissance, in

that his love for classical antiquity

was not

in the least

degree overlaid by mediaevalism, as was that of Dante. Despising


all

that

had been done

in the preceding seven


to return to the

hundred
spirit

years,
life

he struggled passionately
of the classical age.

and

Before his death he

had attained

to

a Latin

style of

remarkable purity, and in

his EpistolcB, his

De

Viris Illustrihus,

and

his dialogues

he

struck the note of classicism so clearly and so splendidly


as to

waken

the dormant genius of Italy once

more

to

'

Petrarca urged his friend and disciple Boccaccio to render this copy
into Latin,

of

Homer

and the task was very imperfectly performed with

the aid of a Calabrian Greek, one Leonzio Pilato.

THE RENAISSANCE
life.i

267

Petrarca's gifted secretary, Giovanni da

Ravenna

(or

Giovanni Malpaghini), an accomplished Latinist, was the

most noted missionary of the new movement.


from
city to city all

Travelling

over Italy, he gathered about

him

a host of pupils to
the

whom

he taught the Latin, not of


of Cicero

monks and schoolmen, but


to

and

Cassar,

communicating

them the new impulse, and


felt

stirring

them

with a new enthusiasm that had been


self

both by him-

and by

his inspired master.


is

Giovanni Boccaccio,^ who


his

best

known

to

moderns by

Decameron, was an enthusiastic son of the Renais-

sance.
Italy,

His mother was French, but he was soon taken to

where he flung himself


city of Naples,

into the

gay

life

and natural

beauty of the

which was then, under King

Robert, a centre of culture

and

learning.

At the same

time he became interested in classical study and had spent

much
leius.

time in copying manuscripts of Terence and ApuIt is likely that the latter author,

whose book

is

professedly a collection of Milesian tales, gave Boccaccio

the

first

suggestion for his Decameron, which

is,

in arrangeis

ment and manner, a

collection of Milesians, that

to say,

of short, witty stories as


'

we know them now.


the Africa

But from
Italian

There

is

critical edition of

by Corradini with an

translation (Oneglia, 1874).


(Paris,

On Petrarca himself, see M6zieres, PMrarque


Robinson and Rolfe,
et

1867);

Geiger, Petrarca (Leipzig, 1874);


1898),

Petrarch

(New York,

and de Nolhac, PUrarque

VHurmnisme,

2d

ed. (Paris, 1907).


*

1313-1375-

268

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


is

the standpoint of a classicist, Boccaccio

most impor-

tant because of the fact that he attained to an excellent

Latin style and wrote a number of treatises in Latin on


various subjects, quite after the

manner

(let

us say) of

Varro or Suetonius.^

His disciples and those of Giovanni


preached the gospel of
classi-

Malpaghini
cal culture

in

their turn

at Venice,

Mantua, Rome, and other

Ital-

ian

cities.

Leonardo Brunt ^ made excellent translations

of Aristotle, Demosthenes, and Plutarch; while Barbaro,


Strozzi,

and others shared

in the enthusiastic labours.


,

One

of them, Colutius Salutati (Coluccio di Salutato) chancellor


to the city of

Florence in 1375,

first

used in the public docu-

ments of
forced

his ofhce the sonorous

Latin of Cicero, and thus


for

upon popes and princes the necessity of securing

themselves scribes and secretaries


the classic style.

who were masters

of

The

interest

which pertained

to every-

thing which had to do with classical antiquity led Ciriaco


de' PizzicoUi (Cyriacus of

Ancona)

to feel

a strong enthu-

siasm for archaeological rather than literary remains.

He

ransacked every part of Italy and the Greek islands,


collecting, besides manuscripts,

bits of sculpture,

gems,

medals, and coins, and taking note of such inscriptions as

seemed

to

him

significant.

When

asked what was his

object in these endless joumeyings, he replied,

"I go

to

'

See Korting, Boccaccio's Leben und Werke, pp. 742


;

foil.

(Leipzig,

1880)

Symonds,

op.

cit.

pp. 87-97, '33

Cochin, Boccaccio, etc. (Paris,


2

i8go).

1369-1444.

THE RENAISSANCE
awake

269

the dead "; and this reply has been regarded as the

key-note of the early Renaissance.*

The

recognition of the value of

Greek which had come


part of every
visited

to Petrarca in his later years

now became a

scholar's

training.

Giacomo da Sciaparia

Con-

stantinople in 1375, the year of Petrarca's death, for the

purpose of learning Greek from those who spoke


Salutato and
Strozzi founded a chair of

it.

Greek

at the

University of Florence.

In 1396 Manuel Chrysoloras,


Italy;

a learned Byzantine, came from the East to

and

while teaching Greek at Florence, established schools for


the study of that language at Padua, Milan, Venice, and

Rome.

Cosimo

de'

Medici, then head of the Florentine

Republic, founded a special academy for the study of Plato.

The

rich citizens of Florence vied with one another in

their munificence
classical learning.

and enthusiasm

for the furthering of

Niccolo de' Niccoli, Pietro di Pazzi,

Manetti, and Palla Strozzi are but a few of

many famous

names.

The

first

gave his entire fortune

to the collection

and reproduction

of ancient manuscripts.

Di Pazzi kept a

teacher of Greek and Latin always in his house, and com-

mitted to

memory

the whole of

the jEneid and long


life to

chapters of Livy.

Manetti devoted his

the further-

ance of what has been called

Humanism
ii.

in opposition to

^Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum,

pp.

xxii.
i;

129

foil.;

Hiibner,
oil.

Romische Epigraphik in Muller's Handbuch,


155
foil,

Symonds,

op.

pp.

and

injra, p. 270.

270

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Medisevalism.i

He

strove also to harmonise the teach-

ings of Christianity with those of

paganism.

Strozzi

employed

all

the facilities which his great commercial in-

terests in other countries

gave him for the discovery and

purchase of manuscripts.
It is perfectly clear
fall

from

all this,

that

it

was not the down-

of Constantinople

and the dispersion of Greek scholars

that brought about the Renaissance, since the thirst for


learning, the

reversion to the classical spirit, antedated

the end of the Byzantine

Empire by nearly eighty years:

"Circumstances favoured a rapid spread of the new culture.

The Italian cities, grown rich under democracy, but having tired somewhat of its responsibilities, had been passing into the control
of that extraordinary series of despotic rulers

who

united with a

brutal unscrupulousness of character a taste for the best in Mterature and art without a parallel.
It

was one
de'

of the chief

aims to

power

for a

new-made tyrant

like

Cosimo

Medici that he prosort.

vided the means of existence for talent of every

Even

the

bloody ruffians who, one after another, held power in Milan, made
places for scholars

and

artists,

maintained

libraries,

and encouraged

The ancient universities of Bologna, Padua, and Salerno were reinvigorated by the healthful breath of the new learning and stimulated by the rivalry of the new schools founded by the younger repubhcs. The Papacy, with a free hand after the
learned research.

Council of Basel (1431-1449), passed into the control of a series of

men

like

Nicholas V., Pius

II.,

and Leo X.,

in

whom

the interest in

learning

and

art

was an absorbing passion.

In

fact, learning,

under

the Itahan humanistic impulse,

may be

said to have taken

on the

form of a
import.

fine art

and thus to have concealed much


these favouring conditions
^

of its serious

Under

all

it is

not strange that

Infra, p. 271.

'

THE RENAISSANCE

271

a certain flippancy of character came to be associated with the cleverness of the fifteenth-century scholars.
caccio

The Ughtness

of Boc-

had seemed the natural expression

of exuberant joy in the

human Mfe. A century later, this sincerity had way to an over-refinement that knew no limits. Everything was permissible in the name of aesthetic experiment. Without in any formal way renouncing their allegiance to Christianity, many became more really interested in philosophy than in
natural things of
largely given
doctrine,

and increasingly

lax in following the ordinary forms of

devotion."

Here, then,

is

to

be seen what

is

meant by Humanism
of course sugfine

as opposed to Mediaevalism.
gests humaniias,

Humanism

which

to the

Roman mind meant

breeding combined with geniality, careful cultivation, and

a certain urbanitas

in other words, the characteristics

which to-day mark the one


gentleman and a scholar.
is

whom we
The

would describe as a

key-note of

Humanism

a toleration of individual tastes and an objection to every

form of dogmatism.
degree.

The

medieevals were dogmatic to a

The men

of the Renaissance imposed

no check
all

upon the

assthetic tastes of others,

though they were

bound

together by a

common
relations

love of

what was

fine

and

gracious and beautiful.^

Returning
Italy,
'

to

the

between Byzantium and

we can

readily see in the first place that the Renais-

See infra, p. 272.


Voigt, Die Wiederhelebung des klassischen Alterthums oder das erste
;

Jahrhundert des Humanismus, 3d ed. (Berlin, 1893)

Burckhardt, The
;

Culture of the Renaissance in Italy, Eng. trans. (London, 1898)

and
oil.

Gasquet, The Eve of the Reformation (London, 1905)

Emerton,

op.

272

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

sance antedated the sack of Constantinople by the Turks


(1453).
It
is,

indeed, of the utmost importance to clas-

sical literature that the general interest in the

Recovery

of Greek manuscripts began while Constantinople

was

still

an independent Grecian
postponed,

city.

Had

the Renaissance been

many

of the literary treasures brought to Italy

in the early part of the fifteenth century to supply the

demand
to

of Italian scholars

must have remained

in

Greece
it is

be destroyed

in the pillage of

Byzantium, where

traditionally said that at least 120,000

books were taken


it

and burned by the

fanatical Turks.

As

was, from the

year 1400 to 1450, there


portation of

was an

increasingly brisk im-

Greek

texts into Italy,

and an even greater


Thus, Nicholas
V.,

demand

for translations of

them.

who, as a monk, had run deeply into debt for manuscripts,


became, when Pope, a munificent collector and patron.
It

was

his

purpose to have
idiomatic

all

the

Greek

classics

rendered
tained
in

into

and lucid Latin.


in

He

main-

hundreds of copyists

his

service,

and agents
for

foreign

countries were employed


It

by him wholly
to

procuring codices.

was he who gave


for

Perotti five
into

hundred ducats
Italian,

($1200)

translating

Polybius

and

to

Guarino a thousand gold

florins for a like

version of Polybius into Latin.

He

also

promised

Filelfo

the

sum

of ten thousand gold florins for a metrical render-

ing of

Homer.

Even when

the plague drove


all his

him and
copyists

his

court from

Rome, he took with him

and

THE RENAISSANCE
translators lest he should lose
tion of

273

any of them.

His

collec-

books numbered at his death two thousand volumes


Car-

and became the nucleus of the Vatican Library.


dinal Bessarion, the translator of Aristotle

and a part of
thousand gold

Xenophon,
florins,

collected,

at a cost of

thirty

manuscripts to the number of six hundred.

For

the safe keeping of these, the Venetian Republic, in 1468,


erected a massive building, and thus laid the foundation of

the great Library of


tion

St.

Mark.
this

The

noblest Italian collec-

which existed at

time was that of Frederick of


as a boy he

Urbino (1444-1482).^

Even

had begun

to

purchase books, and as soon as he reached manhood he


kept some forty copyists continually at work.

His library

was one

of the most complete of the age, including a wide

range of literature which represented not only theology, but


philosophy, medicine, and a
prising
all
list

of

Greek authors, comand


all all

of Sophocles,

all

of Pindar,

of

Meeven

nander.^

In his possession were catalogues of

the great

libraries of Italy

and of foreign

libraries, including

'

Also called Federico di Montefeltro.

The complete Menander was

probably- lost at the sack of Urbino

by

Cesare Borgia.

Scholars hope for the ultimate recovery of books that

have been regarded as wholly


valuable source.
chylides

lost. The Egyptian papyri may prove a Thus very recently they have yielded parts of Bacand Menander. The mediaevals possessed MSB. of authors

now lost. We may now


of Petronius, for all of

look for the missing books of Livy, for the

MSB.

Menander, and perhaps


of

for the lyric poets like


veriest fragments

Sappho, Alcaeus, and others


are

whose writings only the


i.

now known

to exist.

See Burckhardt, op. cU.

p. 268.

274

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

those so far

away

as Oxford.

It is

worth noting that his


but what was
literature

collection contained not only ancient works,

then "

modem,"

that

is

to

say,

contemporary

Dante,

Petrarca,

and Boccaccio.

Here was the true


classical scholars

type of humanist, and one that

modem

would do well

to emulate.

Too

often they narrow their


profits

knowledge to a small comer of a specialty which

only two or three, and they ignore the great golden world
outside,

pulsating with

life

and

filled

with millions of

things of which no one should be altogether ignorant.

The

present writer has himself

come

in contact to

with purclassicists

blind ignoramuses

who were supposed

be

but who

really

knew nothing

of the classics, because they

were ignorant of the thousand and one things which shed

an

interpretative light

upon

classical learning

through the

varied,

multicoloured sources of general literature and

history

and

politics

and

art.

These are the creatures

who have
of their

too often dragged the classics

down

to the level

own

ignorance.

One may wish

to-day for a

new

Renaissance which shall be actuated with the same wide

sympathy and the same comprehensive learning that

marked the great Revival


But, after
classical texts
all,

in the fifteenth century.

the greatest services in the recovery of

were rendered, not by popes and princes, but


persons who, having
little

by

less distinguished

money

to

spare, gave the

more

freely of their time

and labour. These

went

forth like seekers after hidden treasure in a search

THE RENAISSANCE
that

275

had

for them, in their enthusiasm, all the romantic

zest of a

new Crusade.

It

must be remembered

that while

Italy

was ablaze with the ardour of the new


Europe was
still

revival, the

rest of

plunged

in the

dubiess of Medisesingle scholar yet

valism.

Only here and there had some


spirit of the

caught the

Renaissance.

The

monasteries
still

were

still

as somnolent as ever.

The schoolmen were

threshing out their


ists

mouldy
still

theological chaff.

The

copy-

of the

North were
to

erasing Vergil and Catullus


for

and Lucretius

make room
came

Rabanus Maurus and

Duns

Scotus.

Into these sleepy haunts


to search

the scholars of Italy, eager

among

the parchments that lay in dusty bundles

in the scriptoria, the cellars,

and sometimes even the out-

houses, for any scroll or scrap that contained the Latin of

pagan Rome.
difficulties

The

story of these explorations,

of the

encoimtered, of the rebuffs experienced, of the

disappointments undergone, and of the splendid discoveries


achieved, would read like a romance;
related here.

but

it

cannot be
is,

One name

in the history of this period

however, so closely linked with the recovery of priceless


manuscripts, as to justify at least a passing mention, be-

cause of the services which he rendered in the revival of


learning and

more

especially in

what we may

call the

exca-

vation of texts hitherto unknown.

Many

scholars have

shown

their gratitude to

him by

calling the first half of

the fifteenth century "

The Age

of Poggio Bracciolini."

276

HISTORY OP CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


^

Gian Francesco Poggio Bracciolini who, as a young man,


scripts.

was a

Florentine,

gained his living

by copying manu-

From

his fees

he was able

to

pay for instruction

imder two of the greatest teachers of his time

Giovanni

da Ravenna in Latin and Manuel Chrysoloras in Greek.


Later he became secretary to the
this capacity

Roman

Curia, and in

he accompanied the great dignitaries of the

Church on

their official visits to Switzerland,

Germany,

and even England, so that the notes of these journeys


which he made are very interesting from
their quaintness

and naivete.

In 1453, he was
Prior,

made

Chancellor to the
in

Republic of Florence,

and Historiographer,
city in

which capacity he wrote the annals of the


modelled upon that of Livy.
versatility,

Latin

Poggio was a

man

of great

wide S3mipathy, and an intense enthusiasm


His
literary activity

for classical literature.

was remark-

able, even in that era, for

he won distinction as an orator,^

as an historian,^ as a keen though scurrilous controversialist,*

as a

satirist,^

as a writer of very readable epistles,'

as

an

essayist,' as

a translator from the Greek,* and as a

compiler of witty though indecent anecdotes and epigrams."


fluent
' ' '

It is not,

however, for these things, nor for his


is

and easy Latin, that he


2
* *

now remembered.

His

1380-1459.
History of Florence.

Orator Publicus of Florence.

Against Filelfo

(q.v.).

He

attacked chiefly the clergy.

Especially regarding his travels.

'
'

Imitating Seneca.
Collectively styled Facetie.

He

translated Xenophon's CyropiBdia.

THE RENAISSANCE
fame to-day
rests

377

upon

his

remarkable discoveries of

manuscripts in the convent Hbraries of Germany and


Switzerland chiefly, at Weingarten, Reichenau, and
Gallen.
St.

Without

recalling

minor

details,

it

is

sufficient

to say that

he brought

to light the

whole of Quintilian,

twelve plays of Plautus, Asconius Pedianus,


Marcellinus,

Ammianus
Flavius

Nonius

Marcellus,

Probus,

and

Caper, together with a part of Valerius Flaccus.


his other trouvailles

Among
Ma-

were valuable manuscripts of Lu-

cretius,' Columella, Silius Italicus, Vitruvius, Livy,


nilius, Priscian,

Frontinus, the SUvcb of Statius, the oration

of Cicero Pro Ccecina,

and the Aratea.

If Poggio's
it.

means
If

permitted him to buy a manuscript, he bought

he

could not buy


it

it,

he copied
stole
it,

it.

If

he could neither buy

nor copy

it,

he

as in the case of a valuable

manuscript of Livy and one of Ammianus at Hersfeld.^

No
culties

pains were spared by him, and no fatigues or

diffi-

could discourage him.


"

As

his friend Francesco

Barbaro wrote:

No

severity of winter cold,

no snow,

no length of journeying, no roughness of roads, prevented him from bringing


literature."
to

light

the

monuments

of

He

used his influence with the prelates of


him.

the
1

Church

to aid
is

certain

Dane had informed


made

This manuscript

one of the three copies made from a single archelost.

type which has long been

From

Poggio's copy were

all

the

Italian manuscripts of Lucretius.


''

At

least there is

no record

of his having returned

them, as

it

was

his usual practice to note.

278

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

the Pope that in a Cistercian convent at Roskilde there

was a manuscript

of Livy containing

all

of the lost books.

Poggio at once persuaded Cardinal Orsini to


special

send a

messenger

in search of

it,

while Cosimo de' Medici


to

bestirred himself
treasure.

and despatched agents

secure this
lied,

The Dane, however, had probably


Poggio's
^

for
ac-

the manuscript could not be found.

own

count of
because
it

how he

discovered

Quintilian

is

interesting
libraries

shows that even

in the

most famous

of the North, the books which they contained were very


little

valued for their

own
St.

sake.

Poggio writes:

" The monastery of


the city.

Gallen

Thither, partly for

lies some twenty miles from amusement and partly for the sake

of finding books, of

which we had heard that there was a large

collection in the convent,

of the well-stocked library,

we directed our steps. In we discovered QuintUian


filthy

the middle
safe as yet

and sound, though covered with dust and


age. serve,

from neglect and

You must know

that the books are not housed as they de-

but were lying in a most foul and dismal dungeon at the

very bottom of a tower,


nals

a place into
thrust.
.

which condemned
.

crimi-

would hardly have been

Quintilian

was indeed
against

right side to look upon,

and ragged

like

a felon with rough beard

and matted

hair, protesting

by

his countenance

and garb

the injustice of his sentence.

He seemed

to be stretching out his to be saved from so

hand and caUing on the Romans, begging


undeserved a fate."^
'

This complete manuscript of Quintilian, Poggio copied with his own


in thirty-two

hand
to

days and sent

it

to

Leonardo Bruni, who wrote

baclc

him: "As Camillus was

called the second founder of

you

receive the title of the second author of

Rome, so may the works which you have


(Liverpool, 1837).

restored to the world."

'There

is

life

of Poggio in English

by Shepherd

THE RENAISSANCE
Side by side with this narrative,

279
set the similar
:

we may

account of Boccaccio's

visit to

Monte Cassino

'

" Desirous of saving the collection of books

asked the

monk

to

open the hbrary

for

him

monk
it is

stiffly

answered, as he pointed to a steep

... he modestly The staircase Go up


as a favour.
'
:

open.'

Boccaccio gladly went up;

but he found that the

place which held so great a treasure was without a door or key.

He

entered,

and saw

grass sprouting

on the windows, and

all

the

books and benches thick with dust.

Astonished, he began to

open and turn the leaves


found

of first

one tome and then another, and


Others were snipped and
. . .

many and
of
all

various volumes of ancient and foreign works.


lost several sheets.

Some
pared

them had

around the text and mutilated in different ways.

Coming

to the cloister, he asked the

monk whom he

met,

why
The

these valuable books

had been so

disgracefully mutilated.

answer was given him that the monks,

in order to gain a little

money, were
which

in the habit of cutting off sheets

and making
into

psalters

they sold to boys.

and

disposed of them to

The margins they made women."

charms

Other famous discoveries that were made about

this

time were those of fairly complete manuscripts of Cicero's


letters

by Leonardo Brimi

(1409), of Cicero's rhetorical


(1425),

works by Gherardo Lanbriano, at Lodi


fairly

and of a

complete manuscript of Plautus by Nicholas of

Treves (1429).

Of

the Greek classics the most famous

collector was Giovanni Aurispa.

In 1423, he arrived at
in

Venice with 238 volumes which he had purchased


Constantinople.
'

Among

these were the celebrated


op.
cit.,

Codex

Quoted from Benvenuto da Imola, by Symonds,

pp. 133-134.

28o

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


^

Laurentianus

written in the tenth century and

now

pre-

served in the Laurentian

Museum

at Florence.

It con-

tained six plays of ^schylus, seven the

of

Sophocles, and

Argonautica of Apollonius

Rhodius.

There were

also the Iliad

(Venet. A), the complete text of


Plato,

DemosStrabo,

thenes,

besides

Xenophon,

Diodorus,

Arrian, Athenaeus, Lucian, Dio Cassius,

and Procopius.
manuscript-

So great a mass of treasure in the


collecting
It

field of

was never found by any other


this

individual.

was about

time that some of the later Byzantines

began to be known in the countries of the West.

The

name
tioned.

of

Manuel Chrysoloras has already been men-

He

taught Greek in Florence, Venice, and Rome,


his

and

pursued

journeying
(1415).

to

the North,

where he

died, in

Germany
spread

He made

literal translation

of Plato's Republic;

and

his contemporary, Plethon, did

much

to

the

Platonic

philosophy.

Theodorus

Gaza, in the early part of the fifteenth century, wrote an

elementary Greek grammar,


Aristotle,
'

and made translations

of

Theophrastus, ^lian, and

Dionysius, besides
meant wooden tablets when parchment or
In the language

Codex, originally meaning a log of wood, later

covered with

wax

for writing on,

and

in after times,

paper or other materials were substituted for wood and put together in
the shape of a book, the

name

codex

was applied

to

it.

of classical scholarship, codex is used of in the libraries of Europe.

any manuscript edition preserved

Codices are sometimes

named

after persons

who

possessed them,
;

e.g.

the

Codex Vossianus, named

after the

Dutch
e.g.

scholar Voss

but oftener after the places where they had been kept,

Codex Britannicus from the British Museum.

THE RENAISSANCE
turning the
into Greek.

28

De
It

Senectute

and the De Amicitia of Cicero


said,

must be

however, that the Italian


to

humanists stood high above the Greeks who came


teach

them.

The

latter

were slow and unimaginative

and plodding
of

essentially Byzantine.

They were hewers


and

wood and drawers


Filelfo,

of water to such brilliant Italians as


lecturer
teacher,

Francesco

itinerant,

witty

controversialist,

collector

of

manuscripts,

and

transla-

tor of

Homer; or

his brilliant

contemporary, Laurentius

Valla (Lorenzo della Valla);


siglio

or Marsilius Ficinus (Mar-

Ficino)
;

or the immensely erudite Angelus Poli.'

tianus

and

especially Petrus Victorius (Pietro Vettori)

The men
of

just

mentioned have been made the subject


lives, their

many

volumes, and in their

achievements,

and

their controversies,
vices,

one finds displayed the virtues

and the

the

enthusiasms,

and

the

illuminating

ardour of the Renaissance.

Filelfo,

roving from place

to place, seems like one of the greater Sophists of the

time of Socrates.^

Veilla,

though scurrilous

like Poggio,

prepared in 1444 a volume which he called EleganticE


Latini Sermonis.
It

was

essentially a treatise

on

style,

on purity of

diction, practically

on Ciceronianism.
it

Dur-

ing the Middle Ages and later,

was

difficult to write
full lexi-

Latin with any assurance, since there were no


cons whose makers had
sifted

out the classical words


centuries,

from the barbarisms of the preceding


1

nor

1499-1584.

'

Supra, pp. 49-si.

282

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

were there any grammars which taught authoritatively

what was

right

and what was wrong

in the syntax of the

Latin language.

Valla did not attempt to indicate bar-

barisms; but he took a safe stand on the basis of Cicero's


Latinity.

He

could say that such and such a sentence

or such and such a phrase or

word was

right because

it

was Ciceronian.
might be quite
is

Other sentences and phrases and words


correct,

but one could not be sure.

That
and

to

say, Valla's

book was a guide


so

to Ciceronians,
it

was executed with

much

care and taste that

imposed
in less

upon

Italians the Latin that


it

was

Cicero's,
its

and

than a hundred years

had reached
consulted

fifty-ninth edition.
profit.

Even to-day

it

may be

with

Valla,

likewise, translated

Homer, Herodotus, and Thucydides;


edition

while he

made an

of

Quintilian

with careful

attention to the text


Politianus,

and doctrine.^
his

who took

name from Monte


in his time.

Puliciano,
his

had a wonderful reputation


studies in both Latin

He began

and Greek

at Florence

imder the

best teachers, and

when

scarcely fifteen years of age, he


lines

wrote a poem of 1400

celebrating the victory of

one of the Medici at a tournament.


wrote exquisite Greek poems.

At seventeen he

Lorenzo de' Medici made


gave

him
'

tutor to

his

two sons, and afterward


;

him

See Vahlen, Lorenzo Valla (Vienna, 1870) Nisard, Les Gladiateurs de la Republique des Lettres, etc. (Paris, 1889) WolE, Lorenzo Valla
;

(Leipzig, 1893)

Schwahn

(Leipzig, 1896)

and Symonds,

op.

cit.

pp.

258-265.

THE RENAISSANCE
a charming
favourable
villa

283

where he could study under the most


Being sent as an ambassador
received in the

conditions.
to

from Florence
flattering

Rome, he was
by the Pope.

most

manner

At the request of His

Holiness, he translated Herodianus and received 200 gold

crowns as a reward.

As a

translator,

he was inimitable,
filling

but he preferred professorial

work,

a chair of

Latin literature in Florence, and also teaching Greek.

His fame spread

all

over Europe, and pupils flocked


study under him,

from the great


being the
first

cities to

among them

two English teachers of Greek


Michelangelo.

Groc)rn
rightly say

and Linacre

and

One may

that Politianus the


first

was perhaps the most

brilliant scholar of

period of the Renaissance, since he

was not only


the

vigorous

but

original.

While

able

to

reproduce

noble periods of Cicero, he could write with equal ease

pages which recalled the elegance of Livy and the strength


of Tacitus.
its

His Latin verse

is

especially to be noted for


its

beauty of expression and for the glow of

author's

imagination.'

As
and

for Victorius,

he stands as the greatest philologist


'

critic of his

century.

His

life

was one of wide

experi-

ence, for he

was
of

at various times a soldier, a diplomat,

and a teacher

Greek and Latin.

He made

text editions

and commentaries on Cicero, which surpassed


ness the work of his contemporaries.
'

in acute-

Like Politianus,

See Gresswell, Life of PolUian (London, 1805).

284

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


Aristotle.

he translated some of the works of

Editions

with notes were put forth on parts of ^schylus, Sophocles,

Xenophon, Terence,

Sallust, Varro, Isaeus,

and some

less

known
is

Grecians.

But

his

most remarkable production


It

his

VaricB Lectiones, in thirty-eight books (1582).


all

shows beyond

question the acuteness of his criticism


his reading.^

and the vast extent of


of being painted

He had

the honour

by Titian, and of being sought out by


countries in Europe.
especially interesting
in

students from
Victorius

all

was

his

criticism

and exposition

of Aristotle's Poeticsin 1560, very

He

interpreted the

famous Kcidapa-K

much

as RoborteH had

done twelve years before, and as Castelvetro did ten


years later.
poetic
prose,

In his criticism, he attacks the notion of


because Aristotle in defining the poetic
essential.

forms makes verse always an

Professor Spin-

garn notes that the phrase " poetic prose" is used, perhaps
for the first time,

by Minturno (1564)

in his Arte Poetica.

The two

great

names

of Politianus

and Victorius shine


of the
first

forth to give splendour

to the closing years


is

period of the Renaissance, which


the Italian Period.
It

perhaps best called

had witnessed the dawn of the


revival

New

Learning.

It

had watched the enthusiastic


it

of pagan culture,

and

had restored

to

Western Europe
the end of the
;

immense
'

treasures of ancient lore.^


Opusc.
ii.

By

See

Creuzer,

pp. 21-36 (Frankfurt, 1854)

Rudinger,

Petrus Victorius (Halle, 1896).


^

The immense demand

for manuscripts of lost authors rather natu-

THE RENAISSANCE
fifteenth century,
tury,
this

285

and even by the middle of that cento

remarkable movement had swept onward


its

the North and was nearing

height in countries reItaly their inspiration.


felt

mote from

Italy,

but owing

to

The
in

first

breath of the Renaissance was soon

in

France, with which Italy had such close relations, then

Germany,

in

Belgium and Holland,

in

England, and in

Spain and Portugal.


Renaissance

Perhaps the close of the Italian


regarded
as

may be

almost coincidental

with the Introduction of printing.


art

The
in

typographical

was very gradually developed


first, initial letters

Italy

and Spain.

At

in

manuscripts were stamped in ink

from engraved blocks of wood.

Then

these engraved

blocks were used for making playing cards, for orna-

menting woven
lettering,

fabrics, religious pictures

with or without
finally

engraved words without pictures, and

the

wooden blocks developed


in
first

into types of single letters

founded

a mould.

Who

employed these movable


It

types,

no one can

surely say.
rally led to

makes no

difference,

however, whether

an extraordinary number of

literary frauds.

great

many

skilful scribes

who were

also

men

of ability

made

large

sums by writing

on parchments spurious works which they ascribed

to the Greeks or

Romans
tion,

of renown.

This was not a new thing, since as far back as the

Alexandrian School

many

fictitious

odes of Sappho were in circula-

and

likewise didactic sayings wrongly ascribed to Theognis,

and

See Gudeman, "Literary Frauds among songs to Anacreon. the Greeks " in Classical Studies in Honour of Henry Drisler (New York,
erotic

1894).

286

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


or Coster or the

we name Gutenberg
who
is

unknown workman
from Coster
at

said to have stolen the invention


in

Mainz

Germany and then

to

have made small movalso the

able printing presses.

There are
it

names

of Fust

and Schoffer.

Certain

is

that printing

was known
set

about 1430, and that regular presses were


1448.

up about

We

may,

therefore, say that the year

1450 marks

the

End

of the Italian Renaissance.

The
to

introduction of of learning,

printing
for
it

was of immense importance

men

multiplied copies of the best-known classics, and


for critical

by putting the apparatus


of every scholar,
it

work

into the

hands

paved the way for a general and com-

parative scientific study of classical texts. ^


printing

The The

use of
great

spread with

remarkable rapidity.

centres of

book production were Venice, Rome, Cologne,


Augsburg, and Mainz.
Before

Strassburg, Nuremberg,

the close of the fifteenth century, there were twenty-two


printing establishments at Cologne, twenty at Augsburg,

seventeen at Nuremberg, and sixteen at Strassburg.^

The
in

most famous

printers,

whose names continually appear


and Schoffer

the history of early editions, were Fust

at

Mainz,

John Auerbach

at Basel

(1492-1516), Zell at

Cologne, the Aldi at Venice (1490-1597),^ John Froben


1 ' '

See Prutz, The Age of the Renaissance

(New York,

1902).

See Cotton, Typographical Gazetteer, 3d ed. (Oxford, 1852-1866).

See Brunet, Manuel de Libraire,

etc.,

8 vols. (Paris, 1880)


;

De Vinne,

The Invention of Printing (New York, 1878) Hoe, A Short History of the Printing Press (New York, 1902) ; and Faulman, Geschichte der Bucktntchierkunst (Vienna, 1882).

THE RENAISSANCE
at Basel (1496-1527),

287
at

and Christopher Plantin


press to be set

Antwerp

(1554-1589).

The

first

up

in

England was
press in the

that of William Cazton in 1477.

The

first

Western Hemisphere was established


in 1540;

in the city of

Mexico

and the

first to

be set up in the British Colonies

in

North America dates from 1638 at Harvard College and


survives under the
first

still

name

of the University Press.^

Hence, the
of

great impulse toward the freer spirit

ancient times swept over Italy, surging on to other

countries,

where

its

influence took

many much

forms.

The
epoch,

Renaissance was in reality not so

new

but rather a harking-back to the


antiquity,

civilisation of classical

which

it

modified to suit the

New World
we

of

Southern Europe.
in the early

In

classical

scholarship,
first,

find, as

days of Greece and Rome,

the accumu-

lation of material for study;


in various ways;
calls

the expansion of that study


^

the development of Criticism

which

into

its

service

many

ancillary studies

PalaeoThus
the

graphy,' Epigraphy,' Numismatics, a knowledge of the


'

The

first

printed editions of classical authors

is

interesting.

editio princeps of

any ancient was printed


1465.

at

Rome and was


in

a copy of

Cicero,

De

Officiis, in

The

first

work printed

Greek was the


Theretofore, in

'E/suttJ/hoto of

Constantinus Lascaris (Milan, 1476).

printed Latin books, Greek words had been inserted with a pen.

This

work
'

of Lascaris

was

set

up according

to its parts at various places


(1495).

and

times,

and gathered together by Aldus into one book

See Spingam, History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance

(New

York, 1899).

As with Giovanni Aurispa. As with Cyriacus of Ancona, who said that inscriptions seemed to give a greater reason and a truer knowledge than even books themsdves.
' *

288

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Graphic and Plastic Arts,i Architecture,' and finally the


invention of a

means

for

making the apparatus

criticus of

learning accessible to every one.

Thus, the Renaissance, though not, as Michelet describes


it,

" the

discovery

of

the

World and Man,"

was, as Walter Pater said, " a love of the things of the


intellect

and the imagination


intellectual sunburst,

for

their

own

sake."
to

It

was an
times

which restored
in

modem
Greek

all

that

was

glorious

the centuries of

and

Roman

culture.

Dr. Sandys points out that the


first

metaphor of a new birth was


earliest revival of learning,

associated with the

under Charlemagne, by Modoin,


:

the Bishop of Autun, in this golden line

Aurea
'
'

Roma

iterum renovata renascitur orbi.'

As with Donatello and later with Michelangelo and Bramante. As with Brunelleschi (1377-1446), one of the greatest architects of the Renaissance. It was he who, more than any other, revived the Ro-

man
'

or classic forms of architecture.


critical history of

For a

the Renaissance see Voigt, Die Wiederbe-

lebung des Klassischen AUerthums,

3d

ed.

(Berlin, 1893)

Burckhardt,
;

Ceschichte der Renaissance in Italien (Stuttgart, 1890-1891)

id.,

Kultur

der Renaissance in Italien, 8th ed. (Leipzig, 1901)

Symonds, The Re-

naissance in Italy (London, 1887)

Walter Pater,
;

Stzcdies in the History

of the Renaissance (London, 1888)

Vernon Lee, Euphorion (London,


;

1884)

Scott,

The Renaissance of Art in Italy (London, 1888)


;

Einstein,

The Italian Renaissance in England (New York, 1902)


e

Miintz, Precursori

Propugnatori del Rinascimento (Florence, 1902)

Sandys, Lectures on
op.
;

the Revival of

Learning (Cambridge, 1905);


History of Criticism,
i.

id.,

cit.

pp. 1-123);

Saintsbury,

A
;

pp. 456-466

ii.

i-io8 (London,

1901-1902)

and

for

a convenient summary, Pearson,


See

Short History

of the Renaissance (Boston, 1893).


Italy during the Fifteenth Century

De

Vinne, Notable Printers of


1910).

(New York,

VII

DIVISION INTO PERIODS


As we have seen
already, the inspiration given

by

Ital-

ian scholars extended rapidly over the whole of Europe.

The

first

century or more
itself;

is

what

is

properly to be called
effects

the Renaissance

but since
it

its

have lasted

down
selves,

to the present day,

may be
scholars,

said that we, ourresults

are

still

living

and experiencing the

of

that

great

revival.

Many
calling

therefore,

would
the

regard the Renaissance as


twentieth century,
(2)

continuing
the periods

down
(i)

into

the Italian,
(4)

the French,
(5)

(3)

the English and Dutch,

the Ger-

man, and

the Cosmopolitan.

This

is

a convenient
con-

mode

of grouping the great personalities


;

who were

spicuous in their respective periods


set

but roughly

we may

down

the

fifty

years or so which followed the begin-

ning of the Italian Renaissance as the Post-Renaissance


Period.

In

it

we

see the fruits of Italian culture gradually

distributed throughout the different countries of Europe,


until

there

were developed many schools of learning,

each having a tinge of distinctive nationality.^


'See Nisard, op. cii., passim; Pokel, Schriftstellerhxikon (Leipzig, ; and Michaud, Biographie Universelle, Ancienne et Moderne, last

1882)

edition, 45 vols. (Paris, 1843-1865).


IT

289

VIII

THE AGE OF ERASMUS


While the impulse given by Italy and Italian scholarship
was quickly
felt

in every

country,

the other countries

needed someone of commanding personality who should


be able to interpret
this great intellectual

movement

to

the schools and peoples of Northern Europe.

The New
it

Learning must not be imitative, and


not remain Italian;

therefore

must

but after

its

fundamental

principles'
to

should be accepted, they must be dealt with according

the national instinct and temperament of each of the

peoples of the North.

He whose

mission

it

was

to per-

form

this splendid

work, and thus to stamp his memory


transition,

upon the period of

was Desiderius Erasmus,


ever lived, and in

the greatest humanist

who has

whom
about
sort of

Humanism
his
life,

itself is

vividly personified.

The

facts

as Professor

Emerton has

said,

form a

Erasmus-legend, since they are taken from passages in his


writings which have been styled autobiographical, though
the author himself never so allowed

them
his

to

be

called.

There remain

also 1500 letters

from

pen

(for

he was

a voluminous and ready writer);

representing at least
of every grade in

500 different correspondents

people

2go

ERASMUS
life,

291

from the most lowly

to those

who

sat

on thrones.

It

may be added
by a king
than was a
master.

that a letter from

Erasmus was regarded


and no
to
less

as being
letter

no

less precious

an honour

from the same writer

a village school-

So great became his influence and so widespread

his fame, that the fifty years


in themselves

from i486

to

1536 constitute

a period which

may

itself

be called almost

"

The Age

of Desiderius Erasmus."

Desiderius

Erasmus was
tradition

bom

at

Rotterdam.

Ac-

cording to

he was an

illegitimate son,

who

was, nevertheless, lovingly cared for by his parents until


they both died

when he was

fifteen years of age.^

He was

taught in the well-known school at Deventer, and later at


Bois-le-Duc, where he says that he " wasted " some three
years, suffering from the narrowness

and the discomfort

of his

life.

Finally,

he entered the monastery near Gouda,


of his stay there, he took priestly
left

and during the ten years


orders.

In 1492

significant year! he
called, in his native

the

mon-

The
;

father of

Erasmus was

Dutch, Gasrt or
Gaert's.

Gerard

hence the name of Erasmus in the vernacular was Gaert

This name, Erasmus himself Latinized and Graecized into Desiderius

Erasmus. The powerful and historically accurate novel by Charles Reade,

The

Cloister

and

the Hearth, gives

fictitious

account of the elder Gaert.

The book may be commended


yet
its

to the

most

serious reader, since it displays

the later Middle Ages and the early Renaissance in minute detail, while
careful

knowledge has been fused by the genius of a great writer


is

into something that

singularly consistent

and

alive.

George Eliot's

Romola

is

pale and introspective beside this masterpiece of Reade, in


virility

which every page displays the author's

and

erudition.

292

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

astery, and, taking

up

his

abode at Paris, he began what

we should now

describe as a literary career.

But having

regard for the different conditions at that time, he might


better be termed an independent scholar, teaching
writing,

and

and thus making an income which brought him,

together with fame and


as he

many

favours, the right of living

would and where he would.

His mind was stimu-

lated by much

travel, for he passed to Louvain, to England,

to Basel, to Freiburg, in Italy.

and he spent three years of


fact:

his

life

But here we note a curious


to

that the

man

who was

spread Italian culture through the


in the

North North

was himself a son of the North, receiving

the foundations of his genial and brilliant scholarship.

He

was, however, in

fact,

a genuine citizen of the world, a true

cosmopolite, equally at

home

in every country,

and always

sure of a friendly greeting.


ized

How

thoroughly denational-

Erasmus was may be seen


offered a readership at

in the fact that

when he
because

was

Louvain he declined
with
tlie

it,

he was not

sufficiently familiar

Dutch language

his native tongue!

It

is,

indeed, quite certain that,


little

though he lived at times in Paris, he understood


French;
that,

though he was frequently


;

in

Germany, he

knew no German
Italy, his

and

that,

however greatly he admired


slight.

knowledge of Italian was very


language was the language of

In

fact,

his only

the cultivated
sort of Latin,
Its

world over which he reigned as king,

which he spoke with the utmost fluency.

syntax was

ERASMUS
purely classical.
Its

293

vocabulary was adapted and en-

larged so as to mention
tion

modem

things.

But

this adapta-

and enlargement were

largely effected

by the influence
as

of Analogy, so that his newly coined words seemed

purely

Roman

as did the newly coined words of Plautus.^

Having a

perfect

command

of this noble instrument of

speech, he could travel from country to country, and meet


the distinguished

men

of every centre of learning without


to

considering whether their native tongue happened

be

French or English or Dutch or German or


adapted
to every condition or state of

Italian.

Latin,

life,

rich for the

eloquence of the orator, easy and playful for the genial


converse of social
life,

majestic and sonorous for the stately

ceremonies of religion,
in
this

here was the lingua

linguarum

Golden Age of scholarship and


personality of

letters.

The

Erasmus was

so delightful that in

every country, in every town, and especially in every abode


of learning, he was welcomed as a friend and almost as a

monarch.

Indeed, more than one king urged

him to

attach

himself to the royal court, and by his mere presence give


to
it

an additional

lustre.

But Erasmus cared


sympathetic

little

for

courts.

He
men

preferred

the

companionship
taught Greek at

of such

as William Grocyn,

who

first

Oxford, of the great Chancellor of England, Sir

Thomas
upon

More, and of Archbishop Warham, who

settled

him a

liberal

income for
'

life.

He was

one of the group

See supra, pp. 143-147.

294

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

of cultivated

men who

gathered
at Basel;

around

the

famous
manner,

publisher,

John Froben,

and

in like

he was an intimate friend of the Venetian publisher, Aldus


Manutius, and knew well
all

the

members

of the circle

associated with the Aldine Press.'

His writings
criticised

fall

under several heads.

At

first,

he

some

of the abuses which

had sprung up

in the

Catholic Church, and he


in philosophy.

made fun

of the scholastic of his

method
to

The

drift of

many

works

is

show
spirit
life-

that forms are of


of genuine piety
is

little value in religion,

while the

everything.
is

A seconds phase of

the

work of Erasmus
Aristotle

foimd

in his editions of the

works of

and Demosthenes, with

translations, in part, of

Euripides,

Lucian, and the Moralia of

Plutarch.

Of

Latin authors, not including the Patristic writers, he edited

Terence and parts of Cicero and Livy.

More important

than these achievements, and in fact quite epoch-making,

was

his critical revision of the

New

Testament.

We have
had been
to the

already seen that such a stupendous undertaking

suggested by Lorenzo Valla, in his Annotations


Testament.^

New

Erasmus,

in a preface to this

work

of Valla's,

pointed out the obvious fact that no correct translation of


the Bible could be

made

except by a trained linguist, and

' '

See supra, p. 286.

Supra, pp. 241, 281-2.

This tractate by Valla seems to have been


It represents the starting-point

recovered

by Erasmus

in the year 1505.

in Biblical criticism

and

exegesis.

EEASMXrS

29s

that the original Greek manuscripts ought to be carefully


revised

and compared.

Evidently, he began at once to

equip himself for such an undertaking; for in 151 2


years later

seven
manu-

he writes
St.

to the

Englishman, John Colet, the

founder of

Paul's School, and says that he has already the ancient Greek
it

collated the
scripts,

New Testament with

and that he has annotated

in

more than a thou-

sand places.

The work, when


of Froben in Basel.
in its

completed, was published at the press


It is

very easy to criticise

it

now, and

own

time

it

was

criticised chiefly

because Erasmus

never attained the sure knowledge of Greek that some of


his contemporaries

possessed.^

He

himself
for

once said:

"

My

Greek studies are almost too much

my

courage,

while I have not the means of securing books or the help


of a master."

He

also

wrote that " without Greek the


is

amplest erudition in Latin

imperfect."

This, of course,
into

was

in his early years.

Long afterward he rendered

Latin the Greek grammar of Theodorus Gaza, while his

Greek
to

texts

mark

the climax of his learning.^


in

It is also

be noted that

1528 he published a dialogue called


style, protesting

Ciceronianus, in which he discussed Latin


against limiting
'

modem

Latin

to

a pedantic imitation of

For instance, Guillaume Bud6 (Gulielmus Budasus), the French

philologist,

who was a

distinguished Grecian,

much

superior to Erasmus.

See his Life by E. de Budfi (Paris, 1884).


2

Such as

his translations

and editions already mentioned, besides


Greek Fathers.

his

critical

works on some

of the

'

296
the

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


vocabulary and phraseology of Cicero.'

This was

interesting as marking the coming break between the


Italian School of Latinity,

which was

strictly Ciceronian,

and the other schools which were presently


Northern countries.
treatise

to arise in

In the same year he also wrote his

on the correct pronunciation of Latin and Greek.^


to

With regard

Greek, he established a pronunciation which


all

has been practically adopted in


of

the Northern countries


is

Europe and

in the

United States, and which

known

after

him

as " the

Erasmian Pronunciation."

