V - CATULLUS

Summary

Few periods have been so fertile in good writing of all kinds as the years of Roman history from 146 b. c. to the Christian era. The political tumults of the last century of the Roman republic did not in any way interfere with, indeed in some ways they materially assisted, the movement and development of literature. It was then that the Romans finally perfected a style which was only surpassed by the Greeks in beauty, and was not surpassed even by the Greeks in point and effect. All this time they were industriously labouring at the improvement of their poetry, drama, and oratory; were studying the grammar and antiquities of their own language, the theory and practice of their law, and the history of their empire. What remains of the productions of this century and a half is a mere fragment. Of the development of the tragic drama from Accius to Varius, so important in every connection, we have nothing to bear witness but broken lines and isolated passages. Much the same is the case with comedy in its various branches, with the satura, and with the numerous works on Roman history and antiquities, law, and grammar. The orators have been more fortunate, for though we have (except in the case of Cicero) lost all but a few fragments of some of their speeches, we have in the Brutus something like a critical history of the earlier oratory of the period, written by a great master in the art.