14. Perizonius, Niebuhr and the Character of Early Roman Tradition

Abstract

‘The famous Ballad theory of Niebuhr of which we seldom hear now except in connexion with Macaulay's lays’ … These are the words of Mr. Last's tutor—W. Warde Fowler. When he wrote them, in 1912, Warde Fowler was apparently not aware that the ballad theory had been revived a few years before by an Italian historian who was to exercise a deep influence on Mr. Last. But the ballad theory involves other names—such as Perizonius, Vico, Niebuhr, Schwegler, Mommsen—which have been ever present in Mr. Last's mind and have often recurred in conversation. In more recent years the ballad theory has lost nothing of its prestige in Italy; two pupils of De Sanctis, A. Rostagni and L. Pareti, have made it the cornerstone of their interpretation of archaic Latin literature and historiography. Indeed, the theory has again found favour in England.