Somewhat

later another method, called " the Reuchlinian Method,"

was proposed,' and was known


of the vowels, in the
7),

for

its

"lotacism" because
have the sound
of
i

t,

v, ei,

and

vi, all

word machine.

It

might have been argued

that,

since

Greek remains a
it

living language, scholars ought to


it

pronounce
but

as the

Greeks of that day pronounced

many changes had

crept in since the classical period,

so that the pronunciation of to differ

educated Greeks was known

very largely from the ancient pronunciation.

Hence, as a
to the

common

standard, most countries have held

Erasmian method.
to

As

the
it

pronunciation of Latin in

the time of

Erasmus,
>

was

largely that of the Italians, a fact

made
98-108.

Infra, p. 303.

'
'

W. G. Clark in the (English) Journal of Philology, By Johann Reuchlin (loannes Capnio), an admirable
See

i.

Grecian, and

also

an erudite Hebrew

scholar,

who

lived in the time of Erasmus,

and

was regarded as second

in learning only to him.

; ;

ERASMUS

297

evident by Erasmus himself in his use of one pronunciation in whatever country he might be,

and before what-

ever universities he might lecture.


all

Scholars retained for


it,

practical purposes

the most essential features of


all

because, coming from

the countries of

Europe and

fraternising everywhere, this intercourse tended to maintain a general tradition


for

which was not seriously disturbed

some time

after.*

Erasmus, though easy-going and fond of


nevertheless accomplished an

social pleasure,

amount
gathers

of
it

serious

work

which
views
it

is

prodigious

when one

together and

as a whole.
to

Concerning his semi-theological works


speak ; and yet they give a very char-

this is

no place

acteristic picture of his

mental attitude toward


life.

life,

and*

toward

all

things that have to do with

In the early

part of his career he wrote books which, with keen wit,


satirised the failings of the clergy.

Such were

his

Adagia

(1508), his

Encomium Morice,

or Praise of Folly (1509), and


(1524),^

especially his

famous Co//ogMio, or dialogues


satire,

which

aboimd

in

lively

and

flashes

of inimitable wit.

'

See Erasmus,
;

De

Recta Latini Gracique Sermonis Pronunciatione

(Basel, 1S28)
Blass,

Zacher, Die Aussprache des Griechischen (Leipzig, 1888)


trans.

The Pronunciation of Ancient Greek, Eng.


XJeber

(Cambridge, 1890)

and Corssen,
'

Aussprache

etc.

der Lateinischen Sprache (Berlin, 1870).


(a) theological
;

His writings

may
and

be classed as
(e)

(i)

satirical

(c)

educational;

(d) philological;
(g)

critical;

(/) literary;

as in his very

numerous

letters,

expository in such lectures and discourses

as he chose to give in a delightfully unconventional way.

298

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

But when Martin Luther broke with the Church, and


declared his independence of the Papacy,

Erasmus could
it

not follow him.

His tranquil good sense, while

ad-

mitted that certain abuses were temporarily to be seen,

had no sympathy with Luther, but believed that

all

these

wrongs would right themselves through the wisdom of


the

Church

itself.

Therefore, he refused to break with

the splendid traditions of

papal Rome, and he died a

Catholic, although not greatly heeding external forms in


his religion.

This fact deserves mention here because


truly

it

shows how
manist

and unfeignedly Erasmus was a huwas Horace


in the

as

truly as

Augustan Age

at

Rome.
poet

His motto might well have been that of the genial


praised the Golden

who

Mean, and who declared:

"Est modus

in rebus, sunt certi denique fines,

Quos ultraque citraque nequit

consistere rectum."

Professor Emerton does not admit that


genius; yet
plished

Erasmus was a

who but a

very great genius could have accom-

what was accomplished by Erasmus?

Who,

at

that particular

moment, could have been

so absolutely the

Man of his Time ? He exercised, by his peculiarly winning


personality,

an influence which was


letters,

felt all

over Europe.

He was

a king of

man

of extraordinary reading,

of a sane and yet brilliant


in a score of

and

original mind, a contributor

ways

to the progress of learning

and the uni-

fication of classical philology.

All his influence

was

for

ERASMUS
good.

299
his character,

There was no blot upon

and

his

aspirations were always noble.

He had no

personal pride

as to his

the

own accomplishments; he was " a friend of all world." The work which he performed in all these
ways was a
serious one,

different

and

it

was

seriously

expressed by Erasmus in two sentences that were penned

by him

in the year before his death:

to inspire
it

"I used my

best endeavours to free the rising genera-

tion from the depths of ignorance,

and

with

a thirst for better studies.

I wrote, not for Italy, but for


^

Germany and

the Netherlands."

Important Editiones Prdicipes of the Fifteenth Century

I.

Greek
Theocritus {Id. i.-xvm.), together with Hesiod, Works

1481.

and Days.
1488.

Homer
Iliad

(ed.

Chalcondylas).

Valla's Latin trans, of the

1495.

was printed as early as 1474. Hesiod, Opera omnia (Aldus).

1495-98. Aristotle (Aldus).

Erasmus, Opera,

the studies of his character and work

Erasmi Epistola,
Jebb, Erasmus

See the lives of Erasmus and by De Laur (Paris, 1872) Nisard, (1484-1514), edited by P. S. Allen (Oxford, 1906);
ix,

1440 (Basel, 1540).

(London, 1890)

Froude, Erasmus
;

(London, 1894)

Pennington, Erasmus (London, Emerton, Erasmus (Cambridge, 1899) Woodigoi). See also Nichols, The Epistles of Erasmus (1901-1904)
;

ward, Erasmus on Education, (New York, 1904)


Italie (Paris, 1888)
;

De

Nolhac, Erasme en

and Sandys,

Lectures on the Revival of Learning,

pp. 162-167, and pp. 177-178 (Cambridge, 1905).

300
1496.

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


Euripides,

Med.,

Hypp.,

Ale.,

Androm.

(Lascaris),

Apollonius (Lascaris), Lucian (in Florence).


1498. 1499.
II.

Aristophanes

(excl.

Lys.

and Thesm.).
ap.

Aratus {In Astronomi

vett.

Aldum).

Latin.
Cicero,

1465.

De

Officiis.

First printed edition of a classical

author.

Cf.

art.

" Typography " in Encycl.

Brit.

Lactantius (Rome).
1469. 1470.
Cfesar, Vergil, Livy,

Lucan, Apuleius, GeUius (Rome).


(Rome).

Persius, Juvenal, Martial, QuintiUan, Suetonius

Tacitus, Juvenal, SaUust, Horace


(Strassburg).

(Venice), Terence

1471. 1472.

Ovid (Rome, Bonn), Nepos (Venice).


Plautus
(G.

Merula),

Catullus,

Tibullus,'

Propertius

Statius (Venice).

1473. 1474.

Lucretius (Brixiae).
Valerius Flaccus (Bonn).

1475.

Seneca (Prose Works), SaUust


octavo).

(first

volume issued

in

1484.
1485. 1498.
'

Seneca (Tragedies) at Ferrara.


Pliny the Younger (Venice).
Cicero, Opera Omnia.^
Schiick,

See Brunet, Manuel de Libraire, 8 vols. (Paris, 1880)


seine Zeitgenossen (Berlin, 1862)
(Paris, 1875).
;

Aldus

Manutius und
pp.
Ixviii

Didot, Aide Manuce,

and 647

rx

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


of

The task Nor&em


made

of

Erasmus had been the binding together

energy and Southern culture.

He had

prac-

tically

the whole world of Western Europe one in

everything which pertained to scholarship.

Learned men

came and went with


court, needing

perfect freedom from country to

country, from monastery to monastery, and from court to

no passport, save the cachet of a


this

liberal

education.

But

age of enlightenment was to last only


lived, the so-called

for a short time.

Even while Erasmus


burst forth

Protestant

Reformation
all

in

Germany, and
camps.

soon divided
ever

of

Europe

into hostile

What-

may be
which

one's religious belief, he can but regret the


this

effect

religious

antagonism had
scholarship.

upon the
It divided It

immediate future of

classical

countries according to the dogmas of their princes.

put a sudden and grievous end


humanists.
It

to the genial intercourse of

made

the great universities appear like

hostile fortresses,

from which the inmates no longer sent


for the benefit of every land alike

forth

works of learning

but rather missiles

in the

shape of angry tracts or ponderous

tomes that wasted learning and altered the mellow geniality


301

302
of

HISTORY or CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


vile

Humanism into yelpings and vituperation, scattering


all

language

over Europe.

Thus, the Universities of


in

Oxford and

Cambridge

England, of Leyden and

Utrecht in Holland, of Marburg, Konigsberg, and Jena


in

Germany, thundered out


side,

their theological fulminations

on the Protestant

while

from Wiirzburg, Gratz,


learned
treatises

Innsbruck, Paris, and Louvain,

were

mingled with the most scurrilous abuse of Protestant


scholars

who had

written on the

same

subject.*
alto-

Nevertheless,

the

odium (heologicum could not

gether eliminate the love of what had belonged to the


earlier epoch.

Luther might rage

in

Germany; and

the

papal sword might flash in Italy;

while Holland and

England drew together

in

a political and scholarly union,


Catholic as yet, but liberally

and France went


so.

its

own way,
in

The

difference lay in the fact that scholarship took


different countries.
it

on

different forms

The

learned

world was not united as

had been

in the

days of Erasmus.

Young Englishmen had formerly


to

visited Italy

and Paris

pursue their studies; but

now

they went to Leyden or

to Utrecht.

The German

student, according to his faith,

went

to

a school or university where that faith was taught.


studied at one or another of the

The young Frenchman


universities that

were Catholic.

Thus,

classical scholar-

ship in

Europe became national rather than


its

universal.

As
'

for Italy,

scholars

had remained true

to the early

See Nisard, Les Gladiateurs de la R&puUique de Leltres (Paris, 1889).

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM

303

Renaissance, so that the Italian School remained Cicero-

nian

to

the

last degree,

following

closely the precepts

of Lorenzo Valla.

Its

Latin was wholly that of Cicero.

Not a word, nor a

phrase, nor a line

was

tolerated, save

when

it

could be shown absolutely to have the purity of

diction
orator.
to

and the rhythmic cadence of the great


It is extraordinary to learn

Roman
Pietro

what pains were taken

secure this perfect imitation.

Thus Cardinal

Bembo was

probably the most perfect imitator of Cicero

that ever lived.^

His Latin in every shade, in every note, master and

in every inflection, recalls the Latin of his

model.

It

is

related that

he would not speak Latin with

any casual
perfection
different

scholar, lest

by doing so he should mar the


Latinity.

of

his

own

Herein he was very


style

from Erasmus, whose colloquial

had been

syntactically correct, while yet allowing his


to

own personality
said.

appear

in everything that

he wrote and

This

individual touch of his gave popularity to

all his writings.

He had
could

special characteristic, of his


in
all

own,

so

that one
wit,

feel

that

was Erasmian the pungent

the sympathetic mood, and the geniality of the


self.

man

him-

But Bembo and

his

fellow

Cardinal,

Sadoleto,^

the most distinguished representatives of the Italian School,

wasted themselves on

style alone.

What

they wrote and

spoke was delightfully conceived

in the Ciceronian

manner,

1470-1547- See Symonds, The Renaissance in Italy,

ii.

pp. 409-415.

1477-1547. See Joly, Etude sur Sadolet (Caen, 1857).

304
but
it

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

had no

force,

no personal power to attract the

listener.

One
and

felt

that the writer or speaker

was

too self-conscious,

too

much

afraid of

making a

slight slip here or there.


literature,

Hence the
contenting

Italian School
itself

remained a school of

with the authors of the Golden Age,

whom

they read and reread and annotated from a strictly


It

literary point of view.

was a school of

style

style

always, and, therefore, style that degenerated into puerility.

As
West

classical learning penetrated the countries

North and
It,

of Italy,

it

took on a more independent form.

likewise,

began

to

show a touch of the

critical element,

and

also a desire to provide

both instruments and aids for


although

scholarly activity.
laries

Thus,

in Italy,

many

vocabu-

and

glossaries

were produced, they were scattered


others.
first
it

and fragmentary, and each represented half a dozen


It

was

in 1483, that

loannes Crastenus printed the

Greek-Latin vocabulary, which increased in


passed through several editions.

size as

In 1497 a

much more
by

complete work of the same character was issued from


the Aldine Press,

and

this

was

speedily followed

lexi-

cons bearing the


Gessner,

name
Bud6

of Calepinus,
others.

Bud6

(Budseus),
is

Constantine, and

Most important
Basel, 1530).

the dictionary of

(Paris,

1529;

It

was

re-edited

and much enlarged by Robert Etienne,


This dictionary
is

(Paris, 1548).

the

first to

have been

published after the Renaissance.


in its explanation of legal terms.

It is particularly exact

Robert Etienne,

or, as

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


he called himself, Robertus Stephanus (absurdly
the English, " Robert Stephens"),

305
styled

by

was

at once a printer
or, as

and a man of learning and


;

his son,

Henri Etienne,

he called himself, Henricus Stephanus,^ were two very


important figures in the history of classical studies in
France.

The

father issued carefully collated editions of

Horace, Dionysius

Halicarnassensis, and

Dio Cassius.
dicin

But

his

most important production was his Latin

tionary (Thesaurus

Lingua Latina), which appeared


It

parts during the years 1531-1536.


original work, being based

was not an

entirely

upon the vocabulary was known

of Bud^,

yet for a long time no better lexicon

to

Europe.
is

Henri Etienne, in 1572, published a work that


remarkable.
It

most

was a Greek
Greecce)
.

lexicon

in

five

volumes

(Thesaurus Linguce

It defined to

more than 100,000


It

Greek words with references

authorities.

was a

compilation of remarkable industry and scholarship, and

was many times


1856
the
foil.).

re-edited
this day,

it

last of all

by Dindorf

(Paris,

To

remains unrivalled as being


to the world.

most complete lexicon of Greek known


brilliant

France was now the mother of a


ars,

group of schol-

or at least the centre to which they flocked.


I,

The

College de France, established by Francis

gave shelter
constituting
1869)
;

and recognition
*

to

many very remarkable men,


2 vols. (Paris,
;

See Eggef, L'Hellemsme en France,


foil.
;

id.

pp.

198
la

Pattison, Essays,

i.

62-124 (Oxford, 1889)

Feugere, Essai sur


;

Vie

et les

Ouvrages de Henri Etienne (Paris, 1853)

Pokel,

i.ji.;

and

Lefranc, Histoire du College de France (Paris, 1893).

306

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


called the

what may be roughly


Philology.

French School
its

of Classical

This school was noted for

acute criticism

and

its

wide range of encyclopaedic knowledge.

With

the

Etiennes must be reckoned the memorable names of Adrien

Tumebe (Hadrianus
Greek scholar
of

Turnebus),i
time;

who was

the

greatest

his

Denis Lambin (Dionysius

Lambinus) ^ Director also of the Royal Printing Establishment; Marc Antoine Muret (Marcus Antonius Muretus),'

one of the greatest


Fresne, sieur du
saries are
still

stylists

of

any period;

Charles du

Cange/ a writer on
in

Low Latin, whose glosre-

vogue, and have been many times

edited; Bernard de Montfaucon,* the founder of scientific

Palasography; and greatest of


bonus),6

all,

Isaac Casaubon (Casau-

whose prodigious learning was surpassed by only


of his

one
'

man

own

time or for centuries


cit.,

after.

1512-1565.

See Pokel, op.

s.v.;

and Clement, De Adriani

Turnenbi Praefationibus,
^

p. 7 (Paris, 1899).

1520-1572.

See Mattaire, Historia Typographorum Aliquot ParisiOre\]i, OnomasHcon Ciceronis, and the preface to Munro's

ensium (London, 1717); the appendix to


i.

pp. 478-491

(Zurich,

1861),

3d

ed.

Lucretius, pp. 14-16.


'

1526-1585.

His orations and a part

of his other

works are printed


;

Teubner
i.

edition, ed.

by Frey

(Leipzig, 188 7-1 888)

Pattison, Essays,

124-132, last ed. (Oxford, 1889);


1610-1688.

and Dejob, Marc Antoine Muret


et

(Paris, 1861).
'

See Hardouin, Essai sur la Vie

les

Ouvrages de du

Cange
'

(Paris, r849).

1655-1741.

See de Broglie,

La SociUe
of Isaac

de I'Ahbaye de Saint-Ger-

main,

2 vols. (Paris, i8gi).

"'1559-1614.

The standard

life

Casaubon must apparently


Nettleship, 2d ed. (Oxford,

always remain that of


1892).

Mark

Pattison, ed.

by

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


Turnebus was the most celebrated Grecian of

307
this period,

and

his

mind was

intensely critical.

Beside editing several

Greek and Roman authors, he wrote commentaries on


Varro de Lingua Latina, and on Horace.
thirty

He

likewise left
critical

books of Adversaria, consisting of notes and

comments, many of which were brilliant and of great value.

Lambinus

is

to

be remembered as having

first

made

the

text of Lucretius fairly intelligible.

Before his time, whole

passages had been impossible to read.

But the

critical

mind

of

Lambinus threw

light

upon what had been dark,


to the

and by judicious emendation he gave


tion of the great Epicurean,

world an ediafter-

upon which Lachmann

ward based

his

epoch-making work.

Lambinus spent

eleven years in

Rome and

devoted himself to the collation

of manuscripts in the Vatican Library.

At the end of that

time (1561), he was called to Paris as Professor of Greek

and Latin, and employed


ety

his

profound learning with sobrinot only his editions of

and admirable

results, so that

Lucretius, but those also of Plautus, Cicero, and Horace

make

his

memory

a very special one in the minds of


of his contemporaries

classi-

cal scholars.

Few

had such vast

learning,

and few had such profound knowledgeof an au-

thor's style.

He

died of apoplexy, caused by the murders

of St. Bartholomew's night.


to

Modem

commentators owe

Lambinus much

of the material which they use without

giving credit to this splendid scholar of the French Renaissance.

3o8

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

His contemporary, Muretus, spent several years as his

companion

in

Rome, and became

well

known

for his

work

in editing various classical authors,


tullus, Tibullus, Propertius,

such as Terence, Ca-

and Seneca.

As a

critic

he

produced a volume of VaricB Lectiones, but he was most

renowned

for the purity of his Latin style.

At the age

of

eighteen he wrote Latin with great fluency and ease, and

afterwards in the University of Paris his orations in Latin

seemed as splendid as those of Cicero.


indeed in schools side by side with
of the eighteenth century,

They were

read

Cicero as late as the


editions

end

and various

were made

of them.

One

of the greatest of the Post- Renaissance scholars


,

was Isaac Casaubon (Casaubonus) who deserved the


which Varro bore of being
essentially a iroXutaTap.
:

title

One of

his contemporaries declared

men who

He is the most learned of all He was bom in Geneva, the son of a Huguenot minister, from whom he received all his instruclive to-day."

"

tion until

he reached the age of nineteen.

In these troubled
to save their

years the family often


lives

had

to flee

from home

from

their

armed opponents.

Pattison relates that,


first

while hiding in a cave, Isaac received his

lesson in
the

Greek.

At nineteen he was sent


of

to the

Academy (now

University)

Geneva, where he studied Greek under

Portus, a Cretan.

When

Portus died he recommended his

learned pupil as his successor, and thus at the age of twentythree he

became Professor

of Greek.

Four years

later

he

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


was

309

called to a like position in Montpellier, but there, as

at Geneva, he suffered from lack of a sufficient library.

Shortly afterward he went to Paris, owing to the influence


of

Henry IV.

His Calvinism prevented him from receiving

a professorship in the University, and instead he was made

Royal Librarian, a position which he held


of the King,

until the

murder

when he

felt his

position insecure; so that in

1610 he crossed the Channel to England, where James I

showed him great favour and made him prebendary


Canterbury Cathedral and Westminster.

of

In the great
erudite

abbey he

lies

buried.

Casaubon was immensely


classical

both in theological and in


theologian he wrote a work

scholarship.

As a
(1607), (16 14),

on ecclesiastical freedom Baronium

and
in

especially his Exercitationes Contra

which he sharply attacked the chronological work of

Cardinal Baronius.^

Casaubon was not

brilliant,

nor was he possessed of so

keen and searching a mind as that of his great contemporary Scaliger, but his tolerant
ing
spirit

and enormous readUntil he

made him famous throughout Europe.


who became Cardinal
a.d.

came

to Paris
'

he had been greatly hampered by the lack of books.


in

Caesar Baionius,

1596 and librarian of the

Vatican (1597), was the author of the work mentioned above, a chronology

from the birth of Christ to 1198


of labour,

It cost

him twenty-seven years

and has been added


errors,

to in

modem

times, even as recently as

1864.

Baronius was a clever and diverting writer, but Casaubon charged

him with many

owing to his ignorance of Greeic and Hebrew.

He

died in 1607, and, therefore, never lived to read the attack upon him

by Casaubon.

310

HISTORY or CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


at Montpellier there
to

At Geneva and
importance.

were no

libraries of

He was obliged
to

borrow necessary volumes


dis-

from other scholars


tances.

whose homes he walked great


his

These volumes he copied laboriously with


it is

own

hand, and

said that in the case of smaller books, he

memorised them.
his

Such

practices, while tiresome, fixed in

memory the
was

texts themselves

and made him exceedingly

exact in his learning.

Many

countries sought

him out

but

it

in

England that

his final

home was made.


and was

He
theothere

was welcomed

at all the universities,


I),

especially

agreeable to the King (James


logical discussion.

In

fact,

who was fond of on one occasion, when

was some

difficulty

about paying his pension, the King

wrote with his

own hand:

have Mr. Casaubon paid


of

" Chanceler of
before me,

my Excheker, I will my wife, and my bames."

It

was

also

by the personal intervention

King James

that Casaubon's library, which sent over to England.

had been stored in Paris, was

The

English people could hardly

understand such favour, and Casaubon became very unpopular.

He

could speak no English, and his scholarship was

not appreciated by the mob.


in

Consequently, he was always

danger of some ruffianly assault.

At night

his

windows

were broken, and by day his children were stoned in the


streets.

In France, of course, after he had definitely de-

cided not to return from England, he was equally disliked,

being regarded as a renegade

who had

sold his religious

'

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


belief for English gold.

31I

He

died in the year which wit-

nessed the publication of a great controversial work which


was, nevertheless, wholly unworthy of his powers.

Casaubon was a man

of encyclopaedic knowledge.

He

was

as familiar with out-of-the-way authors, such as those

of the Historia Augusta,

and Dionysius

of Halicamassus,

as with the better-known classics, such as Persius and Polybius.

During the four years of


little

his visit in England,

he

contributed

to Classical Philology.

In

fact, his

most

memorable books were those which antedate


Paris,

his stay in

and

at a time
It

when

his reading
to

was done under

so

great difficulty.
authors,
little

was given

him to take up a number of


as to leave

and

so thoroughly to

comment on them

for succeeding scholars in the

way

of exegesis.

Thus

he brought out an edition of the Characieres of Theophrastus


as early as 1592,
in 1598.*

and an extraordinarily complete Athenaeus

His exhaustive edition of Persius^ was called

by

Scaliger "divine"; while his Suetonius passed through

three editions in the course of a few years.


is

In his Polybius

a remarkable introduction on the subject of Greek

Historiography.

Less

full

and of

less lasting

value were

his annotations of other authors, but

he deserves great and


first to

enduring credit for having been the

study

Roman

' 2

Incorporated into Schweighauser's edition (1840). Published in 1603, and pillaged by every commentator since that

time.
'

Published in 1609.

312
satire,'

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

subject which was,

and has been

since, of

remarkable interest
Still

to all classicists.^

representing the French School of classical study,

we

have the remarkable lexicographer, Charles du Fresne,


sieur

du Cange, who did had done

for

Low

Latin what Valla in an Hold-

earlier century

for the Ciceronian tongue.

ing a lucrative office in Paris, this scholar gave himself up


for twenty years to unremitting industry, so that
it

has been
if

said that the

number

of his

books would be incredible


all

we had not
hand.
the two

the original manuscripts

written by his

own

To
of

enumerate them would here be impossible, but


especial mention.
it,

by which he is best known deserve them


is

The

first

a glossary, as he modestly called

to

the writers of Mediaeval

and Low Latin;

and a

like glos-

sary to the writers of Late Greek.^

Into these tomes he

gathered

all

the words that he could find in legal docutitles,

ments, charters, manuscripts, diplomas,


printed documents,
all

and many

written

in the

mixed language
for

which prevailed
afterward.

in the

Middle Ages and

some time

His sources were drawn from the archives

of Paris ; and, therefore, ponderous though they were, suc-

ceeding scholars have added to them almost in each decade,


until at present every issue is practically

an Antibarbarus.

From
'

his

pen came

also

an excellent edition of the Byzan-

tine Historians.

His Greek glossary was hardly so com-

* ' '

De Satyrica Grceca Poesi et Romanorum Satira (1605). The original was edited by Rambach (Halle, 1774).
Glossarium ad Scriplores Medice
et

Infimcs Latinitatis (1678).

Glossarium ad Scriptores

et

Infima Gracitalis (1688).

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


plete as his Latin one,

313
in the year
finally,

and

in fact

was published
;

of his death.

His son Hved only four years

and

the French Government, knowing


writings of

how

valuable were the

Du

Cange, collected the greater part of his

manuscripts, which are

now

contained in the Bibliothfeque

Nationale in Paris.^

Worthy

of recollection

was another Frenchman


nobleman by

of this
birth,

period, Bernard de Montfaucon, a

but forced through

ill

health to a

life

of seclusion

and study.

There are few


variety, since

incidents in his career which present

much
to

he passed successively from one abbey

another, examining and annotating their numerous


scripts.

manu-

From
His

1698 to 1701, he spent most of his time in


publication

Rome.

first
,

was a work

entitled Analecta

Graca (1688) never completely finished.

But he is best
folio

re-

membered
in

in Archaeology

by his work in ten

volumes,^

which drawings made by him


to the

of antique objects

and

monuments gave
new.
It

world something that was wholly

was one

of the

most

interesting contributions

made
'

to the study of Archasology;


cit.

and

his PalcBographia

See Hardouin, op.


is

The
et

last

the mediaeval Latin


'

that edited

and most complete Glossarium to hy Favre, 10 vols."'(Niort, 1884-1887).


This book was a
It

L'Antiquite Expliqule

Representee en Figures.

wonderful storehouse of antiquities.


scription in 1719,

was

first

brought out by subfirst

and

in less

than two months the

edition (18,000

volumes) was
in the

sold,

and a new

edition of 2500 volumes

was printed

same

year, with a supplementary edition of five

more volumes.

full list of his

contributions to Archeology will be found in the


s.v.

Nou-

velle

Biographie Ginirale,

314

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

GrcBca has never yet been superseded.


(1681), there

Somewhat

earlier

had appeared a work on

Palaeography,'

written

by Jean Mabillon, an inmate of the beautiful abbey

of Saint Germain,^ the earliest seat of the learned Benedictine

Order

in France.

The

validity of the abbey's charters

had been attacked, and Mabillon wrote the work just mentioned to

show how

false

documents could be distinguished


to

from genuine ones, and how

determine the date of a

manuscript by comparison with others.

The

difference
lies

between the work of Mabillon and that of Montfaucon


in the fact that the latter dealt

with Greek manuscripts

alone, of

which he gave a

list

of 11,630, whereas Mabillon

had dealt alone with Latin.

The
though

close of
it

what has been

called the

French Period,

shows us the colossal figure of Casaubon, has no


rival

one who can

him.

Nevertheless, a great cluster of ac-

complished scholars enter into the annals of the end of the


seventeenth century.
letters,

Such, for example,

is

the

man

of

Jean Bouhier (1673-1746), who cited the Petronian

fragment

De

Bella Civili, besides translating

it,

and con-

tributing to the PalcBographia of Montfaucon.

The most
the Cena

important consecutive portion of Petronius


Trimalchionis) was recovered at

{i.e.

Trau

(the

Roman

Tra-

gurium) in 1663 by the Frenchman Pierre Petit (Marinus


Statilius)
'

and published by him


Diplomaiica.

at Paris in 1664.'

There

De Re

'
'

See Vanel, Les Binididins de Saint-Maur (Paris, 1896).

See Introduction to Peck's Cena Trimalchionis, 2d ed.

(New York,

1908).

THE PERIOD or NATIONALISM


were editions of Horace by
parts of Demosthenes
Pfere

31
others, while

Sanadon and

and Cicero were translated by the

learned Father de Thoulie, also


finally edited the

known

as Olivetus,

who

whole of Cicero.

Classical Archseology

was

at this time further

promoted

by Bunduri,
ties of

who wrote a

prodigious

work on

the antiqui-

Constantinople; by Michel Fourmont,

who collected

many inscriptions and forged many others; by Burette, who


studied Greek Music and by Nicolas Fr^ret, whose attempts
;

in Ancient

Geography and History were


(d'Anville)
,

fairly accurate.

A Frenchman

who

lived four decades later than

Fr^ret, published seventy-eight geographical treatises

and

two hundred and eleven maps,

all

admirably executed.

group of French scholars collected Greek and


coins as well as ancient gems.

Roman
P.

Among

these collectors were

Charles Patin, J. F. F. Vaillant, J. Pellerin,


Marietta, the last reproducing a large
his

and
of

J.

number

gems

in

Pierres Gravees

(1752).

French nobleman, the

Comte de

Caylus,

who had

served in the army, went to the

East in disguise, visited Smyrna, Ephesus, and Colophon,


actually traversed
then, returning,

and examined the plain of Troy, and


carefully

studied

the

monuments

of

Constantinople.

He was

man
it

of great wealth,

and de-

voted more than two-thirds of


ties.

to his passion for antiquifilled to

His magnificent house he


art

overflowing with

works of ancient
also Etruscan

not only

Greek and Roman, but


interesting

and Egyptian.

Whatever was

3l6

HISTORY OP CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


to

and beautiful he endeavoured

add

to his collections.

Two
by P.

sumptuous works of

his are the seven

volumes which

make up

his Recueil d'Antiquites,

and the reproduction


be made of the mural

S. Bartoli

which he caused

to

paintings found in the sepulchre of the Nasones.^

The

greatest masters of the

French school had ceased


Casau-

with Montfaucon, or even earlier with Casaubon.


bon's final years in England seem to identify
different type of scholar.
ries,

him with a

In

fact,

among

his contempora-

a number were in

many ways different from the learned


style

yet brilliant

Frenchman whose
its

was almost

that of

the Italians in

purity,

and whose criticism and comment

were puissant and profound.


full of intellectual life,

The Netherlands,

small, but

produced a cluster of learned men,

unrivalled in the history of the

modem
by

world.

Of

course,

Erasmus had
lander
;

led the way, since

birth

he was a Nether-

but he belonged to no country and to no school.


essentially a cosmopolitan, at

In his

own time he was


we have
it

home

alike in Italy, in
It

England, in Germany, and in France.


said, the so-called Protestant

was, as

Reformato

tion that

made

quite impossible for another

Erasmus

exist until several centuries

had passed.

Between 1540,

however, and 1650, the universities of Holland,^ had bred


or had called to their chairs

some

of the

most remarkable

' '

Peintures Antiques (1757).

The

in i6io;

University of Leyden was founded in iS7S; and that of Utrecht in 1636.

that of Louvain

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


classicists that the

317
include

world had ever seen.

We may

among

these Casaubon, though he studied at Oxford and

spent his declining years in England, and with him

we must
Joseph

group the famous Joest Lips


Lipsius,'

better known

as Justus

and

finally the greatest scholar of all time,

Justus

Scaliger.''

These three men towered above

all their

contemporaries,

who

called

them The Triumvirate.^

The

rather uneventful story of Casaubon has been already told.

The

life

of Justus Lipsius

was

fairly tranquil.

But round

Scaliger, the greatest of the three, there raged a conflict

of wit

and

learning,

which ultimately caused his death,


illustration of

and which gives us an

how

the division of

Catholic and Protestant, both of them extremely militant,

was

inimical to learning.

Lipsius was educated in a Jesuit College, and had been


at the Catholic University of Louvain.

This, perhaps, is the

reason

why

of the three great contemporaries, he alone


of the Church.

died in the

communion
and

His

life

was

that

of a wanderer.

He roamed

through Burgundy, Germany,

Austria, Bohemia,

Italy.

Though

Pattison speaks of

him as " a narrow pedant," he must have had something


of the personal

charm

of Erasmus, for he

made

friends

among

the scholars

whom

he met.

His

first

published

work was a volume


cated to Cardinal
'

of critical miscellanies, which he dedi-

Granvella,

who

secured for

him an

'

' 1540-1609. 1547-1606. See Nisard, Le Triumvirat LitUraire au XVI"^' Sihcle. (Paris, no

date).

3l8

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


visit to

appointment as Latin secretary and a

Rome, where

he remained two years, studying carefully the monuments

and

inscriptions,

and

especially

examining the manuscripts

in the Vatican.

second volume of VaricB Lectiones

(1575), after his return

from Rome, showed a decided

advance

in critical ability.

He no

longer leaned on conto

jectural emendation,

but preferred

emend by

the com-

parison (collation) of manuscripts, and he had learned to


distinguish between

what palaeographers

call

"good manu-

scripts," and " bad manuscripts."

His intercourse with

scholars

was

as varied as that of Erasmus, but his theologi-

cal difi&culties
in the

were far greater.

Thus, for a year, he taught

Lutheran University at Jena.


at Cologne,

Soon afterwards we
Presently he

find

him

which was Catholic.

returned to Louvain, whence he retired to Antwerp, where

he received (1579) a
sity of

call to the

newly established UniverIn his eleven years he passed his time in

Leyden

as a professor of history.

at

Leyden

(the Protestant University)

classroom drudgery, and yet he found time to produce his

two great masterpieces,

his
This

edition of

Seneca (1605)
a superb monusort of growth,

and

of Tacitus (1574).
to his genius. It

last

work

is

ment

was published by a
it

from one edition

to another, until

became

the most re-

markable commentary on that dif&cult author.

Lipsius

had studied him

so

continually and with such intensity

that he could repeat the whole of everything that Tacitus

had

written;

and

if

any one doubted

this,

he would say:

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


" Put your sword to

319
through
if

my

throat and thrust

me

make a mistake

in

a single word."

His books were largely

published by the famous press of Plantin at Antwerp, and


there his completed opera were set
(1637).
tions,

up

in four

volumes

In

all,

he prepared forty-eight separate publica-

but most of them were of a controversial character,


relation to scholarship.'

and had no

After his long stay at

Leyden, he returned
ceived,

to Catholic intimacies,

and was

re-

by the

Jesuits especially, with

open arms.

Courts
invi-

and

universities in Italy, Austria,

and Spain poured

tations

upon him; but at

last

he

settled at

Louvain, where
to

he was made Professor of Latin without being expected


teach,

and having

also the to the

appointments of privy councillor

and historiographer

King

of Spain.

From Louvain

he sent out many clever and amusing pamphlets, writing

them

at the request of the Jesuit Fathers.

He was

indeed

the scholarly champion of the Catholics, as Scaliger and

Casaubon were the champions

of the Protestants.

But

Lipsius had a genial mind, and he seldom sought to wound.

He

even maintained a friendly personal intercourse with

Protestant scholars of distinction, and with him great learning blotted out religious acrimony.

He

died at Louvain,

leaving his Greek books and manuscripts to the college


there.

Lipsius had a profound

knowledge of

Roman

antiquities,
'

but a very

slight

acquaintance with Greek.

Besides his Tacitus and Seneca, he edited Velleius Faterculus, and

Valerius Maximus.

320

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


in Latin

Even

he had no ear

for metres,

and very

little

true

appreciation of poetical phrasing.

Yet no

man

ever so

completely

knew

the

Roman
to

historians, especially Tacitus,

whose pages he had begun

read as a boy, and


last

whom he

kept studying and revising until the very


life.*

year of his

Great, however, as Lipsius was, there towers above


in the history of learning the

him

wonderful figure of Joseph

Justus Scaliger,^ a contemporary of Lipsius, and described

by Pattison as " the most


spent
itself in

richly stored intellect

which ever

acquiring knowledge."

Scaliger

was bom of

a father so remarkable as to
his son could surpass him.
ger.'

make

it

surprising that even


Scali-

This was Julius Caesar

An eminent scholar has said that none of the ancients

could be ranked above him, while the age in which he lived


could not show his equal.
illustrious Italian

He
La

claimed to be one of the

house of

Scala,

and

to

have been

bom

at their princely castle

on the Lago de Garda.

At twelve

he was presented

to the

Emperor Maximilian, and became

one of his pages, frequently showing himself a miracle of


personal bravery.

He was

also given to arts

and

letters,

studying under Albrecht Diirer.


1

In 151 2 he fought at the

The only complete

life

of Lipsius

was written by Le Mire (Antwerp,


Justi Lipsi Vita
et

1607).

See, however, Reiffenberg,

De

Scriptis
in L.

Com-

meniarius (Brussels, 1823), and the pages referring to

him

MuUer's
1869),

Geschichfe der Klassichen Philologie in den Niederlanden (Leipzig,

a work which

is

commended

to students of the Dutch-English period.

1540-1609.

1484-1588.

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


battle of

321

Ravenna, where

his father

and elder brother were

slain beside

him; but there he performed such incredible

deeds of valour that the Emperor conferred upon him personally the highest tokens of chivalry,
collar,

the

spurs, the

and the golden


he

eagle.

Receiving no more sub-

stantial rewards,

left

the military service and

became
else-

a student at the University of Bologna.

There and

where he studied as vigorously as he had fought, dividing


his time

between medicine, natural history, and the classics.

This autobiographical account would be of comparatively little interest

had not the

truth or falsehood of
life

it

played so important a part in the later


son, and, in fact, plunged

of his illustrious

him from

the heights of glorious

distinction to the depths of humiliation.


Scaliger, however,

As

to the elder

he was undoubtedly a

man

of unusual

powers, whether he were descended from the family of

La

Scala (Fr. de I'Escale), or whether, as his enemies in after


years declared, he was the son of an obscure teacher at

Verona.

This much

may be

said

during his life-time no

one questioned

his noble ancestry, while

many undoubted
was a brill-

facts verify his narrative.

Certain

it is

that he

iant classicist
in such a

and spent the


that

last thirty-two years of his life

way

on

his death (1558)


essentially

no

scholar's repu-

tation equalled his.

He was

one of the French

school with an Italian colouring, and the last part of his


life

was spent

in

France at Agen, where he

fell

violently

in love with a beautiful

young orphan of

thirteen.

Her

322

msTOEY or classical philology

friends objected to her marriage with a person


called a

whom

they

mere adventurer; but he attacked her with as much

success as he

had stormed
sixteen.

fortresses,

and

finally

married
to

her

when she was

The marriage proved

be a

very happy one;

and

it

endured

until his death, twenty-

nine years

later, signalised in

those years by the birth of

fifteen children.

In 1531,

this J. C. Scaliger

published an

oration against

Erasmus
It

in

answer

to that great scholar's

Ciceronianus.

was astonishing

in its vigour

and com-

mand

of every shade

of Latin, ranging from brilliant rhetoit

ric to foul

abuse.

Erasmus, however, treated

with

silent

contempt, which caused Scaliger to write another oration


of the
still

same

sort,

and a number of Latin

verses,

which were

less successful.

From

his

pen came

also a treatise
scientific

on comic metres, and the


grammar.
filled

first

known

Latin

After his death there appeared his Poetica,

with

many paradoxes and


writers

boasts that nevertheless

were mingled with much acute

criticism.^

Modem

who

estimate his genius regard

him

rather as a philosopher and


of the classics.

man of science than as a student


Hence
his

His early training as a physician made him


physics

care

more
of

for

than for literature.

writings
subjects

enduring worth are monographs on


to

many

relating

the

physical

sciences.

Although

Daude speaks

of his intellect as " teeming with heroic

thought," he was not an investigator nor one


'

who arrived

See Spingam, op.

cit.,

pp. 150-152, 176.

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


at

323

new

truths.

He

clung to Aristotle and to Galen, and


the
theories of

rejected

with

arrogance

Copernicus.

Nevertheless, his philosophical Exercitationes on


(1557)

Cardan

passed through

many

editions,

and was a popu-

lar text-book as late as the

middle of the seventeenth

century.
Sir

Even

in

our

own

times,

men

like Leibnitz

and

William Hamilton have called the elder Scaliger the

best

modem

exponent of the physics and metaphysics

of Aristotle.^

His gifted son, Joseph Justus

Scaliger,^

has come to be

recognised as the greatest scholar of the

modem
and

world.
it

He was
to

the tenth child of the elder Scaliger;

was

fortunate that an outbreak of the plague compelled

him
his

remain at home for a few years, and


companion.

to

become

father's continual

This companionship was


instruction in

worth far more

to

him than

any

school.

man of the world and an acute made young Scaliger much more than a mere
Association with a
It

observer
scholar.

gave

to his

mind

the breadth and also the accuracy,


It

both of which

a true scholar should possess.

was the

chief pleasure of the elder Scaliger in his later years to

write Latin verse;


eighty to

and daily he dictated


lines.

to his

son from
also

more than a hundred


to write

The boy was


and

compelled each day

a Latin theme or declamation.


age,
after the

Thus, when he was eighteen years of


1
2

See Magen, Documents sur J. C. Scaliger


1540-1609.

et

sa Famille (Paris 1880).

324

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

death of his father, he went to Paris, and spent four years


at the University.
esting.

His scholastic

life

there

was very

inter-

Hitherto he had

known

only Latin and had given

no study to Greek.

But

at this time the

French schools
of

and

universities

were throbbing with the early glow

Hellenism,' and the great French scholars were almost


entirely bent

on Hellenic

studies.

This was a surprise


early youth to Latin;
to feel that

to Scaliger.

He had

devoted his

and now, of a sudden, he was made

ignorance of Greek was ignorance of every-

thing.

Therefore, he enrolled himself under the cele-

brated Grecian,

Tumebus (Tumebe), and


little

attended his

lectures for several months.

But presently he found out


Greek
in this

that he could learn but

way.

He

could

not rush into the lecture-room of a great scholar and understand the lectures that were given there.
self

He must

him-

do much

preliminary

work.

Therefore,

he shut

himself up in his rooms, and resolved on teaching himself.

He

read

all

Homer

in

twenty-one days (presumably both


all

the Iliad and Odyssey) and then devoured

the other

Greek

poets, orators,

and

historians.

As he

proceeded,

he formed a grammar for himself, noting the paradigms,

and reducing the words


to find this

to their

proper order.

easy.

Before listening to

He seemed Tumebus again,

he essayed

to teach himself

both Arabic and Hebrew, and

acquired a very fair knowledge of both, though nothing


'

Egger, op.

cit.,

passim.

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


like

325

a critical mastery.

There was another teacher of


the official
title,

Greek, named Dorat,i


Royal."

who had

title

of " Poet

He

certainly justified this

in a

way, for he

published more than 50,000 Greek and Latin verses, of

which 15,000 are preserved.

He had no

great profundity

as a scholar, yet he was most admirable as a teacher;

while

Tumebus

could only lecture and not teach.

The

name

of Doratus stood very high,

and he was fortunate

in his pupils,

among whom was

Scaliger and also Ronsard.

The gratitude of those who


ship.

studied under

him poured

itself

out in their ascription to him of a high quality of scholar-

Even

Scaliger

who

could

commend him
The

only mildly
styles

for his poetry, speaks with enthusiasm

when he

him GrcBca
Doratus
those
is

lingua

peritissimus.

influence

of

seen in the Greek spirit of Ronsard, found in


of his

poems

which

recall the loftiness of

^schylus.^

In ^schylus, the studies of Doratus were very fruitful, since he combined learning and
years, preferred
writer.
taste, so that

Hermann,

in after

him

to

any other

critics of the

great tragic

Upon
of

the recommendation of Doratus, Scaliger

became

a sort of travelling companion and tutor to a young lord

La Roche Pozay, named Louis de Chastaigner. The two young men were very sympathetic and set out upon a
'

Jean d'Aurat.

His pupUs named him by the Latinised form, DoRonsard

ratus.
'

See Chalandon, Essai


et

sur

(Paris,

1875)

a^nd

Fieri,

Pitrarque

Ronsard (Marseilles, 1895).

326

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


is

course of travel which was chronicled by Scaliger and

extremely interesting.
shifty

At Rome they found the

rather

but intensely clever Muretus, of

whom

Scaliger said

with something of a sigh:


tuses in the world.
If

" There are not

many Mure-

he only believed in the existence


it,

of God, as well as he can talk about


excellent Christian."

he would be an

After traversing Italy they went


Scaliger's letters
little

north

to

England and Scodand, one of

being dated at Edinburgh.


English.

Scaliger cared

for the

He

despised their "

inhuman

disposition " and


to foreigners.

the narrowness which


It disappointed
scripts in

made them inhospitable

him

also to find only

a few Greek manu-

England, and only a few scholars of the type


Neverlife

with which he was so familiar on the Continent.


theless,

he was a Protestant, and for that reason his

for

many

years had been often trying.

One

pleasant resting-

place he found at Valence, where lived the most profound


jurist of the

age,

Cujacius (Jacques de Cujas).*

This

wise and temperate scholar had a remarkable collection


of manuscripts
five

on the

Roman

law,

numbering more than


tran-

hundred;

and here he

lived

and studied with

quillity,

reconstructing the

Roman

jurists in a purely classic

fashion, without

any touch of medisevalism.

For

three

years, Scaliger enjoyed the hospitality of Cujacius with


free access to his fine library for four years.

Then
1

the so-called massacre of St. Bartholomew led

See Spangenberg, Cujacius und seine Zeitgenossen (Leipzig, 1882).

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM

327

him

to take refuge in

Geneva, where he was received with

high honour and appointed to be professor in the Academy.

He

lectured

on both Greek and Latin authors, and gave

great satisfaction to the students.


lecturing

But he himself hated

and found the fanatical preachers of Protestant-

ism as distasteful as the more subtle zealotes.

Hence he

returned to France (1574) and lived for the next twenty


years in the various castles of his friend,

La Roche

Pozay.

Much

of his

life

was

far different

from that of a tranquil


Leaguers with
their

scholar.

