He was conveyed to his own house, and on the
eleventh
of May
1778, he breathed his last.
1778, he breathed his last.
Tacitus
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. Brutus was a close
thinker, and he aimed at the precision and brevity of Attic eloquence.
The sententious speaker is, of course, full and concise. He has no
studied transitions, above the minute care of artful connections. To
discard the copulatives for the sake of energy was a rule laid down by
the best ancient critics. Cicero has observed that an oration may be
said to be disjointed, when the copulatives are omitted, and strokes
of sentiment follow one another in quick succession. _Dissolutio sive
disjunctio est, quæ conjunctionibus e medio sublatis, partibus
separatis effertur, hoc modo: Gere morem parenti; pare cognatis;
obsequere amicis; obtempera legibus. Ad Herennium_, lib. iv. s. 41.
In this manner, Brutus might appear disjointed, and that figure, often
repeated, might grow into a fault. But how is the word OTIOSUS to be
understood? If it means a neglect of connectives, it may, perhaps,
apply to Brutus. There is no room to think that Cicero used it in a
worse sense, since we find him in a letter to Atticus declaring, that
the oratorical style of Brutus was, in language as well as sentiment,
elegant to a degree that nothing could surpass. _Est enim oratio ejus
scripta elegantissimè, sententiis et verbis, ut nihil possit ultra. _ A
grave philosopher, like Brutus, might reject the graces of transition
and regular connection, and, for that reason, might be thought
negligent and abrupt. This disjointed style, which the French call
_style coupé_, was the manner cultivated by Seneca, for which Caligula
pronounced him, sand without lime; _arenam sine calce_. Sueton. _Life
of Calig. _ s. 53. We know from Quintilian, that a spirit of emulation,
and even jealousy, subsisted between the eminent orators of Cicero's
time; that he himself was so far from ascribing perfection to
Demosthenes, that he used to say, he often found him napping; that
Brutus and Calvus sat in judgement on Cicero, and did not wish to
conceal their objections; and that the two Pollios were so far from
being satisfied with Cicero's style and manner, that their criticisms
were little short of declared hostility. _Quamquam neque ipsi Ciceroni
Demosthenes videatur satis esse perfectus, quem dormitare interdum
dicit; nec Cicero Bruto Calvoque, qui certè compositionem illius etiam
apud ipsum reprehendunt; ne Asinio utrique, qui vitia orationis ejus
etiam inimicè pluribus locis insequuntur. _ Quintil. lib. xii. cap. 1.
Section XIX.
[a] Cassius Severus lived in the latter end of the reign of Augustus,
and through a considerable part of that of Tiberius. He was an orator,
according to Quintilian, who, if read with due caution, might serve as
a model worthy of imitation. It is to be regretted, that to the many
excellent qualities of his style he did not add more weight, more
strength and dignity, and thereby give colour and a body to his
sentiments. With those requisites, he would have ranked with the most
eminent orators. To his excellent genius he united keen reflection,
great energy, and a peculiar urbanity, which gave a secret charm to
his speeches. But the warmth of his temper hurried him on; he listened
more to his passions than to his judgement; he possessed a vein of
wit, but he mingled with it too much acrimony; and wit, when it misses
its aim, feels the mortification and the ridicule which usually attend
disappointed malice. _Multa, si cum judicio legatur, dabit imitatione
digna CASSIUS SEVERUS, qui, si cæteris virtutibus colorem et
gravitatem orationis adjecisset, ponendus inter præcipuos foret, Nam
et ingenii plurimum est in eo, et acerbitas mira, et urbanitas, et vis
summa; sed plus stomacho quàm consilio dedit; præterea ut amari sales,
ita frequenter amaritudo ipsa ridicula est. _ Lib. x. cap. 1. We read
in Suetonius (_Life of Octavius_, s. 56), that Cassius had the
hardiness to institute a prosecution for the crime of poisoning
against Asprenas Nonius, who was, at the time, linked in the closest
friendship with Augustus. Not content with accusations against the
first men in Rome, he chose to vent his malevolence in lampoons and
defamatory libels, against the most distinguished of both sexes. It
was this that provoked Horace to declare war against Cassius, in an
ode (lib, v. ode 6), which begins, _Quid immerentes hospites vexas,
canis_. See an account of his malevolent spirit, _Annals_, b, i. s.
