Another eminent statesman—Julius Caesar—won success in
literature. As an orator he was admitted by his contemporaries to stand second
to Cicero. None of his speeches have survived. We possess, however, his
invaluable Commentaries on the Gallic and Civil wars. These works,
though brief and in most parts rather dull, are highly praised for their
simple, concise style and their mastery of the art of rapid narration.
VERGIL AND HORACE
The half century included within the Augustan Age marks a
real epoch in the history of Latin literature. The most famous poet of this
period was Vergil. The Aeneid, which he undertook at the suggestion of
Augustus, is his best-known work. In form the poem is a narrative of the
adventures of the Trojan hero, Aeneas, but its real theme is the growth of
Rome under the fostering care of the gods. The Aeneid, though unfinished
at the author's death, became at once what it has always remained—the only
ancient epic worthy of comparison with the Iliad or with the Odyssey.
Another member of the Augustan circle was Vergil's friend and fellow- worker,
Horace. An imitative poet, Horace reproduced in Latin verse the forms, and
sometimes even the substance, of his Greek models. But, like Vergil, what
Horace borrowed he made his own by the added beauty which he gave to it. His Odes
are perhaps the most admirable examples of literary art to be found in any
language.
