rior is to be sought and found at Rome. In Farquhar ruled the popular mind. The nathe highest orders of society the charms tional corruption was concealed beneath the of home were pre-eminently conspicuous. drapery of national merriment and polish. Within that small circle, the most impor- Whatsoever was grave and sober, whatsotant economy of life was transacted. There ever was lovely and of good report, was nethe nobleman discharged the harmonious du- glected and scorned. The dignified chasties of courtesy and legislation; there the tity of a pure and retiring spirit was fanatiweak found a defender, and the litigious a cal and republican in England, Spartanlike reconciler of their differences. Nor were and aristocratic in Athens. If, then, fiction the milder graces of literature wanting to be justly divided into three great classes—1, embellish the sterner offices of the judge the fiction of incident, 2, of character, aud and the avenger. In the Augustan age es- 3, of description-we may well express our pecially the torch of Athenian fancy and art astonishment at the general preference of might be seen rekindled in many a Roman the rude to the polished ages of history; of hall, and shedding the illumination of So- Arcadia and rusticity, to Athens and refinephocles, Plato, or Zeuxis, over the unosten-ment. We look upon the reign of Augustatious endearments of the father, the mo- tus as peculiarly rich in golden opportunither, and the child. These pictures of do- ties for the novelist; whether in incident, mestic life in ancient Rome are not to be character, or description; with just enough looked upon as colored by the imagination. of war and excitement to relieve the colder The literature, and particularly the poetry, elegance of literature, and just enough of of a people and an age, are justly regarded coarseness to furnish a back-ground for the as the reflection of its temper. If we read splendid costume and attitude of the courthe two most popular poets of those times, tier. Several attempts have been made to Virgil and Horace, we discover numerous reanimate this celebrated pageant of history, sketches of this home-life, full of simple but without any striking success. Dèzobeauty and truth. The orator and the his- bry's Rome du Siècle d'Augusta, we have torian confirm the poet; and the sumptuous not seen, but it is said to be agreeable, with eloquence of Cicero and the coarser narra-out being deep.

tive of Suetonius may be examined for il- A path of learning so fruitful, yet so nelustrative testimony. Pliny is a powerful glected, was certain to attract the watchful and elegant witness. The satirists, as might eye of such a scholar as Becker. From his be expected, give for the most part only dis-predecessors he had not much to fear; he torted reflections of the features of private mentions with just commendation the Sabilife; yet even from Juvenal and Martial na of Böttiger, and Professor Bäor's treamuch may be learned of the gentleness and tise on the meals and funerals of the Roaffection, as well as of the vice and aban-mans. donment, of their times.

*

The materials for domestic interior were, in a great measure, collected; BeckIt must be confessed that, viewed only in er determined to put them together. He their out-of-door existence, the Athenian did this in the happiest manner. Feeling populace far excelled their Roman rivals in that it is only from the higher grades of the refinement of their occupations and society that we can compose a portraiture amusements. The poor Athenian-sitting of Roman manners, he selected for his subfor twelve hours at a theatrical exhibition, ject the history of Cornelius Gallus; a cracking his nuts, or eating his cakes-con- man eminent at the court of Augustus for trasts very favorably with the Roman rush-his talents, his fortune, and his friends; ing from some rude imitation of Greek farce, to the dearer atrocities of the gladiatorial show. Mr. Churton compares the Roman manners, under Augustus, with those of our own Elizabethan age; while Athens, enchained and fascinated by Pericles, reminds him of England in the days of Charles II. Nor can we fail to remark in both the presence and influence of the same spirit of gay and careless dissipation, of vola tile and fiery enthusiasm, inflaming by its contact every element of thought that came within reach of its heat. Aristophanes and

"In dividing the work into twelve scenes, the author disclaims all intention of writing a

romance. This would no doubt have been a far easier task than the tedious combination of a multitude of isolated facts into a single picture, an operation allowing but very little scope

* Gallus; or, Roman Scenes of the Times of Augustus, with Notes and Excursus, illustrative of the manners and customs of the Romans. Translated from the German of Professor Becker, by Frederick Metcalfe, B.A., late Scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge London, 1845. Parker.

to the imagination. It was, in fact, not unlike in a former paper. But the Romans surputting together a picture in mosaic, for which passed the Athenians in their extravagance. purpose are supplied a certain number of pieces The coverlid was the object of peculiar amof divers colors. What the auther has inter- bition. Martial represents a vain man feignpolated to connect the whole together, is no more than the colorless bits, indispensable to form the groundwork of the picture, and bring it clearly before the eye."

