Identifier: grandeurthatwasr00stobrich (find matches)
Title: The grandeur that was Rome; a survey of Roman culture and civilisation:
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Stobart, J. C. (John Clarke), 1878-1933
Subjects:
Publisher: London, Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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ought not to have seen: his eyes have destroyedhim. It is fairly clear that his banishment synchronised withthe banishment of the younger Julia, and we may well believethat the old emperor, shocked and horrified by this secondscandal in his own house, attributed it to the corrupting in-fluence of that singer of gilded sins. The banishment wascertainly well merited and the only pity is that it came too lateto efifect its purpose. The unmanly tone of the Tristia, theeffeminate appeals to everybody in Rome including a hithertoforgotten wife, reveal Ovid in his true character. It is a littlestrange that generations of British youth have been trained notonly in the study but even in the imitation of this author. When we term the Golden Age of Roman literatureAugustan we ought to remember that it began long beforeAugustus and ended before his death. Thus with all hispatronage he may more justly be called the finisher than theauthor of it. Of all the great writers, only Ovid, to whom the242
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AUGUSTAN ROME simple life and bracing air of the Sarmatians afforded an unusuallongevity, outlived Augustus. Summing up the characteristicsof the literature of this day, we may say that courtliness andartificiality were its most prominent characteristics. Thefreshness of Catullus, the stern conviction of Lucretius, the fireof Cicero were extinct. Nearly all that was native in Romanletters had perished; only the crispness of epigram, the bite ofsatire and the dignified music of the language itself remainedas the Italian heritage. Greece had quite definitely triumphedover Rome. Technical excellence continued, for this hasalways been the mark of Augustan periods. But the well-meant efforts of the state to capture literature for its ownservice had failed. The horrors of the civil war outweighedthe glories of the new regime and with all his benevolence theemperor could never outlive the memory of his proscriptions.Literature never forgave the murder of Cicero though theauthor of Thyestes m

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