72. He was at length condemned for his indiscriminate abuse, and
banished by Augustus to the isle of Crete. But his satirical rage was
not to be controlled. He continued in exile to discharge his
malignity, till, at last, at the end of ten years, the senate took
cognizance of his guilt, and Tiberius ordered him to be removed from
Crete to the Rock of Seriphos, where he languished in old age and
misery. See _Annals_, b. iv. s. 21. The period of ancient oratory
ended about the time when Cassius began his career. He was the first
of the new school.
[b] These two rhetoricians flourished in the time of Augustus.
Apollodorus, we are told by Quintilian (b. iii. chap. 1), was the
preceptor of Augustus. He taught in opposition to Theodorus Gadareus,
who read lectures at Rhodes, and was attended by Tiberius during his
retreat in that island. The two contending masters were the founders
of opposite sects, called the _Apollodorean_ and _Theodorian_. But
true eloquence, which knows no laws but those of nature and good
sense, gained nothing by party divisions. Literature was distracted by
new doctrines; rhetoric became a trick in the hands of sophists, and
all sound oratory disappeared. Hermagoras, Quintilian says, in the
chapter already cited, was the disciple of Theodorus.
Section XX.
[a] Doctor Middleton says, "Of the seven excellent orations, which now
remain on the subject of VERRES, the first two only were spoken; the
one called, _The Divination_; the other, _The first Action_, which is
nothing more than a general preface to the whole cause. The other five
were published afterwards, as they were prepared and intended to be
spoken, if Verres had made a regular defence: for as this was the only
cause in which Cicero had yet been engaged, or ever designed to be
engaged, as _an accuser_, so he was willing to leave those orations as
a specimen of his abilities in that way, and the _pattern of a just
and diligent impeachment of a great and corrupt magistrate. " Life of
Cicero_, vol. i. p. 86, 4to edit.
[b] The Digest enumerates a multitude of rules concerning _exceptions_
to persons, things, the form of the action, the niceties of pleading,
and, as the phrase is, motions in arrest of judgement. _Formula_, was
the set of words necessary to be used in the pleadings. See the
_Digest_, lib. xliv. tit. 1. _De Exceptionibus, Præscriptionibus, et
Præjudiciis_. See also Cujacius, _observat. _ xxiii.
[c] The oration for Marcus Tullius is highly praised by Macrobius, but
is not to be found in Cicero's works. The oration for Aulus Cæcina is
still extant. The cause was about the right of succession to a private
estate, which depended on a subtle point of law, arising from the
interpretation of the prætor's interdict. It shews Cicero's exact
knowledge and skill in the civil law, and that his public character
and employment gave no interruption to his usual diligence in pleading
causes. Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, vol. i. p. 116, 4to edit.
[d] Roscius, in the last period of the republic, was the comedian,
whom all Rome admired for his talents. The great esteemed and loved
him for his morals. Æsop, the tragedian, was his contemporary. Horace,
in the epistle to Augustus, has mentioned them both with their proper
and distinctive qualities.
----Ea cum reprehendere coner
Quæ GRAVIS ÆSOPUS, quæ DOCTUS ROSCIUS egit.
A certain measured gravity of elocution being requisite in tragedy,
that quality is assigned to the former, and the latter is called
DOCTUS, because he was a complete master of his art; so truly learned
in the principles of his profession, that he possessed, in a wonderful
degree, the secret charm that gave inimitable graces to his voice and
action. Quintilian, in a few words, has given a commentary on the
passage in Horace. Grief, he says, is expressed by slow and deliberate
accents; for that reason, Æsop spoke with gravity; Roscius with
quickness; the former being a tragedian, the latter a comedian. _Plus
autem affectus habent lentiora; ideoque Roscius citatior, Æsopus
gravior fuit, quod ille comœdias, his tragœdias egit. _ Lib. xi. cap.
