The Portland daily press., 1875-08-12

MORITURI SALUTAMUs.-A fresh interest is
given to these ancient Latin werds by Mr..
Longfellow's appropriation of them for his
poem Of tender farewels at the late commence
ment at Bowdoin. Felicitous, however, as is
this appropriation of wOrds-and it seems to
us that the very conception of such a use of
them for the occasion is poem of itself-the
opening lines, in which they are translated, do
not reproduce for u, the original historical
ideas. 1t was not "the gladiator's cry" nor
was it ''in the arena" or "face to face with the
Noman populace." The same view enters into
the great picture by Gerome of "The Gladia-
tors" in which similar words are given as the
subject of the picture, and descriptive of its
scepes in the Roman ampitheatre. Indeed, we
are iAclined to think that Longfellow caught
the fancy from this impressive painting rather
than from the ancient writer's who have re-
corded the salutation. The real scene, as de-
scribed by Tacitus and Suetonius, and also,
about hundred years later. by the great
writer, Dion Cassius, was not gladiatorial
combat in the Roman arena, but sea fight
and no ordinary one either, but the great Ndu-
naachia, exhibited by the Emperor on the Lacus
Fucinus. the modern Lago di Fucino, or, as it
is generally called, the Lago di Cellano Taci-
tus, who describes in his annals the place and
ever of the incident of the salutaton. fact
which has led some modern critics to discredit
the incident altogether as sensational fiction
of other writers. The cOmbatants were the So
called Misunderstanding word used by Tacl,
tus-and, as mentioned both by Suetonius and
Dion, were condemned criminals; and they
were to fight, just as in gladiatorial combats,
until one of the parties was killed., unless
saved by the interposing mercy OF the en-
peror. There is a slight difference in the
of fha saIutQtiOO given nv Sua-
tonius and by Dion Cassius. The former
puts the verb in the third person, n,oriturt
te salutant the form which is used by Ge-
rome in his picture, while the latter bas the
third person, the Latin translation of which,
naorituri sdlltdn,us, is the form used by Loug-
fellow in his poem. But another and more i'm
portant difference is found in the two narra-
tives The Latin writer says that the Emper-
or replied to the Aue OF the comDatants IN the
words Avete Yos; and that they, interpreting
this salutation as granting them indulgence
| and exemption from fighting, first refused to
| 90 into the contest, but at length, partly by
| threats and partly by exhortations, were COM
pelled to fight. The Greek writer, on the other
| hand, says that after the combatants had ad
| dressed their pathetic salutations to the EN-
peror, and had waited in vain for q favorable
| reply and were ordered to go on with the tight,
they at last, and only upon compulslon, went
into the murderOuS contest. We may here add
| that we have Just seen in the Academy for
July 10 notice of an article written by Adolf
| Stair, in the June number of a German period
| ical in which that eminent writer gives full
review of the account of the Naumacha
given by Tacitus, and compares it, in all
| its details, with the narratives of Suetonus
| and Don Cassius We have not yet seen this
| article by Stair, but we think that the writer
| in the Academy can hardly have given Stairs
| real view when he represents him as saying
that Suetonius is wholly silent about the occur
| ence of the salutation, and also as ascrbng,the
| Auete yos to Dion Cassius, whereas the express
| sion is:peculiar to the narrative of Suetonius
There are, it is true different readings of Sue
| tonius, which substitute other words for this
sautation, but certainly the Greek words for
| AUete y0S do not occur at all in Dion Cassius
| We had no intention of infiicting these details
upon our readers when we began to write this
article; but perhaps they may be of some inter-
est now that SO many have just read and ejoy-
ed Mr.. Longfellow's fine poem. With what
| a true poets touch does he reproduce for us
| that old salutation, and what new and rich
| sense does he put into them, as he comes back
to the place of his education, after the lapse OF
| of forty years, and greets those familiar scenes
groves, and river, and sea, and acdemic halls,
| with these pathetic words, "We who are about
to die salute your Moraturi sdtutdnaas!-Froo-
| idence Journal