Qui turn virebant hDmiiisa, stque ECnun Hgitabant, FloB delibatua popoli.
* He was called by hia contemporaries, the choicest flower of the state.' A very elegant compliment! for as the glory of a man 18 the strength of his mental capacity, so the brightest orna- ment of genius ia eloquence; in which, whoever had tha happiness to excel, was beautifully styled, by the ancients, the fioKer of the atato; and, as the poet immediately subjoiua, auadasqiie medulla: ' the Tery marrow and quintessence of perauasion,' That which the Greeks call n-Eiftca (i. e. persuasion), and which it is the chief business of an orator to efifect, is here called mada by Ennius; and of this he commenda Cethegus as the guint- •euence; bo that he makes the Roman orator to be himself the very substance of that amiable goddess, who is said by Eupolis to have dwelt on the lips of Pericles, This Cethegus waa joint-consul with Publiua Tuditanus iu the second Punic war j at which time also Marcus Cato waa quiestor, about one hun- dred and forty years before I myself was promoted to tha consulship; which circurastanco would havo been absolutely lost, if it had not been recorded by Ennius; and the memoty of that illustrious citizen, as has probably been tbo case of many others, would have been buried in the rulna of anti- quity, The manner of speaking which was then in vogue, jnay easily be collected from the writings of Nsevins; for Jftevius ied, as we learn jrom the memoirs of the times, when the persons above-mentioned were consuls; though Varro, a moat accurate investigator of historical truth, thinks there is a tiistake in this, and fixes the death of Nicviua something later, For Plautus died in the consulship of Publiua Claudius and Lucius Porcius, twenty years after the consulship of the pereons ^Q bave fceen speaking of, B,ai lyhen Z B w BBHTTIS; OB, Cato ROB oGiieor. Onto, therefore, miiBt have beeti y(mi]| tbon Cethegus, for he was consul nine years after himj wa always oocsider him as a person of the remotest antiquity though he died in the consiilahip of Lucius Marciua and MauiuH MaiiihuB, and but eighty-three years before my own promotion to tie same of&ce, XVI. " He is certaiuly, however, the most ancient oratorwa have, whose writings may claim our attention; udeas any )De ia pleaaed, on accouut of tbe above-mentioned speech re- jpecting the peace with Pyrrbus, or a series of panegyrics on ten dead, which, I own, ore etill extant, to compliment Appica Irith that character. For it was customary, in most fanuliM i>f uote, to preserve theb images, their trophies of honour, taA their memoirs, either to adorn a funeral when any of the fiunilj deceaaed, or to perpetuate the fame of their aBcestoft^ or prove their own nobility. But the truth of history hn been much corrupted by these euoomiastic essays; for mai^ circumstances wero recorded in them which never esiated, auch aa false triumphs, a pretended succession of consulBhi[a, and felse alliances and elevations, when men of inferior rank were confounded with a noble family of tha same name; as if I myself should pretend that I ara descended from ManiuB Tuliius, who was a Patrician, and shared the consulship with Serviua Siilpicius, about ten years after the expulsion of the kings. But the real speeches of Cato are almost as numeroiu as those of Lysias the Athenian; under whose name a great number are still eitant. For Lysias was certainly an Athenian; because he not only died, but received his birth at Athena, and served all the offices of the city; though Timtens, if he acted by the Liciuian or the Mucian law, orders bi8 m to Syracuse. There is, however, a manifest resem- loe between his character and that of Cato; for they aifi 'both of them distinguished by their acuteaeas, their elegance^ their agreeable humour, and their brevity. But the Greek has the happiness to be most admired; for there are some who are so extravagantly fond of him, as to prefer a graceful air to a vigorous conatitution, and who are perfectly satisfied with a slender and an easy shape, if it is ordy attended with a moderate share of health. It must, however, be acknow- ledged, that even Lysias often displays ii vigour of mind, lich no human power can excel; though his mental t " 'MrtMuIy more delicately wrought than that of Cato.
withHtandin^, he has many admirers, who are charmed with him, riierely on acconnt of his dehcacy.