1. Cicero was the great friend and patron of Roscius. An elegant
oration in his behalf is still extant. The cause was this: One FANNIUS
had made over to Roscius a young slave, to be formed by him to the
stage, on condition of a partnership in the profits which the slave
should acquire by acting. The slave was afterwards killed. Roscius
prosecuted the murderer for damages, and obtained, by composition, a
little farm, worth about eight hundred pounds, for his particular
share. FANNIUS also sued separately, and was supposed to have gained
as much; but, pretending to have recovered nothing, he sued ROSCIUS
for the moiety of what he had received. One cannot but observe, says
Dr. Middleton, from Cicero's pleading, the wonderful esteem and
reputation in which Roscius then flourished. Has Roscius, says he,
defrauded his partner? Can such a stain stick upon such a man; a man
who, I speak it with confidence, has more integrity than skill, more
veracity than experience? a man whom the people of Rome know to be a
better citizen than he is an actor; and, while he makes the first
figure on the stage for his art, is worthy of a seat in the senate for
his virtue. _Quem populus Romanus meliorem virum quam histrionem esse
arbitratur; qui ita dignissimus est scená propter artificium, ut
dignissimus sit curiá propter abstinentiam. Pro Roscio Comœdo_, s. 17
In another place, Cicero says, he was such an artist, as to seem the
only one fit to appear on the stage; yet such a man, as to seem the
only one who should not come upon it at all. _Cum artifex ejusmodi
sit, ut solus dignus videatur esse qui in scená spectetur; tum vir
ejusmodi est, ut solus dignus videatur, qui eo non accedat. Pro Publ.
Quinctio_, s. 78. What Cicero has said in his pleadings might be
thought oratorical, introduced merely to serve the cause, if we did
not find the comedian praised with equal warmth in the dialogue DE
ORATORE. It is there said of Roscius, that every thing he did was
perfect in the kind, and executed with consummate grace, with a secret
charm, that touched, affected, and delighted the whole audience:
insomuch, that when a man excelled in any other profession, it was
grown into a proverb to call him, THE ROSCIUS OF HIS ART. _Videtisne,
quam nihil ab eo nisi perfectè, nihil nisi cum summâ venustate fiat?
nihil, nisi ita ut deceat, et uti omnes moveat, atque delectet? Itaque
hoc jam diu est consecutus, ut in quo quisque artificio excelleret, is
in suo genere Roscius diceretur. _ _De Orat. _ lib. i. s. 130. After so
much honourable testimony, one cannot but wonder why the DOCTUS
ROSCIUS of Horace is mentioned in this Dialogue with an air of
disparagement. It may be, that APER, the speaker in this passage, was
determined to degrade the orators of antiquity; and the comedian was,
therefore, to expect no quarter. Dacier, in his notes on the Epistle
to Augustus, observes that Roscius wrote a book, in which he undertook
to prove to Cicero, that in all the stores of eloquence there were not
so many different expressions for one and the same thing, as in the
dramatic art there were modes of action, and casts of countenance, to
mark the sentiment, and convey it to the mind with its due degree of
emotion. It is to be lamented that such a book has not come down to
us. It would, perhaps, be more valuable than the best treatise of
rhetoric.
Ambivius Turpio acted in most of Terence's plays, and seems to have
been a manager of the theatre. Cicero, in the treatise _De Senectute_,
says: He, who sat near him in the first rows, received the greatest
pleasure; but still, those, who were at the further end of the
theatre, were delighted with him. _Turpione Ambivio magis delectatur,
qui in primâ caveâ spectat; delectatur tamen etiam qui in ultimâ. _
[e] ACCIUS and PACUVIUS flourished at Rome about the middle of the
sixth century from the foundation of the city. Accius, according to
Horace, was held to be a poet of a sublime genius, and Pacuvius (who
lived to be ninety years old) was respected for his age and profound
learning.
Ambigitur quoties uter utro sit prior, aufert
PACUVIUS docti famam senis, ACCIUS alti.