It is said

tangled leaves of the apium." For one of cal notices of the men, through the whole these tables, Cicero paid the almost incredi- learned world." ble sum of 80007. The drinking cups seem to have occupied the next place. Glass A curious library has been discovered in from Alexandria was in high request; Beck- Herculaneum. Cupboards, containing the er thinks that the skill of the artificers of rolls, are ranged round the room. that city in working objects in glass is not to be so small that" a man could, by exto be in any degree matched by the English tending his arms, touch the walls on either or Bohemian glass-polishers." They had side." the secret of making glass of differently colored layers joined together, which they then cut into cameos like the onyx. The renowned Barbarini or Portland vase, which was long considered a genuine sardonyx, is of this description."

We catch our next glimpse of Gallus in his library, of which Becker gives a very interesting and learned description. The room was carefully secluded from the noises of the street, and from some of the attractions that wasted so much of the Roman day, and induced Pliny, amid the shades of Laurentinum, to reflect "how much of my life has been lost in trifles!"

"A lofty window, through which shone the light of the early morning sun, pleasantly illuminated the apartment from above, the walls of which were adorned with elegant arabesques in light colors; and between them, on darker grounds, the luxurious forms of attractive dancing girls were sweeping spirit-like along. A neat couch, faced with tortoise-shell, and hung with Babylonian tapestry of various colors, by the side of which was the scrinium, containing the poet's elegies, which were as yet unknown to the majority of the public, and a small table of cedar-wood, on goats' feet of bronze, comprised the whole of the supellex. Immediately adjoining this apartment was the library, full of the most precious treasures acquired by Gallus, chiefly in Alexandria. There, in presses of cedar-wood, placed round the walls, lay the rolls, partly of parchment, and partly of the finest Egyptian papyrus, each supplied with a label, on which was seen, in bright red letters, the name of the author and title of the book. Above these again were ranged the busts, in bronze or marble, of the most renowned writers, an entirely novel ornament for libraries, first introduced into Rome

In one of his condensed and valuable appendices, Becker increases our knowledge of the Roman books and libraries. The ink was thicker than ours, resembling that of the Chinese. Instead of pens, reeds similarly shaped were employed. Of these the best sort was imported from Egypt. The back of a book was dyed yellow. When a book was completely written,

"A stick or reed was fastened to its last leaf reeds, which are still visible in the Herculaor strip, and around this it was coiled. Those nean rolls, did not project on either side beyond the roll, but had their extremities in the same plane as the base of the cylinder. They are supposed to be what the ancients called umbilicus."

The roll, its ends having been smoothed with pumice-stone and dyed black, was enveloped in parchment of a purple or yellow color. The title of the work was written in red letters on a narrow slip of parchment, and attached to the roll. The portrait of the author generally filled the opening page. This is a very curious subject of investigation, of which we should be delighted to possess a wider knowledge.

Becker examines with his wonted patience and sagacity, Varro's discovery of the art of multiplying portraits, which is mentioned with great praise by Pliny, and is evidently referred to in one of the familiar letters of Cicero. The opinions of learned men, as might be expected, are many and discordant. Becker analyzes and rejects them. Brotier, Falconet, and Visconti, imagine the art to have consisted of parchment or canvass-drawings. by Asinius Pollio, who perhaps had only bor: Pauw thought that it was copper-plate enThe speculative De rowed it from the libraries of Pergamus and Alexandria. True, only the chief representa-graving. This hypothesis is partially countives of each separate branch of literature were tenanced by Müller and Quatremere de to be found in the narrow space available for Quincy, who, however, seems disposed to them; but to compensate for this, there were substitute ivory for copper. Whatever may several rolls which contained the portraits of have been the medium of representation, seven hundred remarkable men. These were the power of transferring and multiplying the hebdomades or peplography of Varro, likenesses is unquestionably claimed for the who by means of a new and much valued invention was enabled in an easy manner to mul- invention. The words of Pliny are decitiply the collection of his portraits, and so to sive. He speaks of the transmission of spread copies of them with short biographi-portraits to every region of the world, so

