|
''Origines'' ("Origins") is the title of a historical work by Marcus Porcius Cato. ==History of the Text== This highly original work was the first prose history in Latin, and among the very first Latin prose works in any genre. Along with Livius Andronicus, Naevius, Ennius and Plautus, Cato helped to found a new literature. According to Cato's biographer Cornelius Nepos, the ''Origines'' consisted of "seven books. Book I is the history of the early kings of Rome; books II and III the beginnings of each Italian city. This seems to be why the whole work is called ''Origines''."〔Cornelius Nepos, ''Life of Cato'' 3.〕 The city histories in books II and III of the work were apparently treated on an individual basis, drawing on their own local traditions.〔.〕 The last four books dealt with Rome's later wars and the growth in the city's power; they "outweighed the rest", according to one later reader.〔Festus, ''On the Meanings of Words'' p. 198 M.〕 There were two existing historical works in Latin, by Naevius and Ennius, but they were in verse, not prose. There were two existing prose histories by Romans, Q. Fabius Pictor and Lucius Cincius Alimentus, but they were written in Greek. All four of these existing works focused on Rome throughout; moreover, the two poems wove Roman history inextricably into the adventures of the Graeco-Roman gods. In ''Origines'', Cato evidently chose to do it differently. He felt no need to follow precedent, Roman or otherwise: Cato's own achievements were not downplayed: he was "not the man to minimize his own achievements".〔Livy, ''Ab Urbe Condita'' 34.15.9.〕 The ''Origines'' included several of his own speeches verbatim. He made it a rule not to mention military commanders by name, yet the surviving fragments give the impression that Cato's campaigns were highlighted. ''Origines'' no longer survives as a complete text, but substantial fragments are known because they were quoted by later Latin authors. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Origines」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|