EPIST. AD AUG. ver. 56.
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. Brutus was a close
thinker, and he aimed at the precision and brevity of Attic eloquence.
The sententious speaker is, of course, full and concise. He has no
studied transitions, above the minute care of artful connections. To
discard the copulatives for the sake of energy was a rule laid down by
the best ancient critics. Cicero has observed that an oration may be
said to be disjointed, when the copulatives are omitted, and strokes
of sentiment follow one another in quick succession. _Dissolutio sive
disjunctio est, quæ conjunctionibus e medio sublatis, partibus
separatis effertur, hoc modo: Gere morem parenti; pare cognatis;
obsequere amicis; obtempera legibus. Ad Herennium_, lib. iv. s. 41.
In this manner, Brutus might appear disjointed, and that figure, often
repeated, might grow into a fault. But how is the word OTIOSUS to be
understood? If it means a neglect of connectives, it may, perhaps,
apply to Brutus. There is no room to think that Cicero used it in a
worse sense, since we find him in a letter to Atticus declaring, that
the oratorical style of Brutus was, in language as well as sentiment,
elegant to a degree that nothing could surpass. _Est enim oratio ejus
scripta elegantissimè, sententiis et verbis, ut nihil possit ultra. _ A
grave philosopher, like Brutus, might reject the graces of transition
and regular connection, and, for that reason, might be thought
negligent and abrupt. This disjointed style, which the French call
_style coupé_, was the manner cultivated by Seneca, for which Caligula
pronounced him, sand without lime; _arenam sine calce_. Sueton. _Life
of Calig. _ s. 53. We know from Quintilian, that a spirit of emulation,
and even jealousy, subsisted between the eminent orators of Cicero's
time; that he himself was so far from ascribing perfection to
Demosthenes, that he used to say, he often found him napping; that
Brutus and Calvus sat in judgement on Cicero, and did not wish to
conceal their objections; and that the two Pollios were so far from
being satisfied with Cicero's style and manner, that their criticisms
were little short of declared hostility. _Quamquam neque ipsi Ciceroni
Demosthenes videatur satis esse perfectus, quem dormitare interdum
dicit; nec Cicero Bruto Calvoque, qui certè compositionem illius etiam
apud ipsum reprehendunt; ne Asinio utrique, qui vitia orationis ejus
etiam inimicè pluribus locis insequuntur. _ Quintil. lib. xii. cap. 1.
Section XIX.
[a] Cassius Severus lived in the latter end of the reign of Augustus,
and through a considerable part of that of Tiberius. He was an orator,
according to Quintilian, who, if read with due caution, might serve as
a model worthy of imitation. It is to be regretted, that to the many
excellent qualities of his style he did not add more weight, more
strength and dignity, and thereby give colour and a body to his
sentiments. With those requisites, he would have ranked with the most
eminent orators. To his excellent genius he united keen reflection,
great energy, and a peculiar urbanity, which gave a secret charm to
his speeches. But the warmth of his temper hurried him on; he listened
more to his passions than to his judgement; he possessed a vein of
wit, but he mingled with it too much acrimony; and wit, when it misses
its aim, feels the mortification and the ridicule which usually attend
disappointed malice. _Multa, si cum judicio legatur, dabit imitatione
digna CASSIUS SEVERUS, qui, si cæteris virtutibus colorem et
gravitatem orationis adjecisset, ponendus inter præcipuos foret, Nam
et ingenii plurimum est in eo, et acerbitas mira, et urbanitas, et vis
summa; sed plus stomacho quàm consilio dedit; præterea ut amari sales,
ita frequenter amaritudo ipsa ridicula est. _ Lib. x. cap. 1. We read
in Suetonius (_Life of Octavius_, s. 56), that Cassius had the
hardiness to institute a prosecution for the crime of poisoning
against Asprenas Nonius, who was, at the time, linked in the closest
friendship with Augustus. Not content with accusations against the
first men in Rome, he chose to vent his malevolence in lampoons and
defamatory libels, against the most distinguished of both sexes. It
was this that provoked Horace to declare war against Cassius, in an
ode (lib, v. ode 6), which begins, _Quid immerentes hospites vexas,
canis_. See an account of his malevolent spirit, _Annals_, b, i. s.