XVII. "But aa to Cato, where will yom find a modem orator who condescends to read him! — nay, I might haTe said, who has the least knowledge of himt And yet, good gods! what a wondorful man! I say nothing of his merit aa a citizen, a senator, and a general; ne must confine our attention to the orator. Who, then, has displayed more dignity as a panegyrist? — more severity as an accuser? — greater acuteness of sentimental — or greater address in re- lating and informing? Though ha composed above a him- dred and fifty orations, (which I haye seen and read,) they are crowded with all the beauties of langnage and sentiment. Let lis select from these what deserves our notice and ap- plause; they will supply us with all the graces of oratory. Not to omit his Antiquities, who will deny that these also are adorned with every flower, and with all the lustre of elo- quence i and yet he has scarcely any admirers; which some ages ago was the case of Philistus the Syracusan, and even of Thucydidea himself. For as the lofty and elevated style of Theopompns soon diminished the reputation of their pithy and laconic harangues, which were sometimes scarcely intel- ligible firom excessive brevity and quaintness; and as De- mosthenes eclipsed the glory of Ljsias; so the pompous and stately elocution of the modernH has obscured the lustre of Cato, But many of us are deficient in taste and discernment, for we admire the Greeks for their antiquity, and what is called their Attic neatness, and yet have never noticed the same quality in Cato. This was the distinguishing character, say they, of Lysias and Hyperides. I own it, and I admire them for it; but why not allow a share of it to Cato? They are fond, they tell us, of the Attic style of eloquence; and ' their choice is certainly judicious, provided they not only copy the dry bones, hut imbibe the animal spirits of those models. What they recommend, however, is, to do it justice, an agreeable quality. But why must Lysias and Hyperides be so fondly admired, while Cato is entirely overlooked 1 His language indeed has an antiquated air, and some of his expressions ai-e rather too harsh and inelegant. But let us remember that this was the language of the time; only I change and modernise it, which it was not iu his power to I do; add the improvements of number and cadence, give aa I bbittub; or, easier turn to bis sentenoes, and regulate the etructure and couneiioD of his words, (which was as little practised evea l^ the older Greeks as by him,) and you will find uo one who can claim the preference to Cato. The Greeks themselTes acknow- ledge that the chief beauty of composition results from the frequent use of those tralatitious forms of eipree^on vhich they call iropei, and of those vorioua attitudes of language Bnd sentiment which they coll fitfuret; but it is alnaost in- credible in what copiousness, and with what amasing variety, they are all employed by Cato.
XVIII. " I know, indeed, that he is not sufGciently polished, and that recourse must be had to a more perfect model [m imitation; for he is an author of such antiquity, that he is the oldest now extant whose writings can be read with patience; and the ancients, in general, acquired a much greater reputa- tion in every other wt, than in that of speaking. But who that has seen the statues of the moderns, will not perceive ia a moment that the figures of Cauachua are too stiff and formal to resemble life! Those of Calamis, though evidently boTsh, are somewhat softer. Even the statues of Myron are not sufficiently alive; and yet you would not hraitate to pro- Douuco them beautiful. But those of Polycletes are much finer, and, in my mind, completely finished. The case is the aame in painting; for in the works of Zenxis, Polygnotus, TtmantJies, and several other masters, who confined themselva to the use of four colours, we commend the air and the ^m- metry of their figures; but in Eohion, Nioomachtis, Proto- genes, and Apelles, everything is finished to perfection. This, I believe, will hold equally true in all the other arts; for there is not one of them which was invented and carried to peiftc- tioa at the same time. I cannot doubt, for