130
ROMAN LITERATURE.
imperial provinces, many of whom had the lesser franchise,
and under the name of auxilia, may have amounted to half of
the Roman armies. Socii are no longer mentioned. The
formation of the legions at that time, as well as the places in
which they were levied, are subjects buried in utter obscurity.
The legions had to serve for the definite period of sixteen years,
and after that they were still kept for a time under the veuille,
to be ready as a reserve in case of need; but on the expiration
of this additional period, they were disbanded, and were to
receive assignments of land. Tliis system of assigning lands
to the veterans was the work of Augustus, who also increased
the pay of the soldiers. In the time of Caesar the ancient pay
of 120 denarii, or 1,200 ases per annum, independently of the
donativa, still existed. But Caesar doubled and Augustus
trebled it, so that a Roman soldier now received an annual
pay of 360 denarii, or about <£9 of our money.23 As the
prices of all things had risen immensely in the time of Augustus,
this pay was not very large for men who disposed of imperial
crowns; but the great number of soldiers made it nevertheless
a heavy burden to the state, which was scarcely able to bear
it. Complaints about it occur in the time of Augustus, and
are repeated by Tiberius, who was a ruler of great talent.
LECTURE CVI.
Roman literature attained its perfection in and through
Cicero, in the same manner as that of Germany attained its
perfection in Lessing. The period about the year 680 of the
city, when Cicero was between thirty and forty years old, may
be regarded as the time at which Roman literature reached its
greatest height; the language itself too made a decided ad-
vance. Though the preceding period abounds in beautiful
works, yet its productions are still imperfect; which is the case
even with the works of Cicero himself. The language had
before been vague and unsettled, and vulgarities were mixed
up with things that were otherwise noble and beautiful; but
'i-> Sueton. Caes. 26; Tacitus, Annιl. i. 17, 26; Bion Cassius, lvii. 4.
LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF CICERO.
131
this now ceased, the language assumed a definite character,
and whatever was low or vulgar was rejected. The Latin of
Cicero, that is, the language spoken in his time by men of
education, is with the greatest justice recognised as the most
perfect. If we possessed more works of the class to which
Corn. Nepos’ excellent life of Atticus belongs, we should find
the language of Cicero in all of them. Latin prose had before
been exceedingly weak, and sometimes diffuse and dry, but
Cicero brought it to perfection. The influence of a great man
often works unseen ; and I have little doubt that Caesar’s literary
perfection may be traced to the influence of Cicero.
The age of Cicero was one which abounded in authors and
men of talent and genius : among them there were many of
whom little is now known, but who were nevertheless men of
eminence. I do not, however, mean to say that all who then
distinguished themselves in literature, really deserved to be
reckoned among the classical writers, for some of them, especi-
ally those who were older than Cicero, belonged in reality to
the preceding period. Such was the case in Germany with
Winckelmann, who was somewhat older than Lessing, and
who, so far as his style is concerned, belonged to the period
previous to Lessing; that which succeeded had little or no in-
fluence upon him, although he lived amidst it. A man of the
same kind was M. Terentius Varro: he had an extraordinary
and IvelLdeserved reputation for his immense reading, activity,
and learning in Roman affairs (he was probably not so well
acquainted with Greek literature), but in what we possess of
his, he cannot be recognised as a contemporary of Cicero;
there is in fact the same contrast between him and Cicero that
there is between Mascov, Mosheim, or Reimarus and Lessing.
The same was probably the case with P. Nigidius Figulus.
The real bloom of Roman literature is represented by the men
who were the younger contemporaries of Cicero, and whom he
saw rise up around him. One of them was the orator M. Caelius
Rufus, of whom we can ourselves form an opinion from his
letters to Cicero, and whose language is perfectly equal to that
of Cicero.1 Curio’s letters do not make the same impression
upon me, but they are not of sufficient importance to enable
us to form a decided opinion, and I attribute more weight to
the judgment of Cicero, who entertained a high opinion of his
‘ See Niebuhr, Kleme histor. md Philol. Sehriften, `ol. ii. p. 252, foil.
κ 2