The Huguenots and

the

outbreaks of violence often compelled Scaliger to move

from one chateau

to another, going

on guard duty, taking

part in military expeditions in the night-time, and wielding

pike and dagger like any other freebooter.^

He

had,

however, for at least half the time, a chance to give himself

up

to study

and composition;

and

his editions of the

Catalecta (1574), of Festus (1576) of Catullus, TibuUus,

and Propertius (1577) are remarkable examples of true


criticism, disdaining the prevalent

happy-go-lucky guessscientific scholar-

work
ship.

for a fixed

and ordered system of

In 1590, the great Lipsius retired from Leyden, where


for twelve years

he had been professor of

Roman

History

and
'

Antiquities.

Leyden was then the


of Scaliger's
life

fortress of Protes-

Our knowledge

at this time

is

derived from a

num-

ber of letters in Leitres Franqaises Inidites de Joseph Scaliger, discovered


at

Agen by M. de Larroque, and published

there

by him

in 1881.

328

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

tant learning, as Paris


ship.
retire,

was the

fortress of Catholic scholarits

And
it

so,

when Leyden saw

most famous scholar


In
this,

sought out Scaliger as his successor.

the

University and also the States-General and the Prince of

Orange gave
letter

their aid,

and the Prince wrote a personal


of France

both

to

Henry IV

and

to Scaliger himself,

asking that the latter might accept a chair in the University.

Scaliger

had hoped that Henry IV would, when


freedom of speech and thought
to to Protes-

successful, give
tants.

Moreover, Scaliger hated

lecture,

and much
inter-

preferred the quiet of his study,

and the learned

course of distinguished men.


versity

The

drudgery of the Unispirit of learning

made no appeal
in the

to

him; the

was

all in all.

Consequently he refused; but when the

invita-

tion

was renewed

most

flattering

manner

at the end
to

of another year, he felt that he

would do wrong

remain
of

in France, subject to the sneers

and hidden innuendoes


call

the once

Huguenot King.
Scaliger,

This second

from Leyden
there

was accepted by

and he was welcomed

with honours such as are given not only to princes of


learning, but, likewise, to

believed himself to be.

men of princely blood, as Scaliger He dined at the table of Prince


at

Maurice.

The burghers

Leyden deemed

his presence

among them a
Very

glory to the town,

and even the children


his walks abroad.
that

louted low before him,


different, indeed,

when he took
his lot as

was

compared with

of poor

Casaubon

in

England,

who was

hustled by British

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


boors and his windows broken by the rabble in the
Scaliger

329
street.

was

in reahty

a prince of learning, and perhaps


this.

he should have been quite content with

That he
was

deemed himself
not his
fault,

the scion of a princely Italian family


to this

and

day no one

is

certain of the facts.


his father,

Yet

this conviction

which he inherited from

and which had never been questioned


time,

in his father's life-

was

fated to destroy his happiness,

and end
in

his

won-

derful labours.

The

story

is

worth relating

some

detail,

because

it

illustrates the evil effects of the religious feuds

which had broken out with the so-called Protestant Reformation.^

As was

said before, the services of distinguished scholars


alike

were employed
the

by the Old Church and the

New

in

way

of theological sharp-shooting.

Thus we have
his attack

seen that Casaubon died while

completing

upon Cardinal Baronius.

He had
who

himself been

made
in

the victim of a stream of vile abuse

from a Cretan

Catholic

(Eudamon-Ioannes)

attacked

him

pamphlet.

Yet a much more

skilful shaft

was launched against


This

him by one Gaspar Scioppius (Gaspar Schoppe).


man, who
Ingolstadt,
flitted

back and forth between Madrid and


really

was a

remarkable

figure.

He had

been

disappointed in

many of his hopes, and he became

a savage,
;

See Pattison, Isaac Casaubon, pp. 389-400 (Oxford, 1892)


Essays, ed.

and

id.

by

Nettleship,

i.

pp. 132-192 (Oxford, 1889).

330

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


to

venomous creature ready

attack any one

whom
many

his

Catholic masters pointed out to him.


the literary bravos of the time, he
Latinist,

Unlike

of

was an accomplished
in his

and was almost monstrous

shameless

in-

genuity and audacious use of fiction.

He had

already

scourged

King James of England

in

two pamphlets.

" Now," said he, " I


land's dog."

am

going to flay the King of Engin his

This he did

Holofernes.
it

It

was an

atrocious libel from beginning to end; yet

was piquant,
to

and when decent,

it

was

witty.

But when he went on

charge Casaubon with every sort of unnatural crime and


to support the charges basis, his fierce assault

by imaginary

stories that

had no

was

neither plausible nor probable.

Casaubon was
insults to

too austere
effect

and virtuous a
whatever.

man

for such

have any

Thus, only

to a certain extent, the virulent libel against


slight

Casaubon did

harm.

Nor was Casaubon,

although

he was one of the Triumvirate, so conspicuous a figure as


Scaliger,

who remained

at the very pinnacle of sixteenth

and seventeenth century scholarship.

Unfortunately, his

enemies found a flaw in his otherwise impenetrable armour.

In 1594, he published a sort of glorification of his family,


Epistola de
Veiustate
Vita.
et

Splendore

Gentis

Scaligercz

ei

J. C. Scaligeri
filial

This was really an exhibition of


it

love,

though there runs through

a vein of proud,

and, one might even say, of noble self-appreciation.


it

But

showed, nevertheless, a weak point in his nature, and

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


one which his enemies at Ingolstadt assailed
every means that could

33
alike with

wound

so

proud a

spirit.

Again
for

and again he had been attacked; but he cared nothing


coarse and violent scribblers.

In 1607, however, there

entered the arena a foeman, vastly inferior to Scaliger in


learning, but the peer of

any one

in wit, in all the artifices

of debate, with a marvellous

command

of style,

and wieldrival.

ing

all

the powers of sarcasm, in which he had no


Pattison says:

Mark

" Every piece of gossip or scandal

which could be raked together respecting Scaliger or his


family " was put at the disposal of Scioppius.

With these
kill

gifts and with this material, Scioppius said, " I shall

Scaliger!" and soon after launched a volume of

some

four hundred pages written with consummate ability so


that " no stronger proof can be given of the impression

produced by

this

powerful philippic, dedicated to the


it

defamation of an individual, than that

has been the


it

source from which the biography of Scaliger as

now

stands in our biographical collections has mainly flowed."

The book was

called Scaliger

Hypolimaus

("

The Supin

posititious Scaliger"),

and

it

simply crushed the haughty

Triumvir, as well

it

might.

For he had always believed

good

faith that

he was a prince of Verona, and he had

written a great
father,

many

things which he
to

had heard from

his

and which he believed

be

true.

But as a matter

of fact, whether or not Julius Cassar Scaliger

was de-

scended from a princely family he was certainly a good

332

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


it

deal of a romancer, and

was not

difficult for so

malicious

and

so clever

an antagonist as Scioppius

to

show the

blunders and errors of fact which had crept into the younger
Scaliger's

Epistola.

Around

these

errors

and around

other statements which were claimed to be erroneous,

Scioppius danced and jeered with outrageous glee.

As

soon as Scaliger could

rally

from the unexpected

attack,

he wrote a reply

to

Scioppius which he called Confutatio

Fabulx

Burdonum.

This

title

refers

to

Benedetto

Bordone, a person of humble birth and said by Scioppius


to

be the

real father of the elder Scaliger.


little less

This would

have made both Scaligers

than impostors, and,

therefore, in the reply the falsity of the charge

was

attacked,

though with moderation and good

taste.

The

Confutatio,

however, does not bring forward a single convincing proof


either of his father's descent

from the family of La

Scala,

or of any event narrated by Julius as having happened


to himself or to in France.

any of his family before he arrived at Agen


success of Scioppius

The

was remarkable.
was read
all

The product

of his almost devilish ingenuity


it

over Europe, and

was generally believed even by many


Scaliger

who had passed


learned, too
for these petty,

for friends.

was

too great, too

much

of a real prince in intellect

and bearing,

jealous creatures to be otherwise than

pleased at his overthrow.


in

The name

of the greatest

man

Europe now evoked merely a

grin, or

a coarse joke.

His very name was used as a synonym for a pedant (pidant),

THE PERIOD or NATIONALISM


while in French literature, especially, his

333

memory has
and death.

been covered with unworthy


So

ridicule.^
life

much

for the chief incidents of his

One

recounts them because they are characteristic of the


lived,

time in which he

and of the continual warfare beand


their betters.

tween

literary ruffians

We

must now

return to an account of the great achievements which

placed Scaliger at the very head of


learning,

all

men

of letters

and

from Varro

to

Mommsen.

Having shown by

his edited works, already mentioned,^ that he could criticise

and amend according


to

to a scientific system,

he now

moved on

a higher

field

than that of scholarship alone.

"It was reserved for his edition of Manilius (1579), and his De

Emendatione Temporum (1583), to revolutionize


ideas of the chronology of ancient history,

all

the received
for the first

to show

time that ancient chronology was of the highest importance as a


corrector as well as a supplement to historical narrative, that
' The most adequate biography of Joseph Scaliger is that of Jacob Bemays (Berlin, 1865). See also the essay by Mark Pattison in his

book

of essays, already mentioned.

For the

life

of the elder Scaliger,

the letters edited by his son, those afterwards published in 1620, and his

own

writings, are the principal authorities.

See also Laffore's Etude sur

Jules Cesar de Lescale (Agen, i860) and Magen's Documents sur Julius
Ccesar
Scaliger
et

sa Famille (Agen,

1873).

The two books by Ch.


(Paris)

Nisard

Les Gladiateurs de
Litleraire

la Repuhlique des Lettres (Paris, 1889),

Le Triumvirat
levity.

au Seizieme Sikle

are written
R. C. Jebb

and
with

The second
;

of the

two

is little it

more than a

digest of the

volume
There
in the

by Scioppius
is

yet perhaps this makes

worth the reader's while.


Sir

an excellent account of the two Scaligers by


vol. xx, pp.
'

Encyclopedia Britannica, gth ed.,


Supra, pp. 334-340-

361-365 (New York, 1886).

334

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


is

ancient history

not confined to that of the Greeks and Romans,

but also comprises that of the Persians, the Babylonians, and the
Eg)rptians, hitherto neglected as absolutely worthless,

and that

of

the Jews, hitherto treated as a thing apart and too sacred to be

mixed up with the others, and that the historical narratives and fragments of each of
be carefully and
these,

and their several systems of chronology, must


compared together,
if

critically

any true and general


It
is

conclusions on ancient history are to be arrived at.


constitutes his true glory,

this

which

and which places Scaliger on

so

immensely
Yet, while

higher an eminence than any of his contemporaries.

the scholars of his time admitted his pre-eminence, neither they

nor those

who immediately

followed seem to have appreciated his


criticism, aind

real merit,

but to have considered his emendatory

his skill in Greek, as constituting his claim to special greatness.

'ScaHger's great works in historical criticism

had overstepped any


'

power
son).

of appreciation

which the succeeding age possessed


is

(Pattias-

His commentary on ManiKus'


of the ancients,

really a treatise

on the

tronomy

and

it

forms an introduction to the De


of

Emendatione Temporum, in which he examines by the light

modern and Copernican


epochs, calendars,

science the ancient system as applied to


of time, showing

and computations

upon what

principles they were based."

His Manilius, while

it

represented a

new

field of labour,

had puzzled and frightened away the smaller


being the most dif&cult of
all

critics as

the Latin classics.

But

this

work, with him, merely served as an introduction

to a

comprehensive chronological system to which he gave the


'

The author
a.d.
first

of a Latin
a.d.

poem upon astronomy

written in five books

between 9

and ij

proposed sixth book was never written.


of J.
J.

The

satisfactory text

was that

Scaliger

(iS79)-

Late
See

editions are

by Bentley (London,

1739),

and Jacob

(Berlin, 1846).

Kramer, De Manilii Astronomicis (Marburg, 1890).

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM

33 $

name De Emendatione Temporum.^

In

this latter effort

of a great genius Scaliger created a science of Chronology.

Heretofore, historians had merely arranged past facts in

a tabular series to help the memory.


the philologists
ciples

On

the one hand,

know

nothing of the mathematical prinrests.

upon which the calculation of period

On
It

the

other hand, the astronomers had not attempted to apply


their principles to the records of ancient time.

was

Scaliger

who now, with a new

light

which Copernicus and


to

Tycho Brahe gave him, turned back


epochs and systems and made
they had been formed.
it

the

ancient

plain

on what principles

He instituted
Hebrew

an acute comparison

between the Greek and Persian methods of reckoning


time; he studied even the
calendar, and then in

ascending to

primitive ages, he saw how chronology

may

become an instrument
records do not exist.
first

of discovery for times

when

written

This suggestion

is

only a hint in the


It

edition of the
until

De

Emendatione.

proved

fruitful

to

him

he grasped the daring idea of compiling a


prehistoric

book which should embrace the records of the


past.

Scaliger

was the
if it

first to

see that the history of the


at
all,

ancient world,

could be

known

could be

known

only as an entity; and that the facts of this remote period


could be had only in the remains of those chronologers

who,
'

in

copying statements which they often failed to


edition published in 1583, followed

The

first

by many other and

fuller editions.

336

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


this

understand themselves, did transmit in


ages the universal tradition of the
distorted fragments of Berosus,

way

to future

human

species.

The

Menander, Manetho, and


Finally,

Abydenus were

first to

be

collected.

he adopted

as a basis of primitive tradition, St. Jerome's Latin translation of the so-called


It is

Eusebian Chronicle.

necessary to explain in a few words what this


it

Eusebian Chronicle was which gave the study of


importance.
the

so

much

Eusebius was an Asiatic Greek, a friend of

Emperor Constantine, and

middle of the third century a.d.

bom in Palestine in the He was one of the most


all

learned scholars of the time and the most widely read.

list

of his books

would be unnecessary here, but

his

studies were of a nature

which intended toward the

dis-

covery of religious truth.


variety of
gians,

He was

familiar with a great


historians, theolo-

Greek authors, philosophers,


lived
in

who

Egypt or Phoenicia or Asia and

Europe.

More

than anything else he cultivated a study

of chronology with a view to establishing


the
historical

on a

solid basis

value of the Old Testament.


universal
history

This was
'laropia)

practically

{HavToBairrj

divided into two books.


origin

The
all

first

book discussed

the

and the history of

nations from the creation

of the world

down

to the

year 325 a.d.

Here Eusebius

uses copious extracts from historians whose works are


lost.

now

The second

part, entitled "

The

Chronicle

Canon"

{XpoviKCK

Kava)v), consisted of parallel tables given by

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


periods of ten years each, containing the

337
of the

names

sovereigns and the principal events which had taken place

from the
largely

call of

Abraham

(2017 b.c).

He had drawn

upon the chronography

of Sextus lulius Africanus,

completing the whole by the aid of Manetho, losephus, and


other historians.

This was the famous chronicle which


to his

he continued down

own

time.

The book was


Jerome
it

widely

read and was accepted as necessarily accurate.


of time, after the death of Eusebius, St.
lated the Chronicle into Latin, continuing

In course
trans-

to

378 a.d.
it

For some
an

centuries, the Christian scribes preserved

as

essential part of the

works of

St.

Jerome, although they

had no idea

of

its

unusual value.

When
men

the Renaissance

was

well under way, neither the

of elegant letters,
to

nor the Protestant controversialists, knew what


of
it,

make

and

at last

it

was omitted from

their editions of St.

Jerome's works as being without value.

Even

the great

Erasmus, though he edited the other writings of Jerome,


did not think
it

worth his while

to include this Chronicle, in the series of his

and

in fact,

it

was not replaced

works

until 1734.^
It

was

left

for Scaliger to appreciate the inestimable


all

value of this document, which contains

that

we know

of a great deal of pre-classical history, carrying us back


to the oriental countries as well as to
1

Greece and Rome.

This was a handsomely printed edition published at Verona, but

very uncritically edited.


z

338

HISTORY OP CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


edit
fit

To

and explain
for

so complicated a

work as

this

was a
sub-

task

an

intellectual giant like Scaliger.

The

stance of the Chronicle

was tempting

to

one whose
it

tastes

were annalistic;

while the form in which

had come

down was

peculiarly attractive to a
it

mind
to

like Scaliger's.
this

careful examination of
fact,

led

him

doubt whether
St.

was, in

an
it

original

document composed by

Jerome,
original

or whether

was the Latin version of a Greek

which had perished.

The

next point which he considered


the Greek original,
is

was

this:

Since

we have not

the
set

Latin translation a faithful version of what Eusebius

down?

In the

first

place, all translators are liable to

various defects, and in the Chronicle there

was a

greater

chance of error because the work was written with such


speed.
St.

Jerome himself

calls

it

tumuUuarium opus and


Again Jerome did not
it

asks for lenity from his readers.


write the book, but merely used

to

supply the Latin

world with a manual of general history.

He

omitted

and inserted whenever he thought the book would be


improved, and tried to communicate the elements of universal history in countries

where barbarous hordes were


of
Christianity.

overrunning

the

civilisation

Further-

more, the manuscripts were peculiarly corrupt, as was


natural in a book so
full

of dates.

Pondering over these

facts, Scaliger

came

to believe that

the original Chronicle as written by Eusebius


sisted of

had conhad

two books; and that the

first

of these books

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


been
lost in the

339

Dark Ages.

The second book had been


extracts

preserved for
while the

its utility

as an epitome of ancient history,

first

book as consisting of

from the
that

Greek
the

historians, for

modems was
It

the lost

book

was
text-

most valuable.

would daunt the boldest

critic of

modem

times to arrive at these conclusions from

the slight indications which Scaliger had at hand.

Even

more

reckless did

it

seem

for

him

to

reproduce a second
St.

book of the Chronicle of which he had only


Latin,
in
its

Jerome's
Scaliger's
first

original

language.

But
to

finally

almost miraculous mind attempted

recover the

book both

in its substance

and language.

No

such

re-

markable attempt had ever before or has ever since been

known

in the annals of criticism.


skill in

What

Scaliger relied
his mastery

upon was his

imitative translation,

and

of the whole remains of Greek literature.

How

ingenious

was he

in detecting the smallest scrap of slight incident.

Eusebius

may

be shown by one

few fragments of
fitted into

the original Chronicle


their places

had been recovered and


of Scaliger; but these

by the
use.

skill

would have

been of

little

In 1601 he came upon the vestiges of

a manuscript chronicle by a Greek priest which possibly


contained Eusebian fragments, and which by deduction was
likely to

be found

in the

Royal Library at

Paris.

It turned

out that the manuscript was found there.

Scaliger at

Leyden
wrote

in

an agony of mingled anxiety and exultation,

letter after letter,

and

after a year's siege secured

340

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

the manuscript over which he gloated, clared that this single writer
all

and presently depurpose than

was more

to his

the other

Greek writers combined.

It was, indeed,

another chronicle which had been compiled by Georgius


Syncellus at Constantinople soon after the year 900.
this chronicle the

To
the

Greek monk had transferred almost

whole of Eusebius, together with additions of his own.

The second book


that any one

of Eusebius, therefore,
of,

the only part


last in 1606,

was sure
folio.

was published at

as part of a

Thesaurus Temporum, in which every

chronological relic in
in order,

Greek or Latin was

restored, placed

and made
It

clear.

This was an immense triumph


at the very

for Scaliger.

placed

him

head of

all critics

and chronologists from that time


performed an achievement not
scholars, however,
to

forever, since

he had

be

paralleled.

Many
Could

who admired

his genius regarded his


fanciful.

theory about a

first

book of Eusebius as
life

he have lived beyond the

of ordinary

man, he would
first.

have witnessed a triumph even greater than his

In

the next century, while the Veronese edition of St.

Jerome

was passing through the press under the


Dominico
translation
Vallarsi, a
(a

direction of

complete Eusebius in an Armenian

manuscript of the twelfth century) was


its

slowly

making

way

to Italy,

and was

at last published

(1818) in the

Armenian Convent

at Venice.

Then
had

it

was

shown

that Scaliger's wonderful divination


first

rightly

guided him; that there was a

book

to the Chronicle;

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


that St.

341

Jerome had translated only the second book;

and that many of the omissions that he had charged against


St.

Jerome were actual omissions.

This remarkable discovery placed Scaliger indisputably

above the heads of

all

his contemporaries.

It vs'as his

great eminence which led the vile-minded Scioppius to


assail

him

at a point

which had nothing


It is

to

do with

either

scholarship or morals.

not surprising, however, that

many who admired his

genius were not friendly toward the

man

His learning was so great as to make that men seem frivolous and slight, especially if they were men of his own age or older. His gravity might be
himself.

of other

called austere.

His thoughts were

settled

almost wholly

on

his learning.
it

He had a manner which was unfortunate,


supercilious.

and

made him seem

For these reasons

many

persons disliked him,

and many more actually


jealous of his great

hated him, besides those


learning.

who were

Thus

it

was

that the

lampoon of Scioppius
In France and Gerof Scaliger

had more than a temporary

effect.

many and

Italy,

and even England, the name

was derided.

He was

thought of mainly as a mere pedant,

a butt for cheap wit, and one


at with reason.

who might

readily be fleered

Thus, M. Charles Nisard in his two entervolumes ^ displayed the opinions which
in France.
It

taining but

trifling

have long been held of Scaliger


'

was Pro;

Nisard, Les Gladiateurs de la RSpublique de Lettres (Paris, 1889)


Litter aire

and

Le Triumnrat

au Seizieme

Steele (Paris,

no date).

342
fessor

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


Jacob Bemays who, in 1855, revived the glory of

Scaliger

and made

his

name
and

as illustrious as
it

it

had been

two centuries before;

was Mark Pattison who


It is they

aided very greatly in this honourable task.^


recall to us,

who

not merely the advance which Scaliger made

in scientific chronology,

and likewise

in constructive criti-

cism, but that he

had

also helped

on the study of Numis(1616).

matics by his treatise

De Re Nummaria

To him

are due, also, twenty-four indexes to Gruter's Thesaurus

Inscriptionum Latinarum^ (1603).

The death

of

Scaliger served

only to stimulate the

scholarly activities of the Netherlanders

and Flemings,

among whom we

find, to

be

sure,

no such mighty names

as those of the Triumvirate, but


peculiar significance because of

many which have

some

special incident or

achievement.

Thus Jacques de Cruques

(Latinised as

Cruquius) will remain forever famous because in the Abbey


at Blankenberghe

he discovered a number of different manscholia (1578).

uscripts

of

Horace with

Among

these

manuscripts was the famous Codex Blandinianus, possibly


the oldest (vetusiissimus)
'
.

Unfortunately, an attack by a
(Berlin, 1855)
;

Bemays, Joseph Justus Scaliger

and

Faittison, Essays,

i.

pp. 162-171 (Oxford, 1889).


'

Janus Gruter (Jan Gruyt6re) was a


in in Heidelberg keeper of the

classical scholar

who

studied in

Cambridge and Leyden, and taught

Wittenberg and

in Heidelberg.

He was
but
is

famous Palatine Library, which was

presently carried to
best

Rome.

He

edited a

number

of classical authors,

known

for his collection of inscriptions,

which was, however,

most valuable from the indexes mentioned above.

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM

343

mob upon the Abbey led to the destruction of this invaluable


manuscript, so that we have now only the notes and excerpts
of Cruquius.
It is certain that they are of the greatest in-

terest to Horatians, although

some have endeavoured

to

repudiate them as either inventions or as inaccurately


written out by Cruquius.
lines

Nevertheless, there are

some

which are almost certainly genuine, and they explain


which had hitherto

lines existing in other manuscripts,

been almost meaningless.^

Another contemporary scholar


critic of

was William Canter, a well-known Greek

Utrecht,

who had
strophe

studied in Paris and edited Euripides (1571) in a

fashion which

made the distinction between strophe and antiin the margins.

by Arabic numerals

He also edited

Sophocles (1579) and ^schylus (1580).


tury
is

Later in the cen-

Gerhard Johannes Vossius, who taught at Leyden


in

and afterwards

Amsterdam.

He
its

gave patient study

to

the syntax of Latin as well as to


treatises

etymology, writing five

on these subjects; and,

like Scaliger,

another Ars

Poetica.

He

is

best to

be remembered, however, by two

treatises which, taken together,

form an important con-

tribution to the history of ancient literature.


is

The

first

entitled

De

Historicis Greeds (1623-4)


All of his

and De His-

toricis Latinis (1627).


'

books were widely read

As to eminent

scholars

who doubt

the accuracy of the Codex Blandi-

nianus and even the veracity of Cruquius, the reader is referred to Keller's

Epilegomena zu Horaz (Leipzig, 1879), accompanying a new recension of


Keller and Holder's
first

edition (Leipzig, 1870)

a remarkable piece

of critical work, though not convincing.

344

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


studied,

and

and a new

edition of the former

was

printed

at Leipzig in 1833.

His

interest in everything classical

was very wide.


Graphice) and in
early treatise

He wrote a monograph on art modem times he is the author of a


Gentili).

(De
very

on Mythology {De Theologia

His

brother-in-law, Franciscus Junius,


of his
life in

who

spent thirty years

England as

librarian to Earl of Arundel,

made

a special study of ancient paintings and published a vol-

ume De
1639)
that

Pictura Veierum (1637).

Daniel Heinsius (1581-

was

the beloved pupil of Scaliger,

and

in his

arms

great scholar died.

Heinsius was a multifarious

editor of classical books, though hardly worthy to rank with

most of

his contemporaries.

When

Scaliger died in 1609 the chair of history, which


left

was thus vacated, was

without an occupant for twenty-

two years, although a very worthy successor would have


been Vossius, who was widely known by his
ings
historical writ-

on ancient

history.

The chair was not filled, however,


foreigner, Claude de Saumaise

until 1 63 1,

and then by a

(Salmasius), a
landers,

brilHant figure

among

the sturdy Holfor his

and one who attracted admiration, both

personality

and

for his varied learning.

In 1606 he had

discovered the older Anthology by Cephalas in the Palatine

Library at Heidelberg.

The

influence there probably in-

duced him

to

become a

Protestant, which was, indeed, the

religion of his mother.

In 1609 he attempted successfully

a genuine feat of scholarship, in editing Florus, with notes,

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


which he compiled within ten days.

345

In the next year he

returned to France, studying jurisprudence but receiving no


office

because of his

religion.

He was,

however, devoted to

the classics, and when, in 1620, he published Casaubon's

notes on the Historia Augusta, he


brilliant
trious.

many acute and additions of his own as to render his name illusHis Protestantism was evinced when he married
made
so

Anne

Mercier, a Huguenot of distinguished family, and he

reached the height of his fame by his commentary on the


Polyhistor of Solinus (1629), a

work

that

still

remains a
So

proof of extraordinary and conscientious industry.

anxious was Salmasius to attain complete accuracy that he


learned Arabic to help him in the botanical part of his work

and he was

so unwilling to let his

book go

to press until

he

should have consulted a rare treatise by Didymus that the


third section of his

commentary (De Herbis

et

Plantis)

did not appear until after his death.

Salmasius was at

once a scholar of high rank, and a gentleman of polished

manners

genuine cavalier.

It

was natural

that he

should have received urgent calls from Oxford, Padua,

and Bologna.

All of these he declined.

But

in 1631 the

University of Leyden presented


fessorship

him with a research


livres

pro-

and a stipend of two thousand

a year, a

sum which was soon


thing required of

raised to three thousand.

The

only

him was

that he should live in Leyden,

and

refute the annals of Baronius.*


'

He fulfilled

the former

Supra,

p.

309 .

346

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

condition, but conveniently forgot the second.

He was

very

prolific,

however, in tracts and monographs, most of In spite of his Protestantism, and his
in

them

classical.

attacks

upon the papal power, Salmasius was popular

France, and the scholars of Paris evidently hoped that he

would change
deed,

his faith

and return

to

them.

He

was,

in-

made a royal

counsellor and a Knight of St. Michael,

and great sums of money were offered him; but while he


accepted the honours, he refused the
faithful to his religion.

money and remained

Salmasius

is

now best remembered by his Defensio Regia


It

pro Carolo I, which he wrote in defence of Charles I of

England and of absolute monarchy.


because
it

is

remembered

drew forth from Milton a virulent answer.


in

Many
ality

have said that Milton overwhelmed Salmasius

this controversy;

but such an opinion

is

due

to the partithis

given by English-speaking people to Milton, in

as in other things.

The

truth

is

that the Defensio, being

written by one Protestant against another,

was very widely

read and had considerable influence.


cost of printing

Charles II paid the

and gave the author a hundred poimds.

Queen

Christina of

Sweden

invited Salmasius to visit her


gifts

at her court,
tions.

and loaded him with


first

and other

distinc-

The

edition of his Defensio

was anonymous.
of

French translation appeared at once under the name


also the

Le Gros and was

work

of Salmasius.

It

must

be said that neither Milton nor Salmasius showed

his full

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


powers
self too

347

in this

famous controversy.

Milton allowed him-

much

vituperation and vile language, while Salsufficiently carried

masius was not


to give his

away by
truth.

his subject

words the ringing force of

Nevertheless, Salmasius

was

gladly

welcomed back

to

Leyden, where he died soon


his great powers

after, in 1653.

He had by
we

made

himself a literary dictator, and

must

ascribe this to his vast erudition, his natural good

sense, his keen perception of

an author's meaning,

all

of

which make
quently most

his text corrections often ingenious


felicitous.

and

fre-

He

was, moreover, neither a sour


;

Puritan nor a dissolute cavalier


wise,

but

liberal,

generous, and
to

and exercising a fortitude that enabled him


health,

comof

bat

ill

and yet produce books

to

the

number

eighty, every

one of which had a distinct value.


like-

Contemporary with Salmasius and Vossius, and


wise a great pillar of Dutch scholarship,
(in

was Hugo

Grotius
of

his

native tongue called

Huig van Groot), one was a man

those ancient scholars and writers who, like Plato and

Thucydides, and Caesar and

Sallust,

of action

and thought as well as

literary distinction.

He

served

his State as well as raised the reputation of his country

for scholarship.

Young Grotius was

able to write good

Latin verses at the age of nine.


sity of

He

entered the Univerlater

Leyden

at twelve.

Three years

he began an

edition of the encyclopaedia of Martianus Capella. In fact,

he was a great favourite of Joseph

Scaliger,

who urged him

348

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


After travelling on the

to edit this educational allegory.

Continent, he took the degree of doctor of laws at Leyden,

and entered on actual practice as an advocate.


successful in his profession,

He was

and yet he could not put


style

aside the classics.

His Latin

was
by

so pure that he

was even read


just as

in the schools side in

side with Terence,


side

Muretus

France had been read side by

with Cicero.

Apart from his

text editions,^ however, he

wrought out two great works which show how he was


divided in his studies between the classics, pure and simple,

and

juristic science.

The first is

his extraordinary treatise

on the
tants.

principles of jurisprudence as relating to

comba-

He

went, however,

much

farther than this, and

opened many larger questions which were subsequently


to

be developed by those who looked upon Grotius as a


Thus, for example, he was the
first to

master.

attempt

to formulate a principle of right, as a basis for society

and government, outside the Church or the


treatise

Bible.

His

De

lure Belli
It is

et

Pacts

marks an epoch

in the

science of law.

worth noting that even in

this

work
the

one

is

struck
of

by the beauty
half-forgotten

of his Latin style, pearls

and

glimpses

with which he con-

sciously adorned his pages.

The

other remarkable

work which he accomplished was


Silius Italicus.

Of Martianus Capella, the Pharsalia, and


Published at Paris in 1625.
(Paris, 1875).

'

A French translation was long afterward

made by H61y

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


his translation into Latin verse of the Anihologia

349

Planudea}
so

This was the

first

and best translation of these poems, and again


it

varied, so sparkling with wit,

so full of a per-

vasive tenderness as to

make

seem impossible that a


his fiftieth year could

grave jurisconsult

who had passed

turn from his legal studies to attempt so difficult a task as


this.

But having attempted


and grace

it,

he succeeded, and his

flowers of elegance
artful

lose little or nothing

by the

way

in

which he has transformed them from Greek


for

to Latin.

Not

more than one hundred and

fifty

years

was any
its

serious rivalry with Grotius attempted;

and then
for

preparation occupied

Van Bosch and Van Lennep

seven years.^

With Grotius ' ends


scholar.

the earlier type of Netherlandish

For a

time, there are

no giants
is

to

be noted

in

the universities of Holland.

There

much making of texts,

as by the two Gronovii,* the second of


in thirteen

whom

compiled

volumes an immense Thesaurus Antiquitatum


dis-

GrcBcarum;^ Nicolaus Heinsius, the son of Scaliger's


ciple Daniel Heinsius; and also
J.

G. Graevius (Greffe),

who capped

the

Thesaurus of Heinsius by publishing


all

three thesauri, containing in


to antiquarian topics.
'

thirteen volumes, relating

Supra, pp. 256, 237.


Utrecht, 1795-1822.

'

See de Vries, Hugo Grotius (Amst., 1827).

'J. F. Gronov (1611-1671) and Jacob Gronov (1645-1716). ' Published in 1702.

35

HISTORY or CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


study of ancient coins was taken up by Ezechiel

The

Spanheim,' whose Hfe represents the union of the Protestant countries, since he

was

bom

in

Geneva, educated

in

Leyden, and died in London.

Besides his Dissertatio^

he wrote a famous commentary on the


limachus, which
(1761).
is
still

Hymns

of Cal-

valuable in the edition of Emesti


industrious,

Spanheim was an

though, not an

inspired, scholar, so that

Wyttenbach said of him: " Span-

heimius multa, non multum, legerat."

The two

Peter

Bunnanns (Burmanni) revived


in letters.

the old
stu-

supremacy of Holland

The

elder'

was a

dent of Graevius, but spent the


life

last twenty-six years of his

as Professor of Eloquence at Leyden.


editor,

He was
to

voluminous

confining

himself,

however,

the

Latin writers both in prose and poetry, for which he has

been much blamed by the Grecians.


are his editions of
the Poeta Latini

The most

notable

Minores, and of

Petronius in prose.
editions,

His editions were largely Variorum


of

and many

them are

dull;

though sometimes

when

his prejudices

were aroused, he became so scurrilous


life-

that his introductions could not be printed during his


time. called

So laborious was he, and so patient, that he was

by many " the beast of burden " (Burdomanus)


learning.

of

classical

Students of

the history of scholar-

* '

1629-1710.
Dissertatio de

Usu

et

Prcutantia

Numismatum Antiquorum

(1664).

1668-1741.

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


ship in the Netherlands
will,

351
to

however, continue

read

the huge quarto volumes of his Sylloge Epistolarum a Viris


Illustribus Scriptarum,

which contains material of great

value relating to classicists.^


Just as
so the

Burmann devoted

his

whole

life to

Latin studies,

German, Ludolf

Ktister (Neocorus)^ represented the

investigation of Greek.

Kuster was a German by

birth,

but something of a cosmopolite, since he


Paris,

visited Utrecht,

and Cambridge, then


in Paris. in 1705

lived for a long time at Rotter-

dam, and died


of

He wrote

(1696) a critical history


in three large

Homer, and

an edition of Suidas

volumes, published by the Cambridge Press.


busied himself on a
it

He

then

life

of Pythagoras (1707) and followed

up with a massive

edition of Aristophanes, including all

the Greek scholia, with a metrical version parallel to the


text. He included modem comments,

also at the

end of the volume


notes sent

all

the

besides

many

by the great

English

classicist,

Richard Bentley.'

The number
yond those

of

famous Dutch scholars who flourished

in the seventeenth

and eighteenth centuries

is

notable be-

whom we

have already mentioned.

Thus,

Lambert Bos,* the contemporary of Kuster, studied Greek

grammar with much


was
"

care at Franeker

and there was

also

the great edition of Livy


originally
in

by Arnold Drakenborch.
quarto

This

seven

volumes
'

(i 738-1 746).

See L. Miiller, op.

cil.,

pp. S4-S9-

Infra, pp. 361-371.

21670-1716.

*i67o-i7i7.

352 His

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


contemporary,
Siegbert

Havercamp,

Professor
full

at of

Leyden, edited Lucretius in two large volumes,


errors.

He was
number

careless in neglecting the value of


i.e.

what

lay nearest at hand,


lected a

the

Leyden manuscripts.

He colof Greek,

of tracts

on the pronunciation
which probably

and

it

was

this collection

led to the ap-

pointment of Havercamp as Professor of Greek at Leyden.

This honour should have been given, as


seen,
to

is

now

plainly

Tiberius Hemsterhuys,i educated

at Groningen

and Leyden.

At the

latter university,

when a mere

youth,

he was placed in charge of the public library, and at nineteen

was
at

called to the chair of

mathematics at the Atheclas-

naeum
sical

Amsterdam

(1704).

His acute criticism of

authors

who were
him

then being edited by the different

professors led

to a distinction

which was

to

become
to

very great.
edit

J.

H. Lederlin, who had been engaged

Julius

Pollux,

threw up his engagement, and de-

parted suddenly for Strassburg, where a professorship had

been offered him.

The remaining

three books of the

work

were assigned

to

Hemsterhuys, who, with natural modesty,

wrote to Bentley, and begged for his opinion on ten passages in the last two books.
to all these questions,
fills

Bentley's
off at

prompt answer
letter that

thrown
is

once in a

three pages of print,

a remarkable proof of his

versatility

and ready
striking

scholarship.^

1685-1766.

2 Still

more

was another incident connected with


first edition,

this book.

When

Bentley received the

he wrote back in words of high

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM

353

Later, this eminent Greek scholar began to edit the

whole of Lucian, the minuteness of which can be judged

by the

fact that in ten years

he had only translated and

elucidated six of the texts.


printing

At that

stage, however, the

began, but proceeded

slowly.

The

publisher,

wishing to see the work completed during his


time,
J. F.

own

life-

the remaining five-sixths were given over to one

Reitz * of Utrecht,

who

finished

them

in five years. in

Hemsterhuys, likewise, did much


editions of other

text

criticism

the

men, correcting mistakes and emending


Meanwhile, he had been advanced
to

doubtful passages.

a professorship at the University of Harderwyk.

Much to

the disappointment of friends of learning, Hemsterhuys

did not succeed Gronovius at Leyden, though he became


professor at Franeker.
Finally, however,
in

1740, two

years before the death of Havercamp, he received the


but regretted that so learned a scholar as Hemsterhuys should
carelessly with the metrical quotations in Pollux.

praise,

have dealt

Bentley,

thereupon, proceeds to

make

the necessary corrections, and does so with

such ease and fluency and fulness as would astonish the ripest scholar.

They

did, indeed, bring gall

and wormwood
to rectify them.

to

young Hemsterhuys.

He had

been well aware of the importance of these quotations, and had


all his skill

endeavoured with

Hence Bentley's easy


and
for several

mastery of the subject seemed maddening to Hemsterhuys who was so


distressed, that

he resolved to give up Greek forever

months did actually not allow himself to open a Greek book. ' Reitz (1695-1778) was head master of the local school at Utrecht.
It

was

in this position that

he assisted Hemsterhuys; but

later for a

period of thirty years he was Professor of History and Eloquence in the


University.

354

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


of

Professorship

Greek

in

Leyden, where he revived

Hellenic studies so successfully that scholars from other

lands flocked to hear him, while he was joined by his most

famous

pupil,

David Ruhnken.^

Ruhnken had been

studying Greek at Wittenberg; but so famous was Hemsterhuys, that even in the

German

universities students

were advised
tion
in

to seek the

Netherlands for the best instrucliterature

the

Hellenic

and

language.

Such

renown had sprung from the arduous and brilliant labours


of Hemsterhuys,

Oudendorp, L. K. Valckenaer, Peter

Wesseling, and one of the foreign contingent, Jacques


Philippe d'Orville, whose studies were
the Netherlands.
rivalry

made

entirely in
sort

There had been, indeed, a

of

between the Grecians and the Latinists at Leyden,


universities.
classics,

and the other great Dutch

For a time Latin was regarded as the chief of the


while Greek was, as
it

were, an oriental

tongue to be

grouped with Arabic and Hebrew.


his

But Hemsterhuys and

colleague

had

taken Greek out of this unnatural


it

position,

and had taught

and

its

great

importance,

with brilliant effort and complete success.

On

the other

hand, Latin for a time had become a sort of stamping

ground for dullards,

until

Franz van Oudendorp

be-

came a

professor at Leyden, with the result that Greek

and Latin were each represented by a


lating power.
'

man

of stimuCaesar,

Oudendorp's Lucan, his editions of


' 1 696-1 76 1.

1 7 23-1 798.

THE PERIOD or NATIONALISM

355

Suetonius, and Apuleius were excellent specimens of exegetical

work.
Period.

The Anglo-Dutch

It

has been said that the

Protestant countries in the North had, by a natural sym-

pathy, gradually been drawing together after the outbreak


of Protestantism.
scholars

But although the very

early English
Ire-

whom we

have mentioned as flourishing in

land and in the abbeys were in close contact with the


schools of France and the splendid Italian seats of learning,

not so
teenth

much can be said for the Englishmen of the sevencentury. They had, however, a certain full-bodied
classicism.

enjoyment of the pagan side of

They were not

averse to the songs of the Goliardi; and, as a matter of


pride, they patronised learning at

Oxford and Cambridge

and some of the public

schools.

We
came

have already seen that many young Englishmen


to the

Netherlands to study for a while, and the

Netherlands were a source of English classical learning.

good type of these cultivated Englishmen was


Savile,^

Sir
to

Henry

an Oxford man, who was tutor


Savile

in

Greek

Queen

Elizabeth.

was a wealthy,

high-spirited

man, of much
serious

learning, although his learning


sort.

was

of a

and painstaking

He

translated four books

of Tacitus, the Historic

and

also

the Agricola.

Fur-

thermore, he wrote an excursus on the military usages of


the

Romans

pamphlet which was translated into

356

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


Later he became Provost
disci-

Latin at Heidelberg in 1601.


at Eton,
pline.

and there he introduced a stem and austere

He
I.

was one of those who were associated

in pre-

paring the authorised version of the Bible, and was knighted

by James
Sir

Henry endeavoured,

as a

work by which he should

be remembered,
tom.

to prepare a great edition of St. Chrysos-

He

secured manuscript collections from Paris, but

could not get a font of the royal type; whereupon, Savile

bought a special

font,

employed the King's

printer,

and

oversaw the actual printing of the eight

folio

volumes

which were done

at

Eton

at a cost of

8000, the paper


in

alone costing 2000.

Casaubon, who was


it

England

while this work was going on, describes

accurately as

produced privafa
piece
of

impensa,

animo

regio.

No

master-

English

scholarship

had

heretofore

been

so

splendidly executed

and evinced such breadth of

erudi-

tion joined with lavishness of outlay.

Savile was, indeed,

fitting

type of the magnificent English scholar of the

early
tastes,

school.
his

Free-handed

in
felt

gratifying
all

his

scholarly

generosity

was

over

England.

He

collected manuscripts, patronised other scholars;

founded

professorships at Oxford,
the

and aided Bodley

in founding

famous Bodleian Library.


likewise,

Apart from his love of scholarship, Savile was,


chivalrous in manner, and

somewhat

affected in his speech.

He

regarded himself as

"an

extraordinarily

handsome

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


man, no lady having a
tion of himself
is

357
His apprecia-

finer

complexion."

commemorated by a
and

portrait at Oxford,

another at Eton, and by sculptured monuments at Merton


College, Oxford,
at Eton.

Associates of Savile were

Andrew Downes,' one


Cambridge
that he

of the revisers of the

King James

version of the Bible; but so fond


is

was he

of his haunts at

said never to have attended the meettill

ings of the revisers "

he was either fetched or threat-

ened with a Pursivant."


his

He was
it

especially noted for

knowledge of Greek, and

is

described by Fuller as

" composed of Greek and industry."


Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam,^ entered Trinity College,

Cambridge,
said to

at the age of twelve;


chiefly

and as a student he

is

have browsed
in Latin;

among

Cicero, Livy, Sallust,

and Caesar

and

in

Greek among Homer, XenoLater he came to care


little

phon, Plato, and Aristotle.

for Aristotle, while his attitude toward ancient philosophy


is

given in a sentence by Lord Macaulay:

"Two

words

form the key of Baconian philosophy


gress."

utility,

and pro-

Bacon

is

unique because he regretted that there


absence of any history of learning.
the famous

was a

noticeable
striking
is

Most

Novum Organum

(1620),

which, by

its title,

declares the author to enter the philo-

sophic field against the logical doctrine of Aristotle.


Aristotle thought that learning should
fore,

As

be useful and, there-

content to be stationary, Bacon proceeds to develop


'

1549-1628.

==

1561-1629.

358

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


fruitful,

a system which shall be

and given

to the develop-

ment

of

new

learning.!
in
this

There remain
Valckenaer,

earlier

period Ludwig Caspar

a professor in Leyden

who made
and

rather

noticeable editions of the Hippolytus Euripides, and sundry editions of:


(2)

PhasnisscB of
Poets,

(i)

The Bucolic

The Fragments of Callimachus,

(3)

Diatribe de Aris-

tohulo.

Valckenaer's lectures were attended by English

students as were those of Ruhnken, another professor at

Leyden, who

is to

be remembered
in the

chiefly

by

his Lexicon
critical his-

to the Platonic

words

Timceus and his

tory of the

Greek

orators.^

Daniel Wyttenbach,' a Swiss

by

birth,

and educated

at

Marburg, studied

also at the

German

University of Gottingen.

He abandoned

Ger-

many
ing to

to live

at Leyden under Ruhnken, after which he


for twenty-eight years, then return-

taught at

Amsterdam

Leyden

for seventeen years.

Wyttenbach produced
texts,

a complete edition of Plutarch's Moralia, with Greek

and Latin

translation, with

two volumes of notes, and two

of an index, containing seven


'

himdred pages.

It

is

inter-

Another interesting writer and scholar of the same time was Robert

Burton,

who produced,
is

after

much
is

quiet study, the famous

Anatomy
is

of

Melancholy (1621). This volume

a delightful blending of what

grave,

and what
essence of

gay,

filled

with apt and quaint quotations that contain the


so that from

human wisdom,

them many a gem has been


L.

drawn without acknowledgment.


^

See Wyttenbach, Vita Ruhnkenii, pp. 67-300, pp. 175-181;


cit.

Muller, op.

pp. 84-88, 101-103.

1746-1820.

THE PERIOD OP NATIONALISM

359

esting with regard to the scholarly relations existing be-

tween Germany and Great Britain, that even when the

two countries were

at war, at the

it

was decided

to print this great

monumental work

Oxford Press.

