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The Masterpieces and the History of Literature
The Masterpieces and the History of Literature Author:Julian Hawthorne Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: LATIN LITERATURE. Pbriod II. 100-40 B.c. JONQUERED Greece led her Roman conquerors captive. The cultivation of her ideas, her arts and sciences, her m... more »orality and philosophy, transformed the hardy patriots of the warlike republic into refined, luxurious cosmopolitans. Rome had early made it a rule not to interfere with the local institutions of the towns and tribes she conquered. When her political power was thoroughly established, the patricians, led by the aristocratic Scipio Africanus, found their highest intellectual enjoyment in the study of the noblest products of Greek genius. They also encouraged Plautus and Terence to translate and adapt the later Greek comedies for the general amusement of the citizens. Tragedy might have been thought more consonant with Roman genius, but the imitators of Greek tragedy appear to have been less successful, and their works have perished. The epic poet En- nius laid claim to Greek descent, and, in imitation of Homer, composed the " Annals " of his country in dactylic hexameters. The native Saturnian metre was despised and abandoned. The Latin poets labored to fit their language to the Greek metres, until finally they constructed a poetical rhythm and diction hardly inferior to those of their masters. The early Romans, patricians as well as plebeians, had the simple virtues of the country, but after the Carthaginian was For the First Period of Latin Literature, see Volume II., pp. 111-151. driven from Italy the habits of city life effected a complete change in the character of the upper classes, though they never lost a certain fondness for the country as a place of retirement and recreation. For most of the year the Forum and the senate-house gave them serious occupation, while the Campus Martius afforded them exercise. But...« less