Gallus and T. Livius are natives of Upper Italy, Varro (Atacinus) and Pompeius Trogus even of Transalpine Gaul.3) Though nice ears pretended to perceive this or that peculiarity in these new Romans distinguishing them from real urbanitas,+) they certainly possessed greater vigour and earnestness. The proportionally slow development of the distant parts of Italy 5) offered, moreover, the advantage of greater independence with regard to the everchanging fashions of the metropolis, and this again led to a faithful adherence to really classic models,) and from this source they often derived sufficient vitality to supply again the arteries of the metropolis when exhausted by its fitful restlessness.

Both the extent and the lasting influence of his literary activity secured to Cicero a central position in this period. Around him the older and part of the younger generation may be grouped. Among those somewhat older than himself we may mention Varro (born 638/116), Aquilius Gallus, the aristocrats M. Crassus (born anterior to 639/115), L. Lucullus (born c. 640/114), Hortensius (born 640/114), M. Piso (born c. 642/112), and Atticus (born 645/109), the translators of Epicurus (§ 173) and L. Albucius. Of the same age with Cicero are Cn. Pompey and D. Laberius (both born 648/106), Sulpicius Rufus, and of nearly the same age L. Lucceius, Q. Tubero, Q. Cicero (born 652/102), and Furius Bibaculus (born 651/103?). Besides these, Tiro, Trebatius Testa (born c. 665/89) and perhaps Nigidius Figulus (praetor 696/58) belong to the same school. Upon the younger men Caesar (born 654/100) exercises much power of attraction. Among these, nearer to Cicero in point of age are Lucretius (born 655/99), Cato Uticensis (born 659/95), C. Memmius (praetor 696/58), Cornelius Nepos (born c. 660/94), Valerius Cato (born c. 664/90), Hirtius, Oppius, Munatius Plancus, M. Calidius, C. Trebonius, Maecius Tarpa, C. Cassius, Valerius Messala. Orbilius Pupillus (though born as early as 640/114), only then began his career. Some even younger than these came into frequent contact with Cicero, in so far as they were adversaries of the monarchy just then rising; but they were sought by him

3) JJWLAGUS, studia latina provincialium, Helsingfors 1849. ABUDINSKY, d. Ausbreitung der lat. Spr., Berl. 1881. 4) Cic. Brut. 171.

5) PLIN. ep. 1, 14, 4 Brixia ex illa nostra Italia quae multum adhuc verecundiae, frugalitatis atque etiam rusticitatis antiquae retinet ac servat.

6) Even SUET. gramm. 21 says: in provincia. durante adhuc ibi antiquorum memoria, necdum omnino abolita sicut Romae.

and did not court his favour. To these belong M. Brutus (born 669/85), D. Brutus (born later than 670/84), Calvus (born 672/82), and also Catullus (born 667/87). As concerns the party of Caesar, Cicero was in friendly intercourse with C. Matius (born c. 670/84), and Caelius Rufus (born c. 666/88); his relations with Asinius Pollio (born 670/84) are somewhat doubtful, but to Sallust (born 667/87) and M. Antony (born c. 671/83), he was decidedly hostile. The personal and political relations of Varro Atacinus (born c. 672/82) are not known.

The year 691/63, in which Cicero was consul, forms to a certain extent a turning-point in his life as well as in the relative position of the political parties. Hence we divide the whole period into two halves and assign to the first all those writers whose principal achievements (whether literary or personal) are anterior to that year, and to the second those who flourished after 691/63.

THE FIRST HALF OF THE CICERONIAN PERIOD.

671/83-691/63.

164. M. Terentius Varro, born a. 638/116 in the Sabine town of Reate, probably of a family of equestrian rank, from the very first devoted himself especially to the investigation of antiquarian lore and to literature, though he did not keep aloof from public life and was employed in public business (especially by Pompey) whenever a man of firm and trustworthy character was required. In the civil war also he fought in Spain on the side of the constitutional party against Caesar, who however after his victory designated him the librarian of the collection contemplated by him; M. Antony on the other hand (711/43) proscribed him. He escaped the danger and, laborious to his death, reached the age of almost 90 years. Varro was a writer of extensive learning, of marvellous fertility and versatile both in his subjects and form; we meet in him a peculiar mixture of the simple popular element and the most universal culture, of homely mirth and oldfashioned austerity. He was honourable in character, sober and upright, devoted to the good old time, keenly interested in all sides of the genuine old Roman life, but also accessible to Greek culture. His diction is vigorous and pithy, though stiff, often abrupt and disjointed, and regardless of symmetry and finish.

