Corn, wine, and oil, were
plentifully
distributed,
and the popularity, acquired by those means, was, perhaps, the ruin of
the commonwealth.
and the popularity, acquired by those means, was, perhaps, the ruin of
the commonwealth.
Tacitus
In less than ten years
afterwards, violent dissensions broke out between the patrician order
and the common people, who complained that they were harassed and
oppressed by their affluent creditors. One Sicinius was their
factious demagogue. He told them, that it was in vain they fought the
battles of their country, since they were no better than slaves and
prisoners at Rome. He added, that men are born equal; that the fruits
of the earth were the common birth-right of all, and an agrarian law
was necessary; that they groaned under a load of debts and taxes; and
that a lazy and corrupt aristocracy battened at ease on the spoils of
their labour and industry. By the advice of this incendiary, the
discontented citizens made a secession to the MONS SACER, about three
miles out of the city. The fathers, in the meantime, were covered with
consternation. In order, however, to appease the fury of the
multitude, they dispatched Menenius Agrippa to their camp. In the rude
unpolished style of the times (_prisco illo dicendi et horrido modo_,
says Livy), that orator told them:
"At the time when the powers of man did not, as at present,
co-operate to one useful end, and the members of the human
body had their separate interest, their factions, and
cabals; it was agreed among them, that the belly maintained
itself by their toil and labour, enjoying, in the middle of
all, a state of calm repose, pampered with luxuries, and
gratified with every kind of pleasure. A conspiracy
followed, and the several members of the body took the
covenant. The hand would no longer administer food; the
mouth would not accept it, and the drudgery of mastication
was too much for the teeth. They continued in this
resolution, determined to starve the TREASURY of the body,
till they began to feel the consequences of their
ill-advised revolt. The several members lost their former
vigour, and the whole body was falling into a rapid decline.
It was then seen that the belly was formed for the good of
the whole; that it was by no means lazy, idle, and inactive;
but, while it was properly supported, took care to
distribute nourishment to every part, and having digested
the supplies, filled the veins with pure and wholesome
blood. "
The analogy, which this fable bore to the sedition of the Roman
people, was understood and felt. The discontented multitude saw that
the state of man described by Menenius, was _like to an
insurrection_. They returned to Rome, and submitted to legal
government. _Tempore, quo in homine non, ut nunc, omnia in unum
consentiebant, sed singulis membris suum cuique consilium, sum sermo
fuerat, indignatas reliquas partes, suâ curâ, suo labore, ac
ministerio, ventri omnia quæri; ventrem in medio quietum, nihil aliud,
quam datis voluptatibus frui; conspirasse inde, ne manus ad os cibum
ferrent, nec os acciperit datum, nec dentes conficerent. Hac irâ dum
ventrem fame domare vellent, ipsa unâ membra, totumque corpus ad
extremam tabem venisse. Inde apparuisse, ventris quoque haud segne
ministerium esse; nec magis ali quam alere eum; reddentem in omnes
corporis partes hunc, quo vivimus vigemusque, divisum, pariter in
venas, maturum confecto cibo sanguinem. _ Livy, lib. ii. s. 32. St.
Paul has made use of a similar argument;
"The body is not one member, but many: if the foot shall
say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it,
therefore, not of the body? and if the ear shall say,
Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it,
therefore, not of the body? If the whole body were an eye,
where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where
were the smelling? But now hath God set the members everyone
of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they
were all one member, where were the body? But now are they
many members, yet but one body: and the eye cannot say unto
the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again, the head to the
feet, I have no need of you. And whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured,
all the members rejoice with it. "
_First Epistle to the Corinthians_, chap. xii.
This reasoning of St. Paul merits the attention of those friends of
innovation, who are not content with the station in which God has
placed them, and, therefore, object to all subordination, all ranks in
society.
[b] Cæsar the dictator was, as the poet expresses it, graced with both
Minervas. Quintilian is of opinion, that if he had devoted his whole
time to the profession of eloquence, he would have been the great
rival of Cicero. The energy of his language, his strength of
conception, and his power over the passions, were so striking, that he
may be said to have harangued with the same spirit that he fought.
_Caius vero Cæsar si foro tantum vacasset, non alius ex nostris contra
Ciceronem nominaretur. Tanta in eo vis est, id acumen, ea concitatio,
ut illum eodem animo dixisse, quo bellavit, appareat. _ Lib. x. cap. 1.
To speak of Cicero in this place, were to hold a candle to the sun. It
will be sufficient to refer to Quintilian, who in the chapter above
cited has drawn a beautiful parallel between him and Demosthenes. The
Roman orator, he admits, improved himself by a diligent study of the
best models of Greece. He attained the warmth and the sublime of
Demosthenes, the harmony of Plato, and the sweet flexibility of
Isocrates. His own native genius supplied the rest. He was not
content, as Pindar expresses it, to collect the drops that rained down
from heaven, but had in himself the living fountain of that copious
flow, and that sublime, that pathetic energy, which were bestowed upon
him by the bounty of Providence, that in one man eloquence might exert
all her powers. _Nam mihi videtur Marcus Tullius, cum se totum ad
imitationem Græcorum contulisset, effinxisse vim Demosthenis, copiam
Platonis, jucunditatem Isocratis. Nec vero quod in quoque optimum fuit
studio consecutus est tantum, sed plurimas vel potius omnes ex se ipso
virtutes extulit immortalis ingenii beatissimâ ubertate. Non enim
pluvias (ut ait Pindarus) aquas colligit sed vivo gurgite exundat,
dono quodam providentiæ genitus, in quo vires suas eloquentia
experiretur. _ Lib. x. cap. 1.
[c] Marcus Cælius Rufus, in the judgement of Quintilian, was an orator
of considerable genius. In the conduct of a prosecution, he was
remarkable for a certain urbanity, that gave a secret charm to his
whole speech. It is to be regretted that he was not a man of better
conduct and longer life. _Multum ingenii in Cælio, et præcipuè in
accusando multa urbanitas; dignusque vir, cui et mens melior, et vita
longior contigisset. _ Quint, lib. x. cap. 1. His letters to Cicero
make the eighth book of the _Epistolæ ad Familiares_. Velleius
Paterculus says of him, that his style of eloquence and his cast of
mind bore a resemblance to Curio, but raised him above that factious
orator. His genius for mischief and evil deeds was not inferior to
Curio, and his motives were strong and urgent, since his fortune was
worse than even his frame of mind. _Marcus Cælius, vir eloquio animoque
Curioni simillimus, sed in utroque perfectior; nec minus ingeniosè
nequam, cum ne in modicâ quidem servari posset, quippe pejor illi res
familiaris, quam mens. _ Vell. Patere. lib. ii. s. 68.
Licinius Macer Calvus, we are told by Seneca, maintained a long but
unjust contention with Cicero himself for the palm of eloquence. He
was a warm and vehement accuser, insomuch that Vatinius, though
defended by Cicero, interrupted Calvus in the middle of his speech,
and said to the judges, "Though this man has a torrent of words, does
it follow that I must be condemned? " _Calvus diu cum Cicerone
iniquissimam litem de principatu eloquentiæ habuit; et usque eò
violentus accusator et concitatus fuit, ut in media actione ejus
surgeret Vatinius reus, et exclamaret, Rogo vos, judices, si iste
disertus est, ideo me damnari oportet? _ Seneca, _Controv. _ lib. iii.
cap. 19. Cicero could not dread him as a rival, and it may therefore
be presumed, that he has drawn his character with an impartial hand.
