XÜ THE FASTI AND OTHER EARLT RECORDS.
the fifteenth or sixteenth century. He refers his readers to
a number of books which did not exist, and, probably from
sheer ignorance, attributes to Cato statements in direct con-
tradiction to those which he actually made, and which we
know from Servius.
These different annals were the only historical records of the
earliest times that the Romans possessed ; all the rest which are
mentioned by Livy, the Iibri magistratuum, Iibri legum, etc., are
Fasti, beginning with the time of the republic; they were no
doubt very numerous, and of the same kind as the Fasti Capitolini
and Triumphales, which are still extant, fragmentary, and in
many places forged. These Fasti, which are still to be seen in the
Capitol, where they were set up by Augustus, and which were
drawn up by Varro or Atticus,—the so called Capitoline Fasti,
which formerly stood in the Curia Julia, contained records of
remarkable events only in some years. The Triumphal Fasti,
which stood in another place in the same building, assuredly
existed from very early times, and contained a record of every
triumph, perhaps more detailed than in those which have come
down to us. Livy’s statements about booty which was taken,
were no doubt derived from these triumphal Fasti. But it is
singular that they are not mentioned till the year after he
commenced making his extracts froɪn the pontifical annals.
Another source of information about the earliest history of
Rome, were the Commentarii pontificum. These were a collec-
tion of legal cases from the ancient public and ceremonial law,
and contained at the same time the decision of the pontiffs in
cases belonging to their jurisdiction, resembling the decisions
of the jurists in the Pandects. This collection formed the
basis of that body of precedents, from which those who studied
the law, derived their general principles.
Of the same kind were the Iibri pontificum and Iibri augurales.
Our historians quote from them the formula customary in
declarations of war, which Ancus is said to have first introduced ;
the deditiones, the formula foederis, the provocationes ad populum
and the like, were, according to Cicero, likewise recorded in
them. History has been enriched from these books, as if they
contained authenticated historical facts.
Other materials for the annalists, were the Laudationes funè-
bres, which are spoken of by Livy and by Cicero in his
“Brutus;” from the latter it is clear, that there existed very
POETICAL TALES OK LAYS.
xiii
ancient specimens belonging to the period preceding the war
of Pyrrhus. They were preserved in the atrium, beside the
images of the ancestors, and were funeral orations delivered in
the Forum by the nearest relatives of the deceased ; at first they
were of course simple and without any pretension. According
to Cicero, the orator always dilated upon the history of the
family and its ancestors, that is, the family of the deceased was
always traced to the most remote ancestors. But both Livy
and Cicero complain that from these laudations many falsifi-
cations had been transferred into Roman history; for the
Romans, although in other respects truthful, possessed extra-
ordinary vanity in all things connected with the state and
their families, which they considered themselves bound to
praise: hence those laudations not seldom contained forged
victories and triumphs.
Such were the materials in existence when the first historians
appeared. There were indeed also many laws and other docu-
tary monuments, but they were dead treasures and noticed
only by a few ; for on the whole the Romans were too Carelesss
and unconcerned to avail themselves of such things. A re-
markable instance of this is Livy himself, who among other
things, is satisfied with stating26 that he had heard from
Augustus, that there was an inscription in the temple of
Jupiter Feretrius, without ever thinking of examining it him-
self in the Capitol, where assuredly he must have been often
enough.
The annals, many of which must accordingly have existed
in later times, constitute one source of Roman history, though
we arc, unable to fix the time when they commenced. But
they are after all, only a dry and meagre skeleton of history.
Along with them there existed a living historical tradition,
comprehending all the details of the history of the past. Such
a tradition may have consisted either of narratives transmitted
from father to son, and was thus left wholly to memory,—
that unsafe repository for historical facts,— or of written com-
positions. The latter were poetical tales or lays. Here we are
entering upon a field, where scholars will never be able to
agree so long as they take a one-sided view of the matter.
Some believe that the subject of these lays arose out of poeti-
cal traditions, as is the case in the legends of Iceland and the
2β ir. 20.