instance, flat there were many poets before Homer; we may infer it 'frtHn those very songs which ho Limself informs us were sung at the feasts of ^e Phieaclaus, and of the profligate suitots of Penelope. Nay, to go no farther, what is become of thfi ancient poems of our own countrymen i Such aa the fauna and rustic bardi composail. When none the rocks of poetry had. croaa'd, Hor wish'd to form his style by rulca of art, Before this venfroaa man, &,a. OldEuLiius here speaks of himself; nor does ho carry his boast beyond tho b ' truth; the case being really w he describes it. For we had only au Odyssey in Latin, which i-esecabled one of the rough aud unfinished statues of Dredolus; and some draioatic pieces of Li^ius. which will scarcely bear a second reading. Thia Liviua exhibited his first performance at Rome in the consulship of Marcus TuditanuB, aud Caius ClodiuB the soa of Caicus, the year before Enniua was bom, and, according to tho account of my friend Atticus, (whom I choose to follow,) the five hundred and fourteenth from the building of the city. But historians arc not agreed about the date of the year. Attius informs us that Liviua was taken prisoner at Tarentum by Quintua Maaimus in his fifth con- sulship, about thirty years after he is said by Atticus, and our ancient annals, to have introduced the drama. He adds, that he oibibited bis first dramatic piece about eleven years after, in the consulship of Caius Cornelius and Quintus Minucius, at the public games which Salinator hadvowed to the Goddess of Youth for his yiotory over the Senones. But in this, Attiua wafi bo far mistaken, that Ennius, when the persons above-mentioned were consuls, was forty years old; so that if Lirius was of the same age, as in this case he would have bees, the first dramatic author ire had must hare beeo' younger thanPlautus and Ntevius, who had exhibited a great Dumber of plays before the time he specifies.
XIX. " If these remarks, my Brutus, appear unsuitable to- the subject before us, you must throw the whole blame upon Atticus, who has inspired me with a sti-ange curiosity to inquire into the age of illustrious men, and the respective- times of their appearance." " On the contrary," said Brutus, " I am highly pleased that you have carried your attention so far; and I think your remarks well adapted to the curious task you have undertaken, the giving us a hiatoiy of the dif- ferent classes of orators in their proper order." " You under- stand me rightly," said I; "audi heortilywish those venerable Odes were stil! extant, which Cato informs ua, in his Anti- quities, used to be sung by every guest in his turn at the homely feasts of our ancestors, many ages before, to comme- morate the feats of their heroes. But the runic War of that antiquated poet, whom Ennius ao proudly ranks among the fauns and ruitic barde, afibrds me as exquisite a pleasure as the finest statue that was ever formed by Myron. Ennius, I allow, was a more finished writer; but if he had really undervalued the other, as he pretends to do, he would scarcely ghotdh; or, ghotdh; or, hare omitted such a bloody war u% the first Punic, wlien he attempted profeEHedl^ to describe all the wars of the fiepublic. Nay, he himself assigns the reason: Others (eaid he| tliot cniol -ffBr have Bung.
Very true, and they huve aung it with great ord^ and pre- oiBiDn, thoagh not, indeed, in such elegant strains as yourself This yon ought to have acknowledged, as you must cerbunly be conscious thut yon have borrowed many oruamentB from Htevius; or if you refuse to own it, I shall tell you plainly iJiat yuu have pilfered them.
" Contemporary with the Cato above^nentioned (thou^ somewhat older) were Caiue Flaminius, Caius Vano, Quintua Uaximus, Quintus Metellua, Publius Lentulus, and FubliuB CrasauB, who waa joint consul with the elder Africanus. Tlu« Sdpio, we are told, wi» not destitute of the povers of elooti' tion; biit his son, who adopted the younger Scipiu (the son of PauluB ^milius), would have stood foremost in the list of orators, if he had possessed a firmer constitution. This is evident fi-om a few speeobes, and a Greek EiKtoty of hift which are very agreeably written.
