[4453,1]
One among the
various forms of Roman popular poetry was the nenia, the praise of the
deceased, which was sung to the flute at funeral processions, (not. 632.
Cicero
de legib. II. 24.) as it was related in the
funeral orations. We must not think here of the Greek threnes and
elegies: in the old times of Rome the fashion was
not to be melted into a tender mood, and to bewail the dead; but to pay
him honour. We must therefore imagine the nenia to have been a memorial
lay, such as was sung at banquets: indeed the latter was perhaps no
other than what had been first heard at the funeral. And thus it is
possible that, without being aware of it, we may possess some of these
lays, which Cicero supposed to
be totally lost: for surely a doubt will scarcely be moved against the
thought, that the inscriptions in verse (not. 633. On the coffin of L. Barbatus the verses are
marked and made apparent by lines to separate them: in the inscription
on his son they form an equal number of lines, and may be recognized
with as much certainty as in the former from the great difference in the
length of them) on the oldest coffins in the sepulcre of the Scipios are
nothing else than either the whole nenia, or the beginning of it.
4454 (not. 634. The two following inscriptions
are of this kind: I transcribe them, because it is probable many of my
readers never saw them.
Cornélius Lúcius Scípio Barbátus,
Gnáivo (patre) prognátus, fortis vír sapiénsque,
Quoius fórma vírtuti paríssuma fuit,
Consúl, Censor, Aédilis, qúi fuit apúd vos:
Taurásiam, Cesáunam, Sámnio cépit,
Subícit omnem Lúcánaam, (cioè Lucaniam)
Obsidésque abdúcit.
The second is:
Hunc únum plúrimi conséntiunt R(ománi)
Duonórum optumum fúisse virúm,
Lúcium Scipiónem, fílium Barbáti.
Consúl, Censor, Aédilis, híc fuit apúd vos.
Hic cépit Córsicam, Alériamque úrbem
Dédit tempestátibus aédem mérito. *
Cornélius Lúcius Scípio Barbátus,
Gnáivo (patre) prognátus, fortis vír sapiénsque,
Quoius fórma vírtuti paríssuma fuit,
Consúl, Censor, Aédilis, qúi fuit apúd vos:
Taurásiam, Cesáunam, Sámnio cépit,
Subícit omnem Lúcánaam, (cioè Lucaniam)
Obsidésque abdúcit.
The second is:
Hunc únum plúrimi conséntiunt R(ománi)
Duonórum optumum fúisse virúm,
Lúcium Scipiónem, fílium Barbáti.
Consúl, Censor, Aédilis, híc fuit apúd vos.
Hic cépit Córsicam, Alériamque úrbem
Dédit tempestátibus aédem mérito. *
