of civilization.[1] But the influence of Greece did not fail to fruit. The Greek seven-stringed lyra, the "strings" (fides, from σφίδη, gut, also barbitus, βάρβιτος) was not like indigenous in Latium, and was always regarded in instrument of foreign origin; but the early period ririch it gained a footing is demonstrated partly by the barbarous mutilation of its Greek name, partly by its being employed even in ritual.[2] That some of the legendary stores of the Greeks already during this period found their way into Latium, is shown by the ready reception of Greek works ulpture with their representations based so thoroughly upon the poetical treasures of the nation; and the old Latin barbarous conversions of Persephone into Prosepna, Bellerophontes into Melerpanta, Kyklops into Cocles, Laomedon into Alumentus, Ganymedes into Catamitus, Neilos into Melus, Semele into Stimula, enable us to perceive at how remote a period such stories had been already heard and repeated by the Latins. Lastly and especially, the Roman chief or city festival (ludi maximi Romani) must have derived, if not its origin, at any rate its later arrangements, from a Greek source. It was an extraordinary festival, celebrated in honour of the Capitoline
- ↑ The statement that "formerly the Roman boys were trained in Etruscan culture, as they were in later times in Greek" (Liv. ix. 36), is quite irreconcilable with the original nature of the Roman system of education; and it is not easy to discover what the Roman boys could have learnt in Etruria. Even the most zealous modern partisans of Tages-worship will not maintain that the study of the Etruscan language played such a part in Rome then, as e. g. the learning of French does now with us; that one who was not an Etruscan should have any understanding of the art of the Etruscan haruspices, was considered, even by those who availed themselves of that art, to be a disgrace, or an impossibility (Müller, Etr. ii. 4). Probably the whole statement was concocted by the Etruscizing antiquaries of the last age of the republic, out of rationalistic stories of the older annals, such as that which makes Mucius Scævola learn Etruscan when a child, for the sake of his conversation with Porsena (Dionysius, v. 28; Plutarch, Poplicola, 17; comp. Dionysius, iii. 70).
- ↑ The employment of the lyre in ritual is attested by Cicero de Orat. iii. 51, 197; Disc. iv. 2, 4; Dionysius, vii. 72; Appian, Pun. 66; and the inscription in Orelli, 2448 compared with 1803. It was likewise used at the nenice (Varro ap. Nonium, v. nenia and præficæ). But playing on the lyre remained none the less unbecoming (Scipio ap. Macrob. Sat. ii. 10, et al.). The prohibition of music in 639 u.c. [114], exempted only the "Latin player on the 1 14. with the singer," not the player on the lyre, and the guests at pipe (Cato in Cic. Tusc. i. 2, 3; iv. 2, 3; Varro ap. Horace, Carm. iv. 15, 30). Quintilian, who asserts the reverse (Inst. i. 10, 20), has inaccurately transferred to private banquets what Cicero (de Orat. iii. 51) states in reference to the feasts of the gods.
