242
Apuleius—tebtulliλn.
school called the African, which continued down to the time
of Arnobius, about the middle of the 3rd century. Ihe
writers of this school combined refinement of thought with
that of language, and thus separated themselves from the
Eoman school. They are spoken of as if they had written in
a peculiar dialect, and it might therefore seem strange that the
language of Apuleius and Tertullian, bwho were both Africans,
and belonged to this school, has never been censured for any
dialectic peculiarities. But the notion that their language has
anything provincial in it is quite erroneous. Its only peculi-
arity is, that it abounds in words and expressions taken from
the ancient Latin writcts, which they collected and employed.
This system was at the same period adopted to a certain extent
in Greek literature also.11 Apuleius and Tertullian, however,
were both men of great talent; and Apuleius must, without
any hesitation, be ranked among the first geniuses of his
time. He has a remarkable liveliness and universality. His
“ Apologia/’ in which ancient words are not so much accumu-
lated as in his “ Metamorphosesv and “ Florida,” shews what
an elegant writer he was, when he did not attempt to be too
artificial. The works both of Apuleius and TertulIian are
real store-houses of ancient Latin, though the hunting after
ancient words was, with men like these, in reality no more
than a fanciful whim. Some such archaeological curiosities
and words which were then going out of use, occur even in
the works of Sallust and Tacitus; but neither of them went
anything like so far as the writers of Hadrian’s time. It is not
easy to ascertain what gave rise to the African school, and its
peculiarity. But Carthagc was then, next to Eome, the greatest
city in the empire in which Latin was spoken ; and this circum-
stance may give us some clue to understand this African
school, for Carthage seems to have tried to rival Eome even in
literature. The Latin taught and spoken at Carthage seems
to have formed a contrast to the works produced at Eomc,
somewhat similar to that which exists between the style of
the French writers of Geneva and that of Parisian authors.
The whole country around Carthagc spoke Punic, and at
Madaura and Hippo all the people continued to do so down
11 Hadrianhimsclfshewedadelight in certain antique words. The “ Lexi-
phanes ” of Lucian is just such a hunter after ancient words, which he introduced
into his language à tort et à travers»—N.
GBEEK LITEBiVTUBE—LUCIAN.
243
to a very much later period; which circumstance accounts for
the facility with which Arabic was introduced into that
country.12
Greek literature, in the meantime, continued to rise; and
Hadrian’s partiality for it elevated the eastern world in an ex-
traordinary manner, but it also created pride, vanity and
conceit. The Greek language spread farther and farther to the
most distant regions, and the whole of the East looked upon
itself as a Greek world. The genius of Lucian arose at this
time. He was formerly very much overrated, but must not
on that account be entirely thrown aside. He writes beautiful
Attic Greek, though he had no doubt spoken the Syriac lan-
guage until the age of manhood, and this is a point which
deserves onr admiration. The characteristic of the eastern
world at that time is lightness and cheerfulness, while that of
the west is heaviness and dulness. This peculiarity now led the
eastern world no longer to look upon itself as subdued by the
western nations; in addition to this, the Eoman franchise had
been given to millions of men, and was still spreading under
every new emperor. This was a brilliant period of Greek
literature, for besides Lucian there lived Galen, Pausanias1
who has not indeed much talent, but is extremely important
and useful to us, and Aelius Aristides, whose declamations
must be disagreeable to every unprejudiced reader. The whole
school of the Greek rhetoricians of that period who looked
upon themselves as forming a second golden age of oratory,
spoke and wrote after the models of the ancients, but, unfor-
tunately, there is no substance in what they spoke and
wrote. It was, generally speaking, with the Iiteratuie of
that time, as it was for a long period with our own, of which
Goethe says, that down to the eighteenth century it had no
substance. The same was the case 'with the Latin authors.
Apuleius is ingenious where he has a good subject, as in The
“ Apologia,” and in that mad book the “ Metamorphoses;” for
a real subject at once enables the author to give life and
spirit to his work. Tertullian too produced some spirited and
12 It is not improbable, that a thorough investigation of the very peculiar idiom
of Tunis, which does not appear to be real Arabic, might throw some light upon
the ancient Punic. It no doubt contains much Punic, and also many
tɪaees of Latin; the genitive case, for example, is indicated in that language
by de, which is evidently derived fɪom the Latin.—N. Compaie Lect inɪ.
note 9.
R 2