poem on the first Punic war. Probably his latest composition was the epitaph already referred to, written like the epic in Saturnian verse:—
| “Immortales mortales si foret fas flere, Flerent divae Camenae Naevium poetam; Itaque postquam est Orci traditus thesauro Obliti sunt Romai loquier lingua Latina.” [1] |
If these lines were dictated by a jealousy of the growing ascendancy of Ennius, the life of Naevius must have been prolonged considerably beyond 204, the year in which Ennius began his career as an author in Rome. As distinguished from Livius Andronicus, Naevius was a native Italian, not a Greek; he was also an original writer, not a mere adapter or translator. If it was due to Livius that the forms of Latin literature were, from the first, moulded on those of Greek literature, it was due to Naevius that much of its spirit and substance was of native growth.
Like Livius, Naevius professed to adapt Greek tragedies and comedies to the Roman stage. Among the titles of his tragedies are Aegisthus, Lycurgus, Andromache or Hector Proficiscens, Equus Trojanus, the last named being performed at the opening of Pompey’s theatre (55). The national cast of his genius and temper was shown by his deviating from his Greek originals, and producing at least two specimens of the fabula praetexta (national drama) one founded on the childhood of Romulus and Remus (Lupus or Alimonium Romuli et Remi), the other called Clastidium, which celebrated the victory of M. Claudius Marcellus over the Celts (222). But it was as a writer of comedy that he was most famous, most productive and most original. While he is never ranked as a writer of tragedy with Ennius, Pacuvius or Accius, he is placed in the canon of the grammarian Volcacius Sedigitus third (immediately after Caecilius and Plautus) in the rank of Roman comic authors. He is there characterized as ardent and impetuous in character and style. He is also appealed to, with Plautus and Ennius, as a master of his art in one of the prologues of Terence. His comedy, like that of Plautus, seems to have been rather a free adaptation of his originals than a rude copy of them, as those of Livius probably were, or an artistic copy like those of Terence. The titles of most of them, like those of Plautus, and unlike those of Caecilius and Terence, are Latin, not Greek. He drew from the writers of the old political comedy of Athens, as well as from the new comedy of manners, and he attempted to make the stage at Rome, as it had been at Athens, an arena of political and personal warfare. A strong spirit of partisanship is recognized in more than one of the fragments; and this spirit is thoroughly popular and adverse to the senatorial ascendancy which became more and more confirmed with the progress of the second Punic war. Besides his attack on the Metelli and other members of the aristocracy, the great Scipio is the object of a censorious criticism on account of a youthful escapade attributed to him. Among the few lines still remaining from his lost comedies, we seem to recognize the idiomatic force and rapidity of movement characteristic of the style of Plautus. There is also found that love of alliteration which is a marked feature in all the older Latin poets down even to Lucretius. In one considerable comic fragment attributed to him—the description of a coquette—there is great truth and shrewdness of observation. But we find no trace of the exuberant comic power and geniality of his great contemporary.
He was not only the oldest native dramatist, but the first author of an epic poem (Bellum Punicum)—which, by combining the representation of actual contemporary history with a mythical background, may be said to have created the Roman type of epic poetry. The poem was one continuous work, but was divided into seven books by a grammarian of a later age. The earlier part of it treated of the mythical adventures of Aeneas in Sicily, Carthage and Italy, and borrowed from the interview of Zeus and Thetis in the first book of the Iliad the idea of the interview of Jupiter and Venus; which Virgil has made one of the cardinal passages in the Aeneid. The later part treated of the events of the first Punic war in the style of a metrical chronicle. An important influence in Roman literature and belief, which had its origin in Sicily, first appeared in this poem—the recognition of the mythical connexion of Aeneas and his Trojans with the foundation of Rome. The few remaining fragments produce the impression of vivid and rapid narrative, to which the flow of the native Saturnian verse, in contradistinction to the weighty and complex structure of the hexameter, was naturally adapted.