XS. " In the same class we may place Sestus jElius, who was the best lawyer of his time, and a ready speaker. A little after these, floimshed Caius SutpiciuB Gallus, who was better acquainted with the Grei^an literature than all the rest of the nobility, and to his reputation as a graceful orator, he added the highest aceompUshmeuts in every other respect; for a more copious asd splendid way of speaking began nDir to prevail. When this Salpicios, in quality of pnetor, wai celebrating the public shows in honour of Apollo, died tbs poet Ennius, in the oonsulship of Quintus Marcius aad Cneius Servilius, after exhibiting his tragedy of Thyistes. At the same time lived Tiberius Gracchus, the son of Publius, who was twice consul and censor; a Greek oration of his to the Ehodiaua is still extant, and he bore the character of a worthy citizen sjid an eloquent speaker. We ore likewise told that Fublius Scipio Nasica, suraamed Gia'culivm} as a fevourite of the people, and who also bad the honour to be ■ His name was PnliliuB Conteliat Scipio Nasioii. From Conu-lita, U being ft favouritB of tho people, he -was colled Corcvtnm, the " liCtk ieart " of the people. In our Intigui^ witb tmrer niEuitjr ti nun^ be nugbt h&ve been Btjled " kerusl " of the people.
nEllARKS ON EMlNEfiT OUATOna, 423 twice chosen consul aud censor, waa esteemed an able orator. To him we may add LuoJua LeotuluB, who was joint consul with Caius Figuius; QiiiutUB Nobilior, the son of Marcus, who was inclinod to the aVady of literature hy his father's example, and presented Ennius (who had served under hia fiither in ^toLia) with the freedom of the city, when he founded 0. colony in quality of ti-iumvirj and his colleague Titua Aimius Lusous, who is eaici to have been tolerably elo- quent. We are likewise informed that Lucius Faulus, the ^ther of Africanus, defended the character of an eminent citizen in a public speech; and that Cato, who died in the eighty-third year of his age, was then living, and actually pleaded that very year against the defendant Servius Galba, in the open forum, with great energy and spiiit; he has left B. copy of this oration behind him.
XXI. " But when Cato was in the decline of life, a crowd of orators, all yoimger than himself, made their appearauoe &t the same time; for Aulas Alltinus, who wrote a hlatory in Greek, and shared the consulship with Lucius Luoullns, was greatly admired for his learning and elocution; and nearly ranked with him were Servius Fulviua and Servius FabiuB Pictor, the latter of whom was well acquainted with the laws of his country, the belles lettrea, and the history of antiquity. Quintus Fabius Labeo likewise esoelled in the same aooom- plishments. But Quintus MeteUua, whose four sons attained the consular dignity, waa admired for hia eloquence beyond the rest; he undertook the defence of Lucius Cotta, when accused by Africanus, and composed many other speeches, particularly that against Tiberius Gracchus, of which we have & full account in the annals of Caius Faunius. Lucius Cotta himself was likewise reckoned a skilful speaker j'^ but Cains IjmliuB and Fubhus Airicsuus were allowed by all to be more finished orators; their orations are still extant, and may serve as specimens of their respective abilities. But Servius Galba, who somewhat preceded either of tbeta in years, was indis- putably the best speaker of the age. He was the first among the Bomans who displayed the proper and distinguishing talents of an orator j such as, digitssing from his subject to ' The original is vcterator iialiiiis. Hb was deemed "a vetersii," i. t lia pasaesBed all the sldU of loog-con tinned practice. Sextua Pom- ■ iterprstB vituratora, " callidi dioti H multS remm gerandarum I I'iw wtuh; c embellish and diversify it, — soothing or alarming the pussion^ exhibiting every circumatance in the etrongeat light, — im- ploring the compassion of his audience, — and artfully en- larging on those topics, or general principles of prudence or morahty, on which the stress of bis argument depended: and yet, I know not how, though he is allowed to have been the greatest orator of his time, the orations he has left are more inanimate, and have more the air of antiquity, than those t£' Lielius, or Scipio, or even «f Cato himself. Their beauties have 80 decayed with age, that scarcely anything remains ot them but the bare skeieton. In the same manner, though both LfeliuB