[4450,6]
Niebuhr (loc. cit. p.
4431. fine) sezione intitolata Beginning and Nature of the Earliest History,
p. 216. segg. The greater is the antiquity of the
legends
*
: (dei miti ec. intorno ai fatti dei re di
Roma, e ai primi tempi della città): their origin goes back far beyond the time when the
annals
*
(gli annali pontificali di Roma)
were restored
*
(furono rinnovati, dopo che
gli antichi annali erano periti nell'incendio di Roma
al tempo della presa della città fatta dai Galli.) That
they were transmitted from generation to generation in lays, that their
contents cannot be more authentic than those of any other poem on the
deeds of ancient times which is preserved by song, is not a new notion.
A century and a half will soon have elapsed, since Perizonius (not. 627. In
4451
his Animadversiones Historicae, c. 6.)
expressed it, and shewed that among the ancient Romans it had been the
custom at banquets to sing the praises of great men to the flute; (not.
628. The leading passage in Tusc. Quaest. IV. 2. Gravissimus auctor in Originibus dixit Cato, morem apud majores
hunc epularum fuisse, ut deinceps, qui accubarent, canerent ad
tibiam clarorum virorum laudes atque virtutes
*
.
Cicero laments the loss of
these songs; Brut. 18.
19. Yet, like the sayings of Appius the blind, they
seem to have disappeared only for such as cared not for them. Dionysius knew of songs on Romulus
*
[ὡς ἐν τοῖς πατρίοις ὕμνοις ὑπὸ
῾Pωμαίων ἔτι καὶ νῦν ᾄδεται
*
, dice Dionisio 1. 79. della nota favola circa
la nascita di Romolo e Remo, e la vendetta da loro presa
di Amulio]) a
fact Cicero only knew from Cato, who seems to have spoken
of it as an usage no longer subsisting. The guests themselves sang in
turn; so it was expected that the lays, being the common property of the
nation, should be known to every free citizen. According to Varro, who calls them old, they
were sung by modest boys, sometimes to the flute, sometimes without
music. (not. 629. In Nonius II. 70. assa voce: (aderant) in
conviviis pueri modesti ut cantarent carmina antiqua, in quibus laudes
erant majorum, assa voce, ei cum tibicine.) The peculiar function of the
Camenae was to sing the praise of the ancients; (not. 630. Fest.
Epit. v. Camenae, musae, quod
canunt antiquorum laudes
*
.) and among the rest
those of the kings. For never did republican Rome
strip herself of the recollection of them, any more than she removed
their statues from the Capitol: in the best times of liberty their
memory was revered and celebrated. (not. 631. Ennius
4452 sang of them, and Lucretius mentions them with the highest
honour.)
*