Calvus was an orator more improved by literature than Curio. He spoke
with accuracy, and in his composition shewed great taste and delicacy;
but, labouring to refine his language, he was too attentive to little
niceties. He wished to make no bad blood, and he lost the good. His
style was polished with timid caution; but while it pleased the ear of
the learned, the spirit evaporated, and of course made no impression
in the forum, which is the theatre of eloquence. _Ad Calvum
revertamur; qui orator fuisset cum literis eruditior quam Curio, tum
etiam accuratius quoddam dicendi, et exquisitius afferebat genus; quod
quamquam scienter eleganterque tractabat, nimium tamen inquirens in
se, atque ipse sese observans, metuensque ne vitiosum colligeret,
etiam verum sanguinem deperdebat. Itaque ejus oratio nimiâ religione
attenuata, doctis et attentè audientibus erat illustris, a multitudine
autem, et a foro, cui nata eloquentia est, devorabatur. _ _De Claris
Orat. _ s. 288. Quintilian says, there were, who preferred him to all
the orators of his time. Others were of opinion that, by being too
severe a critic on himself, he polished too much, and grew weak by
refinement. But his manner was grave and solid; his style was chaste,
and often animated. To be thought a man of attic eloquence was the
height of his ambition. If he had lived to see his error, and to give
to his eloquence a true and perfect form, not by retrenching (for
there was nothing to be taken away), but by adding certain qualities
that were wanted, he would have reached the summit of his art. By a
premature death his fame was nipped in the bud. _Inveni qui Calvum
præferrent omnibus; inveni qui contrà crederent eum, nimiâ contra se
calumniâ, verum sanguinem perdidisse. Sed est et sancta et gravis
oratio, et castigata, et frequenter vehemens quoque. Imitator est
autem Atticorum; fecitque illi properata mors injuriam, si quid
adjecturus, non si quid detracturus fuit. _ Quintil. lib. x. cap. 1.
[d] This was the famous Marcus Junius Brutus, who stood forth in the
cause of liberty, and delivered his country from the usurpation of
Julius Cæsar. Cicero describes him in that great tragic scene,
brandishing his bloody dagger, and calling on Cicero by name, to tell
him that his country was free. _Cæsare interfecto, statim cruentum
altè extollens Marcus Brutus pugionem, Ciceronem nominatim exclamavit,
atque ei recuperatam libertatem est gratulatus. _ Philippic, ii. s. 28.
The late Doctor Akenside has retouched this passage with all the
colours of a sublime imagination.
Look then abroad through nature, through the range
Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres,
Wheeling unshaken through the void immense,
And speak, O man! does this capacious scene
With half that kindling majesty dilate
Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose
Refulgent from the stroke of Cæsar's fate,
Amid the crowd of patriots, and his arm
Aloft extending, like eternal Jove
When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud
On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel,
And bade the Father of his Country hail!
For, lo! the tyrant prostrate in the dust,
And Rome again is free.
PLEASURES OF IMAG. b. i. ver. 487.
According to Quintilian, Brutus was fitter for philosophical
speculations, and books of moral theory, than for the career of public
oratory. In the former he was equal to the weight and dignity of his
subject: you clearly saw that he believed what he said. _Egregius vero
multoque quam in orationibus præstantior Brutus, suffecit ponderi
rerum; scias eum sentire quæ dicit. _ Quintil. lib. x. cap. 1.
For Asinius Pollio and Messala, see section xii. note [e].
[e] Hirtius and Pansa were consuls A. U. C. 711; before the Christian
æra 43. In this year, the famous _triple league_, called the
TRIUMVIRATE, was formed between Augustus, Lepidus, and Antony. The
_proscription_, or the list of those who were doomed to die for the
crime of adhering to the cause of liberty, was also settled, and
Cicero was one of the number. A band of assassins went in quest of him
to his villa, called _Astura_, near the sea-shore. Their leader was
one Popilius Lænas, a military tribune, whom Cicero had formerly
defended with success in a capital cause. They overtook Cicero in his
litter. He commanded his servants to set him down, and make no
resistance; then looking upon his executioners with a presence and
firmness which almost daunted them, and thrusting his neck as forward
as he could out of the litter, he bade them _do their work, and take
what they wanted_. The murderers cut off his head, and both his hands.
Popilius undertook to convey them to Rome, as the most agreeable
present to Antony; without reflecting on the _infamy of carrying that
head, which had saved his own_. He found Antony in the forum, and upon
shewing the spoils which he brought, was rewarded on the spot with the
_honour of a crown, and about eight thousand pounds sterling_. Antony
ordered the head to be _fixed upon the rostra, between the two
hands_; a sad spectacle to the people, who beheld those mangled
members, which used to exert themselves, from that place, in defence
of the lives, the fortunes, and the liberties of Rome. Cicero was
killed on the seventh of December, about ten days from the settlement
of the triumvirate, after he had lived _sixty-three years, eleven
months, and five days_. See Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, 4to edit.
vol. ii. p. 495 to 498. Velleius Paterculus, after mentioning Cicero's
death, breaks out in a strain of indignation, that almost redeems the
character of that time-serving writer. He says to Antony, in a
spirited apostrophe, you have no reason to exult: you have gained no
point by paying the assassin, who stopped that eloquent mouth, and cut
off that illustrious head. You have paid the wages of murder, and you
have destroyed a consul who was the conservator of the commonwealth.
By that act you delivered Cicero from a distracted world, from the
infirmities of old age, and from a life which, under your usurpation,
would have been worse than death. His fame was not to be crushed: the
glory of his actions and his eloquence still remains, and you have
raised it higher than ever. He lives, and will continue to live in
every age and nation. Posterity will admire and venerate the torrent
of eloquence, which he poured out against yourself, and will for ever
execrate the horrible murder which you committed. _Nihil tamen egisti,
Marce Antoni (cogit enim excedere propositi formam operis erumpens
animo ac pectore indignatio): nihil, inquam, egisti; mercedem
cælestissimi oris, et clarissimi capitis abscissi numerando;
auctoramentoque funebri ad conservatoris quondam reipublicæ tantique
consulis irritando necem. Rapuisti tu Marco Ciceroni lucem sollicitam
et ætatem senilem, et vitam miseriorem te principe, quam sub te
triumviro mortem. Famam vero, gloriamque factorum atque dictorum adeo
non abstulisti, ut auxeris. Vivit, vivetque per omnium sæculorum
memoriam; omnisque posteritas illius in te scripta mirabitur, tuum in
eum factum execrabitur. _ Vell. Paterc. lib. ii. s. 66.
[f] Between the consulship of Augustus, which began immediately after
the destruction of Hirtius and Pansa, A. U. C. 711, and the death of
that emperor, which was A. U. 767, fifty-six years intervened, and to
the sixth of Vespasian (A. U. C. 828), about 118 years. For the sake of
a round number, it is called in the Dialogue a space of 120 years.
[g] Julius Cæsar landed in Britain in the years of Rome 699 and 700.
See _Life of Agricola_, s. 13. note a. It does not appear when Aper
was in Britain; it could not be till the year of Rome 796, when Aulus
Plautius, by order of the emperor Claudius, undertook the conquest of
the island. See _Life of Agricola_, s. 14. note a. At that time, the
Briton who fought against Cæsar, must have been far advanced in years.
[h] A largess was given to the people, in the fourth year of
Vespasian, when Domitian entered on his second consulship. This,
Brotier says, appears on a medal, with this inscription: CONG. II.
COS. II. _Congiarium alterum, Domitiano consule secundùm. _ The custom
of giving large distributions to the people was for many ages
established at Rome. Brotier traces it from Ancus Martius, the fourth
king of Rome, when the poverty of the people called for relief. The
like bounty was distributed by the generals, who returned in triumph.