The

instalments

of manuscript were sent successively to the Press through

the British minister at the Hague, and several of these

boxes were protected in a chest covered with pitch, that

was mislaid

for

two years and a

half, "

during

all

which

time," says Dr. Sandys, " the editor (Thomas Gaisford)

was anxiously imcertain

as to

its

fate."

In the course of time both Oxford and Cambridge began


to

spread their stately

halls,

and

to cultivate the

new

learnit

ing with Greek restored in

some of the colleges where


There was

had

become almost unknown.

at first a feud be-

tween the Latinists, who had thought the


sufficient,

Roman

tongue

and

their

fellow-students the
respectively,

two bands de-

scribing

themselves,

as

" Greeks "

and

" Trojans."

Their animosity at times became so rampant,

that parties of

them took

to fighting in the streets.

But

the progress of learning went steadily on,-until England

possessed classicists

who were

deserving of being matched

with the great

men upon

the Continent.

Charles

Bumey

declared, about the year 1800, that England

had possessed

a Pleiad: Richard Bentley (1662-1742); Richard Dawes


1 s

Sandys, op.
1

cit. ii.

p. 463.
critical discourse

757-1818.

He

wrote a

on the metres of ^Eschy-

lus (1809).

360

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


Jeremiah

(1708-1766);

Markland
Richard

(1693-1776);

John

Taylor

(1703-1766);

Porson

(1759-1808);

Thomas Tyrwhitt
(1713-1785).!
'

(i 730-1 786);

and Jonathan Toup

Andrew Downes

(d.

1628)

is

associated with Savile's gigantic edition

of St. Chrysostom.

Greek was largely restored by him in Cambridge,

where he held a professorship of Greek for forty years (1586-1625).

John Taylor
of

(i

703-1 766) edited Lysias, ^schylus, and several orations Peter Elmsley (1773-1825) made, besides an edition
excellent annotations

Demosthenes.

of Thucydides,

some

on various dramas.

Thomas
so that
in

Gataker (1574-1654), a Puritan scholar, published a Greek text of Marcus AureUus, accompanied
this

by a Latin version, and a commentary,


any
classical writer

book was "the

earliest edition of

pubhshed

England with
there are

original

annotations"

(Hallam).

In his introduction

many

observations on the Stoic philosophy, and

many

illustra-

tive passages

from the Greek and Latin writers are given in the


i.

note.

Morhof,

in his Polyhistor,

p.

926 (Wiemar, 1747), placed Gataker among


read;

the six Protestants

who were deeply

and Gassendi

calls

him "a

scholar of enormous reading."


jurist,

very versatile investigator was the

161 7 brought forth

John Selden (1584-1654), who sat in the Long Parliament, and in two works of which the first {The History of Tythes)
in English, while the second treatise (De Diis Syris)

was written
Latin, and
ever,
is

was

in

had a

certain mysticism ruiming through

it.

His name, how-

far better

Marbles.

known from its connection with the famous Arundel These marbles were purchased in Assyria by an agent of the They were shipped to England, and placed in They consisted of two large fragtable, which as a whole was called Marmor
and continues
third,

second Earl of Arundel.

the gardens of Arundel House (1627).

ments

of

a,

chronological

Parium.

The

table begins with Cecrops,

as far as 354 B.C.

The
262

lost fragment,
B.C.,

which would have been the


its

ended with 263-

the year of

composition.

Selden deciphered and interpreted

the inscription, and pubhshed the


careful notes, description,

Marmora ArundelUana with the most and much learned information. When the
were gazed at by multitudes at Arunpraise.

marbles

first

came

to England, they

del House,

and Selden won universal

About 1667, John Eveljm's

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM

361

Of
in

these seven men, Richard Bentley

was the most


indeed,

memorable master of Greek and Latin.

He comes,

some

respects close to the great Continental scholars,

having the brilliancy of Muret, the versatility of Salmasius,

and some

of the

depth of reading which was

Scaliger's.

He was

a burly, contentious Englishman, with a violent

diary describes the famous marbles as broken, and "scattered up and

down about the garden, exceedingly impaired by the corrosive air of London." Some of these fragments had been used in repairing the house, while the upper half of the Marmor Parium was built into the chimney,
whence
it

was rescued once more by Selden.

At

Eveljoi's request 250

inscribed pieces of marble were given to the University of Oxford.

Only

136 arrived there.

First they were inserted in the walls of the Shelfinally

donian Theatre, and

were placed in the University

Galleries.

Milton has been spoken of already as a controversialist and

classicist,

but

belongs to the category of poets rather than that of professional linguists.

He was a wide reader,


of

wrote a number of Latin verses, "in the springtime

an ardent and
less

brilliant fancy."

His Tractate on Education (1642)

is,

however,

the work of a poet than of a schoolmaster and encydopsedist,

since he arranged the classic authors according to a plan

which he im-

agined will form an "easie and delightful Book of Education.''

He

com-

mends
It
is

also the

famous Italians

for their

commentaries and

criticisms.

Castelvetro, Tasso, and

Mazzoni are those

whom he

especially mentions.

interesting to note that he advises the Italian pronunciation of Latin

and apparently of Greek. John Hales (d. 1656), and the still more famous (d. 1667), and the dreamy "Cambridge Platonists" are an interesting but unimportant group of scholars. John Evelyn (1620Jeremy Taylor
1706), though best

known for

his English diary, translated into his native

tongue the

first

book of Lucretius with a commentary

(1656).

very

Lucy Hutchinson, who translated the entire six books of Lucretius, dedicating them to the Earl of Anglesey. Her lack of sympathy with the poet is shown by her speaking of him as "this Dog,'' and of "the foppish, casuall dance of attorns," as "an impious doclearned lady was Mrs.
trine."

Thomas

Creech, a fellow of All Souls, put forth a third transia-

362

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

temper, and a pride so great, that


Stillingfleet,

when he was

chaplain

to

Bishop of Worcester, a nobleman, who was


said
to

the Bishop's guest,

him

after dinner:

" That " Yes,"

chaplain of yours
tion o Lucretius
Press.

is

a very extraordinary man."


edition of
it

and an

with notes (1695) at the Oxford

Creech was a

man of good

taste,

and a more

serious scholar than

most of his contemporaries.


of Horace,

Besides his Lucretius, he translated portions

Theocritus, Manilius, Ovid, Juvenal, and Plutarch.

The

death of John Dryden occurred in the same year as that of Creech (1700).

This manly poet had translated into metrical English not only Vergil,

but also Horace, Perseus, and Juvenal.


spirited than Pope's in his
ing,

His renderings were

far

more

Homer

though Pope, by his neatness of phras-

brought the great epic poet into the hands of many. Pope, however,

like the elder

Dumas had

collaborators, so that
of others.

much of what

passes as

his

work

is

in reality the

work

Furthermore, a rhymed version


else to

compelled him to depart from the original, or


that the best-known couplet in his Odyssey
is

supplement

it;
:

so

partly an interpolation

True

friendship's laws are

by

this rule exprest.

Welcome

the coming, speed the parting guest.

xv.

74.

The seventeenth century was,


son,

in fact, one of classical taste.

Joseph Addiespecially
so-

John Dryden, John Evelyn, and Joseph Spence were

affected

by the

influence of Bentley, but perhaps even

more by the

called classic revival in France, of

which we
serious

shall

have something
study

to say

hereafter.

Worthy

of

mention

for

classical

Ruddiman
through

(1674-1757), a Scotch printer and bookseller,


the

is Thomas who produced

a practical grammar, entitled Rudiments of

Latin Tongue, which went

many

editions,

was reprinted

in

England, and imported into the

American

colonies.

His more elaborate work

Grammaticce

Latince

Institutiones

was excellent

for its treatment of S3mtax.

He also printed
who had
Jere-

the Latin works of George Buchanan, that truculent Scotchman


assailed

Queen Mary

in Latin verse,

and had made a metrical rendering


credit than he deserved.

of the Psalms, which brought

him more

miah Markland, already mentioned

as one of

Bumey's

Pleiad,

was a

scholar of note, producing an edition of the Silvce of Statius,

and showing

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


replied the Bishop.

363

" If he only

had the

gift of humility,

he would be the most extraordinary


Bentley was a Cambridge

man

in

Europe."

man

(St.

John's College), and

took his degree high


chaplain to Bishop

among

the wranglers.

Later when

Stillingfleet,

who had a remarkably


sounding deeply
noting the nicest points,

fine library, Bentley read omnivorously,

the vast reaches of classic lore

the most delicate shades of meaning, the cadences in verse,

and the subtler laws

of prose.

After several minor writings,

largely in the shape of letters, giving privately

much

aid to

foreign and English scholars, he published, as an appendix


to

an edition of John Malalas of Antioch,


to

his

own now
he dealt

celebrated Letter

Mill (1691).
Attic

In

this letter

most acutely with the

Drama,

identifying Themis,
history,

Minos, and Auleas of the legendary

as being

actually the historical dramatists, Thespis, Ion of Chios,

and ^schylus.

He

likewise discovered the metrical con-

tinuity {syanphceid)

which
less

exists in the anapasstic system.

His monograph was


yet in
it

than one hundred pages in bulk,


sixty authors,

he

criticised

and explained more than

Greek and Latin.


tion

By

this

achievement he

won

a reputait

among

scholars

on the Continent, who were,


to appreciate

must

be confessed, better able

him than

his

own

clever classicists in Great Britain.


critical ability in his

treatment of the Epistles of Cicero to Brutus, and

of three plays of Euripides.


ing,

He was
:

familiar with the Continental learnthis

and said of

his

own work " Probably it will be a long time before

6ort of learning will revive in England."

364

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Bentley had a boundless ambition in these years.


projected a collection of the fragments of
poets,
all

He
But

the Greek

and another

of all the

Greek lexicographers.
sufficient to place

his Epistola

ad Millium was alone


all living

him

at the

head of

English scholars.

Pattison:

left in

To

quote

Mark

The ease with which, by a


which had been

stroke of the pen, he restores passages

hopeless corruption

by the

editors of the

Chronicle, the certainty of the emendation,

the relevant material, are in a style totally


fiil

and the command over difierent from the care-

and laborious learning


students

of
it

Hody,

Mill, or

ChUmead. To a

small

circle of classical

was at once apparent that there had


these few pages had

arisen in England a critic,

whose attainments were not to be measured

by the ordinary academical standard, but whom


sufficed to place

by the

side of the great Grecians of a former age.

Bentley's only fault

was a pugnacity and dogmaticism,

which

in after years

made him

as

many enemies

as his

learning and genuine benevolence


private
life

made him

friends.

In

he was charitable

to

a degree, and young

scholars found in

him an

unfailing source of aid.^

For

some years

after his Letter to Mill, his energy


it

was

extraor-

dinary, though

took no shape in literary form.

He

won

recognition from Continental scholars, and

became
labori-

librarian of the ously.

Royal Library,

in

which he worked

The

University of Cambridge asked


for the Press;

him

to obtain

fonts of

Greek and Latin type

and these he
aided Evelyn

had

cast in beautiful

form in Holland.
'

He

Supra, p. 351-52.

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


in his

365

work on ancient

coins.

He

corresponded with such

Continental scholars as his illustrious contemporary, F. A.

Wolf, and supplied Grsevius with numerous suggestions,

and

especially

an invaluable

collection of the fragments of

Callimachus.

The work by which


tation

Bentley

is

best

known

his Disserhave
Bentley

on the Epistles of Phalaris

need not be mentioned


as spurious.

here at length.

The

so-called Epistles of Phalaris

already been suspected by

many

had promised

to

prove their spuriousness, which he did

in a short paper.

This paper was resented by the Oxford

editor of Phalaris, the

Hon. Charles Boyle.

Boyle

at-

tacked Bentley, and in so doing called to his, aid his

numerous

friends,

who saw

in

this controversy

a battle
freely

between Oxford and Cambridge, and who, therefore,


lent Boyle all the assistance in
their power.

The

result

was a
istry,

tract marked

by shallow learning and ingenious soph-

but

full

of clever malice
it

and amusing wit.

These

last

qualities
it

made

good reading even for the unlettered, and


at once into a third edition.

was widely read, going almost

Bentley then replied in his immortal Dissertation, in which

he put forth a part of

his gigantic powers.

In profound

scholarship, as in wit, he crushed his adversary, so that no

answer could possibly be given, nor was one ever

tried.

Soon afterward he was nominated to the headship of


Trinity College, Cambridge, most splendid in
its

traditions"

and

in the magnificence of

its

foundation.

It

had, how-

366
ever,
idlers

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


in

1700,

become

the dwelling-place of

cultivated
for the

men who dined and wined and cared


life.

little

scholar's

To them

Bentley came as an unwelcome

reformer, riding roughshod over their traditions and their


tastes.

He

diverted the college funds to purely academic


strict discipline,

uses,

he introduced

and, in

fact, as

De

Quincey wrote, "

He made

Trinity College at once his


rest of his life."

reward and his scourge for the


test,

This con-

which has been styled


killed a less
it all

would have

"The Thirty sturdy man than

Years' War,"
Bentley.

But

he fought through
naturally his.

with the combative spirit that was


it

More than once

seemed as though he must

go under in the face of an almost unanimous opposition.

At one time he was deprived of


his headship

his

academic degree, and

was taken from him; yet when he died, he was


victor, secure in the possession

an undisputed

both of

his

degrees and of his headship of Trinity.


It is

an interesting fact that

all

of Bentley's published

work represents

the casual hours that he could steal from

his struggle against the enemies within his

academic house-

hold.

This fact gives us one more proof of the man's


his

immense scholarship and


line of

profound reading, every

which was at the disposal of his wonderful memory.

In his books

we

see,

not the carefully finished work of a

leisured scholar, but the


is

mere play of a
This

giant,

whose mind

really

bent on other things.


on Phalaris; and
it is

is

true of his Dis-

sertation

just as true of his critical

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


edition of

367

Horace (1712),

in his

Terence (1726), in his

Milton (1732), and in his Manilius (1739), and the famous


Critica Sacra with
its

notes on the Greek and Latin text

of the

New

Testament.
critic will

An

admirable account of Bentley's work as a


in Sir

be found

Richard Jebb's

brilliant little

monograph,

published in the English


will

Men

of Letters Series.^

There
the

be shown, with many interesting

illustrations,

almost preternatural ingenuity of Bentley's mind.


best showed
itself in

This

the elucidation of passages in


utterly despaired of

Greek

and Latin, which had been


ing scholars.

by preced-

To throw

a dazzling light into the deepest

darkness was Bentley's forte?

He

arrived at his results

by happy combination
and a
gift for

of vast reading, minute scholarship,

conjecture which few have ever possessed.

First of all he

was a

critic,

and

in a large

measure he was

the kind of critic


call

who

relies largely

upon what the French


to

sentiment critique

that

is

say,

upon an
in

in-

stinctive

knowledge of what the author had


naturally express himself.

mind, and

of

how he would

Bentley for-

mulated

this theory of his in the

famous sentence: Nobis

et ratio et res

ipsa centum codicibus potiores sunt?


of the three instruments of

It

was Bentley's command

criticism

mentioned here that gave him his sureness and


'

London and New York,


Cf. Jebb, op.
cii.,

last ed. 1889.

' '

pp. 139-140, and p.


iii.

an.

In his note on Horace, Carm.

27. 13.

368
dexterity.

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

He

possessed the " critical sentiment " in a


(res)
,

high degree, he was a master of his subject

and he was
his great

famiHar with the manuscripts

(codices)

Hence

success in conjectural emendation.

He became

a new

leader in the field of criticism, largely because he applied


to his task

each of these three aids; and so long as he gave

each of them an equal share in his work, he remained unrivalled in his

chosen

field.

He

leaned, however, too

much

toward the instinctive

critical

sentiment,

and

therefore,

while his emendations often strike one by their brilliancy

and

ingenuity, they are not convincing.

And

so, for exin-

ample, out of the hundred or more changes which he


troduced into his edition of Horace, only four or
five

have

been accepted
times.

to take their place in the texts of

modem

Hence Bentley must be regarded

chiefly as

a pioneer.

He was
methods.

the

first to

point the

way toward

truly scientific

Others have followed in his steps, and have


all

passed beyond him, but their achievements are


Bentley's inspiration and example.

due

to

He

serves also as a

warning

for

when he
all

tried to

make

criticism purely subto flounder in a

jective, he,

with

his powers,

began

bog

of error.

Thus

in his edition of the

Paradise Lost] under-

taken at the request of Queen Caroline, he evolved the

absurd notion that the text as


as Milton wrote
it,

we have
had been
it

it is

not the text

but that

it

altered in places

by a copyist through whose hands

had passed.

There-

THE PERIOD or NATIONALISM


fore Bentley goes through the book,

369
entirely

and by an
it

subjective method, endeavours to restore

to its original

form.

The

result is

both ludicrous and pathetic, and

may

serve as a warning to those

who

think that merely by put-

ting themselves in place of an author, they can think his

thoughts, and rewrite what he wrote.

In

later years the


this audacity.

Swedish scholars have shown something of

The French
while the

school have held to an intense conservatism,


school, to

German

which we

shall presently refer,

learned from |_Bentley's best work the value of correcting

one source by another, and using the


with caution.

critical

sentiment

Bentley's emendations are dazzling examples of

what

a combination of learning and genius can


also

effect.

To him
critical

we owe

the discovery of the

digamma
for a

in its relation to

the prosody of
revision of the

Homer, the suggestion

new and

New Testament, and the flood of light which


It
is

he throws upon the early Latin metres in his introduction


to Terence.

strange that not until the nineteenth

century was his genius fully recognised in England.

Eng-

lishmen thought of him mainly as the contentious Master


of
Trinity,

as

quarrelsome,

pugnacious creature
all

whereas, even in his youth, his

name was known

over
late

the Continent as the greatest scholar of his time.

As

as 1833, Bishop

Monk, who wrote

his

life,^

regrets that

he

See The Life of Richard Bentley, 2d ed.

(London, 1833).

This book

37

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


his time

"wasted

upon conjectural criticism"

instead of

turning his attention to Theology.

But the Germans have


is

never ceased to give him the praise that


" Thus," says Mahly, " Bentley
is

his

due.

not merely one among

the great classical scholars, but he inaugurates a


in the art of criticism.

new

era

He opened
its

new

path.

With

him, criticism obtained


hitherto
offered

majority.

When

scholars had

suggestions

and conjectures, Bentley,

with unlimited control over the whole material of learning,

gave decisions."

Bunsen

styled

him:

"The

founder of

historical philology."

Jacob Bemays, with rare enthusiasm,


at-

wrote: " Corruptions which had hitherto defied every

tempt, even of the mightiest, were removed by a touch of


the fingers of this British

Samson."

But in the England

of his day, even the

most learned men

were so far below him as not


his powers.

to appreciate the greatness of

When

his Dissertation appeared, his opponents


;

at

Oxford were aware that he had routed them

yet their

learning

was too

slight to

make them understand how

utterly they

were crushed; and as for the British educated


reality

public,

it

supposed for a long time that Boyle was in

the victor.
his

Thus when Bentley

died, in his eightieth year,


his long struggle

own countrymen remembered him by

in Trinity College.

They hardly dreamed

that in Richard
intellect,

Bentley England had produced the richest


has more to do with Bentley's quarrels and personal

and

affairs

than with his

work as a

critic

and

scholar.

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM

371

the most remarkable type of scholarship that can be found


in the annals of Classical Philology in

Great Britain.^

Contemporary with Bentley and following him are a

number

of learned

men who

are chronicled

by English-

men, but who made no great impression upon the history


of

European

scholarship, though

one of them, Richard

Dawes,' in his emendations to the Greek dramatists, was


followed in some instances by Brunck, and

was
is

after-

wards confirmed by the Ravenna MS.


than an Englishman
Christopher
Pitt,'

One who

other

may find

it

worth while here

to recall

who made an

excellent translation of the

Mneid, and another of Vida's Art of Poetry.


Gray,^ best

Thomas
a Country

known

to posterity for his Elegy in

Churchyard, was a writer of very careful and delicate

Latin poetry; while he was mentioned by some as among


the few Englishmen of his time

who thoroughly under-

stood Plato.

Richard Hurd^ should be mentioned beMonk, already


;

^The
cited
;

principal biographies of Bentley are those of


Bentley.

Mahly, Richard
viii.

Eine Biographie (Leipzig, 1868)


ii.

Ber;

nays, Fhilol. Mus.

1-24

Wolf, Kleine Schriften,

1030-1094

De

Quincey, Complete Works,

vi.

35-180;

Nicoll,

Great Scholars;
iii;

Mark

Pattison in the Encyclopedia Britannica, vol.

and Jebb,

Bentley,

2d ed. (New York and London, 1899).

The works
tion

of Bentley

were collected and edited by Dyce, 3

vols.

(London, 1836).

Separate works have been edited as follows: Disserta-

on

the Epistles of Fhalaris, edited

by W. Wagner
;

(Berlin, 1874)

Horace, edited by Zangemeister (Berlin, 1869)

and

Critica Sacra, edited

by A. A.
''

Ellis

(Cambridge 1862).
* \TL']-\'J'J\. ' 1

I709-I766.

1699-1748.

720-1808.

372

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

cause of his aesthetic commentary on the Ars Poetica of

Horace, and the Episiola ad Augustum which had the

unusual honour at that time of being translated into Ger-

man.
able

One cannot pause

to dwell

upon scholars who were


their

and sometimes worthy of passing notice from

Continental contemporaries.

Perhaps an exception may


at
his

be made in favour of Samuel Musgrave,^ a student Leyden, as well as at Oxford, who numbered among
correspondents foreigners of

such distinction as Ruhn-

ken, Schweighauser, and Emesti.

He

edited the whole of

Euripedes, and twice visited Paris in order to


careful collation of the text.

make

Thomas

Tyrwhitt, one of
lifetime,

the Pleiad,

was much admired

during his

and

was

said to have a

knowledge of almost every European

tongue.

Certainly his literary taste


led the

was

excellent.

It

was he who

way

in detecting the

famous

forgeries
criti-

of Chatterton.

He

likewise

edited

Chaucer, and

cised Shakespeare with real acuteness.

In some ways he

was a worthy
covered

follower of Bentley's method, for he distraces of Babrius in the fables of

many

^sop.

His

critical

notes on

many

authors,

and

especially his

valuable edition of Aristotle's Poetics, with a Latin version,

gained him recognition from France and Germany.


other Englishmen
until
'

But

we

reach the
780.

may be omitted from this short Hst name of Samuel Parr.^ Parr was essen-

1 732-1

"

1747-1825.
Nicoll, op.

See Field, Life of Samuel Parr, 2 vols. (London, 1828)


cit.

and

pp. 139-187.

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


tially

373

a Latinist, and practised the composition of Latin

epitaphs and various inscriptions which gave opportunity


for the cultivation of a stately style.

He was

fond of
very

saying with regard to one friend or another, " It


well to say that So-and-so write an inscription ? "
is

is all

a good scholar, but can he

He

held that even in Oxford he

could find but one inscription which resembles the models


of antiquity, while in Westminster

Abbey he could not

find

even one.
den, and

Parr wrote a Latin preface to a work of Bellen-

made

it

so elaborate

and

so closely modelled

on

Cicero that this preface was studied in the schools, and

even in Cambridge, as a model of Latin prose, in


respect resembling the Latin of Muretus
nent.

this

upon the Conti-

Macaulay^ has spoken of Parr's vast treasure of

erudition as " too often buried in the earth, too often

paraded with injudicious and inelegant ostentation, but


still

precious, massive,
fact,

and splendid."

In

Parr was not one

who

concentrated his powers

upon a

single object.
classics

His reading was remarkably wide,


in philosophy,

both in the

and

and yet he always

failed of being

supremely great.

Looking over the annals

of scholarship in the eighteenth century, one finds between

Bentley and Porson


that
is

(whom we have

still

to consider) less

remarkable in the way

of severe study than in a

taste for elegant criticism.

Bentley's strange edition of


its

the Paradise Lost was, in


*

way, a piece of English

Essays, p. 642 (London, i86i).

374
exegesis;
tions,

HISTORY OE CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

and we have noted some of the various


Pitt's version of the

transla-

such as

Mneid, and of Vida's


truly in a

Art of Poetry.

So

Thomas Gray wrote more


time,

vein of criticism than of creation, while Kurd's aesthetic

commentary

is

remarkable for

its

and Tyrwhitt's

exposure of Chatterton, like his criticism of Shakespeare,

was

essentially the

work

of

an

analytic mind,

which

dealt

with comparison and the application of the fundamental


principles of the art

which judges

art.

By
town
odd.

far the greatest English scholar after Bentley

was

Richard Porson,i the son of a parish clerk in a small


in Norfolkshire.

Porson's personality
is

was extremely

In his prime he

described as having been nearly

six feet high,

with a bulging forehead, a


his

Roman

nose, and

an expressive mouth, while


found thought.
partial friends.

countenance suggested pro-

Such
If

is

the description of his, perhaps,


cere-

he was so impressive looking on

monious occasions, he was certainly otherwise


life.

in his daily

His dress was slovenly and seemed


;

to

be thrown

upon him

his

hands were ink-stained, while his snortings


re-

and puffings and absent-minded contortions must have


sembled those which Macaulay has ascribed
Johnson.
it is

to

Dr. Samuel

Porson was, likewise, over-fond of drink, and

related of
;

him

that even at official dinners he drank

to excess

while after the guests had departed he would


table, sipping

walk about the

up

the dregs which remained

ii7S9-i8o8.

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


in the glasses of the others.
lants,

375

When

deprived of stimu-

he had a strange craving for such things as soap,

cologne,

and

ink,

which he would lap up with avidity

wherever he could find them.

His mental powers were, however, remarkable.

As a

mere

child he evinced a high degree of

memory,

so that a
to enter

number

of gentlemen provided

him with funds


in

Eton and afterward Trinity College


he took various honours,
xmtil

Cambridge.

There

he reached a fellowship.

The

unfailing generosity of his friends also gave

him an

annual income of ;ioo, and he was unanimously elected


to the professorship in

Greek, though the income from

this

chair

was only

;4o.

Two

years before his death he was


Institution.

made

librarian of the

London

In

all

the

various posts that were held by him, he studiously neglected


his duties, but

no one called him

to account.

He was
eating

considered a prodigy, as
soap, as

much

so

when he was
Gottfried

when he was overthrowing

Hermann

as to nice points in Hellenic metres.

Porson was naturally an indolent person, and yet he


accomplished an enormous amount of work, and did an

enormous amount of reading.

There

is

a tradition that
to

when he made

the journey

by mail-coach from Oxford

London, he crammed the pockets of

his long top-coat with

editions of the various classics printed in small type,

and

by the swaying lamp


painful assiduity.

of the coach, pored over

them with

Among

the really important results of

376

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


(i) his

Porson's learning are


scription

restoration of the
;

Greek

in-

on the Rosetta Stone


(3)

(2) his critical edition of

four plays of Euripides;


edition of his

the preface to the second


of
to

Hecuba,

in

which he completely disposed

the ingenious theories of

Hermann; and

(4) his Letters

Travis, one of his early works, yet very important, be-

cause in

it

he proved that the passage in the

New

Testathat

ment

(i

St.

John

V. 7)

which speaks of the " three


is

bear witness in heaven "

wholly spurious.

This opinion
scholars
first

had been held by Erasmus, and by many other

down
made

to the
it

time of Bentley, but

it

was Porson who

a certainty.

Porson^ was essentially a Grecian, and his Latinity was

not so remarkable as that of Samuel Parr; but as a Hellenist

he excited the admiration of Continental scholars, with


he maintained a continual
Villoison,

whom
died,

correspondence,

e.g.

Ruhnken, Heyne,

and Hermann.

In 1808 he

and was

buried in Trinity College, at the foot of the

statue of Sir Isaac

Newton.

A portrait of him hangs in


and another
to

the

dining

room

of Trinity Lodge,
If

in the Univer-

sity Library.

we wish

see a perpetual
;

and

ever

See Watson, Life of Richard Porson (London, 1861)


;

Tlie Table

Talk of Samuel Rogers (London, 1856)

and Luard, Cambridge Essays

(London, 1857)

also
;

(Cambridge, 1866)
England,
text
vi. p.

The Correspondence of Richard Porson by Luard NicoU, op. cit. pp. 91-138, and Sandys, In Social

300

foil.

Note

The

authenticity of the traditional


Burgess,

on the "three heavenly witnesses" was defended by John


finally

Bishop of Salisbury, but was

and absolutely refuted by Dr.

Turton, afterwards Bishop of Ely.

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


present

377
shall find
it

monument and memorial


Greek type
in

to

him,

we
all

in the beautiful

which almost

our

modem
his

texts are printed.

This was cast after Person's death


letters in
is

from the

clear

and elegant

which he copied

Greek manuscripts, and which


as the " Porsonian type."

now everywhere known

From

the middle of the eighteenth century until nearly

the middle of the nineteenth, such renown as English

learning shed

upon English scholarship was

in

small

measure due
sities.

to the influence of the great

English univer-

The

colleges,

both at Oxford and at Cambridge,

were sunken

into

a sort of lethargy.

The

Fellows en-

joyed their stipends in their beautiful academic homes,

not by any means neglecting the routine reading of the


classics,

but doing nothing for the advancement of

classical

learning,
cellars,

and caring more

for the fine vintages of the

and the deep potations with which they ended


If

every day, than for plainer living and higher thinking.

men
this

of real distinction

came from among

their

number,

was

in

spite
it.

of the university influence

and not

because of

Thus, Lord Chesterfield spoke of the

"rust"

of

Cambridge;

and even West, the


:

friend of

the poet Gray, writing to the latter, says


"Consider

me

very seriously here in a strange country,


call

in-

habited by things that


Arts,

themselves Doctors and Masters of


ale,

a country flowing with syllogisms and


unknown."

where Horace

and

Vergil are equally

378

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Gray, answering him, quotes the words of the Hebrew


prophet, and insists that Isaiah

had Cambridge no

less

than Babylon

in

view when he spoke of wild beasts and

wild asses, of an inhabitation of dragons and a court for


owls.

A more serious indictment was that of England's greatest


historian,

Edward Gibbon,

uttered in stem and stately

language against the University of Oxford.

After giving

the particulars of his unprofitable stay there, he spoke the famous words which have

become

so widely

known

"To

the University of Oxford, I acknowledge no obligation, and

she wDl as readily renounce


claim her for a mother.
College
life.
;

me

for a son, as I

am

willing to dis-

I spent fourteen

months at Magdalen

they proved the most idle and unprofitable of my whole The reader wOl pronounce between the school and the
^

scholar."

It is

Edward Gibbon who,

thrust forth from Oxford in

his seventeenth year, because

he chose to become a Catholic,

wrote with

all

the minute application

and research

of an
later

accomplished scholar the greatest existing history of

Rome.

From

childhood he had been remarkable for


fed.

his
It

unusual memory, which his abundant reading

was

in

Rome
to

in 1751 that the first conception of his great

work came

him.

The

plan then formed was originally

limited to the decay of the imperial city, but after years of

reading and reflection


1

it

was expanded
(New York,

to

embrace
;

the

See Morison, Gibbon, pp. 7-10

1879)

and Lang,

Oxford, pp. 199-218 (Philadelphia, 1906).

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


Empire, as
its title

379
the

{The Decline and Fall of

Roman
in 1772,

Empire) shows.

He

began

to write this

book

after twenty-one years of reading

and

research,

and pub-

lished the first

volume

in 1776.

Two more
it

volumes were
in 1788.
classic

published in 1781, and the

last three

volumes

From

the

moment

of

its

appearance,

ranked as a

of the classics, nor even to this


criticism discovered
structure.

day has the most searching


in
its

an important error

massive

The

book,

indeed, has been rightly called,

" one of the greatest achievements of


erudition.
It is in reality

human

thought and

a history of the civilised world

during those thirteen centuries


supplanted by Christianity."
different light

when paganism was being

New

facts

have thrown a
but

upon some

of Gibbon's conclusions;

the

most

critical scholarship

has not altered the essential

truth of his great panorama.

His style gives point and


It

endurance

to

what he

writes.

has stateliness and

balance and a sort of "measured melancholy" befitting


the author's theme; yet
it

would, perhaps, have


it

made

the

whole monotonous, were

not infused with a certain


to

piquant quality which led Byron


" the lord of irony."
'

speak of Gibbon as
in 1794.

He

died in

London

How
field
'

little

the universities
is

had

to

do with the broader


that archaeological
all

of

classics,

seen by the fact

The

numerous editions of Gibbon's Decline and Pall have

been

supplanted by that of Bury in seven volumes (London, 1896-1909).


See also Gibbon's Memoirs, edited by HiU (London, 1900)
Letters of Gibbon, edited
;

and The

by Prothero (London,

1896).

380

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

study was carried on almost entirely outside their precincts.

The manner
is

in

which they treated the Arundel Marbles ^


characteristic.
to

sufficiently

The

reproach,

however,

was not applicable

Englishmen

in general.

Thus

the
in

so-called Dilettanti Society,

which had been founded


for

1733, produced

some remarkable works

which

it

foimd

the necessary funds.

Two
as

explorers (James Stuart and

Nicholas Revett) furnished the material for a work of

enduring value,

known

The

Antiquities

of Athens
into

Measured and Delineated?

This book was rendered

German, and
ology because
of the

is still

referred to

by the student

of archae-

its

plates exhibit the earliest reproductions


at Athens.
{d.

monuments

Nolessvaluableweretheworksof Robert Wood an inveterate


of
traveller,

1771),

who brought accounts and drawings


Heliopolis.
Sir William

the ruins of

Palmyra and
to

Hamilton sent

the British Society of

Antiquaries a

minute account of the early excavations at Pompeii.


British

The

Museum was enriched by a splendid Greek and Roman marbles, bronzes, coins,
antiquities;

collection of

gems, vases,

and other

while Richard Payne Knight col-

lected a splendid set of antique bronzes


also
fell

and

coins,

which

to

the
in

Museum.

The

travels

of Sir William

Martin Leake

Upper Egypt and

in

Turkey and Greece

(1801 and 1804) both enriched the literature of archaeology


'

Supra, p. 360.
First edition, 1762
;

second edition, 1825-1830.

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


and added
sent to
to the

381

immensely valuable collections that were


In particular one
(1821),

England.

may mention
in
the

his

Topography of Athens

Travels

Morea

(1830), Travels in Northern Greece (1835), and

Numis-

matica Hellenica (1854).'

Hence, at a time when Oxford and Cambridge had


lapsed into something like an academic languor, so that

men

of real genius left

them and pursued

their studies

independently,

much was done

to stimulate research

and
were

classical scholarship

by the splendid

collections that

gathered by individual enterprise and by the generosity


of the Government.

One

of the

most magnificent

insti-

tutions of learning in Great Britain was,

and
is

still

re-

mains, the British

Museum

in

London, which

rivalled

only by the Louvre in Paris.^


'
'

See The Memoir, by Marsden (London, 1864).

The

British

Museum had

its

nucleus in a fine collection of books,

manuscripts, and specimens of natural history gathered


Sloane.
it

by

Sir

Hans

In 1753 he offered this to the Government for 20,000, though had cost him more than 50,000. The money was raised by a public

lottery ;
libraries

and then the Sloane

collection with the Harleian

and Cottonian

were arranged in Montague House, which was purchased for

this object.

British

The institution was opened in 1759 under the name of the Museum. New collections were added continually, imtil in 1823
it

the eastern wing of the present building was erected, and the whole
structure as

stands to-day was finished in 1847.


it is

It is impossible to

describe
(i)

it,

except to say that


(2

divided into various departments of


(4)

Printed Books;
(5)

and

3)

Manuscripts;
(6)

Greek and

Roman

Antiquities ;
uities;

Coins and Medals ;

Egyptian and Assyrian Antiq(8) Prints

(7) British

and Mediasval

Antiquities;

and Draw-

ings.

Some

notion of the immensity of the

Museum

can be inferred

382

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


of the East

The monuments
Hellas and
ture,

beyond the domain

of

Rome

were splendidly exhibited in

this struc-

and the

travellers

and explorers who had stimulated

a knowledge of Archaeology very naturally were destined


to excite

and increase the study of language

in a

new and

hitherto

unknown
little

form.

English scholarship heretofore

had done

or nothing to aid Philology, apart from the

comparative study of Greek and Latin, leaving for the


scholars of the Continent to speculate as to the relations
of

Hebrew which was regarded


at

as a primal of the

and

original

tongue; but now,


tury, there

the

close

eighteenth cento

came an

oriental scholar

who was

open

one of the most


learning.

brilliant

pages in the study of

classical

This was William Jones'

(afterwards

Sir

William).

He was bom

in

London, and was educated


at

at

Harrow,

whence he was entered


There he was able

University College, Oxford.

to gratify his strong desire to gain a

thorough knowledge of oriental languages.


tive orientalism

His

instinc-

seems

to

have been
in that,

like that of the late

Edward Henry Palmer ^


he became versed
in

without visiting the East,

both Persian and Arabic, colloquially In 1770 he published, at the


to a distance of

as well as in the dialects.


from the fact that
if

the books in the library were placed on end in book-

cases eight feet high, they


miles.
1

would extend

more than

three

746-1 794.
1883).

Edward Henry Palmer, by Walter Besant (London,

THE PERIOD OF NATIONALISM


request of the king of Denmark,
translated into the French year,

383

Life of

Nadir Shah,

from the Persian; in the next


(1772);

Persian

Grammar

and

in

1780 he transthe Arabs as

lated the seven exquisite poems,

known

to

the Mo'allaMt.

Sir

WilHam, Hke Hugo Grotius, was as


literature.

remarkable in law as in

He

wrote a number

of legal essays, so that in 1783 he

was knighted and made

a judge in the Supreme Court of Judicature in Bengal.

His delight at finding himself amidst everything that was


oriental

showed

itself

in

many

ways.

He
first

established the

Royal Asiatic
largely,

Society, to

whose volumes he contributed


President.
in verse,

and

of

which he was the


translation

He

published

the

of

a story

called

The Hindu Wife, and


the ancient work,

finally

an English rendering of
to Sanskrit scholars,

now

well [known

Sakuntala, or the Fatal

Ring

(1789).

This aroused a
to

wide

interest

throughout Europe, and led

a general

discussion of
digest of the

Hindu

literature.

Jones was engaged in a


at the time

Hindu and Mohammedan laws

of his death in 1794.

He was

one of the most noted

linguists

and

oriental

scholars that England has ever produced;' one passage

penned by him
after

in the first

volume

of Asiatic Researches,^
call

he had given what one may

only a

slight

See The Life of Sir William Jones by Lord Teignmouth (London,

1807).
'

Asiatic Researches,

i.

442 (1786).

384

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


is

glimpse of Sanskrit,
guistics
:

memorable in the

history of

lin-

Sanskrit language, whatever

"The

may

be

its

antiquity,

is

of a

wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious

than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than


ing to both of

either, yet bear-

them a

stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs

and in the forms of grammar, than could have been produced by accident so strong that no philologer could examine the Sanskrit,
;

Greek, and Latin, without believing them to have been sprung from

some common
similar reason,

source, which, perhaps, no longer exists.

There

is

though not quite so

forcible, for

supposing that both

the Gothic and Celtic had the same origin with the Sanskrit.

The

Old Persian

may

be added to the same family."

Though

Sir

William Jones rightly pointed out the peculiar similarity

between Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and Old Persian, we must remember


that something had been done before his time to help the progress of this
discovery.
of the

In the Middle Ages, the Arabs introduced some knowledge


science,

Hindu

and the

so-called Arabic (Hindu) numerals.

In the

sixteenth century, the Portuguese, Butch, English,

and French obtained

a foothold in India.

They sought

there,

however, only merchandise

and precious

stones,

though some knowledge of Sanskrit was gathered

by missionaries, and one of them even translated a Sanskrit poet into Dutch as early as 1651. The first Sanskrit grammar to be issued in Europe was compiled by Father Paulinus, who had it printed in Rome
in
1

790, only a few years before Jones's death

but the

real

mediator be-

tween India and Europe were

men

of letters,

hke Charles Wilkens, H. F.

Colebrooke, and H. H. Wilson.

In Germany, their translations were

admired intensely by men


after

like

Goethe, Herder, the two Schlegers, and


literature

them those who found them even than


See Frazer,

in

Hindu

something more
its

intereststrik-

ing to

its lyrics, its

remarkable epics, and

very

ing drama.

Literary History of India

(New York,

1904)

Macdonell,

History^ of Sanskrit Literature, with bibliographical notes

(New York,
Philologie

1900)

Biihler

and Kielhorn, Grundriss der indoarischen


foil.).

(Strassburg,

1896

X
THE GERMAN INFLUENCE
Where
the
shall

we

look for those early schools in which

there were gathered together wandering scholars who yielded


first fruits

of the early universities

We

have already

mentioned the revival of learning promoted by Charles the


Great with the aid of Alcuin/
His successor, Louis the
let

Pious, who " knew Latin and understood Greek,"


lapse;

learning

and

later the

monastic school at Tours was of slight


it

importance, although in

an

Irish

monk composed

a Latin

grammar.

Charles the Bald, the son of Louis, was king of


to 876,
set

France from 840

and Emperor of the West.

At the

head of the school

up by him he placed the most noted

philosopher of the early Middle Ages, John the Scot (or

Duns

Scotus), and he invited teachers from Ireland and

even from Greece.

At Fulda a school founded by Boniface

was famous

for the labours of those

whom

Alcuin taught.

Among them was


Rabanus
and
(or

the

German, Rabanus Maurus,

bom
It

at

Mainz, Servatus Lupus, and Walafrid Strabo.

was

Hrabanus) who founded the library


hill,

at

Fulda

then retired to a lonely

where he composed a great

many

encyclopedic works and several treatises on educai

Supra, pp. 219-229.

2C

38s

386
tion.

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

He

introduced Priscian's

grammar
tract

into the schools

of

Germany, besides a short

on alphabets and

abbreviations.

In the Middle Ages

many

fragments of classic

literature
fully

were read and


than

studied,

and some of them much more

we

should have supposed.

The

historians (Caesar,
familiar,
in

Sallust, Livy, Suetonius,

and Florus) were very

and Valerius Maximus was popular because he abounded


historical anecdotes.

Germany was not


Italy.

so well supplied

with books as were France and

Nevertheless, one

cannot be very precise upon

this point.
is

For

instance, Pliny
in

the Elder's Historia Naturalis

catalogued nine times


in Italy
is

France and
land.

in

Germany, and only twice

and Eng-

On

the other hand, the younger Pliny

mentioned
letters

only twice in the book-lists of Germany, while his


are quoted once by a scholar in Verona.
traces of Tacitus in

There are more

Germany than

elsewhere.^
the

Petrarch, who

knew something of the North, regarded


by no means strangers and

Germans

of Austria as

incuUi.

Thus when
of the

the

German Emperor, Charles

IV, became head

Holy Roman Empire^ and showed himself a generous

patron of literature, the Italian poet hailed


Augustus, a sincere friend of
*

him

as a

new

all

the arts.

Petrarch corre-

An

elaborate account of the preservation of the Latin classics in the

monasteries of the East, arranged in a very careful way, will be found


in a

number

of

works and monographs such as West,

in Proc.

Amer.

Phil. Assoc, 1902, xxii foil.;


(Berlin, 1871), etc.

Wattenbach, Schriftwesen im
^

Mittelalter

1346.

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


sponded with the Emperor, from 1350
to 1356,

387

when he

was

sent to the Emperor's capital at Prague,^ then supposed


Italians to

by the

be the extreme confines of the land of the


'

barbarians.'
effigy

Before this time he had given the Emperor an

decorated with gold and silver coins of ancient Rome,


his great predecessors.

showing the images of


count of Alexander
(1442-1455).

Arrian's acto

in easy

Latin verse was taken

Vienna

^neas

Silvius

wrote (1450) a Latin treatise

on education

for the benefit of his imperial master.


in 1459, his

When ^neas was made Pope


Germany

former pupil,

Hinderbach, who was fond of him, promised on behalf of


that this country should continue to cultivate the
of

humanism

which the new Pope had been so admirable


Classics were, therefore, soon taught

an example.
(1460-1469)
;

by him on

and he

also lectured in Vienna, not only

mathematics but astronomy.


of Konigsberg, best
Vergil, Terence,
classicists

His pupil, Johann Miiller,

known

as Regiomontanus, lectured
Senectute.

on

and Cicero's De

A number of
lectures

and

also astronomers

now

spread throughout

Germany,

establishing rude schools

where

were

regularly given and where editions and translations of

Greek and Latin works were put

into circulation.

It is

interesting that at Ratisbon the calendar


to lead to

was

so studied as
this

a proposal for

its

correction.
to

Because of

the Archbishop was summoned

Rome, where he

died.^

Let us trace

briefly the rise


'

and progress of the greater


'

1356-

1476.

388

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


It

German universities.

came partly from

Paris and partly

from the influence of Italian


logna.^

universities, especially Bo-

The earliest of them was at Prague

(1348), and the

next the University of Vienna (1365).

Paulsen says that

both of these were on the eastern borderland of German


civilisation in that Paris

was near enough

for

Western Ger-

many, and because between the old church

schools, such as

Cologne, a close cormection was kept up.

In the same

century (1385) the Westerns foimded the University of

Heidelberg (1385) and the University of Erfurt.

Five

of these remain at the present day; Cologne having been

closed in 1794

and Erfurt

in 1816.

It

must be remem-

bered that

it

was Austria and the parts

of

Germany which
fruits of

bordered on Italy that receive more directly the

French and Italian

culture.

Though rude and

touched
at
is

with the semi-orientalism of Byzantium, Austria was


least

more

civilised

than the barbaric North.

All this

prior to the Renaissance,

and these

universities

were

the

homes

of scholasticism.

second period of great

activity as

opens with the humanistic movement.


Albertus

Such doctors

Magnus and Thomas Aquinas and Duns


in

Scotus

had taught and argued

many

of these schools.

Then

came
In
its

the Hussite schism which lost Prague to Germany.

place the University of Leipzig


its

was founded

(1409).

Rostock opened
Baltic countries.
'

halls (1419) to

meet the needs

of the

Originally devoted solely to the study of law.

'

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE

389

The

humanistic movement naturally called into being

fresh seats of learning.


universities,* of

Of

tliese there

were nine German

which four (Greifswald, Freiburg, Basle,


still

and Tubingen)
of the

continue to

exist.