1. Varro wrote de sua vita libri III (cf. § 166, 3). HIERONYM. in Euseb. chron.

ad a. Abr. 1901=638/116 M. Terentius Varro filosofus et poeta nascitur. The same ad 1990=727/27 M. Terentius Varro filosofus prope nonagenarius moritur. He is called Reatinus by SYMMACHUS ep. 1, 2; cf. VARRO RR. 2, praef. 6. 2, 8, 3. 5. 6. Incorrectly AUGUST. civ. d. 4, 1 Romae natus et educatus. His expressions in the Catus seem to apply to himself: mihi puero modica una fuit tunica et toga, sine fasciis calciamenta, equus sine ephippio, balneum non cotidianum, alveus rarus. He was a pupil of Stilo (§ 148, 1) and of Antiochos of Ascalon (Cic. acad. post. 1, 12), like Cicero. He was a friend of Cn. Pompey (GELL. 14, 7, 2 Gn. Pompeius M. Varronem, familiarem suum, rogavit etc.) and Atticus (Cic. Att. 2, 25, 1. VARRO RR. 2, 1, 25. 2, 2, 2), but never very intimate with Cicero, owing to their different characters (Roth 1.1. 8). Letters to him by Cicero, fam. 9, 1-8. Triumvir (capitalis?), trib. pl. (GELL. 13, 12, 6); aedil. (VITRUV. 2, 8, 9; cf. PLIN. NH. 35, 173). According to coins Pro Quaestore) of Pompey as proconsul, probably a. 678/76 in Spain against Sertorius (ROTH 1.1. 12), where he served at that time (SALL. hist. 2, fr. 42 haec postquam Varro in maius more rumorum accepit), certainly his lieutenant in the war against the pirates a. 687/67 (VARRO RR. 2, praef. 7. PLIN. NH. 3, 101. FLOR. 1, 41, 10) and rewarded (PLIN. NH. 7, 115. 16, 7) with a corona navalis (rostrata), probably (ROTH 1.1. 17) also in the war against Mithridates (a. 688/66). It seems that after this he became praetor (THEMIST. p. 453 Dind.: Βάρων τὴν ἐξαπέλεκυν ἦρχεν ἀρχήν, cf. APPIAN. b. c. 4, 47 εστρατηγηκώς), a. 695/59 he became a member of the commission of twenty charged with the execution of the lex Iulia agraria passed by the triumvirs (VARRO RR. 1, 2, 10, cf. PLIN. NH. 7, 176). a. 705/49 he was in company with Afranius and Petreius lieutenant to Pompey in Spain (FLOR. 2, 13, 29) and, after the desertion of one of his legions, was obliged to surrender to Caesar (CAES. b. c. 1, 38. 2, 17-20) and seems to have had no further share in the rest of the war against him. In 707/47 Varro dedicated to him his Antiquitates rerum div. (Lactant. 1, 6, 7. AUGUSTIN. civ. d. 7, 35). He was designated librarian (SUET. Caes. 44; cf. IsID. orig. 6, 5, 1). M. Antony, who in 707/47 had been obliged by Caesar's order to render up an estate of Varro's which he had first seized (Cic. Phil. 2, 103) and again took possession of a. 710/44, proscribed him 711/43; but Fufius Calenus saved his life (APP. b. c. 4, 47), though part of his library (GELL. 3, 10, 17) and his large estates were lost (at least it seems SO, ROTH 1.1. 28 sq.). VAL. MAX. 8, 7, 3 Terentius Varro... non annis, quibus saeculi tempus aequavit, quam stilo vivacior fuit. in eodem enim lectulo et spiritus eius et egregiorum operum cursus exstinctus est. PLIN. NH. 29, 65 ni M. Varro LXXXIII vitae anno prodidisset etc. ib. 7, 115 Varronis (in the public library of Asinius Pollio, § 219, 21, founded 716/38) unius viventis posita est imago. Cf. § 165, 1. JGSCHNEIDER, Vita Varr., in his Scriptt. R. R. 1, 2, 217. PRE. 6, 1688. KLROTH, das Leben des Varro, Bas. 1857. GBOISSIER, la vie et les ouvrages de V., Par. 1861. ARIESE, Phil. 27, 288.