that an universal presence of the celebrated | The prices of books were small, considor the loved might be secured. Becker sug-ering how smartly they were often gilt and gests that the portraits may have been done lettered. One hundred and nineteen epiSilhoutte-fashion, or painted by means of grams of Martial cost only five denarii, shabloons, or something similar. It is sin- or about two shillings and twopence, for gular that the discoveries in Pompeii should which it would be difficult to procure a have thrown no light on the mystery. damaged Fudge Family. The question The nature of the Roman book trade is of copyright is involved in much obscurity. imperfectly known. The demand created There can be no doubt that the position of the supply, and the publisher rose as the the Roman author under Augustus rereader appeared. It had grown into a dis- sembled that of an English writer in the time tinct branch of commerce in the time of of the second Charles or Anne. His chief Augustus, before whose reign literature prospect of pecuniary profit would be either could not be said to have attained to any from the private munificence of individuals, magnitude or importance. The Roman as in the noble gift of the Duchess of bookseller was necessarily his own printer, Ormond to Dryden; or from the patronage in a day when press and types were alike of the government, as in the elevation of unknown; that is, he multiplied books by Addison and the preferment of Parnel. transcription, and, when the demand was The relation of Mecenas to Virgil has beconsiderable, obtained the aid of clever as- come a proverb in literary history. How sistants in the same craft. We can fancy far the purchase, by the ædiles, of the that Horace's booksellers, the brothers So- comedies of Terence and Plautus may look sii, must have frequently felt the pressure like a national support of literature from of a rapid run. In such a case a very cor- the public purse, we shall not now stop to rect edition was not to be hoped for; and inquire. The Roman patronage of letters Mr. Barclay would feel justly indignant if sometimes assumed a peculiar form, which OLIVER YORKE were to open his October it is not easy to illustrate by any thing in number with the same apology which Mar- modern habits of authorship. Thus Pliny, tial offered for his rhymes, mutilated by the as we learn from his own epistle, was impetuosity of the transcriber. A purcha- offered the large sum of 32001. for a single ser, therefore, was often obliged to submit work. But Becker shows from Martial the copy of a book to the author, and to de- that commercial arrangements certainly pend for accuracy upon his emendations. took place between the bookseller and Of course this favor could only be asked from friends; and if Mr. Moore had lived with Virgil, one would scarcely have known where to look for a correct version of the "Light of other Days," except in the library of a Lansdowne, a Rogers, or a Blessington. The Roman booksellers had their Row, but they must have found great difficulty in making their commodities public. No enterprising Colburn of the Argiletum could stimulate a country reader with a paragraph in the Times, or a more insidious puff in the Post. To remedy this deficiency in the best manner, they hung the titles of the books to the shop-door, just as we see the list of novels on a sheet of foolscap at the door of circulating libraries; or to the pillars in front of a portico, when the shop happened to be under one. And this will explain a line in Horace, which we suspect has been very dark to many who quoted it, where he says to mediocre poets,"Non homines, non dii, non concessere columnæ.”

Horace, from an expression in his first satire, appears to have disliked this mode of publication.

author. Thus the epigrammatist very
properly tells a friend who wishes to bor-
row his poems, that the bookseller Try-
phon has plenty of copies to dispose of.
A more decisive evidence is furnished by
another passage of the same writer (xi.
108), where he intimates, the necessity of
finishing his book, in order to obtain an ad-
vance. Perhaps Tryphon's boy was at the
very moment waiting for copy, with a
small bag of sesterces to be given in re-
turn :—

"Quamvis tam longo poteras satur esse libello,
Lector, adhuc a me disticha pauca petis.
Sed Lepus usuram, puerique diaria poscunt.
Lector, solve, taces, dissimulasque ?" Vale."

