Roman Culture

to the Gracchi

Pre-literary to Literary Culture

Public Culture
public ritual public drama public writings (inscriptions)

carmen, carminis, n.
chant, prayer, spell, law, song, poem

The Untranslatable Hymn of the Salii

 fr. 1: divum +empta+ cante, divum deo supplicate fr. 2: cume tonas, Leucesie, prae tet tremonti +quot+ ibet etinei de is cum tonarem

The Hymn of the Arval Brethren

enos Lases iuvate enos Lases iuvate enos Lases iuvate

That is, help us, Lares.

neve lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleoris neve lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleoris neve lue rue Marmar sins incurrere in pleoris
Dont let plague and ruin, o Marmar, make incursions on the people.

satur fu, fere Mars, limen sali, sta berber satur fu, fere Mars, limen sali, sta berber satur fu, fere Mars, limen sali, sta berber
Be replete, Mars, leap the threshold, stay the barbarian

Other carmina:
Some kind of indigenous traditon of historical song-maybe

Cicero, in the Brutus:

Would that those songs were still extant, which Cato tells us in his Origines used to be sung by each guest in turn at the banquets of our ancestors, many ages before his time, about the praises of illustrious men.

at the banquets of our ancestors

Carmen / Law

 Under the black stone (lapis niger) in the Forum, was found, in 1899
a cippus, with an inscription possibly late 6th century BCE boustrophedon carving

Some words are legible:

sakros es- let him be accursed (?)
recei for/to the king

iouxamenta draft animals

The Twelve Tables

Cicero, De Oratore, I.44:

Though all the world exclaim against me, I will say what I think: that single little book of the Twelve Tables, if anyone look to the fountains and sources of laws, seems to me, assuredly, to surpass the libraries of all the philosophers, both in weight of authority, and in plenitude of utility.

 Not a little book, but a series of tablets.

451-449 BCE

From the Twelve Tables

Cito necatus insignis ad deformitatem puer esto. A markedly deformed child shall be put to death immediately.
Si pater filium ter venum duit, filius a patre liber esto. If a father sells his son into slavery three times, the son shall be free of his father.

186BCE The SCU de Bacchanalibus

from the SCU de Bacchanalibus

Let none of them be minded to maintain a place of Bacchic worship. Should there be any who say that they must maintain a place of Bacchic worship, they must come to Rome to the urban praetor, and about these matters, when their words have been heard, our Senate shall make a decision

Epitaphs
Carmen / poem

Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus son of Gnaeus, a brave man and prudent, whose looks were fully equal to his valor; he was aedile, consul, (and) censor among you; he took Taurasia (and) Cisauna in (or from) Samnium; he subdues all Lucania and takes away hostages.

A meter called Saturnians

a native Italian meter

Early Latin Poetry

Epic Drama

Vortereto turn transform

Transforming a Greek Legacy

Livius Andronicus
Dramatist and Latin Epic Poet Possibly a half-Greek from Tarentum

 Comedy and Tragedies at the Ludi Romani in 240BCE

names of his plays include: Aegisthus, Aiax, Equos Troianus, Ino, Tereus

The Odyssey

virum mihi, Camena, insece versutum Andra moi nnepe, Mosa, poltropon, w mla poll

 Greek Hexameter Muse

Odysseus

Latin Saturnian Meter Camena (an Italian nymph) Ulixes

Naevius
Bellum Punicum: an epic, in saturnians, on the First Punic War

Ennius
Annales Drama

Annales
Temporal Structure puts Rome at center From Romes Foundation Latin, but in Hexameters
after Ennius, no one seemed to bother with Saturnians anymore

The Earliest Authors Whose Works Survive

Plautus
situations, names, Greek

Terence
often combines the plots of two Greek plays in one complains of competition from tight-rope walkers, dancing bears

Public venues:
the city (hymn of the Salii) the forum (laws, plays) the roadside (epitaphs)

Cato the Elder

 Speeches: he made copies and circulated them Wrote a treatise on farming Origines: origins of Italian cities
on Greek model of origin stories did not name major characters; these are the achievements of the people

Cicero, in the Brutus:

Would that those songs were still extant, which Cato tells us in his Origines used to be sung by each guest in turn at the banquets of our ancestors, many ages before his time, about the praise of illustrious men.

 Oral and public before written and private Written and posted before written in books and read privately
Poetry before prose
(and yet even Ciceronian prose was rhythmic)

Importance of the Greek legacy