Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1889-08-22
vIRGIU'S MASTER-WORKS.
Some SpeculatiOns Concerning the Back
ground of Roman History.

ground of Roman History.
When Virgil. in the Eneid, had fin.
ished the Odyssey of his first SIX
books, where he had necessarily made
use for the most part Of HOmeric ma
terial. and addressed himself to his
''naajus opus," the Iliad of the Latin
war, we know that he contrived to
fuse with consummate art his old and
new material; but how much did he
himself, and his first readers or audit
ors. believe of the latter? How real,
to him and them, was the tale which
he told in the last six books of his
epic with so fresh an inspiration, such
kindled fire and heightened poetry. with
depth and breadth of human sympa-
thy unmatched elsewhere by the most
sympathetic poet OF all time? We
speak of the modern spirit of Virgil.
1t has become a commonplace. I'll a
devine," says Saiate-Beuve, ga
une heure decisive du monde
ce qu'aimerait Iavenir." Did
he also appear ...modern to the
men of his own time?'' He makes his
demigods intensely human, filling
their tale with life, staeping their fate
in tears. The deepest student and
own day has done the same for the
heroes of the Round Table. Did Virgil
feel as free to do what he would with
Eneas and Iurnus and Evander as
Tennyson did with Arthur and with
LauncelOt?
We may, think, take it for granted
that in the Augustan age the main in
cidents of the Trojan war were still re-
garded, quite simply, as historical. OF
many different versions already exist
ed. The poet might select his subject
here, might devise episodes and estab-
lish pedigrees, as Virgil did for Au-
gustus-as man may write an histor-
ical novel to-day-but it would not
answer for him to invent too widely,
or deviate too far from the
recognized line of tradition. The
supposed date of the Asian city's fall
was no more distant from the men of
that period than the earliest of the
dark ages are from ourselves-a little
less remote. in fact. than the mythic
events of the Arthurian cycle. The
proof is plain, even yet. that primitive
Italy was peopled by succession of
colonists from the East, who fought for
their fair territory. and were dispOs-
sessed in turn of her favorite sites. In
| the historic times of Rome such proof
must have been visible and palpable.
| on every hand, to an extent which it
is difficult for US now to conceive. The
| final struggles of confederate Latium
| taxed to the utmost the resources OF
| kings and early cOnsuls, and great
Etruria had hardly breathed her lest
in the century when Cicero Numbered.
and Caesar fell. and Virgil sang.
Moreover, while the whole historic
vista was actually much shorter then
than it is now, it had entered no Ro-
man mind as yet-save that of Lucre-
thus, or some such dark and audacious
Enthusiastically to question that the
beginning of all things are divine. A
hero's great-grandfather might well be
the ''sdnguisais tltinus auct0r," in the
heavens. of his illustrious race: the
earlier the generation, the more free
and familiar must needs have been,
| men thought. its intercourse with the
gods. and it was still currently be-
lieved that certain spots Of earth had
been selected from the origin OF all
things by the favor of divinity and
sanctified by its frequent visitation.
Even a man like Cicero. born a critic
and bred a lawyer, will not have his
friend too brutally inquisitive about
the antiquities of his owa native town.
cit is best. dear Atticua. in a case like
this. to accept the poets version OF
truth. and not insist upon that Of an
| eyewitness. Atlantis