This arrangement with a bookseller would not, however, protect the author in the provinces, much less in foreign countries. The international copyright, at any rate, was wanting. It is not surprising to find Martial complaining that his popularity in Britain, Spain, and Gaul, brought him no advantage. It would be curious to know how many books of the Augustan

age died in their birth, and how many authors ruined their publishers. Certainly there seems to be nothing new under the sun. Byron recognized one entire book of an epic poem nicely lining a trunk he opened at Malta; and we learn from Martial, that the cooks were the chief buyers of learned poems in his time, while numerous copies found their only circulation round small pieces of salt-fish sold to children.

"Such inns were not only to be found in towns, but also standing isolated along the roads, as on the Via Appia, not far from the Pontine Marshes," where St. Luke speaks of the Three Taverns, whither the brethren from Rome came to meet them. "Other houses were naturally built about them, and thus arose a hamlet which obtained the name of the inn. Such taverns were probably attached to the various villas along the road for the profit of the owners, as they thus disposed of the wine produced on their estates."

The fourth scene in Becker's narrative exhibits his hero upon a journey to his country villa. The carriage he selected was called a lectica, answering in many The villa of Gallus lay in one of the most respects to the palanquin of India, from delicious corners of Campania; woods, which country it had probably been intro- water, and the blue Auruncan hills in the duced into Italy; it had a head and cur- distance, composed a charming landscape. tains, and was borne by six or eight slaves, The farm, attached to the residence, imaccording to its size. Opulent persons parted a picturesque variety to the scene. clothed their bearers in a regular livery, Pre-eminent above its winged companions, generally red. For those who were too the splendid peacock strutted up and poor to keep a lectica for their single use, down the yard. The breeding of this bird there were stands, where a fatigued pedes- was the great delight of Roman country trian might hire one, as we call a Hanson's gentlemen. Hence a single egg cost more safety-cab. Indeed, hack-carriages of va- than two shillings. Here, too, were the rious descriptions were to be obtained, not red-feathered flamingo and the fierce hen only in Rome, but in the principal country from Rhodes; while the eye of the gourtowns. The rheda was probably the trav-mand revelled upon the anticipated deelling-carriage. It has been questioned lights of the delicious field-fares, as they whether any carriage was allowed to pass through the streets in the time of Augustus. Accordingly Gallus is properly represented to have quitted his palanquin for the travelling-carriage, when, after clearing all the obstructions of the tumultuous city, he had reached the gate that led to Capua. Here he ascended the rheda; "the body was ornamented with beautifully wrought foliage in bronze, and Medusa's heads, of the same metal, peeped from the centres of the wheels. The head of leather served as a protection against the hot rays of the mid-day sun, whilst the purple hangings be"A broad alley of plane-trees led by a gening fastened back, admitted an agreeable tle slope up to his house, which was built not current of cool air." Gallus rested at an so much on a magnificent scale as in coninn, where it was possible to obtain a de-formity with good taste and utility. The cent repast. Something has been previously said of the Athenian tavern. The accommodation was certainly known to the Romans, though in a very elementary form. Refined travellers carried the necessary articles of plate with them. Our chief authority on the subject is the famous journey of Horace to Brundusium. It is necessary to distinguish between the popinæ, shops for the sale of beer to be drunk on the premises, and the more respectable caupona. In one of these houses the poet and Mecænas passed a night.

fluttered in the cages where they were fattened for the table throughout the year. They were never seen except at the dinners of the rich, their price being about sixteen shillings a dozen. The orchards were laden with golden fruit; of pears alone the Romans cultivated thirty sorts. On every side the sounds of happy and contented industry met the eye of the returning landlord. Becker has constructed, chiefly from the description of Pliny, a pleasant country residence for a man of distinction and taste:

front, situated to the south-east, formed a roomy portico, resting on Corinthian pillars, before which extended a terrace planted with flowers, and divided by box-trees into small beds of various forms, while the declivity, sloping gently down, bore figures, skilfully cut out of the box-trees, of animals opposite to each other, as if prepared for attack, and then gradually became lost in the acanthus which covered with its verdure the plain at its foot. Behind the colonnade. after the fashion of the city, was an atrium, not splendidly but tastefully adorned, the elegant pavement of which, joined to imitate lozenges, in green, white, and black stone, contrasted pleasantly with the