The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-08-13

Among the Romans then we find as well as with the ancient Greeks that plays were religious institutions, We have, therefore. only to recollect the of music from every cer- emony of a religious nature, to see that tn; drama was necessarily musical
 A stronger proof cannot be adduced of the importance the Romans attach ed to music in all religious ceremonies than the following curious passage in Livy, lib. 9 cap. 30: T should omit circumstance hardly worth mentioning, if it did not seem connected with re- liglon. The tibicines, or flute players, taking offense at being refused by the preceding censors, the privilege of eat ing in the temple of Jupiter, according to traditional custom, withdrew in a body to Tibur so that there were no performers left to play before the sac- rifiees. This created religious scruples In the minds of the senators and ann bassadors were sent to Tibur to en- deavor to persuade the fugitives to re- turn to Rome. The Tiburtines readily promised to use their utmost endeav- ors to this end and first summoning them before their senate, exhorted them to return to Rome; but finding them deaf to reason and entreaty they had recourse to an artifice well suited to the dispositions of these men. For upon a certain festival, they were all invited by different persons, under pre- tense of their assisting in the celebra- ton of feast. As men of this profess sion are generally much addicted to wine, they were supplied with 1t till, being intoxicated, they fell fast asleep and in this condition were placed in carts and carried to Rome where they passed the remaining part of the night in the Forum without perceiving what had happened The next day, upon opening their eyes, they were accosted by the Roman people who tlocked about them and having been prevailed upon to stay in their native city, they were allowed the privilege of strolling through all the streets in their robes, three days in every year, playing upon their instruments and indulging them selves in those licentious eXcesses which are practiced upon the same oc- casion to this day, The privilege of eat ing in the temple was also restored to such of them as should be employed in playing before the sacrifices" This occurred 300 years E. c.
 Yet the Romans, it Is well known, were among the latest of great nations in cultivating the arts and sciences, scarcely any of which they acquired except through the medium of con- quest. Before their acquaintance with Greece and her refinements, they owed all their mental improvmnts to Etruria whether they sent their sons for educa- tion and whence they drew their first knowledge not only of religion but of poetry, painting, sculpture and music. Besides their obligation both to Etruria land to Greece for their taste and knowledge in the fine arts, the Romans were not little indebted to the Sicili- ans whom they conqdered two hundred years before the Christian era From this elegant and ingenious people who, besides reckoning among the names of l their men of talent and learning those of Aeschylus, Diodorus slculus, Empe- docles, Georgias, Euclid, Archlmedes, Epicharmus and Theocritus, could beast of not only being the inventors of pastoral poetry, but of the wind in- struments with which the shepherds used to Accompany their rural songs the Romans must necessarily have de- rived incalculable improvement in all the requirements of mind, and in none among these more than in the science and practice of music
 Greece not only provided the Rom ans with musical science but also witt musical instruments. Their progress both in theory and in vocal and man ual execution was slow The few oi their authors who p'rofessedN wrote upon the subject of music, such as St Augustine, Martianus Capella, Boethi- us and Cassiodorus, did not appear until the decline of the empire. Ii does not appear that during the reign of Augustus, Rome possessed one lcelebrated sculptor, painter or musi- clan or even a distinguished architect except Vitruvius.
 Vitruvlus, In the chapter on music Introduced in his Treatise upon Archi- lecture, regrets the unavoidable ob. scurity of musical literature, on ac. count of the deficiency of terms in the Latin tongue.
 The poverty of the Roman language as compared with the Greek, is also g subject of complaint with Lucretius who, avowing his anxiety to enlighter the mind of his pupil Meinmius, or the subject of Epicurean philosophy affectingly says to him;
 Alas! the weakness of the Roman 1 tongue
 Shrinks from the burden of my copi-
 ous song:
 For precepts new, new diction I ex-
 plore,
 And lack the riches or the Grecian
 store;
 But thy rare virtue ana the sweet de-
 t-rl,k