72. He was at length condemned for his indiscriminate abuse, and
banished by Augustus to the isle of Crete. But his satirical rage was
not to be controlled. He continued in exile to discharge his
malignity, till, at last, at the end of ten years, the senate took
cognizance of his guilt, and Tiberius ordered him to be removed from
Crete to the Rock of Seriphos, where he languished in old age and
misery. See _Annals_, b. iv. s. 21. The period of ancient oratory
ended about the time when Cassius began his career. He was the first
of the new school.
[b] These two rhetoricians flourished in the time of Augustus.
Apollodorus, we are told by Quintilian (b. iii. chap. 1), was the
preceptor of Augustus. He taught in opposition to Theodorus Gadareus,
who read lectures at Rhodes, and was attended by Tiberius during his
retreat in that island. The two contending masters were the founders
of opposite sects, called the _Apollodorean_ and _Theodorian_. But
true eloquence, which knows no laws but those of nature and good
sense, gained nothing by party divisions. Literature was distracted by
new doctrines; rhetoric became a trick in the hands of sophists, and
all sound oratory disappeared. Hermagoras, Quintilian says, in the
chapter already cited, was the disciple of Theodorus.
Section XX.
[a] Doctor Middleton says, "Of the seven excellent orations, which now
remain on the subject of VERRES, the first two only were spoken; the
one called, _The Divination_; the other, _The first Action_, which is
nothing more than a general preface to the whole cause. The other five
were published afterwards, as they were prepared and intended to be
spoken, if Verres had made a regular defence: for as this was the only
cause in which Cicero had yet been engaged, or ever designed to be
engaged, as _an accuser_, so he was willing to leave those orations as
a specimen of his abilities in that way, and the _pattern of a just
and diligent impeachment of a great and corrupt magistrate. " Life of
Cicero_, vol. i. p. 86, 4to edit.
[b] The Digest enumerates a multitude of rules concerning _exceptions_
to persons, things, the form of the action, the niceties of pleading,
and, as the phrase is, motions in arrest of judgement. _Formula_, was
the set of words necessary to be used in the pleadings. See the
_Digest_, lib. xliv. tit. 1. _De Exceptionibus, Præscriptionibus, et
Præjudiciis_. See also Cujacius, _observat. _ xxiii.
[c] The oration for Marcus Tullius is highly praised by Macrobius, but
is not to be found in Cicero's works. The oration for Aulus Cæcina is
still extant. The cause was about the right of succession to a private
estate, which depended on a subtle point of law, arising from the
interpretation of the prætor's interdict. It shews Cicero's exact
knowledge and skill in the civil law, and that his public character
and employment gave no interruption to his usual diligence in pleading
causes. Middleton's _Life of Cicero_, vol. i. p. 116, 4to edit.
[d] Roscius, in the last period of the republic, was the comedian,
whom all Rome admired for his talents. The great esteemed and loved
him for his morals. Æsop, the tragedian, was his contemporary. Horace,
in the epistle to Augustus, has mentioned them both with their proper
and distinctive qualities.
----Ea cum reprehendere coner
Quæ GRAVIS ÆSOPUS, quæ DOCTUS ROSCIUS egit.
A certain measured gravity of elocution being requisite in tragedy,
that quality is assigned to the former, and the latter is called
DOCTUS, because he was a complete master of his art; so truly learned
in the principles of his profession, that he possessed, in a wonderful
degree, the secret charm that gave inimitable graces to his voice and
action. Quintilian, in a few words, has given a commentary on the
passage in Horace. Grief, he says, is expressed by slow and deliberate
accents; for that reason, Æsop spoke with gravity; Roscius with
quickness; the former being a tragedian, the latter a comedian. _Plus
autem affectus habent lentiora; ideoque Roscius citatior, Æsopus
gravior fuit, quod ille comœdias, his tragœdias egit. _ Lib. xi. cap.