It is characteristic

German mind

that the universities in Austrian Ger-

many
and

did not arise gradually like the older ones in France

Italy.

They were

established after a

scheme already

in operation, both the spiritual and temporal

power con-

tributing to their foundation.

It

was the Pope who founded

the institution, and gave


grees while
;

it

the privilege of bestowing de-

its

continued existence

was assured by the

local

sovereign,

who provided
German

the revenues and granted to the


privileges.

university temporal

and corporate

Thus we
with a

see that the

notion of a higher seat of learning


in advance,
defi-

was one
nite
ideal.

that

had been mapped out

purpose and a somewhat cut-and-dried academic

The
is,

triple division of scholaris, baccalaureus,

and

magister

as Professor Paulsen says, " evidently identi-

cal with that of apprentice,

journeyman, and master workthe mediaeval


artisans."
universities

man, which we

find

among

Thus
went

the historical development of


on,

German

though with alterations

in their character con-

cerning which
'

we

shall briefly speak.

For a long time a

Greifswald (1456), Freiburg (1457), Basle (1460), Ingolstadt (1472),

Treves (1473), Mainz and Tubingen (1477), Wittenberg (1502), and


Frankfurt-on-the-Oder (1506).
2

See Paulsen, The German Universities, Eng. trans, by E. D.


189s).

Peny

(New York,

39

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


it

university might be a great seat of learning, or

might, be
to

only a humble school with a small foundation, destined

be swept away
reference to

in a

few years.

It

may be

convenient for
Austro-

name

the universities in

Germany and

Hungary which
'

exist to-day,^

and

to say

a word or two con-

In Germany to-day there are twenty-one universities, the

largest

being Berlin (with about 5800 students),

Munich and

Leipzig, Bonn,

Breslau, Freiburg, Halle, Tubingen, Heidelberg, Gottingen, Marburg,


Strassburg, Wiirzburg, Kiel, Konigsberg, Erlangen, Giessen, Greifswald,

Miinster, Jena, Rostok.

At

Freibiurg,
;

Mimich, Miinster, and Wiirzburg


at Bonn, Breslau, and Tubingen
all

the faculties of theology are Catholic

they are mixed Catholic and Protestant; while the faculties at


other universities are Protestant.
universities of It

the
the

might as well be added that

Austria-Hungary number seven

Vienna,

Gratz, Inns-

bruck, Pesth, Breslau, Cracow, and Limberg.

Of the distinguished men who


omitting those of

first

made German learning illustrious

whom we shall speak above

are Peter Luder

{c.

1450),

who

matriculated at Heidelberg before he visited Rome.

Later he

returned to his
(1456).

German academic home and


him in

lectured on the Latin poets

This was such an innovation that his older colleagues did everyhis work, so that

thing possible to hinder

when

the plague

afflicted

Heidelberg, Luder lectured with


Leipzig.

much

applause at Ulm, Erfurth, and


Schedel

One

of his

most ardent pupils at Leipzig was Hartman

(1440-1514),
It

who became known as a collector of humanistic literature. was he who preserved a great part of the journal of Ciriaco d'Ancona
with copies of monuments and inscriptions.
His own
history
as
is

(see supra, p. 268)

collection

now

in the library at

Munich, and

his
is

work on the

of the world

from the Creation to the year 1492


Chronicle."

everywhere known

the

"Nuremberg

His sketches of ancient monuments


of the drawings of Albrecht Diirer,

are

said to have inspired


in Vienna.
istic

some

now

Schedel was, therefore, an important figure in the human-

period of

German

scholarship.

Another leading humanist who

deserves especial mention was the Frisian

who

is

best

known by

his

Latinised

name Rudolphus

Agricola

(1444-1485).

His mental and

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


ceming
their characteristics.

39I

In the earliest days of Ger-

man

scholarship the universities were essentially scholastic.


shown by

physical activity

is

his interest in travel

and observation

for

he was educated at four German universities and, perhaps, at

Paris.

He

then journeyed to Italy, studying at Pavia and at Ferrara, where he


of

was a student
of Groningen,
this

Greek under Theodorus Gaza.

After so

much

activity

he appears to have dropped to a rather humble station

in his native city

where he was town clerk

for four years.

However, during

time he acted as a town-envoy, and often visited Deventer, where


Later he taught at Heidelberg, lecturing on Arisselections

he met Erasmus.
totle,

and translating

from Lucian.

Humanists

in

Germany

looked to him as their leader.


his private

Like Erasmus he was very influential in

and personal

associations,

though his scholarship was some-

what overrated. He wrote a treatise on education which appeared in the same volume as like works by Erasmus and Melanchthon, an honour
which
it

did not deserve.

He

had, however, the truly humanistic

spirit,

and urged
alacrity,

carefulness in reading, practice of the

memory,

cheerful

and a quiet but earnest opposition


Alexander Hegius (1433-1498),

to the stiffness of scholas-

ticism.

who was a

teacher of Erasmus,

made Deventer a great humanistic centre of Northern Germany. He mocked at the old mediaeval text-books, and pointed back to the Latin
Classics as the true source of a perfect Latin style.

There follows him,

Rudolf von Langen (1438-1519), who studied at Erfurt, visited Italy, and finally founded a great hximanistic school at Miinster. Another

famous school was that

of

Jacob Wimpheling (1450-1528) at SchlettLater,

stadt in Alsace, which was the third of the schools of Germany.


at Strassburg to which he migrated, he founded a literary
(i.e.

humanistic)

group which followed the teachings of Erasmus.


Sebastian Brant, well

He was

the friend of

known

in English literature as the author of the

Ship of Fools (1494). Conrad Celtes (1459-1518) is rightly called by Dr. Sandys "the knight-errant of humanism in Germany." His early years were imfavourable, but after spending some time under Agricola
at Heidelberg and learning a
living with
the]
little

Greek, he

made

his

way

into Italy,

most cultivated

Italians at

Padua and

Ferrara,

and

in

Rome.

When

he returned, he received the poet's crown from Fried-

392

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


the fifteenth century, the humanistic
in-

From the middle of


fluence

came in strongly, especially with those men whom we


Subsequently arrived a period
to the influence of
first

have already mentioned.


partial reaction,
rich III at

of

owing

Martin Luther
to

Nuremberg.

Celtes was the

German

win

this honour.

Immediately afterward he founded humanistic


sion in Poland

societies in rapid succes-

and Hungary, and along the Rhine.


Its first president
its

The

last (at

Mainz)
of the

was a very famous group.


time,

was the Msecenas

Johann von Dalberg, and among


scholars, Trithemius

members were

the two Greek

and Hebrew

and Wilibalc Pirkheimer.


is still

Johannes

Trithemius was a great collector of manuscripts, and


for his learning.

remembered
later called

Celtes, also a

member

of this group,

was

to be the

head of the Imperial Library in Vienna.

He

travelled a great

deal throughout

Germany, and described

his adventures in a collecedification, but

tion of Latin poems,

many

of

which do not tend to

suggest the semi-pagan spirit of the early Renaissance.

He
.

is

best

remembered to-day

for

a discovery which he made in the Vienna Library

of a thirteenth-century

copy

of

Roman map
and
is

{itinerarium)

The

origi-

nal was as early as the third century,

of great interest, although a

part
ing,

is

missing.

This

map

Celtes bequeathed to a rich patron of learn-

one Conrad Peutinger of Augsburg, from


Peutingeriana.

whom

it

gets

its familiar

name Tabula

This copy was painted at Kolmar

after

the model of an original map, which consisted of twelve broad strips of

parchment showing
the Romans.
lost,
is

all

those parts of the world that were

known

to

The

pieces which should contain Spain

and Britain

are
It

with the exception of the southeast comer of Britain (Kent).


its

disproportionately lengthened from east to west, the ratio of

height

to its breadth being 1:21.

The

distances from

town

to

town

are marked

on

lines

running from east to west.

indicated
early

by

distinctive marks.
it

The relative sizes of the towns are Those who are interested in this very
Antiquus of Justus Perthes

map
;

can find

in the little Atlas

(Gotha, i8g3).
1892)
the

On

all

that proceeds, see Lernen und Forschen (Berlin,


;

Pearson, Ethic of Freethought (1901)


trans.,
i.

Janssen,

History 0}
;

German People, Eng.

63-80 (London, 1891)

Bursian,

Geschichte der klass. Philologie in Deutschland, etc. (Munich, 1883).

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


(d. 1546),

393

who
it

introduced a purely ecclesiastical

mode

of

learning, but

was checked by the great scholars who pre-

ceded F. A. Wolf (1739).

man

scholarship

we prepare a scheme of Gerfrom Luder down to Bopp,i it will stand


If
:

somewhat

as follows

introducing not only Criticism and

Hermeneutics, but Archaeology, including History, Gram-

mar, Religion, Geography, Chronology, Metrology, Numismatics, and Epigraphy.


I.

Ecclesiastical Period (1400 to

c. c.

1415).

II.

Humanistic Period

(c. (c.

1415

to

1660).

III.

Ante-Wolfian Period
(c.

1660
c.

to c. 1739).

IV. Wolfian Period

1739 to
{c.

1810).
c.

V. Post- Wolfian Period

1810 to

1870).

After 1870, as will be seen,

German

scholarship

was no

longer isolated, but belonged to the cosmopolitan creative

study of

all

the western world.

There are many

difiFerent

ways
most

of subdividing these periods of


all

German

learning.

Al-

scholars agree in speaking of the Ecclesiastical

Period.
Period.

Almost

all

of

them

will

speak of the Humanistic

After that, there are other divisions in terminology.


shall

Thus we
of the

hear of the

Grammatico-critical School,

Historico-antiquarian School, and finally of the


is

Junggrammatiker, until the scholarship that

purely Ger-

man ceases to exist many first teaches all


the world,
'

as

an isolated phenomenon.

Gerall

the world,

and then learns from

until at last the divisions of learning cease to

be

That

is

to say, from about 1451 through 1867.

394

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

National, and
siastical

become wholly Cosmopolitan.

The

Eccle-

Period has already been suf&ciently described in the

preceding pages, and so has the spirit of the early Renaissance.

One
who

should speak more fully of the

first

great Grecian
Reuchlin,'

to arise in

Germany,

in the person of

Johann

studied at Paris

and

at Basle,

at the latter school

under a native Greek.


dictionary, entitled
:

It

was there that he wrote a Latin

Vocabularius Breviloquus, an excellent


to its predecessors in the clear-

work which was preferable


ness of
its

arrangement, and which was the mofe remarkable

from the

fact that

he was only twenty years of age when

the

book was finished. After some further study, he taught both


Greek and Latin
at Orleans

and

Poitiers.

He

describes
it

Greek as " necessary for a liberal education; for


back
to the

leads us
really

philosophy of Aristotle which cannot


until its

be comprehended
in

language

is

understood."

Later,

Rome, he met Argyropulos, who was surprised at Reuch-

lin's

command

of Greek.

Later

still

he learned Hebrew,
of
it

and thenceforward pursued the study


portant thing in
life.

as the

most im-

For the

last

year of his existence he


at

was professor

of

Greek and Hebrew

Tubingen.

The

fact that

Reuchlin urged the study of Hebrew was

distasteful to the bigots of the day.

They
to a

preferred dog-

Latin and

still

more barbarous Greek

language which

they regarded as almost impious to learn.


*

Reuchlin was,

1455-1522-

THE GERMAN INPLXJENCE


therefore,

395

abused and assailed for a long while, until the

enlightened humanists of the day

came

to his defence.

They

believed that anything and everything should be

studied,

and they

fell

upon Reuchlin's enemies

like

a band

of light horse.

These witty and nimble-minded scholars


once famous
satire called Epis-

came
tolcB

to the defence in the

Obscurorum Virorum (1516-1517).


EpisiolcB

The

first

book

of

the

was

largely

composed by a humanist

named Johann Jager, while the second was mainly the work
of the famous writer, Ulrich

von Hutten; and

the quiet,

deeply learned leader of

this

band was Conrad Muth


at school with

(Mutianus Rufus),

who had been


felt

Erasmus,

and with him had


manism.

the earnest inspiration of early hu-

Returning

to

Germany, he made

his canonical

residence at Gotha, and over the door he set in golden


letters the

words
that

Beata Tranquillitas.
beautiful in literature.

There he
It

lived as

a lover of
fate that

all

is

was a strange

he should have survived

to see his

home

plun-

dered by a Protestant

mob

at the time of the Reformation.


in

For Protestantism had broken


ial

upon the mild and gen-

humanistic learning, especially in Germany, where the

followers of Luther were savage in their assault

upon what-

ever was refined and beautiful.

The humanists saw that they


Not

had more

to fear

from the stark ignorance of the Protestants

than from the occasional intolerance of the Catholics.


long, however, did this

Lutheran

riot continue.

The invenof printing-

tion of the printing-press

and the

setting

up


HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY
all

396
presses

over Europe did


sort,

much
The

to

beat back Protestant-

ism of the radical

and

to bring again the

more graceful

attitude of the classicists.

desecration of cathedrals
art

with their beautifully painted windows, the pillaging of


galleries, the

smashing of the most exquisite

statuary,

these atrocities did not continue for very long.

With

the

multiplication of printing-presses a love for classical leam-

ing returned,

and before the end of

this period (1660) the

modem
trait.

languages had begun to exercise an influence which

classicists deplored,

but which was in reality a humanistic

Among

the greater

humanists of Germany was

Helius Eobanus Hessus/ who lectured to enormous audiences

on poetry and
Camerarius,^

rhetoric.

Of

his pupils

was

the famous

who formed one


of

of the interesting group

who

clustered around the press of

Froben at Basle.

He is chiefly
Among

noted for his criticism

Roman

chronology.'

his friends at Basle were Beatus Renanus,* the associate

and biographer

of Erasmus,

and well Imown

for his editio

princeps of Velleius Paterculus, and his


of Tacitus ; Clareanus,

work on

the text

who

held the professorship of poetry;

Gryaenus of Heidelberg, famous for discovering a manuscript of the first five

books of

tlie fifth

decade of Livy;
editions of

and

finally

Galenius of Prague,

who produced

Callimachus and Aristophanes, as well as of the Planudean

'

1488-1540.
See Bursian, op. See his
life
cit.,
i.

'

1500-1574.

Really

Kammermann.

154

foil.

by Horawitz (1872-1874).

THE GERMAN INFLtJENCE


Anthology.

397
to give distinc-

Many

minor scholars helped

tion to Basle, partly

by residing

there,

and partly by accept-

ing professorships for short periods in French and


universities.

German

In

this

way

they scattered the rich seed of

classical learning

and of

liberal education.

The

great educator
of "

whom Germany
The
and
to the

remembers best

to-

day by the name


erd, better

Preceptor " was Philip Schwarz-

known

to us

world at large as Me-

lanchthon.*
in

Though a

friend of Luther, he could not be


spirit,

thorough sympathy with that boisterous, unruly


classical scholar of great diligence.

but was instead a

Gerits

many
severe

to-day feels the influence of Melanchthon in


training
in

grammar and

style.

Melanchthon

wrote grammars of Greek and Latin and a large number of


classical text-books.

The works that he composed in Latin,


is

especially his Latin Letters, are written in a style that

clear

and

simple, though without distinction.


in his dislike for the

He was

Lutheran
he was

paganism of

Italy;

in fact,

essentially a

German

philologist

and not an

Italian

classicist

or a French one.

Johann Sturm of Strassburg was another important name


in the educational
'

development of early Germany.^

He

1497-1560.

Hartfelder, in

There is an excellent biography of Melanchthon by Woodward's Renaissance Education; while he is criticised

by Pearson in his Ethic of Freethought, abready quoted. A biography in English by T. B. Saunders has been announced for publication. ' 1507-1589. Other educators who were contemporaries of Sturm
were Rivius, who corrected

many passages

in Sallust

Michael Neander,

398

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


of the school at Strassburg for forty-three
chief

was head-master
years,

and made the

work

of his scholars the writing

and the speaking of Latin,


of education.

for this
all

seemed

to

him

the whole

Pupils from

countries

came
for

to visit him,

and

his school
It

became a

sort of

model

most German

gymnasia.

happened that Roger Ascham, who never met


:

him, was a correspondent of his and once wrote to him

"For our time the odde man to perform all three perfitlie, whatsoever he doth, and to know the way to do them skilfullie, whan
so ever he hst, is in

my poore

opinion, Joannes Sturmus."

work written by Conrad Gesner,

just mentioned,

was

a somewhat remarkable attempt at achieving what many

were at that time studying and discussing with great


est.

inter-

This was a book known as Mithridates (1555), which


first

has been styled the


study of language.

effort

toward the comparative

When Hebrew was added to Greek and


at

Latin as a subject for wide study, linguists began to look


it

with a peculiar interest.

Very many scholars held that all


single tongue.

living languages

must have sprung from a

who prepared a so-called Opus Aureum, made up of Greek and Latin moral
sayings
;

Basilius Faber,

whose Latin Thesaurus or Lexicon long


;

survived,

being reedited by Cellarius (1686)


as late as 1726.

Grjevius (1710)

and

J.

M.

Gesner

An

earlier

Gesner at Zurich wrote a sort

of

combina-

tion of a biographical-bibliographical dictionary,


cyclopsedia, together with a dictionary of

united with an enof

Greek and Latin, and one

proper names.

pupil of

Rivius was Georg

Fabricius (1516-1571),

who
and

studied in Italy,
inscriptions in

and explored with

lively interest the

monuments
classics,

Rome.

Like modern editors of the familiar

he used his knowledge of topography and antiquities to


editions of them.

illustrate his

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE

399

Furthermore, they argued that as the Old Testament was


written in Hebrew,

Hebrew must have been

the earhest lan-

guage

in the world, to

a theory which has found adherents


titties.

down

Gesenius in recent
to collecting

Great was the industry

devoted

words from

different languages

which

had the same meaning,

in order that they

might then be

studied for traces of their

common

origin.

After the rise of the Reformation there

was

less literary

study of the
sterner

classics,

but everywhere one might notice a


both
in the schools

and

stricter discipline

and

in the

universities.

Especial branches of learning were cultivated.


is

Lexicography

represented by Basilius Faber (1571), and


critical

a very thorough knowledge of Greek with

acumen

were the characteristics of Friedrich Sylburg and Lorenz

Rhodomann,
in writing

the latter of

whom was

remarkably

skilful

Greek hexameters, so that

his epic

poems which
to

he put forth anonymously (1588) were widely believed


genuine works of antiquity.

be

In Hungary during the Renaissance there were some few


well-trained classical students,
(d. 1472),

such as Johannes Vit6z

who corresponded

with the Italian scholars; and


to

J^nus Pannonius, who ^rought


tion of

Hungary a

large collec-

Greek and Latin manuscripts.

The

king of Hun-

gary, Matthias Corvinus,'

was

interested in the humanities.


also a university

He founded

an academy at Pressburg, and

at Buda, where he maintained

thirty copyists

and

artists

1443-1490-

400
to

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


It is

continue the supply of illuminated manuscripts.

interesting that Latin remained the spoken language of the

Hungarian aristocracy down

into the nineteenth century.


to the

Maria Theresa's famous harangue


was delivered
"
in

Hungarian nobles

Latin, as

was

their spirited response:


!

Moriamur pro

rege nostro,

Maria Theresa
Hungarian
of Poland,

"

Latin was

also the official language of the


*

Diet, until 1828.^


where a well-known
to

Almost the same thing may be said

humanist who had studied at Cracow, and seems never


visited Italy, maintained for

have

some twenty years a

brisk correspond-

ence with Filelfo.

The

first

Latin history of Poland was written by

Johannes Dlugosc.
Sanok,

Latin poetry was mainly studied by Gregor of

who

finally

became a

lecturer at Cracow.
in

The most famous


Poland was Filippo
both in Poland
See
(s.
I.

humanist, however,
Buonacorsi.

who made Latin popular


latter

He, with Celtes, founded


as the

classical societies

and Hungary,

had done

in

Western Germany.

Zeissberg, Die polnische Geschichlsschreibimg des Millelaiters, etc.


1847),
M-oi,

and on Polish
ii

classicism see Sokolowski

and

Szujski,

Mon. Medii
in the

t.

(Cracow, 1876).

Classical studies in

Russia began

seventeenth century,

when

the

Academy

of

Kiev was founded

in 1620.

Latin was studied rather than Greek in that century, and


tion

all instruc-

was

carried

on

in Latin.

After Kiev,

Moscow became

a seat

of

learning, after the establishment there, in 1679, of a printing school.

In

this the

study of Greek was carried on and was subsidised by the


This developed into the
Slavo-Grseco-Latin Academy

government.

(1685), with teachers

who were
Padua.

of

Greek descent, but who had taken

their doctor's degrees at

This academy was favoured by Peter

the Great, and here were published translations of classical authors,


twenty-six volumes being rendered into
scholar,

Russian by the long-lived


of

Martynov

(1771-1883).

The University
of

Moscow was
of

founded in 1755, the University


St.

Vilna in 1803, the University

Petersburg in 1819, the University of Kazan in 1804, the University

of

Kharkov

in 1804,

and that

of

Odessa in 1865.

Much was

done

for

the promotion of literary studies of every kind by Catharine II in the

THE GERMAN INi'LUENCE


Further students of distinction

4OI

who

followed in the seven-

teenth century were Johann August Ernesti,' a famous


teacher of Latin
style, especially of

the pure Ciceronianism.


in five

His most famous books are an edition of Cicero

volumes (1739) with an Onomasticon Ciceronianum published after his death at Halle (1832).

To

this school of

stem scholarship we must

also

ascribe

Johann Jacob
full

Reiske, a student of oriental Greek, and author of


editions

of

Plutarch,

Dionysius

Halicarnassensis,

and

others, all of

which were not published


wrote his

until after Reiske's

death.

He

own

autobiography, published in

eighteenth century, she

writers of distinction to offset the

who summoned Voltaire and other French German influence, which remained
Almost
birth
all

and continued

to be very strong.

the distinguished scholars


training, or at least of

of Russia were either of

German

and

Thus R. T. Timkovski had studied at Gottingen, under Heyne; Professor D. L. Kriukos (1809-1845) had been a pupil of Boeckh while one of the most brilliant scholars at St. Petersburg,
training.
;

German

Professor N.

M.

Blagoviestschenski (1821-1891) had " heard " Hermann, Creuzer,

Becker, Haupt,

and Schlosser at Leipzig and Heidelberg.


of Persius,

This scholar wrote a very able work on Horace and his times, besides

an annotated translation
teresting questions of

and

also discussed

certain in-

Roman

History.

Of native stock were V. K.


;

Lernstedt (1854-1902),
ski (1846-1901),

who made an edition of Antiphon L. F. Voevodwho wrote a peculiar treatise on cannibalism in Greek
taught in Russia the best known

Mythology, which, however, he regarded as bearing upon the Sun

Myth.

Of the

many Germans who

are Christian Friedrich Matthaei of

Moscow, where he discovered


at St. Peters-

a manuscript of the Homeric


burg,

who

edited

Hymns; C. F. Graefe Nonnus, using German in this work


learning belongs to the Germans."

because " the

revival of
'

classical

During the

1707-1781.

2D

402

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Leipzig (1783).
chEeology

The

true founder of the science of Ar-

was Johann Joachim Winckelmann.


the son of a poor cobbler, and

Winckelfor

mann was
and
ability.

was

many

years a charity scholar, rising gradually by his energy

At length his associates advised him

to folfirst

low that career which ultimately


great creative

made him
the

the

and

critical scholar in

field of Classical

Archaeology.

He

spent

much

time in Rome, Naples,

and Pompeii, and became

librarian to Cardinal Albani,

the most famous collector of his time, to

whom
his

he owed

innumerable opportunities.

In

many ways

work

led

to the elevation of taste in the decorative arts;

but his
des

monumental production

is

his Geschichte der.

Kunst

Alterthums, which appeared in 1764 (new edition by Julius

Lessing with biography, 1882).


middle of the nineteenth century
it

Winckelmann was

the

may

be said in general that the

Germans greatly influenced and stimulated Russian scholarship. August Nauck spent the better part of his life in teaching Greek at
St.

Petersburg, while

Lucian

Miiller

was equally conspicuous

for
its

his

work

in

Latin.

Archeology

owes

much

to

Russia,

and
of

study began in the reign of Peter the Great, in the year death the Academy of Sciences, was founded.

whose

After the Crimea had

been conquered in 1783, great interest was taken in the exploration


of
this

former

home
(d.

of

Greek

civilisation.

Much

has been done

in

this field

by H. E.

ICohler,

an authority on ancient gems, and

especially
of
j

by L. Stephani

1887),

who

spent nearly forty years in charge

the antiquities in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, while writing


valuable monographs on the researches in Southern Russia.

many

See the

interesting synopsis of the history of classical scholarship written by

Professor

Maleyn

of St.

Petersburg, and incorporated by Dr.


of his

J.

E.

Sandys in the third volume

work already

cited, pp. 384-390.

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


teacher of his age and the expounder of Classic Art.

403
It

was

his theory of the Beautiful


led Gotthold

which greatly impressed

Goethe and which


forth his

Ephraim Lessing

to put

famous discourse

called Laokoon,

which has

never ceased to be discussed.^

Winckelmann's death has


In April, 1768, he
left

an

interest for the superstitious.

Rome to revisit Germany;


feeling finally

but on the way a strong feeling

came upon him that he should not depart from Italy. This
amounted
to a horror, yet a
it,

man

so sane

as

Winckelmann disregarded

and

visited

both Munich

and Vienna.

At the Austrian

capital

he was received

with great honour by the Empress, Maria Theresa., who


presented

him with

number

of very ancient

and rare
to

gold coins.

Leaving Vienna,_ he hurried to Trieste

take ship for Italy.

On

his journey, however, he

fell

in

with a

man named

Arcangeli, an ex-convict,

whose greed

was

excited by the gold,

and who in consequence entered


to death,

Winckelmann's room and stabbed him


8,

on June

1768.

Joseph Eckhel,^ founded the science of Numismatics

by making a
als,

specialty of

Greek and Latin coins and med-

on which he wrote eight volumes, entitled Doctrina


Veterum, the
first

Num-

morum

volume appearing

in

1798 and

the whole

work being

reprinted in a fourth edition (1841).

Christian Gottlob Heyne, a persuasive teacher steeped


in reading, ends this so-called Ante-Wolfian Period.
'

He

See K. Justi, Winckelmann, sein Leben, seine Werke und seine Zeit*

genessen, 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1872).

1737-1798.

404

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


at
it

was professor

Gottingen, and

though

his

learning

was preeminent,

was

his exceptional gifts as a teacher


at

which gave him and his university the leadership


this time. It
is

said

that of his students at least one


professors in various uniFriedrich
life

hundred and
versities

thirty

became

throughout

Germany and Holland.


in 1739,

August Wolf was born


died in 1824.

and

lived a long

and

founder of

He was, as we have already said, the true modem philology.^ He was at first Professor
was
closed

of Philosophy at Halle until that university


after the battle of

Jena (1806).

His teaching was marlsed

by

great breadth, since he held that classical study dealt


life

with every phase of the


classical antiquity
life,

and thought

of antiquity.

In

he found a model of public and private


In 1807 he went
in
to

resting upon the highest ideals.

Berlin,

where he took an active part


but, unfortunately, he

founding the
involved
visited
rests

new

university;

became

in petty quarrels, so that

he

left

Germany and

Southern France, where he died.

His lasting fame

upon
it

his so-called

Prolegomena ad

Homerum

(1795).

In

he traced the history of the Homeric poems, and

sought to show that they have both been greatly changed

from their original form, and that they are made up


separate
'

of

poems by

different authors.

It is not true,
attention

howon

See supra, pp. 2-3.

He

attracted

much

by

insisting

being matriculated in Philology, though there was no such faculty.

He

was told to matriculate under Theology, but refused


the
first

and thus he was

Studiosus philologiae in Gottingen.

THE GEEJUAN INFLUENCE


ever, as

405

many

believe, that

he denied the existence of a

personal Homer.

Wolf's views had in part been antici-

pated by Giambattista Vico, by Robert Wood, and in a


fashion by Bentley.
of Alexandria;

They go back even

to the x'^P^Kovre's

but Wolf

knew nothing

of Vico,

and

moreover his own minute researches were extremely


stimulating, apart from his conclusions.'

Wolf marks
arship.
schools,

the beginning of a
this time

new

era in classical schol-

From

on we

find in

Germany two
(the

one devoted

to Criticism

and Exegesis

Gram-

matico-critical School) , of

whom

the great exponents were

Gottfried

Hermann,^ a

sort of

German

Bentley; Christian

August Lobeck,' whose Aglaophamus (1829) contains a


vast fund of information on the Orphic
teries of

and other mys-

the Greeks; August

Immanuel Bekker,^ who,

besides preparing text-editions of Greek authors, largely

helped to edit the Corpus of the Byzantine writers in


twenty-four volumes, and also a Homer with the
'

digamma

See Volkmann, Geschichte und Kriiik der Wolf's Prolegomena (Leip-

zig, 1874).
2

1772-1848.

Hermann was
"

professor at Leipzig (1803

foil.)

and gave

courses

which were wide in their scope


composition.

and

interest,

especially in

grammar and
motto.

Know your authors at first


He
first set

hand, " was his

In the study of Greek prosody and rhythm, he was likewise a


forth the doctrine of the

great and original expounder.

Anacrusis, and was the father of Metaphysical Syntax.

See

W. G.

Hale,

Century of Metaphysical Syntax, published in part of the

Proceedings in the St. Louis Exposition in 1904.


3
<

781-1860.

178S-1871.

4o6

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

printed in the text.

He

spent a long time in making

re-

searches throughout the principal libraries of Europe, and

he studied the texts with entire indifference to the printed


editions. An epoch-making work was that of Karl Lachmann on Homer's Iliad (1807), and above all, his immortal

masterpiece, in which he took the hitherto rent and

little

understood
sense
it

poem

of Lucretius,

and with

his fine critical

far greater than Bentley ever possessed

restored

to its rightful place

among
first

the masterpieces of Latin

genius.

Lachmann was
at Berlin,

a professor at Konigsberg
of the a

and afterward

where he remained one

most distinguished

of his colleagues for


It

more than

quarter of a century.

was

late in life that


is

he progiven in
says

duced his Lucretius, an account of which


the preface to that poet" by
" Hardly any
since

H. A.

J.

Munro, who

work

of merit has appeared in

Germany
of Latin
of

Lachmann's Lucretius,

in

any branch

literature,

without bearing on every page the impress

his example."

He

was, in fact, the creator of a

strict

and

scientific

system of textual criticism.

In

this he
in

follows Bentley, of
praise;

whom

he cannot say too much

but he goes beyond Bentley in restraining

his
of

" critical sentiment " by ascertaining the original form


the

work through the evidence

of manuscripts,

and

the

correction of their errors.


versatility
it

He was renowned

no

less for

than for profound learning, so

much

so that

may

be said with truth that he was a master of three

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


great departments of philology

407
classical,

oriental,

and

Teutonic.

In each of these he produced an epoch-making


is

work.

For, besides his Lucretius, by which he

per-

haps the best known, he applied the principles of Wolf's


Prolegomena to the German epic of the Nibelungen to

show that
ballads

this could

be resolved into twenty original


as

or

lays;

just

he resolved the Iliad into

eighteen, for he regarded the


details.

poem

as inconsistent in

In his treatment of Lucretius he was followed

especially by

by the Englishman, H. A.
forget that the
first

Hermann Kochly, by Jacob Bemays, and J. Munro; but we must not


clear light

upon

this difficult

text

came

centuries before, from


third

Lambinus (Denys Lambin).

The

great

achievement of
in

Lachmann was

his

treatment of the

New Testament,

which he brought out

the methodology of scientific textual criticism.^

To

the

same period belong in the Grammatico-critical School the illustrious names of August Meineke,* who wrote a
critical history of the

Greek comic

poets,

and edited the

fragments, assisted by Theodor Bergk, as also the Alex-

andrian

poets

in

his

Analecta

Alexandrina,

K.

W.

Dindorf,* Karl Lehrs,* Friedrich Ritschl,^ and August


1 '

1793-1851. 1802-1883.

1790-1870.

With

his brother

and other texts, besides a lexicon the making of three famous series
the Didot.
*
'

Ludwig he edited all the Greek plays Both brothers shared in to ^schylus.

the

Teubner, the Tauchnitz, and

1802-1878. 1806-1876.

A great authority

on grammatical

studies in Greece.

See Friedrich Rifschl, by L. Miiller (Berlin, 1878).

4o8

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Nauck,' who did so


tragic poets.

much

for the hves

of

the Greek
of St.

He was

a professor in the

Academy

Petersburg,
of

one

of the

many who

carried the influence

German

scholarship to Russia, as did his contempoMiiller.

rary,

Lucian

In the Historico-antiquarian School,

we

find Barthold
historical

Georg Niebuhr,
study.

founder of a new school of

Niebuhr was a Dane by birth and a lawyer by

profession.

But soon

after the University of Berlin

was

founded he was called


tution,

to the chair of history in that instiof

where he lectured almost wholly on the annals


brilliant audiences

Rome, before
novel

who were charmed by his


had been
told

manner

of treating

what had become a threadbare


history

subject.

Hitherto,

Roman

and

written of with

no great discrimination.

The

early legends

had been accepted or


approached them

rejected in a lump.

But Niebuhr

in the spirit of a

lawyer or a judge who


imperfect and yet con-

knows

that

all

human

testimony
of truth.

is

tains a certain

amount

Therefore, he proposed

without prejudice to take up the written records of Livy

and other authors and


he were
acute,

to

weigh and balance them as though

presiding in a court.

This method was


side

singularly

and on the negative or destructive

was

widely

accepted.

But when he came

to constructive

work and

1822-1892.
1776-1831.

See Winkworth, The Life and Letters of Niebuhr (London,


1876).

1853),

and Eyssenhardt, Niebuhr (Gotha,

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE

409

himself put forth two volumes of a History/ they were


treated

by

historians according to Niebuhr's

own method,
over-

and had

their defects pointed out with

much acumen.
early history of

The

theory of " tribal lays "

had been somewhat


tliis

done;

and when Niebuhr resolved

Rome
he

into the remains of a series of

poetical ballads,

failed to convince.

He was
first

not even original.^


treated his subject in a

Yet

it

was Niebuhr who

truly scientific spirit so

far as his early lectures went.

His studies of the population of

Rome under
all

the Republic,

and

its

divisions

the

plebs, the patricians

and plebeians,
acceptable to

the ager publicus, etc.


scholars.
cellanies,

were

new and

Furthermore, he put forth two volumes of mis-

mainly philological, and dealing partly with

the criticism of classical texts'

and topography, having


palimpsests.

himself in Italy discovered

new fragments and


vivacity of style
this effect

Niebuhr had a freshness and

which helped

convince his hearers; nor was

diminished by a

remarkable
"

self -consciousness

such as once led him to say


could have

The

discovery

of

no ancient historian

taught the world so


iln 1812.
*

much
scholar,

as

my

work."

Though

in

Perizonius, the

Dutch

had anticipated

this

theory (1685),
(i

while the Frenchman, Louis de Beaufort, had published


proofs of the uncertainty of early
also preceded

738-1 750)

Roman

History.

Niebuhr was

by Arnold Heeren (1760-1842), whose monographs on

ancient commerce, politics, and colonization were in


written before Niebuhr began his lectures at Berlin.
'

many

cases

1828-1843.

4IO
detail

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


he was often wrong, the
later researches of able

men'
was,

have not shaken the foundations of his


in fact, a

history.

He

Danish Gibbon, dealing with the early Republic


later

as

Gibbon did with the


'His

Empire.^

friend,

Georg Ludwig Spalding (1762-1811), went

to Berlin

with Niebuhr and there put forth three volumes of a


Quintilian, the fourth

fine edition of

volume being seen through the press by

P. K.
in a

Buttmann with an
fifth
*

excellent lexicon to the author

by Bonnel

volume.

Other scholars of the time were the famous F. E. D. Schleierfor

macher, who did so much


lytical

German

prose style and for the ana,

study of Plato

Ludwig Friedrich Heindorf


of

also a Platonist,

but best known for his notes on Horace;


(originally

Philipp Karl Buttmann

Boudemont), author

a clearly expressed but purely


of

dogmatical grammar, and of a Lexilogus, an acute study

the

Homeric vocabulary. His other works may be ignored. Inunanuel Bekker (1785-1871), of Berlin, was a notable critic of Greek texts. For sixty-one years he held his professorship at Berlin, seldom lecturing,

seldom heard, yet winning a brilliant reputation among scholars for


hundred) and
his improvements

his collection of manuscripts (over four

in the existing texts of Aristotle, Plato, the Attic orators, the Byzan-

and in Latin, of Livy and Tacitus. and not of von Moltke, that " he could See H. Suppe (Gottingen, 1872). be silent in seven languages." August Boeckh (1785-1867) was the rival of Gottfried Hermann.
tine historians,
late writers, It

many

was

first

said of him,

He devoted his
made

attention to the antiquarian aspect of the

classics.

He He

especial studies of Plato


is

and the dramatists, while

his elaborate

edition of Pindar

monument

to his industry (1811-1821).

was professor
years. learning,

of

Eloquence in the University

of Berlin for fifty-six


of classical

In his work he was more interested in broad views

and unlike Hermann he published a treatise on the public economy of Athens (Eng. trans., Boston, 1857), and a great part of
the Corpus Inscriptionum Gracarum, but not ended until (1877) ten

years after his death.

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE

411

Among
who
with

the earliest text-critics and grammarians after


Christian

Hermarm was

August Lobeck

(i 781 -i860),

taught at Wittenburg and Konigsberg.

He

discussed

much

acuteness the laws of word-formation in Greek,

taking up the terminations of nouns and the general laws


of the language in his Phrynicus (1820), his notes on a

fragment of Herodian (1820), and his great Pathologia

Sermonis GrcEci (1843-1862).

His comprehensive knowlto

edge of Greek literature enabled him


titude of examples

pour forth a mul-

and

to detect

and

illustrate the living

phenomena

of the language.

In addition to Lobeck was


,

Gregor Wilhelm Nitzsch (1790-1861) whose life was largely


devoted to Homeric studies.
regarding the actual

He

differed

from Wolf

in

Homer

as living near the end of the


artist;

poems, and therefore the shaping

while he

makes

the point that the Cyclic Poets implied the existence of

an Iliad and an Odyssey somewhat

in their present form.


least,

Better known, in foreign countries at


Friedrich Nagelsbach,

was Karl
on

and most of
,

all

for his treatise

Latin

style (Lateinische Stilistik)


its

which appeared

in 1846,

and reached

ninth edition at the hands of


it

Iwan

Miiller

(1905) , who gave


to its usefulness.
istic

a complete index, and thus greatly added

The book deals with


carried

the

most characterprose.

differences of idiom between Latin

and German

Lobeck and Karl Lehrs


relating to the

on grammatical

studies

Greek from the beginning of the decadence

(300 B.C.) to the Byzantine Age.

As a

critic,

Lehrs treated

412

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

the text of Horace very severely,

many

of

whose odes he

even rejected as spurious

An

early pupil of

Hermann
lecturer

was Friedrich Wilhelm Thiersch (1784-1860), a


at

Munich, and doing much

for the organisation of the

educational system of Bavaria.


of the

He had

studied the art


therefore
to

Louvre and the British Museum, and


attention to antique sculpture.
It

gave

much

was due

him

that the Glyptothek

was founded

at the Bavarian

capital

by the Crown Prince.


list

Thiersch, however, rightly

belongs to the

of grammarians,

and besides two Greek


treatises

grammars, he wrote innumerable


points
fairly

on the

nicer

of

word-formation and
also

the

particles.

He

was

intimate

with

modem

Greek,

and wrote
Other

in

French a

treatise

on the Greece of to-day.

professors at the Bavarian university were Georg Anton

Friedrich

Ast

(1778-1841),

editor

of

the

Characters

of Theophrastus; Leonhard Spengel, Carl Prunst (1820-

1888)

and Ludwig Doederlein, professor


for his forcible

at

Bern and
stimulating

Erlangen, and noted

and

lectures, full of epigram,


treatises

and

for his rather unmethodical


in Latin (Laieinische

on synonyms and etymologies


6 vols.
;

Synonymen und Etymologien,


mik,
etc.),

Laieinische Synonyin 1826-1838,

the

first

of which

was published

and

the second in 1839.


still

Grammar was
two parts has

the

subject

that

attracted

Karl
in

Wilhelm Kriiger (1796-1874), whose Greek grammar


its

rules clearly stated

and

its

examples

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


always pertinent.

413

This book was

rivalled
trio

by that

of

Raphael Kxihner (1802-1878), and the

was completed
of

by Heinrich Ludolf Ahrens (1809-1881), the author


exhaustive treatise on the
1 83 9-1 843).

an

Greek

dialects

(Gottingen,

Many

of the papers of Friedrich Wilhelm

Schneidewin, the editor of several Greek dramatists, show


that he, too, though given to criticism as

Hermann

was,

and

to archasology as

was Thiersch, was a grammarian


the word.

in the sense that

we now employ

But Syntax
fried

led to another sphere of labor with Gottin

Bernhardy (1800-1875), who,


scientific

1829, published a

volume on the
regarded

syntax of the Greek language, but


history of

syntax

solely in its relation to the

Latin

literature.

As

professor at Halle (where he

was

afterwards pro-Rector)

he published a very interesting


classical learning. (183 2),

monograph on
which
is

his

own system of
full

very suggestive and


is

of truth.

According to

him, grammar

the instrument of such learning,


its

and

Criticism and Interpretation

elements.
Antiquities,

Of

less

account

and

purely

ancillary

are

Palaeography,

Numismatics, and Epigraphy.

In

this,

Bernhardy may
classical

be said

to

have

set forth the

whole truth regarding

study when regarded from


widely read scholar
that
is

the standpoint of a wise

and

who

applies philosophy to the subject

dearest to him.

In Bernhardy one sees alike the

influence of Hegel
ciples in

and of Wolf.

He

carries out his prinfirst

two books which were the

of the kind to

414

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

place the study of classical literature


level.'

upon a very high

Following Bemhardy, an
literature^

excellent

work on Roman

was prepared
Teuflfel of

in

two volumes by Wilhelm


This work
is

Sigismund
is

Tubingen (1820-1878).

not intended for continuous reading, but


bibliography with notes.
It

a sort of

glorified

was

at first vilely
later its fourth

translated into English


edition,

by W. Wagner, and

having been enlarged and supplemented by L.

Schwabe, was well rendered into English by G. C. W.

Warr

(1845 ^^'^ 1901))

who added

the

more important

English and French references which the Germans had


insolently omitted.

This

is

a book of great value to the


it

student of Latin for the easy access which

gives

him

to

many
the

details relating to

Roman
who

authors and their books.

Closely linked with another valuable


is

work

of reference

name
a

of Teuffel,

assisted the completion of

the

great

Real-Encyclopadie

of

August Pauly

(1796-

1845),

monument

of

minute information regarding


which, begun at Stuttgart
in

Greek and
1839,
*

Roman

topics,

was

finished after Pauly's death.^


Litteraiur

Grundriss der romischen

(1830,

5th

ed.,

Brunswick,
ed., 3

1872); Grundriss der Gfieckischen Litteraiur (1836-1845; 4th


vols.,

1876-1880).

There

is

a Life of Bernhardy by Volkmann.

It

describes his other works, such as his Suidas (1853),

his rivalries

withM. H.

E. Meier and

Theodor Bergk, and

his fatherly friendship

for his pupils,

such as Heinrich Keil and August Nauck.

'Geschichte der romischen Litteraiur (1870), last Eng. trans., 1900.


'

New

ed.

by Georg Wissowa

(1902).

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE

415

Grammatical studies were further pursued by Karl


Gottlob

Zumpt

(1792-1849), whose

grammar

of

Latin

prose (18 1 8)

was

several times translated into English

and was

circulated in the British dominions as well as in

the United States; by Karl Leopold Schneider (1786-1821),

whose

large

grammar was

the

first

systematic treatise

of the kind produced in

Germany;
editior of

Nicolai, Meisterhans,

R. Klotz,

J. F.

Jacob,

the

^tna, and Albert

Forbiger (1798-1878), a second-rate scholar, but one whose


pedestrian editions of Vergil and Lucretius were better

known

in

England than those of Heyne and Lachmann.

Forbiger was also the compiler of a German-Latin dictionary/

'

Lexicography, being an elementary part of grammar,


its later

may

be

considered here in

developments, with a reference to early

lexicography on pp. 96, 97, 108, 126, 165-167, 194, 246, 247, 254, Soon after the Renaissance began to make word-books 255, 305-

and various kinds of lexica popular, one Ambrogio Calepino (Ambrohad prepared a Dictionarium which was widely used, because it defined the Latin words in Italian and later gave also the equivalent in Greek. The success of the so-called Calepinus was extraordinary. It was republished, revised, amplified, and extended
sius Calepinus)
in every possible way, the definitions being given in

many

lan-

guages, so that finally there was produced a Calepinus with the Latin
defined in Italian, German, French, Dutch, Danish, English, and

Greek.

The vogue

of the book, thus altered, continued into the

eighteenth century,

when

still

another revision was undertaken at

Padua by lacopo Facciolati, who soon became convinced that the whole work was antiquated. He proposed that an entirely new lexicon be made out of the great body of Latin authors; and this was finally done by himself and his colleague Egidio Forcellini, in

4l6

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


scientific

The broadly
riously

study of language which

is

va-

known

as Linguistics (LinguisHk), or Comparative

their Totius Latinitatis Lexicon


rial

(Padua,

1771), a splendid

memo-

of

classical

scholarship.

This was revised by Vicenzo De-Vit

(1879) and Fr. Corradini (d. 1888), who used the work of Klotz, and whose lexicon was completed after his death (1890) by Perin. It has been said of this great lexicon as made by Facciolati and Forcellini, so fully have they illustrated their articles by quotations from the classics, that the greater part of Latin literature could be restored from their lexicon, were it destroyed in the texts where

we now

find

it.

Other lexicons than those of the Italians have been

independently

made by WiUielm Frevind

in

Germany

(enlarged and

by E. A. Andrews) and made the basis This was "conveyed" of Lewis and Scott's Latin Dictionary (1882). by the English publisher, William Smith (afterward Sir William), and
translated in the United States
is

known

in

England as Smith's Latin Dictionary.

