A Primer of Latin Literature (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877. Excerpt: ... "Wo are worse than the savages," he exclaims. It was their moral superiority, he thinks, that gave the Goths their victory over the miserable anfl guilty Romans. Salvianns's work, Do Guhernatione Dei, condemns the age with unsparing strictures. The Church was as corrupt, he declares, as the world without; yet he, at least, seems to have been honest and trustworthy. FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES. The Gothic kings of the fifth century began to cultivate letters, and literature once more seemed to feel a second spring. Orosius, the Spanish presbyter, wrote in Latin a brief universal history, chiefly borrowed from Livy and Eusebius. His errors, his dnlness, and his honesty are easily discovered. In Gaul, C. Sollius Apolliuaris Sidonina (430-472) wrote poems, letters, and other pieces. His epics are dull and artificial. Ho was a Christian, a bishop, and, apparently, a pure and amiable man. Sedulins, a Christian poet, who died young, composed metrical versions of the Scriptures, and a hymn in stanzas that are often rhymed. In the sixth century, at the court of Theodoric, several eminent names appear. BOETHIUS. Philosopher, scholar, of noble birth, wealthy, powerful, Auicius Manlins Torquatus Severinus Boethius--for the Roman patrician still claimed a descent from the companions of Cicero and almost of Romulus--won a lasting renown that overshadowed and touched all the scholars of the Middle Ages. His De Consolatione, written in prison, just before he was put to death by order of Theodoric, was read with intense interest. King Alfred translated it for the use of his barbarous subjects. Boethius was some time a favorite with the savage king Theodoric, and the cultivated Roman won the regard of the Arian Goth. He was made consul. He ruled Rome. But he was at last susp...