The impression we get of the man is that, whether or not he actually enjoyed the full rights of Roman citizenship, he was a vigorous representative of the bold combative spirit of the ancient Roman commons. He was one of those who made the Latin language into a great organ of literature. The phrases still quoted from him have nothing of an antiquated sound, while they have a genuinely idiomatic ring. As a dramatist he worked more in the spirit of Plautus than of Ennius, Pacuvius, Accius or Terence; but the great Umbrian humorist is separated from his older contemporary, not only by his breadth of comic power, but by his general attitude of moral and political indifference. The power of Naevius was the more genuine Italian gift—the power of satiric criticism—which was employed in making men ridiculous, not, like that of Plautus, in extracting amusement from the humours, follies and eccentricities of life. Although our means of forming a fair estimate of Naevius are scanty, all that we do know of him leads to the conclusion that he was far from being the least among the makers of Roman literature, and that with the loss of his writings there was lost a vein of national feeling and genius which rarely reappears.
Fragments (dramas) in L. Müller, Livi Andronici et Cn. Naevi Fabularum Reliquiae (1885), and (Bellum Punicum) in his edition of Ennius (1884); monographs by E. Klussmann (1843); M. J. Berchem (1861); D. de Moor (1877); Mommsen, History of Rome, bk. iii., ch. 14. On Virgil’s indebtedness to Naevius and Ennius, see V. Crivellari, Quae praecipue hausit Vergilius ex Naevio et Ennio (1889).
NAEVUS, a term in surgery signifying that form of tumour which is almost entirely composed of enlarged blood-vessels. There are three principal varieties: (1) the capillary naevus, consisting of enlarged capillaries, frequently of a purplish colour, hence the term “port-wine stain”; (2) the venous naevus, in which the veins are enlarged, of a bluish colour; (3) the arterial naevus, in which there is distinct pulsation, it being composed of enlarged and tortuous arteries. The naevus can be lessened in size by pressure. It generally occurs in the skin or immediately under it; sometimes it lies in the mouth in connexion with the mucous membrane. It is often congenital, hence the term “mother’s mark,” or it may appear in early childhood. It often grows rapidly, sometimes slowly, and sometimes growth is checked, and it may gradually diminish in size, losing its vascularity and becoming fibrous and non-vascular. This natural cure is followed by less deformity than a cure by artificial means. Various methods are used by surgeons when an operation is called for: (1) the tumour may be excised; (2) a ligature tightly tied may be applied to the base of the tumour; (3) inflammation may be set up in the growth by the injection of irritating agents,—in this way its vascularity may be checked and the formation of fibrous tissue encouraged; (4) the blood in the enlarged vessels may be coagulated by the injection of coagulating agents or by electrolysis.
NAGA HILLS, a district of British India in the Hills division of Eastern Bengal and Assam. It forms part of the mountainous borderland lying between the Brahmaputra valley and Upper Burma. Area, 3070 sq. m.; pop. (1901) 102,402. Towards the N. lie the Patkoi hills, over which British jurisdiction has never been extended; but since 1904 the southern tract, formerly known as the “area of political control,” has been incorporated in the district, thus extending its E. boundary from the Dikho to the Tizic river. The whole country forms a wild expanse of forest, mountain and stream. The valleys are covered with dense jungle, dotted with small lakes and marshes. Coal is known to exist in many localities, as well as iron ore and petroleum. The administrative headquarters' of the district are at Kohima (pop. 3093), which is garrisoned by two companies of native infantry and a battalion of military police. The Dimapur-Manipur cart-road crosses the hills, connecting Kohima with the Assam-Bengal railway.
Naga means “naked,” and is the term applied by the Assamese to the wild tribes of the hills, of which the chief clans are called Angami, Ao, Shota, Sema and Rengma. These tribes have shown extraordinary obstinacy in their resistance to the British arms. Between 1832 and 1849 ten armed expeditions were despatched to chastise them, and from 1866 to 1887 there were eight more, a record which exceeds that of the most turbulent
- ↑ “If it were permitted that immortals should weep for mortals, the divine Camenae would weep for Naevius the poet; for since he hath passed into the treasure-house of death men have forgotten at Rome how to speak in the Latin tongue.”