Independently,

Karl Ernst Georges (1806-1895), of Gotha, produced a GermanLatin lexicon in 1833, and
of a doctor's dissertation.
it

was accepted at Jena as the equivalent

A
is

seventh edition appeared in 1882, as

did (in 1879) the seventh edition of another lexicon which bears the

name
ill

of Georges,

but which

based upon the work of other scholars,


Georges had

such as Luneman, Forcellini, Gesner, and Scheller.


health and

weak

eyesight, so that he did not often go far from


of learning at the dis-

his library;

but he generously put his stores

posal of scholars in every part of the world.

Besides the books already

mentioned he wrote

a.

Latin-German and German-Latin Handat a Latin lexicon was

worterbuch and a Schulworterbuch, both of which have gone through

many

editions.

The most ambitious attempt

that planned by Eduard Wolfflin, professor at Munich.


as 1857, the king of Bavaria offered to

As

early

contribute ten thousand

gulden toward the cost of a truly complete dictionary of Latin.


It of
of

was proposed to put the editorship into the hands

of Carl

Halm

Munich, Ritschel, and Alfred Fleckeisen, with Franz Biicheler

Bonn

as editor-in-chief.

Political disturbances

delayed the enterof his Archiv jUt

prise until finally WolfBin

began the publication

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE

417

Philology, began with the discovery of Sanskrit by Sir

William Jones, already mentioned


lateinisch Lexikographie

(p. 383).

The

greatest

collections

und Grammatik (in 1848), a quarterly for and suggestions from scholars all over the world. In 1893 the Archiv announced a plan for a great Thesaurus in 12 vols,
twenty years at a cost
of $150,000, of the

of 1000 pages each, to be finished in

and under the charge Munich, and Vienna.


the
first editors.

academies of Berlin, Gottingen, Leipzig,

Professor Bucheler, Wolfflin and F. Leo were


to

It

was

appear
its

in fasciculi.

Greek lexicography reached

highest excellence with the dic-

tionary of Stephanus (see p. 305), yet, as with Latin, there

was

felt

the need of lexicons that should define Greek words in the language
of the students using them, instead of in Latin.

Faber, in 1571,

had published a Thesaurus; but, using that as a basis, J. M. Gesner, between 1726 and 1735, issued two revisions, and now he set forth a
Thesaurus of his own, eliminating barbarisms and solecisms, and

though uneven

in its

treatment and explanation,

it

marked a

distinct

advance
in the

in the history of lexicography.

Gesner was noted as a leader


of the

New Humanism. The


life of

Old Humanism

Renaissance had

sought to prolong the


this

the Latin language and literature.

Yet

was found to be impracticable as a spoken tongue, and the so-called School of Halle abandoned the attempt, and merely tolerated the teaching of spoken Latin in the schools.

Gesner at Gottingen, held that the


ical

classics

But the New Humanists, headed by had a psychic and philosoph-

made the study of them peculiarly helpful, in leading and richer understanding of the modern literatures and This view was of their art and poetry and every phase of learning. that which bore fruit in the aesthetic teachings of Winckelmann, of
value which
to a broader

Lessing, and of Goethe.

Gesner was also the precursor of Heyne in let-

ting taste play a part in his exegesis and

commenting upon the authors


Others of the

whom he

edited {Scriptores Rei Rustica, Quintilian, Pliny's Letters and


.

Panegyricus, Horace, and Claudian)

New Humanists
who compiled

were Tobias

Damm

(1699-1778), a teacher in Berlin

a great lexicon to Homer and another to Pindar, the words being etymologically arranged (alphabetically by V. C. F. Rest in 1833).

4l8

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


this

achievements in

department of Classical Philology


in

have been made by Germans or

Germany.

Sir William

Jones drew attention to the likeness of the structural

system of Sanskrit and what we

now

call the

Indo-Euro-

pean languages; but


gave a
scientific

it

was Franz Bopp (1791-1867) who

turn to the discovery.


in Paris (1812-1815),

Bopp was bom

in

Mayence,

lived

where he studied

Persian and Arabic under de Sacy, and himself learned


Sanskrit from the

grammars

of William Carey (1806)

and

Sir

Charles Wilkins

(1808).
for

In 1821 he became
fifty-six

professor,
to

and held his chair


^

years
first

down
work

his death.

In

18 16

he published his

Johann GotUob Schneider (1750-1822), of Breslau, whose lexicon Passow (1819-1824), as Passow's did for Rest and Palm (1841-1857), and this in turn for that of the Englishmen Liddell and Scott (1843), the last edition (1880) bearing on its title page also the name of Henry Drisler, an American Hellenist of Columbia College, New York, who had himself made an independent lexicon of Greek, including proper names. Messrs. Liddell and Scott were scholars of very unequal capacity. A popular rhyme in England runs as follows
supplied a model for those of Franz

" This

is

the book of Liddell and Scott,

Some

of it's

good and some


is

of it's not,

That which That which

good

is

Scott,
is

is

Liddell

not "
!

The

first

appearance

of Liddell

and
for

Scott's lexicon in 1843 ^^^>

however, noteworthy, because

its definitions

and not
1

in Latin

an innovation

were given in English

which the editors gave a very

noble defence in their preface.

See Lefmann, Franz Bopp, sein Leben und seine Wissenschaft

(Berlin, 1896).

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


on the conjugational system
with
those
of of Sanskrit as

419

compared

Greek,

Latin,

Persian,

and

German,

endeavouring
forms.

to explain the

origins of our grammatical


freely

This he discussed more

and

fully in his

Comparative Grammar {Vergleichende Grammatik), which

appeared in 1833.

Bopp made much

of " roots " and

more

legitimately of conjugational similarities in the lan-

guages named.
his time.

But when he wrote he was was


still

in

advance of

Sanskrit

imperfectly understood, and

therefore Bopp's earlier contemporaries, such as

Hermann

and Lobeck, held


even treated
witticisms.

aloof, while

some, like Ludwig Ross,


as

Comparative

Grammar

a subject for

Theodor Benfey, a converted Jew (1809-1881), gave

an intense devotion

to the

study of Sanskrit, of which lan-

guage he wrote a complete grammar (1852), having previously published a lexicon of " Greek roots "

(1839-

1842) and very

many

articles

and monographs on

scientific

Greek etymology.

After

Bopp and

Benfey, the two great

pioneers in the comparative study of languages, there

came

many, of

whom

Georg Curtius (1820-1885), at Leipzig,

was the most


study,'-

influential

the head of a school of language


elder brother Ernst

Curtius,

whose

won fame

for

a history of Greece (1857-1867),^ in his inaugural, declared


1 See Comparative Philology (Cambridge, igo6). J. M. Edmonds's Leo Meyer, who was a pupil of Benfey and did much to further his work, is at the present writing still living as an honorary professor

at G6ttingen.

"

Eng. trans, by A.

W. Ward

(1873).

420

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


Classical

that he should bring

Philology and

language

study into closer relation with each other.


plished

This he accomhis

by

his

own

influence

and that of

many

dis-

tinguished pupils

ten
and

volumes of Studien (1868-1878)

with

five

volumes of Leipziger Studien (1878-1882) being


his colleagues.

edited by himself

The

chief works
for

that were wholly his

own were

his

Greek grammar

schools

(Prague, 1832), principles of Greek Etymology

(1858-1862), and his bulky treatise on the Greek Verb (1873-1876).

In

his

etymological

discussions,

Georg

Curtius investigates and classifies the regular phonetic

changes in the consonants as they pass from Sanskrit


Greek, Latin, or
irregular

to

German
in

but

many

of these changes are

and not

accordance with any settled principle

known

to Curtius at that time.

So he dubs them " spo-

radic changes," to be explained or not, according to the

ingenuity of the investigator.

In other words, he held that

the exceptions to the consonantal changes set forth in

Grimm's Law were " sporadic " and

really accidental.
to the relations

What was Grimm's Law ?


between the consonants
(2)

It is

a law as

in (i) Sanskrit,

Greek, and Latin,


English).'
Kris-

High German and Low German (including


of this law

The germ
tian

was discovered by Rasmus

Rask (1787-1832), who had

travelled extensively in

Iceland, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Persia,


fully

and

India, carein these

comparing the
'

different languages

spoken
99
et. al.

See Giles, Comparative Philology,

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


countries.
to
It

42I

was he who,
the

first

among Europeans, came


Rask's
partly

know grammatically
is

Old Persian form of speech

that

variously called "

Zend " or " Avestan."


(1818)

book on Icelandic and other languages

anticipated the law which generally governs the consonantal

changes already mentioned.

Jakob Grimm (1785-1863)


a flash the

who was

preparing a

German grammar, saw at

great importance of Rask's statements;

and when the

second edition of his Deutsche Grammatik appeared (1822),


it

showed the influence of Rask.

Hence the law

of

consonantal change came to be styled Grimm's

Law;

but the exceptions

to

it

were regarded as inexplicable and

as partly justifying the

famous gibe

of

M. de

Voltaire.

Curtius with Grimm's

Law and

the " sporadic changes "

reigned content, until a young Dane, Karl Ludwig Verner,

who was
Kuhn's
were due

not a classical scholar at

all,

wrote a paper in

Zeilschrift,^

which showed that these exceptions

to

the accentual system of the original Indo-

Germanic languages.
p, f, h,
g,

That

is,

the sonant spirants, except


.

w, and

s,

became

respectively the spirants d,

i,

gu, and 5

when

the vowel immediately preceding

them

did not, according to the original Indo-Germanic system,

have the primary accent of the word.


of the prevailing " pre-accent "

This gives proof


to

down

about 300 a.d.


of

These two
'

discoveries

that

of

Rask (Grimm) and


Ausnahme

Vol. xxiii, pp. 79-130 (1877), entitled Eine

der Ersten

Lautverschiebung.

422 Karl

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Vemer

are the most remarkable and have been the


the study of languages since Classical

most

fruitful in

Philology began.

They were
of Leipzig,

applied with great

skill

by

Karl

Brugmann

who may be
among whom

styled the chief

of the Jung-Grammatiker,

are

numbered

Hermann
zig,

Osthoff of Heidelberg, August Leskien of Leipof Munich,'

Hermann Paul

and Ludwig Lange


hold

of
in

Leipzig
general

(1825-1885).
(i)

The New Grammarians


so
far as

that language-changes,

they are

mechanical, occur according to definite and


laws,

immutable
is

and

(2) that the principle of Analogy, which

always

at work, has

been so ever since speech began.^

The Young Grammarians found a powerful ally in Friedrich Karl Brugmann (1849)' who cooperated
with the others, and wrote a paper almost as revolutionary
as

Vemer's,

in

Curtius's

Studien?

The

subject was

Nasalis Sonans, and proved so destructive to the theories


of Curtius as to bring about a personal rupture between the

two men;

so that for

many

years Curtius and the Old

Grammarians waged an unceasing war on Bb!femann and


his disciples.
It is

now
in

universally accepted that Brug-

mann was

correct

his

view of the Indo-Germanic

' Paul's Principien der S prachgeschichte (Eng. adapt, by Strong, Logeman, and Wheeler) and Brugmann's Grundriss der vergleichenden Grammatik der indo-germanischen Sprachen (Eng. trans.).
;

'

See B.

I.

Wheeler, Analogy and the Scope of

its

Application in

Study (1887).

Vol. ix (Leipzig, 1877).

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


vocalic nasals.i

423

In

fact,

owing

to the labors of

Vemer,

of

Brugmann (who

finally

succeeded Curtius at Leipzig),


in general, language-study

and the Young Grammarians


has been put upon a soimd

scientific basis,

wherein changes

are to be traced, not to sporadic causes, but to analogy,

which has laws of


It

its

own.
so great a

was natural that

change

in

linguistics

should be accompanied by a
of

new movement

in the field

grammar which

sets

forth, quasi-dogmatically, the

truths of language-study.
influence exhibited

Hence we

find the

German
Copenre-

by Johann Nicolai Madvig (1804-1886),

a Dane of great distinction


hagen.

who was educated


years.

at

He became professor of
for

Latin there (1829) and


fifty

mained as such

more than

Like most of

the greatest scholars

whom

the world has seen,

Madvig

was remarkably
law,

versatile,

engaging as

much

in politics,

and diplomacy as

in classical study.

He was

mem-

ber of the Diet, President of the Council, Inspector of


Schools,

and Minister of Education.


best

As a grammarian
but his
collec-

and

critic his

work was done

in Cicero,
etc.,

tive papers.

Adversaria Critica,

are masterpieces of

interpretation

and

criticism.

His Latin grammar (1841)


in

was

translated in every

European country and

the
his
full

United States.
death,

His personality was remarkable.


eightieth year, he

To

in

his

was vigorous and

See Brugmann's great work, Grundriss der vergleichenden Gramed., 1897).

matik der indo-germanischen Sprachen (Eng. trans., 2d

424

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


combined with the graceful poise
of

of the scholar's zest,

the diplomat

who has

mingled with kings and nobles.

" Speak the truth in love" was his favourite maxim, and
it

was carried out

to the letter.

He

taught

all

the scholars

of

tries.

modem Denmark and most of the Scandinavian counAmong his pupils were Christensen, Sophus Bugge,
Christiania.

and Johan Louis Bugge (1820-1905) of


a
critic,

As

Madvig was

less

given than his contemporaries to

the minute study of manuscripts, except in determining


their relation to the archetype.
criticism,

He dwelt largely on
in

verbal

and was an adept

conjectural emendation.

In his judgments he recalled the judicial methods of

Niebuhr.

Such was Madvig, a great


critic,

classical scholar

a Grecian, a Latinist, a
iant

a grammarian, and a

brill-

man of the world. To be compared with


scholar,

the

Danish Madvig was

the

Dutch

Caryl Gabriel Cobet (1813-1889), whose

mother, however, was a Frenchwoman, and Cobet was

bom

in Paris.

He showed
Leyden.
It
is

the brilliancy

and wit

of the
at the

French,

though his education was carried out


at

Hague and

said that on entering Leyden


classics,

he was already steeped in the ancient


verbal familiarity with them.
.

and had a
dissertation

His doctor's

excited high hopes,

and the Royal

Institute gave

him leave
manu-

of absence for five years so that he might study Greek


scripts in Italy.

On

his return, he

was made an

extraor-

dinary professor at Leyden, and his inaugural address has

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


become a classic
in the field of text criticism.^

425

The

story

is

told that during one of the symposia of the professors, they


fell to

arguing on a certain point of usage in the Greek

drama.

Cobet was on

fire

with enthusiasm, and so pelted

his colleagues with quotations

from ^schylus, Sophocles,


that they gave
smile,

and Euripides and from the Fragments,

way and admitted


that he
play.

his claim.

Then, with a roguish

he informed them that most of his quotations were spurious,

had invented them on the spot

as a bit of academic

Not long

after the retirement of Petrus


full

Hoffman
is

Peerlkamp, who had been


best known by his critical

professor (1848)
in

and who

work

Horace, Cobet succeeded

him.
land.

He was

the greatest

Greek scholar of

modem
in

Hol-

Dr. Sandys recalls the meeting of Cobet and

Mad1875.

vig at the tercentenary celebration at

Leyden

hush was

felt

when

Cobet's turn

came

to address his
first

great contemporary in Latin, for Cobet was


Hellenist as

of

all

Madvig was
full

first

of

all

a Latinist.

But

Cobet's words were


terity,

of grace, compliment,
his reply:

and dex-

so that

Madvig began

Post Cobetum
is to

Latine loqui vereor?

Cobet's most enduring work


lectures, papers,

be
of

found

in the

numerous

and examples

criticism that are contained in his YaricR Lectiones and his

Nova
1 '

Lectiones,

which with Madvig's Adversaria and


1840).
(in 1877) criticise tlie

Oratio de Arte

Emendandi (Amsterdam,

Cobet did later

Latin of Madvig.

His own

was superb,
personality.

flashing, graceful, sinuous, reflecting his

remarkable

426

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Opuscula, and the addresses of Edouard

Toumier

(1831-

1899), of Paris, might well constitute a Corpus of


critical

modem

work.
influence on France in classical studies has
less direct

The German

been more subtle and

than upon other peoples,

mainly because of the difference of race and the clash of


politics,

and

also because of the


in its

French genius which


If less

cre-

ates

and transforms

own way.

profound than

the

German, it

is

more lucid, and, one may say, more logical.

Yet since the great discoveries were made by Germans


or those allied with them, and since even in the department
of

Romance

Philology the more minute and careful work

has been done by Germans,' the genuine scholars of France

have accepted and merely elucidated what the Germans


found.

Because, however, they have lacked originality one

passes over their later

work with the mention

of a few con-

spicuous names, such as those of men

who wrote with charm


in the

H.
and

J.

G. Patin (1792-1876), whose studies

Greek

late

Latin poets are learned and widely read; Desir6

Nisard and Charles Nisard,

who

set themselves to

making
;

the classics popular even at the cost of inaccuracy

mile

Egger (1813-1885), author of the


parative

first treatise

on Com-

Grammar

(1852)

the able lexicographers, L. M.

Quicherat (1799-1884), author of a Latin thesaurus, and EmileLittrg (1801-1881)


;

the distinguished palaeographer,


life

Charles Graux (1852-1882), whose brief


'

was one

of

E.g. Dietz, Korting,

Meyer-Lubke, Grober.

THE GERMAN nSTFLUENCE

427

remarkable achievement; and Otto Riemann (1853-1891),


best

known

for his

work

in Livy.

The French

School in
to

Athens was founded as early as 1846, and has helped


stimulate such archaeologists as

Bumouf, Fustel de Couand Reimann,


to

langes, Perrot, CoUignon, Homolle,

with

scores of others

whose names are known

every scholar.

Victor Henry (1850-1907) wrote comparative

grammars

that were translated into English, and his wide knowledge


of
all

languages

made him a

universal authority.

One

of the most brilliant expositors of


literature

Roman

life

and Latin
lectures

was Gaston

Boissier (1823-1908),

whose

were absorbing and whose books were fascinating {Cic&ron


et

ses

Amis (Eng.

trans.,

1892),

U Opposition

sous

les

Cisars (1874-1875),

La Fin du Paganisme

(1891),

and

L'Afrique Romaine (1895)).


Archaeology in
to
its

broad sense and Fine Art owe

less

Germany

in their

development than other branches of

Classical Philology.

To be sure,

there

is

Winckelmann, the

father of archaeologists,

and Lessing,

his greatest critic,

but scholars of other nations share the honours with these

two

illustrious

men.

We
in

have seen how early the Arundel


England, and

Marbles were admired

how

the British

Museum was
antiquity.

created for the repository of rare objects of


in Paris

The Louvre

was begun

in

1204 and

converted into the beginnings of


fois
I.

an art museum by Frangenius of

Upon

it

were lavished

all tlie
its

men

like

Pierre Lescot

and Jean Goujin, and

beautification con-


HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

428

tinued through the Napoleonic wars, during which the


great

Emperor

filled

the galleries with the richest spoils

of the countries he conquered, as did his

nephew Napoin richness,

leon

III.

Its collections

undoubtedly surpass

beauty, and value those of any other structure in the world


to-day.
inferior.

Even those

of

the Vatican

must be reckoned

Throughout France, the provincial museums


though
it is

exhibit separate collections,

becoming

the

policy of the

government

to

draw these gradually

to Paris.

Side by side with archasology stands history, and here


the

German

influence

is

very great.

There are

in GerPeter,

many

editions

of

the Latin

fragments

by H.

Friedrich
(d.

von

Schlegel,

Johann Wilhelm von

Siivem

1829), while Karl Bbttiger (1760) wrote Sabina, the


life

daily

of a

Roman

lady, a

model

for Bekker's well-

known

Callus and Charicles (1796-1846).

More

serious

historians of

Rome
in

were Ernst Curtius' and Theodor

Mommsen^
to say.

(1817-1903), of

whom we

shall

have more
history,

But

England there were giants of

Connop Thirlwall (1797-1875) and George Grote (1794187 1)

each

having written a monumental history of

Greece, Thirlwall' s being called " a


Grote's, " a

Tory

history," and
partiality
in

Whig

history,"

from the evident

of their respective authors. Trinity,

Thus, Thirlwall, a lecturer

was

in

sympathy with the English

patriciate,

while Grote was a banker, not a university man, and fully in


'

See the Deutsche Rundschau (Berlin, 1896). See Infra, pp. 443-444.

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


sympathy with the Athenian democracy.

429

Of

late years,

young
light

Italian,

Guilelmo Ferrero, has sought to throw a new

upon

the problems of ancient

Rome, though he seems


history of the
classical

largely to have

drawn upon the French


Victor Duruy.

Romans by Jean

Other French

historians have been Napoleon III,

whose Casar deserves

attention, Franqois Villemain, a rhetorical lecturer, Aubin

Louis Millen (1759-1818),


description of the

who gave

a remarkably

full

Roman

relics in the

south of France; and

Jean Francois Boissonade (1774-1857), who spent most of


his time in studying the later Greeks, of the decadence of

whom
was

he modestly said that " the mediocrity of

their talent

suited to the mediocrity of his scholarship."


prodigious.

But

his

work was
and
must

In nine years

(1823-1832)

he

produced twenty-four volumes of annotated Greek poets,


his

was the

editio

princeps of Babrias (1844).


are

We

note,

also,
St.

though many names

omitted:

Barth6lemy

Hilaire (1805-1895), lecturer

on Greek and
(1891),

Roman

philosophy, translator

of

Aristotle

and

publicist as well as scholar, besides the Duo de Luynes

(1803-1867), numismatist and explorer, Charles Lenor-

mant (1816-1881), a
his
son, Fran9ois

student of ancient monuments; and


),

(1837-

a scholar of the most


for his

varied attainments, best

known

minute studies

at

Eleusis with reference to the Mysteries.'


'

In modern

Italy,

the

name

of Cardinal

Angelo Mai (1782-1854)

is

to be

remembered

for his

study of the manuscripts in the Vatican and

430

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Since the splendid career of


sities

Cob at,

the

Dutch

univer-

have had no

classical scholar of the first order, but

they honourably maintain the traditions of the past.

They

are Groningen (fotinded in 1614), Utrecht (1636), Leyden


1575),

and Amsterdam, whose Athenaeum was raised

to the

rank of a university in 1877.


students
is to

The

greatest

number

of

be found at the oldest seats of learning,

Leyden and Utrecht.


in Holland,

There were two more

universities

Franeker and Hardervyk, but these were


I.

suppressed by Napoleon

Belgium, as a separate

state,

is

of recent existence,
of

having formed a part of Holland until the revolution


183 1.
It

contains

more than one famous and


Some

ancient

Ambrosian

libraries of

which he had charge.


exist, as

of his discoveries

were of works hitherto unknown to


of Cicero's lost treatise,

a part of Dionysius Hali-

carnassensis, fragments of the lost Vidularia of Plautus,

and remains

De Republica (1822). Since Comparative Philology has been in vogue, Domenico Pezzi (1844-1906), and Grazladio Ascoli (1829-1907) are the greatest names among the comparative philologists of Italy.

We

have already mentioned Vinlexicon,

cenzo De-Vit (1810-1892) as the reviser of Forcellini's great

and Fr. Corradini (1820-1898) whose


Perin in i8go.

like

task was completed by

Studies in early Latin were ably undertaken by

Giovanni Battista Gandino


paretti, professor of of

(1877-1905)
Pisa,
is

while

Domenico Comhis account

Greek at

widely
;

known by

Vergil in the

Canina,

Middle Ages (1873 Bartholomeo Borghesi, and


;

Eng. trans. 1895). Luigi Francesco Maria Avellino


first

were

all

distinguished archaeologists

but

of all stood Giovanni


collections

Battista de Rossi (there were

two

of the

name), who made

of inscriptions, especially of those in the

Catacombs, and

of Christian

Archseology.

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


university
societies.

43
its

and

is

remarkable for the number of


Catholic
University of

learned

The

Louvain

was

founded

in 1426, having separate colleges, as in England.

Of

these the best

known was

the Collegium Trilingue, over

which Erasmus

for a time presided, cultivating the three

languages, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

Lipsius also
" the

lec-

tured

here

and

styled

the

University
its

Belgian

"Athens."

Louvain has had

vicissitudes,

having been

closed by the Austrian Emperor, Joseph II, and by the

French

in

1797; but in 1834

it

was refounded as a
its

strictly

Catholic University and has resumed

old prestige.

Besides Louvain, there are Ghent (1816), Lifege (1816),

and the "

free university " of Brussels (1834).

As Dutch

scholarship tends toward textual criticism, so that of the

Belgians has

by preference turned

to

archaeology and

constitutional antiquity, these being represented chiefly

by

Jean Baron de Witte (1868-1889), a scholar


enced by the Germans;
J.

largely influ-

E.

G. Roulez (1806-1878),

Professor of Greek at Ghent, and an authority on ancient

music; Joseph Gantrelle (1809-1893), Professor of Latin


at Ghent, a defender of the classics

and editor and


the

of the

Agricola

(1874),

Germania

(1877),

Historice

(1881), besides publishing a special study of the style of

Tacitus
labours.'
'

(1882), to

whom,

indeed, he devoted his chief

The

influence of

Germany

is

plainly seen in the

Other Belgian scholars of note were Augusta Wagener (1829largely

1896),

influenced

by German teaching

Louis Chretien

432

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


of the Belgian scholars, because at so

work

many

of their
{e.g.

universities,
J.

Germans
J.

have

held

professorships

D. Fuss; G.

Bekker), yet the native Gallic strain


scholars

has
lucid.

made

Belgian

not only

profound but

The

Scandinavians, as

we have

already noted, are


It
is

among

the most original of classical scholars.

unnecessary,

however, to trace their work farther than the beginning


of the nineteenth century, for
it is

only then that Danes,


their

Swedes, and Norwegians became conspicuous for

prowess in learning.
of
all,

Their universities to-day


in 1478)

are, first

Copenhagen (founded
in

and one

of the most

famous

Northern Europe; Upsala, in Sweden (1480);


(1812),
in

Christiania

the

Norwegian
(1666).

State

University;

besides

Lund

Sweden

The most famous


already

Scandinavian

scholars

have

been

named,

Rask, Madvig, Niebuhr, and Verner,

but

several others

now
of

require attention.
TJssing (1820-1905)

Johan Louis

was the

close associate

Madvig and was

the

most celebrated Scandinavian

archaeologist, writing

his dissertation

on the subject

of

Roersch (1831-1891),

of Liege,

and noted

for his valuable reviews

and

monographs;
1891), a jurist
in

Ffilix

choice, but classicist

Neve (1816-1893), of Louvain, orientalist by by profession; Jean Joseph Thonissen (1816-

Greece and

who wrote a long work on primitive criminology Rome; and finally, Pierre Willems (1840-1898),

author of a standard work on the political institutions of ancient

Rome

(Louvain, 1870), and another on the

Roman

Senate.

THE GEEMAN INFLUENCE


Greek
Italy vases.

433
in

He

travelled for

two years

Greece and

and founded the Museum of

Classical Archaeology

at Copenhagen, where he

was made Reader.

The

influ-

ence of Madvig led him to more closely philological work,


so that he took part in editing Livy

and annotated Plautus

on

his

own account

(1875-1887).

As a

text-editor

he was

conservative, imlike

most Scandinavians, who are possessed

of a cacoethes emendandi, of which the Swedish Ljundberg

furnishes an awful example in his edition of Horace (1872),

where out

of all the lines

he has

left

barely sixty unaltered

(Reinach).

In Iceland, there arose one splendid scholar,

Sveinbjoin Egelsson (1791-1852), whose thunderous translations of all

Homer

unite a

fire

and splendour that

rival

the Sagas of the North, while they recall them.

Esaias
in

Tegn6r of Lund (1782-1846), the most popular poet


Swedish
literature, so that in

1808 he was, to quote Dr.

Sandys, " the Tyrtaeus of

Sweden," was professor of

Greek, but insisted more on Latin, while Karl Vilhelm


Linder (1825-1882) was a strenuous advocate of Greek.

Sophus Bugge (1833-1907) not only investigated consonantal changes, studied Latin under Madvig, in Berlin,
Sanskrit under

Weber and Bopp, and Germanic

philology

under Haupt,^ but he investigated further the


'

principles of

daughter he married.

Moritz Haupt (1808-1874) was a pupil of Hermann, whose His was a vigorous, impetuous personality.
said to

He

is

Bentley.

He

have taught Nettleship in his lectures the value of himself learned from Hermann's Bacchee what is
an author."

meant by "

really understanding

He was appointed

434

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Vemer's Law.

He

is

mentioned here, however, because of

his criticism of a very important

work which caused a revoWilhehn Corssen

lution

in

Latin studies

everywhere.

(1820-1875), a teacher at Schulpforta, undertook an acute

and accurate
language.

investigation of the sounds

of the Latin

Materials for this work had been gathered by

Albert Denary (1807-1860), while further notes had been

made by
studies.

Friedrich Ritschl

(1806-1876)
scholar

in his Plautine

But no preceding

had

made

Latin

phonetics a definite
his

object until Corssen appeared with

Ueber

Aussprache,

Vokalismus
it,

und Betonung

der

lateinischen

Sprache}

In

Corssen sought

to study the

sounds

(i.e.

the pronunciation) of the Latin language, using

not only the earliest literary sources, and the most ancient
inscriptions,

but also the

Italic dialects

such as Faliscan,

Oscan, and Umbrian, with a vast collection of quotations

from the
little

Roman

grammarians, whose work had been

studied.

All these
ability,

means of information Corssen used


his results as to phonetics have
is

with scholarly

and

stood the test of time, so that his book

definitive.

It

was needed,
had become

for the confusion in the pronunciation of Latin


great.

There was no standard, and

there had

been none since the time of the Protestant Reformation.


after
his

Lachmann's death to
is

fill

the latter's chair at Berlin.


list

Though
works on

Fach was Germanic philology, the


a very long one.
'

of his published

Greek and Latin


scholarship;

Published in 1858-1859 at Leipzig, where


reedited in 1868-1870, 2 vols.

it

received a prize for

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE

435
it

Each nation had pronounced Latin

as though

were

its

own
was

language, and while on the continent of Europe this


of

no great consequence,
it

since the vowel sounds


later,

were

generally the same, cans,

shut Englishmen, and

Ameri-

away from using Latin


Lipsius,

as an intelligible

medium

of speech.
all

Cardinal Wolsey, and

Milton had
to

complained of

this,

but there was no one

guide

men

until

Corssen appeared, spurred by the necessity imposed


the

by

new

science

of

Comparative

Philology.

He
has

showed
tem,

clearly the phonetic basis for the "


after

Roman

" sys-

and
it.

some grumbling, every


it

university

adopted

In England
schools,
in

met with much opposition


it is

from the public


employed;

and even to-day


the universities

not commonly
in

though

and

advanced

work

it

is

not only accepted, but taught.^


colleges

In the United

States,

where

have been founded from many

countries,

Corssen's authoritative statements were soon


it

received, because

gave to students one

single, accurate

pronunciation instead of

many
is

inaccurate ones;

so that

to-day the phonetic system


college,

universal both in school,

and

university.^

Curiously enough the phonetic

system had been anticipated by an American of German


parentage, Dr. Haldeman, of Philadelphia, though he had
' See the more recent English grammars of Latin, such as Kennedy's, Roby's, and the luminous work of Lindsay, The Latin Language,

(Oxford, 1894), chh. 2-4.


2

The standard work on Latin pronunciation

is

that of Seelmann,

Ueber die Ausspracke des Lalein (Stuttgart, 1885).

436

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

access only to the Latin grammarians


ture rather than to dialects
is

and

to written litera-

and

inscriptions.

This book

entitled Elements of Latin Pronunciation (1851),

and was
indepen-

finished before Corssen's

work appeared.

An

dent attempt

to

reach the same end was

made by

Professor

Richardson of the University of Rochester, and he did


arrive at

many

of Corssen's results (1859), though differing


in other conclusions.
life

from him grotesquely


the last years of his
said, of
this

Corssen spent
died,
it

in

Rome, where he

was
to

disappointment and chagrin.


is

His Aussprache

day

an authority.

Flushed by his success, however,


still

he undertook the task of solving the problem that


awaits solution,

the origin and

linguistic affinities of the

Etruscans, that strange people

who

lived in Italy
it,

and

at

one time conquered the greater part of

yet who, in aplike neither the

pearance as in language and customs, were

Latins, the Umbrians, or the Oscans, but suggested an


oriental origin.

Corssen 'resolved to dispel

this mysteiy.

In his colossal work, Ueber die Sprache der Etrusker,^ he


lavished
all

the powers of his intellect

and

all

the vast

materials at his

command.

For a moment,

so great was
suc-

his prestige, the learned

world believed that he had

ceeded, yet criticism soon showed that he had failed, and

he went down to his death with the sneers of his


friends to
1

late

smooth the way.


See Deecke, Corssen und die Sprache
Beecl^e edited the Etrusker, in 1877.

Leipzig, 1874-1875, 2 vols.

der Etrusker (Stuttgart, 1875).

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


Practically all that
is

437

known about

the Etruscans

was

known
best

before Corssen turned his attention to the subject.

In 1826, the Royal Society of Berlin offered a prize for the


essay

on

the

Etruscans.

In

1828

an elaborate
Otfried

monograph on

the subject

was presented by Karl

Miilleri (1797-1840).

Already Muller had done much.

He had felt the influence of Niebuhr and had studied under


Boeckh
at Berlin,

and both had aroused

his interest in

historical topics.

A monograph on ^gina
first

and the ^gin-

etan marbles was his

published work, and in 1819,

at the age of twenty-two,

he was made Professor of Classical

Learning

in Gottingen,

where he lectured on Archaeology


all

and

art.

His book upon the Etruscans contains


until recent years.

that

was known

He

did not attempt to

establish a theory, like


facts

Corssen, but only to present the

and

to

make

suggestive comments;

and that

is all

that can be done


interested in

down

to the present day.


religion,
literature,

Muller was

mythology,
authors,

and upon

especial

classical

such as

Pindar, ^schylus,

and Herodotus among the Greeks, and among the Romans,


writers of the Silver Period.

In 1833 an edition of the

Eumenides with
the play and
its

dissertations

on the manner of presenting

purport, caused

much

interest, as

shedding

new

light

on the Greek theatre; and the author was not

disturbed
1

when even Hermann

called

him " mistaken "

in

Germany

His real name was Karl Muller, but as this was and is so frequent (like John Smith in England), he inserted the " Otfried."

438

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

and " presumptuous."


of Varro,

He

at once edited the fragments

De Lingua

Latina, and later of Festus.

He
done

died at Athens and was buried there (1840).

He had

much for historical research and for the methods of Niebuhr.


His acquaintance, Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (1784-1868),

who

long survived him, turned

more

to the artistic

manner

of interpretation.

He

early studied at

Rome; he was

professor at

Giessen (1808), he fought as a volunteer


(18 14),

against Napoleon

and was afterwards again a and then


at

professor, first at Gottingen

Bonn, where he

presided over the

first

Museum

of Ancient Art ever known.

His lectures were stimulating by reason of his personality,

and

his reach

was broad, including both Greek and Latin

poetry and the mythology of Greece.


translations, wrote

He made numerous
subjects,

monographs on many

and

is

especially

known by

" Welcker's Cyclus," or Greek Trag-

edies in Relation to the

Epic Cycle}

It

has been said

of

him
of

that his chief strength lay in interpretation, while that


in historical research.

K. O. Miiller was

contemporary of great fame was Otto Jahn (1813-

1869), also given to archaeology.

He was

at various times

professor at Greifswald
1851),
at

(1842-1847), at Leipzig (1847-

Bonn

(1855-1869).

He

died

at

Gottingen.

Though an

archaeologist

and the author of many monocritical

graphs, he will be longest remembered by his


revisions of Persius (1843)
'

and Juvenal

(1851), with an

3 vols., 1839-1844.

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


edition of both in the year before his death.

439

For

text-

books he edited the Cupid and Psyche of Apuleius, the


Athenian
Acropolis

from

Pausanias,
of Plato,

the

Electra

of

Sophocles, the
the

Symposium
to

and the
It

Treatise on

Sublime ascribed

Longinus.

would be imposon
artistic

sible here to

enumerate his minor


titles

treatises

subjects,

whose very

fascinate

and

attract.'

Classical literature treated either with deep learning or

with distinction was a subject for study at

all

times,

though the Germans are not happy, as a

rule, in that

which

requires the aesthetic as well as the historic element.

We

have already mentioned Bernhardy as an historian of both


the two great literatures.

K. O. Miiller began a history

of Greek Literature at the request of the


for the Diffusion of Useful

London

Society

Knowledge,
full

in 1836,

but he died

before

its

completion.

The

text

was not published


finished

in English until 1858,


it

when Dr.

J.

W. Donaldson
many

in a three-volume edition.

Yet much has been done


scholars,

for classical literature


translated,

by German

of

whom

and others wrote

special

monographs on par-

ticular authors, such as the illuminating papers on Plautus

(Parerga)

by Friedrich Ritschl
literary activity of

(1806-1876),

who

also

wrote of the
'

Varro and the laws of the

Latin archasologists are Conrad Bursian (1830-1883), the his-

torian of classical studies in

Peter

Willen

Germany Otto Benndorf (1838-1907) Forchhammer (1801-1894), the topographer; and


;

Heinrich Kiepert (1818-1899) the well-known cartographer, Professor


of

Geography at

Berlin,

and maker

of

many maps and

charts.

440

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


verse.'

Satumian
were
J.

More

strictly historians

of literature

A. Fabricius

(1668-1736),

who condensed and

compiled the whole of the classic writers, without whose


aid no subsequent history of either Greek or Latin has

been

written;

Teuffel,

already

mentioned;

and Otto

Ribbeck (1827-1898), professor successively


versities,

in five uni-

but passing his

last years at Leipzig.

To him
ed.,

we owe much

of the history

and

criticism of the early

Latin dramatists, whose fragments he edited (3d


1898), a study of

1897-

Roman

tragedy under the Republic,^

with editions and conservative texts of Vergil, Horace, and


Juvenal.

His most interesting work


poetry.^

is

his

history of

Roman

Since the Middle Ages,

some

lost

fragments of impor-

tant authors have been discovered.

Such is the long episode

of the Cena Trimalchionis from the Latin novel of Petronius,

edited
nas,

by Friedlander; the
mentioned;
(ed.

so-called Anthologia Palatirecently,


;

already

quite

fragments

of

Bacchylides
'

prin.
his

Kenyon)

Babrius (122

fables,

He

is

best

known by

monumental

edition of Plautus in conScholl.

junction with

Gustav Lowe, Georg Gotz, and Friedrich

and reedited nine plays (1848-1854), and his three coadjutors were assisted by Alfred Fleckeisen (1820-1899), Wilhelm Studemund (1843-1889), who also was a noted Greek
RitschI himself edited
palaeographer,

prosody by the researches


'1875.

Wilhelm Wagner (1843-1880), and especially in the of Wilhelm Corssen, already mentioned.
abridged, 1895.

3 vols., 1859-1868

See a volume compiled by

his friends. Otto Ribbeck,

Ein Bild

(1901).

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


ed.

441
Aristotle
;

pin. Boissonade); a

lost treatise

by

on the
fairly

polity of the Athenians {ed. prin.

Kenyon)

and
in

complete plays of Menander

(ed.

Lefebvre

1907,
{ed.

Headlam
prin.

in 1908)

with seven poems of Herondas

Kenyon,

last ed.

by Creuzer, Leipzig, 1894).

It is

believed that the papyri of Egypt will yield

new

treasures,

as they have in the past five years, and scholars look eagerly
for other plays of
Aristotle,

Menander, some of the


be the famous
to

exoteric

works of

and

it

may even
(to

lost

books of Livy.

Archaeology
of)

revert

subject already spoken

has been greatly enriched by the compilation of

corpora to
aid
of

each of the

classic

languages.

With the
inscriptions
first

Epigraphy, a collection of

Greek

has been made by Boeckh, who edited the

two

volumes of the Corpus Inscriptionum GrcBcarum (18251843), followed

by other volumes by Franz (1845-1853), H. Rochl

the fourth by E. Curtius and A. Kirchhoff (1826-1908),

and the whole completed by the Index


(1877).

of

Assistance

was given

to

the

work by Wilhelm

Dittenberger

(1840-1906), professor at Halle.

He

did

much
1882),

also for the

Corpus Inscriptionum Atticarum (1878of

and prepared himsef a Sylloge

Greek

inscrip-

tions that are especially important (1882, 2d ed. 1898-1901).

Apart from his epigraphical work, Dittenberger was a specialist in Ceesar,

having prepared eleven editions of Kraner's

Commentary.
'

Georg Kaibel (1849-1901), editor of the

See Gilbert, Greek Constitutional Antiquities, 1895.

442

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Electra of Sophocles (1896)


collected a

and

of Athenasus (1886-1890),

volume of some 1200 epigrams (1878) copied


years.'
for a

from stones {ex lapidihus) and covering a thousand

Latin Epigraphy was pursued in a desultory way


long time, chiefly in Italy.
to

The Romans do

not appear
It

have collected inscriptions as the Greeks did.

was

only at the beginning of the Middle Ages,

when Rome
the
the
in

became a Christian Mecca, that pilgrims copied some of


most famous
inscriptions
to

carry

home.
in

With
as

Renaissance came

genuine

interest

them

gems and carved work.

Cola di Rienzi

(about 1344)
in

prepared a topographical account of Rome,

which he

drew

largely

on

inscriptions;

while Poggio Bracciolini^

collected them.

Unfortunately,

many were

forged,' and

some

of Ijhem have only recently

been stamped as

spurious,
of

mainly from the unscrupulous hands of Pirro Ligorio


Naples.
to

The

first

printed collection of inscriptions seems

have been that of Raveima (1489).


the reader
is

For Gruter's

great

work

referred to another place.*


others,

The

study

was taken up by
(1618-1700), but

among them

Raffaele Fabretti

it

was

L. A. Muratori (1672-1750)

who

gave a great impulse to Epigraphy by his Novus Thesaurus


1742),

Veterum Inscriptionum

(4

vols.,

Milan,

1739-

and

to

Palaeography by his researches in Milan

' Other noted Greek epigraphists were Kohlen, Germany, (Economides, Dobree, Riemann. '

and
*

outside of

Supra, pp. 276-9.

Supra, pp. 284-5.

Supra, p. 342.

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


and other
(d.

443
Borghesi
is

seats

of

learning.

Bartolommeo

1859)

made epigraphy

a science, and to him

due the
field.

splendid work that has been accomplished in this

Both the French Academy and that of Berlin planned a


vast Corpus of
all

existing Latin inscriptions; but this


first

was

not undertaken until 1863, when the

volume of the

present Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum appeared under


the editorship of Theodor

Mommsen and Wilhelm Henzen


steadily progressed,
it

(1816-1887).

The work has


owing

volume

by volume, with supplements, but


be wholly
finished,
to

will

probably never

new

discoveries.^
if

The
mind

greatest
all

mind

since Scaliger's,

not the greatest

of

time, is recalled in the illustrious

name

of

Theodor

tinguished

Mommsen men of

(1819-1893).
letters,

Like so many

dis-

he became famous for his


find the

versatility, so that in

him we

young

poet, the

ardent politician, the close student of inscriptions, the

master of ancient constitutional law, and


torian of the
tist,

finally the his-

Roman
It

Empire,

chronologist, numismafor the

and

lyrist.

was he who made the plan

splendid

Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, in 1847, as

against A.

W. Zumpt, and

to

Mommsen
it.
xiii of

the

Academy

entrusted the scheme as he outlined


'

See the article " Inscriptions " in vol.


It

the ninth edition of

the EncyclopcEdia Britannica.

Hiibner of Berlin,
especially see

was written by Professor Erail himself a famous archaeologist. On the Corpus


Inscriptions,

Egbert, Latin

pp. 6-15

(New York,

1896).

444

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


to write his History of

He came
naivete.

Rome with a

certain

While spending a vacation with his

father-in-

law, the old gentleman said, "

Why,
and

yes,

Theodor, your

studies have fitted

you

for just such a


at

work."

Young

Mommsen
history.

flushed with pleasure,

once began the

Out

of the fulness of his

mind, he made no

preparation, but

just wrote on, chapter after chapter,

book
of

after book,

and volume

after volume, until, instead

composing

a " popular" work, he

had poured the wealth


is

of his

wide knowledge into a book which


style.

informing in

matter and brilliant in


troversy, the

It

aroused a storm of connot thought


it

more

so as
it

Mommsen had
with footnotes.

worth while to equip

These were

given later by a sixth volume, and another book entitled

Romische Forschungen.

The History
Germany
told the
failed to shatter.

of

Rome

is

in reality a protest of

New

against the old feudalism which Napoleon had


It

pleaded for a brilliant dictator, and

story of Julius Caesar, the greatest

man who
lashed the

ever lived, as the ideal head of a State.

He

weakling, Cicero, and wrote some of his papers with great


flashes.

No one

has refuted him and neither Gisner nor


a satisfactory response.

Ferrero has
of

made

The
the

climax

Roman

grandeur comes with Caesar; and


in

Mommsen
petty,

beholds

a grandeur

the

North,

when

ignorant squires of Junkerthum are


enlightened Dictator.

scattered

by

an

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE

445
is

picturesque figure

among

archaeologists

that of

Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890), at fourteen a grocer'sboy, at thirty-six an " Indigo

King "

in St. Petersburg

with a fortune that grew every year.

He

then betook

himself to archeology, teaching himself Greek, and read-

ing carefully.
hill

He

believed the site of

Troy was on the

of Hissarlik.

The

hill

was opened (1870-1873), as

he had Mycenae explored (1874-1876), Troy again (1879),

Archomenos

(1881),

and very successfully Tiryns (1885).

Many

excavations were made, quite enough to justify

the Homeric story, and to shed light upon Thucydides.

Schliemann chose
gratification.

to live

a la grecque for his


at Athens,

own
and

His house was constructed


friezes,

was embellished with mosaics,


Homeric quotations.
bore him a
girl

and illuminated

He

married a Greek wife,

who

whom
Even

he called Andromache, and a boy,


his porter

Agamemnon.
Just as he

was

styled Bellerophon.

was about

to explore Crete, death

came on

him suddenly

at Naples, leaving Dorpfeld to finish the

Trojan discovery .^
It

may be

said that

all

of Continental

Europe

felt

the

influence of the extraordinary range and originality of

German
this

scholarship; yet of England, until very lately,


less

has been
ideals,

true.

