The History of Roman Literature: From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus AureliusCruttwell, Charles Thomas
Philosophy
The History of Roman Literature: From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius
Cruttwell, Charles Thomas
Latin literature -- History and criticism
" VIII. On water supply--the different properties of different
waters--the way to find them, test them, and convey them
into the city.
" IX. On sun dials and other modes of measuring time.
" X. On machines of all kinds, civil and military.
As will be seen from this analysis, the work is both comprehensive and
systematic; it was of great service in the Middle Ages, when it was used
in an abridged form (sufficiently ancient, however,) which we still
possess.
Antiquarian research was carried on during this period with much zeal.
Many illustrious scholars are mentioned, none of whose works have come
down to us, except in extremely imperfect abridgments. FENESTELLA (52
B.C.-22 A.D.) wrote on various legal and religious questions, on
miscellaneous topics, as literary history, the art of good living, various
points in natural history, &c. for which he is quoted as an authority by
Pliny. His greatest work seems to have been _Annales_, which were used by
Plutarch. It is probable, however, that in these he showed his special
aptitude for archaeological research, and passed over the history in a
rapid sketch. Special grammatical studies were carried on by VERRIUS
FLACCUS, a freedman, whose great work, _De Verborum Significatu_, the
first Latin lexicon conducted on an extensive scale, we possess in an
abridgment by Festus. Its size may be conjectured from the fact that the
letter A occupied four books, P five, and so on; and that Festus's
abridgment consisted of twenty large volumes. [61] It was a rich
storehouse of knowledge, the loss of which is much to be lamented. Another
freedman, C. JULIUS HYGINUS (64 B.C.-16 A.D.?), who was also keeper of
Augustus's library on the Palatine, manifested an activity scarcely less
encyclopaedic than that of Varro. Of his multifarious works we possess two
short treatises which pass under his name, the first on mythology, called
_Fabulae_, a series of extracts from his _Genealogiae_, which we have in
an abridgment; the second on astronomy, extending, though this is also in
an abridged form, to four books. A few details of his life are given by
Suetonius. He was a Spaniard by birth, though some believed him to be an
Alexandrian, since Caesar brought him to Rome after the Alexandrine War;
he attended at Rome the lectures of the grammarian Cornelius Alexander,
surnamed Polyhistor. He was an intimate acquaintance of Ovid, [62] and is
said to have died in great poverty. It is doubtful whether the works we
possess were written by him in his youth, or are the production of an
imperfectly educated abbreviator. Bursian, quoted by Teuffel, [63] thinks
it probable that in the second half of the second century of the Christian
era, a grammarian made a very brief abridgment of Hyginus's work entitled
_Genealogiae_, and to this added a treatise on the whole mythology so far
as it concerned poetical literature, compiled from good sources. This
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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