1. Cicero was the great friend and patron of Roscius. An elegant
oration in his behalf is still extant. The cause was this: One FANNIUS
had made over to Roscius a young slave, to be formed by him to the
stage, on condition of a partnership in the profits which the slave
should acquire by acting. The slave was afterwards killed. Roscius
prosecuted the murderer for damages, and obtained, by composition, a
little farm, worth about eight hundred pounds, for his particular
share. FANNIUS also sued separately, and was supposed to have gained
as much; but, pretending to have recovered nothing, he sued ROSCIUS
for the moiety of what he had received. One cannot but observe, says
Dr. Middleton, from Cicero's pleading, the wonderful esteem and
reputation in which Roscius then flourished. Has Roscius, says he,
defrauded his partner? Can such a stain stick upon such a man; a man
who, I speak it with confidence, has more integrity than skill, more
veracity than experience? a man whom the people of Rome know to be a
better citizen than he is an actor; and, while he makes the first
figure on the stage for his art, is worthy of a seat in the senate for
his virtue. _Quem populus Romanus meliorem virum quam histrionem esse
arbitratur; qui ita dignissimus est scená propter artificium, ut
dignissimus sit curiá propter abstinentiam. Pro Roscio Comœdo_, s. 17
In another place, Cicero says, he was such an artist, as to seem the
only one fit to appear on the stage; yet such a man, as to seem the
only one who should not come upon it at all. _Cum artifex ejusmodi
sit, ut solus dignus videatur esse qui in scená spectetur; tum vir
ejusmodi est, ut solus dignus videatur, qui eo non accedat. Pro Publ.
Quinctio_, s. 78. What Cicero has said in his pleadings might be
thought oratorical, introduced merely to serve the cause, if we did
not find the comedian praised with equal warmth in the dialogue DE
ORATORE. It is there said of Roscius, that every thing he did was
perfect in the kind, and executed with consummate grace, with a secret
charm, that touched, affected, and delighted the whole audience:
insomuch, that when a man excelled in any other profession, it was
grown into a proverb to call him, THE ROSCIUS OF HIS ART. _Videtisne,
quam nihil ab eo nisi perfectè, nihil nisi cum summâ venustate fiat?
nihil, nisi ita ut deceat, et uti omnes moveat, atque delectet? Itaque
hoc jam diu est consecutus, ut in quo quisque artificio excelleret, is
in suo genere Roscius diceretur. _ _De Orat. _ lib. i. s. 130. After so
much honourable testimony, one cannot but wonder why the DOCTUS
ROSCIUS of Horace is mentioned in this Dialogue with an air of
disparagement. It may be, that APER, the speaker in this passage, was
determined to degrade the orators of antiquity; and the comedian was,
therefore, to expect no quarter. Dacier, in his notes on the Epistle
to Augustus, observes that Roscius wrote a book, in which he undertook
to prove to Cicero, that in all the stores of eloquence there were not
so many different expressions for one and the same thing, as in the
dramatic art there were modes of action, and casts of countenance, to
mark the sentiment, and convey it to the mind with its due degree of
emotion. It is to be lamented that such a book has not come down to
us. It would, perhaps, be more valuable than the best treatise of
rhetoric.
Ambivius Turpio acted in most of Terence's plays, and seems to have
been a manager of the theatre. Cicero, in the treatise _De Senectute_,
says: He, who sat near him in the first rows, received the greatest
pleasure; but still, those, who were at the further end of the
theatre, were delighted with him. _Turpione Ambivio magis delectatur,
qui in primâ caveâ spectat; delectatur tamen etiam qui in ultimâ. _
[e] ACCIUS and PACUVIUS flourished at Rome about the middle of the
sixth century from the foundation of the city. Accius, according to
Horace, was held to be a poet of a sublime genius, and Pacuvius (who
lived to be ninety years old) was respected for his age and profound
learning.
Ambigitur quoties uter utro sit prior, aufert
PACUVIUS docti famam senis, ACCIUS alti.
EPIST. AD AUG. ver. 56.