Great

Britain

has had

her

own
'

her

own

traditions,

and her own

intellectual

character,

and her learned men have not interchanged


SMiemanns Ausgrabungen, Eng.
trans.

See Schuchardt,

(iSgo),

containing a bibliography.

446

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


any other country
to the extent that

their acquisitions with

even Spain and Portugal have done.

This has not been

true of her greatest scholars, such as Bentley, for example,

but in general the British distaste for foreigners has extended even to their learning.
ence in
its

Hence the German

influ-

full

sweep

is

a thing of the past two or three

decades, and has been shown in the persons of


living,

men

still

whose names are (except

casually) excluded from

this survey.

passage in George Eliot's Middlemarch,


tries to

where young Ladislaw

make Dorothea

see

how

backward

is

her husband, Mr. Casaubon, in

modem

scholarship, says:
" If Mr. Casaubon read German, he would save himself a great
deal of trouble.

...

It

is

a pity that

it

[devoted labour] should


is,

be thrown away, as so much

English scholarship

for

want

of

knowing what

is

being done by the rest of the world."


said Dorothea.

"I do not understand you,"

" I merely mean," said Will in an off-hand way, "that the

Germans have taken the lead in historical


at results which are got

inquiries,

and they laugh

by groping about

in

woods with pocket-

compasses, while they have

made good

roads."

But Great Britain had a scholarship

of her

own, a

schol-

arship of elegance, and again of sound truth.

In Greek

and Latin, as such, she surpassed

all

her

rivals.

No

verse

or prose in either language was so near the classical stand-

ards as that which

came from Oxford or from Cambridge.


its

The

Italian school of Latinity with

Ciceronianism was

near to that of England;

while, for a time at least, the

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


critical

447

work

of the Netherlands

was stimulated by the


such as those of Bentley,

example of Englishmen.
Porson,
Peter

Names

Elmsley
J.

(1773-1825),

Thomas

Gaisford

(1779-1855), C.
(1782-1825),

Blomfield (1786-1857), Paul Dobree


Scholefeld
J.
(i

James

789-1853),

Charles

Badham

(1813-1884),

W. Donaldson
literature,

(1811-1861),

who

finished K. O.

MuUer's Greek

W.

E. Jelf (181 1-

1875),

George
the

Long
first

(1800-1879),
professor of

John

Conington

(1825-1869),

Latin at Oxford,

Henry

Nettleship (1839-1893),
definitive edition

who

with Conington proPersius,

duced a
William

and translation of
all

and

M. Leake

(1777-1860)

these were familiar

to Continental scholars.

More

especial

mention

is

due

to

one of the most

brilliant

men

of his country. Sir Richard

Claverhouse Jebb (1841-1905),

who

at the time of his

death was professor of Greek at Cambridge.


witty, versatile

He was

man

of the world, " a humanist in the

highest sense of the word " (Sandys),


in his

who had no
spirit.

equal

mastery of both

classical

form and

Though

not a stranger to drawing-rooms and polite society, he


edited

Sophocles

(1883-1896)

and Bacchylides

(1905),
to

translated

Theophrastus,
life

published

an introduction

Homer, a

of Porson, of Erasmus,

and one

of Bentley,

helped found the British School at Athens, and was a master


of English prose

and of Greek

verse.

It is impossible to

overrate his combination of deep learning, so easily carried,

with the easy tone of an accomplished gentleman.

448

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

Further mention must be

made

of

Benjamin Jowett
translated

(1817-1893), Master of Balliol,


into

who admirably

EngHsh, Plato (1871), Thucydides (1881), and the


both of the
latter

Politics of Aristotle (1885),

with comthat

mentaries.

But perhaps

it

was Jowett's personality

must be taken

into account.

His influence over awkward


as
it

and bashful undergraduates was remarkable,


with those of his
sayings will be

was

own

age.

His pungent, witty, unexpected


his

remembered and quoted as long as

translations are read.

Mention has been made elsewhere of many noted


British scholars.

We

must

refer again to

H. A.

J.

Munro

(1819-1885) to note his splendid work both as an editor

and

translator of Lucretius,

and because he gave " the


'

first

impulse to a reform in the pronunciation of Latin."

And

one must

also

mention the services which Great Britain


to Classical

has rendered

Archaeology in the work of the

British Schools at

Athens (1883-) and at

Rome

(1901-);

Banks, Arden, Harris, carried on

fruitful explorations at

Herculaneum, resulting

in the course of

a century,

in the

rescue of important fragments of Epicurus, Philodemus,

a part of the Iliad, speeches of Hyperides, and others


already mentioned as recovered.

And perhaps
two volumes of

the ex-

treme of minute commentary was reached by Professor


J. E. B.

Mayor (1825-1911)

in his

closely

printed notes on the Satires of Juvenal (last ed., 1886).


'

See Sandys, op.

cil., Hi.

p. 433.

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


These and such
ship.
exists.

449

as these are of the 6\\te of British scholarclassical learning

Their names are known wherever

One
in

is

reminded of the story of how Gaisford


to

when

Germany went
when

pay a

call

on Dindorf

at Leipzig.

The door was opened by


servant; but
into his
If

a shabby

man who

resembled a

Gaisford's

name was mentioned, rushed

arms and kissed him.^


felt

England

only in the person of her most learned

men

the influence of

Germany, the United

States

of

America may be
all until

said not to

have discovered Germany at


of those
still

within the

memory

living.
it

Settied
for

at

first

by Englishmen, such rude culture

as

had

more

than a century was wholly English.


of higher learning

The

first institution

was Harvard

College,

now Harvard
who

University,

named from John Harvard


all his

of Cambridge,

gave half his fortune and

library to the college that

was

to bear his

name

(1638).

In age, among American

homes

of scholarship, the College of William and Mary,

chartered by those sovereigns in 1693, comes next to Har-

vard

^
;

and

in order,

during the colonial period, are Yale

(1701), so

named

in 1718 after

one Elihu Yale; Princeton

' 2

Tuckwell, p. 131.
Dr. Sandys {op.
cit., iii.

452) oddly omits this venerable seat of

learning, which has existed

down

to the present time,

and among

whose graduates have been four Presidents of the United States, the most learned of our Chief Justices, and one of the most brilliant He makes Yale to have of our soldiers (General Winfield Scott).
been the second college established
in the

United States.

ZG

4SO
(1746)
;

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia,

originally

an academy,

assisted

by Benjamin Franklin

(1751)

in

New York

City, King's College, chartered by


in 1787,

George II (1754), but renamed Columbia College

and Columbia University

in

1890.

Brovi^n

University
1764.
all

was established
These

in

Providence,

Rhode

Island, in

five centres of the higher education were

in

existence before the Revolution.

There are now

in the

United States more than four hundred institutions that


call

themselves colleges or

universities,

but barely a
it

score satisfy the definition.

In general

may be

said

that the

older

colleges

that

have become

universities

deserve the name, and are splendidly equipped with the

most

modem
in

apparatus
or

for
in

research,

with

specialists
to

trained

Germany

other foreign countries


after
to

satisfy the

most exacting seeker


still

knowledge; while
to

the newly founded ones are


scholarly esteem.
It

prove their right

must be noted, however, that

this

statement

is

only

general.
(1892),

Some
Johns

of the youngest universities, like Chicago,

Hopkins

(1876)

in

Baltimore,

Leland
in

Stanford at Palo Alto, California (1891), Cornell at Ithaca

New York
ter,

(1865),

were nobly endowed by the generosity of

some very wealthy men.

The Clark

University in Worces-

Massachusetts, admits no undergraduates, but gives

all its

energy to intense specialisation.

All these

newer uni-

versities are

modelled mainly on the German, while the

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


older ones
still

45

retain in large

measure the traditions of

English scholarship.

There was
standard

scarcely

any

standard but

the

English

known

prior to the nineteenth century,

and the
this

wide separation of the United States from Europe made


natural enough ; but
it

led to a sort of intellectual dry-rot.

The

first

American

to

study in

Germany was George


at Harvard.

Ticknor (1791-1871), afterwards Professor of the French

and Spanish Languages and Literatures


spent four years divided
Halle,

He

between Gottingen, Leipzig,

and

Paris, visiting also

Weimar, Naples, and Rome,


his

and meeting some


time.

of the

most eminent scholars of

In

like

manner, Edward Everett (1794-1865), afterwards

President of Harvard, and Professor of Greek, spent four


years (1815-1819) abroad.

On

returning, he said:

"In

regard to university methods, America has nothing to


learn from England, buteveiything to learn from

Germany."

George Bancroft (1800-1891), the long-winded historian


of his

own

country,

was another

of those sporadic pilgrims


fruit

whose

isolated enthusiasm bore

no
it.

because the Amerito the


list

can people were not ready for

Let us add

C.C. Felton, Professorof Greek at Harvard, who annotated


Wolf's text of the Iliad, and wrote a singularly naif account
of his travels in Europe. T. D.

Woolsey of Yale was a

more able and active scholar, and more deserving of regard.

He

edited a

number

of Greek texts with a fair comprehen-

452

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY

sion of their meaning.^

Harvard possessed two

foreign-

bom

professors whose influence

was

felt,

as

was

that of

the poet Longfellow

(1807-1882).

These were E. A.
of

Sophocles (1807-1883),
the

who wrote a Greek grammar


His pupil, G.

Roman and

Byzantine periods, Carl Beck


birth.

(1798-

1866), a

German by

M. Lane

(1823-1897), was Professor of Latin


After his death, a Latin

for thirty-three years.

grammar upon which he had

long laboured was finished and seen through the press


(1898) by his former pupil. Professor

M. H. Morgan.
in this period,

Many American grammars were published


the

more popular being


of

those of Albert Harkness, Pro;

fessor

Latin
;

in

Brown, often revised

Allen

and

Greenough
Buck,"

'

Gildersleeve,^ Gildersleeve-Lodge,^ Hale and


little

Bennett' and especially a grammar

known,

but made on a

theory of his own, by Gustavus Fischer,

who
to

resigned the chair of Latin at Rutgers College in order

pursue this work.

By an unfortunate
work was, with
is

fatality, the
its plates,

whole edition of
stroyed by
fire,

this learned

de-

so that a

copy of it

a very rare possession.

The

true spread of the influence of


is

German

learning in

America

due

to Charles

Anthon (1797-1867)

of Columbia

College, who

was himself of German descent. He produced


of annotated editions of

a large
'

number

Greek and Latin

For a criticism
1898.
"

of

American
*

colleges at this time, see Bristed,

Five Years in an English University


''

(New York,
'

1855).
"

1904.

1875.

1905-

1903.

'

1908.

THE GERMAN INFLUENCE


text-books, in whose

453
freely

commentary he drew
For the

upon the

best

German
due

sources.

fulness of his annotations

he was
reality

severely criticised, but the extent of


to

them was

in

the lack of knowledge

among

classical

teachers Bentley.

who had never heard

of Doring or Jahn, or even

Anthon's texts were very widely circulated, as

were his handbooks on geography, mythology, prosody,

grammar, besides a Latin

lexicon.

In
to

this

way, the

teachers as well as schoolboys


that

came

know something

was more accurate and broader than the

New England
Anthon
to bring

horn-books which had done duty, for too long.

may,
the

therefore,

be regarded as the

first

American
it

German

influence to bear,'

and he could do

the better

because the events of 1848 in Germany had driven to the

United States thousands of involuntary emigrants.

So,

Columbia University has the honour of securing the

services

of Franz Lieber as an expounder of international law;

and of

initiating the study of archaeology

by the labours

of Augustus C.

Merriam (1843-1895), who worked hard


and who died
it is

for insufficient recognition,

at Athens,

where

he

is

now

buried.

Finally,

an interesting fact that


adopted at Oxford and
in

each of the two lexicons

officially

Cambridge should be wholly or

part the

work
his

of

Englishmen who sneer at him should remember that

books

were pirated multitudinously by English publishers, and that his Borate, in particular, was used in all the English public schools, where
they were wholly ignorant of German.

454

mSTOEY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


professors.

Columbia
Short

The
at

Latin lexicon by Lewis and


Short

tells

that

Charles Lancaster

(1821-1886)

was Professor of Latin


lexicon of Liddell

Columbia; while the Greek

and

Scott, in the latest edition, ac-

knowledges the services of Dr. Henry Drisler


1897),

(1818-

who had

collaborated with the English editors,


in

and who held the Greek chair

Columbia.
after

The first imiversity tobe founded


the Johns Hopkins,

German ideals was


of that name,
(i 831-1909),

endowed by a gentleman
Oilman

and
gave

its

first

president, Daniel Colt

full

swing to his Germanising tendency, so that

in a

few years he had gathered around him a group of scholars


in the
to

European sense and compelled the older

universities

reform their methods.

Johns Hopkins has been

the
to

alma mater of many able men, most of


do her honor.

whom

still live

The American

Journal of Philology, edited


is

by Professor Basil L. Gildersleeve,


Other studies and
{Classical
classical series

published there.

emanate from Chicago

Philology and the Classical Journal), as do


Studies, Cornell Studies, etc.,

Harvard
versities.

from other

uni-

Profound

scholarship

was

represented

by

William

Dwight Whitney (1827-1894), Professor


Philology at Yale,

of Comparative

who was
known

a Sanskritist and student of


in

language,

widely

Germany and wherever


one of the four
chief

oriental studies are pursued.

He was

contributors to the St. Petersburg dictionary of Sanskrit;

THE GEKMAN INFLUENCE


his

455

own

Sanskrit

grammar

is

a standard work; with the

first

volume of the Atharva-Veda-Samhitd (1855-1856),

the second volume being completed by Whitney's former


pupil, Professor

Lanman
his

of Harvard.

Other professors

of distinction at Yale were

James Hadley (1821-1872),

who

is

known by

Greek grammar;^ L. R. Packard

(1836-1884),

and Thomas Day Seymour (1848-1907),

whose

studies were largely

upon Homer, though he pro-

duced one edition of selected odes from Pindar (1882).


His
last

work was

Life in the

Homeric Age,

his swan-song,

the results of long years of patient study.

Of American
fine flavour of

scholarship

it is

difficult to write, for the


all

it

and

its

opportunities are
still

new, and
it

its

ablest representatives are

living

men.

Let

be long

before

it

becomes possible

to

mention them

in a

volume

that has to do so fully

and almost wholly with those who

have

laid aside their pleasant labours.

i860; last ed. rev. by F. D. Allen (1884).

XI

THE COSMOPOLITAN PERIOD


With
century
the death of Theodor

Mommsen,
It

the twentieth

appears

to

have

entered

upon a new and


has passed through
all

remarkable period of scholarship.

the rough and rugged paths by which


attained, the value of classical training is

learning

is

now

recognised
for

on every

side,

and

all

possible

means are provided

its eflScient

and illuminating study.


betterment, and

Immense sums

are

given for

its

many

countries maintain

special schools for classical study in

Rome and
and

Athens.
into

Furthermore, the scholars of to-day are divided

groups according
ability.

to their

own

inclination
distinction

their especial
is

still

more marked

from the past

that universities are not

now

separated and isolated as

they were even in the period of Nationalism.

The students
much

and professors of one country pass


professors

to the fellowship of the


as

and students

of another country, very

they did in the time of the Renaissance, but with much

more
This

facility
is

and a

still

greater assurance of welcome.

noticeable in the United States, where chairs are

established for the interchange of


4S6

American

Professors

THE COSMOPOLITAN PERIOD

457

with those of foreign lands, which lecturers are welcomed


every year from Germany, France, England, Italy, and the Scandinavian countries.

The whole world

of learning

has become a single world without becoming a narrow


world.

Every division of Classical Philology


intimately united with
light
all

is

now
and

regarded as

the rest.

Archaeology throws
gives beauty

on usage and on custom, Art

refines

to

Numismatics, and makes the readings of the Classics an

aesthetic pleasure.

Language study

is

no longer crude nor

a matter of mere guesswork;

but since the remarkable

discovery of Verner and the splendid expository work of

Brugmann,

it is

a science of the highest order.

Moreover,

the love of the Classics for themselves has grown and


flourished.

But perhaps the

greatest gift

which has come

to us in

modern
is

times,

from the teaching of

Scientific Philology,

the recognition of the value of scientific truth.

When

we

look back upon the controversies and foul wrangling of

men of genius like Scioppius and Scaliger and Milton, we see


that they in reality were fighting
partially for truth.
first

for victory

and only

To-day, one hopes that in whatever


itself, it will

form the higher study may reveal

reveal itself
verity in

as a longing for idealised worship of reality


all

and

things.

So long ago as 1870, the great Romance scholar, Gaston


Paris, uttered in a lecture this splendid credo
:

4S8
"I

HISTORY OF CLASSICAL PHILOLOGY


profess

absolutely

and without

reserve this doctrine that


its

science has no other aim than truth, and truth for

own

sake,

without care for the consequences, good or

ill,

regrettable or happy,

which that truth might have in


religious, or

practice.

He who from a patriotic,


facts

even from a moral motive, allows himself in the

that he

is

studying, in the conclusions that he draws, the smallest

dissimulation, the slightest alteration, is not

worthy

of a place in

the great laboratory to which truthfulness

is

a more indispensable
studies in

claim to admission than skill.


carried

Thus understood,

common
above

on in the same

spirit in all civihsed countries, form,

restricted, diverse,

and often
soils,

hostile nationaUties, a great father-

land which no war

which no conqueror threatens, but wherein


of old

souls find the refuge

and the unity which was given them

by the

citadel of

God."

INDICES

I.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

II.

GENERAL INDEX

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX


Abbott, E.
Pericles (London, 1891).

Abbott, F. F.

The Use of Repetition in Latin (Chicago, 1902).


Religious Teachers of Greece (Edinburgh, 1908).

Adam, James. The Allbut, Thomas C.


Allman, G.
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J.

Science and Mediceoal Thought (London, igoi).


to

Greek Geometry from Thales

Euclid (Dublin, 1889).

Antichan, P. H.

Les Grands Voyages de DScouvertes des Anciens (Paris,

Arbenz, Emil.
Assailly,

Archer, T. A., and Kingsford, C. L.

Die Schrifistellerei in Rom zurZeitder Kaiser (Basle, 1877). The Crusades (New York, 1898).
d'.

Octave

Albert

le

Grand

(Paris, 1870).

B
Ball,

R.

S.

Great Astronomers

(New York,

1899)*

Ball,

W. W.

R.

Short Account of the History of Mathematics (Lon-

don, 1901).

The Philosophy of Rhetoric (New York, 1888). L'Art Byzantin (Paris, 1892). B6mont, Charles, and Monod, G. Medieval Europe, English translation (New York, 1906). Benn, Alfred W. Early Greek Philosophy (London, 1908).

Bascom, John.

Bayet, Charles.

Greek Philosophers (London, 1883).


Bentley, Richard.
1862).
Dissertation on the Epistles of Phalaris, last ed.
Critica Sacra,

new

ed.

by A. A.

Ellis

(Cambridge,
(Berlin,

by W. Wagner

1874)-

Bernays, Jakob. Life of Joseph Scaliger (Berlin, 1855). Bernhardy, Gottfried, Eratosthenica (Berlin, 1822).
Geschichte der Griechischen Litteratur, sth ed. (Halle, 1877-1892).

Grundriss der Romischen Litteratur. 2 vols., sth ed. (Brunswick, 1865). Versus Ludicri in Ccesares Priores (Halle, 1810). Bernstein, G. H. Berry, Arthur. A Short History of Astronomy (New York, 1899).

461

462
Besant, Walter. Binde, Robert.
Birt,

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Edward Henry Painter (London,
Seneca (Glogau, 1883).
1883).

Theodor.

Das Antike Buchwesen

(Berlin, 1882).

Hisloria Hexametri Latini (Bonn, 1876).

W. Die Altische Beredsamkeit, 2d ed., 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1898). The Pronunciation of Ancient Greek, Eng. trans. (Cambridge 1890). Die Interpolationen in der Odyssee (Halle, 1904). Blau, August. De Aristarchi Discipulis Qena, 1883).
Blass, F.

Boeckler, Doctor.
leben, 1882).
Boissier, Gaston.

Die Polychromie in der Antihen Sculpiur (AschersEtudes sur la Vie


et les

CEuvres de

M.

T. Varron (Paris,

i86i).

La Fin du Paganisme (Paris, 1891). La Religion Romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins


Le Poete Aitius
(Paris, 1857).

(Paris, 1906).

Roman

Africa, Eng. trans.

(New York,

1899).

Le Latin de GrSgoire de Tours (Paris, 1890). Booth, John. Epigrams Ancient and Modern, 3d ed. (London, 1874). Botsford, G. W. A History of the Orient and Greece (London and New
Bonnet, A.

M.

York, 1904).
Botticher, K. E. F.
1884).
Brfial,

De

Alliterationis

apud Romanes Vi

et

Usu

(Berlin,

Broglie,

M. J. A. Pour Mieux Connaitre Homere (Paris, 1906). Emmanuel de. La Sociite de I'Abbaye de Saint-Germain
(Paris, 1891).

des

Prls, 2 vols.

Browne, Henry.
1905).

Handbook of Homeric Study (London and

New

York,

Brugmann, Karl.
i88s).

Zum

heuUgen Stand der Sprachwissenschaft

(Leipzig,

Brunet, Gustave.

Manuel du

Libraire, etc., 8 vols. (Paris, 1880).

Bud6, E. de.
Biihler,
J.

Vie de Budi (Paris, 1884).

G.,

and Kielhorn.
ol.).

Grundriss der Indo-arischen Philologie

(Strassburg, 1896

Bunbury, E. H.
1890-1891).

History of Ancient Geography, 2d ed. (London, 1883).


Geschichte der Renaissance in Italien (Stuttgart,

Burckhardt, Jakob.

Kultur der Renaissance in

Italien,

The

Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy,

8th ed. (Leipzig, 1904). Eng. trans. (London, 1898).

Bursian, Konrad.
etc.

Geschichte der Klassischen Philologie in DeutscMand,

(Munich, 1883).

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Bury,
J.

463

B.

History of the Later

Roman Empire

(London, 1887).
the

Ed. Gibbon's History of (London, 1896).


Butcher,
S.

the Decline

and Fall of

Roman Empire

Life of St. Patrick (Cambridge, 1905).

H.

Aristotle's

Theory of Poetry and Fine Art (London, 1902).

Demosthenes, last ed. (London, 1903).

Cajori, Florian.

A History of Elementary Mathematics (London and New York, 1907). History of Mathematics (New York, 1906).
W. W.
University Life in Ancient Athens (London, 1877). Gli Helhei Pelasgi

Capes,

Cara, P. C. A.

(Rome, 1894-1902).

Carroll, Mitchell.

Aristotle's Poetics (Baltimore, 1895).

Castellanj, Carlo.

Delle Biblioteche nell' Antichitd (Bologna, 1884).

Cave, William.
Chaignet, A. E.
1873)-

Primitive Christianity (London, 1834).

Pythagore

et

la

Philosophie

Pythagorienne

(Paris,

Chalandon, Georges.
Charles, Emile.

Essai sur Ronsard (Paris, 1875).

Roger Bacon; sa Vie, ses Ouvrages, ses Doctrines d'aprls

des Textes InSdits (Paris, 1861).

Chassang, Alexis. Histoire du Roman, &c. (Paris, 1862).

Church, R.

W.

Miscellaneous Essays (London, 1888).


the

The Beginning of

Middle Ages (London, 1895).

Cirbied, J. C. de. Mimmres et Dissertations (Paris, 1824). Clark, J. W. Libraries in the Mediteval and Renaissance Period

(Cam-

bridge, 1894).

Clark, Victor S.

Studies in the Latin of the Middle Ages (Lancaster,

Penn., 1900).
Clarke, George.

The Education of Children

at

Rome (New York,

1896).

Classen, Johannes.
1897).

Introduction to the edition of Thucydides (Berlin,

C16ment, Louis.
Clinton, H. F.

De Hadriani Turnebi

Praefationibus

et

Poe-

matis (Paris, 1899).

Clodd, Edward.
Cochin, Henri.

Fasti Hellenici, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1824-1834). The Story of the Alphabet (New York, 1903).
Boccace, Etudes Italiennes (Paris, 1890).

Collignon, Albert.

Comparetti, Domenico.

Etude sur Pitrone (Paris, 1892). Vergil in the Middle Ages, Eng. trans. (Lon1895).

don and

New York,

464
Compayrf, Gabriel.
sities

BIBLIOGEAPHICAL INDEX
AbHard and (New York, 1893).
J.

the Origin

and Early History of Univer-

History of Paedagogy, Eng. trans. (Boston, 1886).

Condamin,
1877).

P.

De

Tertulliano

Christiana LingtKB Artifice (Lyons,

Conway, R.

S.
S.

Cook, Albert
Cooper, F. T.
1895).

Law in Italy (London, 1893). The Age of Poetry (Boston, 1892). Word Formation in the Roman Sermo Plebeius (New York,
Verner's

Cotton, Henry.

Couat, Auguste.

Typographical Gazeieer, 3d ed. (Oxford, 1852-1866). La Poesie Alexandrine (Paris, 1882).


Life in Poetry:

Courthope,
Cox, G.

W.

J.

Law

in Taste (London, 1901).

W.

The Greeks and

the Persians

Cramer, Friedrich.
Creuzer, Georg F.
Croiset, Alfred.

De

GriBcis

(New York, 1897). Medii Aevi Studiis (Lund, 1849-1853).


(Paris, 1873).

Opuscula (Leipzig, 1817). Xenophon, son Caractere et son Talent

Croiset, A.

and M.

An Abridged History

of Greek Literature, Eng. trans.

(New York,
Cros, C.
I.

1904).

H., and Henri, Charles.

L'Encaustique (Paris, 1884).

Curteis, A.

M.

History of the

Roman Empire from

375

to

800 A.T).
1868-

(London, 1875).
Curtius, Ernst.
1872).

History of Greece, Eng. trans., 5 vols.

(New York,

D
Decharme, Paul.
Euripides and the Spirit of His Dramas, Eng. trans.
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(New York,

Dedouvres, E. Les Latins (Paris, 1903). Dejob, Charles. Marc Antoine Muret (Paris, 1881). Delbruck, Berthold. Einleitung in das Sprachstudium, 3d ed. (Leipzig,

1893)

Eng. trans. (London, 1882).

Delepierre, J. O.

Denis, Jacques.

La Parodie chez les Grecs, etc. (London, 1870). La ComSdie Grecque, 2 vols. (Paris, 1886).
Dictionnaire de Geographic d
I'

Deschamps,

Pierre.

Usage du Libraire

(Paris, 1870).

De De

Vinne, T. L.
Vit, Vincenzo.

The Invention of Printing (New York, 1878).

Notable Printers of Italy during the Fifteenth Century

(New York,

1910).

Preface to the Lexicon of Forcellini (Prato, 1879).


et

Didot, A. F.

Aide Manuce

VHelUnisme d Venise

(Paris, 1875).

Bibliotheca (Paris, 1872).

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Draper,
J.

465
(New

W.

History of the Intellectual Development of Europe

York, 1899).

Originum Fontibus (Turin, 1874). Honour of (New York, 1894). DuBois, E. H. Stress Accent in Latin Poetry (New York, 1906). 'Du Cange [Charles du Fresne], Glossarium ad Scriptores Media et Injima
Dressel, Heinrich,
Drisler,

De

Isidori

Henry.

Classical Studies in

Latinitatls, ed.

by Favre

(Niort, 1884-1887).

Duff, J.

W.

Literary History of

Rome (London and

Leipzig, 1909).

Dufi&eld, S. A.

W.

Latin Hymn-Writers and their

Hymns (New York,


(London, 1817-

1889).

Dugdale, William.
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^

Monasticum Anglicanum, 8

vols.

Du

Mdril, Edelstand, Poisies Populaires

Latines Anterieures au Dou-

zieme Siicle (Paris, 1843).


Poisies Latines

du Moyen Age

(Paris, 1847).

Dunlop, J. C. A History of Prose Fiction, last ed. (London, 1896). Dyce, Alexander. The Complete Works of Richard Bentley, 3 vols. (London, 1836).

The Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers, to which


don, 1856).

is

added Porsoniana (Lon-

E
Eckstein, F. A.
Lateinischer

und

Griechischer Unierricht (Leipzig, 1887).


s. a.).

Egger, Emile.

Callimaque

et

I'Origine de la Bibliographic (Paris,


les

Essai sur I'Histoire de la Critique chez


L'Hellenisme en France,
Einstein, Lewis.
2 vols.

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(Paris, 1869).

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i88s).

Erasmus, Desiderius.
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De

Recta Latini Grcecique Sermonis Pronuncia-

(Basel,

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Epistola (1484-1514), ed.

by

P. S. Allen (Oxford, 1906).

Opera Omnia (Basel, 1540). Essenwein, A. O. Byzantinische Baukunst (Darmstadt, 1896). Eyssenhardt, Franz. Niebuhr (Gotha, 1886).

F
Faulman, Karl.
Federn, Karl.
Geschichte der Buchtructverkunst (Vienna, 1882).

Dante and His Time, Eng.

trans.

(New York,

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2H

466
FeugSre, L. J.
i8S3)Field,

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Essai sur la Vie
et les

Ouvrages de Henri Etienne (Paris,

W.

The Life of Samuel Parr,

2 vols.

(London, 1828).

Fink, Karl.

History of Mathematics (Chicago, 1900).


Outlines of a System of Classical Paedagogy (Balti-

Fitz-Hugh, Thomas.

more, 1900).
Flach, H. L.

M.

Peisistratos

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Litterarische Thiiiigkeit (Tiibingen,

Die Reste der Altgriechischen Tonkunst (Leipzig, 1900). and Mind of Thucydides (London, 1895). Fowler, H. A., and Wheeler, J. R. A Handbook of Greek Archaology (New
Forbes,

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W. H.

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Frazer, R.

W.
A.

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(New York,

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Froude,

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Gardner, Percy.

New

Chapters in Greek History (London and

New

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Gasquet, F. A.
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The Eve of

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New

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Girard, Jules.

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Greenwood,

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History of the City of

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Gresswell,

467
(London, 1805).

W.

P.

Memoirs of Angelus PoUtianus,


les

etc.

Gros, Etienne.

Etude sur la RhUorigue chez

Grecques (Paris, 1835).

Gubernatis, Angelo de.

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Gudeman,
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Alfred.

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H
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Hankius, Martinus (Martin Hanke).


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De Byzantinarum Rerum

Scrip-

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Philipp Melanchthon als Praeceptor Germaniae (Ber-

Hartfelder, Kari.
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Hartmann, Paul.

Havet,

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P. A. L.

Hergenrother,

J.

Heyse, C.

W. L.

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A. G.

Hildebrand, August.

Boetius

und Seine

Siellung

zum

Christenthum

(Regensburg, 1885).

G. B. Ed. Gibbon's Memoirs (London, 1900). Hodgkin, Thomas. Italy and Her Invaders, 8 vols. (Oxford, 1892-1899). The Letters of Cassiodorus (London, 1886). (New York, 1902). Hoe, Robert. A Short History of the Printing Press the Close of the Holm, Adolph, History of Greece from Its Commencement to the Greek Nation (London, 1894-1899). Independence of York, 1895). Howells, W. D. My Literary Passions (New
Hill,

Hubner, F. EnyclopSdie, 2d ed. (Berlin, 1892). (Dublin and Hyde, Douglas. A Literary History of Ireland
1899).

New

York,

468

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
I

nine,

W.

Early Rome (New York, 1902).

J
Jannet, Claudio.
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Les Institutions Sociaies

d Sparte, 2d ed.

(Paris,

Janssen, Johannes.

History of the

German

People,

Eng

trans. (Lon-

don, 1881). Jebb, Richard C.


Bentley

English Men

Attic Orators, 2d

ed., 2 vols.

of Letters Series,

(London, 1893). 2d ed. (New York, 1899).

Erasmus (Cambridge,

1890).

Homer

(Boston, 1887).

Jevons, F. B.

The Growth and Influence of Classical Greek Poetry (London, 1893). A History of Greek Literature (New York, 1897).
Etude sur Sadolet (Caen, 1857). Select Passages from Ancient Writers
Illustrative of the

Joly, Aristide.

Jones, Stuart.

History of Greek Sculpture (London, 1895). Remarks on Ecclesiastical History (London, i7Si~i773)Jortin, John. Jowett, B.
Justi, Karl.

W.

Dialogues of Plato, 2d ed. (Oxford, 1893). Winckelmann, Sein Lehen, Seine Werke, und Seine

Zeit-

genossen, 3 vols. (Leipzig, 1872).

K
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Keil,

H.

The Dark Ages (New York, 1904). and Lehrs. Chiliades (Leipzig, 1826 and 1840). Kingsley, Charles. Alexandria and Her Schools (Cambridge,
Ker,

W.

P.

Kiessling

1854).

Klotz, Richard.

Grundziige der Altromischen Metrik (Leipzig, 1890).


Boccaccios Leben

Korting, G. K. O.

und Werke

(Leipzig, 1880).

Kortlim,

J.

F. C.

Geschichtliche Forschungen (Leipzig, 1863).

Kraemer, August.
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De Manilii Qui

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KroU, Wilhelm. Geschichte der Klassischen Philologie (Leipzig, 1908). Kugler, Bernard von. Geschichte der Kreuzziige (Berlin, 1891).

LafEore, Jules de B. de.

Etttde sur Jules Cesar de Lescale (Agen, i860).

Lanciani, R. A.
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Ancient

Rome in the Light of Recent

Excavations (Boston,

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX

469

Lang, Andrew. Oxford (Philadelphia, 1906). Larroque, Philippe T. de. Lettres Frangaises InHites de Joseph Scaliger (Agen, 1881).
Laur, H. Durand de.
Life of Erasmus (Paris, 1872). The Successors of Homer (London, 1898). Leake, W. M. The Topography of Athens (London, 1821). Lecky, W. E. H. History of European Morals (New York, 1884). Lee, Vernon. Euphorion (London, 1884).

Lawton, W. C.

Lefranc, A.

J.

Lehrs, Karl.
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M. De

Hisloire

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Aristarchi Studiis Homericis (Konigsberg, 1833; 3d

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Le Mire, Aubert.
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Lindsay,
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M
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470
What Have
the

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Greeks Done for

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Darstellung der Lexicographic nach Allen Ihren Seiten

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Aliquot

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Marschall, Carl.

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Marsden, William, Ed. The Memoirs of W. M. Leake (London, Martha, Constant. Le Poeme de Lucrece (Paris, s. a.).
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I9S)-

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Morison,
Mtiller,
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47
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C.

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N
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Newell, E.
Nichols, F.

J.

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M.
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Epistles of

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NicoU, H.

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472
Otto, Friedrich.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Sprichworter der

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Overbeck,

J.

A.

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Pais, Ettore.

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Pater, Walter.

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Pattison,

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Paul, F. Paul, H.

De

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Grundriss, 3 vols., last ed. (Strassburg, 1896,

Paulsen, Friedrich.
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The German

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Pearson, Alfred. Pearson, Karl.

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Ethic of Free Thought (London, 1901).


ed.

Peck, H. T.
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Pennington, A. R.
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Comparee des

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Petrarque

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et

Plessis, F.

Metrique Grecque

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Pokel,

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R
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Rashdall, Hastings.
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The

Universities of

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the

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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Reiflfenberg, F. A. F. T.

473

De

Justi Lipsi Vita

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Roberts, E. S.

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History of Letter Writing (London, 1843).

Roberts, William.

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Robinson,

J.

Roth, K. L.

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Saalfeld, G. A. E. A.
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Barthfilemy de.

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I'Ecole d'Alexandrie (Paris, 1845).

Saintsbury, George.

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Sandys,
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Scartazzini, G. A.

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Schanz, Martin von.


Scherer,

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Latinitate TertuUiani (Erlangen, 1870).

W.

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Schmidt, Joseph. Schmidt, K. E.


Schneidewin, F.

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W.

The

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Schomann, G. F.

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Schroeder, Leopold von.

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474
Schiick, Julius.
Scott, Leader.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
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Sears, Lorenzo.
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The Roman Poets of the Augustan Age (Oxford, 1892). Sergi, Giuseppe. The Mediterranean Race, Eng. trans. (London, 1901). Seymour, T. D. Life in the Homeric Age (New York, 1908).

W. Y.

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I'Ecole d'Alexandrie,
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Skrzeczta, R. F. L.

Die Lehre des Apollonias Dyscolus (Konigsberg,

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Smyth, H. W. Melic Poets (New York, 1900). Sokolowski and Szujski. Mo'i^umenta Medii JEevi (Cracow, 1876). Spangenberg, E. P. J. Jacob Cujas und Seine Zeiigenossen (Leipzig, 1822). Spanheim, Ezechiel. Dissertatio de Usu et Prwstantia Numismatum Antiquorum (Amsterdam, 1671). Spiegel, F. von. Die Alexander Saga (Leipzig, 1851).
Spingarn,
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E.

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Essays of the Seventeenth Century, 3 vols.

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Steffen, Georg.
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Aristarchi (Leip-

Steinthal, Eduard.

Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft

bet

den Griechen

und Romern,
Steup, Jul.
Stuart, James,

2 vols.,

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Sturz, F.

Suringar,

W. W. H. D.

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De Romanorum

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Historia Critica Scholiastarum Latinorum (Leyden, 1834-1835).

Susemihl, Franz.

Geschichte der Griechischen Litteratur in der Alexan-

driner Zeit (Leipizig, 1891-1892).

Sutphen,

M.
J.

C.

Latin Proverbs (Baltimore, 1902).


Geschichte der Ersten Kreuzziige (Leipzig, 1900).
7 vols.

Sybel, H. K. L. von.

Symonds,

A. History of the Italian Renaissance,

(London, 1875).

T
Tannery, Paul.
Taylor, H. C.

La

Glomltrie Grecque (Paris, 1887).

Teignmouth,

J.

The Medieval Mind (New York, 1911). The Life of Sir William Jones (London, S.

i8o8).

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Teuffel-Schwabe-Warr.
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475
(London,

History of

Roman

Literature, 2 vols.

Texier, C. F. M.,
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and PuUan, R. P.

Byzantine Architecture (London,

Thackeray, F.
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St. J.

Anthologia Graca, with English notes (London,

Thiaucourt, Camille.

Les Traitis Philosophiques de CicSron

et

Leurs

Sources Grecques (Paris, 1885).

Thumeysen, Rudolf.

Der Saturnier

(Halle, 1885).

U
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Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie, 9th ed. (Leipzig,

Usener, Hermann.
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Dionysii Halic.

Librorum de Imitatione Reliquia

Epicurea (Leipzig, 1887).


Ulrici,

Hermann.

Geschichte der Griechischen Dichtkunst (Berlin, 1835).

Vacherot, Etienne.

Histoire Critique de I'Ecole d'Alexandrie, 3 vols.

(Paris, 1846-1851).

Vahlen, Johannes.
Vane],
J.

Lorenzo Valla (Vienna, 1870).

B.

Les Benedictins de Saint-Maur (Paris, i8g6).


Euripides the Rationalist (Cambridge, 1895).
Life of Karl Verner (Copenhagen, 1S93).

Verrall, A.

W.

Vibaek,

M.

Die Wiederbelebung des Klassischen Alterthums oder das Humanismus, 3d ed. (Berlin, 1893). Volkmann, R. E. Geschichte ini Kritik der Wolfs Prolegomena (Leipzig,
Voight, Georg.
Erste Jahrhundert des
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Voss, Otto.
Vries,

De

Heraclidis Pontici Vita

et

Scriptis (Rostock, 1897).

Jeronimo de.

Hugo

Grotius (Amsterdam, 1827).

W
Wachsmuth, Curt.

De

Cratete Mallota (Leipzig, i860).

Walden, J. W. H. The Universities of Ancient Greece (New York, 1909). Warren, F. M. A History of the Novel (New York, 1895). Wattenbach, Wilhelm. Das Schriftwesen im Mittelalter (Leipzig, 1875). Wegener, C. F. W. De Aula Attalica (Copenhagen, 1836).

476
Weise, F. O.
zig, rgos),

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX
Characteristik

der Lateinischen Sprache,

3d

ed.

(Leip-

Eng. trans. (London, igop).


Aesthet-Kritische Analyse der

Weissenfels, Oskar.
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Ars Poetica

(Gorlitz,

Horaz

(Berlin, 1899).

Welcker, F. G.

Der Epische Cyclus, 2d

ed. (Bonn, 1865-1882).

Werner, R.
West, A. F.

M.

Lyrik und Lyriker (Leipzig, 1890).

Roman

Autobiography

Alcuin and the Rise of Christian Schools (New York, 1901).

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Westphal, Rudolf.

Allgemeine Metrik (Berlin, 1892).

Die Musik des Griechischen Alterthums (Leipzig, 1887). Whitney, W. D. Language and the Study of Languages, 4th ed. (New York, 1884).

The Life and Growth of Language,

last ed.

(New York,

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Whittaker, Thomas, The Neo-Platonists (Cambridge, 1901). Wiese, L. A. De Vitis Scriptorum Romanorum (Berlin, 1840).

Wilamowitz-Mollendorf, Ulrich von.


Wilken, Friedrich.
Wilkins, A. S.

Euripidis Herakles (Berlin, 1889).

Geschichte der Kreuzzuge, 7 vols. (Leipzig, 1807-1832).

National Education in Greece in the Fourth Century before

Christ (London, 1873).

Winckelmann, J. J. Geschichte der Kunst des Alterthums (Dresden, 1754). Windelband, Wilhelm. Jlistory of Ancient Philosophy, Eng. trans. (New
York, 1899).

Winkworth, Susanna. The Life and Letters of Niebuhr (London, 1853). Wissowa, Georg. De Macrobii Saturnalium Fontibus (Breslau, 1888).
Wolf, F. A.
Wolff,

Prolegomena ad
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Max

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1893)-

Woltmann, Alfred von, and Woermann, Karl.

History of Painting,

Eng. trans. (New York, 1901). Woodward, W. H. Erasmus on Education (Cambridge and
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New

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Zacher, Konrad.

Die Aussprache des Griechischen (Leipzig, 1S88). Die Polnische Geschichtschreibung des MUteU
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Zeissberg, Heinrich von.


alters,

&c.

(s. 1.,

Zeller,

Eduard.

Aristotle

History of Eclecticism, Eng. trans. (London, 1893). Zingerle, A. R. Zu Spdtern lalein. Dichtern (Innsbruck, 1873).

; ;

GENERAL INDEX
Abfilard, 230.

Alexandrian Science, 103, 104. Alexandrian use of terms <j>i\6\oyos, 0tXoXo7/o, 2.


of Philosophy, 122.

Academic School

Algebra, 104;
tians, 105.

invented by the Egyp-

iElius Herodianus, 114, 186.

M]ius Praeconinus

the first Roman philologist, 159, 160; his grammatical and critical work, 160.
Stilo,

L.,

Alphabet, taught
18;
Plato's
letters,

by

ypaii/uiTurT'^s,

^neas

Silvius, 387.
72, 78, 94, 109.

of the teaching of the alphabet in schools, 69, 70 ; Roman alphabet,


classification

65

^schylus,

132-

iEsthetics, 71.

Altgrammatiker, 422, 423.

^Esthetic Criticism, in Plato, 72, 73 in Aristotle's Poetics, 73, 75.

Ammianus
212.

Marcellinus,

quoted,

211,

African Period of Latin, 186. Agricola, Rudolphus, 390 n.

Anacreon, 34.

Albertus Magnus, 388.


Alcaeus, 33, 109, 119.

Alcuin,

Alciphron, 155. his influence on Mediseval study, 220-224, 238, 239, 385.

Analogy and Anomaly, 119, 120. Anaximander, 21, 25, 26. Anaximenes of Lampsacus, 21; his Homeric criticism, 44; his practical
treatment of rhetoric, 45
rhetorical categories,
45..
;

his three

Alexander ^tolus, g8, 106. Alexandria, founding of, 88; description of, 88-90 ; the Library and Mu-

Anaximenes of Miletus, 21. Anglo-Dutch Period, 355.


Annalistic ogy, 3-

Method

in Classical Philol-

seum at, 92-97.


Alexandrian Canon, 99, 100; its influence on Greek Literature, 100,
lOI.

Anomaly,

Alexandrian Influence, 96, 97, 102

at

see Analogy. Anthology, history of the Planudean Anthology, 256; of the Palatine Anthology, 256, 257; 344, 349.

Rome,

1^2.

Anthon, Charles, 452, 453.


Antiphon,
first publishes speeches as models, 43. Antiphrasis, as a principle in language,

Alexandrian Library, 92-94, 98, 102 foreign books collected in, 93, 94; in Roman times, 93 ; its chief librarians, 98, log; gradual destruction
of, 116,

68, 69.

117-

Alexandrian Literature, 96-98, loi, 102,


106.

Apelles of Ephesus, 83. Aphorisms, Roman fondness for, 149, iSS. 156; Varro's collection of, 162.

Alexandrian
fluence

Philosophy,
103.

Jewish

in-

in, 102,

ApoUonius Dyscolus of Alexandria, founded scientific syntax, 183.


Apollonius of Perga, 103.

Alexandrian Poetry, 96, loi, 102. Alexandrian Schools, 95, 96 ; late representatives
of,

116.

ApoUonius Rhodius, loi. Apuleius, as a word-maker, 148.

477

; ;

478
Aquinas, Thomas, 388.

INDEX
Athens, contrasted with Sparta, 28; as the champion of Hellas, 29, 30; as a centre of learning, 32, 35, 42; as a university town, 1 21-124.
Attic Style, 42.
Attius, his tragedies, 149; his DidascoUca, 157 n. ; his reforms in Roman

Arabic, knowledge of, in the Middle

Ages, 240.
Aratus, 96, 102.
Arcesilaus,
118.

Archaeology and Antiquities, 250-254,


269, 287, 288, 313, 315; in Russia and the Crimea, 401 n. Archimedes, 103. Aristarchus, 104 ; his critical methods, 109-116; his grammatical terminol268,

ogy, 109

his five critical processes,


criticism,

orthography, 157 n. Aurispa, Giovanni, his enormous collection of Mss., 279, 280. Auspicius, 2x5. Austria, classical studies in, 386-388.

no;
114.

his

Homeric

109-111

his five ote,

113;

his

successors,

B
Bacchylides, 34, 234. Bacon, Francis, 357-359. Bacon, Roger, 239-242;
his writings,

Aristobulus, 102.

