Compendium of the literary history of Italy...

Front matter

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Book. _^J

Section 1 . Literature of Magna Grecia and Sicily, 1

2. The Literature of Ancient Rome, from the Sixth Century subsequent to its Foundation, to the Seventh.and Eighth, 13

3. The Literature of Ancient Rome and of Italy, continued, . . . . 23

4. The Same, continued to the- Death of Augustus, . . . . . 57

5. The Literature of Italy, from the Epoch

of Augustus to that of Adrian, . 80

6. Continuation of the preceding Section, 1 05

7. The Literature of Italy, from the Epoch

of Adrian to that of Constantine, 138

8. The Literature of Italy, from the Epoch

of Constantine till the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West, . . 162

9. The Literature of Italy under the Dominion of the Goths, and until the Formation of the (Modern) Italian Language, 186

Introduction

It is unnecessary to speak here of the literature of the ancient Etruscan nation, of a people which possessed an extended empire in Italy ere the Romans had a name, as although it might produce its learned men, and those versed in the sciences and arts, no literary work, nor monument of them, has descended to our times, since the Greek and Latin authors alone furnish testimony to the Etruscan excellence in the arts and sciences. Italian literature more properly dates from the rise of those of Magna Grecia and Sicily, as of them we find that precious memorials are yet extant ; but in noticing them here we shall employ that briefness which suits the nature of a compendium such as this. The term Magna Grecia was applied to that district of Italy which now forms part of the kingdom of Naples, and which a narrow arm of the sea alone separates from Sicily. The vicinity of the two countries naturally introduced a reciprocal communication of the sciences and letters ; and both may

XI 1 INTRODUCTION.

be spoken of conjunctly here. It is true, that with respect to Magna Grecia, properly so called, it was taken possession of by many Greek colonies, who, driving out its previous inhabitants in making themselves masters of the country, bestowed upon it the name of their own, but, as Tiraboschi reasonably observes, in writing the literary history of a country it becomes necessary to include that of the letters and learned men who florished there, as well as to give them that country's name, whatever might be the region from which their ancestors had arrived ; and therefore it is justifiable to notice, as belonging to this subject, the sciences and studies of a people which, though foreign in its origin, occupied part of Italy, and by a continued residence there becomes entitled to assume the Italian name.

LITERARY HISTORY.

SECTION I.

LITERATURE OF MAGNA GRECIA AND SICILY.

The Literary History of Magna Grecia and Sicily may be best commenced by a notice of their earliest schools of philosophy, as both countries displayed an equal ardor for its cultivation. Pythagoras, though not born in Italy, spent there a long portion of his life, founding the celebrated Pythagorean or Italic school, a in which all the sciences which tend to perfect the human mind were attempted to be cultivated. Crotona and Metapontum were the two cities in which he made the longest residence, but many of the neighbouring states or cities, on both sides the Faro, enjoyed the benefit of his knowledge and counsels in the regulation of their civil or political government. Pythagoras was the first, as Cicero asserts, to assume the title of Philosopher, and one of the earliest to open up new methods of thought in the study of the moral and mathemati-

a Foundation of the Italic School (about) 540 b.c. 60th Olympiad.

A oil sciences, while in pointing out to others the system he had adopted, and inviting them to follow in his footsteps, he studied to awake among all an ardent passion for virtue and knowledge. Thales the Milesian, founder of the Ionic sect, lived indeed previous to Pythagoras, but the latter possessed a higher name and reputation with the ancient philosophers. The list of writers is long who have treated of the investigations and discoveries attributed to Pythagoras, relative to philosophy in general, arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy, moral and medical science, and natural theology ; while Italy may be permitted the boast, that many of the opinions and discoveries of modern philosophy drew their origin from the speculations of her earliest philosophers. The astronomical system of Copernicus even is found partly developed in that of Pythagoras, together with the theory of the revolution of the earth round the sun or common centre, and that of the existence of animal being in all the planets. Cicero, indeed, on the authority of Theophrastus makes Icetas of Syracuse the discoverer of the terrestrial motion, but the latter being Italian by birth, the glory of having possessed, from the remotest period, the knowledge of a system destined, at a later day, to receive so luminous a confirmation from modern science, must be conceded Italy. From what has been just asserted it may be con-