Lucullus and Julius Cæsar displayed, on those occasions, great pomp
and magnificence.
Corn, wine, and oil, were plentifully distributed,
and the popularity, acquired by those means, was, perhaps, the ruin of
the commonwealth. Cæsar lavished money. Augustus followed the example,
and Tiberius did the same; but prodigality was not his practice. His
politic genius taught him all the arts of governing. The bounties thus
distributed, were called, when given to the people, CONGIARIA, and, to
the soldiers, DONATIVA. Whoever desires to form an idea of the number
of Roman citizens who, at different times, received largesses, and the
prodigious expence attending them, may see an account drawn up with
diligent attention by Brotier, in an elaborate note on this passage.
He begins with Julius Cæsar; and pursues the enquiry through the
several successive emperors, fixing the date and expence at every
period, as low down as the consulship of Constantius and Galerius
Maximianus; when, the empire being divided into the eastern and
western, its former magnificence was, by consequence, much diminished.
[i] The person here called Corvinus was the same as Corvinus Messala,
who flourished in the reign of Augustus, at the same time with Asinius
Pollio. See s. xii. note [e].
Section XVIII.
[a] Servius Sulpicius Galba was consul A. U. C. 610, before the
Christian æra 144. Cicero says of him, that he was, in his day, an
orator of eminence. When he spoke in public, the natural energy of his
mind supported him, and the warmth of his imagination made him
vehement and pathetic; his language was animated, bold, and rapid; but
when he, afterwards, took his pen in hand to correct and polish, the
fit of enthusiasm was over; his passions ebbed away, and the
composition was cold and languid. _Galbam fortasse vis non ingenii
solum, sed etiam animi, et naturalis quidam dolor, dicentem
incendebat, efficiebatque, ut et incitata, et gravis, et vehemens
esset oratio; dein cum otiosus stilum prehenderat, motusque omnis
animi, tanquam ventus, hominem defecerat, flaccescebat oratio. Ardor
animi non semper adest, isque cum consedit, omnis illa vis, et quasi
flamma oratoris extinguitur. _ _De Claris Orat. _ s. 93. Suetonius says,
that the person here intended was of consular dignity, and, by his
eloquence, gave weight and lustre to his family. _Life of Galba_, s.
iii.
[b] Caius Papirius Carbo was consul A. U. C. 634. Cicero wishes that he
had proved himself as good a citizen, as he was an orator. Being
impeached for his turbulent and seditious conduct, he did not choose
to stand the event of a trial, but escaped the judgement of the
senate by a voluntary death. His life was spent in forensic causes.
Men of sense, who heard him have reported, that he was a fluent,
animated, and harmonious speaker; at times pathetic, always pleasing,
and abounding with wit. _Carbo, quoad vita suppeditavit, est in multis
judiciis causisque cognitus. Hunc qui audierant prudentes homines,
canorum oratorem, et volubilem, et satis acrem, atque eundem et
vehementem, et valde dulcem, et perfacetum fuisse dicebant. _ _De Claris
Orat. _ s. 105.
[c] Calvus and Cælius have been mentioned already. See s. xvii. note
[c].
[d] Caius Gracchus was tribune of the people A. U. C. 633. In that
character he took the popular side against the patricians; and,
pursuing the plan of the agrarian law laid down by his brother,
Tiberius Gracchus, he was able by his eloquence to keep the city of
Rome in violent agitation. Amidst the tumult, the senate, by a decree,
ordered the consul, Lucius Opimius, _to take care that the
commonwealth received no injury_; and, says Cicero, not a single night
intervened, before that magistrate put Gracchus to death. _Decrevit
senatus, ut Lucius Opimius, consul, videret, ne quid detrimenti
respublica caperet: nox nulla intercessit; interfectus est propter
quasdam seditionum suspiciones Caius Gracchus, clarissimo patre natus,
avis majoribus. Orat. i. in Catilinam. _ His reputation as an orator
towers above all his contemporaries. Cicero says, the commonwealth and
the interests of literature suffered greatly by his untimely end. He
wishes that the love of his country, and not zeal for the memory of
his brother, had inspired his actions. His eloquence was such as left
him without a rival: in his diction, what a noble splendour! in his
sentiments, what elevation! and in the whole of his manner, what
weight and dignity! His compositions, it is true, are not retouched
with care; they want the polish of the last hand; what is well begun,
is seldom highly finished; and yet he, if any one, deserves to be the
study of the Roman youth. In him they will find what can, at once,
quicken their genius, and enrich the understanding. _Damnum enim,
illius immaturo interitu, res Romanæ, Latinæque literæ fecerunt.
Utinam non tam fratri pietatem, quam patriæ præstare voluisset.
Eloquentia quidem nescio an habuisset parem: grandis est verbis,
sapiens sententiis, genere toto gravis. Manus extrema non accessit
operibus ejus; præclare inchoata multa, perfecta non plane. Legendus
est hic orator, si quisquam alius, juventuti; non enim solum acuere,
sed etiam alere ingenium potest. _ _De Claris Orat. _ s. 125, 126.
[e] This is the celebrated Marcus Portius Cato, commonly known by the
name of Cato the censor. He was quæstor under Scipio, who commanded
against the Carthaginians, A. U. C. 548. He rose through the regular
gradations of the magistracy to the consulship. When prætor, he
governed the province of Sardinia, and exerted himself in the reform
of all abuses introduced by his predecessors. From his own person, and
his manner of living, he banished every appearance of luxury. When he
had occasion to visit the towns that lay within his government, he
went on foot, clothed with the plainest attire, without a vehicle
following him, or more than one servant, who carried the robe of
office, and a vase, to make libations at the altar. He sat in
judgement with the dignity of a magistrate, and punished every offence
with inflexible rigour. He had the happy art of uniting in his own
person two things almost incompatible; namely, strict severity and
sweetness of manners. Under his administration, justice was at once
terrible and amiable. Plutarch relates that he never wore a dress that
cost more than thirty shillings; that his wine was no better than what
was consumed by his slaves; and that by leading a laborious life, he
meant to harden his constitution for the service of his country. He
never ceased to condemn the luxury of the times. On this subject a
remarkable apophthegm is recorded by Plutarch; _It is impossible_,
said Cato, _to save a city, in which a single fish sells for more
money than an ox. _ The account given of him by Cicero in the Cato
Major, excites our veneration of the man. He was master of every
liberal art, and every branch of science, known in that age. Some men
rose to eminence by their skill in jurisprudence; others by their
eloquence; and a great number by their military talents. Cato shone in
all alike. The patricians were often leagued against him, but his
virtue and his eloquence were a match for the proudest connections. He
was chosen CENSOR, in opposition to a number of powerful candidates,
A. U. C. 568. He was the adviser of the third Punic war. The question
occasioned several warm debates in the senate. Cato always insisted on
the demolition of Carthage: DELENDA EST CARTHAGO. He preferred an
accusation against Servius Sulpicius Galba on a charge of peculation
in Spain, A. U. C. 603; and, though he was then ninety years old,
according to Livy (Cicero says he lived to eighty-five), he conducted
the business with so much vigour, that Galba, in order to excite
compassion, produced his children before the senate, and by that
artifice escaped a sentence of condemnation. Quintilian gives the
following character of Cato the censor: His genius, like his learning,
was universal: historian, orator, lawyer, he cultivated the three
branches; and what he undertook, he touched with a master-hand. The
science of husbandry was also his. Great as his attainments were, they
were acquired in camps, amidst the din of arms; and in the city of
Rome, amidst scenes of contention, and the uproar of civil discord.