and Scipio are greatly extolled for their abilidss, the preference was given to Ltelius as a speaker; and yet his oration, in defence of the privileges of the Sacerdotal college, has no greater merit than any one that might be named of the numerous speeches of Scipio. Nothing, indeed, can be sweeter and milder than that of Lielius, nor ootild anything have been urged with greater dignity to support the honour of religion; but, of the two, Lielins appears to me to be less polished, and to speak more of the mould of time than Scipio; and, as different speakers have diffei-ent tastes, he had, in my mind, too strong a relish for antiquity, and was too fond of using obsolete expressions. But such is the jea- lousy of mankind, that they will not allow the same person to be possessed of too many perfections. For, as in military prowess they thought it impossible that any maji could vie with Scipio, though LBaliua had not a little distinguished himself in the war with Viriathus; so for learning, eloquence, and wisdom, though each was allowed to be above the reach of any other competitor, they adjudged the preference to Lcehus. Nor was this the opinion of the public only, but it seems to have been allowed by mutual consent between themselves; for it was then a general custom, as candid in this respect na it was'lair and just ia every other, to give his due to each.
XXII. "I accordingly remember that Publius Rutilius Rufns once told me at Smyrna, that when he was a young man, the two consuls Publius Scipio and Decimus Brutus, by order of the Senate, tried a capital cause of great consequence. For several persons of note having been murdered in the Silan I'orest, and the domestics and some of the sons t of gentlemen who farmed the taxes of tlie pitoh-manu&cl ipau^ CBEUABKS ON EUtN. arged with the fact, the consuls ■wore ordered to try B itt perBoii. Lteiiua, he said, spoke very sensibly and elegantly, as indeed he always did, on the side of the larmers of the customs. Bat the consuls, after hearing both sides, judging it necessary to refer the matter to a second trial, the same Lfclius, a few days after, pleaded their cause again I with more accuracy, and much better than at first. Tha affair, however, was once more pnt off for a further hearing. Upon this, when his clients attended Loilius to his own house, and, after thankiog him for what he had already d estly begged him not to be disheartened by the fatigue ha had BuSered, he assured them he had exerted his utmost to defend their reputation; but frankly added, that he tl their cause would be more effectually supported by Serviua Galba, who possessed talents more powerful and penetrating than his own. They, accordingly, by the advice of Lielius, requested Galba to undertake it. To this ha consented, but ■with the greatest modesty and reluctance, out of respect to the illustrious advocate he was going to succeed; and as ho had only the nest day to prepare himself, he spent the whole of it in considering and digesting his cause. "When the day of trial was come, Rutilius himself, at the request of the defendants, went early in the morning to Galba, to give him notice of it, and conduct him to the court in proper time. But till word was brought that tlie consuls were going to the ' bench, he confined himself in his study, where he suffered no one to he admitted; and continued very busy it to his amanuenses, several of whom (as indeed he o to do) he kept fully employed at the same time. was thus engaged, being informed that it w him to appear in court, he left his house with that animation and glow of countenance, that you would have thought he had not onlyprepaT^d his cause, but actually carried it. EutdiuB added, as another circumstance worth noticing, that his scribes, who attended him to the bar, appeared excessively fatigued; from whence he thought it probable that he was equally warm and vigorous in the composition, as in the de- livery of his speeches. But to conclude the story, Galba pleaded his cause before Lielius himself, and a veiy numerous and attentive audience, with such uncommon force and dig- nity, that every part of his oration received the applause of his hearers; and so powerfully did he move the feelings and I Q dictating Q used While he b time fi — BBUTDS; OB, eiiBure the aympathy of the judges, that Iiis olieate mediately luiquitted of the cheuge, to the satifciaotioa of the whole court.