xiv Metbical legends.
northern sagas : others deny that they are the origin of history,
and adhere to the written history as it is transmitted to us. I
remain unshaken in my conviction, that a great portion of
Eoman history arose out of songs—that is to say, a body of
living popular poetry—which extended over the period from
Romulus to the battle of Regillus, the heroic age of Rome.
It is evident to me, that several portions of what is called the
history of this period formed complete and true epic poems.
If passages like that of Varro and of Cicero, in which the latter
states from Cato27, “ that among the ancient Romans it was the
custom at banquets for the praises of great men to be sung to
the flute,” have no authority, I really do not know what have
any. The three inscriptions on the monuments of the Scipios,
written in the Saturnian verse, may be regarded as specimens
of ancient songs, as I have shown in my history of Rome. The
story of Coriolanus, the embassy of his mother, his return and
death among the Volscians, which cannot be reconciled with
chronology, were the subject of an epic poem. The story of
Curtius was another, which has been placed in a time, to which
it cannot possibly belong. If persons will dispute the existence
of such lays as that of the Horatii, I can point out verses in
Livy from the lay of Tullus Hostilius and the Horatii; and
although I cannot prove the existence of any verses in support
of the lay of the Tarquins, I need only refer to the fact, that
such stories are always related in a rhythmical form, and not
in prose.28 Surely those who invented such brilliant stoɪies
were not wanting in the os rofundum to give them a poetical
form. Now, have these songs ever been stripped of their me-
trical form and resolved into prose? Into this point I will not
enter: my conviction, which alone I have to express here, is,
that at one time these lays had a poetical form. All that is
really beautiful in Roman story arose out of poetry.
27 Tusc. Quaest. iv. 2 ; vol. i. p. 254, foil.
28 The traditions of the Sandwich I⅛landers, which have lately been made
known, arc highly interesting in this respect. They consist partly of narratives
and partly of songs, which have been collected by missionaries.—N.
Bestokatjon of annals.
XV
LECTURE III.
We often find that all the historical documents of a nation are
lost, either in consequence of a general calamity or through the
tyranny of individuals, and that attempts are afterwards made
to restore them. Such was the case in China, when the ancient
books were destroyed at the command of an emperor, and
afterwards restored from the recollections of aged men, and
with the assistance of astronomers who calculated the eclipses
of the sun and moon.1 Such was also the case in Rome, when
the Sibylline books were restored, as far as was possible, after
the Capitol had been burnt in the time of Sulla. There are
many instances of the same kind, especially with regard to
religious books; and a Jewish tradition relates the same thing
of several books of the holy scriptures, which were restored
after the destruction of the temple. We may account in a
similar manner for the fabulous antiquity of the Egyptians.
That the eighteenth dynasty of Manetho is historical, has been
firmly established since the gigantic discovery of our age, which
has taught us to read the Egyptian hieroglyphics. Previously
to this dynasty, Egypt was ruled by the so-called Hycsos, under
whom the ancient documents are said to have been lost. Not-
withstanding this, however, we are told that seventeen dynas-
ties preceded the historical one ; and the Egyptians make the
most extravagant claims to antiquity: all this is the conse-
quence of such lost annals. The same want of criticism, which
Roman history has experienced, meets us in the history of
Egypt, and those who do not believe in Champollion’s disco-
very have denied the historical character of the eighteenth
dynasty, and rejected the whole history down to the time of
Psammetichus as fabulous, merely because they did not see
where else to stop. Sound criticism would say: the expulsion
of the Hycsos is the boundary, and all that lies beyond is an
historical forgery, made by one who attempted to restore the
ancient history either at random, or fɪom slender remains, or
‘ Schlosser, Geschichte der alten Welt. I. i. p.78, says: Klaprotli indeed
states that these books were restored from the recollections of aged persons, but
he has not stated whether he has any Chinese authority for it. Compare vol. i.
p. 251.