Though he lived in rude unpolished times, he applied himself, when far
advanced in the vale of years, to the study of Greek literature, and
thereby gave a signal proof that even in old age the willing mind may
be enriched with new stores of knowledge. _Marcus Censorius Cato, idem
orator, idem historiæ conditor, idem juris, idem rerum rusticarum
peritissimus fuit. Inter tot opera militiæ, tantas domi contentions,
ridi sæculo literas Græcas, ætate jam declinatâ didicit, ut esset
hominibus documento, ea quoque percipi posse, quæ senes concupissent. _
Lib. xii. cap. 11.
[f] Lucius Licinius Crassus is often mentioned, and always to his
advantage, by Cicero DE CLARIS ORATORIBUS. He was born, as appears in
that treatise (sect. 161), during the consulship of Lælius and Cæpio,
A. U. C. 614: he was contemporary with Antonius, the celebrated orator,
and father of Antony the triumvir. Crassus was about four and thirty
years older than Cicero. When Philippus the consul shewed himself
disposed to encroach on the privileges of the senate, and, in the
presence of that body, offered indignities to Licinius Crassus, the
orator, as Cicero informs us, broke out in a blaze of eloquence
against that violent outrage, concluding with that remarkable
sentence: He shall not be to me A CONSUL, to whom I am not A SENATOR.
_Non es mihi consul, quia nec ego tibi senator sum. _ See _Valerius
Maximus_, lib. xli. cap. 2. Cicero has given his oratorical character.
He possessed a wonderful dignity of language, could enliven his
discourse with wit and pleasantry, never descending to vulgar humour;
refined, and polished, without a tincture of scurrility. He preserved
the true Latin idiom; in his selection of words accurate, with
apparent facility; no stiffness, no affectation appeared; in his train
of reasoning always clear and methodical; and, when the cause hinged
upon a question of law, or the moral distinctions of good and evil, no
man possessed such a fund of argument, and happy illustration. _Crasso
nihil statuo fieri potuisse perfectius: erat summa gravitas; erat cum
gravitate junctus facetiarum et urbanitatis oratorius, non scurrilis,
lepos. Latinè loquendi accurata, et, sine molestiâ, diligens
elegantia; in disserendo mira explicatio; cum de jure civili, cum de
æquo et bono disputaretur, argumentorum et similitudinum copia. _ _De
Claris Orat. _ s. 143. In Cicero's books DE ORATORE, Licinius Crassus
supports a capital part in the dialogue; but in the opening of the
third book, we have a pathetic account of his death, written, as the
Italians say, _con amore_. Crassus returned from his villa, where the
dialogue passed, to take part in the debate against Philippus the
consul, who had declared to an assembly of the people, that he was
obliged to seek new counsellors, for with such a senate he could not
conduct the affairs of the commonwealth. The conduct of Crassus, upon
that occasion, has been mentioned already. The vehemence, with which
he exerted himself, threw him into a violent fever, and, on the
seventh day following, put a period to his life. Then, says Cicero,
that tuneful swan expired: we hoped once more to hear the melody of
his voice, and went, in that expectation, to the senate-house; but all
that remained was to gaze on the spot where that eloquent orator spoke
for the last time in the service of his country. _Illud immortalitate
dignum ingenium, illa humanitas, illa virtus Lucii Crassi morte
extincta subitâ est, vix diebus decem post eum diem, qui hoc et
superiore libra continetur. Illa tanquam cycnea fuit divini hominis
vox, et oratio, quam quasi expectantes, post ejus interitum veniebamus
in curiam, ut vestigium illud ipsum, in quo ille postremum
institisset, contueremur. _ _De Orat. _ lib, iii. s. 1. and 6. This
passage will naturally call to mind the death of the great earl of
Chatham. He went, in a feeble state of health, to attend a debate of
the first importance. Nothing could detain him from the service of his
country. The dying notes of the BRITISH SWAN were heard in the House
of Peers. He was conveyed to his own house, and on the eleventh of May
1778, he breathed his last. The news reached the House of Commons late
in the evening, when Colonel BARRE had the honour of being the first
to shed a patriot tear on that melancholy occasion. In a strain of
manly sorrow, and with that unprepared eloquence which the heart
inspires, he moved for a funeral at the public expence, and a monument
to the memory of virtue and departed genius. By performing that pious
office, Colonel BARRE may be said to have made his own name immortal.
History will record the transaction.
[g] Messala Corvinus is often, in this Dialogue, called Corvinus only.
See s. xii. note [e].
[h] Appius Claudius was censor in the year of Rome 442; dictator, 465;
and, having at a very advanced age lost his sight, he became better
known by the name of Appius Cæcus. Afterwards, A. U. 472, when Pyrrhus,
by his ambassador, offered terms of peace, and a treaty of alliance,
Appius, whom blindness, and the infirmities of age, had for some time
withheld from public business, desired to be conveyed in a litter to
the senate-house. Being conducted to his place, he delivered his
sentiments in so forcible a manner, that the fathers resolved to
prosecute the war, and never to hear of an accommodation, till Italy
was evacuated by Pyrrhus and his army. See Livy, b. xiii. s. 31.
Cicero relates the same fact in his CATO MAJOR, and further adds, that
the speech made by APPIUS CÆCUS was then extant. Ovid mentions the
temple of Bellona, built and dedicated by Appius, who, when blind, saw
every thing by the light of his understanding, and rejected all terms
of accommodation with Pyrrhus.
Hac sacrata die Tusco Bellona duello
Dicitur, et Latio prospera semper adest.
Appius est auctor, Pyrrho qui pace negatâ
Multum animo vidit, lumine cæcus erat.
FASTORUM lib vi. ver. 201.
[i] Quintilian acknowledges this fact, with his usual candour. The
question concerning Attic and Asiatic eloquence was of long standing.
The style of the former was close, pure, and elegant; the latter was
said to be diffuse and ostentatious. In the ATTIC, nothing was idle,
nothing redundant: the ASIATIC swelled above all bounds, affecting to
dazzle by strokes of wit, by affectation and superfluous ornament.
Cicero was said by his enemies to be an orator of the last school.
They did not scruple to pronounce him turgid, copious to a fault,
often redundant, and too fond of repetition. His wit, they said, was
the false glitter of vain conceit, frigid, and out of season; his
composition was cold and languid; wire-drawn into amplification, and
fuller of meretricious finery than became a man. _Et antiqua quidem
illa divisio inter Asianos et Atticos fuit; cum hi pressi, et integri,
contra, inflati illi et inanes haberentur; et in his nihil
superflueret, illis judicium maximè ac modus deesset. Ciceronem tamen
et suorum homines temporum incessere audebant ut tumidiorem, et
Asianum, et redundantem, et in repetitionibus nimium, et in salibus
aliquando frigidum, et in compositione fractum, exultantem, ac penè
(quod procul absit) viro molliorem. _ Quintil. lib. xii. cap. 10. The
same author adds, that, when the great orator was cut off by Marc
Antony's proscription, and could no longer answer for himself, the men
who either personally hated him, or envied his genius, or chose to pay
their court to the, triumvirate, poured forth their malignity without
reserve. It is unnecessary to observe, that Quintilian, in sundry
parts of his work, has vindicated Cicero from these aspersions. See s.
xvii. note [b].