2. General characterisation. Cic. Brut. 60 diligentissimus investigator antiquitatis. acad. post. 1, 9 nos in nostra urbe peregrinantes. tui libri quasi domum reduxerunt. tu aetatem patriae, tu discriptiones temporum, tu sacrorum iura, tu sacerdotum, tu domesticam, tu bellicam disciplinam, tu sedem regionum, locorum, tu omnium divinarum humanarumque rerum nomina, genera, officia, causas aperuisti plurimumque idem poetis nostris omninoque latinis et litteris luminis et verbis attulisti, atque ipse varium et elegans omni feri numero poema fecisti philosophiamque multis locis incohasti, ad impellendum satis, ad edocendum parum. or. Phil. 2, 105. Ap. AUGUST. civ. dei 6, 2 homo omnium facile acutissimus et sine ulla dubitatione doctissimus. Irritably ad Att. 13, 18 (a. 709/45) homo Tоλvyрapwτaтos numquam me lacessivit (challenged me by dedicating a work to me). DIONYS. 2, 21 TepévTIOs Ovápρwv.

ἀνὴρ τῶν κατὰ τὴν αὐτὴν ἡλικίαν ἀκμασάντων πολυπειρότατος. QUINT. 10, 1, 95 Terentius Varro, vir Romanorum eruditissimus. plurimos hic libros et doctissimos composuit, peritissimus linguae latinae et omnis antiquitatis et rerum graecarum nostrarumque, plus tamen scientiae collaturus quam eloquentiae. 12, 11, 24 quam multa, paene omnia, tradidit Varro! AUGUSTIN. civ. d. 6, 2 M. Varro

tametsi minus est suavis

eloquio, doctrina tamen atque sententiis ita refertus est ut in omni eruditione studiosum rerum tantum iste doceat quantum studiosum verborum Cicero delectat. Further: vir doctissimus undecumque Varro' (TERENTIAN. MAUR. GL. 6, 409, 2846) qui tam multa legit ut aliquid ei scribere vacasse miremur, tam multa scripsit quam multa vix quemquam legere potuisse credamus. SEN. cons. ad Helv. 8, 1. APULEI. apol. 42 and others. PLUT. Romul. 12 Οὐάρρωνα τὸν φιλόσοφον, ἄνδρα Ρωμαίων ἐν ἱστορία βιβλιακώτατον.

165. The total number of the works of Varro, according to a list ultimately to be traced to himself, amounted to about 620 books, belonging to 74 different works. Of the poetical works we can form an approximate idea as to which categories they belonged to only from the fragments of the saturae Menippeae (150 books), which fluctuate between the metrical and prose forms. Of the other poetical writings (saturae, pseudotragoediae and poemata) we know nothing but the names.

1. GELL. 3, 10, 17 tum ibi addit (M. Varro in primo librorum qui inscribuntur Hebdomades), se quoque iam duodecimam annorum hebdomadam ingressum esse (i.e. his age was more than 77 years) et ad eum diem septuaginta hebdomadas librorum (i.e. 490) conscripsisse. AusON. profess. Burdig. 20, 1 omnis doctrinae ratio... quantam condit sexcentis (a round number) Varro voluminibus. A list of the works of Varro, which is wanting in arrangement both as to contents and chronology, but is derived from a good sourcê, was given by Jerome in one of the (missing) letters ad Paulam (cf. HIERON. de vir. illustr. 54). Some quotations from it are contained in RUFIN. apol. 2, 20. But the original list was discovered in a MS. of the public library at Arras in the praefatio to Rufinus' translation of Origines' commentary on Genesis, and was first published and explained in the chief treatise on Varro's writings by RITSCHL, Op. 3, 419. A facsimile of the MS. ib. 506. See also JBPITRA, spicil. Solesm. 3 (Par. 1855), 311 (cf. p. 1) and CHCHAPPUIS, Sentences de Varron et liste de ses ouvrages d'après différents manuscrits (Par. 1856) 117, where two Paris MSS. of the Homiliae in Genesim are used. Cf. RITSCHL, Op. 3, 524. The list does not profess to be complete (et alia plura, quae enumerare longum est. vix medium descripsi indicem, et legentibus fastidium est), and contains 39, or (if we reckon singly the singulares libri X, the uovóßißlo which have been grouped together, and of which the contents cannot be determined) 48 numbers (with 490 single books), of which however 21 known to us from other sources are missing. The titles mentioned in this list will in the following list be marked thus *. Hence RITSCHL, Op. 3, 485, fixes the whole number of Varro's works at 74, and calculates the number of books approximately at 620, whence we should have to assume the composition of 130 books during the last 11 or 12 years of Varro's life, which were, it is true, spent in perfect leisure. To the last part of his life belong by far the most important and extensive of his works, and to his earlier years we assign his poetical and rhetorical compositions, especially the saturae Menippeae and the logistorici. Remarkable are in Jerome's list the three miroμaí (which stand side

by side) of the Antiquitates (§ 166, 4 in fin.), the Imagines (p. 260, 1. 18), the books de l.l. (§ 167, 2 ad fin.): did Varro arrange these himself? It is more probable that some later writer condensed the diffuse and inconvenient works for everyday use.