PHILOSOPHY. -J

ceived how highly the sciences flourished in Italy at a period when all Europe, Greece alone excepted, lay buried in the total darkness of ignorance and barbarism. Many of the followers of Pythagoras, in holding public schools of philosophy, maintained the knowledge, and diffused the opinions he had inculcated. The most illustrious amongst these were Empedocles of Agrigentum in Sicily ; Epicharmus ; Ocellus, native of Lucania ; Timaeus of Locri, held by Plato in high esteem; Architas of Tarentum, and several others. Another school of philosophy founded by the celebrated Xenophanes, and, from the residence of its founder at Elea, denominated the Eleatic, a now arose, but if almost all the sciences were cultivated thus early and ardently in Italy, it was there also that its earliest abuses or corruptions had their birth. Dicaearchus, a native of Messina, celebrated for his high talent, and whom Cicero hesitated not to call a " gTeat and wonderful inan, r by an unhappy perversion of his knowledge sustained the doctrine of the material union of the soul and body, and consequent mortality of both.* Some

a Foundation of the Eleatic School (about) 530 B.C.

of our modern speculators cannot then claim having first asserted these doctrines, as we here find the proofs of their very high antiquity; but we need only place in opposition to such names those of many much more illustrious philosophers, such as Plato, Socrates, &c, who strongly inculcated the doctrine of the immortality of the soul.

At this period also, the medical as well as musical arts, were found to flourish in Sicily, as Tiraboschi* sufficiently proves, but mathematical science was particularly and successfully cultivated. In this, Architas of Tarentum, already named, and Archimedes a of Syracuse, rendered themselves preeminently illustrious. The reputation of the former was, indeed, sufficiently extended to induce Plato even to desire the benefit of his instructions, and he has the merit of having been the first to reduce geometry to practical purposes, and to form determinate laws for the mechanical arts ; but the name of Archimedes, one of the greatest minds that ever cultivated the mathematical sciences, arrests more strongly our attention. Among the many eulogies passed on him that by the celebrated Leibnitz may be cited ;*f* and the justice of this

* Storia della Lett. Ital. vol 1. c. 1.

a Archimedes florished (about) 250 b.c.

PHILOSOPHY.

panegyric is amply proved not only by the testimonies of the various writers of his life, but also by that which the part of his works that have reached us, afford.* The study of mathematics, mechanics, and geometry, engrossed exclusively, it would appear, the attention and affection of Archimedes; and though mechanics owe no less to him than geometry, of the latter science he may be truly considered the inventor. Of the many practical applications which the fertile and creative genius of Archimedes enabled him to make of his deep mechanical knowledge, several have been handed down to us in the relations of his biographers. His last days were devoted to the exercise of his vast knowledge and deep skill in the defence of his native city against the attacks of its Roman besiegers, when, by a series of wonderful mechanical inventions, he assisted in retarding the period of its fall. The day, however, on which the besieging army achieved its successful assault on Syracuse proved fatal also to its illustrious citizen, as he perished by the brutal hands of a common soldier, to the deep regret of the Roman general even.

We have now given some of the great names which Sicily and Magna Grecia produced in the

* Among the works which treat of Archimedes that by the celebrated Count G. Marruchelli is, in particular, worthy of perusal. Life of Archimedes Brescia, 1737— Barbacovi.

LITERARY HISTORY.

philosophic and mathematical sciences, and shall now speak of those eminent in political science. In legislation, also, it may be affirmed that Italy preceded the other nations, as the Locrians in Magna Grecia were the first people in Europe who possessed written laws ; and their citizen, the celebrated Zaleucus, was their earliest legislator. Zaleucus a appeared prior to Solon or Lycurgus ; and from what w r e read in the pages of Diodorus Siculus, his excellence as a legislator cannot be disputed. He commenced by exacting from his fellow-citizens that above every other thing they should have a firm belief in the existence of the gods, and that by directing their regards and thoughts to the heavens, and considering their wonderful structure and disposition, they should be enabled to discover the impossibility of these having been the result of fortuitous arrangement or human foresight, deducing thence the respect and honor due to the deities from whom every benefit and felicity were derived. He insisted also on the necessity of purifying the mind from every vice, as it was not so much by sacrifice or offering as by the honest and upright walk of life that Heaven was to be propitiated. Among the most famous in the list of these ancient legislators appears Charondas h of Catania, in Sicily, or,

a Zaleucus legislated from 800 to 700 b.c. *> Charondas legislated from 700 to 600 b.c.