[k] For Calvus, see s. xvii. note [c]. For Brutus, see the same
section, note [d]. What Cicero thought of Calvus has been already
quoted from the tract _De Claris Oratoribus_, in note [c], s. xvii. By
being too severe a critic on himself, he lost strength, while he aimed
at elegance. It is, therefore, properly said in this Dialogue, that
Cicero thought Calvus cold and enervated. But did he think Brutus
disjointed, loose and negligent--_otiosum atque disjunctum_? That he
often thought him disjointed is not improbable.
afterwards, violent dissensions broke out between the patrician order
and the common people, who complained that they were harassed and
oppressed by their affluent creditors. One Sicinius was their
factious demagogue. He told them, that it was in vain they fought the
battles of their country, since they were no better than slaves and
prisoners at Rome. He added, that men are born equal; that the fruits
of the earth were the common birth-right of all, and an agrarian law
was necessary; that they groaned under a load of debts and taxes; and
that a lazy and corrupt aristocracy battened at ease on the spoils of
their labour and industry. By the advice of this incendiary, the
discontented citizens made a secession to the MONS SACER, about three
miles out of the city. The fathers, in the meantime, were covered with
consternation. In order, however, to appease the fury of the
multitude, they dispatched Menenius Agrippa to their camp. In the rude
unpolished style of the times (_prisco illo dicendi et horrido modo_,
says Livy), that orator told them:
"At the time when the powers of man did not, as at present,
co-operate to one useful end, and the members of the human
body had their separate interest, their factions, and
cabals; it was agreed among them, that the belly maintained
itself by their toil and labour, enjoying, in the middle of
all, a state of calm repose, pampered with luxuries, and
gratified with every kind of pleasure. A conspiracy
followed, and the several members of the body took the
covenant. The hand would no longer administer food; the
mouth would not accept it, and the drudgery of mastication
was too much for the teeth. They continued in this
resolution, determined to starve the TREASURY of the body,
till they began to feel the consequences of their
ill-advised revolt. The several members lost their former
vigour, and the whole body was falling into a rapid decline.
It was then seen that the belly was formed for the good of
the whole; that it was by no means lazy, idle, and inactive;
but, while it was properly supported, took care to
distribute nourishment to every part, and having digested
the supplies, filled the veins with pure and wholesome
blood. "
The analogy, which this fable bore to the sedition of the Roman
people, was understood and felt. The discontented multitude saw that
the state of man described by Menenius, was _like to an
insurrection_. They returned to Rome, and submitted to legal
government. _Tempore, quo in homine non, ut nunc, omnia in unum
consentiebant, sed singulis membris suum cuique consilium, sum sermo
fuerat, indignatas reliquas partes, suâ curâ, suo labore, ac
ministerio, ventri omnia quæri; ventrem in medio quietum, nihil aliud,
quam datis voluptatibus frui; conspirasse inde, ne manus ad os cibum
ferrent, nec os acciperit datum, nec dentes conficerent. Hac irâ dum
ventrem fame domare vellent, ipsa unâ membra, totumque corpus ad
extremam tabem venisse. Inde apparuisse, ventris quoque haud segne
ministerium esse; nec magis ali quam alere eum; reddentem in omnes
corporis partes hunc, quo vivimus vigemusque, divisum, pariter in
venas, maturum confecto cibo sanguinem. _ Livy, lib. ii. s. 32. St.
Paul has made use of a similar argument;
"The body is not one member, but many: if the foot shall
say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it,
therefore, not of the body? and if the ear shall say,
Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it,
therefore, not of the body? If the whole body were an eye,
where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where
were the smelling? But now hath God set the members everyone
of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they
were all one member, where were the body? But now are they
many members, yet but one body: and the eye cannot say unto
the hand, I have no need of thee; nor again, the head to the
feet, I have no need of you. And whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured,
all the members rejoice with it. "
_First Epistle to the Corinthians_, chap. xii.
This reasoning of St. Paul merits the attention of those friends of
innovation, who are not content with the station in which God has
placed them, and, therefore, object to all subordination, all ranks in
society.
[b] Cæsar the dictator was, as the poet expresses it, graced with both
Minervas. Quintilian is of opinion, that if he had devoted his whole
time to the profession of eloquence, he would have been the great
rival of Cicero. The energy of his language, his strength of
conception, and his power over the passions, were so striking, that he
may be said to have harangued with the same spirit that he fought.
_Caius vero Cæsar si foro tantum vacasset, non alius ex nostris contra
Ciceronem nominaretur. Tanta in eo vis est, id acumen, ea concitatio,
ut illum eodem animo dixisse, quo bellavit, appareat. _ Lib. x. cap. 1.
To speak of Cicero in this place, were to hold a candle to the sun. It
will be sufficient to refer to Quintilian, who in the chapter above
cited has drawn a beautiful parallel between him and Demosthenes. The
Roman orator, he admits, improved himself by a diligent study of the
best models of Greece. He attained the warmth and the sublime of
Demosthenes, the harmony of Plato, and the sweet flexibility of
Isocrates. His own native genius supplied the rest. He was not
content, as Pindar expresses it, to collect the drops that rained down
from heaven, but had in himself the living fountain of that copious
flow, and that sublime, that pathetic energy, which were bestowed upon
him by the bounty of Providence, that in one man eloquence might exert
all her powers. _Nam mihi videtur Marcus Tullius, cum se totum ad
imitationem Græcorum contulisset, effinxisse vim Demosthenis, copiam
Platonis, jucunditatem Isocratis. Nec vero quod in quoque optimum fuit
studio consecutus est tantum, sed plurimas vel potius omnes ex se ipso
virtutes extulit immortalis ingenii beatissimâ ubertate. Non enim
pluvias (ut ait Pindarus) aquas colligit sed vivo gurgite exundat,
dono quodam providentiæ genitus, in quo vires suas eloquentia
experiretur. _ Lib. x. cap. 1.
[c] Marcus Cælius Rufus, in the judgement of Quintilian, was an orator
of considerable genius. In the conduct of a prosecution, he was
remarkable for a certain urbanity, that gave a secret charm to his
whole speech. It is to be regretted that he was not a man of better
conduct and longer life. _Multum ingenii in Cælio, et præcipuè in
accusando multa urbanitas; dignusque vir, cui et mens melior, et vita
longior contigisset. _ Quint, lib. x. cap. 1. His letters to Cicero
make the eighth book of the _Epistolæ ad Familiares_. Velleius
Paterculus says of him, that his style of eloquence and his cast of
mind bore a resemblance to Curio, but raised him above that factious
orator. His genius for mischief and evil deeds was not inferior to
Curio, and his motives were strong and urgent, since his fortune was
worse than even his frame of mind. _Marcus Cælius, vir eloquio animoque
Curioni simillimus, sed in utroque perfectior; nec minus ingeniosè
nequam, cum ne in modicâ quidem servari posset, quippe pejor illi res
familiaris, quam mens. _ Vell. Patere. lib. ii. s. 68.
Licinius Macer Calvus, we are told by Seneca, maintained a long but
unjust contention with Cicero himself for the palm of eloquence. He
was a warm and vehement accuser, insomuch that Vatinius, though
defended by Cicero, interrupted Calvus in the middle of his speech,
and said to the judges, "Though this man has a torrent of words, does
it follow that I must be condemned? " _Calvus diu cum Cicerone
iniquissimam litem de principatu eloquentiæ habuit; et usque eò
violentus accusator et concitatus fuit, ut in media actione ejus
surgeret Vatinius reus, et exclamaret, Rogo vos, judices, si iste
disertus est, ideo me damnari oportet? _ Seneca, _Controv. _ lib. iii.
cap. 19. Cicero could not dread him as a rival, and it may therefore
be presumed, that he has drawn his character with an impartial hand.
