Although lines from Virgil, who may almost be said to have created Roman Imperialism, have been found scribbled on the walls of Pompeii, it is probable that in his day no popular poetry, in the sense in which we should understand the word, existed.  But there is something extremely pathetic—­more especially in the days when the Empire was hastening to its ruin—­in the feeling, little short of adoration, which the Latin poets showed to the city of Rome, and in the overweening confidence which they evinced in the stability of Roman rule.  This feeling runs through the whole of Latin literature from the days of Ovid and Virgil to the fifth-century Rutilius, who was the last of the classic poets.  Virgil speaks of Rome as “the mistress of the world” (maxima rerum Roma).  Claudian deified Rome, “O numen amicum et legum genetrix,” and Rutilius wrote: 

    Exaudi, regina tui pulcherrima mundi,
      Inter sidereos Roma recepta polos,
    Exaudi, genetrix hominum, genetrixque deorum,
      Non procul a caelo per tua templa sumus.

Modern Italians have made ample amends for any lack of purely popular poetry which may have prevailed in the days of their ancestors.  It would, indeed, have been strange if the enthusiasm for liberty which arose in the ranks of a highly gifted and emotional nation such as the Italians had not found expression in song.  When the proper time came, Giusti, Carducci, Mameli, Gordigiani, and scores of others voiced the patriotic sentiments of their countrymen.  They all dwelt on the theme embodied in the stirring Garibaldian hymn: 

    Va fuori d’Italia! 
    Va fuori, o stranier!

It will suffice to quote, as an example of the rest, one stanza from an “Inno di Guerra” chosen at random from a collection of popular poetry published at Turin in 1863: 

Coraggio ...  All’ armi, all’ armi,
O fanti e cavalieri,
Snudiamo ardenti e fieri,
Snudiam l’invitto acciar! 
Dall’ Umbria mesto e oppresso
Ci chiama il pio fratello,
Rispondasi all’ appello,
Corriamo a guerreggiar!

The cramping isolation of the city-states of ancient Greece arrested the growth of Hellenic nationalism, and therefore precluded the birth of any genuinely nationalist poetry.  But it only required the occasion to arise in order to give birth to patriotic song.  Such an occasion was furnished when, under the pressing danger of Asiatic invasion, some degree of Hellenic unity and cohesion was temporarily achieved.  Then the tuneful Simonides recorded the raising of an altar to “Zeus, the free man’s god, a fair token of freedom for Hellas.”