POETRY.

according to other authorities, of Thurium in Magna Grecia. He was selected by the people of the latter place to draw up a code of laws for that city, and its excellence may be inferred from the fact of its adoption by some of the neighbouring states, both in Sicily and Magna Grecia. One of the most remarkable provisions in the regulations of Charondas was that by which all the sons of citizens were required to study the Belles Lettres or polite literature, and that for this purpose the state should maintain public teachers at due salaries, affording thus the earliest example which history presents of schools of instruction for public benefit supported by the state.

Many other legislators, also, florished in these provinces of Italy, whose names, however, and those of the people for whom they legislated, have alone descended to us.

If such were the excellence to which Italy had attained at the remotest times in the severer sciences, she claimed a not less honourable distinction in ornamental literature. It was in Sicily, it is known, that pastoral poetry took its rise ; and Stesichorus,* a native of Imera, in that island is alleged to have been its earliest cultivator. Stesichorus is likewise eminent as a lyric poet ; and his countrymen testified their esteem for his talents by the erection of a

a Stesichorus florished (about) 600 b.c.

statue to his honor in their city, as Cicero relates,* while the people of Catania, where he died, raised a mausoleum to his memory. It may be considered a better proof of the excellence of Stesichorus as a poet that Cicero eulogises him ; and Dionysius Halicarnasseus hesitates not to place him in a rank equal with, if not higher than Pindar or Simonides. Besides taking its rise in Sicily, pastoral poetry was there also brought to that highest grade of excellence to which it ever could ascend. Syracuse produced both Theocritus a and Moschus, the former of whom was taken by Virgil as a model in this branch of poetry. - )* Posterior to Theocritus we find Moschus equally celebrated, and by many, indeed, preferred to him. The poetry of the theatre also florished in Sicily ; and Epicharmus,*> whose name has been already given, and whom Plato places first among comedians, may not only be considered the inventor of comedy, but the writer also whose productions tended principally to perfect it, as the words in the epigram of Theocritus testify, —

* Lib. ii. in Ver. Num. 35.

•f A very elegant translation, in Latin verse, of some of the Idylls of Theocritus has been given to Italy by the celebrated Raymond Cunich Barbacovi.

a Theocritus florished (about) 250 b.c. i> Epicharmus florished (about) 450 b.c.

ELOQUENCE.

But Eloquence, or the oratorical art, owed to Sicily, perhaps in a greater degree than Poetry even, its origin and the subsequent splendor it attained. Aristotle and Cicero join their testimonies here, attributing the merits to Corax of Syracuse and his pupil Tisias. But the highest rank in oratory was reached by Lysias a of Syracuse and Gorgias of Leontium ; the former of whom is called by Cicero* a most eloquent and elegant writer, while Dionysius Halicarnasseus asserts, that he eclipsed the fame of all preceding orators. We still possess a part of his Orations, though the greater number have perished. *f* Gorgias b attained, however, an equal if not higher reputation than Lysias. He long held a school of rhetoric at Athens, where, according to the statement of his countryman, Diodorus, he so far surpassed the other rhetoricians of his time in the subtility of his reasonings, the depth of his study, and the greatness of his eloquence, as to receive the highest price then ever known to have been given

* De Orat. lib. 3. nom. 7,

-j- With regard to Lysias, the life which J. Taylor, after Plutarch, has written of him, and prefixed to his edition of the Orations or that orator, published at London 1739, particularly merits being read Barbacovi.

a Lysias florished (about) 400 B.C. b Gorgias florished (about) 450 b.c.

for instruction in the art.* This celebrated sophist attracted the attention and received the support not only of the more youthful students of rhetoric, but that also of some of the most eminent men of the age, such as Thucidides and Pericles, both already advanced in years ; and Dionysius speaks of him as "a great and wonderful orator. " The people of Leontium, grateful for the honor which the talents of Gorgias had conferred on his native city, struck a medal to his name ;*f* but a more splendid monument of his fame was the statue of gold decreed him during his lifetime in the temple of the Delphian Apollo. f It is certainly a proud boast to Italy, that the two orators just spoken of were the first to teach to Greece the art of eloquence, and that it was upon their precepts and examples that a Socrates, a Demosthenes, and so many of the other great orators who followed, were formed.