Calvus was an orator more improved by literature than Curio. He spoke
with accuracy, and in his composition shewed great taste and delicacy;
but, labouring to refine his language, he was too attentive to little
niceties. He wished to make no bad blood, and he lost the good. His
style was polished with timid caution; but while it pleased the ear of
the learned, the spirit evaporated, and of course made no impression
in the forum, which is the theatre of eloquence. _Ad Calvum
revertamur; qui orator fuisset cum literis eruditior quam Curio, tum
etiam accuratius quoddam dicendi, et exquisitius afferebat genus; quod
quamquam scienter eleganterque tractabat, nimium tamen inquirens in
se, atque ipse sese observans, metuensque ne vitiosum colligeret,
etiam verum sanguinem deperdebat. Itaque ejus oratio nimiâ religione
attenuata, doctis et attentè audientibus erat illustris, a multitudine
autem, et a foro, cui nata eloquentia est, devorabatur. _ _De Claris
Orat. _ s. 288. Quintilian says, there were, who preferred him to all
the orators of his time. Others were of opinion that, by being too
severe a critic on himself, he polished too much, and grew weak by
refinement. But his manner was grave and solid; his style was chaste,
and often animated. To be thought a man of attic eloquence was the
height of his ambition. If he had lived to see his error, and to give
to his eloquence a true and perfect form, not by retrenching (for
there was nothing to be taken away), but by adding certain qualities
that were wanted, he would have reached the summit of his art. By a
premature death his fame was nipped in the bud. _Inveni qui Calvum
præferrent omnibus; inveni qui contrà crederent eum, nimiâ contra se
calumniâ, verum sanguinem perdidisse. Sed est et sancta et gravis
oratio, et castigata, et frequenter vehemens quoque. Imitator est
autem Atticorum; fecitque illi properata mors injuriam, si quid
adjecturus, non si quid detracturus fuit. _ Quintil. lib. x. cap. 1.
[d] This was the famous Marcus Junius Brutus, who stood forth in the
cause of liberty, and delivered his country from the usurpation of
Julius Cæsar. Cicero describes him in that great tragic scene,
brandishing his bloody dagger, and calling on Cicero by name, to tell
him that his country was free. _Cæsare interfecto, statim cruentum
altè extollens Marcus Brutus pugionem, Ciceronem nominatim exclamavit,
atque ei recuperatam libertatem est gratulatus. _ Philippic, ii. s. 28.
The late Doctor Akenside has retouched this passage with all the
colours of a sublime imagination.
Look then abroad through nature, through the range
Of planets, suns, and adamantine spheres,
Wheeling unshaken through the void immense,
And speak, O man! does this capacious scene
With half that kindling majesty dilate
Thy strong conception, as when Brutus rose
Refulgent from the stroke of Cæsar's fate,
Amid the crowd of patriots, and his arm
Aloft extending, like eternal Jove
When guilt brings down the thunder, call'd aloud
On Tully's name, and shook his crimson steel,
And bade the Father of his Country hail!
For, lo! the tyrant prostrate in the dust,
And Rome again is free.
PLEASURES OF IMAG. b. i. ver. 487.
According to Quintilian, Brutus was fitter for philosophical
speculations, and books of moral theory, than for the career of public
oratory. In the former he was equal to the weight and dignity of his
subject: you clearly saw that he believed what he said. _Egregius vero
multoque quam in orationibus præstantior Brutus, suffecit ponderi
rerum; scias eum sentire quæ dicit. _ Quintil. lib. x. cap. 1.
For Asinius Pollio and Messala, see section xii. note [e].
[e] Hirtius and Pansa were consuls A. U. C. 711; before the Christian
æra 43. In this year, the famous _triple league_, called the
TRIUMVIRATE, was formed between Augustus, Lepidus, and Antony. The
_proscription_, or the list of those who were doomed to die for the
crime of adhering to the cause of liberty, was also settled, and
Cicero was one of the number. A band of assassins went in quest of him
to his villa, called _Astura_, near the sea-shore. Their leader was
one Popilius Lænas, a military tribune, whom Cicero had formerly
defended with success in a capital cause. They overtook Cicero in his
litter. He commanded his servants to set him down, and make no
resistance; then looking upon his executioners with a presence and
firmness which almost daunted them, and thrusting his neck as forward
as he could out of the litter, he bade them _do their work, and take
what they wanted_. The murderers cut off his head, and both his hands.
Popilius undertook to convey them to Rome, as the most agreeable
present to Antony; without reflecting on the _infamy of carrying that
head, which had saved his own_. He found Antony in the forum, and upon
shewing the spoils which he brought, was rewarded on the spot with the
_honour of a crown, and about eight thousand pounds sterling_. Antony
ordered the head to be _fixed upon the rostra, between the two
hands_; a sad spectacle to the people, who beheld those mangled
members, which used to exert themselves, from that place, in defence
of the lives, the fortunes, and the liberties of Rome. Cicero was
killed on the seventh of December, about ten days from the settlement
of the triumvirate, after he had lived _sixty-three years, eleven
months, and five days_. See Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, 4to edit.
vol. ii. p. 495 to 498. Velleius Paterculus, after mentioning Cicero's
death, breaks out in a strain of indignation, that almost redeems the
character of that time-serving writer. He says to Antony, in a
spirited apostrophe, you have no reason to exult: you have gained no
point by paying the assassin, who stopped that eloquent mouth, and cut
off that illustrious head. You have paid the wages of murder, and you
have destroyed a consul who was the conservator of the commonwealth.
By that act you delivered Cicero from a distracted world, from the
infirmities of old age, and from a life which, under your usurpation,
would have been worse than death. His fame was not to be crushed: the
glory of his actions and his eloquence still remains, and you have
raised it higher than ever. He lives, and will continue to live in
every age and nation. Posterity will admire and venerate the torrent
of eloquence, which he poured out against yourself, and will for ever
execrate the horrible murder which you committed. _Nihil tamen egisti,
Marce Antoni (cogit enim excedere propositi formam operis erumpens
animo ac pectore indignatio): nihil, inquam, egisti; mercedem
cælestissimi oris, et clarissimi capitis abscissi numerando;
auctoramentoque funebri ad conservatoris quondam reipublicæ tantique
consulis irritando necem. Rapuisti tu Marco Ciceroni lucem sollicitam
et ætatem senilem, et vitam miseriorem te principe, quam sub te
triumviro mortem. Famam vero, gloriamque factorum atque dictorum adeo
non abstulisti, ut auxeris. Vivit, vivetque per omnium sæculorum
memoriam; omnisque posteritas illius in te scripta mirabitur, tuum in
eum factum execrabitur. _ Vell. Paterc. lib. ii. s. 66.
[f] Between the consulship of Augustus, which began immediately after
the destruction of Hirtius and Pansa, A. U. C. 711, and the death of
that emperor, which was A. U. 767, fifty-six years intervened, and to
the sixth of Vespasian (A. U. C. 828), about 118 years. For the sake of
a round number, it is called in the Dialogue a space of 120 years.
[g] Julius Cæsar landed in Britain in the years of Rome 699 and 700.
See _Life of Agricola_, s. 13. note a. It does not appear when Aper
was in Britain; it could not be till the year of Rome 796, when Aulus
Plautius, by order of the emperor Claudius, undertook the conquest of
the island. See _Life of Agricola_, s. 14. note a. At that time, the
Briton who fought against Cæsar, must have been far advanced in years.
[h] A largess was given to the people, in the fourth year of
Vespasian, when Domitian entered on his second consulship. This,
Brotier says, appears on a medal, with this inscription: CONG. II.
COS. II. _Congiarium alterum, Domitiano consule secundùm. _ The custom
of giving large distributions to the people was for many ages
established at Rome. Brotier traces it from Ancus Martius, the fourth
king of Rome, when the poverty of the people called for relief. The
like bounty was distributed by the generals, who returned in triumph.
Lucullus and Julius Cæsar displayed, on those occasions, great pomp
and magnificence.