Aristophanes, 72
ripides, 76.

his criticism of

Eu-

character of

Aristophanes of Byzantium, invents accents, punctuation, and critical signs, 98, 107, 108 ; his hypotheses to the dramatists, 98; helps establish the Canons, 99; his ten prosodits, 107 his criticism of texts, 107, 108 as the first scientific lexicographer,
;

239; his criticism of the Scholastics, 239 his suggestions as to Scriptural text-criticism, 240,
;

241

his

Greek

lexicon,

241

his

glossaries

and

modem

methods, 242.

Bancroft, George, 451. Baronius, Cardinal Caesar, 309 n.

108.
Aristotle,

^i\o\oyia in, 2; his analytical treatise on rhetoric, 45-47 his conception of rhet-

meaning
;

of

oric, 47,

48;

his metaphysical dis-

his Organon, 48; his ten categories, 48; the importance of his categories in the development of formal grammar, 48 ; his Poetics, 73-76; his dramatic criticism, 74,
tinctions, 48;

Eeadus, Renanus, 396. Beck, Carl, 452. Bekker, August Immanuel, 405, 410 n. Benfey, Theodor, 419. Benedictus (St. Benedict), 197 ; foimds the order of the Benedictines, 200,
202, 203.

Bentley, Richard, assists Kuster, 351


his relations with Hemsterhuys, 352 included in the "Pleiad," ". 353;

75; his criticism of Homer, 78; his "casket edition" of Homer, 78. Aristoxenus, 80. Arithmetic in the Graeco-Roman Period, 172, 173.

360;

as

scholar,

361-365;

his

365; his critical power, 366-370; bibliography to, 371 n. Bergk, Theodor, 409. Bernhardy, Gottfried, 413, 414.
Phalaris,

Ars

Poetica, 181, 182.

Bernard de Chartres, his method

of

Art, distinction between fine art


useful
art,

and

teaching, 230, 231.

art, 73; aesthetic study of 127-129; mediaeval art, 243; Byzantine art, 250, 251. Arundel Marbles, the, 360 n. Asconius, Pedianus, 168.

Bemays,
of St.

J.,

quoted, 74.
(Venice), 273. in Classical

Bessarion, his founding of the Library

Mark

Biographical
Philology, 3.

Method

Asiatic Style, 42.

Ast, G. A. F., 412.

Astronomy,

22, 103.

Biography, 120, 153, 154. Blagoviestschenski, N. M., 401 n, Boccaccio, Giovanni, 267, 268.

INDEX
Boeckh, August, 410
n.

479

Boethius, Anicius Manlius, 206; his De Consolatione Philosopkiae, 206, first writer to use Arabic 207; (Hindu) numerals, 207; translated

Callimachus, 93 n, 96 ; his bibliographical work, 98, 106 ; his lyric poetry, loi; his epigrams, loi. Cametarius, 396.

Canon of Ten
Canter,

Sculptors, 129.
his

by King

Alfred, Chaucer,

and Queen

William,

use of Arabic

Elizabeth, 207.
Boissier, Gaston, 427.

numerals in verse, 343.


of

Bopp, Fianz, first scientific student Comparative Philology, 418, 419.


Borghesi, Bartolomeo, the
epigraphist, 443. Bos, Lambert, 351. Botsford, G. W., quoted,
tific

first

scien-

Carneades, 150. Carnegie Institution, 92. Carolingian Period of Middle Ages, 214-218, 225, 226. Casaubon, Isaac, 306, 308-312. Cassiodorus, Magnus Aurelius, 203,
204.

7, 8.

Bouhier, Jean, 314. Brant, Sebastian, 3gi n.


British

Castelvetro, F., 75. Categories, of Anaximenes,


Aristotle, 46, 47.

45;

of

Museum, 381

n.

Brown

University, 450.
F., 422, 423.

Brugmann, Karl

Bruni, Leonardo, 268. Bucheler, Franz, 417. Buda, University at, 399. Budaeus, 304.

CalhoUcon, 247. Cato, M. Porcius, his Origines, 153; as the originator of Roman prose,
153Catullus, Quintus Valerius, 152.
le Comte de, 315, 316. Celtes, Conrad, 391 n.

Caylus,

Bugge, Sophus 424, 433, 434. Burgess, Prof. J. W., quoted, 244.
Burlesque, of the Sophists, 65, 66, 76 of the tragic writers, 76; of Homer and the Cyclic writers, 77. See

Pakody. Burmann, Peter

(the Elder), his Latin

editions, 350, 351. Burney, Charles, his

Cephalas, 256, 344. Charlemagne, his court school, 220. Charles the Bald, 385. Christomathies, see Lexicography. Chrysoloras, Manuel, 269, 280. Cicero, M. T., as a word-maker, 148; as a philosopher, 150; as a historian,
as an orator, 153. 153 Ciceronianism at the time of the Renaissance, 281, 282,302, 303; cultivated by Ernesti, 400. Ciriaco de' PizzicoUi (di Ancona), ar;

"Pleiad,"

359,

360.

Burton, Robert, 358 n. Butcher, S., quoted, 73, 74. Buttmarm, P. K., 410 n.

Byzantine Empire (New Rome), characteristics of its history, 210,


its art, 250,

chseologist, 268.

247-250;

City editions of Homer, 16,


112.

17,

in,

256, 252, 253; its scholarship, 253-255; pillage by the Turks, 272; its its 254,
its

251; 257;

its literature, 251,

jurisprudence,

Clark, Victor
Britain,

S., quoted, 219. Classical Archaeology, studied in Great

380, 381

in France

and
of,

earlier relations

with Italy, 269.

Germany, 426429.
Classical Philology, 14
;

definition

Calepinus,
;

Cajori, Florian, quoted, 22. Ambrosius, his

lexicon,
see

41S n alterations herein, cography.

Lexi-

1-3 ; methods of treating, 3-4 ; history of, 12. Cobet, Caryl Gabriel, 424, 425. Codex, meaning of, 2S0 n. Colet, John, 295. College de France, 305.

48o
Columbia
University
(King's

INDEX
ColCylas, 174. Cynics, si-

lege), 4SO-

Comedy

in Athens, 72, 76.


n.

Commodianus, 193. Comparative Philology, 3 n. ; first at- Dalberg, Johann von, 391 tempt at, 398 first scientific study Damm, Tobias, 417.
;

of 418, 419.

Conington, John, 447. Constantinople, see Byzaniike


pire.

Em-

Cooper, F. T., quoted, 187. Corax of Syracuse, writes

the

first

manual
44-

of rhetoric, 41

his rules, 41,

Dante, 261, 262. Dawes, Richard, 371. Demetrius, Magnus, 120. Demetrius Phalerius, 88-91. Democritus of Abdera, 11 ; his theories his treatise on of language, s8; Glosses, 126 n. ; his work on painting,
128.

Corpus Corpus Corpus Corpus

Inscriplionum AUicarum, 441. Inscriplionum Grcecarum 441. Inscriplionum Latinarum, 443.


luris Civilis, 253.

Demosthenes, 44. Descriptive Geography,


raphy.

see

Geog-

Corssen, W., 434-437. Corvinus, Matthias, 399.

Didascalica, 157 n. Didymus Chalcenteros, his vast pro-

ductiveness, 114, 116.


Dilettanti Society, 380.

Cosmopolitanism at Rome, 186.


Crates of Mallos, 119, 120; his view of Homer, 120; the "Bentley of Antiquity," 120; his conception of text-criticism, 119, 120; his works, 120; his embassy to Rome, 120; 157. Cratylus, synopsis of the dialogue, 6167. Critical Signs, 98, 107, 108, 113, 114, 160, 166, 167, 186.

Dindorf, K. W., 407. Dindorf; Ludwig, 407 n. ; 449. Dinocrates, the designer of Alexandria,
89.

Diogenes Laertius, 60. Diogenes of ApoUonia, quoted, 40. Dionysius Thrax, the first teacher formal grammar, 138160. Dittenberger, W., 441.
Dcederlein, L., 412.

of

Criticism, of the

Homeric Poems,
13, 20, 25,

in
its

Early Greece,

27;

varieties, 39, 40, see Text Criticism ; aesthetic, 73-75 ; of the drama in

Donaldson, J. W., 439. Donatus, ^lius, 184,

185;

abridg-

ment

of,

246.

Greece, 74-77 ; subjective, 107, 368, 369; verbal, 303, 306; diplomatic, See Text Criticism. 336-340. Cruques, Jacques de (Cruquius), his
studies of
342, 343
;

Doratus, Auratus (Jean d'Aurat), teacher of Scaliger and Ronsard, 326.

Downes, Andrew, 357, 360. Drakenborch, Arnold, his great


of Livy, 3SI.

edition

Horace in Mss. now lost, Codex Blandinianus, 342,

Drama,

its

beginnings in Greece, 15;


na-

343-

Crusades, their influence on Europe,


2S7, 258.

influence in Greece, 72, 75-77; tive Roman drama, 131.

Cujacius (Jacques de Cujas), his relations with Scaliger, 326; his reconstruction of

Dramatic Criticism, in Aristotle, 74, the three Dramatic Unities, 75 75 in Theophrastus of Ephesus, 76
; ;

Roman

law, 326.

in Aristophanes, 76.
Drisler,

Curtius, Ernst, 419. Curtius, Georg, the head of a school


of language study, 419, 420.

Du

Henry, 418 n, 454. Cange, Charles du Fresne, his glossaries of Low Latin and Late Greek,
313.

Cyclic Poets, 12.

INDEX
DuB,

481
of

Duns

W., quoted, 136. Scotus, 385, 388. Dupis of Samos, 128.


J.

Epigrams,

Callimachus,

loi;

of

Martial, 155.

Duruy,

J. V., 429.

Epigraphy, origin and development of, in Antiquity, 167, 168 ; Greek, 441 Roman, of late development, 442,
443Epistulae
39S-

Obscurorum Virorum,

394,

Eckhel, Joseph, 403. Epitome of the Four Treatises, 114, iij. Eclectics, SI ; at Alexandria, 97, 102. Erasmus Desiderius, 290; account of Editiones Principes of the Fifteenth his life, 291-294; his writings, 294Century, 299, 300. 297; his character and influence, Education, in early Greece, 17-19, 26, 297-299. 27 ; in the Prae-Alexandrian Period, Eratosthenes of Alexandria, styled (piKS\oyos, 2; in the Alexandrian 49-51 ; the ancient universities, 121School, 98, 103, 106, 107. in early Rome, 125; the 131; Graeco-Roman education, 171-191; Ernesti, Johann August, 400, 401. Ethics, in Homer, 18, 19; in the philosmonastic schools, 228-231. Egelsson, Sveinbjoin, "the Icelandic ophy of Pythagorus, 23 ; of Socrates, " 433. Homer, so, Si-

Egyptians, their influence upon early Greek thought, 22; their scientific knowledge, 105 n.
Ei/ciis,

Ethnographic
Philology, 4.

Method

in

Classical

rhetorical

meaning

of, 41, 44.

Eiodographic

Method

in

Classical

Philology, 9. Eleatic School, 24; of the, S6-S9-

linguistic theories

Elegiac Poetry, in Greek literature, 33


in Latin literature, 152.
Eliot, George, quoted, 446. Encyclopedists in Latin, 188-190.

Etruscology, 436, 437. Etymology, 52; Plato's discussion in the Cratylus, 61-67; popular etymologies, 66, 67 ; principles involved in developing words, 63, 64, 69; etymological schools among the Romans, 157, 162-164.
Euclid, 103. Eudemus, his history of geometry, 22. Eudoxus of Canidus, 174.

English universities, scholarly relations between English and Dutch Universities, 3S9, 447; the Oxford Press, 359; English scholars of the seventeenth century, 360-363 ; the Cambridge Press,
at,

Eumenes, as founder
School, 118.

of the

Pergamene

Euphemism,

69.

359; revival of Greek

Euripides, 67, 72, 76, 78, 86. Eusebius, his Chronicle, 189
tion of,

restora-

by

J. J. Scaliger,

336-341.

364

1820,

deterioration of from 1750 until 377, 378; German influence

Everett, Edward, 451. Exegesis, 72, 73.

on, 446. Ennius, Quintus, 138; changes made by him in Latin verse structure, 139-141 ; his Annates, 139, 140. Epic Poetry among the Greeks, 912, 97; among the Romans, 134,

Faber, Basilius, 397 n 399.


Fabretti, Raffaele, 442. Fabricius, George, 397 n.

I3S; 139, iSiEpicurus, his theory of the origin of language, 60; his endowment of a school at Athens, 122.

Fabricius, J. A., 440.


Facciolati, lacopo, 415416.

"Families" of Manuscripts, in. "Father of History," see Herodotus.

21

; :

482
Felton, C. C, 4Si. Fenestella, 168.
Ferrero, G., 429. Fiction, see Prose fiction.
Filelfo,

INDEX
393
;

intellectual influence of, 385-

45 S ; periods of classical scholarship in, 393 ; study of Hebrew in,


394Gesner, Conrad, 398. Gesner, J. M., 397 n. Gesta Romanorum, 190, 224, 225. Gibbon, Edward, 37, 378, 379.

Francesco, 281.

Fisher, G., 452. Folk Literature


131. 156-

among the Romans,

Foreign schools at Athens and Rome (i) French school at Athens, 427 (2) German school at Rome ; (3) British school at Athens, 447 ; (4) British school at Rome, 448; (s)

Gilman, D. C, 454. Glosses, 125-127; various meanings of the word, 126; their relations to
lexicography, 126; Pamphilius, 194. Glossographers, 127, 194. Glossography, 126, 166, 167 ; see Lexi-

American school at Athens American school at Rome.

(6)

cography.
;

Forgeries, of manuscripts, 284 n., 285

of inscriptions, 442. Frederick of Urbino, his remarkable library, containing a list of Greek authors now lost, 273. French School of Classical Philology, 304-320; studies in music, geography, history, and gem-work by French scholars, 313, 316. Froben, Johann, 294. Fronto, Marcus Cornelius, 186.

Gnipho, M. Antonius, 166. Goethe, J. W. von, 417. Gorgias of Leontini, teaches rhetoric in Athens, 41-43.

Graeco-Roman Period, 130-190. Graevius (Johann Georg Grave), 397


Grafenhan, A., quoted, 26.

n.

Grammar, its early relation to logic, 47 meaning of "grammaticus," 70;


gradual development of grammatical terms by Protagoras, 70; by Proditotle, 70, 71

by Plato, 70; by .Arisby the Stoics and Alexandrians, 71, 109, 120; by Dionycus, 49, 70;
;

Gaisford,

Thomas,

447, 449.

Gaza,

Theodorus,

grammarian

and

translator, 280, 281, 29s, 391 n.

Geldner, K. F., quoted, 30. Gellius, A., 186; }us Nodes Atticae, 188,
189.

Gem-cutting, learned from the Egyptians, 83, 84.

Genealogy, 33. Geographic Method in Classical Philology, 4-

sius Thrax, 158; first treatise on formal grammar, 159; L. Stilo, IS9, 160; M. T. Varro, 162; the first school grammar, 183 later grammatical writers among the Romans, 184-187; study of, in the monastic grammatical schools, 229, 231; theories in the Middle Ages, 236; modern theories of, 401 n., 405, 412-415.
;

Tpd/ifiaraj ypafj.fiaTKTT'^Sf 18, 69.


;

Geography, 25
on,
;

first scientific

treatise

descriptive geography, 25, 25 35; 174,17s; first geographical dictionary, 176 in the French Period, 315 ; road-maps, 392 n. Geometry, 22, 23 developed by Euclid and Archimedes, 103. Germany, early culture in, 388 scholasticism in, 388 ; humanism in, 388; ; ;

Grammatici Latini, 184-187. Grammaticus, 70; 172, 173. Gray, Thomas, 371. Greek, in the Middle Ages, 23s, 236; in the Renaissance and after, 269; taught in Italy by the Byzantines,
269
;

restoration of, in the English

universities, 359. Greek culture, antiquity of, 5-9.

394,

396398

universities in,

388

Greek genius, character

of,

83-87.

INDEX
Greek Literature, beginaings of, 9-13 Homeric writings, 13-15; teaching
of,

483

Hellenes, origins of the, 5-8.

18-20;

early criticism

historiograpliy, 26, 34-39 ; 28 S. ; varieties of, 33-43 ; study of,

20; at Athens,
of,

71

criticism of,

71

73-75

the

drama, 72; parody, 76-78; genius of, 83-87; in Alexandria, 91-116; in Pergamum, 118-120; see Renaissance. Greek studies in Ireland, 235 n.
Gregorovius, F., Gregory Nazianzen, quoted, 123, 124. Gregory of Tours, 216.

Hellenic Influence in Italy, 266284. Hemsterhuys, Tiberius, his acute criticism, 352 his edition of Lucian, 353 appointed professor in Leyden, 354; his fame in other countries, 354. Henri, Victor, 427.
;

Henzen, Wilhelm, 443. Hephajstion, on metres, 194.


Heraclides Fonticus, his treatise on language, 76. Heraclitean School, linguistic theories
of, 56-59. Heraditus, 21 ; his view of language, 56-60. Herennius Philon, 194. Hermeneutics, 73, 87.

Grimm's Law,

420, 421.

first teacher of Greek at Oxford, 293. Gronovii (J. F. and Jacob Gronov),

Grocyn, William,

their

Thesaurus of Greek

antiquities,

Hermann, Gottfried, 401 n., Hero of Alexandria, 104, 105.

405.

349-

Grotlus
jurist,

Hugo (Huig van


scholar
;

classical

and

Groot), great constructive

Herodotus, his contributions to geographical knowledge, 34, 35 quoted,


;

347 Capella begun at the age of twelve, his treatise De lure Belli et 347; Fads, 348 ; his translation into Latin verse of the Planudean Anthology,
349Gruter, Janus (Jan Gruytfere), his collection of Latin inscriptions, 342.

his edition of

Martianus

34, 35 ; his history, 34. Ilesiod, 13.

Hessus, Helius Eobanus, 396. Heyne, Christian Gottlob, 403. Hieronyraus (St. Jerome), 148, 195. Hipparchus, 103. Hippias of EUs, his experiments in
literature, 50, 51.

History, 26, 34;

in

Greek

literature,

H
Hadley, James, 455.

Haldeman,

435. Harpocration, Valerius, his lexicon to


S.,

34-38; among foreigners, 54, 55; in Latin literature, 153, 154; the Byzantine historians, 254, 258 ; later Gibbon, historians, 378, 379, Niebuhr, 408-410, Curtius, Ernst,

the ten orators, 194. Harvard, John, founder of Harvard


College, 449.

419, Grote, 428, Thirlwall, 428, ruy, 429, Boissonade, 429, sen, 443, 444, Ferrero, 429. Holmes, 0. W., quoted, 182.

Du-

Momm-

Havercamp, Siegbert, 352. Haupt, Moritz, 401 n., 433 n. Hebrew, study of, 240, 394, 398.
Hecataeus, 25, 26. Hegemon, the originator of true par-

Homeric Epic, character


early

of the, 9, 10;

14-16; 9, preservation of the probable archeinspirational theory of, type, 9, 15


interpolations
in,
;

ody, 77. Hegius, Alexander, 391 n. Heinsius, Daniel, pupil of


344Heliodorus, 155. Hellanicus of Mitylene, 35.

upon Greek influence 10-12; thought, II, 12, 17, 19, 26, 27; ethical value of, 11, 18, 19; early
criticism of, i3-i5> 20> 44; allegorical and rationalistic explanation of,

Scaliger,

20

burlesques

of,

77

editions

made

by

Aristotle, 78, 79.

484
Homeric Hymns,
13.

INDEX
Jebb, R. C, 447Jerome, 148, 195Jevons, F. B., quoted, 36.

Homonymy,
Horatius,
I.

58.

Flaccus, quoted, 19; as a satirist, 149; as a lyric poet, 152;


as a critic of literature, 181, 182.

John

Jones,

of Salisbury, 231, 232. Sir William, his knowledge of

Humanism, 269-271

contrasted with Mediaevalism, 270-273 ; in Germany, 388-394, 396-398; the New, 417. Humboldt, of Antiquity, the, see
;

his aplanguages, 382; pointment as a judge in Bengal, 383

Oriental

his translations

from the

Sanskrit,

383

his anticipation of

Comparative

Herodotus.

Hungary, classical studies Hurd, Richard, 371. Hutten, Ulrich von, 395.

in,

399.

Philology, 383, 384Jowett, Benjamin, 448.

Juba of Mauretania, 194. Junggrammatiker, 393, 422.


Junius,
of,

Hylozoism, 21. Hymns, Homeric, 13 ; Latin, 218. Hypsicrates, etymological school


at

Franciscus,

his

study of an-

cient painting, 344.

Justinianus, 252.

Rome,

157, 158.

Kaibel, Georg, collector of 1200

epi-

Iambic Poetry, 33.


lamblichus, 103.
Iberians, the, 6.
Iliad, the, see

grams, 441442. Kiepert, Heinrich, 439 n.


Kirchhofi, A., 441. Klassische Allerthumswissenschajt,
3.

Homeric Epic.
of

Interpreters

foreign

languages,

among the Greeks, 54. Invasions of Italy, 213, 214. Ionian Greeks, 17, 18, 28; educational
influence
of, 17, 18.

Klotz, R., 415. Kohler, H. E., 401 n.

Ionian School of Philosophy, 21, 22,


24.

K. W., 412. Kuster, Ludolf (Neocorus), his devotion to Greek, 351; his edition of Aristophanes with the scholia, 351.
Kriiger,

Ireland, Classical Scholarship in, 226;

Mediaeval Schools
tinity in, 233.

in,

226 n.

LaLaberius, D., 149. Lachmann, Karl, 405-407


;

Irony, 69. Isidorus of

his

Homer,

Seville,

187,

188;

his

Origines, igo; his

190; on the
248.

De Natura Serum, mystic number Seven,

his Lucretius, 406 ; his methods of text criticism influenced by Bent-

405

ley,

406

by Wolf, 406
the

his

text

criticism of

New

Testament,

Isocrates, the first artistic orator, 43; his success as a rhetorical teacher, 43

407.

obligations of Cicero to, 44. Italian Period of Scholarship, 284, 303, 304Itineraria, 175,

392 n.

jager, Johann, 395. Jahn, Otto, 438, 430.

Lambinus, Dionysius, 306, 307, 407. Lane, G. M., 452. Langen, Rudolf von, 391 n. Language, study of, in connection with philosophy and psychology, sii S^J theories regarding the origin of, 5169, see Varro; indifierence of the Greeks to foreign languages, s^-SS! Eleatic theory of, 56-59." Heraclitean theory of, 56-60.

" ;

INDEX
Lasus of Hermione,
Latin language,
7g.

48s

its characteristics, 131,

Libraries

Liberal Arts, the Seven, 237, 238. the libraries at Alexandria, :

136, 139-141, 217, 218;


;

as modified

by Ennius, 141 by Plautus, 142147; by Lucretius, 147-148; by Cicero, 148 by ecclesiastical writers,
;

Rome,

92-94, 98, 102; private libraries at 109, 116, 118; at Pergamum, 118; public libraries at Rome, 161, 198 ; at Constantinople, igS ; mon-

148; the sermo urhanus, 156; the sermo cotidianus, 156; the sermo pleieius, is6, 217; de line of, 193, ig4 ; used in the Mediaeval Church, 206-210; used as a diplomatic language, 216; used as a liturgical language, 217; late Latin, 217-223, 229, semibarbarous Latin, 218; 232; scholastic Latin in thirteenth century, 232 ; use of, in Hungary and Poland, 399 n. Latin literature, native period of, 130134 ; early Hellenic influence on, 134137, see Ennius, Plautus, Pacuvius, Terentius, Ludlius, Lucretius; the Golden Age, 151-153, see Epic Poetry, Lyric Poetry, Prose Fiction, Criticism, Varro; Spanish influence,
176, 178, 186, 187, 190; Roman oratory, 176-181; the Silver Age,

astic libraries, 233-235; Vatican, 273; St. Mark's, 273; Library of Urbino, 273. Libyans, the, 6. Licymnius, his classification of syno-

nyms, 68.
Ligurians, the, 6. Linguistik, 3 n.
Lipsius,

Justus, 317; his study of Palaeography, 318; his reverence for Tacitus, 319; his death, 327. Literary Criticism, 20, 21; by Plato,

178-181,
Tacitus,

see

Quintilianus,

Suetonius, Plinius

Q.

Remmius Palaemon;

186-188, Fronto, TertuUianus, Aulus Gellius. Law, Roman, 252253. Lehrs, Karl, 407, 411, 412. Leo, F., 419. Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, 403. "Letter-play," 69. Lexicography, beginnings of, 96, 97,
Period,

Seneca, Maior, the African Apuleius, see

19, 71, 72; by Aristotle, 73-75; by the Sophists, 76 ; in the form of burlesque, 76-78 ; by the Alexandrians, 96-102; by Crates, 120; at Rome, 180-183. Literary Study in early Greece, 18; in the Prae-Alexandrian Period, 71 by the Alexandrians, 96-98; by Crates, 120, 157 n. ; by the Romans, 160-164, 166, 169; by the Byzantines, 251, 254, 256, 257; by the Medisevals, 237, 238. Literary Teaching, beginnings of, 18, 19 ; by the Sophists, 49, 50. Littr6, Emile, 426. Livius Andronicus, 134, 137. Livius, Titus, 153, lost books of,

277, 278.

scientifically undertaken by 126; Aristophanes of Byzantium, 108; developed by glossographers, 126; in the at Rome, 165-167, 194;

Lobeck, Christian August, 405, 411. Logic, 46-47 ; in relation to language,


51-60.
Logographi, 26. Louis the Pious, 385. Louvain, " the Belgian
431.
Lucilius,

Middle Ages, 244-247; by Suidas,


254; in the Byzantine Empire, 254, 255; during the Renaissance, 281, 304; lexicon of Calepinus, 415; unHvalled Greek lexicon of Stephanus (Robert Etienne), 305 ; in Italy, 415, 416 ; in Germany, 416, 417 ; in England and in the United States

Athens,

C, 149. Lucretius, his theory of the origin of


language, 60; his philosophical vocabulary, 147, 148; as a poet and philosopher, 151. Luder, Peter, 390 n. LuUius, Raimundus, 241, 242.

418

n.

;;

486
Luther, Martin,
3972g8,

INDEX
302,
392,

395,

Metaphor,

Lycophron of Chalcis, 99, loi, 102, 255. Lycurgus of Athens, his recension of the
tragic poets, 78, 79.

Lycurgus of Sparta,

17.

Lyric Poetry, among the -Cohans and Dorians, 33 ; at Alexandria, loi, 105 in Latin literature, 131, 134, 151,
IS2.

its use in language, 68. Metres, early treatises on, 76. Middle Ages, foreshadowed in the second century a.d., 192 ; decadence of Classical Latin, 193, 194, 214-220; influence of Christianity on classical learning, 195-200, 215-217; separation of the Eastern from the

Western Empire, 199; Monachism,


200-204;
invasion of the

Roman

Lysias, 43.

M
Mabillon, Jean, 314. Macedonian ascendency over Greece, 84. Macrobius, ias Saturnalia, 189.

provinces, 213, 214; end of Middle Ages, 214; periods of mediaeval

Madvig, Johann Nicolai, 423423. Mahaffy, J. P., quoted, 19. Mai, Cardinal, 166. Manuscripts, collection and preserva204-206, 273-280; during the Middle Ages, 233, 235 Ust of the oldest classical manuscripts, 202, 234, prob23s ; at Constantinople, 272 ability of recovering Mss. now lost, 273 n. ; recovery of lost Mss. in recent times, 440, 441.
tion of,
; ;

214; popular use of Latin after the fall of Rome, 214223; grammatical theories in, 236; art in, 243 ; philosophy in, 244, 263 letters and learning in, 244-247, 386. Missing Analogy, 59. Mock-heroic, 77. Mommsen, Theodor, his remarkable versatility, 443; his plan for the Latin Corpus, 443 ; his history of Rome, 444; his supplementary
scholarship,

papers, 444.

Monachism, 200-204. Monastic Scholars, 222-225;


books, 223 n.

their

Maps, see Geography. Maria Theresa, 399, 403.


Mariette, P. J., 315. Martianus Capella, 237, 238. Massilia, the University at, 125.

Monastic Schools, 228-231. Montanus, 196.

Monte
314.

Cassino, 202.

Montfaucon,

Bernard
402
n.,

de,

306,

313,

Miiller, Lucian,

407 n.

Mathematics,

22, 103, 105.

Matron

of Pitana, 77.

Matthaei, C. F., 401 n. Maximus Planudes, 256. Mayor, J. E. B., 448. Mediasvalism, characterized, 242, 243, 270; contrasted with Humanism, 270-273. Mediterranean race, the, 6. Meineke, August, 407. Mela, Pomponius, 176. Melanchthon (Philipp Schwarzerd),
396, 397. Meleager, 256.

Muller, Otfried, quoted, 3 ; his monograph on the Etruscans, 437 ; his history of Greek literature, 439.

Munro, H. A.

J.,

quoted,

406; his

edition of Lucretius, 407, 448. Muratori, L. A., his new Thesaurus,

442, 443.

Muretus, Marcus Antonius, 306, 308,


326.

Museum, the Alexandrian, 92-95


;

the

Pergamene, 119; the Vatican, 428; Louvre, 427 British, 381 n. ; at Copenhagen, 433 American. Music, 33; early Greek treatises on,
;

MeUc

Poetry, 33.

79;

foundation of Classical modes


;

Menander, 86, 91, 234. Merriam, A. C, 453.

among the
80, 81

vocal, Greeks, 80, 81 notation of, in Greece, 81, 82


;

INDEX
Fleischer's theory of
81, 82
;

487

Greek modes,
Rufus),

Muth,
39S.

Rome, 82. Conrad (Mutianus


at

Painting in Early Greece, 82, 83; encaustic painting, 83.

Myron, 42. Mythic Cycle,

Palaeography, 314.
12, 13.
;

Pamphilius on Glosses, 194,

Mythology, the oldest treatise on, 13 a great anonymous manual of, 116.

Panorama,

247.

Papias, 246.
Paris, Gaston, quoted, 457, 458. Parmenides, 24.

N
Naevius, G. N., 134
136;

his

Punka,

135,

Parody, 77, 78, see Buklesque. Paronomasia, in Greek, 66, 67.


Parrhasius, 83. Parr, Samuel, 372, 373. Pater, Walter, quoted, 288. Paulsen, Friedrich, quoted, 388, 389. Paulus Diaconus, 169.

Nasalis Sbnans, 422, 423. Nauck, August, 402 n., 408.

Neo-PIatonism, 102, 103. Netherlands, rise of scholarship


316, 317Nettleship, Henry, 447. New Learning, the, 284, 285.

in,

Pausanius, 176. Pausias, 83. Pelasgians, the, 6.

Nicholas V., 272. Niebuhr, Barthold G., 37, 408410. Nisard, DSsir^ and Charles, 426.
Nitzsch, K. F., 411. Nonius Marcellus, 189. Numerals, Arabic (Hindu),

Peloponnesian War, 35. Pennsylvania, University

of,

450.

Pergamene
118;
120.

Library,

its

foundation,

catalogued by

Callimachus,

207.

Pergamene

Nuremberg

Chronicle, 390.

118 120; conSchool, trasted with the School at Alexandria, 117, 118; how founded, 118i2o; under Crates of Mallos, 119120.

Odoacer, 213. Odyssey, the, see Homeric Epic.

Pergamum,
Pericles, the

description of, 118, 119.

Onomantia, 67. Onomatopoetic theory


see Heraclitean School.

Age of, 42, 43. Peripatetic School of Philosophy, 122,


128.

of

language,

Oratory, in the Prae-AIexandrian Period,

39
of,

as an art, 39-47
;

Asiatic Style
;

Attic Style of , 42 its relation 42 to Rhetoric, 43-48; in legal protaught at ceedings, 41, 43, 46
;

Persian Wars, their influence on Greek civilization, 29-32. Persius Flaccus, 149, 183. Petrarca, Francesco, his studies, 264; his Latin epic, 264, 265 ; his recovery of classic authors, 26s, 266 ; his relations with the German Emperor,
386, 387Petronius, C, 154, 157, 161; quoted, 177 n. ; read in schools, 246; discovery of Cena Trimalchionis in
1663, 314. Phidias, 42.

Rhodes, 124 ; at Rome, 132 orations


;

written for friends, 159; Quintilian's teaching of, 178, 179. Oriental influence on Europe, 258. Oriental languages: Arabic in the Middle Ages, 240; Hebrew in the Middle Ages, 240. Osborn of Gloucester, 247. Oudendorp, Franz van, revives Latin
at Leyden, 354.

Philetas

of

Cos,

first

attempt at an
of,

Homeric

lexicon, 96, 127.

Philologist, various

meanings

1-3.

488

INDEX
37S ; his work and reading, 375-377 restores the Rosetta Stone, 376 ; his the Three letters to Travis, 376; Heavenly Witnesses, 376 ; Porsonian
type, 377-

Philology, various meanings of, 1-3. Philosophy, origin of, in Greece, 21 the Ionian School, 21; Heraclitus,

21; Pythagoras, 22-24; the Eleatic School, 24; Aristotle, 48, 122; Socthe rates and the Sophists, 50, 51 Sceptics, 50; the Stoics, 51, 122; the 122; the Epicureans, 51,
;

Cynics, 51;
Plato,

122; 63-6S, philosophy, 102, 103;


studies

the Eclectics, 51, 97; Alexandrian


philosophical
150,
147,

Post-Renaissance Period, 289. Prse-Alexandrian Period, characterization of, 84-86; its end, 87. Princeton University (College of New
Jersey), 430. Printing, introduction of, 285;
;

devel-

at

Rome,

Mediaeval, 243, 244, Renaissance, 263.

263;

151; in the

opment of, 285, 286 centres of early book production, 286; effect upon
Classical scholarship, 286, 393. Priscianus Sdanus of Constantinople, his grammar abridged, 185, i85; 239 ; introduced into Germany, 386.

Photius, 254. Phrynicus, 411. Pindar, 32-34. Pisistratus, alleged recension of meric poems by, 14-16.
Plato,
first

Ho-

uses
I
;

terms

01X6X0705,

0iXoXo7(a,
19;

his opinion of writing,

Private editions, in. Probus Berytius, M. Valerius, 186. Procopius, 232. Prodicus of Ceos, as a lecturer on style,

his linguistic theories,

his physiology of language,

61-67; 63-63;

49-So
70.

his treatise

on synonyms,
n.,

50,

his ridicule of popular etymologies,


6s, 66; classifies letters of the alphabet, 65; bis grammatical dis-

Pronunciation, of Greek, 241 of Latin, 434. Prose, beginnings of Greek, 26


;

290;

devel-

tinctions, 70.

Plautus, T. Maccius, his place in

Ro-

man

literature, 138;

his enrichment

opment of, 34, 33 Latin, 133, 134; methods of studying, 177, 178. Prose fiction (Greek and Latin), 154,
at Byzantium, 233. 15s Protagoras of Abdera, as a teacher of
;

of the Latin vocabulary,

142-148; comparison with Shakespeare, 143,

144; text criticism of, 160; Varro's Plautine Canon, 163. Plebeian Latin, see Sesko Plebetos. PUnius Maior, 188. " Poetic Prose," 284. Poetics of Aristotle, 73-76. Poetry, inspirational theory of, 1012.

rhetoric, 49, 51

first

distinguishes
70,

grammatical moods and genders, 70 n. Protestant Reformation, effects


301-303. Ptolemius, Claudius, 176.

of,

Ptolemy

Soter, 90.

Poggio

Bracciolini,

Francesco,

276-

279. Politianus,

PubUlius Syrus, 149. Punctuation, in Greek, 98, 108. Punic Wars, 31, 133, 134.
Pyrgoteles, 84.

Angelo

de, 282, 283.

PoUtical Science, 38.


Pollux, Julius, his dictionary, 194. Polus, 68 n.
Polyclitus, his

Pythagoras, 21-24; Golden verses


24-

of,

"Canon," 128 n. Polygnotus of Thasos, 82.


Polyonomy, 58. Pompeius Festus, 169.
Porson, Richard, characteristics of, 374,

Quadrivium, 238.
Quintilianus,

M.

Fabius,

his

treatise

on education, 178-181.

; ;

INDEX
ies

489
m, 400
n.
;

universities

m, 400

n.

German
Rabanus (Hrabanus) Maurus,
239. 27s. 385-386. Rask, R. K., his study of
sian, 420, 421.

influence in, 400 n.

185, 238,

Old PerSaintsbury, George, quoted, 20.

Regiomontanus (Joliann Miiller), 387. Reiske, Johann Jacob, 401.


Reitz, J. F., 353. Religion, 11, 13;
ras, 23,

taught by Pythago-

Salmasius (Claude de Sauroise), covered the Palatine AnthoKgy, edited Florus in ten days, edited the Historid Augtista,
his

dis-

24 ; philosophical religion at Alexandria, 102, 103. Remmius Falaemon, Q., 183. Renaissance, the, characteristics of, 260-264; causes of the, 262, 270early 274; philosophy in, 263; scholars of, 281 Italian Period, 284, 28s; results of the, 285, 287, 288; Ciceronianism in, 302, 303. Reuchlin, Johann, 393, 394. Rhetoric, 40-51 ; first treatise on, 41 taught in Athens by Gorgias, 43;
;

commentary on
;

Solinus,

344 34s 345; 345;

his calls

from Oxford, Padua, and


receives research prohis con-

Bologna, 345

fessorship in Leyden, 345;

troversy with Milton, 346


characteristics, 347.

personal

Salutati, Colutius, first Ciceronian, 268.

Sanskrit,

first

grammar

of,

384.

Sappho, 33. Satire, a Roman form of

literature, 135,

149, 150, 162. Savile, Sir Henry, tutor in

Greek to

critically

expounded by

Aristotle, 45,

Queen Elizabeth, 355;


;

his transla-

48

51 ; 101

popularized by the Sophists, 49the Alexandrian rhetoric, 98, exhibition of, by Carneades, ;
of

tions from Tacitus, 355; becomes Provost at Eton, 356 helps prepare

150.

Rhinthon

Tarentum,

78.
five uni-

Rhodomann, Lorenz,
versities, 440.

399.

Ribbeck, Otto, professor in


Richardson, J. F., 436. Rienzi, Cola di, 442.

the authorized version of the Bible, 356 produces a great edition of St. Chrysostom, 356; a founder of the Bodleian Library, 356. Scaliger, Joseph Justus, 323-341; his early teaching, 323; his knowledge
;

Ritschl, Friedrich, 407, 434. 43Q edition of Plautus, 439, 440.

Ws
of,

Romance Languages, 219; study


by Germans, 426. Romans, early history
of,

Greek and Arabic, 324; his travels England and Scotland, 326; his stay with Cujacius, 326, 327; his call to Leyden, 328; his feud with Caspar Scioppius, 329; ]us Epistida
of in

de Gente Scaligera,

130-134; early literature of , 131-136, 138, 142144, 148, 149; their first relations with Greece, 132-134; Hellenic influence on, 134; national characteristics of, 136-138. Roman use of philohgus, philalogia,

330, 331 ; his ConJutaUo Burdonum, 332 ; his learning as a chronicler, 333-336; his Manilius, 337, 338; his Eusebian

Chronicle,

339,

340;
;

his

personal

characteristics, 341

temporary dehis

Scaliger,

cline of his reputation, 341. Julius Caesar, 320, 321;

Latin Grammar, 322;

his physical

Rome,

in the first century a.d., 170, 171; schools at, 172-181 ; thedtyin the fourth century A.D., 211, 212. Ruhnken, David, 354. 3S8.

theory, 322.
Sceptics, the, 50.

Schliemann, H., his remarkable excavations, 445.

Russia, development of classical stud-

Schola Palatina of Charlemagne, 220.

490
Scholasticism, period of, 214 cipal features, 227, 228.
Scholia, origin of, 125.
;

INDEX
its

prin-

Symonds,

J. A.,

quoted, 209.
in
Classical

Synchronistic Philology, 3.
Scioppe),

Method

Schools, see Education.

Caspar (Caspar 329-331. Sears, L., quoted, 39, 40. Seneca, quoted, 3. Sermo Cotidianus, 156.
Scioppius,

Tabula Peulingeriana, 175, 392 n. Tarsus, the university at, 124. Teachers, in the Graeco-Roman Period,
172-173TegnSr, Esaias, 433.
Terentius, P., 149. Terpander of Lesbos, 33, 80. Tertullianus, M. Aureus, 186,
197.

Sermo Plebeius, Sermo Rusticus, Sermo Urbanus,


Servius, 184.

156.

215. 156.

Seven, as a mystic number, 248. Seymour, T. D., 455.


Short, C. L., 454. Sicily, first rhetorical teaching in, 41.
Siili, 78.

196,

Simonides, 72, 73.


Socrates, essentially a Sophist, 50; influence of his teachings, 50, 51 ; as

Text Criticism, beginnings of, 13-16; undertaken by Aristotle, 78; by Lycurgus of Athens, 78; at Alexandria, 98, 104-116; at Pergamum, iElius Stilo, 160; by 119, 120; Varro, 165 by other Romans, 166,
;

a critic of poetry, 72, 73 the Sophists, 65, 66.


Solon, 16, 28.

burlesques

167 ; see Criticism. Thales, 21. Theocritus, loi.

Sophists, the, 49; character of their teaching, 49-50; their influence on

Greek
lesqued

philosophy,

50-51

bur-

Socrates, 65, 66 ; literary criticism by, 76.

by

Theon, 116. Theophrastus of Lesbos, his treatises on comedy, on style, and on metres, 76; succeeds Aristotle and endows
Peripatetic School, 122. Thiersch, F. W., 412. Thrace, mythical poets of, 10. Thucydides, 35-37Ticknor, George, 451.

Sophocles, 42. Sophocles, E. A., 452. Spalding, Georg, 410 n.

Spanheim, Ezechiel, as a numismatist,


350.

Timon
of,

of Phlius, 77, 78.

Spanish Latinity, Period


Spengel, L., 412. Stephani, L., 401 n. Stephanus, Henricus, 305.

178, 183.

Tisias, 41.

Stephanus of Byzantium, 176.


Stephanus, Robertus, 305. Stoics,. 51; their language teaching,
119, 120.

Topography, 175, 176. Toumier, Edouard, 426. Tragedy, 72; discussed by Aristotle, 73-75 among the Romans, 148, 149.
;

Strabo of Amasia, 174, 175.

Studium Generals, 231.


Sturm, Johann, 397, 398. Style, 40, 47, 49 ; Asiatic, 42 ; Attic, 42 Alexandrian Stylists, 98 ; Latin,
;

Trebonianus, 252. Tribal Age in Greece, 7. Trigonometry, 104. Trithemius, Johannes, 239, 391 Triumvirate, the, 317. Trivium, 238.

n.

Trojan Cycle, Tryphon, 116.

12.

in antiquity, 13s, 138.

Suetonius Tranquillus, Gains, 171.


Suidas, his lexicon

and

its sources, 254.

Turnebus, Hadrianus, 306, 307. Tyrwhitt, Thomas, 372. Tzetzes, loannes, 255.

; ;

INDEX

491

Vossius, Gerhard Johannes, 343, 344; his Ars Poetica, 343; his two great United States, universities in, 449historical treatises, 343; his monoclassical scholarship in, 452451 graphs on Art and Mythology, 344. German influence in, 452-455. Vulgate, the, criticised by Roger Bacon, 455
;
;

Unities, the dramatic, 75. Universities, at Alexandria,

241

edited at Oxford, 241.

Pergamum,

92-97; Athens, 121-124; at Rhodes, 124; atLesbos, 124; at Tarsus, 124; at Paris, 226, 426-428; at Bologna, 231; in England, see English Universities ; in
11 7-1 20;

at

W
Walafrid Strabo, 385. Warfare, as a stimulus to intellectual
productiveness, 31, 32.

Germany,

gary, 399 ; in Russia, 400 n. in Belgium, 431

232, 388-393 ; in Hunin Poland, 399 n., 400 n.


;

in Holland, 430 in Scandinavia,

432-434;
449-451.

in

the

United States,

Ussing, Johan Louis, 432, 433.

Watts, 2. Welcker's Cyclus, 438. Whitney, W. D., 454, 455. Willems, Pierre, 432 n. William and Mary, College of, 449. Wimpheling, Jacob, 391 n. Winckelmann, Johann Joachim, 402,
403, 417.

Wolf, F. A., matriculation at GSttin-

gen
Valckenaer, Ludwig Caspar, 358. Valla, Lorenzo della, 281 ; his treatise on style, 281, 282 his contemporaries, his Ciceronianism, 281, 281 his first suggestion of Biblical 282
; ; ;

of, 2

403, 404.

WolflSin,

Eduard, 416, 417. Woolsey, T. D., 451.


of, 19.

Writing, Plato's opinion

Wyttenbach, Daniel, 358, 359.

criticism, 294.,

Varro,

M.

Terentius,
160,

cyclopaedist, 160-161

160; as an en; as a man of

Xenophanes, rejects Homeric theology,


24.

a&airs,

Lingua

161 ; his treatise Latina, 162-164; his

De
An-

Xenophon, the

historian, 37, 38.

tiquitatum Libri, 162; his other works

162 ; his Plautine Canon, 165. Vatican Library, the founding of, 273.

Verner's Law, 421. Verrius Flaccus, M., 168-170. Victorius Petrus, 283, 284.

Yale, Elihu, founder of Yale College,


449-

Viermenner Scholien,

114, 115.

Z
Zeno, 24.

Vipsanius Agrippa, M., 175. Vocabulary, Latin, 141 ; enrichment of, by Plautus, 145-147; by Ennius, 141; by Lucretius, 147; by Cicero, 148 ; by Tertullian, 148 ; by Apuleius, 14s, 146, 148 ; Plebeian Latin, 156. Voevodski, L. F., 401 n.

Zenodotus of Ephesus, 98; his cism of texts, 105, 106; as a


cographer,
105.

criti-

lexi-

106;

called

AiopduT'^t,

Zeuxis, 83.

Zumpt, . G., 415.

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