Of the many historical writers that ancient Sicily

* One hundred mine ; as one mina appears to have been equal to £3, 4s, 7d, the sum mentioned, therefore, may be calculated at £323, sterling, — Translator.

-f- This medal has been published in the second volume of the " British Museum," — Barbacovi.

$ Pausanias, contrary to the authority of Cicero and every other author, asserts that this statue was only gilt. The words of Cicero, relative to Gorgias, however, are " tantus honos habitus est a Gnecia, soli ut ex omnibus Delphis non inaurata statua, sed aurea statueretur.'' — Lib. 3. De Orat. No. 154 Barbacovi.

FINE ARTS. 11

produced, we find an ample list in the pages of Diodorus, but, with the exception alone of fifteen of the forty books of history by that author, written in a style elegant and refined, and at the same time simple and clear, their works have unfortunately been lost to us.

We may judge, then, from what has been hitherto said, of the highly florishing condition of the sciences and letters which distinguished ancient Sicily and that part of Italy named Magna Grecia, but we have yet to speak of the excellence attained there in the fine arts. The magnificent architectural works erected at an early period in Sicily, and amply described by Diodorus, have ever been famous ; while pre-eminent amid these, in unequalled grandeur of proportion and magnificence of form, stood at Agrigentum the temple of the Olympian Jupiter. Similar in character and beauty to those of Sicily, many public buildings were found in Southern Italy, as the splendid ruins of the three temples of Pestum or Possidonia, and some of the fabrics now laid open in the disentombed cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum yet attest. As to sculpture, we find from Pausanias that many eminent artists florished both in Sicily and Magna Grecia, and he notices them at length. In painting, though fewer remains necessarily reach us than of objects in the sister arts, yet we have sufficient to prove, from the researches of

Tiraboschi,* the high degree of excellence it had reached. This happy progress in the arts, sciences, and Belles Lettres, owed its origin to the character itself and lively genius of the people of the countries whose literary history we have just sketched, and not to the patronage or munificence of any sovereign whatever ; since Southern Italy was alwaj s divided into many small and separate republics, and Sicily long possessed a republican form of government ; but to animate and carry forward the arts and sciences to that high perfection asserted of them, the applauses and honors conferred by the several states on their more illustrious citizens, together with the monuments erected to perpetuate their names, were found sufficiently powerful.

From the literature of ancient Sicily and Magna Grecia, we shall now proceed to that of ancient Rome and the other provinces of Italy.

* Stoiiadella. Lett. Ital. lib. 1. c. 2.

Section II

THE LITERATURE OF ANCIENT ROME FROM THE SIXTH CEN- TURY SUBSEQUENT TO ITS FOUNDATION, TO THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTH.

The first five centuries which followed the foundation of Rome, found the Roman people too exclusively occupied in wars of aggression or defence against the neighbouring states, to permit it to aspire to anything beyond conquest and military glory. Toward the close of the fifth century from that period, however, the conquest effected of Magna Grecia and Sicily, opened to the Romans sources of acquaintance with letters, such as they had never previously possessed; the constant and increasing intercourse with the conquered people ; the popularity that the poetry of the latter acquired among them ; the pleasure they found in frequenting their theatres ; the honors they saw conferred upon their poets, ought necessarily to have excited in the Roman mind a taste for literature hitherto unfelt ; the establishment of the theatre, and taste for poetry, must be dated from that period, while the introduction of dramatic poetry commenced with Livius Andronicus, Nevius, and Ennius, a whose compositions were however but the comparatively rude and unadorned efforts of the early muse, unworthy of the study of succeeding authors ; Ennius was indeed honored by the patronage and friendship of the elder Scipio, one of the most celebrated captains, as well as accomplished scholars, of the age, who retained him at his side even in the midst of his campaigns; and distinguished by the noble title of the " Father of Latin Song," and of the epic poem in particular ; but from the fragments that have descended to us, his writings must be characterised as partaking largely of the rudeness of the period. His literary character has been happily described by Ovid, in the line —

For us Roman literature properly commences with Plautus and Terentius, from their works alone having descended to our times, and the influence they possessed on the actual state of letters. Plautus, 15 born at Sarsina in Umbria, composed many comedies, of which twenty have been preserved ; but the opinions of both ancient and modern authors on their merits have been various and contradictory. Cicero extols the wit, humor, and elegance of

a Ennius florished from 515 to 585 a.r. b Plautus florished (about) 550 a.r.