Corn, wine, and oil, were plentifully distributed,
and the popularity, acquired by those means, was, perhaps, the ruin of
the commonwealth. Cæsar lavished money. Augustus followed the example,
and Tiberius did the same; but prodigality was not his practice. His
politic genius taught him all the arts of governing. The bounties thus
distributed, were called, when given to the people, CONGIARIA, and, to
the soldiers, DONATIVA. Whoever desires to form an idea of the number
of Roman citizens who, at different times, received largesses, and the
prodigious expence attending them, may see an account drawn up with
diligent attention by Brotier, in an elaborate note on this passage.
He begins with Julius Cæsar; and pursues the enquiry through the
several successive emperors, fixing the date and expence at every
period, as low down as the consulship of Constantius and Galerius
Maximianus; when, the empire being divided into the eastern and
western, its former magnificence was, by consequence, much diminished.
[i] The person here called Corvinus was the same as Corvinus Messala,
who flourished in the reign of Augustus, at the same time with Asinius
Pollio. See s. xii. note [e].
Section XVIII.
[a] Servius Sulpicius Galba was consul A. U. C. 610, before the
Christian æra 144. Cicero says of him, that he was, in his day, an
orator of eminence. When he spoke in public, the natural energy of his
mind supported him, and the warmth of his imagination made him
vehement and pathetic; his language was animated, bold, and rapid; but
when he, afterwards, took his pen in hand to correct and polish, the
fit of enthusiasm was over; his passions ebbed away, and the
composition was cold and languid. _Galbam fortasse vis non ingenii
solum, sed etiam animi, et naturalis quidam dolor, dicentem
incendebat, efficiebatque, ut et incitata, et gravis, et vehemens
esset oratio; dein cum otiosus stilum prehenderat, motusque omnis
animi, tanquam ventus, hominem defecerat, flaccescebat oratio. Ardor
animi non semper adest, isque cum consedit, omnis illa vis, et quasi
flamma oratoris extinguitur. _ _De Claris Orat. _ s. 93. Suetonius says,
that the person here intended was of consular dignity, and, by his
eloquence, gave weight and lustre to his family. _Life of Galba_, s.
iii.
[b] Caius Papirius Carbo was consul A. U. C. 634. Cicero wishes that he
had proved himself as good a citizen, as he was an orator. Being
impeached for his turbulent and seditious conduct, he did not choose
to stand the event of a trial, but escaped the judgement of the
senate by a voluntary death. His life was spent in forensic causes.
Men of sense, who heard him have reported, that he was a fluent,
animated, and harmonious speaker; at times pathetic, always pleasing,
and abounding with wit. _Carbo, quoad vita suppeditavit, est in multis
judiciis causisque cognitus. Hunc qui audierant prudentes homines,
canorum oratorem, et volubilem, et satis acrem, atque eundem et
vehementem, et valde dulcem, et perfacetum fuisse dicebant. _ _De Claris
Orat. _ s. 105.
[c] Calvus and Cælius have been mentioned already. See s. xvii. note
[c].
[d] Caius Gracchus was tribune of the people A. U. C. 633. In that
character he took the popular side against the patricians; and,
pursuing the plan of the agrarian law laid down by his brother,
Tiberius Gracchus, he was able by his eloquence to keep the city of
Rome in violent agitation. Amidst the tumult, the senate, by a decree,
ordered the consul, Lucius Opimius, _to take care that the
commonwealth received no injury_; and, says Cicero, not a single night
intervened, before that magistrate put Gracchus to death. _Decrevit
senatus, ut Lucius Opimius, consul, videret, ne quid detrimenti
respublica caperet: nox nulla intercessit; interfectus est propter
quasdam seditionum suspiciones Caius Gracchus, clarissimo patre natus,
avis majoribus. Orat. i. in Catilinam. _ His reputation as an orator
towers above all his contemporaries. Cicero says, the commonwealth and
the interests of literature suffered greatly by his untimely end. He
wishes that the love of his country, and not zeal for the memory of
his brother, had inspired his actions. His eloquence was such as left
him without a rival: in his diction, what a noble splendour! in his
sentiments, what elevation! and in the whole of his manner, what
weight and dignity! His compositions, it is true, are not retouched
with care; they want the polish of the last hand; what is well begun,
is seldom highly finished; and yet he, if any one, deserves to be the
study of the Roman youth. In him they will find what can, at once,
quicken their genius, and enrich the understanding. _Damnum enim,
illius immaturo interitu, res Romanæ, Latinæque literæ fecerunt.
Utinam non tam fratri pietatem, quam patriæ præstare voluisset.
Eloquentia quidem nescio an habuisset parem: grandis est verbis,
sapiens sententiis, genere toto gravis. Manus extrema non accessit
operibus ejus; præclare inchoata multa, perfecta non plane. Legendus
est hic orator, si quisquam alius, juventuti; non enim solum acuere,
sed etiam alere ingenium potest. _ _De Claris Orat. _ s. 125, 126.
[e] This is the celebrated Marcus Portius Cato, commonly known by the
name of Cato the censor. He was quæstor under Scipio, who commanded
against the Carthaginians, A. U. C. 548. He rose through the regular
gradations of the magistracy to the consulship. When prætor, he
governed the province of Sardinia, and exerted himself in the reform
of all abuses introduced by his predecessors. From his own person, and
his manner of living, he banished every appearance of luxury. When he
had occasion to visit the towns that lay within his government, he
went on foot, clothed with the plainest attire, without a vehicle
following him, or more than one servant, who carried the robe of
office, and a vase, to make libations at the altar. He sat in
judgement with the dignity of a magistrate, and punished every offence
with inflexible rigour. He had the happy art of uniting in his own
person two things almost incompatible; namely, strict severity and
sweetness of manners. Under his administration, justice was at once
terrible and amiable. Plutarch relates that he never wore a dress that
cost more than thirty shillings; that his wine was no better than what
was consumed by his slaves; and that by leading a laborious life, he
meant to harden his constitution for the service of his country. He
never ceased to condemn the luxury of the times. On this subject a
remarkable apophthegm is recorded by Plutarch; _It is impossible_,
said Cato, _to save a city, in which a single fish sells for more
money than an ox. _ The account given of him by Cicero in the Cato
Major, excites our veneration of the man. He was master of every
liberal art, and every branch of science, known in that age. Some men
rose to eminence by their skill in jurisprudence; others by their
eloquence; and a great number by their military talents. Cato shone in
all alike. The patricians were often leagued against him, but his
virtue and his eloquence were a match for the proudest connections. He
was chosen CENSOR, in opposition to a number of powerful candidates,
A. U. C. 568. He was the adviser of the third Punic war. The question
occasioned several warm debates in the senate. Cato always insisted on
the demolition of Carthage: DELENDA EST CARTHAGO. He preferred an
accusation against Servius Sulpicius Galba on a charge of peculation
in Spain, A. U. C. 603; and, though he was then ninety years old,
according to Livy (Cicero says he lived to eighty-five), he conducted
the business with so much vigour, that Galba, in order to excite
compassion, produced his children before the senate, and by that
artifice escaped a sentence of condemnation. Quintilian gives the
following character of Cato the censor: His genius, like his learning,
was universal: historian, orator, lawyer, he cultivated the three
branches; and what he undertook, he touched with a master-hand. The
science of husbandry was also his. Great as his attainments were, they
were acquired in camps, amidst the din of arms; and in the city of
Rome, amidst scenes of contention, and the uproar of civil discord.