2. With regard to Varro's metrical compositions, we knew before the discovery of Jerome's list only epigrams on the Imagines and lines from the saturae Menippeae (see below). As in the Menippeae Varro founded himself on the Cynic Menippos, so he may in the *pseudotragoediarum libri VI, which were certainly not intended for the stage, have taken as his model the rpayudiaι of the Cynics Diogenes and Oinomaos or of the sillographer Timon. EROHDE, gr. Rom. 249. OCRUSIUS, lit. Centr.-Bl. 1887, 279. RITSCHL, op. 3, 527. RIESE, Varr. satt. 31.— Next *poematum libri X; cf. DIOм. GL. 1, 400 Varro in poetico libro. VARRO ap. Non. 428 verba plura modice in quandam coniecta formam.—*Satirarum libri IIII, perhaps in the manner of Lucilius and in contrast to the Menippean (n. 3) in verse throughout. Horace never mentions Varro as his predecessor in satire. Does he refer to him S. 1, 10, 47? RITSCHL, Op. 3, 431.—The existence of a didactic poem by Varro de rerum natura may be presumed from QUINT. 1, 4, 4 (grammar cannot be ignara philosophiae vel propter Empedoclem in Graecis, Varronem ac Lucretium in Latinis, qui praecepta sapientiae versibus tradiderunt) and LACTANT. div. inst. 2, 12, 4 (Empedocles ... de rerum natura versibus scripsit, ut apud Romanos Lucretius et Varro; on VELLEI. 2, 36, 2 auctores carminum Varronem ac Lucretium, see RIESE, Varro p. 50), unless indeed Quintilian and Lactantius after him assumed the existence of a work of this kind from the words of Cicero (acad. post., see above p. 253, n. 2 1. 7). Cf. ARIESE, Varr. satt. Men. 16. REIFFERSCHEID'S Suetonius 408.

3. *Satirarum Menippearum libros CL are mentioned by Hieronymus (n. 1) QUINT. 10, 1, 95 alterum illud etiam prius satirae genus, sed non sola carminum varietate mixtum condidit Terentius Varro (cf. LMÜLLER, RhM. 24, 140). PROBUS on Verg. Ecl. 6, 31, p. 14, 19 K.: Varro . . . Menippeus (ATHEN. 4, 160o Ováppwv O MEVITTELOS ÉTikaλoúμevos), non a magistro, cuius aetas longe praecesserat, nominatus, sed a societate ingenii, quod is quoque (Menippus) omnigeno carmine satiras suas expoliverat (cf. EROHDE, griech. Roman 249). Title of a satire by Varro Tapǹ MEVÍTTOV. Cic. acad. poster. 1, 8 (a. 709/45; Varro is the speaker): in illis veteribus nostris quae Menippum imitati, non interpretati, quadam hilaritate conspersimus multa admixta ex intima philosophia, multa dicta dialectice. ib. 1, 9 (Cicero addresses Varro, § 164, 2) atque ipse varium et elegans omni fere numero poema fecisti, a passage which probably refers to these Menippeae, although poema seems a curious title both as to the term and number by which to designate a work comprising 150 books and containing also prose. GELL. 2. 18, 7 Menippus, cuius libros M. Varro in satiris aemulatus est, quas alii cynicas, ipse appellat Menippeas. The Cynic Menippos of Gadara (about 250 B.C., concerning him CWACHSMUTH, sillogr. gr. 78) had treated questions of social life and of philosophy σrovdoyéλotos in a jocular tone, and with frequent innuendos aimed at followers of other systems, in a prose work mixed with verse. His manner may still be recognised in his imitator Lucian. The mixture of prose and verse in Varro is seen from the fragments in addition to the passage in Probus (see also fragm. 58 B).—In the fragments of Varro's Menippeae there is especially frequent censure of the falling away of the present from the simplicity of early times. The form was motley (e.g. grotesque personifications of ideas); erudition and practical life, mythology and history, the past and the present supplied the subjects. Especially were to be found, as also in Menippos, ridicule of the philosophers (Armorum iudicium, λογομαχία, περὶ αἱρέσεων, ταφὴ Μενίππου, Periplu lib.

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