POETRY. k)

Plautus ; * Horace, on the contrary, condemns him.-f* Tiraboschi ingeniously reconciles these contending opinions, by advancing that Plautus has certainly a style at once graceful, natural, and facetious, and is to be considered as a vivid and lively painter of the manners of his country, but too frequently disfigured by an intermixture of coarseness, sinking occasionally even into obscenity.

Several other writers of comedy are mentioned by Cicero,| and Quintilian,§ as florishing in the sixth century of Rome, but of these the works of Terence* alone are yet extant. This celebrated writer, a Carthaginian by birth, acquired the Latin language and style by a residence in Rome, and composed there six comedies, which were represented with the highest success on the Roman stage 5 from the year 587 of Rome to 593. Modern critics vary also in their judgments on the merits of Terence ; but the opinions of Cicero and Caesar may

* De Offic. lib. i. num. 29.

•j* In his Art of Poetry —

J De Clar. Orat. num. 45.

■ Terence fiorished (about) 590 a.r.

be preferred. Both extol highly the purity of his Latin, the sweetness of his style, and close approximation to many of the beauties of the Greek poet Menander. Caesar, indeed, slightly qualifies his encomium by desiring in our author a greater strength of sentiment. Thus the Latin language and its poetry advanced mutually to perfection in the sixth, and commencement of the seventh ages of Rome. It must be confessed, however, that the Romans had not yet nearly reached the poetic excellence of the Greeks. If poetry had now taken root among the former, and its students found their labors appreciated and rewarded, the art was not held in honor sufficient to induce Roman talent to devote itself exclusively to its study, and one of the causes of this may be traced in the idea entertained by the Romans of that day, that it was more properly a mere mental recreation that a conquered people might well present unto their conquerors. But the period now .approached in which it was to be held in greater honor, and consequently brought nearer its perfection ; we shall, however, proceed at present to examine the state in which philosophy, and the other sciences and letters were found in Rome at that age.

The study of philosophy may be said to have been introduced into Rome by the arrival there of many of the learned men of Greece in 586, a. r.

After the defeat and capture of Perseus, King of Macedonia, who accompanied in chains the triumphal car of his conqueror, Paulus Emilius, into Rome, the Roman senate ordered the transportation thither of many of those Greeks, who, though subject to their empire, had favored the cause of the Macedonian monarch, in the view of their trial and probable condemnation. Not a few of those were persons distinguished for their learning, and foremost among them were the celebrated historian Polybius, and the philosopher Panaetius. Of these, Polybius principally contributed to excite a spirit for the study of the sciences and letters ; it was from intercourse with him that the younger Scipio (Africanus) acquired those tastes which afterwards rendered him as illustrious in literary as in military reputation. Cicero assures us that Scipio made the works of Xenophon his continual study, and that, besides that of Polybius, he enjoyed the friendship of several of the most eminent of his countrymen then in Rome. Equal praise is due Caius Lelius, the faithful friend and companion of Scipio, who likewise sought the friendship of the Greek philosophers, and similarly also applied himself with ardor to the study of letters. Many other noble Romans followed these examples, and assisted to destroy the previous impression, that it was from military talent alone that fame or immortality could be acquired.

Another event occurred six years after the arrival of the Greek philosophers in Rome, which further tended materially to promote the study of the sciences. The Athenians, on account of an attack made by them on the city of Oropus, in Boeotia, had been condemned by the Roman senate to pay a fine of 500 talents. To obtain a diminution of so heavy an impost, an embassy composed of three of the most celebrated philosophers and orators of Greece, Carneades, Diogenes, and Critolaus, was dispatched by the Athenians to Rome in 598. a. r. Having exposed the object of their mission to the Senate, the philosophers finding themselves obliged to await the determination of that body, employed their leisure in the display of their eloquence and knowledge in public disputations on various arguments. Carneades here distinguished himself particularly ; of him Cicero asserts, that possessing an incredible force in reasoning, there was nothing that he ever undertook to sustain in his harangues of which he did not persuade, nor anything to combat which he did not overthrow. An eloquence then previously unheard in Rome, necessarily called forth universal admiration and applause, while it caused the general attention to be directed to this philosopher and his associates ; the Roman youth eagerly crowded to listen to a grace of oratory and force of persuasion that delighted it, whilst the philosopher insinuating himself with admirable art into the minds of his hearers, succeeded in raising a passion for the sciences sufficiently strong to cause the abandonment of all other pleasures or pursuits for the study of philosophy.