Though he lived in rude unpolished times, he applied himself, when far
advanced in the vale of years, to the study of Greek literature, and
thereby gave a signal proof that even in old age the willing mind may
be enriched with new stores of knowledge. _Marcus Censorius Cato, idem
orator, idem historiæ conditor, idem juris, idem rerum rusticarum
peritissimus fuit. Inter tot opera militiæ, tantas domi contentions,
ridi sæculo literas Græcas, ætate jam declinatâ didicit, ut esset
hominibus documento, ea quoque percipi posse, quæ senes concupissent. _
Lib. xii. cap. 11.
[f] Lucius Licinius Crassus is often mentioned, and always to his
advantage, by Cicero DE CLARIS ORATORIBUS. He was born, as appears in
that treatise (sect. 161), during the consulship of Lælius and Cæpio,
A. U. C. 614: he was contemporary with Antonius, the celebrated orator,
and father of Antony the triumvir. Crassus was about four and thirty
years older than Cicero. When Philippus the consul shewed himself
disposed to encroach on the privileges of the senate, and, in the
presence of that body, offered indignities to Licinius Crassus, the
orator, as Cicero informs us, broke out in a blaze of eloquence
against that violent outrage, concluding with that remarkable
sentence: He shall not be to me A CONSUL, to whom I am not A SENATOR.
_Non es mihi consul, quia nec ego tibi senator sum. _ See _Valerius
Maximus_, lib. xli. cap. 2. Cicero has given his oratorical character.
He possessed a wonderful dignity of language, could enliven his
discourse with wit and pleasantry, never descending to vulgar humour;
refined, and polished, without a tincture of scurrility. He preserved
the true Latin idiom; in his selection of words accurate, with
apparent facility; no stiffness, no affectation appeared; in his train
of reasoning always clear and methodical; and, when the cause hinged
upon a question of law, or the moral distinctions of good and evil, no
man possessed such a fund of argument, and happy illustration. _Crasso
nihil statuo fieri potuisse perfectius: erat summa gravitas; erat cum
gravitate junctus facetiarum et urbanitatis oratorius, non scurrilis,
lepos. Latinè loquendi accurata, et, sine molestiâ, diligens
elegantia; in disserendo mira explicatio; cum de jure civili, cum de
æquo et bono disputaretur, argumentorum et similitudinum copia. _ _De
Claris Orat. _ s. 143. In Cicero's books DE ORATORE, Licinius Crassus
supports a capital part in the dialogue; but in the opening of the
third book, we have a pathetic account of his death, written, as the
Italians say, _con amore_. Crassus returned from his villa, where the
dialogue passed, to take part in the debate against Philippus the
consul, who had declared to an assembly of the people, that he was
obliged to seek new counsellors, for with such a senate he could not
conduct the affairs of the commonwealth. The conduct of Crassus, upon
that occasion, has been mentioned already. The vehemence, with which
he exerted himself, threw him into a violent fever, and, on the
seventh day following, put a period to his life. Then, says Cicero,
that tuneful swan expired: we hoped once more to hear the melody of
his voice, and went, in that expectation, to the senate-house; but all
that remained was to gaze on the spot where that eloquent orator spoke
for the last time in the service of his country. _Illud immortalitate
dignum ingenium, illa humanitas, illa virtus Lucii Crassi morte
extincta subitâ est, vix diebus decem post eum diem, qui hoc et
superiore libra continetur. Illa tanquam cycnea fuit divini hominis
vox, et oratio, quam quasi expectantes, post ejus interitum veniebamus
in curiam, ut vestigium illud ipsum, in quo ille postremum
institisset, contueremur. _ _De Orat. _ lib, iii. s. 1. and 6. This
passage will naturally call to mind the death of the great earl of
Chatham. He went, in a feeble state of health, to attend a debate of
the first importance. Nothing could detain him from the service of his
country. The dying notes of the BRITISH SWAN were heard in the House
of Peers. He was conveyed to his own house, and on the eleventh of May
1778, he breathed his last. The news reached the House of Commons late
in the evening, when Colonel BARRE had the honour of being the first
to shed a patriot tear on that melancholy occasion. In a strain of
manly sorrow, and with that unprepared eloquence which the heart
inspires, he moved for a funeral at the public expence, and a monument
to the memory of virtue and departed genius. By performing that pious
office, Colonel BARRE may be said to have made his own name immortal.
History will record the transaction.
[g] Messala Corvinus is often, in this Dialogue, called Corvinus only.
See s. xii. note [e].
[h] Appius Claudius was censor in the year of Rome 442; dictator, 465;
and, having at a very advanced age lost his sight, he became better
known by the name of Appius Cæcus. Afterwards, A. U. 472, when Pyrrhus,
by his ambassador, offered terms of peace, and a treaty of alliance,
Appius, whom blindness, and the infirmities of age, had for some time
withheld from public business, desired to be conveyed in a litter to
the senate-house. Being conducted to his place, he delivered his
sentiments in so forcible a manner, that the fathers resolved to
prosecute the war, and never to hear of an accommodation, till Italy
was evacuated by Pyrrhus and his army. See Livy, b. xiii. s. 31.
Cicero relates the same fact in his CATO MAJOR, and further adds, that
the speech made by APPIUS CÆCUS was then extant. Ovid mentions the
temple of Bellona, built and dedicated by Appius, who, when blind, saw
every thing by the light of his understanding, and rejected all terms
of accommodation with Pyrrhus.
Hac sacrata die Tusco Bellona duello
Dicitur, et Latio prospera semper adest.
Appius est auctor, Pyrrho qui pace negatâ
Multum animo vidit, lumine cæcus erat.
FASTORUM lib vi. ver. 201.
[i] Quintilian acknowledges this fact, with his usual candour. The
question concerning Attic and Asiatic eloquence was of long standing.
The style of the former was close, pure, and elegant; the latter was
said to be diffuse and ostentatious. In the ATTIC, nothing was idle,
nothing redundant: the ASIATIC swelled above all bounds, affecting to
dazzle by strokes of wit, by affectation and superfluous ornament.
Cicero was said by his enemies to be an orator of the last school.
They did not scruple to pronounce him turgid, copious to a fault,
often redundant, and too fond of repetition. His wit, they said, was
the false glitter of vain conceit, frigid, and out of season; his
composition was cold and languid; wire-drawn into amplification, and
fuller of meretricious finery than became a man. _Et antiqua quidem
illa divisio inter Asianos et Atticos fuit; cum hi pressi, et integri,
contra, inflati illi et inanes haberentur; et in his nihil
superflueret, illis judicium maximè ac modus deesset. Ciceronem tamen
et suorum homines temporum incessere audebant ut tumidiorem, et
Asianum, et redundantem, et in repetitionibus nimium, et in salibus
aliquando frigidum, et in compositione fractum, exultantem, ac penè
(quod procul absit) viro molliorem. _ Quintil. lib. xii. cap. 10. The
same author adds, that, when the great orator was cut off by Marc
Antony's proscription, and could no longer answer for himself, the men
who either personally hated him, or envied his genius, or chose to pay
their court to the, triumvirate, poured forth their malignity without
reserve. It is unnecessary to observe, that Quintilian, in sundry
parts of his work, has vindicated Cicero from these aspersions. See s.
xvii. note [b].
[k] For Calvus, see s. xvii. note [c]. For Brutus, see the same
section, note [d]. What Cicero thought of Calvus has been already
quoted from the tract _De Claris Oratoribus_, in note [c], s. xvii. By
being too severe a critic on himself, he lost strength, while he aimed
at elegance. It is, therefore, properly said in this Dialogue, that
Cicero thought Calvus cold and enervated. But did he think Brutus
disjointed, loose and negligent--_otiosum atque disjunctum_? That he
often thought him disjointed is not improbable.