The crowded concourse, attracted from every part to the disputations of these rhetoricians, and the applause bestowed upon them, excited, however, the severe displeasure of Cato the censor. He dreaded, as Plutarch says, the influence such studies would have in causing a preference of science to arms in the Roman youth. Strongly advocating in the Senate, then, the immediate arrangement of the matter which had brought the Athenian ambassadors to Rome, he pointed out at the same time the dangers he anticipated from their residence there. To facilitate their departure, the fine imposed was reduced to 100 talents only, and they returned to Athens highly gratified by the success of their mission. The taste for philosophy and literature, however, awakened by these philosophers, departed not with them ; Panaetius and Polybius, too, remained in Rome, besides probably several others of their learned countrymen. The sect of the Stoics, to which Panaetius belonged, had a larger number of followers than any of the others into which the schools of Rome were divided ; but to whatever sect it might be that the Roman philosophers attached themselves, their studies were more peculiarly directed to moral and political than to natural and physical questions, as the former were judged more useful not only for the determination of the private duties of the citizen, but for guidance in the civil and political government of the state.

Cicero, in his work, De Claris Oratoribus, has given us the history of the happy progress of oratory in Rome. He bestows the highest praise in his strictures on this art, on Cato the censor, — "who," says he, "more powerful than he in conferring praise ? who more ingenious in ideas ? more subtile in the argument as in the exposition of a cause ?"* His orations, 150 of which he asserts having studied, are described as abounding in magnificent expressions, displaying in fact all the excellencies proper to an orator. Sergius Galba and the two illustrious friends, Scipio and Lelius, receive equally the highest encomiums. In the long and varied list of names commented on by Cicero, we find that of M. Emilius Lepidus extolled as adding new features of grace and ornament to Latin eloquence, rendering it more harmonious by the imita-

* Declar. Orat. No. 17.

tion of Grecian models. Eloquence we find thus D actually advancing to its perfection, materially assisted in its progress by the advantages it was found to secure those public men who sought to obtain the highest offices of the Republic. The decisions of the state on all the most important questions of peace or war, legislation or civil and criminal procedure, depended in great part on the talents and eloquence of the orators.

In historical writing, the praise or notice due the Roman authors of that period is but slight. The study of eloquence we have spoken of, was not brought to the service of this branch of literature, but adopted solely for the purposes of the Senate and the Forum. Cicero, however, gives us the names of many writers who have treated of history, but excepts that of Cato a alone from the tone of general condemnation. Cato, directing his admirable genius to this study also, composed seven books of history, entitled De Originibiis, on which Cicero passes a high encomium, applying to them the terms " eloquent" aud " beautiful." Of Cato we may add, that he wrote on several subjects previously untouched by Roman writers, such as on agriculture, in his work De Re Rustica ; on military discipline and the rhetorical art, together with some commen-

- Cato born 520 a.r.

LITERARY HISTORY.

taries on jurisprudence, which have shared the fate of the greater part of his other works. " M. Portius Cato," says T. Livy* in his glowing eulogium on that writer, " surpassed by a great way all the most illustrious both of Patricians and Plebeians. Some reach the highest honors by the study of the laws, some by eloquence, and others by military reputation, but the genius of Cato was so adapted to every art, as to seem born only for that to which at the moment it devoted itself. Valiant in the field of battle, and celebrated for many important victories, he was at once a great general, a most able lawyer, and most eloquent orator." The progress of the other sciences would naturally introduce the study of jurisprudence. Among the first jurisconsults of this age, we find again the name of the great Cato just spoken of; that of M. Junius Brutus, and that of Q. Mutius Scoevola ; the one of whom composed seven, and the other ten books on Jurisprudence, none of which are however now extant. But we shall now turn to a yet more luminous epoch in the literary history of Rome — the seventh and eighth centuries.